The sermon 'We Shall Be Like Him' by Douglas Campbell focuses on the theological concepts of justification, sanctification, and glorification, as illustrated in 1 John 3:2-3. It emphasizes the current status of believers as God's children, justified by faith, and the future hope of being transformed to be like Christ upon His return. The sermon stresses the importance of sanctification—a continual process of becoming more like Christ through the study of Scripture and obedience to God's commands. Campbell challenges believers to evaluate their commitment to Christ, urging them to count the cost of discipleship, which requires complete surrender and willingness to suffer for Christ. The sermon also highlights the necessity of regular engagement with the Word of God to avoid deception and spiritual stagnation. Ultimately, it calls for a life that reflects the purity and holiness of Christ, preparing believers for eternal glorification.

If you would turn with me to 1 John chapter 3. This morning I'd like to look at verses 2 and 3. That's 1 John chapter 3 verses 2 and 3. The Word of God tells us, it says, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see him as he is, and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day you've given us to join together Father, to gather together, to worship you, to be reminded of your your glory, to be reminded of your beauty, to be reminded of your grace. That Father, there isn't one in this room whom is here because we deserve it, but that you have shown mercy to us, that you have opened our eyes to your truth, that you have given us each other, to exhort each other, to admonish each other, to encourage each other. And Father, all of that is glorifying to you. That above all, Father, we might be glorifying to you as our cry today. That we might hear your word and understand and apply it, Father, to our lives.

And Father, again, even that is an act of your mercy and your grace. So Father, this morning we thank you. We praise you. We cast ourselves into your hands and pray, Father, that you would change us. That we, Father, would be more like you.

That, Father, we might give you glory. Not only here this morning, but as we go about our weeks, as we go about our jobs, as we go about ministering to others, as we go about, Father, of being salt and light to this world, Father, may your name be glorified above all. Father, that can only happen with your help. And so Father, today we cast ourselves into your hands and pray, Father, that you would bless us by making us more like you. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Let me read once again. This morning I want to look specifically at we shall be like him. Let me read once again 1 John 3, 2 through 3. Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see him as he is.

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." This morning it's a blessing to come to this text and be reminded of our journey through the book of Romans. This morning I'm reminded of that because when we came to Romans 8 verses 29 and 30, we came to a part of the text of the Word of God that taught us deep things about salvation. It teaches us, it's essentially God's golden chain of salvation. It's how he works in salvation. To remind you, it says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, He also glorified." This morning, this is one of the blessings of studying systematically through the Word of God. This morning we come to 1 John chapter 3 verses 2 through 3, and we find some golden nuggets here that enable, because of our previous journey in Romans, it enables us to see and understand this text in a way that fits with the rest of the Scriptures. We begin to see how the Scriptures fit together like puzzle pieces.

And this morning, this is one of those puzzle pieces. Look at 1 John 3, verse 2, it says, Beloved, we are God's children now. Coming back to Romans, we understood that those whom He foreknew, He predestined. And those whom He predestined, He called. And that's what we find here.

And those whom He called, He also justified that when you came to be born again, when you came to know Jesus Christ, when He has given, when He gave you a new heart, At that very instant, you became a child of God. You became part of His family. You were completely justified. It wasn't the beginning of justification. It wasn't, well now I've got to do lots of good things to try to make up for all the bad things.

But it's that the work of Christ was applied to your account. And from that very instant, you were completely justified before our King, before the God of the universe, before your Creator, you were justified. And here we come to 1 John 3, 2 and it says, Beloved, we are God's children now. You are justified now. If you are in Christ, if He has called you, you are justified now.

You are His children now. What a blessing. Amen? You are adopted into his family now. And yet we find in 1 John he continues on to the next part of this chain and it says, and what we will be has not yet appeared.

So you are justified, you're God's child now, and yet what your glorification has not yet come. I can't remember who it was. A theologian would talk very often about, when he would talk about attributes or things about your salvation he would say you are saved now but not yet it's as if and you are saved now but the the extent of what that will entail has not yet come to pass. But as we read, as we study the word hope, when we when we see it in Scripture, the hope in Christ is so sure it's as if you are glorified now. And so understand, studying theology, studying, understanding how the parts of the Bible fit together is an immense blessing.

