Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

The scripture very clearly teaches that you are a son or a daughter of the living God, that God is your father. In a sermon entitled how to raise children, a man by the name of Chris Ostom advised parents to name their children some biblical name, and in particular that you would name your children after some great Bible character. He went on to say, the reason for this is so that you would be able to make a great impression on your child about the meaning of their name. And as they understand the meaning of their name, then they would understand the person from scripture who they’re named after. It was his belief that if we told our children the meaning and the background of their biblical name, that it would set a pattern for the way they would live into adulthood.

I believe that there is a great deal of truth to that, but I believe there’s also a greater truth. And that is taken from the book of first John, chapter three. The truth is this. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. The most appropriate name for a Christian is a child of God. Have you ever thought of the impact on your own life in a practical way? The difference it makes that you are a child of God, that the scripture says that you are a son, a daughter of the living God, and that since you have received the grace of God through his son Jesus Christ, that you are different. You have a purpose that only can be accomplished through your ministry.

No one else in the world is able to accomplish what you are able to accomplish through Jesus Christ. And for you to know that you are a child of the living God. We are God’s children, and John believes that should make a difference in our lives. He gives us one quick warning found in chapter three of first John, the first verse. Knowing that we have been called the children of God, he tells us, therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him. The warning is this, that even though you are a child of God, even though you know that you have received the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ, that is a message that is primarily understood within the context of the church.

As soon as you go outside of the church and begin to talk about what Christ has done for you, it does not have the impact that it has for christians. As christians, we understand that any kindness that we do is only by the grace of God. We understand that any mercy that we show to another person is because of the love that God has shown us through Jesus Christ. But the world does not understand that motivation. And when you are kind in the world, sometimes the world simply misrepresents your kindness. Sometimes in the world, when you show care, the world would question your motive. Sometimes in the world, when you would show mercy, the world will laugh at you. Should that come as a surprise to christians. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.

Be prepared when you show acts of kindness and mercy that are motivated out of love for Jesus Christ to be misunderstood, that the world will not clearly understand your know, to me, telephone lines are ugly. I like these communities where they have put the wires underground. As you look at those wires, just big black strings hanging from barkless poles, and you look at them, and if you did not know what was going on inside of those wires, all that you see is this confusion of wires running up and down the street, going into homes, into office buildings. And you look at that and you say, what an ugly thing.

And yet inside of those wires are to be found the messages that are being communicated, of care between friends, a word of greeting, the love between families, as through those telephone wires there is a wonderful message that’s being communicated. The world looks at christians and many times only sees the externals and does not understand what is in the heart of a Christian, what it is that motivates them, what it is that drives them to be kind, to show mercy, to show the love of Jesus Christ. Often all that the world sees is the outer trappings of Jesus Christ, never fully understanding what’s happening within a heart. Verse two. We are told, beloved, we are children of God.

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. You and I are children of God. And when Jesus Christ returns, the scriptures say we are going to be just like him. Usually we think of who Jesus was, and we spend a great deal of time reading in the gospels, the ministry of Jesus, that healed the sick, that he gave sight to the blind. And we know a great deal about who Jesus was. But the scripture makes it very clear that you and I will never, when we enter heaven, look on Jesus as he was. But when we look upon Jesus, he will be changed.

The image of Christ that ministered for 33 years is going to be different than Christ when he returns in full revelation. We know who we are, but it’s hard for us to think of who we will become. We know who Jesus Christ was and is. It’s hard for us to imagine who he will be. And John tells us, beloved, we are children of God. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he, Jesus, is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. It’s very hard living on earth for us to begin to think of what we will be like in heaven. Living in Texas. I shared a room at one point with a fellow named Jim Alexander. Jim lived all of his life in the panhandle of Texas.

He had never seen a slope that rose more than 6ft in all of his life. Shrub brush, the dust of the plains. And we lived together for a year. Jim had never been off of the cap rock of the panhandle. The cap rock is that portion of Texas that runs down the panhandle, and then at a certain point it drops all across Texas. It drops in some places 50ft, other places 200ft. And that break in the Cap rock brings another portion of Texas and the great plains that run through southern Texas. I remember Jim. We were rooming together for just a couple of weeks and he said, you know, I just love Texas. Texas, I’ll never leave. He said, I want to show you something. We got in a jeep.

We drove for about 45 minutes across the panhandle and came to that portion of the cap rock where it simply broke. And there were a few ledges, a few rocks, a little mesquite, a few shrubs, dry, hot. And he said, I want to show you the most beautiful place in the world. And we came to the edge of the caprock and he stopped the vehicle. We got out and he looked over this new plane where the cap rock dropped. And with all of the emotion he said, isn’t this beautiful? And I was hot. And all I could see were a few cactus, a couple of stones, a little drop in the elevation. And I thought to myself, how would I ever explain to Jim the majesty of the Grand Canyon? How could I ever communicate to him the beauty of the redwoods?

