The Promise of Being a Child..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, brothers and sisters. What a great privilege it is for me to have the opportunity to share the Word of God with you.

I'm going to invite you to please open up your Bibles to the first letter of the Apostle John, the first letter of the Apostle John. And by God's grace, we're able to continue with our studies and our considerations on chapter three of the first letter of the Apostle John. Today I want to address with you, brother, sister, dear friend, verses 2 and 3 of chapter 3, in which the apostle is going to give us a very powerful promise. A promise about the future. I promise for the Christian, I promise for those who by grace through faith are united to Christ, that there's going to be one day in which we are going to see him.

And on that day, we are going to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. This promise is for the generation that will be alive when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, but applies to the Christian who is alive. Because as long as we are alive, we desire the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what we have in our hearts. So my dear brother and sister, it has been my desire in the last couple of opportunities that I have to address you from this pulpit to show you the beauties and the depths of what it is to be called a child of God.

what it is to be called a child of the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's now I want to show you this glorious promise that the children of God have, that we're going to be transformed to the image of our Savior, that we are going to see the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we are going to be like Him. So my dear brother and my dear sister, I'm going to invite you to read the scriptures with me. And we're going to be focusing on verses 2 and 3. I'm inviting you this time to read the Scriptures from chapter 2, verse 28, and please pay careful attention to those two verses, because that is going to help us to have the context of what the Apostle John is doing.

And then we're going to be reading until verse 28. Let's do verse 10 in chapter 3. Brethren, let us read by faith, paying careful attention to each one of the words, having in mind that my desire is to speak to you about this glorious promise that is yet to come. This is the word of the Lord, 1 John 2, verse 28. And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, Jesus, when Jesus appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming.

If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared or has been revealed, but we know that when he, that is Christ, is revealed or appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself, as he is pure.

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

But this is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Now, my dear brother, my dear sister, by God's grace, I'm asking you to remember the day of your salvation.

Remember that day, my dear brother and sister, in which the grace of the Lord was given to you by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you were a child, perhaps you were a teenager in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, I'm not sure. Please remember the day in which your eyes were opened to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and you were inserted into the family of God. That glorious day or that glorious time in which you were made justified in the eyes of God through the person of Jesus Christ, you were not only forgiven, but that glorious day in which the Spirit of God came and opened the eyes of your heart to receive faith and to be inserted into the family of God, you also were a recipient of all the promises that God has for His children. Praise God for the things that our God has accomplished through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit in the past.

Praise God for the cross. Praise God for everything that our Lord has accomplished on behalf of His people and everything that those accomplishments or the way that those accomplishments have been applied to the life of the believer. But brother and sister, by virtue of being a Christian, by virtue of being a child of God, we are not only the holders and the recipients of all of the accomplishments in the past of the Lord Jesus Christ, but we are also recipients and owners of all the promises of God that are yet to come. All the certainties and the assurance of the things that God is going to do and that God will accomplish in the future for the Christian is for his or for her good. And many times it's easier for us to look at the past and to see the things that have already been accomplished because we have either written evidence or experience of those things.

But sometimes it's difficult to have hope in the things that are yet to come. Yet the Apostle John in this paragraph, in this passage of scripture that we have in front of us, wants to bring to our hearts by the Holy Spirit the certainty and the assurance of things that are going to take place in the future. And my dear brother and sister, these are the promises of God. Promises of God about the future and what He's going to do and what He's going to accomplish. These are not the promises of men who lies and is unrighteous and changes his mind and his promises fall to the ground and they are not accomplished.

These are the promises of God given to the son and the daughter of God about the future. And because these are the promises of God, my dear brother and sister, these promises are unbreakable. And we can have as much assurance of the things that have taken place in the past as we can have of the things that are going to take place in the future. Our God is a faithful God. And what he says not only took place in the past, but is also going to happen in the future.

And the Bible expects that we as Christians will have the same certainty of the things that have taken place in the past by faith that the things that are going to happen in the future with hope. Faith and hope are the sides of the same coin, of the same virtue. With one, we look to the past and we are assured of the accomplishments of Christ. And with hope, we look to the future and based upon the Word of God, we are equally certain. That the one who has begun a work in us will bring it to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That this God will not forsake the work of his hands. That independently, if we know or do not know what is going to happen tomorrow, independently, if we have the ability to discern and interpret the times and the things that are going to happen in the future, we can have, as Christians, by faith, absolute certainty that when the Lord says that something is going to take place, that that something will take place, my dear brother and sister. And what we have in front of us here in 1 John 3 is a great promise given to the child of God. that the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we love and have not seen with our physical eyes, there's going to be one day in which we see Him. The Apostle says in chapter 3, verse 2, Beloved, we are God's children now.

