You can turn to 1 John 2 when you get there in verse 24. Our focus will actually be just a portion of verse 1 of John 3, but we want to read some context to set that portion of verse 1 properly. Just one note, my voice is kind of going a little bit, and if it raises and crackles, not unlike a maturing 13-year-old, Please, please save your smiles and your laughter for later. This is, after all, the exercise of the preaching of God's Word, so I'll try not to do that because I don't want to unwholesomely distract anyone.
As you're there already, 1 John 2.24, we'll pick up reading there and we'll read to 1 John 3.3. So this is 1 John 2.24, once again, the word of the living and true God. Therefore, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
And this is the promise that He has promised us, eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in him.
And now, little children, abide in him, that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. 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.
Beloved, now we are children of God, 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. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. Amen. Well, let us go to the Lord again in prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you now for this time of worship, the preaching of your word. We would pray yet again that you would help preacher, that you would help here, that we would all be engaged rightly in this exercise and that it might be for the profit of your saints, that it might be unto the salvation of sinners. And Lord God, most certainly that it might be unto the glory of your most high name. And it's in Christ's name that we pray.
Amen.
Introduction
One of the things that is very often repeated by the apostles in the New Testament is this blessed truth for every Christian, that we are the sons and daughters of God, that we are the children of God. In fact, this sonship and daughterhood is connected to the cross intimately in more than one place. You often hear Jim and I in our prayers rightly and in our preaching rightly quoting Galatians 4, 4. When the fullness of the times had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons, being the sons and daughters of God.
What a high honor. What a glorious thing to dwell upon. to roll around in our minds, to rejoice in. And we have here in 1 John 3, in the center portion, if you will, of the text that we read, this blessed verse. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God.
A glorious declaration. What a glorious entreaty by the Apostle John. And the stuff that is packed within that Half of a verse is absolutely wonderful. So we'll unfold a little bit of a little bit of it this morning.
And this comes, brethren, this verse, this entreaty. for Christians to behold their God and specifically His love in making them His children. This is set before us in the context and actually for the purpose of arousing our obedience in this lower world, that we might purify ourselves, that we might put sin off and live unto righteousness, that we might put sin to death and live unto righteousness, that we might grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord.
Sermon Text and Outline
So we want to look at verse one of 1st John 3. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God under three headings. And those three are simply this, the the call to marvel, the content of the marveling and the intent behind the call to marvel. There's a lot of marvel in there.
But that's a word that is rightly used in this context, because what is marveling but wondering with astonishment, but dwelling on and concentrating on and considering with wonder and astonishment, in this case, the glory of God and his love visited upon us. It's an absolutely wonderful thing that we have before us in 1 John 3.1.
The Call to Marvel
So first off, the call to marvel, and it's simply one word, in this case, behold. You've heard this before from the pulpit, and hopefully it never gets old in explaining this, because this one word, and this one word employed in this context, is glorious. John writes, behold. It's used in many other places in scripture, sometimes just simply for the purpose of see or look, not necessarily with the weight and severity here, but this, you know, behold, see or look at any particular thing that we may read in the scriptures where that word is used.
But you see, very often, like here, it's used in order to steal away the Christian's focus from whatever he's focusing on and to plant it upon things high and heavy and glorious. You see, we can be stolen away by so many other things, and our focus needs to be brought back by beholds, so that we might, to use a Spurgeonism, exercise the demons of base ingratitude and remember and focus upon the saving mercies and the glories of our God in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Behold in Scripture
You may remember, as used in John 1, 29, the same author, when he writes of John the Baptist, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. You see, there we don't simply have a look. You know, there he is. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, as if John was sitting upon a rock with his legs crossed, just saying behold.
No. He's saying behold. This Christ, this promised one, behold, take your eyes off of whatever you're looking at and look to the son of glory. Look to this one promised.
Look to this one promised in eternity, purposed in eternity, but promised in time and in history in the garden. The hero born of woman who would crush the serpent with his head has now arrived. Behold, that's what John the Baptist is doing. John 129, when he uses this word, which can simply be used as see and look, but he does it to call the Christian, to call anyone around him, to gaze with an intent consideration upon the glorious Messiah, the glorious Christ.
