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Save your wild Lord.
And save your wild Lord being.
Nor Sing can come in now.
Why did my love?
Possess me now.
Our star divine light, our sun by day. I'm going to scream all the light.
Change the world.
My Gracious 1.
Apparently.
Have had sweet bless you.
And your Lord.
Is King of Hearts in the world?
I can give mercy still.
I would like to make a suggestion.
I feel a burden among us. We need to know the doctrines of Christianity and I've wondered about taking up Ephesians chapter one and going through those doctrines. You have to do with the blessings that are ours in Christ.
And read that it's.
But that would be the mind of the Lord.
Ephesians, chapter one.
Call an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the Saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. To Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted. In the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He had abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
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Having made made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He had purpose in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him.
Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory.
Who first trusted in Christ?
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. Wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the Saints.
Cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.
May give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling.
And what his riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us? Word, who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places?
Far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named.
Not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet.
And gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
This epistle really brings before us the highest truth that God has given to the church, and it's one of the epistles just doesn't mention the coming of the Lord for his own because, you know, we're seen as already being there in the heavenlies in Christ. And that's really the right translation in verse three, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. And so God has gone to great lengths to.
Try to teach us to to.
Write to us and to tell us what he has done for his own glory and for our blessing, but really what he has done for the blessing of man, because he delighted to do it, and that we might be associated with His Son. And so he gives us all these little terms, doctrinal expressions, doctrinal terms that describe the depth of His work. And so we're chosen in Him in verse 4.
And we're predestinated, we have sonship in verse five. We have we've been accepted in the beloved, we have redemption in Christ. We have forgiveness of sins in Christ. Each one of these little expressions the Spirit of God uses to display, to unfold the blessings of what Christianity is for the ones that are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. I just want to paint you a little picture.
The Jew had the word of God in the Old Testament. He had the prophets, the law, the Psalms, the prophetic books, and he had a a revelation of who God was as Jehovah.
But he didn't know the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. They knew that God was plural because of that word. His title is Elohim is plural more than one, so at least two. They didn't know, but they had a relationship outwardly with God. And if they were in relationship, they were the descendants of Abraham. They were a part of that nation.
And God was dealing with them in an outward way.
But then the nation failed, as a testimony were set aside and the Lord Jesus came and introduced something new, absolutely entirely new, distinct.
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And so now the gospel has gone forth, not only to the Jew, but to the Gentile.
And just imagine the Gentile that went to the heathen temple, that lived in immorality, all kinds of wickedness.
Didn't know the creator, didn't have the word of God, but now that Gentile and you and I are among the Gentiles, those that are the youngest to the oldest that are saved.
God has blessed us with everything that's possible. He's given us the highest blessings in relationships with the sun, as those that are members of the body of Christ, as those that are part of the bride of Christ. And you and I will have the highest place of blessing before God, before the sun for all eternity.
And God wants us to know what those blessings are now and to enjoy them now.
Something that's very striking in this first chapter.
Is that God?
Has a purpose and a plan and all that is mentioned in this chapter.
Is pointing to his purposes and what he is doing and we are privileged to be included in that, but notice how many times it's Speaking of him. This is all about him and his purposes and he's included us and that's why we're blessed. But just look in verse one in Christ.
And.
In verse three at the end in Christ, verse four toward the end before him.
In verse five, himself his will.
Verse six. His Grace.
Verse seven. His Grace.
And verse 8, wherein He hath abounded toward us, verse nine, His will, His good pleasure purposed in himself.
Verse 10 He might gather together in one all things in Christ.
Toward the end in Him, verse 11. In whom and in the middle of him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. Verse 12, His glory.
Verse 13 in whom He trusted, in whom also after that ye believed, He was healed with the Holy Spirit of promise, toward the end of verse 14, His glory.
In verse 18, his calling his inheritance.
Verse 19 His mighty power. Verse 20 His own right hand.
22 under his feet in verse 23, his body, the fullness of him that fill it All in all, it's it's almost every verse it's pointing to him and his purposes and it's him and what he is doing and we're included in that and that's why we're blessed.
All of this is on the basis of who He is too. We get that in verse 2. Grace be unto you.
Grace is God acting according to who He is. It is favor that is directed to us because of who God is. It's not. We haven't come into these blessings with any reason to claim.
Merit before God. We have this because of who God is, because of his heart of love, we know.
We were, we were falling. We had fallen short of the glories. We couldn't be found in any way with this to be said of ourselves if it weren't for the fact that God has poured this out because of his own heart. Peace is peace comes because of what God has done. We have this, this nearness, this relationship.
