In 1993, a former White House advisor and a sociologist got together and started the National Fatherhood Initiative. They so believed it was a primary issue in our society. The psychologist named Wade Horn put it this way. The absence of biological fathers in the lives of children is this single most consequential factor in our land, both for individuals and for society. And some argued that all the greatest ills of our culture and society can be traced to that. Now maybe advisors to the president and scientists aren't your bag. So how about a cultural icon? Some of you may be Jay-Z fans. Jay-Z is a hip-hop artist who was well known five years ago. He came out with an album that he claimed was his Magnum Opus. And the first song of this critically acclaimed album is December 4th, it's an autobiographical song where he is surprisingly vulnerable. And he lays out why his life's path had taken the turns that it did, what he considers the biggest problem in his life, the heart of all that he struggled with. So let me read you some of the lyrics from that song. Now I'm just scratching the surface because what's buried under there was a kid torn apart once his pop disappeared. I went to school, got good grades, could behave when I wanted. But I had demons deep inside that would rise when confronted. Hold on, now all the teachers couldn't reach me and my mama couldn't beat me hard enough to match the pain of my pop not seeing me. So with that disdain in my membrane, got on my pimp game, blank the world, my defense came. My mama couldn't beat me hard enough to match the pain of my pop not seeing me. Here's Jay-Z, somebody that I haven't had a lot of respect for being very vulnerable and honest about his desperate need for a father who would love him. A cultural icon, a scientist, and a politician could all agree on this. The world understands missing a father is devastating. So let me ask you, why would anyone who has a father choose to live like an orphan? That's John's questions and ideas. We go to first John, chapter two, picking up in the series we were doing before Christmas. And I think Joe got back into recently, did you? Now, okay, this is the first one back. It's page 10-22 in your Pew Bible. Here God's Word. It's also on the sheet if you have the sheet with you. And now dear children, continue in him so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. How great is the love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins and in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in him. He cannot go on sinning. He cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God nor is anyone who does not love his brother. This is God's word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, this evening, this is a tough passage and a great truth in it. And we pray that you would meet us here and now for those who do not know you and we pray that you would reveal yourself as Father and change them. And Lord, for those who do know you, we pray that you would reveal yourself as Father and continue to change us in your name. Verse 1 is the one that I always think of from kindergarten singing over and over again. I love it just the thought of kids singing it. Behold what manner of love the Father is giving unto us. I did that this morning when my students they mock me. It was beautiful. It's a great truth of Scripture. Behold what manner of love the Father is giving unto us. How great the love is lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And then he says, and that is what we are. Now, if you're a Leanderson type editor, you know that that's unnecessary. It's redundant. Why would he say that over again? And that is what we are. I mean, basic rules and editing you omit unnecessary words. So what's John doing? I mean, some have said he's so excited about this truth he can't contain himself. And that's possible. But if you look at what bookends both parts of this passage, verse 26 and chapter 4 and verse 7 in this chapter, he's warning, do not be led astray. John has a serious concern in mind. It's not simply that he's so excited he just wants them to get his excitement. That's driving this. But he's concerned, like most preachers, even as we preach to ourselves, how do I get it from just being words, from something I say, from something that's Sunday, and the rest of the week I live like an orphan. He's concerned about his people. They don't believe it. They don't believe it in a way that transforms what they do the rest of the week. And that's what he's after. That's why I was repeating here. So look, verses 6 through 10, you know, I almost feel like I need to apologize if you're not a Christian because it's so intensely in your face. If you're visiting tonight or if you're not a believer, John's coming after us. It's a black and white distinction he lays out. Either your child of God or your child of Satan. That seems so extreme. I mean, Russ, you're saying that if I'm not with Jesus, I'm satanic. Probably not in the way you think, not all this