It enables you to read the text, and it enables you to see how the puzzle pieces fit. It protects you from getting a wrong interpretation of it. When we see how salvation fits together through scripture, it causes us to not be able to go to a text and warp it and mangle it and put something into it that's not there, because we know that it must fit scripture. All scripture is God breathed. All scripture is 100% correct.

And if we come to a point where there seems to be a contradiction, the contradiction isn't in the Word of God, it's in our understanding of the Word of God. It's in our lack of understanding of how it fits together. So this morning as we come to this text, understand, church, because we have studied Romans, we're blessed. We're blessed because we see how this fits together. So again, beloved, we are God's children now.

And what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. Now it continues on in verse 3, and we've talked a little bit about this in the past. The blessing that we see in this, that when we see Christ, it will change us forever. Today we see Christ as if in a, I can't remember what the illustration the Bible uses, a dimly lit mirror. We see Him as in a fog.

Now we do see Him in truth. We see Him as much as we can, as we desire to see of Him. And yet at the same time, this is very much limited. Now think of this. You can spend your entire life, 24 hours a day if you didn't need sleep, and you can study the Word of God, and you will never extinguish it.

You will never come to an end. One of the draws that I have towards knowing God is this, is that I will never come to the end of this. I will never know Him all the way. But there's something amazing that's going to happen in our future. And that amazing thing is we are going to see Him.

We're going to see Him face to face. We are going to see Him for who He is. We are going to see Him for His glory and His majesty. And on that instant that we see Him in complete truth, it will change us for all of eternity. We will change because we see Him, because we know Him.

Now at the same, that same concept, as we come to 1st John 3 verse 3, It says, and anyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as he is pure. Now again we come to this word hope. This is a positive thing, Right? It's not, the Bible doesn't port, so essentially here it's talking about the concept of sanctification. That while we are not like Christ now, we are growing more like Him.

Sanctification just means growing. I'm becoming more and more and more like Christ. And the concept is this. It's typically the better we see Him, the more purified we become. In essence, it's the reason why those who will not study the scriptures regularly, those who won't read their Bibles consistently, rarely show any sort of sanctification.

Why? Because they aren't knowing him better, they aren't knowing him more, they aren't seeing him more clearly, and as a result they seem stuck. But 1st John 3.3 makes it very clear, It says, And anyone who thus hopes in him, anyone who thus is called, anyone who thus is justified, This is what they do. They purify themselves. There is no such thing as a non-growing Christian.

Hear me this morning. Now we can go through valleys, we can have our ups and downs, but there is no such thing as a non-growing Christian. If you've been a Christian for five years and you don't know anything more about Him than you did five years ago, you should be terrified of the state of your soul, because it's inconsistent with what God has said. He says, anyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. Now in mainstream Christianity, we find that this is a very regular idea.

That as long as you've said a prayer and as long as you come to church once in a while, everything is good. And yet that's not what Scripture ever makes an allusion to. In Luke chapter 6 verse 46, Jesus Himself says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? And this morning my question to you is, if this is true, if you call Christ your Lord, if you claim to know Him, if you claim to be a child of God, and you're not doing what He's told you to do, why? What are your reservations?

See, when we come to know Christ, we are new. We are now born in the Spirit. We come to know Him. We don't know Him perfectly, but we know Him. We know Him enough that He has changed us to the point where we would give anything for Him.

That He is our Lord. That's actually, when we say Jesus is Lord, that's not even a Bible term. That's a kingship term. That's people that didn't read the Bible called king's lords. It means that they are their supreme commander.

And when we say Jesus is Lord, we are really saying that Jesus is my supreme commander. Whatever he says, goes. There is nothing I have that is off the table. He can have it all. He can do whatever he wants, because I trust him as my good king.

I trust him as my Lord. That is abnormal in modern Christianity. My question is, what is off the table for you? Are there things that are off the table? Do you say, God, I believe in you, and I'll go to church when it's convenient, and I'll read my Bible, but I can't sell everything and give it to the poor.

Right? We see that illustration in Scripture. God, I'll do whatever you want, but I can't let my kids go to Pakistan to share the Gospel. I just can't do that. Hear me this morning, whatever it is.