Because God chose to send His Son, to give his Son to go to the cross and to satisfy his righteous demands fully and completely to the point where the one who knew God's demands at the end of the time of the cross could say it is finished. And because it is finished, we have peace. And so grace is based upon who God is.
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Pieces based upon what God has done and then the next verse. I think it's very important as we start this chapter to realize that the first blessing goes to the Father.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, sometimes we take up this chapter because the blessings, the spiritual blessings are outlined.
To us that God has had purposes to bring us into these things in Christ Jesus, but the chapter really starts out with the dressing him and blessing our Father. So he's the one to get the glory, isn't He? And if we start this chapter exalting him.
Then we really have a sense of what grace is, don't we?
This gives us a great deal of.
Confidence and assurance and peace because it is not based on anything that we do. It is all of him and that gives great confidence. If we lose that and add anything of ourselves that there's anything of ourselves that would would be the cause of our being included in his plan, you lose assurance.
But because it's all of him, that gives us a great deal of assurance. It's all of him. If we find ourselves included, it was him, and it doesn't depend on us. We neither brought ourselves to it, nor do we keep ourselves in it. It's all his great plan, and it's all for himself and of himself.
And the more we enjoy it, the more we'll be kept.
Brother, it's according to his own heart, and we're given a little glimpse of what his heart is like in this chapter. You read those words according to the good pleasure of his Will you ever give something? And you kind of give it grudgingly.
That's not the way God gives.
According to the good pleasure of his will, the servant that got the talent and hit it in the earth, he said. I noticed that thou art a hard and austere man. That's what man's view of God is, but that's not what it's like.
It's.
According to the good pleasure of his will, a happy God, one who gives, and he gives freely and he gives abundantly. And the apostle is enjoying that by revelation, and he he blesses God. And when we enjoy it, we'll do the same thing.
I think of the psalmist, how he could say, O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together, and I believe we see in this chapter.
God's desire is that we might exalt Him and we can be so thankful and we can rejoice in all the blessings that flow to us. We are showered with blessings.
As we have brought the Force in this chapter, but even more wonderful in the blessings.
Is the blesser himself? And so we see, I believe, God outlining what His purposes are, purposes of blessing, but they're intended that they would bring honor and exaltation to Him and to Him alone.
I was just noticing in Second Timothy we have similar truth brought before Second Timothy chapter one. It speaks here at the end of verse 8.
The last word is God, verse nine, who has saved us and called us within holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
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But is now made manifest by the peering of our Savior Jesus Christ and so on. So it's according to his own purpose and grace. And so how wonderful that.
We can thank the Lord for His goodness, for His blessing, but more than that, may we exalt His name together.
This is worship in verse one it tells us the vehicle that God used the servant of God, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. So God has the will and his will was to raise up this man, the apostle Paul and the apostle is really is a messenger. He was sent of God. He had a message what a message to deliver to the people of God.
What a message.
They'd never heard this.
The Lord Jesus touched on some of these little points a little bit in John's gospel and he couldn't unfold it because the disciples were not indwelled with the Spirit of God. But now we are indwelled with the Spirit of God. We have the capacity to understand what he's saying and to enjoy it. And so the apostle it, well, it didn't come from him, but it came from the heart of God. And he used the apostle to deliver the truth to the Saints. And it says here which are at Ephesus, but.
If you notice in the new translation, there's a little note and there's a question as to whether or not that word Ephesus is in there. So it's delivered to the Saints and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. So it's delivered to us all. It wasn't only to those that were in Ephesus. And so the truth of God has been delivered from the heart of God to each one of us. It doesn't matter how old we are. You could be 12 years old or eight years old if you're a Christian here.
This morning you possess these things. It's a present possession. You don't hope to possess these things that God has desired to give to you. You have them. You may not be enjoying them, but God's intent is that you would enjoy them, that you would enter into those things and enjoy them. And so he speaks to those that are Saints, and the Saint is one that is a called out one, one that is.
A believer, one that is a true believer and you're a Saint of God.
So you're separated by God for a holy purpose and you're seen as one that is sanctified for his purpose. And he's delivered this message. So it's not, you know, the Roman system, Roman Catholic system says that.
There's a process that has to take place before you become a St. and so on. That's not the truth of God. Everyone that is a believer, a true believer, is the Saint of God.
They actually use this verse to do that because they say, you see it says the Saints and then it says the faithful. So most are the faithful and then there's a few that get to become Saints and they use this very verse to support that. But.
The Saints are the faithful in this verse and actually I think is a little word for our conscience.
It wasn't long after when the apostle was released from his first imprisonment and he went back to Asia. What did he find all day in Asia? Forsaken me. And so I think it's a little word for the conscience right up front, the faithful. These are things that are given to our trust to hold and to practically walk in in this world. And it's truth that's vital to the Church of God if it's going to be the vessel of testimony.
