STUDIES IN FIRST, SECOND & THIRD JOHN

Lesson 9   Amazing Love - Its Promise and Effect

Text: I John 3:1-3
V 1 The fact of the amazing love of God
1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
A Behold ye - Let every child of God pause, consider, contemplate and wonder at -
B. What manner of love - from what country, what realm, did this foreign love come? There
is no source known to man, outside of Christ from which such a love could come!
C. Hath bestowed - (3rd person singular, Perfect indicative active.) This is a permanent, present one-time gift. Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
D. Called - named - The world calls us Christians but God calls us SONS. (Tekna - born ones) John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: and Christ calls us BRETHREN! (near kinsmen with a common origin) Heb 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Heb 2:12 Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
E. The world doesn't know us (the spiritual ones who are born of God) They could know the carpenter's son from Nazareth, but they hadn't the spiritual knowledge to recognize the Son of God from heaven! (Illustration: We may recognize the national origin of a person by his coloring, etc. but there are cultural traits that we cannot understand. IN Christ there is only one kind of a person, one who has been born of the Spirit of God and is a recipient of a love that is not of this world, and in this we have a common bond, whatever our ethnicity.)
F. The world didn't know Christ. 1 Cor 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1 Cor 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1. Saul of Tarsus didn't know who those Christians really were because he didn't know Christ.
2. The world still doesn't know Him and therefore doesn't know us. Instead of wasting time trying to make the world acquainted with the Lord's teachings, we need to be introducing them to Christ, then they will be able to know us.

V 2 Our Present Position and Future Promise
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
A. Beloved - loved ones - those who have received the great love of verse one.
B. Now are we the sons of God. (sons - born ones) Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. NOW - - If the new birth were not a present possession then neither could the leadership of the Holy Spirit be! Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. ( Read John chapter 3)
C. It doth not yet appear - - It has never yet been made manifest - How miserable we would be if we could see others in their glorified bodies now! Men wondered in Paul's day -
1 Cor 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
1 Cor 15:36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
1 Cor 15:37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
1 Cor 15:38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
The secret? AS IT PLEASES HIM!
D. John takes it a step further - We shall be like Him.
1. When He appears - - If you are longing to see some departed loved one, then you haven't grown up in the Lord yet!
2. We shall be like Him - - In mind as well as in body. Phil 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
1 Cor 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
3. We shall see Him AS HE IS. There will be no veil between us and the full glory of Christ. He prayed for the restoration of that glory; John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. It will destroy the antichrist and his armies. Zec 14:12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
2 Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Only one who shares this glory will be able to behold it!

V 3 The present result of this future hope
1 John 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
The present result of this future hope. First of all, note that this verse is stated as a fact!
A. Purifieth - - to prepare one's self for a festival!
Lev 7:20 But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
Lev 7:21 Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the LORD, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
Num 19:13 Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.
Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

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