WEBVTT 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:12.480 This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:18.079 For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org. 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:21.679 Let's pray together, Church. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:28.079 Lord, I'm reminded today that it is a humbling thing to have someone set their heart on you. 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:33.439 And because you've set your heart on us, we turn now to set our hearts on you. 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:36.799 To love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:45.119 We're not here to put more trust in our experiences, our earnestness, or how much good we've done, but we put our trust in the name of the Lord. 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:47.600 We believe that there's power in your name alone. 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:50.799 So it's under your name that we stand today as your people. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:53.679 We've come to taste and see that the Lord is good. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:57.439 So guide our heads and our hearts now as we seek to you today. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:02.240 Holy Spirit, build us up as a better dwelling place for your presence. 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:03.119 In Jesus' name. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:05.519 And all God's people said, Amen. 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:05.920 Amen. 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:06.400 Bless you. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:07.680 You can be seated. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:10.159 My name is Clyde. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:11.760 I am the worship pastor. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:16.959 And today I'm going to be preaching a brief homily, and then we're going to begin receiving the Lord's Supper. 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:23.040 So if you have your Bibles, take them and open up to 1 John chapter 3, verse 1. 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:25.200 While you're looking for that, a brief story. 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:31.599 So a few years ago, my wife and I invited one of her distant cousins and his wife over for dinner. 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:36.640 And during the course of the evening, the conversation kind of turned to spiritual things. 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:39.760 And I began sharing the gospel with his wife. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:48.879 And things started to get a little bit awkward because I said this that the reason Jesus was sent to die on a cross was to pay for sin. 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:56.959 And if Jesus doesn't pay for someone's sin, then they're punished for that sin by spending an eternity in hell. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:01.280 By the way, I'm available for all your dinner requests. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:04.000 I'm not always that intense of a guest. 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:08.719 Now, her problem wasn't with Jesus dying on a cross. 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:11.599 Her problem wasn't the idea that God exists. 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:16.080 Her problem was with the idea that God would send people to hell. 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:16.800 Why? 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.800 This phrase, because my God is a God of love. 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:25.120 And a loving God doesn't send people to hell. 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:33.439 And one of the problems I brought up with that view is that the Bible clearly teaches that God is loving, yes, but that He's also holy. 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:40.400 Now at that point, we quickly moved to dessert and coffee and kind of wrapped it up for the evening. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:44.159 But I thought of that this week when I was studying this passage for today. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:46.800 Because we as Christians need to be clear. 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:50.240 What kind of love are we talking about? 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:53.120 What kind of love does God love us with? 00:02:53.360 --> 00:03:00.560 The world interprets God's love through the lens of our experience, through sentiment, or anything other than the Bible. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:06.159 But when we see how the Bible defines it, it's so much better than how I or you or the world defines it. 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:10.400 So look with me at first half of 1 John 3:1. 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:19.840 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:22.639 It's a short verse, so I'm gonna read it again. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:28.560 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are. 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:30.879 Three things to see from the text today. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:33.199 The first thing is just that word see. 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:36.000 A better translation would be the word behold. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:37.199 Behold this love. 00:03:37.439 --> 00:03:39.039 Stop and look at this love. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:46.639 When you pass an accident on the road and you start riding the brakes in the minivan because you want a rubber neck like everybody else, that's what we're saying. 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:49.680 Slow down, pump the brakes, and look at what's going on. 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:51.599 John's telling us here to slow down and look. 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:53.360 Don't just give it a passing glance. 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:56.960 We're not here to think about Jesus' body on the cross. 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:01.439 We're not here just to think about the blood that was spilt for us. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.159 He gives us something to behold. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:10.719 Today, when you take the bread and the cup, you're meant to taste them, but you're also meant to see them. 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.039 See them and remember what they mean. 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:15.520 Because if we're not careful, we'll get distracted. 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:22.879 There's so many things that the enemy wants us to look at when we're hungry, when we're alone, when we're bored, when we're tired, when we're angry. 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:27.360 It's easy for us to look at the wrong things to satisfy us. 