John was writing this epistle to a group of unidentified Christians. It was not intended to be evangelical, explaining to nonbelieiver how to become children of God. You could say that this letter was addressed to children of the family of God. Nevertheless, for centuries God’s servants have been using many of these verses to preach the gospel.
In verse 2 John says, “Beloved, now are we the SONS of GOD…” “Now are we sons,” literally… “now are we the children of God.” The Greek word “teknon” is translated “son” in this verse, but it is “child” more than three times as often. So Johns’ readers were already God’s children. They were not becoming children of the Lord at some future date. And they were children of God now as opposed to what they were before. Prior to their new birth and adoption into God’s family they were children of the Devil. I John 3:10 looks back at 2:29 and says: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” There are two kinds of people in this world: the children of the devil and the children of God. The Bible says that YOU are one or the other. Ask yourself: “Am I a child of God?”
When I started preparing for this message, I pictured a simple study of what it is to be one of the Sons of God. But I saw that to do that properly, we need to see what we were before we became children of the Lord. And that, as the Holy Spirit led me, became a larger and more complex study. In other words, the message this morning is the introduction to this afternoon’s message.
In the Gospel of John, chapter 8, the Lord Jesus told a group of religious people: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the LUSTS of your father ye WILL do.” “Ye will do,” points to two things: Jesus told His listeners: “It is your WILL and INTENTION to carry out the lusts of your father the devil.” And, “ye will CONTINUE to carry out those Devilish lusts throughout the rest of your lives.” “The lusts of your father, the devil, are a part of your fallen nature; YOU are children of Satan.” Again, that stands in contrast to what John wrote at the end of chapter 2: “If you know that Christ Jesus is righteous, you will come to know that every one who does righteous things is a child of God’s family.” Unlike John’s readers, the people to whom Christ was speaking were not children of God’s family. But the people to whom John was writing were: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God…”
Now, please turn to John 8. I would like you to see that John’s epistle echos with the words and thoughts of John 8.
This chapter goes from SAND to STONES.
The Lord Jesus was in a courtyard of the temple, once again teaching those who were willing to learn. But He was interrupted by a group of His avowed enemies, who had another attempt to discredit Him. They brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. They said, “Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned; but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.” Jesus didn’t initially reply, but rather began writing something in the sand at His feet. Then He famously said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” When the accusers slowly left, Christ the Saviour, said that He didn’t intend to condemn the woman. But He did say, “Go and sin no more.”
Then returning to His students and the crowd that remained, He said, “I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” At that, some of the remaining Pharisees called Jesus a LIAR. They defamed the Lord Jesus, saying: “Thou barest record of thyself; thy RECORD is NOT TRUE.” Jesus denied any deception, adding: “The Father that sent me beareth witness of me.” God the Father, testified to the veracity – the truth – of what Jesus was saying. “Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father; if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.” So these people did not know God the Father, and therefore they could not have been in God’s family. John tells us in verse 27: “They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.”
In verse 32, Christ utters the famous statement: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” At that: “They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed…” (We are the children of Abraham). And we “were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?” Jesus replied, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with MY Father; and ye do that which ye have seen with YOUR father.”
At that the Jews changed stratagems, trying to go on offense: “We be not born of fornication,” perhaps implying the alleged illegitimacy of Jesus. “We have one Father even God.” Make up your minds gentlemen: are you children of Abraham or children of God? Verse 42: “Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye CANNOT hear my WORD. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
That stung those Christ-haters. “Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” They accused the Son of God of being a heretic who was possessed by demons. And they repeated it a few verses later: “Now we KNOW that thou hast a devil.” What prompted the reiteration was Jesus’ statement: “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” In Christ Jesus, and in Him alone, is eternal life. Later He added: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad.” Here was something which was absolutely absurd, if not heard with the ears of faith. Abraham saw the day of the Lord Jesus Christ? “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” Remember: the meaning of the great name of Jehovah is literally “I am.” Christ Jesus was implying, if not actually saying, “I am your God Jehovah.” “Then took they up stones to cast at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” Because they thought that Jesus was claiming to be God, and I believe He was, they tried to kill Him. But that they couldn’t, is another indication that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
I have two reasons for going through all of this with you. The first is to lay the foundation for this afternoon’s message. “Beloved, NOW are we the sons of God…” There was a day, when none of the children of God were children of God. None of us come into this world as saints or otherwise a part of the family of the Lord. We are children of the world, children of Hell, children of the wicked one, children of the Devil. For whatever reason, you may not like the Jews, agreeing with Jesus that they are children of the Devil. But none of the rest of us are any better than those who called for the crucifixion of Christ.
Paul, after outlining the sins of the people of Israel, turned his attention to the rest of us in Romans 3: What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
As the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3: “Ye MUST BE born again.” Before you can see, or even perceive the Kingdom of God, ye must be born again. And before you can be a part of the family of God, ye must be born again into that family. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Jesus said, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
John addresses a specific group of people when he says, “Beloved, now are WE the sons of God.” Was the apostle writing to you? Do you know that you are a child of the King? You are either a child of the Devil or a child of God. Which is it? That is purpose number one for this lesson. But as I said, there is a second reason for extensively reviewing John 8.