To the risen Son of God at God's right hand.
If the church is going to be a vessel of testimony to the man this world cast out, who's now exalted at God's right hand, it's going to have to walk in Ephesian truth. And so Paul, as he was on his journey back to Jerusalem, he purposed to speak to the elders at Ephesus. It was vital. What was going to be committed to them was vital. Later on he writes to Timothy Titicus, have I sent to Ephesus.
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All different ones that went their various ways of their own accord, but he made sure one was sent to Ephesus. It was vital that that truth was maintained that was given to them in this circular letter, this first chapter. Also, when you think of it being addressed to Saints and not necessarily an assembly as such, it's because the 1St chapter takes up truths that are connected with us as Saints rather than collectively as part of the Church of God.
Because, you know, we have to be settled in what's true about our own place in Christ and what God has brought us into individually before we're going to be able then to go on and take up what is true of us collectively. If I'm not settled in my own soul as to my place in Christ and before God, I'm never going to be able to go on and take up and enjoy collective truth. I got to get settled.
First my place in Christ before God. Then from there I can go out to collective truth. Sometimes when we meet a new believer, or even one maybe who hasn't had the privilege to be under the ministry we've enjoyed, we want to get the church in front of them right away and we want to get the cart before the horse. Sometimes they need to maybe have Romans truth, or maybe what's presented to us is to individual Saints in Ephesians. Get settled in that.
Before we go on to what's collective?
I could just tie onto that you brought up the book of Romans and really if we want to understand the truth of being in Christ, we really need to have the basic truths of the gospel clearly understood. And in the book of Romans is the first time you have let's turn to Romans chapter 8.
I think it's very, very helpful for us to to see this.
I think I could stand being corrected. I wouldn't mind it at all in fact, but I think this might be the first time that this that the truth of being in Christ is mission. Romans 8 verse one says therefore there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ.
But there's something that's come before this chapter. We don't get the definition of being in Christ in this verse. We get the statement that we are in Christ now. But if we were to look into chapter 5.
From the middle of Chapter 5 on to the end, we're going to find two men in that chapter. We're going to find Adam.
To sin and who was the head of the fallen race?
And then at the end of that chapter, you're going to have the man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is introduced as the head of a new race. And that that head of that new race is going to be the source in which God is going to channel every ounce of blessing that he has for mankind. Every bit of blessing that God has, he is going to bring.
Through the head of that new race, its price, and our identity upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our identity has changed. We know what we know well, what it's like to be in Adams, don't we?
We know, we know all too well what it's like to be an atom and to be associated with a fallen race. But God has introduced a new man. It's Christ, and he's the head of a new race. And our identity has changed now.
God doesn't see us in connection with Adam anymore. He sees us in connection with Christ. And so we are in, and you know what? We might not always feel like we're in Christ, but God sees us in Christ. The cross was the end of our connection with Adam. And it's very, very important. You know, this is lovely truth. This Ephesians truth is lovely truth.
But there's foundational truth that might need to come before, and I'm not suggesting we need to go there because we're just giving a little bit of an outline.
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Of this truth so that we can understand the truth that we are enjoying now. But this is a very foundational truth to understand.
What is what is our identity now? Our identity is with the man that God has introduced as the source of every blessing that we will ever enjoy. And as we go through this chapter in Ephesians, God going to outline it for us. He's going to tell us.
What we have because our association with being in Christ.
Just like to make a quick note if I could.
To.
In verse two it says grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the epistle is going to end with this same kind of language that.
By the Holy Spirit, of course, it's inspired. The apostle wished peace for the Ephesians. He wished them to have peace and as the inspired word of God as this is that we can take from that as well that God.
Which is us to have peace?
And if you're someone that is looking for peace right now?
Maybe you know, you're saved, but you're you're looking for peace. You don't have it right now. Or, or sometimes you find that you don't have peace has has been brought out. These are foundational truths here. And sometimes we have to get back to the foundation when we're struggling with something.
And.
It's a guarantee that if we listen closely to the truths in this chapter and let them sink in and, and, and before the Lord, we we appreciate them and, and we come to understand them and, and own them for ourselves. It's a guarantee that we'll find peace. So I just like to say that as we continue learning these these wonderful things that God has given us that are laid out in this chapter.
Basically 3 lines of truth that we get in Ephesians. We're reading about the highest our position. We've been exalted by God to the highest position in heaven in Christ.
In the first chapter here and then we go on to the truth about the body of Christ, which is a church, and it's not just a local church spoken of here as we get other places.