How could I ever show him the beauty of a deer running across the face of one of the Rocky Mountains as it’s silhouetted against an evening sky? How could I communicate to him the beauty of the Atlantic as the waves roll in against the New England shore? It has not yet been revealed to you and me what we shall be like. It is as hard for you and me to conceive of what it is going to be like to be with Jesus Christ, to be just like him, to be with him in his presence, to be able to talk with him, to be able to see our brother Jesus. And John says, beloved, we are children of God.

It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is in heaven. I only vaguely expect to recognize you, and you should only vaguely expect to recognize me. When Jesus returned, his disciples vaguely recognized him. And you and I are going to be changed into the image of Jesus Christ, and we shall be like him. Usually when we think of Jesus, we think of him and his ministry and who he was. We seldom think of who Jesus will be. When we get to heaven, we shall never see Bethlehem’s pressure on the face of Jesus. When we get to heaven, we shall never see Gethsemane’s sorrow on the face of Jesus.

And when we come to heaven, we will never see the anguish of Jesus on the cross, for Jesus will be revealed to us as he is now. And not until we die or he should return will we understand who Jesus fully is, even today. Verse three tells us everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. Some have referred to this verse as a purifying hope, that if we have the hope that someday we will be just like Christ, we will be changed. We will be different. We will be altered. That that hope in this life begins to purify us for our placement in the next life. Do you remember Hawthorne’s great story of the great stone face? The character was a young boy named Ernest.

Ernest heard from his mother the story that someday into their town, there would come a man whose face would be just like the face on the side of the mountain. And the people could look up in that town at the side of the mountain and see the old man’s face. And Ernest was captivated by this idea. And so, as a young child, he was always inquisitive. Has that man come into town yet? At one point, he thought it was a millionaire who had come into town. At another point, he thought it was a military hero. At another point, he thought it was a statesman. But each of those wound up disappointing him. And then, as a middle aged man, he continued to look. But his approach was now different.

He realized that when and if that man were ever to come into their town, that the town ought to be prepared for his coming. And so, as a middle aged man, Ernest began to work in that town in preparation for the coming of the man who would have the face that was the same as the face on the mountain. And he went around town doing good works and good deeds, and he cared for people and he showed kindness and mercy. And he continued to get old. And finally, as an old man standing with a group of people, the people looked at his face and they said, the man resembling the great stone face is with us. And that little boy, Ernest, as he began to serve others and cared, it brought upon his face a change.

That face was the face on the side of the great mountain. We are told in scripture, everyone who has this hope, what hope? The hope that Jesus Christ is going to change us. That when we die, we will be just like him. If we have that hope deeply placed in our heart, that hope will purify us, just as he is pure in our family. An ongoing observation is that other people do other things, and our kids are the quickest to pick that truth up. And usually it has to do with what other kids are doing that we should not be doing. Well, other kids go to that movie, why can’t we? Well, other kids use that word, why can’t we? And my standard answer to them is, the reason that we are Smiths. And Smiths don’t do those things.

Now, Joneses might do those things and browns might do those things, but Smiths, we don’t do those things. They go, oh, I’m a Smith. I know how I’m supposed to behave. There is a reality that who you are and who you believe you are has a great bearing on how you act. If you are a child of God and you really believe that you’re a child of God, if you know that Jesus Christ has saved you, it will have an impact on the way you act. So why don’t we do those things? Because I’m a child of God. Because I’m a follower of Jesus Christ. Verses four through nine introduce what seems to be a new subject, but really is a continuation of John’s thoughts. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

You know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who sins is of the devil. But the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. Verse four, he says sin is lawlessness. Verse five. He says, Christ takes away sin. Verse six, followers of Christ do not sin. Verse seven, Christ is righteous, and his followers will therefore be righteous.

Verse eight, sin is of the devil. And verse nine, whoever is born of God does not sin. Now that’s the train of thought. John makes one thing inescapably clear, and that is that sin has no place in the life of a Christian. But he goes further, and that is where great confusion has occurred within the church, because he goes further and he says that those who are children of God do not sin. You’re probably wondering, how will we get out of this one. Is he saying that as a Christian I’m not to sin, and if I sin, I’m not a Christian? Well, we know he is not saying that. And how do we know it? Because in chapter one, verse ten, he tells us if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar.