Huxley and horns and things like that. What I'm saying is the Bible makes it clear, Satan is the father of lies. And if we are self deceived when it comes to the most important thing there is, God is in what he says and does, then that is to be like that father of lies. So that's why he paints a very stark contrast here, black and white. I mean, the question he's asking is who's your daddy? Is your father God or Satan? That's offensive. That is offensive. But I want you to think, I mean, surgery is offensive to your body. And if God's going to get in there and get the cancer out, there have to be some cuts made. So the Bible's goal is not to be politically correct, but I want you to consider that this evening. But there's a deeper problem here because he gives us a test. And I don't know if I read it. If it bothered you or if you've got used to rationalizing your way around such verses, but he says over and over again, the word continue comes up. And the big issue is, like we heard this morning, go and send no more. You won't continue to sin. Are you continuing to sin? Anyone born of God does not continue in sin. So let me just ask the question, are you continuing in sin? To put John to his own test, if you looked back at chapter 1 verse 10, this is the same letter when he says, if you say you have no sin, you may got out to be a liar. So even as you think about that question, because some of you may be like, well, I don't know what your definition is, but that's not what I'm about. I'm a good person. The Bible says, if you say you have no sin, you may got out to be a liar. So one of two things are true. Either God is a liar or I'm lying to myself. The question, again, are you continuing to sin? If he says that to Christians and non-Christians alike, and believers and non-believers alike, what is he up to and challenging them not to continue to sin? I mean, what's the distinction here between being a Christian and not being one? He gives you one in verse 10, but it basically sounds like if you do good things, you're a Christian and if you don't, you're not. But I think, and I hope you understand from what I've said in the first chapter, everyone in some fashion continues to sin. What's John up to? I want you to think with me here. Let's say a man comes to my office and, well, more likely, let's say a student comes to my office and we've built somewhat of a relationship, but he comes and he says, Russ, I just want you to know, we've been talking for a while. You've challenged me on some things, but you know, I like to drink, and I'm only 17, but I go to the parties at least twice a week, you know, Friday and maybe one other day a week, and that's what I do. You know, that's what I'm about. That's the way I get my release on the weekend. Now, that would probably become a long discussion, a conversation where I try to be general but firm and love the student, depending on the level of collateral I've got to burn away and how I challenge that person. But if that conversation ends and his resolve hasn't changed and he stands up and says, well, you know, I can see that you're troubled by this, but at least I'm still a Christian. I'm going to say, hold on. Maybe not. I mean, if your resolve is to go and do something that you actively know, and God's standard is a sin, and you clench your fist at God and say, this is what I'm about. I mean, if a man comes to my office who's declaring that he's going to commit adultery in that way, or if someone of a woman comes to my office and says, you know what, I've been talking about so and so, and I think I'm justified in talking about that person. And he's throwing down the gauntlet for a reason. This is a warning. This is a stark warning for us to say, wait a minute. You know, what's going on with me that I continue in this? And some of you know, you may have a besetting sin. I think we all have some form. You keep struggling with it. But what's the distinction between continuing and sin and not having a relationship with God versus having one? Look down at, uh, at verse 29, back at verse 29, it basically sounds like he's saying, Christians must do what's right. In the end, a Christian will do what is right. I mean, if you attend here very much, you know, this, I mean, the whole problem with first John is it sounds so legalistic and, you know, good karma. If you do write things and you're good with God and you can, I mean, if you're good at with God, then you're going to be a good person. But we know from other things that he says, especially the next verse, that's not his intent. I'm still, I'm lingering too long on this question for you, but I think it's the question of the night. Who's your daddy? You know, the trouble with Hayes is when I wheel him through the mall. It was last week. We're in South Carolina. And, uh, I said, no, it wasn't last week. I'm sorry. I'm wheeling him through the mall. And this lady, I have no, I'd never met before my life. She looks down at him and looks at me and goes, well, I know who son that is. You