-Transcript-
00:24 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:27 Welcome to the cafe. Thank you for joining me. My name is Pastor Clark Covington here at the KJV Cafe.
00:32 What a wonderful day. It’s a blessed day. Amen.
00:36 I thank God for today. You know, we had some spring like weather and guess what? It kind of starting to go away. It’s getting a little colder.
00:41 Welcome to North Carolina where one day it’s hot one day. It’s cold. You can’t quite figure it out.
00:46 Spent 10 years in South Carolina and it was just hot plain hot and pretty much all year round except for maybe a month or two. Now we got I’ve been here in North Carolina 11 years. I think 11 12 years and yeah, it is.
00:59 It’s always a surprise waiting for you, but no matter the weather no matter the time so thankful to get into God’s word. I hope you are too as we wrap up this series on first John. Amen.
01:08 1 John 3:1 deals with how deep the father’s love really is. And this is the fifth part of a five-part series and don’t worry if you haven’t heard it any of it. I’ll recap enough that you can get an idea and of course you can go back and listen to it and check us out.
01:30 We have a podcast. So if you have a podcast app search up KJV Cafe check us out there, but 1 John 3:1 behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.
01:41 Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him notnow there’s a colon here in this verse like smack dab in the middle of 1 John 3:1 and for the first three and a half almost four messages.
01:57 All we spoke about really was what manner of love the father bestowed upon us by allowing us to be called the sons of God. We just talked about the context of God’s love in being a son today.
02:09 We’re going to wrap it up by looking more at this latter part of the first therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not but again just to recap 1 John 3 talks about God’s love and adopting us into his great and Holy family now Creator God gives us a path to be adopted into his Holy family through the person of Jesus Christ.
02:27 And so you have God creating everything but not all of us being children of God because you have to be saved.
02:40 The reason why you have to be saved is because of sin a sin debt that you can’t pay on your own that came ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and sin entered the picture and death and all the rest entered the picture and it’s still in the picture so to speak.
02:52 It’s not gone away and you say all these children don’t know any better or I know people that are free of sin.
03:00 Everyone sins get deep in the Bible and you’ll see what God calls a sin is just so numerous and so built into who we are that we all are sinners Bible and Romans 3:23 says all fall short all have fallen short. Amen. I’ll read the verse for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
03:20 There you go much better here in Romans 3:23 as Paul writes for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
03:30 We can’t be saved without a Savior who’s our Savior Jesus Christ perfect sinless born of a virgin lived 33 and a half years and obediently and willingly went to the cross at Calvary completely willingly.
03:40 I’ve been reading the New Testament lately the gospel accounts over and over again and you see here like he’s telegraphing to the disciples.
03:49 Hey, guess what? I’m going to be crucified. I’m going to be buried. I’m going to be raised.
03:55 I’m going to rise again and they had trouble digesting it. But just think of the fact that Jesus knew like he not only did he know but he actually told them as in if he wasn’t obedient and willing he could have like ran off, you know, when they even they came with staves and stuff and swords to take him. He said, what are you doing?
04:08 I’ve been in the temple, you know, why are you coming out here like this? Like I’m going to run from you.
04:13 He didn’t need to run. He could have called legions of angels angels down to wipe them all out. He could have blinked.
04:19 He could have just had a thought and they all could have been dead. But he chose to die on the cross at Calvary so that people like you and people like me could be saved by simply believing that Jesus Christ died for our sins. That’s all we have to do.
04:31 You know, what can you do to please God have faith. The Bible says it’s impossible to please God without faith. We simply need to believe we need to believe that number one were sinners in need of a Savior number two that Christ died for our sins and number three that he was risen from the grave.
04:47 We believe on him. We believe he’s in heaven with God today. He’s alive and well, we make him Lord of our life.
04:53 We’re saved. Once we’re saved, we become children of God and I won’t spend a lot of time on this. But as a child, you have all of these perks, right? You have a if you’re a child you have and you have a father the father is going to care for you is going to be responsible for you.