We also know that the apostle Paul in Corinth was dealing with a group of Christians who were sinning. He does not attack the Corinthians and say, you’re not Christians because you’re sinning. Now, there have been various interpretations of this verse. One of the interpretations came at the time of the Reformation. It became the roman catholic understanding of this verse. Whoever has been born of God does not sin. That interpretation restricted the sin in this passage to heinous sins like murder and adultery. And so they created two classes of sin, mortal sin, which were heinous and tragically full of sin, versus venial sins, which were smaller, less important sins. Well, the reason that interpretation does not work on these verses is that John does not make any distinction here between major and minor sins.

And the fact is that there are times when a Christian will commit a heinous sin. A second interpretation of this verse has been that for the unbeliever, sin has a different definition than for the believer. And occasionally you will hear people mention that as a Christian, I’m free to do various forms of sin because a non Christian, that would be sin. Well, John is not saying that. This is not a double standard. There is not a list of sins for the unbeliever and a list of sins for the Christian. No. Whenever we find a list of sins, it is for mankind, both Christian and non Christian. Some have tried to explain this verse by saying that it is impossible, out of our new nature in Jesus Christ, to sin, and that every time we sin, that is only our old nature.

Well, that’s intriguing, but what it seems to produce are people who come to the conclusion that when they sin out of their old nature, they have no control over that sin. And it produces a practical problem. The fourth interpretation of this verse was the holiness movement’s interpretation. And here they believed that the verse was simply saying that a Christian does not sin. John Stott addresses this interpretation, and he says, if we are born of God and therefore are sinless because of the grace of God through Jesus Christ, but then we sin, does it mean that we are no longer born of God? And so he raises this intriguing picture of a person who explains their salvation by one day saying, I’m born alive through Jesus Christ, but on the next day they’ve sinned, and they say, I am dead.

There is no birth, there is no reality. But then they confess their sin, and now they’re born again. And now we have this unique picture of a Christian who one day is born, another day is dead. One day is born, another day is dead. Stott says that there is no picture of that in scripture, that God is not an Indian giver. He does not give us new birth one day and take it back on the next. Well, what then is the interpretation for understanding whoever has been born of God does not sin? Well, as we look closely at this verse, it is one of those places where the use of Greek is helpful, because there are three places in this portion of scripture that the same reference is made that we will not sin. And what he means is sinning.

That is habitual, that when you become a Christian, you will be aware of your sin. And when we become aware of that, John tells us that we are to confess that sin and that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. And so every time that we sin for every particular sin, there should be particular confession. That form of the grammar is called an heirest form. It has to do with a particular sin at a particular time. But in these verses, when John tells us we are not to sin, he does not use the heiress tense. Instead he uses the present tense. He says, when you are sinning, meaning that if you have a habitual sin and if you are born by the living God through Jesus Christ, then he has promised that he will help you to overcome that habitual sin.

And so we would expect that for every christian there are changes that occur immediately as we confess our sins. But there are other sins that are habitual, and he says that he will help us to change those. And what happens if we go through a lifetime and those habitual sins never change. It is to that point that he says, whoever has been born of God does not sin, that there will be a change that God will bring in your life for habitual sins, you may feel a sense of frustration in wanting to see some habit that needs to change in your life. But simply know that God will help you to change that habitual sin and that he will help you to overcome that. We should not simply say, this is a habit that I have had. It’s a habit of personality.

It’s a habit of character. No, wherever we are out of accord with God’s word, we need to confess that and come to Christ, and he will help us to change. He tells us that whoever has been born of God does not sin for his Jesus. His seed remains in him, that when you were born anew by Jesus Christ, that he placed a seed in your life, a spiritual seed, and that seed will fight sin, immediate sin and habitual sin, and that seed will grow in your life.

Just as we would expect the seed of corn to produce an ear of corn, just as we would expect an egg corn to produce an oak tree, just as we would expect a dove’s egg to produce a dove, we would expect that the seed of the living God in the life of a person who has received the grace of the living God, that seed will change sin and bring obedience. Whoever has been born of God does not habitually sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot habitually sin because he has been born of God. Remember, you are children of the living God, sons and daughters of God, and there are things that we don’t do. Why? Because we’re Christians. And there are things that we do. Why? Because we’re Christians.

It makes a difference that we are called children of the living God. Let us pray. Our God and our Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that the seed that you have placed in our hearts, that true gospel seed would continue to grow and to be nurtured by your spirit and, Father, that those sins that have occurred one time, that we would confess them and that those sins that have been habitual, that, Father, we would know that we need to confess those and to know that your seed, that your gospel will help us to gain an obedient control and that we would be able to say, you have done this. We thank you that we are called your children. In Jesus name, amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org