If you come to Christ, and you say, Christ, you can have some of me, but some of this is off limits, Understand this, you're in a very perilous situation. Because Christ says, you must give all. See, God isn't calling every person to sell everything they have and give it to the poor. But if you hear that and something within you says, I can't do that, perhaps He is calling you to do that. The problem isn't that God needs money.

God doesn't need money. But God desires your heart. Amen? There was, I spoke at a camp several years ago on this very topic of the rich young man. And afterwards one of the leaders in the camp, after everybody started going to bed, he's like, hey I just want to talk to you about that.

He said, you know, I don't think I could give everything that I have. I don't think I could sell what I have. He's like, I believe in God, but I don't think I could do that." And my response is, I don't know if you're a Christian. I don't know if you've seen Him. I don't know if you know Him, because He's worth far more than anything that you have.

Amen? Look at Luke 14, 25 through 33. It talks about the cost of discipleship. It says, Now great crowds accompanied Him, and He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down and first deliberate whether he is able with 10, 000 to meet him who comes against him with 20, 000. And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. Therefore, now hear me close, therefore any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." See, Christianity is more than just praying a prayer.

It's more than just checking a box here and there. It's that God is calling you for everything. He's calling everything from you. And here, Jesus Christ is saying, count the cost. See, it's a far more dangerous position to claim to know God and live like everyone else, and then stand before Him and go to hell.

I believe that The Bible is very clear that hell will be more severe for some than others. And I believe it will be especially severe for those who claim to know Christ, and yet never counted the cost. They only have a form of godliness and lack the power thereof. The power thereof that's given by the Holy Spirit is to purify yourself. It's to make you more like Christ.

Are you becoming more like Christ? Have you counted the cost? Now this morning, I understand, if you really sit down and count the cost, The cost is immense to deny Christ. The cost is not immense to sell everything you have and give it to the poor and follow Him. See, the cost counting, If you're not changed, if you're not regenerate, the Bible says those who are not regenerate are focused on the world.

They're held captive by their things. They're held captive by their fear of death. They're held captive by all these things, but the one who has come to know God, it's as if the parable of the man who finds a great treasure in the field, and he joyfully sells everything he has to purchase this field to get this treasure. Jesus Christ is that treasure. You have nothing that even compares to the treasure of Christ.

You have nothing. And this morning again, if you have reservations, you're certainly not growing. If you have reservations, it's very likely you're certainly not justified. And if you have reservations, you're certainly not called. Now I do believe this morning that you could still be foreordained.

I believe you could still be predestined. But the evidence or the fruit of that will be that you will come to your senses. And you will say, I have nothing of any value compared to that of knowing Christ. And He will change your heart. He will call you.

And He will change you. And you will begin to desire Him above all, and you will begin to disciple your children, you will begin to purify yourself, you will begin to live as if Jesus Christ actually is Lord. And He actually calls the shots. In Mark 10, 17 through 22, we read of the rich young man of which we were talking about. It says, And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, honor your father and mother. And he said to him, Teacher, all these things I have kept for my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, You lack one thing.

Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me." Now look at the reaction. It says, disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. This morning if Christ is calling you to Himself, and He looks at the table the things that you won't let go of, and He says, let go of those, Will you let go? Or will you walk away sorrowful? I don't believe that we ever hear of this rich young man again in Scripture.

And if he hasn't repented of this position, the rich young man is in hell today because of his stuff. Because of the things that he couldn't let go of. Now with this man, it's very well illustrated because the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, but it carries on into all aspects of our life. If Christ calls you to hang up your bag of discs, Will you do it? If Christ calls you to hang up your crossbow or your fishing pole, if He calls you to hang up whatever it is, your basketball, your volleyball, whatever it is, are you willing?

Will you joyfully hang it up? It's interesting that we come to this this morning. For the first time in a long time I woke up and all I could think about was I still have a hike the Appalachian Trail. I have to do this. I believe it's because of this text.

Will you just hang it up? I'm speaking to myself. Will you just hang it up? I'm speaking to myself. Will you just hang it up?

