38. 1Jn3_3 Hope that Acts

1Jn 3:1-3 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. (2) Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (3) And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.

We can look at these verses in two ways. We can look at it from God’s perspective and see God’s proclamation, God’s purpose, and God’s plan. He has proclaimed that we are children of God. His purpose is that we will be glorified in that we will see Him just as He is, and His plan is that we would be conformed to the image of His beloved Son. Or we can look at it from our perspective and see what we are, what we shall be, and what we should be. Either way, verse three stands as the application of the realities of the previous verses.

A brief review of the previous verses. John calls us to “see” what kind of love the Father has given to us. To see is not a casual glance or simple acknowledgment of what this love is. John is calling us to ponder, dwell upon, meditate, linger long over the subject of the kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us. It is a love that has as its culmination God’s proclamation that we are His children. That never ceases to amaze me. Who am I that I should be called a child of God? Dead in my sin, and enemy and hater of God, a mocker and persecutor of His people, a blasphemer and idolator, the kind of guy no girl would have wanted to take home to meet her parents. But God had mercy on me and so ordered my life that He placed me in the place and time of His choosing for the gospel to be shared with me effectually and on the day He appointed for my salvation. Each one of you here who is in Christ Jesus has your own unique stories. No matter what your background is you too were an enemy of the cross and now have been saved by grace through faith. Do not for a second think that you are the worthy recipient of it, or because of your past life, somehow merited God’s mercy. If it is merited, it is not mercy, and if you are worthy, it is not grace. And even now, having tasted and knowing that the Lord is good, we give ample reason to doubt whether God loves us or not because of the power of remaining sin. And yet we have the blessed assurance of verse to, “Beloved, now we are children of God.” John uses his favorite term for the children of God: “beloved” that is ‘dearly or greatly loved”. This is God’s favorite term for us as well. The love of God goes before us, and it encompasses us all about. If you were in a dangerous country, would you feel secure having a SEAL team or Delta Force as your protection detail? I think I would feel pretty secure, even bold in that situation. And we have something greater than that in the love of God for us.

Rom 8:33-39  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  (34)  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  (35)  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  (36)  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  (37)  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  (38)  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  (39)  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John goes on to say, “Now we are the children of God”. We do not hope to one day be children of God. We do not expect to be children of God. But that is our present status, no matter where you are in your sanctification. And as children, we know all of His Fatherly care over us. The testimony of Scripture is that he watches over us with eyes that neither slumber nor sleep. We have the blessed assurance that all things that we have or will endure are not without purpose or plan, but for our conforming to the image of Christ. And His purpose is for His children to be with Him where He is.

Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones says this about verse two as an introduction to verse 3. We have been on the mountain of God, and we were shown things unseen. We were given that glimpse of glory, of the glory that awaits us and the astounding and amazing things to which we are heirs. But here we are now, as it were, back to earth again. We are reminded that before we enter into that glory and enjoy it in all its fulness, certain things remain and abound. We are still men and women in the (physical) flesh, in this world (Jn 17:11, 15, 16, 18) which, John has already told us, does not know us (1Jn 3:1). It does not understand us and, indeed, it is opposed to us and inimical to our highest and best interests (Jn 15:18, 19, 20). Yet though we do feel that, we must be very careful—and that is the point I want to emphasize most of all here—we must be very careful lest we regard this third verse as some sort of anticlimax after the second. It is not an anticlimax, and to regard it as such is simply a manifestation of our sinful nature.

V3 And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. There are three points this morning. 1. The subject – everyone who thus hopes in Him. 2. The action - purifies Himself. 3. The standard – as He is pure

I. The Subject – everyone who thus hopes in Him

Everyone means all with distinction. This indicates that, in the corporate nature of the church, there is individual responsibility for personal holiness.

What is Biblical hope? Is it wishing without any expectation of fulfillment? Like, I hope I win the lottery. I hope I make a hundred on the test I didn’t prepare for?

Biblical hope is a desire for some future good with the expectation of obtaining it. Hope is confident expectancy. It's the absolute certainty of future good or that God will do good to us in the future. It is a solid rock we can stand on, for our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness! It is full assurance. Hope is the opposite of despair (a state in which all hope is lost or absent).

Heb 6:11-12  And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,  (12)  so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

What is the full assurance of hope based upon?

