The Bible tells us that the end of our sanctification is our glorification, where all vestigial remnants of sin are removed from our character.
It's all gone. No more doubt, no more fear, no more error, no more pain, no more evil—all gone. In these days of political strife and civil unrest, we long for our heavenly home, a place where God's law rules supremely and our hearts can worship unhindered.
We welcome you to the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and today Dr. R.C. Sproul gives us a glimpse of what lies ahead for every believer. It's a message titled, The Beatific Vision. In our last session today, I want to talk about the end of our Christian experience, not the end in the sense of the terminal point, but the end in the sense of our purpose.
And what are we looking for? And I want to turn your attention, if I may, to the first letter of John, beginning in chapter 3, verse 1. 1 John 3, 1. Don't look in the Gospel of John.
You won't find it. It's the Epistle of John, 1 John. I like the first word of this text.
In Latin, it's eka. It is the word behold, and it is used as a kind of summons to particularly close attention. It's as if I were to say to you, listen, or look here, for I call for you to rivet your attention on what is about to come. And here the apostle is writing to the church, and he says, look, behold, what manner of love is this?
He stops us in our track and he said, wait a minute, think about it. What kind of love is this? As if we could take the category of love and divide it into all sorts of different species. There's puppy love, there's erotic love, there's romantic love, there's spiritual love.
We go through all these different garden varieties of love. But John says, wait a minute, what kind of love is this that we should be called the children of God? Is there not something similar in this inquiry in terms of the intensity of the question with that which was raised by the disciples in the boat on the Sea of Galilee in the midst of the storm? When Jesus was resting in the back of the boat and the violent turbulence erupted without warning as the winds came down that funnel area off the Mediterranean and stirred up the waters, and these seasoned veterans were afraid that they were going to perish, and in their terror they come and they awaken Jesus and they say, Lord, do something or we perish. And you know what happened. Jesus assessed the situation, looked at the disciples and said, take an aspirin and call me in the morning.
No. He looked at the fury of the blowing of the wind and the way in which the waves were threatening to capsize the boat, and then He did something uncanny, the incarnate creator of wind and water. In a manner reminiscent of the divine imperative of creation itself gave a verbal command to the elements saying, peace, be still. And instantly the sea was as glass. There's not even the slightest zephyr or whisper of wind in the air, absolute calmness. And we would expect that with the calming of the sea there would be a corresponding calming of the fears of the anxiety and of the spirits of the disciples.
But you know what happened. The Bible tells us, and they became very much afraid. After the immediate threat has been removed, their terror increases.
Why? I read an article on the ten most frequent phobias that besiege American people and in the top ten, one of them is this, xenophobia. What's xenophobia? The fear of strangers or of foreigners, people whose customs are different from ours, and we don't know why they behave the way they do. And black people fear white people and white people fear black people and eastern people fear western people, and western people say that eastern people are inscrutable and all of that when we're all human beings. What's so inscrutable about a human being? But when we're different, we experience fear. And when you see a stranger approaching you on the street, your mind is like a computer making all kinds of instant data processing take place as you look at the look in their eyes, the expression on their face, friend or foe, hostile, friendly. Is this somebody to be avoided?
Is this somebody I could ask to help me in a time of need? You make those judgments all the time because we sort and classify people into types. But what do you do when somebody shows up who can talk to the wind and talk to the sea and command instant obedience? The disciples said, behold it.
We're in the presence of an alien who is far more threatening to us than the sea was. Behold, what manner of man is this? They had no category that would capture Jesus. Jesus was sui generis. Jesus was in a class by Himself, and because He was in this extra ordinary class, He terrified these people because the manner of man that He was transcended and exceeded any other example, any other kind of humanity they had ever experienced.
Do you see that? And it is the same type of driving question that we find here when the apostle says, and what manner of love is this? We don't have a category for it.
There's nothing common or ordinary about it. Beloved, you know, you're living on this side of the 19th century, this side of 19th century liberal theology and the rise of comparative religion, this side of the leveling of the dynamic character of Christian truth, this side of Adolph von Harnax, the vason of Christianity, which is translated into English, what is Christianity? And he summarizes the Christian faith by saying that the essence of Christianity is the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. And from the time you were children, you were taught in the public schools and in the media of America that we're all God's children and everybody's a child of God. And we're all brothers and sisters.
We're family in this world. We've been praying from the first time we ever prayed by addressing God with the title Father, saying our Father who art in heaven. So we've become inured, we've become accustomed to the idea that God is our Father.
And we have discounted its significance so radically that the whole idea doesn't mean anything to us. But here we are in the first century reading from an apostle who is beside himself with astonishment. He's saying, what kind of love is this that we should be called the children of God? For John, it was a thing incredible that the Lord God, omnipotent, would look at you and call you family and adopt you into His household. Many many years ago, I heard the first sermon preached in the United States of America by the late, great African bishop, Festo Cavengeri. Festo Cavengeri, who had a price on his head put there by Idi Amin, stood up to this podium in front of hundreds and hundreds of people and everybody waited to hear this great African Christian preach. And you could see that his hands were trembling and his lips were quivering and he couldn't seem to get started with his sermon. And in broken English, he said into the microphone, me sorry, me shake shake too much. He said, let's pray. And so he prayed and humbly asked that God would calm his spirit. Then he said, amen, and he lifted up his eyes to this mass of people that were assembled and he smiled the way only Festo could smile.