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:30.959 The enemy wants us looking anywhere but where we're supposed to. 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:34.480 But you and I were created to taste and see that the Lord is good. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:40.480 So today let's taste, but let's also slow down to look, to behold, and to see. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:44.319 And that's the second thing from the text is what we've come to see. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:49.920 What kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:55.680 When people say a phrase like, Well, my God is a God of love, remember this verse and just ask this simple question. 00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:57.040 What kind of love? 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:00.000 I love my kids in all sorts of different situations. 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:01.759 I love my kids when I make them laugh. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.240 I love my kids when I make them do their chores. 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:06.160 Uh, I love my kids when I discipline them. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:10.639 I had to discipline last night because they were mad I wouldn't let them keep playing the Nintendo Switch. 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:13.839 Uh my brother, their uncle, gave them a Nintendo Switch like a madman. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.319 And now we just have this thing in our house, we got to figure out how to do it. 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:21.680 So we had a little situation where I had to remind my kids I love them, even if it doesn't feel like I love them. 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:27.920 So if you were to ask my kids, they would tell you, depending on the situation, my love is gonna look very different. 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:28.639 D.A. 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:32.959 Carson, he helpfully lists out five different kinds of God's love. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:35.439 The first is God's love for God. 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:40.240 We're told in John's gospel that the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:42.399 This has been happening for all eternity. 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:43.360 Very simple. 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:44.959 God loves God. 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:48.639 But the second is the love that God has for all that he has made. 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:55.680 This is his providential love for all his creation, from the rocks and the trees, to the birds and the bees, uh, to you and me. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.240 Everything God has created, he loves. 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:03.199 But a third way we see God's love is in his stance towards a fallen world. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:10.879 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life. 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:17.839 What's interesting is not that God loves something so big as the world, but that he loves something so bad as the world. 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:20.319 And he still offers salvation. 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:24.399 The fourth way is we see God's love is his love for the elect. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:30.560 This is where uh God sets his affection on us as a particular people. 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:33.360 He adopts us as his children. 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:36.800 Fifthly and finally is God's conditional love. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:40.319 We please God with our obedience. 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:44.000 We displease God with our disobedience. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:51.439 That doesn't change our status as his adopted children, uh, but it's why the Bible tells us things like this remain in God's love. 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:53.759 Keep yourselves in God's love. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:56.639 Now, I know that may be a lot uh to take in. 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:02.480 Uh, you may just want to take a picture and you know think about it later, but I want to put it before you so you can focus on that fourth one there. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:10.959 D, God's particular electing, adopting love for his children, because that is what 1 John 3, 1 is telling us to look at. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:16.160 What kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God. 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:21.360 This is the kind of love that a father has for his sons and his daughters, and he says, mine. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:28.879 Not because of anything special about us, not because God looked in the future and saw we were going to pray a prayer to become a Christian. 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:37.759 No, this is the kind of love where God chose us before the foundation of the world, and he says there's nothing we can say or do that will ever change his mind about you. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:43.839 And he doesn't just choose us, he actually acts on our behalf to care for us and to save us. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:47.600 Now, if you want to picture this, you probably saw it a few weeks ago uh in the news. 00:07:47.759 --> 00:08:01.759 There was a Disney cruise ship traveling from the Bahamas, and a young girl fell off the fourth balcony uh and into the sea, and people all of a sudden are yelling, you know, man overboard, but not the dead, because the dead is the one who jumped in after her. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:05.680 They had to tread water for 10 minutes until someone could rescue them. 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:12.639 Now I don't know what that dad said to his daughter during those 10 minutes, but I know what I would have said. 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:14.480 It's okay. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:16.079 I've got you. 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:17.199 I love you. 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:24.079 Church, what would it be like for us today as we take this if we just heard our father saying that? 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:25.439 It's okay. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:27.120 I've got you. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:28.319 I love you. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:30.720 Because that's what's on display for us. 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:33.519 That's the kind of love our Father has for us. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.879 Now, how does God show this love to us? 