05:12 It’s going to make you co-heir or heir is going to teach you you’re going to share the father’s traits. You’ll be disciplined by the father in a good way that you learn and grow your loved by the father you get this child like dependency upon the father
05:23 and we become more like the father were led by the spirit living within us, which is of the father Romans 8:14 for as many as are led by the spirit of God.They are the sons of God, right?
05:35 We are to obey the father give us a long life and we’ll be healthy and so forth and that’s just a simple interpretations, but that’s in the Bible.
05:44 Amen that we should obey the father and we see a correlation here with when we do all these things the world won’t get us. We won’t be accepted by the world. Let’s look at the latter part of 1 John 3:1 therefore, that’s the word right there.
06:00 Therefore, therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. So, you know, there’s a picture of man not knowing God in the fact that Jesus was largely rejected. Amen pilots.
06:16 Like hey, let me let this guy out. He hasn’t done anything wrong and everyone say crucify him crucify him like they obviously didn’t know that this is the Messiah. Amen.
06:23 They didn’t know him. They didn’t believe on him. Their hearts were hard.
06:27 Even the disciples struggled to understand he was God in the flesh as they faced worldly consequences and worldly things happening in their life. And so the world knew him not they’re not going to know us when we get saved. We become a child of God.
06:40 We have a relationship with God. We become dependent upon God. We do as God leads and calls the world is going to find that foreign and I won’t go into details.
06:50 But the last episode I gave an example of going to a foreign country and feeling really out of place a man and that is what it’s like. We are not at home in this world. Amen.
07:01 I’m very suspicious of really popular Christians like not saying it’s impossible, but I think you’re really really popular in the world. I’m very suspicious because pretty much everything that we learn is antithetical to the world the world. What’s the world right sin?
07:20 Cussing gossip slander drinking watching bad stuff telling dirty jokes cheating gambling drunkenness drugs ride is living on and on is that not what the world is as an adult a man and it’s not new.
07:36 I mean you see I saw historical. I don’t know what it was like a biography of a town. I guess you say story of a town from like the 50s time of people after work going and drinking and stuff in the 50s,
07:48 you know, that was what 70 plus years ago people were doing these things and again, this doesn’t the Bible doesn’t expressly forbid all drinking.
07:57 Okay, but the Bible promotes and tells you specifically to be sober and gives John the Baptist a compliment when he says he will not drink strong drink. Amen. He’s chosen from God on and on.
08:10 So I don’t know, you know, I mean, can you have one and it’s okay? I don’t know. I could never have one so I cut it out completely. Amen.
08:17 And the best way to do it is not to go near it in my opinion, but that’s just my opinion again does Bible doesn’t expressly forbid it. But the point is let’s say you’re out. I mean you work 8 9 10 hours and then you’re not going to go home to your family.
08:29 You’re going to go and drink but with your buddies and then you’re going to go home to your family like the Bible is telling us men. We need to step it up teach our kids and be there for our family love our wives and all this and so again, it’s not new.
08:42 It’s been going on forever sin has entered the picture Christ is our Savior and as we get to know Christ as we grow as image bearers of Christ, we will become more and more foreign to the world and the world will not understand us the world will not get us Amen.
08:55 You know the way to set apart of the Old Testament was circumcision, right? That is the way that we were set apart in the Old Testament and believers were or God’s people were right now.
09:13 That is I mean to the point where I believe it was a some of the Israelites were going to go into Canaan land and God stopped them and said you all need to be circumcised before you ever even come over here, right and he was very serious about it. And that’s that’s a that’s a whole thing.
09:25 I’m not a doctor, but that’s not that doesn’t sound fun to to engage in as an adult right rather than kids when we’re typically given that circumcision in the New Testament that it’s no longer that’s the differentiator something physical in the New Testament.
09:37 It’s the Holy Spirit Galatians 5:16 this I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We are spiritual creatures.