The Apostle John was present throughout this heated conversation between Christ and the Pharisees. He witnessed Jesus’ finger scribbling a message in the sand. And he was aware that the Jews were looking for rocks with which to crush the skull of the Saviour. With those things still present in his heart and mind, now he is writing to the brethren in First John.
And here in this epistle we have an EXPOSITION of Christ Jesus’ reply to the Jews.
For example, in John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Not only are unbelievers children of the Devil, they are blind to the fact of their true spiritual family. But as Isaiah tell us of Christ, “the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” And John 1:4 says: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” In his epistle John says, “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Have YOU been cleansed by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus? Are YOU walking in the light: in the Lord Jesus Christ, the light of the world?
In his epistle John says, “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And what did those who accused the woman have to say about their sin? They slunk away without admitting to any sin on their part. Jesus said, “I have many things to say and to judge of you,” but “they understood not that he spake to them.” They were Pharisees; they were the spiritually elite; they refused to admit to sin. Where was the man with whom the woman was committing adultery? Was he not brought before Christ because he was one of them? Was he considered to be sinless in their sight? “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
In Jesus’ conversation He said, “Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because cannot hear my word.” Not only were those people children of the wicked one and blind to the truth, but they were spiritually deaf. And John reminds us in his epistle: “Whoso keepeth his WORD, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in him.” Those who are not in the family of the Lord refuse to listen to, to acknowledge and to obey God’s Word. Do you? Do you love the Word of Christ?
In his letter John says, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” – 2:22. As he was writing, did the Holy Spirit bring the words of the Jews into his memory? They were essentially accusing the Saviour of being the liar. And He was telling them, “the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.” More than a dozen times in that conversation the Lord Jesus referred to God as His Father. But they accused Him of being demon possessed, denying His relationship to the Father as His divine Son. I John 2:23: “Whosoever denieth Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.” John 8:24: “Ye shall die in your sins; for if ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
I didn’t take time to count up the sins the Pharisees committed in John 8. The number really isn’t important, because even to have one is completely condemning. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Let’s just say that the hatred those people had for Christ, and their attempt at murdering Him were sins. John 8:37: “Ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.” Verse 40: “But now ye seek to kill me.” Aren’t thoughts of murder sinful? Isn’t attempted murder a sin before God and a crime before men? “Then took they up stones to cast at him…” Perhaps these things were still reverberating in John’s heart as he penned: “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” “From the BEGINNING.” Isn’t that exactly what Christ said: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer FROM the BEGINNING, and abode not in the truth…”
In I John 3:10, we read: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever DOETH NOT RIGHTEOUSNESS is not of God…” Back in John 8:38 Jesus said, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father; and YE DO that which ye have seen with your father.” What were they doing? It is an understatement to say it was “not righteousness.” “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” And what was Abraham’s greatest work? “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” These people didn’t believe anything Christ said, and in so doing they didn’t believe God.
John says in I John 5:9-10: “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath this witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” The Jews in John 8, and throughout Christ’s ministry, refused to believe the testimony of the Lord. They rejected the evidence of Christ’s miracles; they rejected the preaching of Christ and His disciples. But perhaps more importantly, they rejected what God had said about Christ in prophecy. They made God the Father to be a liar just as they were making God the Son to be a liar. Obviously, to reject the Father is to prove oneself to be outside the Family of God. To reject what the Father says about our Elder Brother, the Lord Jesus, also puts someone outside the family. “He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes” – I John 2:11.
I will close with one more comparison and one more verse. I John 5:1 is one of the great statements of John’s first epistle. “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…” Remember that the title “Christ” refers to “the anointed one.” Jesus is the Christ, the person anointed by God the Father to become the Saviour of sinners. Those Jews in John 8 were stubbornly denying that Jesus was their Messiah, the Christ. Living in that denial meant they were not born of God; they were not children of God. And if they were not children of God, then they were still children of the Devil.
And so are you, if you have not cast yourself down at the foot of Christ, acknowledging that He is the Saviour. Your religion, however strong or weak, isn’t important. Remember these people attacking the Lord were the most religious and self-righteous in their society. Also remember, it is not enough to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ; the virgin born son of God. It is not enough to admit that Jesus is the Saviour whom God the Father sent into the world. The question is: Have you, and are you at this moment, depending on Christ for your salvation from sin? Will you admit that you are a child of the devil and deserving of Hell as a member of that family? That is where we all must begin: lost, dead and a member of the family of Satan. With these things in our minds and hearts, we can look properly on the Lord Jesus Christ as the means of entering into God’s family. “Beloved, MANY are now the sons of God…” Are you a member of God’s eternal family?