And what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, the Lord Jesus Christ, pay attention to that. We shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. the glorious promise, maybe your brother and sister, of this Lord that we have not seen with our physical eyes, His words that we have not heard with our physical ears, our hands that have not touched the body of this physical Lord yet. We love Him, 1 Peter 1, because by faith we can have complete access to our Savior, but there is going to be one day in which the consummation of faith will arrive, in which we will not walk by faith anymore, but our sight will be blessed with the sight of the Blessed One, the Lord Jesus Christ, in which our unrighteous eyes that have been used to see all type of unrighteous things, in which our presence that has been before many unrighteous things, will behold the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, And this is not a promise that is rooted in possibility or in likelihood, but rather we are told that we know, the apostle says, that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.

There's no room for likelihood. There's no room for possibilities. There's no room for chance. But it is said that the genuine son and daughter of God will either see Him when He goes up because He has been taken up to glory, or if the appearing of the Savior happens in our lifetime, then we will see the Lord with our physical eyes. And the promise that we have here, brother and sister, is that we shall be like Him.

that we will be transformed as the Lord Jesus Christ is. And brothers and sisters, pay attention to what the Apostle does. He says, but we know. He does not say, but I, the Apostle, because of this great revelation that has been given to me, I'm so unique. Among Christians, I know that when He appears, we shall be like Him and we will be as He is."

But he says, we know, we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is. Brother and sister, I don't know about you, but I want to be joined to the Apostle. And to know with certainty and faith that when I see my Lord, I'm going to be so transformed and made like my Savior. Because that which is in the future is meant to have present effects. That's why the Apostle says in verse 3, and everyone who does hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.

the mighty power of the future promise of the appearing of the Savior and the beholding of who he is, is meant to have present power in the sanctification and in the purification of the saint. How are we going to be made more like Jesus? How are we going to walk in the light? How are we going to bear fruits of righteousness for the glory of the Father? Yes, looking by faith to the past and everything that the Lord has accomplished, but by the same faith that is called hope, look to the future, tomorrow, or the day after, or next week, or the month, whatever it is, that there's going to be one day in which I see and behold my Savior.

My eyes do not deserve to behold the One who is the begotten of the Father, yet I'm going to see my Savior, and the promise is that I'm going to be made like Him. him. Oh brother and sister that's why it says that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. If God does not speak to our heart his word then faith is not going to be empowered and strengthened to apprehend what we have in front of us and be purified in the present time with this glorious hope that we are going to see the Lord Jesus Christ and be made like him. So it is my mission and it is my assignment if you want just to do a couple of things.

I want us as a church and I want us as brothers and sisters to join the Apostle in the first century, to join this church and to be able to say with them that we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him. That by faith, we will be able with certainty to say, not only here when we are doing church on a Sunday, but rather in the secret place of our difficulties, of our uncertainties. When we see the world, and we see all the things that are taking place, and sometimes are distracted or even moved, tempted to despair, and tempted to be moved from our faith, that we will know in that secret place of our hearts that there's going to be one day that He's going to come, and that He's victorious, and that He's King of kings, that there's no power in this world, that there's no kingdom, that there's no army, that there's no president, that there's no prime minister, that there's no group of men that are so powerful like the King Jesus Christ, who is going to come, and not only going to come, but is going to make us like Him. Oh, brethren. We do not have the ability to comprehend what it is to be made like him.

Two reasons why I don't see how corrupt my heart is and how not like him I am. I'm not able to discern inside of me my mind and my full being how much like him I am not. And because I'm not able to discern how distant I am from the Savior, my flesh tends to believe that I'm just simply this much away from him. But brethren, brethren, the chasm between Christ and you is immeasurable. And you are not able to see the chasm that exists between you and Christ because of the corruption that is inside of you and our inability to comprehend how separated we are of Christ.

