Holy Scriptures and Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom. Holy Scriptures and Israel is a ministry designed to share with the Jewish people the good news of the Lord Jesus Yeshua the Messiah and to instruct Christians on the Jewish roots of their faith. And now, teaching God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective, here is Gideon Levytam.

Gideon Levytam: Shabbat Shalom. We will continue today in our Bible study to discuss and to share from the first epistle of John, of Yochanan. This time I would like to begin with 1 John chapter 3. This is a beautiful chapter where Yochanan the apostle, shaliach in Hebrew, he is writing to the family of God, to the mishpachah.

In his presentation, he desires to see the family of God growing and serving the Lord and practicing that which will be honoring unto God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Today in this ministry meeting, I'd like to take the first 10 verses of 1 John chapter 3. Listen how Yochanan, that is John, begins this chapter and he said, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be.

But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abides in him sins not. Whosoever sins has not seen him, neither knows him.

Little children, let no man deceive you. He that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that commits sin is of the devil, for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother."

And I'm stopping here with verse 10 of this chapter. You see in the epistle of John, in the letter that Yochanan wrote to the family of God, in Hebrew we call it the mishpachah Elohim, the family of God. When he is writing to the family of God, he is very much concerned, as a father concerned for his own children. A father and mother are concerned for their children. He wanted that the believers will realize that they belong to the Father, to the Abba in heaven that sent the Son, the Messiah.

There will be a good presentation of the Father here in this world. Ultimately, when we're going to be in the presence of our Father in heaven, he will be able to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." He might say, "Well done, good and faithful son or daughter," because God desires to see the family of God and children of God pleasing unto him. I don't have to tell you this. Every one of us that is a son or a daughter to our parents, we know very well that when we did well, when we obeyed our parents and pleased them, they were happy with us.

We gave them joy. When we disobeyed our parents, we know very well that we gave them a lot of sorrows. Those of us who know very well the history of our own life know how many times we dishonored our own parents in our past and how many times we didn't give them pleasure. It is very natural and common sense for parents to expect from their children to give them joy because they brought them into this world so they can please them and be a blessing to their own parents.

Of course, the parents give the time and the energy and all what they have given to their children. It is very common sense in a human realm, let alone when it comes to the things of God and especially, brothers and sisters, when we think of ourselves as sons and daughters of the Father. Think how much pleasure Yeshua gave to his own Father. It must have been amazing when Yeshua walked here in this world, how much pleasure he gave to his Father.

When the heavens was opened, three times we read in scripture that the heavens was opened. The Father said, "This is my beloved Son." Matthew 3, Matthew 17, there is a voice that came from heaven. The Father spoke and said, "This is my beloved Son," because Yeshua, Jesus the Mashiyach, the Messiah, gave so much pleasure to his Father. God wants to see this in our life as well. In 1 John chapter 1 and 2, the apostle Yochanan reminded the family, the mishpachah, that it is important for us to have fellowship with the Father in order to live for him.

He was emphasizing fellowship. Now from here on in chapter 3, he is emphasizing sonship. Now when we say sonship, it does not only apply to male believers. It is male and female. He is emphasizing the fact that we are born of God. We have a new life, a new birth. That's what he does here in 1 John chapter 3. Let's look at these first 10 verses of this chapter. You might give a title to these verses, 1 John chapter 3 verses 1 to 10: "Behold what manner of love the Father had bestowed upon us."

In these 10 verses, Yochanan gives us three reasons why every believer in Yeshua the Messiah ought to live a godly life that is righteous and pleasing to the Lord. The first reason is because of the love of the Father. The second reason is because of the price that the Son has paid. The third reason is because the indwelling of Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit of God. In fact, what we have in these 10 verses, beloved brothers and sisters, we have the triune God: the Abba, the Ben, and the Ruach HaKodesh.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God are all involved in the life of the believer. Every one of us is part of this great family and all the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God, are involved in the life of the people of God. Let's begin first of all the first reason why we are to live a righteous life and a life that is pleasing to the Lord. It is because of the love that God the Father bestowed upon us. If there is anything that is really fascinating is why would God love any one of us anyway?

Look how he began this 1 John 3 verse 1: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God." John is amazed here when he is saying these words. He says, "Look at the manner of love, what an unmeasured love of the Father towards us, that he called us, we as he mentioned here, the children of God." He is saying really to the brothers and sisters in Yeshua the Messiah, "Listen brethren, listen Achim and Achayot, brothers and sisters. Can you imagine of the love of God towards you, towards me?

He can now call Gideon, or he can call any one of you by name and he says you are my son, you are my daughter. Us? We who rebelled against God? We who ultimately in many ways have dishonored him? We who have sinned against him?" He is now wooing us and he brought us to become sons and daughters of the Father. It is amazing. Can you imagine when a person that has been such an enemy of God, now he is turning him about and making him instead of an enemy, he making him a child of the Father?