Rom 5:3-5 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; (4) and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; (5) and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Do we have that kind of hope? I certainly want that kind of hope, no matter what the circumstances are, good or bad, to exalt in tribulation. Why does this hope we have not disappoint? Why does Christian hope not disappoint? because it is founded and grounded in our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is singularly focused and has one subject of primacy. Our hope in Jesus Christ is not only in the forgiveness of our sins. Because Christ Jesus has been raised from the dead, we have the assurance that as He has been resurrected, we will be resurrected. Paul says that He is the first fruit. Implied in the first fruit is that there is other fruit to follow.

1Co 15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

But I believe our hope in Him lies in more than the hope of the resurrection. It is also the blessed assurance that our God will never leave us or forsake us. A bruised reed He will not break, a smoking flax He will not extinguish. Our God will be with us through each step in this life, in trial and tribulation, in persecution and suffering. We are not vagabonds or orphans left to roam the earth but we are His children bought with a price, with the precious blood of the Lamb, given the sign and seal of our inheritance in the Holy Spirit taking residence in us.

II. The Action – purifies Himself

Purifies himself - Note that John does not say everyone ought to purify themselves. Instead, he flatly states that purification is what a believer does, and therefore this passage becomes a stringent test of what/who we really are! John's point is that everyone who genuinely possesses the objective hope purifies himself. The verb hagnizo is in the present tense, which calls for an ongoing practice of purification - we are to make and keep ourselves pure. It describes a process and hopefully progress but not an "arrival" in this life, and yet a goal we can run toward as we contemplate the great love that He has set upon us. The active voice indicates that this purification calls for a volitional choice. The one who possesses this hope is the one who willingly and repeatedly exercises self-purification.

Purification basically denotes a removal of that which disqualifies one for acceptable worship, the removal of which results in a condition of purity and chastity. The figurative uses of hagnizo emphasize the idea of one's heart being fully devoted to the Lord and to His will and way. What is His will and way? We read it this morning in the Deuteronomy passage and in Exodus 20 the last time I was here. But we are missing the point if we think the moral law is all about rules. It is all about loving God and loving your brother. Jesus summarized it in this way. Mat 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" (37) And He said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' (38) "This is the great and foremost commandment. (39) "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' (40) "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

It isn’t about keeping rules. It is about loving the Lord and loving your neighbor as yourself. I am convinced that every command given in the NT is an exposition and application of the moral law. Our personal pursuit of purification from sin revolves entirely around loving God and loving the brethren.

Now that we know what purifying is, the next question is, how do we do it? First, we must increase in our knowledge of and love for God. John has exhorted us to “See what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Later in this letter, John wrote that we love God because He first loved us. John establishes the principle in this letter that we cannot love God whom we do not see if we do not love our brother whom we do see. A friend of mine and I were discussing this passage a couple of weeks ago. He is a deacon at First Pres in Yazoo City. He said this “Our love for God is a dim reflection of His love for us. Yet, as we come to a greater and greater understanding of God’s love for us, our love for Him grows in relation to that understanding. It means we not only love God more, but we love the brethren more. If we were going to graph this letter, you could draw two lines perpendicular to one another. The vertical line represents our love for God, and the horizontal line represents how we relate to one another. The strength of the vertical has direct relation to the strength of horizontal.

How do we increase in the knowledge of God. We immerse ourselves in His Word. Paul writes in Eph 5:25-26 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; (26) that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

The prescription Christ uses in sanctifying the church by the washing of the water with the word. It is not seeking the world’s wisdom for the things that plague us. James says that the wisdom of the world is earthly, natural, and demonic.

It is not in the reading of the word only, but the hearing, studying, memorizing, and meditating on it. It is applying the word to our daily lives, the Spirit working it in us to bear fruit.

It is living intentionally with this priority in mind. We are engaged in our marriages and engaged in raising our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. We are not only catechizing our children but also pressing their consciences with it. You families with young children do not waste a day because you do not have long with them. You will one day be standing where I am with adult children and wonder where the time went. And make no mistake your children will remember your example in the faith.

Purify yourself, as He Himself is pure.

III. The Standard – as He is pure

Christ Jesus is our standard. It is not about being better than the next person. It is not about merely staying a few steps ahead of the moral slide of our culture. If we are only trying to our pace our culture then it still means that we ourselves in moral decline. Our standard is Christ’s perfection. His every act of grace, mercy and compassion shown is our standard. His purity was not conditional on His circumstance. It amazes me how often I will justify sin as a result of someone else action. C. S Lewis once said that the actions of others do not provoke a response, they reveal what was already there.

What is your hope this morning? What is your heart’s desire? I pray that it is Christ and Christ alone.