"And We Are"–a Jewel from the Revised Version
(No. 1934)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 19, 1886,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
19, 1885.
"Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God." 1 John 3:1
So far we keep to our Authorized Version. Now read the Revised Version,
and note the words added– "Behold what manner of love the Father has
bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we
are."
DEAR friends, the most of my text will be found in our Old Version, but
for once I shall ask you to look elsewhere for a part of it. A genuine
fragment of Inspired Scripture has been dropped by our older
translators and it is too precious to be lost. Did not our Lord say,
"Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost"? The half
lost portion of our text is restored to us in the Revised Version.
Never did a translation of the New Testament fail more completely than
this Revised Version has done as a book for general reading, but as an
assistant to the student, it deserves honorable mention, despite its
faults! It exhibits, here and there, special beauties and has, no
doubt, in certain places, brought into notice words of sacred Scripture
which had fallen out. We have a notable instance in my present text.
Turn to the First Epistle of John, the third chapter, at the first
verse–
The word "such" is not in the original. We therefore leave it out and
then we get the words–AND WE ARE. There are only two words in the
Greek–"and we are." That the addition is correct I have not the
slightest doubt. Those authorities upon which we depend–those
manuscripts which are best worthy of notice–have these words and they
are to be found in the Vulgate, the Alexandrian and several other
versions. They ought never to have dropped out. In the judgment of the
most learned and those best to be relied on, these are veritable words
of Inspiration. So far as doctrine is concerned, it does not matter,
much, whether they are or are not in the original text because we get
the same words farther on. "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it
is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that if He shall be
manifested, we shall be like He; for we shall see Him even as He is."
The point that struck me as being most worthy of notice was that when
the Apostle had said, "We shall be called children of God," he then
adds–We are not only to be called so, but we are so. The glory of it
is that we now have this thing. We have it in possession–"and we are."
This little interjected assertion, "and we are," brings most forcibly
before my own mind the truth of our present sonship towards God–"That
we should be called children of God: and we are."
Let me now introduce to you my text as I mean to preach from it–
"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we
should be called children of God: and we are."
Our text begins with the exclamation "Behold." This word, "Behold," is
a word of wonder. John had lived among wonders. John's life, from the
time of his conversion, was a life of wonders, not only in what he saw
with his natural eyes, but in all the sights that the Lord gave him to
see with his spiritual eyes when He appeared to him in "the isle which
is called Patmos." His life was crowned with wonders in his memorable
escape from martyrdom, when, according to tradition he was cast into a
caldron of boiling oil, but came out unharmed–his Master having
determined that he was not by martyrdom to glorify His name. If ever
there was a Seer among men to whom wonders became common things, it was
John! Yet as he wrote this heavenly Epistle, he could not help bursting
out in exclamations of amazement such as do not generally come from
writers so much as from speakers–"Behold," he says, "Behold, what
manner of love!"
I believe, my Brothers and Sisters, that if we realized the truth of
our own adoption into the family of God, we would never leave off
marveling at it. That any man of mortal race should become a child of
God might astound us, but that we, ourselves, should be such should
amaze us beyond degree! We ought to cry, "Behold! Behold!" Let us begin
to talk of it now, for we shall never cease to speak of it when we
reach the New Jerusalem. Our regeneration and adoption are complex
miracles of Grace–a cluster of wonders condensed into one. It would
seem too good to be true if the Lord, Himself, had not revealed it! We
will call upon angels, principalities and powers and say to them with
delighted wonder, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed
upon us." Admire, O sanctified intelligences, that God should do this
for unworthy sons of Adam!–
"Behold what wondrous Grace
The Father has bestowed
On sinners of a mortal race
To call them sons of God!"
But this, "Behold," is also a note of instruction. It is as if the man
of God said, "Stand still and consider the extraordinary love of God."
Do not speak of it, for some of these things slip glibly from the
tongue. No, rather sit down and ponder, and weigh, and mark and behold!