An interesting fact with regards to John 129, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, perhaps you Spurgeon fans out there have read this, but he was testing the He was testing the acoustics of a hall that he had to preach in while the Metropolitan Tabernacle was having something done to it, built or whatever. So he was practicing preaching and he was testing the acoustics of this grand agricultural hall. Well, he belts out these words, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And a janitor working in the agricultural hall, just a worker, hears this. and believes the gospel and is saved, is converted unto Christ.
You see, people can be saved in a farm hall by a preacher testing acoustics. And the verse that he uses starts with, Behold. You see, God in his word uses this word because it's so important. It is to grab you this morning, if you're a believer this morning.
You're hearing me preach about, behold, what manner of love. That word is to steal you away from any other thoughts and to bring them into focus upon such a God, such a Christ, such a love and such a gospel. And it's used by God in his word in such a same way to gather the focus, to gather the attention, to gather the minds of those who are reading, who are hearing it preached, whatever, that they might focus with intent, with attention, that they might put aside all things and listen only to what follows. This verse, behold, is also used in 2 Corinthians 6 too.
Notice the importance of the word here in this context. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. You see when The Apostle in that case, when the Apostle Paul.
You see, other phrases that don't start with behold are in the Scriptures and they're no less inspired. They're no less infallible. They're no less inerrant. They're all just as important.
The genealogies of 2 Chronicles are just as inspired as behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But you see, it is employed by the authors to say pay attention. See, look, not just with the eyes, but with the mind. Understand, focus, and consider.
Wonder, marvel. Remember, it's the call to marvel. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
In other words, listen to what I'm about to say. Now is the accepted time. You see, he's trying to gather the attention of anyone who isn't considering their eternal destiny. who isn't considering their eternal soul, who is all carried off about thinking how their next sin is going to go, how their next suppression of the truth is going to go, and he says, behold, now is the accepted time. You see, if you're here this morning, it's, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the accepted time.
You've put off Christianity, you said, no, you're here, you're sitting in the pews, Sometimes you might be looking at the preacher, but it's with a dead gaze, just so I think that you're paying attention. Sometimes the eyes are wandering somewhere else. I'm not sure why. Sometimes they're kinked back, looking at the clock.
You want this to end. Now is the accepted time. There is a God in high heaven who has created all things, who upholds all things by the word of His power, who is infinite, eternal, unchangeable in all of His excellencies and perfections, who looks down upon the children, the sons of men, and he sees iniquity. He sees sin.
He sees transgression. You know that you have sinned and that you have violated the laws of a holy God. You know in your conscience, you know in your hearts that you have daily transgressed, that you have hourly transgressed minute after minute, violated the righteous precepts of this God. And yet there is a Savior that has been set forth to you in the scriptures.
There is a Savior that you've heard from this pulpit. There's a Savior from wherever you've been made known of this Christ. You have heard of this Christ and this salvation. And yet you still don't believe.
Behold comes to you. It steals your attention. And it says now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation.
Jeremiah 31 31. This word is used. in that blessed promise of the new covenant. Behold the days are coming says the Lord. What follows This new covenant that will be unbreakable, not because men are so good in keeping it, but men can't keep it.
There's one that does. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ who ratifies the new covenant in his shed blood. He secures the forgiveness of sins. He secures the Christians knowledge of God, glorying in him and the mercy of the father.
We are called by Jeremiah in that text to behold the blessed new covenant promise of Yahweh. Matthew 28, 20. The word behold isn't there it is, the word behold isn't translated as behold, although the word in Greek isn't behold, of course, but the English behold isn't used to translate the Greek word for see, look, behold. But rather, what do we find?
Matthew 28, 20, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. The word low here is behold. Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
You see what would happen to the disciples? Christ promised them that persecution would come upon them. When he's indicting the scribes and the Pharisees, what does he say to them? I send you wise men, prophets and scribes.
Some of them you will crucify. Some of them you will kill. You will persecute them from city to city so that on you all the righteous blood shed on the earth will be brought upon you. And so what we have here is in the face of the coming persecution, in the face of everything that's going to come upon the church, Christ is saying, behold, don't Don't be taken away or don't fall into despair because what is coming upon you.