09:46 Now. We have the God of the universe living within us. Amen Romans 8:14 for as many as are led by the Spirit of God.
09:57 They are the sons of God. We are led by the Spirit of God. We are the sons of God.
10:01 So a child of God that honor that we get in being a child of God comes the differentiator comes by the Holy Spirit. That’s why the Bible says don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. If you’re sitting around telling dirty jokes, you’re grieving the Holy Spirit.
10:12 If you’re sitting around watching something you shouldn’t watch your grieving the Holy Spirit on and on and on. So what do we do with this knowledge to wrap kind of put a bow on this?
10:22 What do we do with all this understanding God’s great love and making us children of his when we accept his free gift of salvation understanding the world won’t know us and by the way, won’t really like us.
10:32 A command from God in his word is to reciprocate and pass on this love to your father and neighbor.
10:40 I mean to God if you realize the depth of being a child of God, and I don’t know how many traits I had. I don’t know maybe a dozen traits that I’ve spent the last four and a half episodes on of what it means to be a son to a father.
10:56 Can you imagine like a specialist, you know, maybe a family counselor or specialist in children or or parenting they probably had would have a list of a hundred traits or maybe even more of a good father and son relationship.
11:09 So understand the depth of what it means to be a child of God and understand that love is applied to those that have been saved and when you really kind of get a hold of that now think about going and doing something that would grieve the Lord,
11:26 you know going in sinning going and being ashamed of him going and living against his will going and being unequally yoked going and living with a girlfriend before marriage or boyfriend before marriage being involved in a relationship that is with the same sex,
11:47 which we know is an Abomination to God being involved in drugs and alcohol. I mean again, you know, I’m not trying to point out one’s particular sin. But what I’m trying to say is if you’ve been saved a man
12:04 and I’m preaching here out of the buckle of the Bible belt and I believe many people listening have legitimately been saved if you’ve been saved then cling on to your Lord and depart from that sinful behavior show God the honor and respect.
12:17 He is do while you have free will to do it because the Bible says in the time of judgment every knee shall bow and by then it’s going to be too late. Amen, you won’t be able to say okay God now that I see your sovereign now that I see you now, I’m going to go back and do something by faith by faith. We are justified by faith.
12:33 You’re going to say God. I believe today. I believe I’m getting rid of this stuff.
12:38 I’m going to repent. I’m going to live for you right as what we are to do. We are to depart from sin the best that we can and we know that we have an advocate in Jesus where as we fall into sin as things mess up.
12:48 We all fall short including me, especially me. We all fall short. We go to God and we ask for forgiveness.
12:53 We repent before him were sanctified by God day in and day out. Amen. And once we have that closeness with God and once we realize what it means to be called a son and daughter of God, then we go to our neighbor and our brother, right? We go to our brothers and sisters.
13:08 We go to our neighbors and we love them like God loves us. We show God through our actions, not just our words, but our actions, what it means to be loved by God by loving others and that love. It’s like a got a love I would say, which is a sacrificial love.
13:24 It’s a love born out of not getting anything in return. It’s a love that is deep. It’s a love that sometimes can hurt.
13:32 Amen. You think Jesus heard a little bit on the cross? Amen. It can hurt but we give and we love and we’re charitable and we show God.
13:44 We understand how he’s loved us by how we treat others. And of course that means that we forgive doesn’t mean that if someone’s abusive you forgive them and go right back to them. It just means that you forgive them.
13:59 You don’t hold a grudge. You have no bitterness, you know, but the idea is and the biblical standpoint on that is if they’re not repentant, you know, if they’re not repentant forgive them and you can keep a distance if they’re repentant and forgive them and have fellowship with them.
14:08 The Bible tells us we are to love as God’s loved us and God has been so long suffering with us and so wonderful to us and we are truly blessed to be called the sons and daughters of God when we are saved and we are his child.
14:22 It is a blessing beyond words and I thank you so much for listening to this message in this series on this verse.
14:28 Take care. God bless. Amen.