Is this really that important? See, I believe it's true for all of us. Now, some of you might think, well, I don't wanna hike the Appalachian Trail. But I bet there's something the enemy is always taunting before you. Are you willing to give it up?

It's vitally important, Church. Will you purify yourself? Will your chief desire to be like Him? To be like Christ, our King. To purify yourself means to become more and more like Christ.

Look in Acts chapter 5 verses 40 and 41 It says, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. See, the apostles, they desired to be like Christ so much, they counted it a joy to be beaten. Why? Because Christ suffered.

And they want to be like their king. They want to be like their Savior. In 1 Peter 4.13, it says, But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. This morning, are you willing to suffer for Christ? Not only give up the things that our flesh wants us to hold on to, but are you willing to suffer?

When they start pounding on your door, when they start, when our country becomes less and less free. Last night I saw that France has now passed a similar law that if you try to counsel someone away from their specific sins that you could even be put into prison. Will you still stand for the Word of God? Will you suffer? See the great men of old, those great men whom God rose up to give us this word of God, they were willing to die that Christ might be glorified, that God might be known amongst the ordinary people like you and I?

Are you willing to die for the cause of Christ? Are you willing to suffer for the cause of Christ? Lastly, the question always comes up in my mind is, why desire to go to a place that is pure if you don't desire to be pure now? We brought this question up a few weeks ago. Why would we want to go to Heaven where we worship God day and night if we don't even desire to worship Him now?

In fact, we know that when we are with God for eternity, we will be glorified. We will be delivered from this flesh. We will be made once and for all completely pure. And that is what we look forward to as brothers and sisters in Christ. But if it actually is what we are looking forward to, why would we not desire it right now?

Why would we not desire to be pure right now? Why would we not desire to worship God significantly, with much focus and much time and spirit and truth? Why would we not desire it now? I believe the only reason is that we haven't seen Him as we should. We see the struggle in Philippians 3, 12 through 14, where our glorification hasn't happened, but that process, that sanctification is in process.

But look what it says, not that I have already obtained this, or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers I do not consider that I've made it my own but one more thing I do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." See, the genuine believer strains, he struggles, He fights this flesh. Why? Because He has been changed. He has realized that heaven is more important than all this.

Christ is more important than all these things. And while our flesh is still with it, it's always trying to drag us back. It's always trying to say, well, you need to take off like, you know, eight months and go hike a trail. But what would that accomplish for the kingdom? Amen.

Think of all the things that we consume our time with, and what does it accomplish for the kingdom? Are you striving? Are you pressing on? Are you forgetting your past and saying, yeah I've messed up a lot of times, I've messed up a bunch, but today I'm going to draw near to Christ. Today I'm going to beat this flesh and this objection, and if it wants to drag me down this road or that road, I am going to do my best and war against this flesh.

Whether that means that I'm never alone with a computer again. Maybe that means I'm never. I really liked on the move. I don't refer to movies a bunch, I really liked on fireproof when his neighbor thinks he's crazy because he's taking his computer out there and beats it with a ball bat. Brothers and sisters, you don't need a computer.

You need Christ. The world we live in, and this has been much discussion in my family lately, The world we live in, seemingly because we've been in it so long, convinces us that a computer is a mandatory thing. How will you ever survive? And it could be rougher than normal, but you don't need it. You don't need TVs.

You don't need these things. Now I'm not saying everybody has to get rid of their TV, but if it's causing you to sin, the Bible says to cut your arm off if it causes you to sin. TV is less significant. Sin. TV is less significant.

Bible says to gouge your eye out. Now, I'm not saying you should do this unless you simply can't escape sinning without doing it, then maybe so. But in reality, sin is a heart issue. Now we try to protect our flesh, or we try to not protect our flesh, we try to protect ourselves so our flesh can't lead us down sinful paths, but in reality it's that our heart needs delivered. First Peter 1, 22.

I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians 7, 1. Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion and the fear of God. In 1 Peter 1, 22, it says, Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart." This morning, all through scripture, you're commended to purify yourself. Purify yourself. Brothers and sisters, you should be growing.