But it's his body, the church, it's a whole church. It's all those that have been redeemed. So we have that line of truth about what the church is. And then as we go on at the end of the Ephesians, we have the instructions for the church, for the position in which we hold in him. We have instructions how we should conduct, conduct our lives in that position. So really.
Nothing depends upon man is what our brethren have been saying what the Scriptures say. Nothing depends our standing before God depends upon what Christ has done. We can never alter our standing as those that are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. It's impossible. Our standing is set. You are a son you don't know. You don't hope to become a son you are and so.
Everything depends upon Christ and upon His work.
Thinking that.
The fact that we are in Christ.
He's really.
Part of Paul's doctrine.
Paul's doctrine.
Is really what characterizes Christianity.
And as mentioned.
We are in the new Creation race.
In Christ before God.
Is not found in other epistles. It's.
It's characteristic of what Paul ministered. We have a position.
Before God.
In Christ now.
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This is a special.
Blessing of Christianity.
And it's the individual aspect as mentioned.
Various headships, and that's one headship, that Christ is the head of that new.
Creation Race.
Probably the maybe the easiest way to think of it or remember it is to be in crisis in Christ place before God. Where? What place does he have right now before God? How? How accepted is he right now in heaven before God 99.9999%.
100%.
Perfect acceptance, perfect delight. It's to be in his place before God. And so everything flows from being in that place before God. As we go through this chapter, the Lord Jesus came, the Son of God came into this world, our Lord Jesus Christ. The deep purpose of his heart was to make the Father known.
And he could speak of my father, or sometimes he could say your heavenly father. But after his death and resurrection, he said to Mary Magdalene, I ascend to my father and your father for the very first time. It was said to the disciples, your father, your father, my God, and your God.
A relationship he had from a past eternity. My father.
But a new one for us, your Father, a new relationship for him as a man in this world. My God. A relationship we had from the beginning of our existence. He always was our God.
And now we know.
That one who was our God, as our God and our Father, but very specifically the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who is his Father is our Father, and that is what we've been brought into. And so he's presented in this twofold character as God. He is our God and our Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in that twofold character he's blessing us, He's blessed us. And so as this unfolds, it says according as he hath chosen us.
In Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame. Before Him, in love, in this verse, He has sovereignly chosen us as God.
As God, He chooses sovereignly, and He brings us before Himself that we would be there according to His own nature.
He is light and He is love, and so He's chosen us that we should be holy and without blame before Him in His presence accepted in Christ place in love, so were there chosen to be brought before Him and be there in perfect accordance with everything that He is as holy.
And as love, so that's him acting as God.
In verse four, but verse five, we get Him blessing us as Father, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, our sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, and so he's chosen us to be.
Before him, according to his own nature, that's the election and he's predestinated us. He has a destiny in that choice, and that's to be in the place of sons before him, knowing him as our father. And that's relationship choosing has to do with persons, doesn't it?
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And so God has a sovereign right to choose. He created in the past eternity. He knew who would be created. He created a He was going to create a whole world full of people.
And he wanted to have a bride for his son.
And it was going to be called that bride was going to be chosen for his son.
And each individual who was going to be a part of that bride was chosen. So God looked down.
From a past eternity. And he chose you specifically to be a part of his bride, of the bride of Christ. He chose you specifically to have these blessings, to have the blessing of sonship, to have the blessing of being chosen even.
And his brother Steve mentions it's really the same word is election. So election always has to do with individuals. He doesn't choose a group of people. So just think.
In the past eternity.
God looked upon you.
And you may only be an 8 year old child. And if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, I know that He chose you before the foundations of the earth were laid.
He chose you specifically as an individual. He set His love upon you, and so none of these blessings depend upon you at all. It was God that chose.
And so he's bringing forth here not man's responsibility, but God's choice was to choose you because none of us would have ever come to the Lord, none of us. And so we get that little further on that He really, he quickened us and he gave us life. He, he gives us, he chose us, but he gave us life. He gave us faith. He gives us everything so that we might go on and fellowship with Him.
Let us.
Important for us, as her brother was saying, to be able to have peace, to recognize that he chose you didn't choose him, he chose you.
Can we first Peter chapter one?
Verse 2.
We have elect according to the foreknowledge of God has been said elect is the same as chosen.
So that brings a thought to us that we look back, we look back in in eternity and we see that God had in his foreknowledge of things. The mention chose us. I.
Predestination.
Is not that predestination looks at what we have been chosen for?
Is a difference.
God, God always has left room.
For repentance in the heart of man.
We weren't predestinated to be saved.
That was our responsibility. If we didn't come to the Lord, we failed. But God has chosen us. That's something that He did. He chose us.