Behold, what manner of love. Here, take your glass and look at it
microscopically. Study it. Wonder at it. Study it with every faculty
concentrated upon it, for you shall find new excellences in it every
time you look into it. "Behold, what manner of love"–the very manner
of it is exceedingly sublime and adorable! Do not merely glance and go
your way, but stop and rest and pry into this secret, comparing this
love with all other loves, and the manner of it with the manner of men.
Come here and dig where there are nuggets of pure gold to reward every
moment of your industry! Here sink your shafts and go into the depths
to bring up this priceless treasure. Behold– read, mark, learn,
inwardly digest and still behold again! Look, and look, and look
on–for there will be no end to the discoveries you will make. When you
have looked, remember that you have not been gazing upon a mere
appearance, but have beheld an actual fact–"Behold what manner of love
the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children
of God." When you have beheld this, then look again and behold with
equal admiration that it is no supposition, or fancy, or romance–the
Lord calls us children–"and we are'"
Thus having introduced the text with its own note of exclamation, I
invite you to behold the two wonders which are enshrined within it. I
would first say–Let us behold with joyful wonder our being called the
sons of God. And then, secondly, let us behold the equal wonder of our
being really so, expressed in those three words, "and we are."
I. First, then, behold THE WONDER OF OUR BEING CALLED THE SONS OF GOD.
Who calls us so? That is the wonder! Men take upon themselves great
names without any right to them. There are degrees among men that are
degrees of shame because the persons who claim them were never justly
entitled to them. It is one thing for us to call ourselves children of
God and another thing for the Father to bestow His love so that we are
truly called the sons of God. From where does this princely title of
"sons of God" come? Who calls the saints, the sons of God?
The Father Himself does! He speaks unto them as unto children. He deals
with them as with sons. He is pleased in infinite love to bid them say,
"Our Father," and He answers to them by calling them children and
heirs. He acknowledges their sonship and pities them as a father pities
his children. He has called them sons, saying, "I will be a Father unto
you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord God
Almighty." Oh, what a blessing it is to have God calling you His
child–the great Almighty and Infinite One looking upon you with a
Father's love and saying, "You are My son!" He speaks the truth and we
may believe it and be sure! He knows His own children and gives the
name of sons to none whom He will, in the end, disown. He calls us His
children–and we are!
Who has called us the sons of God? Jesus Himself, the first-born among
many Brethren, has called us so! Did He not speak of, "My Father and
your Father"? What did He mean when He was not ashamed to call us
Brothers and Sisters? Everywhere our dear Lord and Master speaks of us
as belonging to the one family of which He is the Head. By sweetly
taking us into union with Himself, Jesus practically calls us Sons of
God–and we are!
The Holy Spirit also dwells in all the heirs of Heaven and thereby
calls them sons of God. He bears witness with our spirit that we are
the sons of God and it is He who is given to us to be "the Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." That, "Abba, Father," of ours
is prompted by the Spirit of Grace who would never prompt a stranger
and an alien to claim kinship with the Lord. Oh no! The witness of the
Holy Spirit is the witness of truth! A filial spirit implanted by the
Spirit of God cannot deceive us. Thus Father, Son and Holy Spirit call
us the children of God–and we are!
With these the holy angels are in full accord. Not in words, perhaps,
but in acts and deeds which speak quite as loudly, they declare us to
be the children of God. They bear us up in their hands, lest we dash
our foot against a stone and this they do because we belong to the
Divine family! "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to
minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation"? They acknowledge that we are heirs of
God and, therefore, they act as our waiting servants.
All Providence, Brothers and Sisters, acknowledges us to be children of
God, if we are, indeed, so. This is specially true of chastening
Providences. When they come to us, they gently whisper, "What son is
there whom the Father chastens not?" Yes, trials and afflictions,
especially such as come for the Truth of God's sake and because of our
love to Christ, are tokens of sonship. The persecution which is
involved in holy and separated living is the witness of Providence that
we are no longer of the evil seed, but are adopted sons of God.