But secondly, brethren, how are we going to fully comprehend the depths of the beauties of Christ? We simply cannot comprehend the beauties of who He is, the eternally begotten Son of God. So brethren, everything that I'm going to say from this point onwards has already failed. And not only because He said with not very good words, but it's just because we are not able to see the chasm and separation that exists between the Christian, and I'm not even speaking about the non-Christian, the Christian and the Son of God, yet the promise is that there's going to be one day in which we will see Him and we will be like Him, like the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So my dear brother and sister, I only have two questions that I want us to address from this passage of Scripture that I think that by addressing these two questions, we will be able to know deeper by faith, according to the Scriptures, what does it mean.

that we are going to be made like the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, when we see Him, when He comes. The first thing that I want us to do, the first thing is just simply to answer the question, what is it? What is that revelation of the Son of God that is going to transform us, that we are going to see and behold the Lord Jesus Christ? And the result of seeing is that we are going to be transformed. And I don't know if you paid careful attention, but we are told that our transformation, this future transformation of the Christian, has yet not appeared.

He says that once again in verse 3. 2. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. What we, children of God, will be in the future has not yet in the present appeared or been revealed. But we know.

We know, the Apostle says, that when He appears in the future, then in the future we shall be like Him, because we have seen Him. So the first thing that I want us to do is just simply ask ourselves the question, what is that? What is that transformation that the children of God will have upon seeing the Lord Jesus Christ? What is it? And then once we answer that, And if the Lord gives us the grace, then we will move into answering the question, why has it yet not appeared?

Right? He said in the text, and it was true for the saints of the first century, as it is for us, that this transformation that the Christian is going to experience has yet not appeared, or has not appeared yet, I think is the grammatical correct way to do it. Why has not yet appeared this transformation of the Christian? I hope that by answering those two things we will be able to join by faith and understanding deeper in the text the Apostle and know that when he is revealed we will be like him. Let me just start by saying something here.

We shall be like him. There's no better way for me to explain that than by using just simply the writings of description. So please come with me to Philippians chapter 3, because in Philippians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul is going to answer the question of what it is this transformation that we are going to have when we see the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians chapter 3, please. Philippians chapter 3.

The Apostle John has told us that when we see the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be like him. Sorry about the repetition, but that's what he says, right? So for us just to have that clear. Now, the Apostle Paul in chapter 3 is going to, in a parallel passage, explain to us what this transformation is, the what of it. We are just analyzing from the scriptures the what of this transformation.

It says in Philippians chapter 3, Let us just read from verse 20. The context is always helpful, but here we only want to pay attention to verse 20 and 21. But speaking of the Christians, our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, from heaven, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. You see there, the parallel between the two things, 1 John chapter 3, that there's a day in which we are going to see him and we are going to be like him.

We're going to be transformed like the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, the apostle says, but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we wait a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. As I said before, whatever thing the Colombian preacher says about a sinner that is being redeemed, being transformed in the image of Christ, has already failed. We don't have the ability to comprehend him because of the separation and the chasm.

I will attempt to point your mind to something that we will be like Christ so that we will be able to move through the text. If I was going to give you two words that describe this transformation of the redeemed Christian into the likeness of Christ, it will be the freedom of sin. That is actually three questions, but one category. Freedom from sin, and the second one, communion with God. In which ways are we going to be like the Lord Jesus Christ?

Ways that cannot be explained and unfathomable for the mind of men. But the presence of sin will be no more. God would have dealt entirely with sin in our lives. Not only the penalty, but also the presence and the power of sin will be with us no more. And that is going to give us this.

Please pay attention. Freedom from sin. Keep that in your mind. Freedom from sin. And when we have freedom from sin, that enables us to have a genuine and full communion with God.

I think that this idea is fully explained to us in Revelation chapter 21. If you please come with me. Revelation chapter 21. I think that this idea of the transformation of the Christian, of having freedom from sin and also having full communion with God is explained to us in Revelation chapter 21. Verse 1, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, The dwelling place of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.

Freedom from sin and its effects opens the gate for redeemed Christians to have full communion with the Lord. That was the life of Jesus Christ when he came. He was free from sin. He was sinless upon his conception, life, cross, and ascension. He was free from sin because of his freedom from sin he had a perfect communion and fellowship with the Father even when he died and was resurrected then he ascended as the God meant to fulfill that communion with the Father.

So there are many things that could be said about what is going to be the transformation of the redeemed Christian to the likeness of Christ but if they are just going to hold a two of them, that would be that we're going to be free from sin, and that we're going to have perfect communion with God. And that would be sufficient, brother and sister, for us to see this glorious power of this promise. That there is going to be one day in which sin in us is going to be no more. That there is going to be nothing that we can do in this present life to liberate ourselves from the presence and the power of sin, but there is going to be one day. When we see him, it's not that we're going to be made righteous like Adam.