But predestination brings out the thought of what we have been chosen for.
We have been chosen to be in God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Christ for all eternity and all the blessings that will accompany that position.
Over in Romans.
After.
Chapter 8.
The first there that sort of explains this.
We've been talking about in verse 29.
For whom he did for know or chose.
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son.
He might be the first born among many brother. So it tells us there what we have been predestinated for, to be conformed to the image of his beloved son. That work is going on now within us, each one of us. We're being more conformed to the to the image of Christ day by day, a work that's going on inside of us.
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But we've already been made 5th.
For that position in Christ.
We're in Ephesians. We have the predestination. There is our position in Christ in the glory. We're already there seated with Christ in the glory.
But we have been formed, we have been predestinated to be conformed to his image. So that tells me of a work going on within us. But we've already have the blessing in Christ. But there's still a work going on.
God, God can only be satisfied with one man, and that's his Son, the Lord Jesus.
His purpose, God's purpose, is to have the glories of the Lord Jesus reflected.
Through each one of us, you know, the trials, that the difficulties, the stresses, everything that we pass through are put in our path for one reason. And that is that God could make us like his Son, that we would reflect His glory, that there would be an attitude, there would be a spirit. Of course, we know that He's also given us the Spirit of God as the energy to display that life.
But God doesn't have any other purpose in mind for us is that he might be able to see Christ. And so as we pass through the the trials and as life becomes a struggle, there's a reason, one reason God is looking for Christ in peace.
And he tells us the motive they right at the end of verse 4 before him, in love without blame, not only wholly.
It's a act of God that we should be holy.
And without blame. Absolutely blameless.
Says that in Ephesians chapter 5 that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with washing by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
Holy, blameless. But the purpose, the motive is love God. Love. God is love. That's why he desired to bless.
And sonship is peculiar to.
This dispensation in which we live.
Sonship.
Which is a thought in verse 5.
Is a doctrine that Paul develops, and it's peculiar to the Church of God.
We are the Church of the first born once.
Hebrews.
12 Church of the First Born does not refer to Christ. That is our position now.
Through the finished work of Christ, we're no longer children.
In the sense that Paul uses the term immature not understanding.
Christian position, but we are sons. That is, we have.
Intelligence now of our position in Christ.
It might help to understand.
What our brother just said if we.
Consider the the way things were done. I might put it that way back then if a child was born.
In a home.
It was obviously a real child. He wasn't adopted as a real child, but sonship was not conferred.
That position of sonship was not conferred until they reached a certain.
Age and and possessed a certain amount of knowledge, right and training. So at that time when sonship was conferred upon them.
That was called adoption.
And so we have to be careful not to think that God just kind of adopted us. His children are His real children. But as our brother said, when you reach a certain, attain a certain level of knowledge and understanding and appreciation, there was a sonship that was conferred that the child who was the real child of the father was adopted. In other words, sonship was conferred upon. If we understand that, it helps us understand some of these Scriptures more correctly.
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Would you say it's the full privileges of those that are the children of God? And so you might have a son that's eight years old. He's a child and he has.
Intelligence. He has energy, he can read, but he doesn't have the capability or the maturity really to take the full responsibility of what it is to be a son. And he doesn't. He bears the character of the father. He bears the name of the father.
And but he doesn't have the maturity, perhaps not the intelligence, to fully take the responsibility that is his as a son and to bear the family name and character in its entirety. And so God speaks to you and I as those that are fully capable and fully intelligent and dwelled with the Spirit of God and have the spiritual capacity to understand what his heart is and what he desires to communicate what he did in the past.
For his own glory, what he's going to do in the future, and he wants us to enjoy it now.
So if we could put it in.
Layman's terms. You have a son, he's 8 years old, you don't give him the keys to the car.
But he turns 16 and you have, he comes into training a little bit. He and you, you give them responsibility. Say he he's 18 years old. He proves that he's faithful.
And you give them the keys to the car. You say, son, here's the keys to the car. You can use it for the blessing of the family. You can use it to go to the meetings and so on.
And so he gets those responsibilities. You might also unburden your heart and say, you know what, I have some savings and I have some plans for this particular piece of property. And I'm going to tell you what those plans are. I'd like you to enter into it, and I'd like you to help me to achieve those objectives. And so you unburden your heart. You tell them all about the plans that you had even before he was born.
Perhaps you had desired that this would take place and so he's brought into the full position and responsibility of a son. And So what the King James translates here is not really accurate adoption of sons.
It's really sonship that is being spoken of and the apostle Paul speaks of it in, I think it's in Galatians chapter 4 as well, those first few verses and he explains that relationship. So God.