Behold, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. You see, the use of the word behold is such that it is to emphasize, it is to underline, it is to bolden the reality of what follows. It is to say, Listen, understand, consider. It is to arouse our astonishment at the fact or the statement that follows.
And here in our context, what do we find? We're going to get to the content of the marveling later, but notice how behold is used here. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. You see, the Christian needs to, we all need to have these beholds. trumpeted to us 75 times a day, and that's undershooting.
Why? Because we are so prone to wander, so prone to leave the God that we love. We need to be brought back to remembrance. We need to be brought back to recollection.
We need to be brought back unto a wholesome and a wondrous marveling at the Christ of the Bible, at the God of our salvation. The revelation of our God concerning redemption by such a Savior. We need to be brought back. We need to be reminded.
That's why we have the Lord's Supper, isn't it? Again, as Spurgeon said, the Lord's Supper is such that it does help us to cast away the demons of base ingratitude. What does that mean, kids? What's this guy talking about?
Cast away, exercise the demons of base ingratitude. What does that mean? Well, you see, we can be marked by an ingratitude, a thanklessness, can't we? We go about our days and we might not be thankful at all, or if we are thankful, it's thankful about, you know, stuff that we have in our lives and that sort of thing, but the thanks isn't necessarily God-word.
It might just be this general and agnostic and atheistic thanks. We are called in the Bible. We are called in preaching. We are called in the ordinances of Christ unto a remembrance, unto a beholding. of the mercies of God through Christ Jesus the Lord.
Spurgeon on Beholding
This is what Spurgeon says on this word, behold. It is a note of admiration, of wonderment, of exclamation. When John says, behold the Lamb of God, he means more than wondering or considering. Looking is used in scripture for faith.
Look unto me and be ye saved. Therefore we sing, there is life for a look at the crucified one. There is life at this moment for thee. Beholding is a steady kind of looking.
Believe then in Christ with a solid abiding confidence. Come ye sinners come and trust your savior. Not for tonight only but forever. Believe that he is able and willing to save you and trust him to do so.
You see, the behold here is what He says it is. It is an intent considering. A beholding is a steady kind of looking. We are to look with a faith-filled gaze.
We are to behold with a faith-filled gaze upon the glories of our God and the riches and the excellencies of Christ. So the call to marvel, simply one word, behold.
Who Needs the Call to Marvel
This call to marvel comes to those who really ought to need no reminder, doesn't it? Well, we know we need reminder, but we really ought to need no reminder. You think about where we were before God visited us with amazing and victorious grace, dead in our trespasses and in our sins. We were children of our father the devil doing his desires.
That's Christ's indictment. When we get later to children of God, There is this spiritually ambiguous and nonsensical spiritualism out there that we're all children of God. I'm not talking to Christians. Every man and woman, boy and girl, we're all just children of God.
We all just need to get along and, you know, dance in the meadow with, you know, flower headbands and stuff. No. Christ indicts His audience. He says to the unbelieving Jews, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father.
You want to do. You see, the marveling comes in part because we were children of the devil. We were doing the desires of our father, the devil. We woke up in the morning devising wickedness, just like the psalmist says about the wicked.
We woke up in the morning planning our day of sin. We live throughout the day moving from sin to sin. And yet, this reality comes upon us, that Christ comes in the fullness of the times, He's born of a woman, He's born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive the adoption of Son's God, the risen Christ, the exalted Christ, sends His Spirit, the Spirit of adoption into our hearts, crying out, Abba Father. What a glorious thing.
The behold is given because it is absolutely astonishing that anyone can be called a child of God. Anyone. And we have that blessed, that blessed reality by virtue of the amazing grace of God and the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men generally ought to daily marvel at God, shouldn't they?
You see, behold, again, it comes to those who really ought to need no reminder. That's a hard sentence to say. We are faced every day with the reality of God. Not in a sense.
Truly, creation cries out, behold. Providence cries out, behold your God. The heavens declare the glory of God. The psalmist writes, the firmament shows his handiwork, not just Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but day after day, night after night, the righteousness and the glory of God is disclosed by virtue of creation.