We are going to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. And to be righteous, my dear brother and sister, is much greater when the standard of righteousness is Christ himself. Because that righteousness will be not so much that I'm not going to tell lies, but rather that I'm going to tell the truths that come from the mouth of Christ. That righteousness will be not so much that I'm going to not have hate in my heart, but rather that I'm going to love like the Lord Jesus Christ loved. That righteousness is not that I'm going to do the right thing as perhaps Adam was doing in the garden up to the point of disobedience, but rather that my actions are going to be the actions of the Lord Jesus Christ because now I have the life of Christ in me.

I'm like Jesus Christ, free from the bondage and presence of sin and now open for full communion with God that not even Adam had in the garden. This is the glorious promise that we have as Christians, that we will see Him and then we will be like Him. But if you return to 1 John 3, I want you to pay careful attention that the Apostle does not only speak about this glorious transformation, but he also speaks about the timing of it. the timing of it. This transformation will take place at a particular timing and I ask your attention here just so I can show you something that perhaps is going to help us to see this a little bit deeper.

We are told that this transformation of the Christian brother and sister is going to happen when we see him. And when we see him is because he has been revealed. You see what he says there in verse 2 beloved where God's children and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears or that when Christ is revealed, we shall see him like he's. We shall see him as he is. What is the appearing of Christ?

What is the revealing of Christ? Because according to John, at the appearing of Christ and upon the arrival, or better, the appearing of the revelation of Christ, who is not seen, not observed, hence the word appearing or revealing, right? He's not seen. He's secret. And then when he appears, when he's revealed, upon the revealing of Christ, then the Christian, when he sees Christ, is going to be transformed in the way that I just explained before, freedom from sin and also communion with God.

What is that appearing, that revealing of Christ? Well, the apostle has already told us what that is, and that was told to us in verse 28 of chapter 2. So if you pay careful attention there, you go to verse 28 of chapter 2, and it says, And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears, you see the language there, that when he appears, you may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame. And then he clarifies what the appearing is, and it says, At his coming. Right?

The revealing of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ in the mind of the Apostle John is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is very important. Perhaps you may think, but that is a very, very obvious observation from the text. The revealing and the appearing of the Lord is the second coming of the Savior. Perhaps it may be very obvious, but it's very important for what I'm going to say next.

The second coming of the Savior is the revealing of Christ. that ignites, introduces, or starts this transformation on the redeemed. The Christians are made like Jesus Christ at the second coming, at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Understanding that, what the Apostle John says is very important, because then when we take that word, the coming of the Savior, then we can go to the New Testament to understand a little bit better what is going to happen at the coming of the Savior. So come with me, please, to 2 Peter 3, because in 2 Peter 3, the Apostle Peter is going to give us deeper information about what is going to happen at the coming of Christ, which is the revealing of Christ.

If you remember, the apostle is addressing different heresies and different situations that were happening in the early church. But first of all, please pay careful attention to verse chapter four. Verse chapter four. That is a horrible mix of words. Verse four.

Chapter 3, verse 4. Please, brethren, pay attention to this. They will say, where is the promise of His coming? Okay, now pay attention to verse 12. Waiting and hastening the coming of the day of God.

I'm just showing you those two verses because those two verses are speaking of the same coming that the first chapter of John, chapter 2, verse 28, that the Apostle John was speaking about. So the coming that John is speaking about is the same one that Peter is speaking about here. So now, brother and sister, let me just read the passage with you. And let me just show you two important characteristics of this coming of the Savior. Two important characteristics.

Let us read chapter one from verse one to verse 13. Bear with the reading, please. I just want to show you two important things that are going to help us understand the revealing of Christ, the coming of Christ. And how is that related to the transformation of the redeemed? Chapter three, verse one.

This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing these, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last day with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. Now, verse four, they will say, what is the promise of his coming? Exactly the same word that John uses in 1 John chapter two. For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

For they deliberately overlooked this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the words of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire. being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years, and that a thousand years is one day.

The Lord is not as slow to fulfill His promise as some count His lowness, but His patience towards you. or us not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and then the heavens will pass away." Once again, verse 10, "...but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and then the heavens will..."

pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burnt up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be burnt up or exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people are due to to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for the hastening, the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burned. But according to this promise, we are waiting for new heavens and new earth. Pay attention to this. in which righteousness dwells.

So many things that could be said about that passage, my dear brother and sister. A couple of things. I want you to see the connection between the Apostle John saying that at the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to be transformed. This is the coming of the Savior. And then the Apostle Peter, by the same spirit that was in John, explaining now to us the coming of the Savior.