This, this isn't Speaking of adoption the way we think of it. You go to an orphanage or whatever and you pick a child and he's adopted into your family. That's not what he's Speaking of. But Brother Ted mentioned it. You're born into the family of God. You are a son.
And now you have the full privileges of a son.
And He wants you to know what those privileges are. You have been brought into relationship with the Father. You know the Son. You're indwelled with the Spirit of God.
Our brother still mentioned he wondered whether this is the first time in Romans chapter 8 that speaks of our being in Christ. I just want to point out a verse in John's Gospel chapter 14.
John's Gospel chapter 14. We'll just read verse 20. At that day you shall know that I am in the Father, and ye, and me, and I and you. It doesn't mean we're indwelled with two persons of the Godhead. We're indwelled with the Spirit of God.
But we have the character of Christ. Christ is in us in that sense. But here ye and me. And he gives a seed plot, but he doesn't develop it in John's Gospel. Why? Those disciples weren't indwelled with the Spirit of God. They couldn't understand even if he had told them. And so he waited until the apostle Paul. It was given to him by revelation and then delivered to the Saints. What a marvelous.
Privilege it is for us.
To know that we're sons and the privileges that are ours. To glorify God in this way, and to understand that we are in Christ.
Really, Sonship is an upgrading. It's not.
00:55:04
We don't come into the family of God really by adoption, but we come in through quickenings were brought into the family of God. But I think it's brother Robert brought out it's it's in connection. It's consequently upon receiving the Holy Spirit of God.
That we have this knowledge of sonship, we must connect it with the Spirit of God.
Coming at Pentecost to bring us into the full Christian position.
Like to ask a question? Then let's turn to Romans 8.
Let's read from verse 15, and this is a question. This isn't a comment. This is a question.
Or if he or he have not received the spirit of adoption of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we Christ as a Father, the Spirit itself, beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Is this the Is this the same sense of sonship and the activity of the Spirit of God making that witness good to us?
So like you said, Brother Robert, if that's true, I'm asking.
The disciples couldn't fully enter into this because they didn't have the indwelling spirit. Well, here we have the the Scriptures speaking very expressly that we have this understanding by the Enlightenment of the Spirit of God. And so it all fits together nicely, doesn't it?
Yes, it is really essentially the same thought of sonship. And so if you read a little further on, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. So you and I, as those that are sons brought into sonship, are heirs.
Now, you don't make a servant an heir. The children of Israel, those even that had faith, David called himself a servant of God. Solomon said, addressed himself as a servant of God. They all did. But God doesn't address you as a servant.
He doesn't look at you and say, brother so and so servant. You may try to do a little work of service. He's perhaps committed you a little work of service to you and your little corner of the vineyard, and that's fine. But he doesn't look at you as a servant. You have shoes on your feet. You're given the very best robe possible for a man to have. You're a son. And so this is what he's Speaking of. And because you're engwell with the Spirit of God, you now don't address.
The Lord Jesus.
As just Jesus, you address him as Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's because you're indwelled with the Spirit of God. You can do that, and you address God as your Father.
And you don't address them as your heavenly Father. That's a distant relationship. You address him as Father, ABBA Father.
You're in the very same place of acceptance as the sun is. He doesn't address God as his heavenly Father. It's ABBA Father. That's how he addresses his Father and you address him the same way. Oh, what a privilege is ours.
Perhaps we could turn to that force in Galatians 4. It's already been referred to, but I think it bears out what you're saying in Galatians 4.
Well, reading from verse one now I say that the air as long as he is a child if there's nothing from the service, though he be Lord of all, but it's under tutors, governors until the time appointed or the father. Even so we when we were children were in ******* under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time has come, God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them.
That we're under the law debt we might receive the adoption of sons and because the arsons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying have a follow, wherefore thou art no more servant, but a son, and if a son then an heir of God through Christ.
01:00:13
So it's a wonderful.
Truth that's revealed that we are indeed in a position of sonship with the Father, and how wonderful that He would share with us what His counsels, His purposes are with respect to our blessing, but also with respect to the exaltation of Christ.
And there's I could just go back to verse three, the word blessed.
It's two times in this verse 3.
Bless it, but first of all.
Paul is blessing God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The second lesson.
Is how that God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ blesses you and me.
So I believe as we enter into the enjoyment of these wonderful truths lessons, it's really a favor.
A benefit that's bestowed upon us. This is what it means when God blesses you and me. But as a result, we ought to be blessing God, and this has to do with giving thanks, praising and worshiping Him.
For who he is.
For what he has done, and for the exceeding riches of His grace.
And his kindness to us, as we have later in this chapter.
Just like to go back to Romans chapter 8 again.
At verse 15 that was read.