know, and I used to be really, really proud about that. I mean, that's right. That's my boy. You know, but now I look and I say that scares me. Because I know what little rust did. And I know what little rust thought. And I know that my agenda in life was Russ's personal pleasure until God got ahold of me and started to shake that out. And so my prayer begins to become, Lord, let him not be like his fallen father. But do what you did with me. How are we going to begin to do what is right and not have it just be trying to prove that we're Christians, that we're good people? He gives us, he gives us a strong hand in verse nine. God's seed remains in him. The seed, the seed is planted in us. I want you to think with me on this, because this is the difficult distinction of living in the South. I love the South. I'm proud of the South. I grew up in the South, but we are some fake, fake people. You know, I talked to somebody again today that was reminded when we visited New Jersey. People up there can't just go around saying their Christian. You will be actively persecuted in high school if you're open about your faith. It's very, very different. I love my students, but it's a big challenge to deal with fake Christianity versus genuine. So how do you know who your real daddy is? If his seed is planted in you, I don't want you to get that image. If the seed is planted in you, it will grow up. As God nurtures it and develops it, it will grow. And if an acorn is planted in you, it doesn't grow into a watermelon fine. It grows into a tree. And by the same token, a watermelon seed doesn't grow into a tree. If I understand my agricultural illustration, it doesn't produce that. That's not what it is. If God puts his seed in us, he is going to purposefully make us look like him. That's what Philippians 212 and 13 say to us, continue to work out your salvation, to work in it because it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. God is going to work in us in such a way. I mean, the bottom line is his agenda is to change what I like, what I'm about, what my pleasure is in, to reflect him as a father, to reflect him to look like him. And sometimes that aggravates me and I don't like it. But at the end of the day you get glimpses of the fact that I love him as my daddy and I love that he loves me. By the same token, you look out at our world and it's easy to see. My best neighbors are not Christians. They don't treat me like a good neighbor. My best neighbors except for when they come knocking on my door or Mormons. You know my best neighbors because they have to behave to get into heaven. My best neighbors are devout hindies like Gandhi who feel it's very important that they care for the people around them. For Christians we throw that grace term in there and that allows us to rationalize our sins and be lazy and linger in the same old issues. But what John is saying is if you linger for a long period of time with the same issue you can call it your besetting sin. If you live in that without any growth, you need to have a heart to heart with God. Because maybe our father will make us more and more like him. That's the hope of the seed. All right, how does he do that? Well some of you may still be struggling. I like the ugly duckling story. Because of the fact that I mean even like the seed, it shows us the problem is misidentification. And to the degree that we want to be like the world, look like the world, interact with the world in that way. And you know walks like a duck, talks like a duck. We're not a duck. It's going to be a very frustrating process and a hindering, slowing process. Versus the recognition that an ugly duckling is. I mean the secret was it's a swan, not a duck, but man. You ever seen a baby swan, they're pretty ugly. Especially when they're molting and pieces are falling off here and there and the feathers are all nasty and gnarled. Not cute, like a little baby duckling. You're cute. The way that some other animals are. But you begin to get glimpses of what's really underneath of what's coming. It's a beautiful picture. We'll know him because he'll appear, we'll be like him. Are you molting? I mean I know you're still struggling with things. I said his whole point. He knows you're still struggling. Do you get glimpses of the depth of who God is coming through in your life? I mean for example, I mean if your temperament is to be very patient to the point of your patient, you're probably lazy and not interacting enough that you with purposeful gentleness and a way contradictory to your own temperament, you confront somebody in love. Or the opposite token. If you're very confrontational. If instead you become very patient with somebody, very compassionate in a particular situation. It's not natural to you, you're not gifted in that way. It doesn't match your idols and insecurities. Why is that? Is it God beginning to work in you and show you who he is and change you? Those are some of the signs as you begin to see it, of how God is working in us