You only have to look at the, at the stars in the expanse to realize that there is a God and he will judge the wicked. We look up to the heavens, and as Christians, we cry out, praise God. Just imagine it, star upon star, galaxy upon galaxy, rolling in their orbit, all created by God, all upheld by the word of His power. This earth that we live on, what an amazing thing.
Walk outside in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, you look to the mountains, you look to the beauty of creation. Hopefully God comes immediately. Hopefully those mountains preach sermons to you saying, behold your God, beauty of his created world. We look at a baby, look at a human child.
Oh, the dastardly, The dastardly reality of abortion. Abomination of abominations. The beauty of God's creation destroyed, chopped up and torn away. Babies, millions of babies cry out with sermonic power, behold your God.
And yet the murderers suppress that truth in unrighteousness. You see, day after day, night after night, God's creation and providence cries out, behold. Men generally ought to marvel at God's account of redemption in the scriptures, shouldn't they? The Bible is an amazing thing.
If you're here this morning and you think, ah, you know, it's a good book. But it's sort of just an antiquated tome of old truths. No. Heresy of heresies.
The Bible comes to us, 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, God's revelation to men, and it screams, behold. It screams, behold, the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God. The discovery it makes of the only way of salvation through Christ Jesus, the Lord, and the many other incomparable excellencies. Confession says, chapter one, paragraph five.
A glorious revelation to men. This screams, behold, the gospel screams, behold, that's why John the Baptist, that's why John, that's why Paul, that's why they all write, behold, because it is. to preach to us the glories of Christ, the riches of God and the excellencies of such a gospel and such a salvation. Certainly Christian men, though, you see, if men generally ought to daily marvel at God because of his creation and his providence, they don't remember dead in trespasses and sins, suppressing that truth and unrighteousness. The atheist has a full time job suppressing the truth and unrighteousness.
Full-time job. I think that's James White's thing. They have a full-time job. It's hard to be an atheist.
It's hard. Why? Because every minute that you're conscious, you're suppressing the glory of God in unrighteousness. The glory of God.
Remember, in the expanse above us, Spurgeon says, God flies his starry flag to show the king is at home. The king is at home. Atheist looks up at that, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. And he spins wild, fanciful fairy tales nothing exploding and creating everything.
So if men look up to creation, if men ought to daily marvel at God by virtue of creation, if men ought to marvel at the revelation of men in the scriptures, they don't, because again, they suppress the truth here specially revealed by God in the Bible in unrighteousness, then certainly Christian men ought we not specifically, when I say that, it's to Christians generally speaking, but Christians ought specifically to be such that constantly marvel at God. Do you marvel at God? Christian, you should. No, I'm going to rephrase that.
You're not Christian if you don't. Do you marvel at God? Are you astonished by God? I'm not saying as a Christian, every time you think about your God and your Christ, you need to fall off the couch or fall off the kitchen table.
That could be dangerous. But you need to be astonished. You are to behold, you are to look, you are to marvel. If this phrase is so often repeated by apostolic entreaty, then Christians are to be marked by this.
We're to behold our God, we're to behold our Christ, we're to behold such a glorious salvation and rejoice in it. We're to read, we're to open up, well, first, we're to general revelation, we're to look at the stars as Christians in complete contrariness. I'm gonna throw that word out there. To the atheist, we say, Amen and praise God.
Created that and he upholds those by the word of his power, we come to special revelation. We read of the blood of Christ shed and we own with Spurgeon that we would wish to put tongues upon every drop of the blood of Christ that they may preach sermons and arouse a constant remembrance of such a savior. We ought to marvel, we ought to behold Our blessed God, our blessed Christ, and so glorious a salvation.
The Content of Marveling
Secondly, we want to note then, moving beyond a single word, behold, to the content of marveling. What is the content of marveling? Well, we have it clearly before us, don't we? Because it follows behold.
Notice, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. This is what we are to marvel in. Behold, the entreaty comes, behold. The apostolic command comes, behold.
And this is what we are to behold. And we want to note three things very simply. Divine love, divine grace, and divine fatherhood. Divine love, divine grace, and divine fatherhood.
Divine Love
Notice what we find first off. Divine love, behold, what manner of love? The love of God. Brethren, what an amazing thing the love of God is.