We see in that verse 15 that.
We enter into.
These truths that we've been speaking about in our position before God and Christ as as a son.
We enter into that because we have been given the spirit of adoption.
Is the Holy Spirit that is dwells within us, that brings us into the intelligence and the enjoyment of our position before God. Is sons Adoption simply means Son's place in the Greek and so we have been brought into that position. The Holy Spirit that is within us gives to us the intelligence.
To enjoy.
Our position before God and Christ. Then verse 17 of that chapter also.
Means that before us our inheritance, that in Christ we are heirs of God. Join heirs with Christ.
So be if we suffer with them, that we may be glorified together. And verse 18 brings into us our position to come. We have it now, but in a coming day two we will have all that the Father has given to the Son to enjoy in that coming day. Son's glory we will share. There are certain things about the Lord Jesus that we can never share.
The glory that he had with God before he came into this world as a man, the sufferings that he that he accomplished in the cross and all those things. But we will share with the, with the, with the, with the Son, the wall that the Father has for the Son throughout eternity. We will share that with him. That's the position that we have been brought into in Christ.
Joint heirs.
Is the thought not necessarily of equal portions?
It's not the point.
It's the thought of equal status. So maybe there's a great estate and the one who owns the estate dies and he has a will.
And there are those servants that were on the estate and he wants to give this one something and that one something. But there are those that are the heirs of that will, that are joint heirs. They all have an equal status.
01:05:02
So that's a little different thought and it's illustrated in the life of Jacob and just turning back to Genesis.
Genesis chapter 48.
When Jacob blesses the two sons of Joseph.
And verse five he says, And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine as Reuben and Simeon. They shall be mine, and thy issue, which thou bigot us after them shall be thine.
And shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.
What was Jacob doing? When you think of the 12 tribes of Israel, do you include Ephraim and Manasseh? Of course you do. But they weren't his sons. They were his grandsons. They were, in a certain sense, his heirs, but they did not have the same.
Status as their uncle.
But now Jacob says, no, I'm going to bring them and I'm going to make them my sons, not grandsons, my sons. And I'm going to give them the same status as their uncles and their inheritance and any other children that you have, Joseph, they're going to be my grandchildren. But these two, they're going to have the same status as their uncles in the inheritance. That's why we have the tribe of Ephraim.
And Manasseh, sometimes it's mentioned the tribe of Joseph, but most often Ephraim and Manasseh. Equal status in the inheritance, joint heirs, and they are brought into a new place in Jacob's family. They have the place of sons that they did not have before. They were certainly children in the family, but they did not have the same place that their uncles did as sons of Jacob.
In this.
And these blessings?
There's a beautiful thought, I think, to glean.
What is the measure when God is blessing us? When the Father is blessing us, He blesses us as God and Father and those two characters. What is the measure?
He's blessing us commensurate with His appreciation of Christ. He's blessing us with blessings that are worthy of His Son.
I'm going to bless you, and in blessing you, I'm going to show you what I think of my son.
How I love him and how I appreciate him and what my delight is in Him and how He has glorified me. And I'm going to bless you with blessings that are commensurate with my thoughts of my beloved Son. I'm going to bless you in Christ in His place. The blessings we've been given are commensurate with His appreciation.
And his love for his well beloved Son. And so the next verse says it's according to the good pleasure of his will. It's his delight to do it because of his love for his Son, because of his delight in his Son. And then he says it's to the praise of the glory of his grace we have the riches of his grace is what he is towards us in the deep need that we had as sinners, but the glory of his grace is blessing us.
According to His own nature and character, it brings out His glory, and He says according praise of the glory of his grace, wherein in that pinnacle of grace He's brought us into divine favor. We couldn't get beyond this as to acceptance before God accepted. And the beloved in the one who is fully satisfied, His heart, who wholly occupies Him, He has brought us into favor.
In the beloved doesn't just say in Christ.
In the beloved, it really is bringing out the great love of his heart for his son, he says. I have accepted you in the beloved, the one who fills my own heart. This helps us, perhaps.
01:10:02
To understand.
What may be confusing in our experience as to how God is dealing with us?
He.
Each one of us needs to realize if we are in Christ.
Everything that comes to us is what would come and does come to his son.
And it has nothing to do with our.
With anything we do or our performance or anything, our enjoyment of these things is dependent on whether or not we are occupying ourselves with them and how we're walking and so on. But if nothing changes our standing, if we are in Christ, God approaches us, if I can put it that way, as He approaches His Son and everything that comes our way comes to us entirely.
Entirely on the merits of his son.
And completely apart from any of our own merit, good or bad, you know, when we say unmerited favor, I said, well, we didn't merit it.