And he said, me shake shake no more. And then he proceeded to preach a sermon on the Old Testament lame son of Jonathan named Mephibosheth. How after the death of Saul and of Jonathan, the zealous generals of David scoured the land to destroy any possible survivors from the family of Saul who may prove to be a hostile rival to the throne as it was now being transferred to David. And this was not David's desire. And when David found out about this, he said, wait a minute, stop this. And he said, is there anybody left from the family of Saul? And there had been rumors that there had been a lone survivor, this crippled in both legs, this son Mephibosheth had been secreted away into hiding. And so the soldiers of David went on a search mission throughout the land and finally Mephibosheth was discovered. Now imagine the guardian, the lady is taking care of this crippled boy and there's a knock on the door and the thing that she has feared the most now takes place because bursting into this home are the soldiers of David. And they grab Mephibosheth.
And the Bible, you know, it gives us the normal terse and succinct summary of it. And we can only guess about the details, but I see this young boy terrified, crying, pleading, help me, calling out to the lady that's taking care of him. And there's nobody listening and they carry him off. And he is sure of one thing that he has been taken to his execution. And when he is brought into Jerusalem, the soldiers bring him to David and David says, bring me Mephibosheth. And when the son is brought to David, David said, clothe him with the garments of the house.
Prepare a place for him to stay. Let Mephibosheth dine at the king's table. And Festo said, what do you think happens every time you come to the Lord's Supper? You who are spiritual cripples, who have no claim to a dinner reservation in the presence of the king, are invited to come to his table because you have been adopted into his family. Not because of some inherent greatness in you, but because of the father's love for the son, you are adopted into his family.
It wasn't because David was crazy about Mephibosheth that he invited him to the king's table. Why did he do it? For his love of Jonathan. I can think of no reason why anybody in this room is in the family of God other than that the father has been determined from the foundation of the world that his son would see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. As Christ prays in John 17, you are the ones that the father has given to the son. And it's because of this immeasurable love that the father has for the son that you are called the children of God.
Because the father loves your older brother, you have been adopted into his family and have been seated at his table. Dear, dear, dear, friends, don't take that for granted. Every time you pray and you say to God, Father, think of the extraordinary love that makes that possible. John says, what manner of love is this that we should be called children of God? And therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. The Bible tells us that the end of our sanctification is our glorification where all vestigial remnants of sin are removed from our character.
It's all gone. No more doubt, no more fear, no more error, no more pain, no more evil, all gone. And we're going to be like Christ, totally sanctified. For we shall see Him as He is in His unveiled splendor and glory. We're going to see something that dwarfs the vision that Isaiah had of the Holy One. Now, are we going to be able to see Him? Because first God is going to purify us and glorify us, which makes it possible for us to see Him because the reason why we can't see God now is why, not because there's a problem with our eyes.
The problem is with our hearts. And God will not allow Himself to be seen by anybody who's anything less than pure in heart, and we are not pure in heart. And so we can't see beyond that dimension.
I can see things in three dimensions, but I can't see beyond this. I can't see into the realm of supernature because I'm not allowed to see into the realm of God. And there still is an angel at the doorway to paradise with a flaming sword that bars access, no man shall see Him and live.
I can't see Him. And I'm not going to be able to see Him until I'm purified, right? So is this what happens, that God purifies us and then the lights come on and we bask in the immediate apprehension of the glory of Christ? Maybe. I don't know. Or, is it the thing that totally purifies us, that He shows us His glory so that the instant we see Him as He is, the very sight of Him is that power that He uses to perfect us?
I don't know which comes first, and I don't care which comes first. What I want is to see Him. What I want for everybody in this room is that someday they will open their eyes, may not even open their eyes, but the eyes of their soul and see the holy glory of Jesus Christ unveiled. That's what you were made for. That's what you feel is missing in the deepest chambers of your soul. There are people in this room probably right now who aren't Christians, but they know that there is an emptiness, that everything that they've looked at in this world to fill has not been able to do it. It's because what you need and what you were made for was to enjoy the presence of your Maker, the presence of your God.
I don't know what we're going to be, but I know this. We're going to be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. It was a little more than three years ago that Dr. Sproul experienced the reality of what he longed for and faithfully taught, being in the glorious presence of our Heavenly Father. I hope his message today on Renewing Your Mind focused your gaze on heaven.
And what a beautiful way to wrap up our series this week. It's the essential truths of the Christian faith. Throughout the week, we've heard from Alistair Begg, John MacArthur, and Sinclair Ferguson on the basics of Christianity. Let me encourage you to request this complete series.
You'll learn about justification by faith alone, the Holy Spirit, and the authority of Scripture. We'd like for you to have all 12 messages. Simply contact us today and give a donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries, and we will send you the full series on a USB drive. In addition, we'll include Dr. Sproul's classic collection.
That's 10 of his most requested messages. You can give your gift online at renewingyourmind.org, or you can call us. One of my colleagues is standing by to take your call at 800-435-4343. The teachers we've featured this week on Renewing Your Mind are also regulars on RefNet. That's our 24-hour internet streaming radio station. You'll also hear music, audio books, and helpful commentary. Many people have told me over the years how they turn RefNet on and leave it on throughout the day as they go about their tasks at home or on the go. You can listen at any time at RefNet.fm, or you can download the free RefNet app. Well, next week Dr. Sproul examines the end times. What did Jesus say about the last days? That will be our focus beginning Monday here on Renewing Your Mind.
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