What a thing that the thing that we are to know, the thing that we are to rejoice in, is something that at the same time is absolutely incomprehensible. The love of God. And I'm not just talking about incomprehensible in the sense that we're such vile sinners, how could a God love us? That's comprehensible.
I'm talking about the love of God is incomprehensible because it is infinite. It's eternal. It's unchangeable. We don't know what unchangeable love is, do we, in this lower world?
The love of men and women ebbs and flows, doesn't it? It ebbs and it flows. It's marked by vicissitudes. There's another word for you kids.
It's marked by an ebbing and a flowing. We only know that sort of love where we love for a time, it grows in intensity, and then because of our sinful hearts and our waywardness and everything else, it can wane, it can drop, it falls, it comes back up again. You throw in an unwholesome anger in there and it scatters it for a while. We recollect it and we exercise it again.
It goes away. It comes back. We're horrible at love. Graciously, God has given us love in this lower world, the love of husband to wife, wife to husband, the love of father to child, child to father, etc., various kinds of love.
But we don't know what it is. We don't know. We can't know. We can't fully comprehend a love that's infinite.
A love that's eternal, a love that's unchangeable. We can't know this love that Pink sets forth in the following way. God's love is uninfluenced. God's love is eternal.
God's love is sovereign. God's love is infinite. God's love is immutable. And God's love is gracious.
All of those things mark God's love towards his people. What an amazing thing. You see, God's love is uninfluenced. When we read here, behold, what manner of love the father has bestowed on us, that love is uninfluenced.
What does that mean? It means that he didn't move from not having love towards us to now being aroused and influenced by something in us in order to exercise love. It's uninfluenced. God is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in all those things that he is in his essence and in his being includes his love.
It's uninfluenced, it's eternal. It didn't start at a point. It won't end in a point. It doesn't start, end, restart, start again.
It's the same thing. But you know what I mean? It's eternal. We don't know what eternal is.
We read what eternal is. We can't comprehend what it is. We can only worship where things are incomprehensible. His love is beyond measure.
It's sovereign, infinite, immutable. It's unchangeable, brethren. You're, you know, we are going to disappoint each other. Husband's going to disappoint a wife, a wife's going to disappoint a husband, father, child, child, father, every other sort of relationship where wholesome love, we're going to disappoint each other.
We're going to change in our love. We are mutable. But the infinite and eternal one is immutable in his love. Isn't that glorious?
He will never love you more or less than he does right now because that's impossible because he's immutable. He will only ever and always love you the same because he is perfect and absolute in his love. We don't know what that is, but we can only fall on our knees inwardly or outwardly and worship the God who is love. It is God who loves us.
Romans 8 39 nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's it's a little bit hot in here. Chilliwack is mysteriously covered in this haze of I guess it's forest fire smoke. And you know maybe you're getting tired and hungry but brethren.
Neither height nor depth nor any other created thing. shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. I don't get grumpy stares when you're a Christian. When we rehearse these truths, it's a beautiful thing. The preacher is fallible in a cracked pot. wherein gospel treasures are hidden to be proclaimed so that the excellence of the glory might be of God and not of us.
But hopefully, even in spite of this cracked pot up here with these words tossed out towards you, the love of God through Christ Jesus the Lord, have your mouth crescent if you can. I'm not going to judge any hearts if it's not crescenting and if you're grumpy stare, if that's how you rejoice, praise God. Praise God. But rejoice in our God. behold, because it is us whom God loves.
Isn't that an amazing thing? If you know your own heart, that's astonishing. That is astonishing. If you know your own heart, and don't say, well, I know other people's hearts, and yeah, that's astonishing that God loves them.
No. You know yourself. You look inside this ribcage. Well, the heart's probably up here, but you know what I mean.
You look at your own heart and you behold the God of love. You'd be astonished at the God of love. Whether a grumpy face or a crescenting mouth, behold the God of love and rejoice in Him. It is us whom God loves.
Henry says this, Matthew Henry in his commentary, it is wonderful condescending love of the eternal Father that such as we should be made and called His sons, that such as we should be made and called his sons. We who by nature are heirs of sin and guilt and the curse of God. We who by practice are children of corruption, disobedience and ingratitude. Unless you're unless you're self-righteous and we all have that, but unless you're really self-righteous, hopefully you see yourself there and you say, praise my God.