Well, it doesn't just mean that, it means even if you did, it wouldn't matter.
It's got nothing to do with your merit at all, good or bad.
Your merit doesn't improve. It doesn't add to it. It has nothing to do with it.
If you're in Christ, God deals with you and approaches you as.
He would his own son, and as he does his own son, everything that comes our way.
Comes our way because we're in Christ and for no other reason.
Him right or put it.
So dear, so very dear to God.
That's our position.
Why? Because in the person of his son.
We are as near and dear as he is.
The more we stand her into the truth of this, we realize this. I believe it's going to cause us to rejoice.
And it's all to his praise and glory, isn't it?
It's to think that.
He is blessing us.
According to his good pleasure.
It's his pleasure that he blesses us.
Again, nothing to do with us, it's for His pleasure, according to His will and our being in Christ.
Was entirely of him. First Corinthians chapter one.
And verse 30.
It is. It is plain and unequivocal.
Of him are ye in Christ Jesus of him.
Nothing of us. It's of him for his good pleasure.
Is sometimes difficult.
To get our thoughts off ourselves and to consider what God is getting out of this situation. And like you say, He is finding pleasure. It's his pleasure to bless. And we sit here and it's with pleasure that we enjoy what our blessings are. But let's think about God's thoughts.
And the pleasure that he is receiving, you know, trying to look at it from God's perspective.
The hymn writer put it all to peace, forever flowing from God's thoughts of His dear Son.
Or the peace of simply knowing that on the cross all was done.
That's God's thoughts, His dear Son. Such are his thoughts toward you and me.
Because of faith in Christ.
God bless us on the basis of faith, not performance, so.
Epistle to the Romans really outlines, just unfolds all that God has done for the blessing of man. Just goes into all kinds of details to tell us what God has done for your blessing and for mine. But what we're reading is what God has done for his own pleasure, and that's a higher thought.
01:15:18
This answer that thought brother Rob, when we think of that his the good pleasure of his will.
Bring in the thought, the satisfaction of his own heart.
Because there are those who have done things for the good pleasure of their own will. Because a watchmaker likes to make a watch and it sets in motion. He just, he loves to see the gears go around.
This good pleasure of his own will involves his heart.
It's for the satisfaction of his heart. And so we turn to Luke chapter 14, and we find that man who prepared a feast and he says, compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. It was for the satisfaction of his own heart. He wanted every seat in that house filled. And that's so it's, it's a good pleasure of his will for the satisfaction of his own heart.
God has brought us into.
Place of infinite favor.
In Christ and.
We are in a position of.
Of dignity as as sons having intelligence, but.
It's all for the purpose of the purpose and counsels of God.
Are all going to be fulfilled.
But the foundation is the work of Christ. Verse seven. That is the foundation.
Of all our blessing.
The redemption, the finished work of Calvin. Without that we would never be brought into this place of.
Marvelous favor.
The thought of redemption brings in the state of our own condition.
Redemption has the thought of.
An individual being in slavery and.
A price needing to be paid to free.
The individual from their slavery, from their *******. And so God knew what the price of redemption was going to be. He knew that he had a fully righteous requirement that was going to require death. And it was going to be, it was going to have to be the death of an innocent spotless or a spotless victim. And he knew.
That the only answer.
For the price that righteousness demanded was that he would give his Son, who would provide a ransom.
But Redemption has another thought, too. It's it's not just to to to buy.
A slave, but it's also to set one free.
And the work of Christ has not only.
Satisfy God's demand to deliver us from our condition of slavery. But it has. It has set us free. God wouldn't have it any other way. God would not have.
His subjects that he loves to be in any kind of *******. So we haven't received the spirit of ******* bunch of spirit that we've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry out a father. There's nothing hindering now the relationship between us and our God. There's nothing really hindering us from having the spirit of Christ.
He said I do always those things which please the Father. There's liberty in the Christian life if we understand the value of the cross.
Could we sing 304?
01:20:01
To us now, the earnest given here by grace, these themes belong.
Do the Saints in glory? Singing will get joy. It's all the way.
All in right hand strange and feel free.
I love saying your snake.
Forever.
To all hands.
We also sig 10-4.
104.
Day today.
Feelings like children.
Crying to nobody.
What's your love to heaven? And I have one second.
We are going to be can.
All in one.
Of the boredom.
Oh no, I don't, precious.
Hearings inside.
The kids.
Seem to shine.
01:25:04
Out from God.
Once it was, it was so proud.
Near and still threatened to change, I suppose.
Water in heaven.
Great, thank God, glory and last time.
All the time.
I love Christine.
Rise and we can dream. Grace and 1.