This is fascinating. Look, turn back to Romans chapter 5 for a moment with me, just to show you what Paul, Sha'ul, said in a different way. In verse 6 of Romans chapter 5, he says, "For when we were without strength, in due time the Messiah died for the ungodly." He didn't wait for us to become godly and then he will die for us. While we were still in an ungodly position, condition, the Messiah died for us. Look at verse 8 of Romans chapter 5: "But God commends his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, the Messiah died for us."

God did not wait for us to improve our condition and to become some kind of good people in order that he will send his Son. No, while we were yet sinners, he sent the Messiah to die for us. Look at verse 10 this time: "For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son." Brothers and sisters, just pause to think with me about that. When you sometimes have problems in your life and you are discouraged and you feel dismayed and you are amazed at what's going on in your life and you are disappointed in many things, in your friends, in your jobs, in your employer, in anyone around you, just realize this for a moment.

Pause before the Lord and realize that you and I, we were enemies of God. We were sinners. We were without strength. The Father loved us. Inspite of our condition, he was willing to do everything in order to purchase us, to bring us to be part of the family of God. If this is not an amazing grace, what can we say otherwise? No wonder that song that we love to sing: "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch just like me." It is amazing.

For God so loved the world in John 3:16, it's one of the greatest verses that we all know how to recite. That love is the Greek agapaó, the unconditional love of God to wretched sinners who really deserve to be punished, and yet God says, "I love you, and I would bring you into a relationship with me." John in 1 John chapter 3 is so taken over by that and he says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons, the daughters, the children of God."

You know King David, the king of Israel, in 2 Samuel chapter 7, he was so overwhelmed with the love of God towards him that he made him a king. When Nathan came to him in 2 Samuel chapter 7 and told him that God said, "I'm telling you, David, you are not going to build for me a house, but I'm going to build for you a house. I'm going to make of you a kingdom. I'm going to give to you posterity, David. I'm going to do this for you unconditionally, David." You know what David said when he heard this from Nathan?

He said to God, "Who am I, oh Lord God? And what is my house that you has brought me into this relationship with you?" You and I as believers in Yeshua the Messiah, as children, as sons and daughters of the Father, can say the very same statement and even more. Who are we? And what is our house that the Father have set his love upon us to such an extent that he calls us now the sons and the daughters, the children of God? That's why in the very same verse he says, "Therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not."

You know when the world looking at us, you know we all came to the meeting today. When the people outside, the unbelieving world, look at you, they didn't see anything different in you. They look at you, they look at me, and they say, "Well, here's another human being here in this world. He's just like me. He's going to work, he's going to school, he's going to play. He's from this country or from this country. He's just like me." But you see, when the world look at us, they don't see anything different in us in that sense.

They don't understand our positional relationship with the God of the universe as our Father. Of course, we're going to talk about it in a moment. Our behavior shows somewhat that we belong to God. But when they look at us, we look just like the other neighbor, the other person on our job or at school. Wherever we are, we look just the same outwardly. The difference is that you and I are sons and the daughters of the Father. The unbelieving world are really following Satan and the world and its system.

That's why John is saying to the brothers and sisters, if there is anything that ought to motivate the believer to live a godly life, the first thing is the fact that the love of the Father had bestowed upon us. I don't deserve it, we don't deserve it. That's why room for pride there is none. Because Ephesians 2 says by grace are you saved through faith, and this is not of yourself, it is a gift of God, lest any man should boast. If there's anything we are to boast, it is to boast in the love of God towards us.

That's what John, Yochanan, is emphasizing here. He says the world doesn't know us. No wonder the world doesn't know us because the world does not know Yeshua, does not know the Father. The world is following Satan. The believers in Yeshua the Messiah belong to the Father. By the way, it doesn't show here in the King James text, but in some texts, in the NIV and any other translation, it says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God," and it adds three more words: "and we are."

You don't have it here in the King James version, but apparently in some manuscripts they found "and we are" in those manuscripts that really showing that it's not something that we're going to be in the future, but we are already now the sons and daughters of the Father. We are already now. We don't have to wait till we get to heaven, but we are already now the sons and the daughters of the Father. So he continues now in verse 2 because he is emphasizing in connection with the love of the Father what we are going to be in the future in verse 2.

He says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." You see, Yochanan is leading on to not only to say what we are now, but what we are going to be in the future because of the love of the Father towards us. We, it says here, it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we do know on the basis of the word of God that when he shall appear, we are going to be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

You know what he is speaking about? The appearance of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. In the context, of course, the appearing has to do with the fact that when the Messiah will appear to take his own people to be with him. We are going to be transfigured, changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, and we are going to be with him. When he is going to appear to meet us in the cloud, in the air, and we are going to be taken to the Father's house, and we are going to be forever with him.

But we are going to be like him. Now what does it mean that we're going to be like him, like Yeshua the Messiah? It doesn't mean that we're going to be little gods. Obviously not. But what he does mean that we are going to be suitable for the presence of God. We're not going to have anymore the limitation that we have here. We're not going to anymore dishonor God as we often do here in this world. We're going to be just like the Son of his love, like Yeshua the Messiah.