and changing us. Still, how does that happen? I mean this is, how do you hope to do that tonight? Verse 1, I'm biased. I'm just going to confess to you. I'm biased to the NIV because I grew up on it. I memorized it and it speaks more to the 70s language I grew up learning, I guess. But it misses here. And if you're looking at the translation I put out, which is an IV, it misses it. The SV gets it right, other versions get it right. Behold. See. Look. How do you deal with your struggling? Look up. Do you see who this God is? Do you understand how he loves you? What he's about? And the great message of the cross. Is that our Father loves like that. That He's willing to lose like that to gain us. I mean if you're wondering what your spiritual heritage is, the legacy of Satan is I will ascend. I will grab the power. I will rule. I'll get my way. The legacy of Christ is I will descend. I will give up my power. I will serve. Your will be done. The way down is up, the way up is down. Who is your Father? I want you to get a glimpse of this. John G. Peyton is a famous missionary in the Pacific from 1800s, a Scottish missionary, and his parents were very godly and nurtured him in a sense of the trade that God makes with his own son and what the gospel means in grace. And when he was walking to seminary, he was walking to the train station. It was about a 40-mile walk. His dad walked with him. And later in life in his journal, he wrote down about that experience that day. I just imagine the love of a Father. My dear Father walked with me the first six miles of the way. His counsel and tears and heavenly conversation on that parting journey are fresh in my heart as if it had been but yesterday. And tears are on my cheeks as freely now as then. Whenever memory steals me away to the scene, his tears fell fast when our eyes met each other in looks for which all speech was vain. He grasped my hand firmly for a minute in silence. And then solemnly said, God bless you, my son. Your Father's God prosper you and keep you from all evil. Unable to say more, his lips kept moving in silent prayer. And tears we embraced and parted. I ran off as fast as I could and went about to turn the corner in the road where he would lose sight of me. I looked back and saw him standing. Head uncovered where I had been, where I had left him, gazing after me. Waving my hat goodbye, I was round the corner and out of sight in an instant. But my heart was too full and sore to carry me further. So I darted into the side of the road and wept for a time. Rising up cautiously, I climbed the dike to see if he yet stood where I had left him. And just at that moment I caught a glimpse of him climbing the dike on the other side and looking out for me. He did not see me. And after he had eaked gazed eagerly in my direction for a while, he got down, set his face toward home and began to return. His head still uncovered and his heart I felt sure, still rising in prayers for me. I watched through blinding tears till his form faded from my gaze and then hastening on my way, fouled deeply and oft by the help of God to live and act so as to never grieve or dishonor such a father and mother as he had given me. He was blown away by his father's love. He doesn't end there saying, I always wanted to obey and be good to get my daddy's love. His daddy loved him so much. He just wanted to honor that and live in it. And that's the gospel. We don't obey to get love. We are loved and that's why we obey. And that's why we won't continue in sin to the degree that we behold how our daddy loves us. And we need it. And Dallas Willard tells a story of a young couple in his car and a young couple he knew, the mother died in a car accident. And for months after the five-year-old son would run in in the middle of the night and get in bed with his daddy. He'd lay there with his dad and if his dad's head was turned the other way, grab his hair and turn it back towards him. So he was face to face with him laying there on the pillow. And after a while of this happening, finally, one night when he grabbed his head, his dad's head and turned around and he looked at him and he said, Daddy, I can't sleep without your face. Daddy's love changes everything. You know who your daddy is. If you look at verse three and some of the rest of this passage without that, it will depress you. You need to know Daddy's love comes first. And then verse three, he purifies himself just as Christ is pure. There is no way you can purify yourself. That's the whole message of the Old Testament that needed sacrifices. They kept failing. We need to one who would stand in our place and be pure. That's when Christ came and died for us. That's when he trades his life for ours. So what does it mean? He purifies himself. This is the application tonight. And I'm wrestling with this in my own life. To the degree that you are confident in Daddy's love. To the degree that you know you are love. You will have genuine, deeply honest and vulnerable repentance. That is the hallmark of