Yes, and I trust that there are some here who can modestly say that
they have, even, the witness of men, for they are called the children
of God even by men who do not know much about the mysteries of the new
birth. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the
children of God"–they shall not only be so, but they shall extort from
others the confession that they are so. I am sure that when William
Penn dealt so kindly and peacefully with the Indians when everybody
else was false to them, the untutored man of the woods felt that the
Quakers were children of the Great Spirit. Their peacefulness was a
mark of their descent from the God of Peace. Any man or woman who shall
be well known to bear injuries with patience and to make no return but
that of doing good for evil shall be recognized, even by scoffers and
blasphemers, as a child of God! God is Love–and wherever there is
love, men with more or less of intelligence trace it to God. They
cannot help it. Blessed are you, Beloved, if you have the witness,
even, of your enemies, that you are the children of God–and you will
have that witness if your lives are conformed to the holy Law of Love!
Behold, then, how God's people are called the sons of God–called with
a Divine calling to which all things bear corroborating witness so that
they believe–and are sure! And in reply to all voices attesting their
sonship they cry, "and we are!"
Enquire next, what is involved in this calling them to be the children
of God? What is there conspicuous in it? Read the
passage. "Behold, what manner of_. "What is the word? "What manner of
gift the Father has bestowed upon us
that we should be called the children of God"? It might have been so
written and have been quite correct. But it is not so written. "Behold
what manner of honor the Father has bestowed"? No, no! "Behold what
manner of LOVE the Father has bestowed upon us"–as much as to say that
the adopting of a man to be a son of God is an act which involves so
much of love that you are bid, especially, to fix your eyes on the love
of it and to notice its manner. "Behold what manner of love the Father
has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God."
Now just think for a minute what intense love is manifested to that man
who is favored to be called a child of God. It is love in the highest
degree! What love you would have in your heart if you were to take a
wanton and malicious enemy and say, "You shall be my son!" If one had
wronged you and despised you and defied your authority–and you should
say to him, "You shall be my child from this time forth"–what an
amazing deed of love this would be! Yet it might not be very much for
you to do, my dear Friend, for you may be, after all, nothing very
great! It would, however, be the utmost your love could devise! Only
think of what it must be for God–even that Infinite and Eternal
Spirit–to say, "You shall be My child. I will take you, though you are
an heir of wrath, and make you Mine." Herein, indeed, is love! Love
worth the beholding!
It is certainly an undeserved love because no man can possibly deserve
to be made into a child of God. Grace in this instance is the sole
source of the stream of goodness. You might think it possible that you
could deserve some ordinary gift, but such a blessing as to be made a
son of God you could not deserve! If you had never sinned, I do not see
that you could have had any right to sonship. The most faithful service
does not make a servant into a son. Had you been perfect, what would
you have given to God as purchase money for this high dignity? He is
great and glorious without your service! To be promoted to be a prince
of the blood royal of Heaven–it is not possible for any man to deserve
this! No works can climb to this lofty place–only faith can reach it
by the power of Grace. "But as many as received Him, to them gave He
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His
name." This power, this privilege, this honor of sonship before God is
gained in no other way but that of faith–and that is the gift of God!
And oh, see the blessed manner of love there must be in it, since there
is everlasting love in it for, if God makes you to be called a son of
God, that is done and done forever–and it never can be undone. Here is
the joy of it. The servant abides not in the house forever–but a son
abides always. The relationships that come of service begin and end.
You know it is so among men. You can say to a hired servant–"There,
take your money and be gone." But you cannot say
that to your son! Whatever you give him, or do not give him, if he is
your son, he is your son and always must be so. Especially is this true
of the children of God–that they are not only called the children of
God, but it is added–"and we are'" In very deed we are and always
shall be His sons! We are made really to be what we are said to be. We
are called the children of God and we are the children of God–and this
cannot be undone. How greatly do I rejoice in the final perseverance of
the saints! As I have often said, I would not go across the street to
pick up the other kind of salvation which only saves me for a while and
afterwards lets me slip through! Grace brings me into the family of God
and keeps me there. When the Lord calls me His son, I know what He
means–He intends all that we mean by the relationship and more! He
does not mean that He will cast His children away, or suffer them to
perish, but He means this–"I will put My fear in their hearts and they
shall not depart from Me." Or, as the Lord Jesus puts it, "I give unto
My sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand."