But it's going to happen when he is going to appear. There will be the resurrection of all the saints that have slept through Yeshua. They're going to be the transformation. We all going to be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, in the last trump, and we're going to be resurrected and ascended and meet the Lord in the air. Forever we are going to be with him. Never anymore to have the way we used to live here in this world where there is failure and shortcoming and oftentimes dishonoring unto the Lord.

That's going to happen when we are going to be with him. Paul again, look how he presented before the believers to whom he wrote in Romans chapter 8 and verse 29: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn of many brethren." You see, God who knew us aforetime, and he predestinated us to become like his Son. What's going to happen? He predestined that we, the believers, will be conformed to the image of his Son, that he, Yeshua, will become the firstborn among many brethren.

You see, we are going to be like the Lord Yeshua the Messiah in a future day, and God had planned it to be so, even though we cannot fathom that. I cannot even begin to fathom what would it mean for us to be like Yeshua the Messiah and to be with him forever. Yet it is true. You see, when we look at ourselves and we look at our life today, we say, "Well, I do not know what's going to happen, how things are going to happen in the future." But Yochanan, John, is saying, "We know on a basis of the word of God, not on the basis of our feeling.

We know that when he shall appear, when Yeshua going to come, we are going to be like him because we are going to see him as he is." When we're going to see him, you know, Peter said in another passage, 1 Peter 1:7, he says, "whom having not seen, ye love." You see, we've never seen Yeshua. You know, you might have seen pictures of him. Some have him blue eyes, blonde hair, long hair. It looks like he was born in, I don't know wherever it is. But they forget that he was a Jewish man that was born in the land of Israel among his own Israeli people.

He was a Middle Eastern Hebrew. He was born to the woman Miriam. He was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth. He's not from Scandinavia. He was born right in the Middle East. Sometimes you remember when they were searching for him, they couldn't even recognize him because he looked like one of the disciples. He looks like he was an Israeli, a Hebrew, a Jewish man. But you see, brothers and sisters, when we're going to see him, it'll be an amazing sight. To see the one that loved us.

To see the one that the world rejected. To see him in a such a way that we're going to be pleased just to look for him, to see him, and to have the joy of our hearts because he was the one that have done everything for us. So Yochanan is saying look what manner of love the Father had bestowed upon us. We are now children of God, but don't forget that one day we are going to be like him. We're going to see him, and we're going to rejoice to see him.

We're going to be with him never to separate from him anymore. The one who is today despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows that had been acquainted with grief, that one that today people reject him, the believer in Yeshua the Messiah is going to see him one day and be like him one day. Never to separate from him anymore. So he is saying in verse 1 now we are the sons of God. What we going to be in the future is in verse 2.

The Father's love will produce a day in which we're going to see him. We're going to be with him. We're going to be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now notice what it says in verse 3. In verse 3, what we should be practically because of the love of the Father for us. Here is verse 3 of 1 John chapter 3: "And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure." The word for every man is every person.

Every son, every daughter, every believer in Yeshua the Messiah that have this hope ought to practically purify himself. Why? Because he's pure. He is holy. He is separate from sinners. He is undefiled. Now practically speaking, beloved brothers and sisters, we have to admit that oftentimes we are not pure in our thoughts, in our practices, in our desires, in our affections. Oftentimes we fail the Lord. That's why he says that is what you should be practically. See, what we are positionally is one thing, but what we ought to be practically is another thing for us to learn.

That's why we often teach the truth about union and communion. Union is positional, communion is practical. That's why we have here the love of the Father should produce pure living in the life of the believer. What is the hope? The hope of being with him. The hope of seeing him. The hope of going to be with him in glory. "Every man that have this hope," as it says, "purifies himself even as Yeshua the Messiah is pure." That has to do with our practical walk with the Lord.

Now I want you to turn to Peter, 2 Peter chapter 3. In verse 10, we see another reason why we should live differently because in 2 Peter 3 verse 10 and 11, the reason there is the judgment that is approaching in the coming day. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of person ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?"

You see, Peter pointed out there is a day of judgment that is going to come upon this world. Because this day is coming, what kind of people you ought to be, believers in Yeshua the Messiah? It should produce in your life that reverence to God because judgment is coming. But you see, in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 3, the important to have the fear of the Lord in our lives is not out of the judgment that is going to come in the future day, but it is because of the love of the Father towards us.

Guest (Male): You have been listening to Holy Scriptures and Israel with Gideon Levytam. Gideon teaches God's word from a Hebrew Messianic perspective. For more information about this ministry, write to Holy Scriptures and Israel, Box 1411, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, L0S 1J0, or visit our website at holyscripturesandisrael.com.

You are also invited to Gideon's weekly Bible teaching on Fridays at 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM and Saturdays at 1:00 PM at Willowdale Christian Assembly Hall, 28 Martin Ross Avenue in Toronto. Holy Scriptures and Israel is made possible by your prayers and financial support. If you would like to support the program, visit holyscripturesandisrael.com. God bless you. Shalom, shalom.