And we see here a couple of important things that are going to help us. The first one is that the revealing of Christ or the coming of Christ will have first the judgment of the ungodly, verse 7, and the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. The day of the coming of the Lord, the day of judgment, the day of God is the judgment and the destruction of the ungodly. And second, and most importantly here, my dear brother and sister, I want you to see the cosmic transformation or better even destruction. Did you read that language there?

Dissolved and burnt out and it will be destroyed. That is the language that the Apostle Peter uses to describe the day of God, the day of the Lord, the coming of the Savior in which Jesus Christ is going to be revealed. There will be a cosmic transformation. There will be a cosmic destruction. There will be, as he says, new heavens and new earth.

Now, why am I saying all of these things? Because at the revelation of the Son of God, the sons of God are going to be transformed like Him, 1 John 3. At the revelation of the Son of God, at the coming of the Son of God, the children of God, the sons of God are going to be transformed like Him. And the transformation of the sons of God, the transformation of the children of God is part of the cosmic transformation that the cosmos and the world will experience and go through. The redeeming of the children of God, the transformation of the sons of God in the likeness of Christ will be part of the cosmic and total transformation that the cosmos, the world will go through at the appearing of the Son of God.

Why? Because my dear brother and my dear sister, when Jesus Christ is revealed, then we are going to be made like the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be displayed and manifested in the sons of God. And when the glory of the sons of God is displayed and manifested, this requires that there's cosmic transformation in the whole cosmos and in the whole world. Of course, if I don't point you to a verse of scripture, this will be my words only. So please come with me to Romans chapter 8.

Romans chapter 8. Now, first, please read with me and very carefully. I hope that I still have some of you, but please read carefully verse 22 in chapter 8. Please pay careful attention to that. First, we're going to read verse 22, and then we're going to back up and read again just to help the context.

But verse 22, it says, that the whole creation, this is speaking of everything that is submitted to Adam, the Adamic creation, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. The redemption of our bodies is this transformation to be like the Son of God. We are already the children of God, but we have been predestined in Ephesians 1 to be sons of God, and our bodies are going to be redeemed in the likeness of the Son. It says there, verse 24, "...

for in this hope we were saved." The hope of being transformed and being made like the Lord Jesus Christ. But we are told that we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with us for this event to take place. Having said that now, please let us read now from verse 18 so that we will understand what the apostle is trying to say there. Verse 18 of chapter 8.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Brethren, please pay attention to us. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Verse 19, for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of who? The sons of God.

For the creation, the cosmos, the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain whose freedom? the freedom of the glory of the children of God. The creation, everything that has been created, awaits for the liberation. The liberation to the bandage that creation has been submitted to. A liberation that will come only through the liberation and the glory of the sons of God.

Verse 21, that the creation itself will be set free from its bandage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Now, brother and sister, I hope that we at least can see the relationship between the two passages. Let me just say this. Absolutely all things that the Lord has created Absolutely all things that are ruled and governed by the decree and the sovereignty of the Lord had been created with a purpose that is not different to the redemptive purpose of the sons and daughters of God in the person of Jesus Christ. The creation of the world and everything that is in it is not a separated idea of God in which simply things happen and take place.

But rather, absolutely everything that has been created in Adam has been created with the ultimate purpose to serve the redemption of the sons of God in the person of Jesus Christ. So that when the Lord Jesus Christ comes and he is revealed, The transformation of the children of God in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ would ignite, introduce the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells. The coming of the Savior and the appearing of the Savior will transform the saints in the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ, free from sin and open to have communion with the Lord, and part of this liberation will be the liberation of the creation that has been subjected to sin and to unrighteousness. So, brother and sister, when we see absolutely everything that takes place, even when we see the decay of creation, we are not to see that as something that is separately happening from the redemptive history of Christians, but rather absolutely everything that happens and takes place in this created world, it is governed and it's ruled by the hand of God that is directing all things for the final consummation, the revelation of the glory of God in the revelation of that glory given to the children of God. Absolutely all things are pointing to the final purpose, and the reason why it has not yet appeared, the reason why it has not yet come to the final fulfillment, is because, my dear brothers and sisters, the sons of God are not ready yet, nor the sons of Satan.