You say, Amen. Rejoicing in the gospel of free and sovereign grace. Behold, what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. We who are heirs of sin and guilt.
We who deserve eternal condemnation in the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his angels. We who day after day are like the, are like the, you know, as sinners, we're like that child in his father's hands who smacks the father in the face. We were like that to a God who's infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His holiness, justice, goodness, truth, all those excellencies and perfections. And yet He condescends to make us His own, to adopt us, and to bring us into the household of God.
Words fail the preacher. Words fail the preacher. To bring the love of God, to dangle it before your ears, and to say, behold, The love of God, it passes knowledge. It's absolutely amazing.
We multiply adjectives and verbs and nouns in a sensible way, and it still will not exhaust the amazing and glorious truth of God's love towards us and making us his children. Brethren, throughout the week, pick up the Bible. Pick up a good book, pick up something, pick up Pink's Attributes of God and read his small little six-page chapter on the love of God. Glorious stuff.
Love Demonstrated at the Cross
Pink says this, in fact, on the love of God, connecting it to the cross. Christ died in order to make God, excuse me, Christ died not in order to make God love us, but because He did love His people. Calvary is the supreme demonstration of divine love. Whenever you are tempted to doubt the love of God, Christian reader, go back to Calvary.
Go back to Calvary. Not Calgary, the city in Alberta, kids, but Calvary, where Christ was crucified. Golgotha. Go to the place of the skull. see him hanging on the tree, stricken, smitten, and afflicted.
We don't as Christians look to that in despair, certainly not in mockery like those who mocked him at the cross. We look to that crucified Messiah with eyes of faith. I'm not pointing to a cross or anything back there. We don't have one.
Why? The cross is to be preached. We look at that Christ with eyes of faith and we behold the love of God. Every drop, as Spurgeon says, that drops from the blood of the Savior has lips upon them that proclaim the love of God.
Calvary is the supreme demonstration of divine love. God's love when we read behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. We are brethren to go to the cross. We are to go to the cross.
This verse grabs us by the scruff of the neck. No, it's kinder than that. It grabs us by the hand. In divine love and kindness and says, behold.
You see, when we read This, brethren, we are to go to the cross. Every perfection of God is there at the cross. Do we have the wrath of God? Sure we do.
What do we read in the scriptures? But that God the Father bruises, crushes the son of his love. The wrath of God is put upon Christ Jesus, the Lord on the cross in the stead of all those who believe. We have the God of infinite, eternal, and unchangeable holiness, visiting wrath upon Christ in our place, believer.
But there, too, we have the perfect and supreme demonstration of His love. Behold what manner of love. When we read what manner, we are to think what type, what sort. Behold what sort or what type of love.
And I think we can traffic in types of love. There was a time where I'd really loved ketchup chips. I thought they tasted great. But you see, that's a low and that's a base love.
I don't like them anymore because they're not healthy. I like celery now. Love celery now, celery and carrots. But you see, we can traffic in different types of love, this sort of base and low love.
There's a scale of love, but you see, God's love Brethren, it's not located on any scale. It's not located on any scale. Pink writes with regards to God and love, speaking of God as spirit, light and love. He says God is spirit.
In the Greek, God is spirit, John 4, 24. In the Greek, there is no indefinite article. And to say God is a spirit is most objectionable. for it places him in a class with others. God is love, 1 John 4, 8.
It is not simply that God loves, but that he is love itself. Love, not merely one of his attributes, but his very nature. You see, that's again where we arrive at the reality of incomprehensibility. God doesn't have love as one of his attributes.
We speak of him in that way because it's the only way that we can speak of A God who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all of his attributes. To say God is love is to say that the love with which God loves us is identical to his being in nature. Oh, why get so theological with us? Because it's the stuff of doxology.
It's the stuff of worship and praise to God. You see, when the Apostle Paul writes in his doxology in 1 Timothy, in first Timothy 15, which he will manifest in his own time. He who is the blessed and only potentate, the king of kings and lord of lords who alone has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light. You see, worship, brethren, Christian worship is never this mindless, ambiguous repeating of silly words in tune with a synthesizer.