"Behold," then, "what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God." It is infinite love that
knows no end. It is the love of the Father–that glorious Person of the
blessed Trinity in whom the fountain of all Grace is seen. It is the
Father who in boundless love has called us to be His sons! How I
delight to trace this love up to the Fountainhead! Jesus says, "the
Father Himself loves you." It is not the death of Jesus which moved the
heart of the Father to love us, as some fondly dream–the truth is that
the Father's love is the reason why Jesus was given. "Behold, what
manner of love the FATHER has bestowed upon us." How it unveils the
heart of the Father when we see that He who gave His Son for us has
also bestowed upon us this manner of love that we should be called His
sons! Let us adore and love the great Father of our spirits, whose love
is the first cause of all our blessings.
Now, while I am asking for your wonderment in answer to the
questions–Who calls us sons? and, What is involved in the call? I will
reply to another question–"Who are the persons thus called sons?"
"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we
should be called children of God." It is bestowed upon us men and
women. We are poor creatures when we make the best of ourselves and yet
He calls us sons of God. "Unto which of the angels said He at any time,
You are My son?" Brethren, this dignity is reserved for us whom He has
made a little lower than the angels! Think of what His Only-Begotten
Son is like–that glorious Son of God of whom He says, "Let all the
angels of God worship Him." Behold how in splendor of beneficence He
deigns to call us, also, His sons and so to put us side by side with
the Only-Begotten–not on an equality as far as His Godhead is
concerned, for that cannot be–but yet bestowing on us that same love
with which He loves His Son! He loves us in Christ even as He loves
Christ Himself! Behold, what manner of love it is, that we should be
adopted and regenerated by the living God!
And this is true, remember, of that poor man who does not know where
tomorrow's bread shall come from. You say he is not respectable, but I
say that he is right honorable, for God has called him His son! I mean
that man whose name was never heard of, who lives in a room in a back
street and when he dies will be buried in the corner of the cemetery,
"unwept, unhonored, and unsung." Yes, God has bestowed this manner of
love upon him–that he is called one of His sons! Yes, I mean that poor
consumptive girl–I mean that lame, decrepit youth! I mean that blind
man who begs his bread. Behold, what manner of love the Father has
bestowed on such as these! Poor cottagers, hard-working men and women,
cobblers and tinkers! Chimney sweepers and laborers–such as these He
calls the sons of God when He has renewed them by His Grace! Ah, and I
mean those who are lying yonder in the hospital and in the workhouse
infirmary who are nearing their last hour upon beds found for them by
charity. These are God's children if they believe in Jesus! They pine
away till bedsores make it hard to move and harder to lie still.
Dissolved by pain, they are melting away into eternity–but behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon such poor, frail mortals as
these, that they should be called the sons of God–and they are!
Yet the wonder rises a stage higher when we recollect that these are
not only men and women, but sinners. Behold, what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us sinful ones, that we should be called the
children of God! He has taken us from the dunghill and washed us–and
then made us to sit at His royal table! You know the story in Ezekiel
of the infant cast out in the open field, defiled in its own blood and
how He that passed by looked on it, and said, "Live," and washed it,
and swaddled it, and fed it. It is just what the Lord has done for us
poor sinful men and women. We were cast out under condemnation, but
behold what manner of love He has bestowed upon us guilty ones to make
us children of God! Alas, even after we are made His sons, we are not
free from evil–we still need that abundant Grace should have
patience with us. We still grieve Him by lukewarmness and
backsliding–and yet He calls us children! Behold what manner of love
He has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God!
There! I do not feel as if I wanted to preach about it. I long to sit
down and cry over it for very joy of heart. That ever God should have
put me among His children shall be my everlasting wonder! How could He
love such a vain, frail, sinful, troubled creature, full of all manner
of infirmities! Yet the Spirit of adoption makes me cry with boldness,
"Doubtless You are my Father!" I cannot help it. I know that I am His
and I dare not question it. But what manner of love, what manner of
love, He has bestowed on me! Do you not say the same? Does not the
gracious Spirit of God now move on your soul and make you stand in
amazement at Divine Grace? Do you not melt with humble gratitude? What
was there in you? What is there in you that you should be a son of God?