I'm not saying every day you wake up and say, well, I'm way better than I was yesterday, but you should say, I'm way better than I was last year. I know more of Christ this year than I did last year. And I pray that you will know more of Him next year than you do right now. It's a gradual and continual movement to be drawn closer to Christ and for Him to purify you. That's what it means to be like Christ.

And one day, if you're in Christ, you will be like Him. You will be. You're on the path. You can't mess it up. But if you're not in Christ, you can play the game for a time, but you'll never get there.

You'll do what modern evangelicals struggle with over and over. They'll say, well, you know, I just don't understand. I sin and I sin and I sin, and I ask for forgiveness. I come to church and I come forward and I ask for forgiveness, and then the next day I just go right back to sinning and sinning and sinning. And Yes, we do sin, but the pattern of repentance is not, do whatever you want and then ask for forgiveness.

The pattern of repentance is we stumble, We come to Christ, we're forgiven, and we're being delivered. We're maybe not perfectly, but we're growing forward. We're growing more like Christ. We're overcoming more and more and more sin. We're being more and more like Christ.

And to go back to Romans chapter 12 verse 2, we find the pattern, or we find the instructions on how we can purify ourselves. It says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. This morning you are made pure, you grow in purity by renewing your mind. You renew your mind by studying and reading the Word of God and praying that the Holy Spirit would change you. That's what it is to purify yourself.

Again we come back to the very first principle, if you're not reading the Word of God, you're not becoming like Christ. Hear me this morning, it is so important You must be in the Word of God. Because if you're not, I can tell you what you are in. This, God has a certain worldview. Everything else that you come into is going to have the opposite worldview.

And you can't escape everything else, But you can seemingly escape the Word of God by leaving it on your shelf, letting the dust collect, and if you do this, if you remain in this, you're absolutely going to be convinced by this false worldview. You're not going to become purified. You're not going to become like Christ. You're going to be deceived by the schemes of the enemy. And that's where a lot of mainstream Christianity is today.

Brothers and sisters, you should desire to be like Christ. If you don't, I fear that you don't know Him. Because if you did, you would gladly give up anything to be like Him, to be with Him. Amen? Christ delivered you.

Christ has delivered all those who come to Him. I was reading, I can't remember who was even by, but One of the statements that stood out to me is that Christ is more willing to forgive than we are to come to His throne for forgiveness. The question isn't, the question is never will Christ save you? Will He regenerate you? The question is, will you repent and trust in Him?

Because He's willing. The Bible says, all who come to Him, He will in no way cast out. Others and sisters come to Christ. Trust Him. Turn from your wicked ways.

Turn from all those things that would that would separate you from knowing Him. Turn to Him that He might change you. Turn to him that he might change you. Turn to him that he might give you the desire to be purified. For he paid the price.

He paid the price for your debt. He died upon the cross, took the wrath of God in the place of all those who would turn to him. He will set you free." And he proved who he said he was by raising from the dead. Even the most, I don't know the word, even the most scoffing scientists don't want to travel down the road of did somebody raise from the dead 2, 000 years ago because they know that that's a lost cause for them. God made it abundantly clear of who He was, who He is, what man must do in relation to that.

I pray this morning we would turn to Him, we come to know Him, that we would purify ourselves, that we might become like our King. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you again for your Word.

What a blessing it is, Father, to see how different men writing in different times yet still hold truth and demonstrate that you, Father, are the author, because it's one continuous and non-contradictory message. Father, even as we look into deeper theology, we see how these different books fit together like puzzle pieces. Father, it causes us to desire to worship you and to thank you Father that you are not a silent God. That you desire for your people to know you and to enjoy you for all of eternity. Your people whom you have rescued, that you have redeemed, that you deserve all glory in their redemption.

Father, help us to desire you above all. Help us to cast aside our idols and those things that would inhibit us from chasing after You. Father, let us run after You, that we might be like you, that we might be made pure, that we might be prepared for all of eternity, Father, when you glorify our bodies, we are delivered from this flesh. Father, help us to look upon those days with hope and fondness and with deep expectation of your glory that's to come. Father, help us to turn our eyes upon Jesus to look full in His wonderful face.

As that song says, the things of earth will slowly fade because we will have found the true treasure. Father, help us in that we pray in Jesus name.