It's not what Christian worship is. Christian worship is filled with theology proper, with the doctrine of God, He who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality. But wait, you've heard this before, but wait, don't we have immortal souls? Yes, we do.
Well, it says He alone has immortality. Wait a minute, don't the angels have immortality? You know, the souls of Christians, do not they go into everlasting life at the end of days, when we part this world in death? Don't our immortal souls, you read the Bible and we know the doctrine of of heaven, the doctrine of everlasting life.
Don't we have immortal souls? Don't the angels live forever? Yes, they do. Then how can the writer, how can Paul write, who alone hath immortality?
Because God alone has it, as Gil says, originally, essentially, and non-derivatively. Wow, a bunch of big words again. No, glorious words. Only God has love.
Essentially. Only God has love originally. And only God has love non-derivatively. He doesn't add it to himself.
He doesn't derive it from outside of himself. Love isn't this abstract principle that God, you know, takes on in eternity. No, God is love. Brethren, wrap your heads around that.
You can't. But know that he loves you. Know, brethren, that God has in such a glorious manner loved you in such a way that he demonstrated that love at the cross and that he has made you by his Spirit, children of God, by regeneration and by effectual calling. We know the love of God.
We can't comprehend it fully, but we know it. It's so glorious, it's not unknowable, it's incomprehensible, but we can know it because the Bible declares it, it discloses it, and we should fall in worship at such a glorious truth. Fall in worship at such a glorious reality.
Divine Grace
Divine grace as well is held before us here. Going back to 1 John 3, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. That language there, speaking of divine grace, bestowed on us. Bestowed on us.
We spent a little bit of time this morning on the word granted and the doctrine of repentance. Remember, God grants us repentance. We don't have it natively. We don't have it naturally.
God grants it to us in his divine condescending and amazing grace. The word granted. is a word that speaks of divine grace. God graciously gives. Well, this language is the same bestowed.
Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. You see, we are confronted here again, and hopefully this is a wholesome confrontation confronted with the glorious truth of the sovereignty of God and the salvation of sinners. You see, we don't make ourselves children of God. We don't merit our sonship and our daughterhood.
We don't do and act and perform in such a way that God bestows the grace of redemption on us. That's a wrong use of bestowal because it's always a gracious gift. But you know what I mean? We don't do and act and perform so that God rewards us with our sonship.
No. God bestows upon those who are of their father, the devil, doing the desires of their father. He comes down and he conquers their hearts. He removes their hearts of stone, replaces them with hearts of flesh.
He makes them his own. He makes them his children. What a glorious truth. The doctrine of adoption, brethren.
Mike Kirkpatrick preached on that from Ephesians 1 a number of Sundays ago. Raymond says with regards to the book of Ephesians, if Romans was Paul's treatise on justification. Then Ephesians is Paul's treatise on adoption. We were dead in our trespasses and in our sins.
We were walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air who now works in the sons of disobedience. We were children of wrath, just as the others. There's that word, children. Not all children of God in that hippie, tree-hugging way.
Children of wrath, Paul writes. Children of wrath. But in his kindness and in his grace, he comes down and condescends. He makes us his children.
Brethren, what a glorious truth. We're going to move tonight because I'm I'm taking too long on this stuff. I apologize. Divine grace, divine fatherhood under the content of marveling tonight.
And then thirdly, the intent behind the call to marvel. What is the purpose of it? We'll look at that tonight. But brethren, as we close here in a few moments, there's some things that we need to talk about.
Application: Behold Your God
Behold your God. Yeah, you know, this, It comes to your ears and you're like, well, we know that. We know that. We're Christians.
We behold our God. We need to be reminded. You know, you come to the scriptures and you read certain things and you say to yourselves, well, why did they need to write that? Why did they need to say that?
Well, you need to check your own heart and understand that you are there as well. Verse five of Jude. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, etc., etc. We see this coming up often.
We see Paul having to use phrases like, these are the things that I'm trying to write to you. Why? Because we need reminder. We need repetition.