If children, then heirs–heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus
Christ–why are we lifted to such a privilege? The blessing of sonship
has earth and Heaven wrapped up in it and all this is ours! If we know
ourselves, we mourn our lack of worthiness and yet we rejoice that we
are the Lord's dear children. When we consider the persons who are
called the children of God, there is, indeed, reason to say, "Behold,
what manner
of love!"
And, once more, let me just go over the ground again, and show you what
is connected with being called the children of God.
It is, as it were, God's public acknowledgment of His relation to
us–He acknowledges us as sons! Sometimes we hear of clandestine
marriages which may be valid, but the man seems to be ashamed to
acknowledge his wife. He pleads that he be permitted to not introduce
her into the noble family to which he belongs and so he keeps the
marriage in the dark. And he does not admit there are children. This is
after the manner of wicked men! But God is not ashamed of us when He
takes us to be His children. It is written concerning our Lord Jesus,
"For this cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." I have heard
of some fine gentleman in London, dressed in all his best, walking out
in the park. He had a poor old father who lived in the country and who
came up dressed in his rustic raiment to see his son. As the son was
not at home when the father reached the house, he went into the park to
find him. Now, the fine gentleman did not absolutely disown his father,
but he went out of the park at a pretty sharp trot, for fear anybody
should say, "Who is that country fellow you were talking with?"
He did not like to acknowledge his father because he was a laborer.
That is mean as the mud in the kennel, is it not? We would not thus
wonder if the glorious Lord refused to acknowledge us! There is such a
come-down from the loftiness of His holiness to the depth of our
faultiness. But yet He has such love, such a manner of love, that He
bestows upon us this honor, that we should be openly called the sons of
God! He Himself tells us so in our text. His Spirit makes the avowal.
"There," He says, "you poor people that love Me. You sick people, you
unknown, obscure people, without any talent–I have published it before
Heaven and earth and made the angels know it–you are My children and I
am not ashamed of you! I Glory in the fact that I have taken you for My
sons and daughters."
There is, moreover, this involved in it, that He claims our loving
obedience. Do not put dishonor upon your Father's name! Stand up for
your Father. It is one of the marks of a true child that he cannot bear
to say or do anything that would place his Father's name under a cloud.
God, as it were, stakes His honor upon the character of everyone of His
people. He has said, "They shall be called My children." Now, if you do
anything that is wrong or base, what will men think of your Father? He
has condescended to call you a child–do not let His name be evilly
spoken of through you. He has put this high honor upon us, that we
should be called His sons and daughters–let us seek so to behave
ourselves that men may see our good works and glorify our Father who is
in Heaven! I have taken up all this time with the first part of the
verse, but we must not forget the second part of it, "and we are." I
shall only introduce it to your meditation and, indeed, this is all
that is needed if you are able to repeat the words on your own account
and say, "and we are."
II. The second and greatest wonder is THE WONDER OF OUR REALLY BEING
THE SONS OF GOD. "And we are."
Adoption gives us the name of God's children. The new birth gives us
the Nature of God's children. And so in both senses we are. Adoption is
the legal act by which our Father receives us. Regeneration is that
spiritual deed by which we receive the nature of our Father. Every man
that is really adopted into the family of God also really becomes a son
of God by being begotten, again, unto a lively hope. I want to put it
to you, my Hearers, whether you can, on this double ground, join in
these Inspired Words, and say, "And we are"?
Let us work out the question. Are we really the children of God? We
must answer that question by another–Do we truly believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ? I have already quoted the Inspired Declaration–"But as
many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on His name." We can answer that question.
Are we believing in the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart? Is He our
confidence? Do we trust in His blood and righteousness? If so, if we
believe in Him, then He has given us the right and the power to become
the sons of God!
That question, alone, might settle it, but let us go a little farther.
If we indeed can say, "and we are," then we have received some measure
of the Nature of God. Have you, Brothers and Sisters, become spiritual?
God is a spirit. Do you hate sin? God is holy. Do you love that which
is right? Let your conscience speak. Do you endeavor to act generously?