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:43.679 Well, what makes it so particular, so unique, is because of how he acts on our behalf. 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:51.200 A few verses later, John 4, 1 John 4, chapter uh chapter 4, verse 10, he says this in this is love. 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:57.519 Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:01.759 What that means is the sin that separated you from God has been paid for. 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:03.759 All the debts have been canceled. 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:07.600 So, yes, God is a God of love, but he's also a God of justice. 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:08.960 He's a God of wisdom. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:14.320 He's all these things at once because as a few weeks ago, Neil told us, God is a simple being. 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:19.600 He isn't powerful sometimes, he isn't holy sometimes, he isn't loving sometimes. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:21.440 He's all these things at once. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:22.320 Simple. 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:28.799 Sending his son to pay the price for your sin is how God shows what kind of love he has for us. 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:31.679 Now, I used a word there that you may not hear very often. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:33.440 It's that word propitiation. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:40.159 Propitiation is what happens when wrath gets satisfied because something has been offered to satisfy it. 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:44.080 Or in our case, someone has been offered to satisfy it. 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:52.559 By coming today to receive the Lord's Supper, what you're saying is that you believe all your sin has been paid for, and there's nothing for you to try and pay for. 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:54.720 That's the good news of communion today. 00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:01.120 God has loved you with the kind of love he reserves only for those that he has called and adopted into his family. 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:03.360 And that's the third and final thing from the text today. 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:05.120 Just those four simple words. 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:07.279 And so you are. 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:12.720 This is the kind of love that makes us children of God, and so you are. 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:15.840 We are what we are because God made us that way. 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:23.759 We're not defined by our best moment, we're not defined by our worst moment, we're not defined by our biggest failure or our biggest success. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:30.559 Your adoption is not yours to earn, to keep, or to lose, because it was all God's doing. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:48.080 That's why it says in John's Gospel, uh, chapter one, verse 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.559 These last four words, first John 3:1, and so you are. 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:56.960 It's like an exclamation mark, re-emphasizing our adoption. 00:10:57.039 --> 00:10:58.639 This is all the ground that you have to boast. 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:00.720 This is our bragging rights to the enemy. 00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:03.279 This is what we point to in times of trial. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:07.440 This is what we're preaching to ourselves today when we take the Lord's Supper. 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:12.399 And so I am, and so you are. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:16.879 Most of you probably don't know who Pete Weber is, but he won the U.S. 00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:19.120 bowling championship a few years ago. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:21.039 I saw a great example of this. 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:27.440 There was a young man in the crowd, he's kind of heckling him the whole game, uh, and it gets up to the final round. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:38.000 I'm not advising you to look it up uh because there is some language, but one of the things he says after he bowls the winning strike of the game is he turns around to the crowd and he goes, Who do you think you are? 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:40.320 I am like that. 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:43.600 All that emotion, all that adrenaline comes pouring out. 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:45.039 Who do you think you are? 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:45.919 I am. 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:54.399 And my heart for each of us today is to be so confident about who we are in Christ that when the enemy comes along and he starts demanding, Who do you think you are? 00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:56.639 We say right back to him, I am. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:11:58.559 I am a child of God. 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:05.679 I am chosen, I am adopted, I am the one who is conquered by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony. 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:08.000 That's who I am because that's who God is. 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:11.519 This is the kind of love we've gathered today to behold. 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:12.960 Because that's who we are. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:14.480 Let's pray to God. 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:20.639 Just take a moment before we're dismissed. 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:23.759 Ask the Lord, what do you take away from today? 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:26.960 John's just gonna continue to play. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:30.240 Just ask the Lord, what had your name on it? 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:35.039 I'll acknowledge our service did go a little long today. 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:37.279 That's not an apology, it's just an acknowledgement. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:39.759 We don't rush moments like this. 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:43.120 We believe that profanes something that's holy. 00:12:56.399 --> 00:13:01.279 Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:06.000 Look at this kind of love, receive this kind of love. 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:09.679 And when the enemy says, Who do you think you are? 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:13.120 Point to this truth and say, I am. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:17.679 In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, God bless you. 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:18.639 You're dismissed.