Sometimes there's unwholesome repetition. Like if I was to preach the same sermon to you, identical sermon to you every time I preach, probably be unwholesome repetition. You'd have to take me aside afterwards and say, could you please preach something else? But there's wholesome repetition, brethren.
And that comes right now. Behold your God. Reflect on your God. Arouse your own Christian astonishment at such a truth that such a God would take such a sinner and make him child of God.
Think of yourselves, Christian, knowing that hole of the pit from which you were digged and that stone whence you were hewn. Remembering where you were You as Spurgeon says now peruse the diary of your memories For there the witnesses of your guilt have faithfully recorded their names But Christian behold your God behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God Every day because brethren we And I say this a lot, we can be carried off onto reflections and recollections and remembrances of so many things that have no eternal merit, no eternal value. Some of them are great things. Remembering when our kids, you know, were younger and when they behaved or remembering when they were younger and they didn't behave, that's not a great thing to remember.
But remembering fond things, family vacations, you know, whatever else. But you see, if we remember whether base things, hopefully not, but we remember good things that happen in this lower world, brethren, don't focus on other things, remember other things, and behold other things to the point where you choke out the one thing that should be beholded, that should be beheld, that should be astonishing, that should be marveled in. Don't have your minds wander so much in a day upon so many fruitless or even lawful things, fruitful things, to the point where you squeeze away any focusing or beholding upon the God of love and the Christ of redemption and the gospel of saving grace. Behold your God.
Behold, look, see, consider, be astonished, be found in wonderment. Glory in the fact that such a God would save such a sinner by such a Christ, put you into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Call to Unbelievers
And unbeliever, you, creation, daily cries out to you, behold, there is a God. You know it. Oh, you might work full time trying to suppress that truth and unrighteousness. You know that there is a God and that He is holy and just to judge those who break His law, and you break His law daily.
All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. Oh, but I'm a child of God. No. No, you're not.
If you're an unbeliever, you're not a child of God. But do you want to continue to be a child of wrath? Is that the place to be? Remember, behold, today is the accepted time.
Now is the day of salvation. You can't be a child of wrath for a little while longer. You can't be a child of the devil. No.
Behold, creation, providence cries out to you. Behold, there is a God. The scriptures scream from the pages in wholesome proclamation. There is a God.
You are a sinner. But Christ has come to save guilty sinners. As much as we trumpet free and sovereign grace, this is not opposed to the reality that the entreaty and command comes, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Sovereignty doesn't rail against the proclamation, come, taste, eat.
Come by without money and without price. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. No, sovereignty. The reality that God is the unbridled master of all things, His creation, providence, redemption is the foundation for the proclamation.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And you can say with everyone, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God rather than beholding the pleasures of your sin, rather than beholding and reflecting upon it. day dwelt and reveling and all manner of iniquity Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved you will glory in him and This will be true of you that because of this truth You will seek to purify yourself just as he is pure you see tonight. We'll focus on that that's the purpose of beholding the manner of love that God has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. It is so that in light of that truth, we might live lives of holiness unto our great Father, our great God.
John sets before his audience this truth so that we might not break God's law, but obey it. Not in order to be saved, we're saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus alone. But the saved by grace, the saved by faith, the saved by grace through faith in Christ alone do joyfully the deeds of God's law because they are our meat. We want to honor our God.
We want to adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Well, brethren, let's pray. Let's Focus this week as we pray the rest of this day, beholding our God, beholding his love, his grace, his fatherhood, the glorious truth that by Christ Jesus and by his spirit, we're made to know sonship and daughterhood under our blessed God. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we rejoice in your scriptures. We thank you for what we see. And in only half a verse, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. We thank you, Lord God, that by your grace and for your glory, you have brought many of us sinners into a saving connection with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that you've brought us into saving faith, you've granted us repentance, that you've given us minds whereby we may behold with great joy the things of our God, the things of our Christ.
And we do pray that you'd help us now as we pray now, as we have a time of prayer shortly, and as we go about the rest of this day, seeking to live it and carry it out in honor to your commandments. We do pray that you would help us to behold our God, to rejoice in our Christ, to reflect on salvation, and to meditate with great joy upon the fact that you, by your grace, have made us the children of God. We pray in Christ's precious name. Amen.