Does love rule you? Do you seek to be full of pity, tender, courteous
and kind? Have you love to God and love to men? For, if not, you have
not the Nature of God, for God is Love. Have you somewhat of that
Nature and is there within you a longing and a striving to have the
whole Nature of God in you, as far as it can dwell in mortal man?
Remember, no person can be a child of God if he has not something of
likeness to God. If you are not in the least like your Father, then you
make a mistake if you profess to be His child. "You are made partakers
of the Divine Nature," says one of the Apostles, "having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust."
Am I a child of God? Then listen–I have a love to my Father. If you
are truly born from above, your heart goes out in longings after Him to
whom you owe your heavenly birth! If you are no child of God, you can
live without Him. Indeed, you will try to do so! To the most of men,
God is virtually non-existent. They look up to the skies and view the
wondrous lights of Heaven, but they never think of Him who shines
through them. They do not believe that there is such a Being, or else
they have to admit that there must be a design and a Designer–and that
is an end of the matter with them. Whether there is a God or not is no
matter of importance to them. How different is it with the regenerate!
To us God is All in All. To love God is the great fact of my life! The
tears run down my cheeks when I think of Him. He is everything to me–
"Do not I love You from my soul?
Then let me nothing love! Dead be my heart to every joy,
When Jesus cannot mo ve.
Have You a lamb in all your flock
I would disdain to feed?
Have You a foe, before whose face
I fear Your cause to plead?"
It cannot long be a question with the child of God whether he loves his
Father or not. It may occasionally happen that he has to make the
enquiry, for times and circumstances will test him, but before long he
comes to the solemn conclusion, "You know all things; You know that I
love You."
More than that–if I am a child of God, I learn to trust my Father. I
do not know a more delightful act of childhood than trustfulness in a
parent. And how often, if we trust God, we shall be rewarded! A
circumstance happened to me yesterday. I cannot help telling it to you.
I received a note from one of the trustees of the Orphanage to say that
the running account was so low that when the checks were paid on Friday
morning, we should have overdrawn our banking account. I did not like
that state of things, but I did not fret about it. I breathed a prayer
to God that He would send money to put into the bank to keep the
account right. Last night, at nearly ten o'clock, I opened a letter
that came from Belfast and it had in it a check for £200, being the
amount left as a legacy. I wrote across my acknowledgment, "O magnify
the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!"
That amount put the account square for the time being and though the
Orphanage has no ready money to go on with, still that does not
matter–God will send more means during the week and at all other times
when the expenditure calls for it. At the moment when I opened the
letter and found the £200, I felt as if my hair stood on end because of
the conscious nearness of the Lord my God! My Brother, Hugh Hannah,
when he sent that check and sent it on that particular day, did not
know that it would come just when I was praying to God for help in a
time of trouble–yet it came exactly when it was sought for! If I were
to tell my own personal experience of the way in which God hears
prayer, it would seem to you as if it could not be true–it would
appear too romantic. But oh, it is a blessed thing to take everything
to
God, little or big, and leave all with Him! I am resolved to live and
die trusting in the living God and you shall all mark for yourselves
whether He forsakes me, or bears me through!
Look how your child trusts you. He comes to you, and cries, "Please,
father, I have a thorn in my finger." Or, "Please, father, I have lost
my pocket handkerchief." No matter what his trials are, the child
brings them all to father or mother. You turn from your business and
attend to him. You say, "My dear, I will see to you directly." You love
your little boy and, therefore, his little concerns are not too little
for you. And God, who gave us to be called the sons of God, teaches us
to cry, "and we are," and leads us in that confidence to go to Him with
each day's burden and care–and prove for ourselves that we are the
objects of the Father's love!
Now, the true child of God not only shows love and trust, but he also
suffers sorrow when he has grieved his Father. If you grieve over sin,
if you grieve over error, if you grieve over your omissions, if you go
to God with tears in your eyes because you are not what He would have
you to be, this sorrow proves that you are one of His children. He that
can sin without sorrow will one day sorrow without hope! A broken heart
is one of the most sure signs of sonship. We have this grief and this
proves that we are sons of God, "and we are."