the Christian life. Repentance. Every other religion says, as you get holier and holier, you repent less and less. But the closer you get to the cross, the holier you are in Christ. You repent more and more. Because you're more aware of your sin than ever. And you're more aware of the fact that if it weren't for the grace of God, there's no way. But his love is that much deeper. That much larger. That much more stunning. Deep intimacy. I want that desperately in my relationships. But I'm so scared and my idols are so huge, I struggle to have it. I love my wife. But I struggle to be vulnerable with her. I need to know my daddy loves me. This morning I stood right over here. The minute before I was going to get up and just speak to welcome the airs in. And I only had 60 seconds of something I wanted to say. But I'm sitting there freaking out over in front of the congregation. I got to present myself well. It's important that I look good. And it was as though God said, sit down with us. Do you know that I love you? I got up and I was like, my daddy loves me. It doesn't matter how I perform. I can mess this thing up. No, you may toss me out, but he still loves me. That's the deep joy that it's freeing. And it's the only way we'll have real intimacy. I mean, I tell my students, a friendship where you can't be honest. I mean, if you have to, if being honest with your friend means you lose that friendship, that's not friendship. You've got to be able to be vulnerable. The challenge won another. To be accountable to one another. Or it's fake. You just happen to be walking along the same path. I remember being in middle school. And for some reason, when I Lewis Grasard tape handed to me, I think my grandmother gave it to me. He's a comedian out of Atlanta. And he told this joke, that I can only partially tell from the pulpit. That'll be evident in the moment. But he said, there's a preacher. And he's getting wound up. And the people are getting involved. It wasn't a Presbyterian jerk. He's getting going. And he says, we got to confess our sins. Brothers and sisters, tell it all. Tell it all. And my hand stands up in the front row and says, preacher, I've been going down to the casinos and gambling away my family's money. Tell it all, brother, tell it all. A woman stands up preacher. I've been gossiping about other people in the church. I've been tearing them down. Not treating them like the family of God. Tell it all, sister, tell it all. God stands up in the back. preacher, I've been cheating on my wife, and I haven't told her. Tell it all, brother, tell it all. And then one guy stands up in the corner and he says something so socially deviant. A sin so unacceptable. I can't repeat it from the pulpit. And the whole joke is the preacher looks over at him and goes, well, brother, wouldn't told that one. That's how we operate in the South. I mean, there's a comedian who got it. It's okay to confess some sins. But there are certain sins. Shh. There are cultural sins. You can't cross that boundary. One of the hallmarks of genuine repentance and scripture is social norms get thrown down. There's a big difference between cultural sin and biblical sin. And sometimes crossing a social norm is sinful. But most of the time it's a sign that God is at work. You don't say those kinds of things. You, how, I can't believe you verbalize that. I mean, if that's seen in John 8, is faithful. Jesus has got a naked woman standing in front of him. I really thought of this. What in the world did he write in the dirt? It's so good we don't know. But I'll tell you what. For people who wanted to stone and chase after Jesus and got Stephen, he cut to the quick. They knew he was without sin. He threw down the gauntlet. Are you ready for real honesty? Only if you know your daddy loves you. Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? Though she might, I will not forget you. See, I have you engraved on the palms of my hands. Your father says to you, predicts the cross. And if I can steal and change Jim Elliott's line, it's as though our father said, he is no fool who gives up what he'll get back to get what is currently lost. Daddy hunts us down. Daddy loves us. Daddy says, children, come join me. Come here and sit around my table and enjoy your father and all that I provide. Let's get ready to go there now. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we need to know that you love us. We need to know you as daddy. And I repeat again, if there are those here who don't open their eyes to your love and melt their hearts and bring them to you, in order for those of us who so quickly harden our hearts, grow that seed, change us, make us more and more like you. Show us who you are that we would rejoice to be transformed. And even now as we bring our ties and offerings, Lord, we know we can't earn your love. You already give it. Let it be our joy to participate in the reign and rule that you're advancing in our hearts in this community and the world. We ask in your blessed son's name. Amen.