God has appointed unto him a people from eternity past, and everyone that was given to the Son in eternity past by the Father will need to come to become a child of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And everyone that is not a son of God will have to walk in his or her life, treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath, so that the revelation of the judgment of God will be just and clear in Manifest Romans chapter 2. All things that happen in this world, all things that go on, all the lives of the saints and the lives of the ones that are not in Christ, all of them are governed by the ultimate redemptive purpose of God, who is going to unite all things in his son, Jesus Christ, and who is going to give all the eternal blessings to his children. The Lord Jesus Christ has made us kings and priests in the person of Jesus Christ. And this is the glorious promise that we have that is supposed, brother and sister, to purify us and to sanctify us in the present.

When we look, our eyes are put in the things of this world, and we see not only the decay of the environment, the decay of creation, but we see the corruption, the unrighteousness of men, and the wars and the things that happen between men, and the things that are going on in the world. All of them are fulfilling the cup of the decree of God to bring into accomplishment, to bring to fulfillment what God has ordained and decreed for His people. When we see all of the things that are going on, we have to be certain that the Lord is bringing to fulfillment this redemptive history, and it is pushing, or it is bringing the gospel to the outermost part of the earth. So that when the Lord or where the Lord has decreed that there's going to be one elect, one saint, one person that is going to be saved, we can be absolutely certain that that is actually going to happen for the glory of God, the exaltation of Christ, and the fulfillment of this promise for the Christian. That's why, dear brother and sister, this hope of being transformed in the image of Christ was for the early church a refreshment in time of suffering.

That's why this hope of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's why this hope of the revealing of the Son of God was a refreshment for the soul of those who were in the first century and the trials and tribulations, because the coming, the revealing of the Savior, will ignite not only new heavens and new earth and the presence and communion with the Savior, but also, my dear brother and sister, this glorious transformation in which glory will abide in the heart of all the children of God. And that's why the apostle, if you return for me to conclude to 1 John chapter 3, is calling us, my dear brother and sister, to have this hope. But if you pay careful attention, if you return to 1 John chapter 3, verse 3, everyone who does hope in him purifies himself as he is pure. Even though we are marveled with the idea that we are going to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, even though there's a lot of reasons for us to rejoice in which sin will be no more, There's a lot of reasons for us to rejoice in the fact that this world is going to be different. There's a lot of reasons for us to hope and decide the things that are yet to come.

The apostle is very careful in telling us that we are not to put that hope in all of those future realities that are yet to come, but we are to place that hope in him in Jesus Christ that we are to hope in him because brothers and sisters the second coming of Christ the revealing of Christ is his second public vindication he was originally vindicated in his resurrection when he was resurrected from the death and he was publicly portrayed as the Son of God he was vindicated by the Spirit as this man is the Son of God the Messiah of Israel But there's going to be another day in which Jesus Christ is going to be publicly vindicated, and His people also publicly vindicated as victorious, righteous and true. On that day, every knee will bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people will bow out of the grace that has been given to them in making them the children of God. And out of that grace and a transformed heart, they will bow to the King Jesus and proclaim that he is the Savior. But many other people will bow because this king, this ruler, will come with a rod of iron and break their knees.

So they will bow to King Jesus Christ. And on that day, everyone will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Everyone will know, I have absolute certainty, and there will not be an excuse that the King of kings and the Lord of lords is the Lord Jesus Christ, and this will be the universal, public vindication of the redemptive plan of the Lord, of which we are partakers, not because we deserve it, but because he has chosen us before the foundation of the world. He has given us the grace that we do not deserve. And he has made us partaker, not of all these blessings, but more importantly, of Jesus Christ himself, who is God himself, who has the life of God.

And that is the greatest blessing that the Christian can have. Oh, brother, oh, my dear sister, what a glorious promise we have. not only to be presently sanctified with this idea that we're going to be made like the Lord Jesus Christ, but to be bold and to always be certain that when we take the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that when we proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have certainty that this gospel is going to be victorious, that the message of Christ is going to be victorious because he has ordained and he has promised that he's going to rescue unto himself people from all tribes. from all nations, from all tongues, that He will gather all of these people, and until the last of them is not united to the people of God, this world will continue to operate because it is under the sovereign control of the hand of God, and in that we take hope. There's no one that can go against that plan.

There's no strategy of men that can go or break the plan of God. There's nothing that the empires of men can do to go against and destroy this plan of God. So that's why as soldiers of Christ, by faith and with our eyes put in Christ, we move ahead, not trusting in our own abilities, but trusting that the one who has been conquered is Jesus Christ. And he's the one that has given us freedom. Amen.

Amen. Let us pray.