You may also know a child by his joys. If a child has joy when his
father is glad, when his father's name is honored, oh, then you believe
that he is his father's child! I thought to myself one day, "Well, I
have preached this Gospel to vast crowds of people but is it my own?
Perhaps I have only an official hold of it and have no personal grip of
it for myself." I had a day's respite and I went in to hear the Word of
God in a humble, out-of-the-way room. I sat down on a form and heard a
working-man preach the Gospel very sweetly. By the way, the sermon was
originally my own, and this the preacher acknowledged most freely! But
as he preached it, I found myself melted down with the story of God's
Love. My heart was so hot within me that I was ready to shout,
"Hallelujah!" when I heard the preacher magnifying the name of Christ
Jesus, my Lord! And I said to myself, "Oh, you are a child of God,
after all! You love this food as well as the other children do! And
though you generally have to stand at the table and be a waiter and
sometimes wish you could sit and have a meal, yourself, you still do
love this heavenly Bread! You have a taste for the things that God
provides for His people." Yes, I could talk thus to myself and of
myself–and feel myself to be a child of God. I came away comforted,
for I felt that I had a share in the joys of the heirs of salvation!
Need I go on to tell you what are the sure evidences of being a child
of God? The man who is truly such cries, "Why, everything is an
evidence." Wherever he is, God is with him! And if he thinks that he
has wandered away from God five minutes, he cries to be back again. He
sees his Father everywhere–where the infidel cannot see Him at all. He
spies Him in the clouds. He hears Him in the thunder. He beholds His
flaming Glory in every lightning flash and His tender pity in every
dewdrop. With God and on God the Believer lives! In God he lives and
God lives in him! All his expectations are from God. Everywhere, in
every time and in every way, he proves that he is a child of God
because he continues to draw his life from his Divine Father!
Then God gives him one more seal of his being His child and that is
that He chastens him. I know an old friend who used to tell me that for
60 years he had never known a day's illness. A splendid healthy old man
he was–and about three months ago the old man took typhoid fever. I
went to see him and when he got better, he came to see me and, sitting
down, he said, "Well, Sir, you see I am not the man I was, but I have
made a great advance through this sickness. I have never known any
weakness before, but now I have been brought very low. The Bible says,
'If you are without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then are
you bastards, and not sons.' Oh," he said, "I am not a bastard after
all! I have had my chastening and I hope I shall take up my sonship
more than I ever did before." God grant that every chastened child may
gather assurance from the Covenant rod! You, dear child of God, will
not be long without a touch of the rod! May you have as little of it as
the Lord judges to be proper! As for myself, I owe everything to the
furnace and the hammer. I have made no progress in heavenly learning
except when I have been whipped by the Great Schoolmaster! The best
piece of furniture in my house has been the Cross! My greatest enricher
has been personal pain and for that I desire to thank God. I can sing
with the poet–
"God in Israel sows the seeds Of affliction, pain and toil. These
spring up and choke the weeds Which would else overspread the soil.
Trials make the promise sweet!
Trials give new life to prayer!
Trials bring me to His feet,
Lay me low, and keep me there." The children of God under the rod can
say, "And we are!" Thank God for anything which emphasizes that
affirmation– "And we are." It is wondrous love that we should be
called the children of God, "and we are." The bastard kicks against his
father's stroke, but the wise child kisses the rod and blesses the hand
that uses it–and cries, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."
This is a sure seal of our true sonship.
The text says, "And we are." I must turn it round, and ask, "Are we?"
And when you have worked that out and you can say, "Yes," then I want
you all to get to be very positive about this matter–"Now are we the
sons of God." I pray that you may be able to say boldly, "And we are."
When you are depressed and your spirit hangs fire, say, "We are." When
the devil says, "If you are the children of God," give him a slap in
the face with this, "And we are." And when the world says, "What? You
call yourselves sons of God?" say, "Yes, and we are." Whenever doubts
and fears come in, drive these evil birds away from eating your ripe
fruit and let this be the shout you use, "And we are." "Behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be
called children of God: and we are." Called by His name, may we enjoy
the full assurance of faith through believing in Jesus! Amen.