Romans chapter 8, the verses
that we just read. I've titled this message, They Are the Sons of God. Romans
chapter 8 and verse 14, For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. That's who the sons of God
are. That's what the Holy Spirit's
writing to us here, what He's telling us. That those are led
by the Spirit of God, that's the ones that are the sons of
God. Because God leads His people,
leads His people by His Spirit, the indwelling of His Spirit.
When He saves folks in the experience of grace, when He regenerates
folks, He indwells in with His Spirit. This is the impartation
of the Spirit of God of Christ, quickening. As we read in Ephesians
chapter 2, you have to be quickened, given of His Spirit, Christ in
you, the hope of glory. He dwells and abides in His people. That would be a good thing for
me to remember. all the time, if he would bless me to do that,
that would prevent me from doing a lot of things, saying a lot
of things that I regret later. But we're not vividly conscious
of this all the time. But we need to remember that
if we indeed are believers, if we know Christ, He dwells in
us. He is in us. The believer is a son of God. What a privilege. Just think
about that for a few minutes. Let that soak in. We are sons of God. Sons of the
living God. Children of God. We're His children. He's our Father. were his children. Christ our brother. Isn't that
a great honor? What greater honor could there
be than being a child of God, a child of the King? Once I was clothed in the ranks
of my sin, wretched and poor, lost and lonely within. But then
God in mercy and grace came to me and revealed to me, came to
abide with me, and now I'm a child of the King. His royal blood
now flows in my veins, spiritual veins, not these veins. child of God. Oh, how we should
respect our title. He has given us that title, that
name. Do you know what your name and
mine is for His? Many names are given in scriptures,
but one of the names is just so outstanding. Their name shall be called the
Lord, our righteousness. sons of God, not as the Lord
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's the only begotten of the
Son of God. He's the only begotten of the
Father. The Word was made flesh and dwell among us, and we beheld
His glory. As of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth, this is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the eternal Son of God. He's the second person of the
Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. He's part of the triune God.
Or how shall I say it? He is every member of the Godhead
is equal in person and power and glory. And it's a great mystery. It's a great mystery, but the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. There's only one Son of God by
eternal origination. And what I mean by that is He
has no origin. He has no beginning. When we
speak of origin, that means there's a beginning place. And He is
of eternal origin. There was never a time when He
was not the Son of God. He was manifested in the flesh
in time. Galatians 4.4 says, In the fullness
of time God sent forth His Son, made of womb, made under the
law, and He sent Him to do something. He sent Him to redeem them that
are under the law. Therein is the gospel. The Lord
Jesus Christ and redemption in Him. He's identified this way in Isaiah.
Oh, I just love to try to identify the Lord Jesus Christ. And the best way to identify
Him is to speak of Him as the Scriptures speak of Him. In Isaiah 9, verse 6, For unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given. A son is given to us,
a son. And the government shall be upon
his shoulders. What government? The government
of the universe. The government, the rule of all
things. The government in heaven, the
government in earth, the government in hell, the government everywhere.
It's his government. He's the president, he's the
mayor, he's the senate, he's all. He makes all the decisions. And he executes those decisions. Do you know why? His name is
called Wonderful. A preacher friend of mine made
this comment once. He said, Don't ever call anyone
Wonderful other than Christ. He now said, Now if somebody
bakes an apple pie and it's good, you can say that pie is wonderful.
or things of that nature, but he said, don't ever call anyone
wonderful except the Lord Jesus Christ, because He alone, that's
His name, wonderful. It's kind of like reverend. I
was out at the boat dock the other day, and this fellow come
up. I'd seen him over a few times, and he walked up to the caretaker's
wife, and he said, I'm Reverend so-and-so. I was sitting there, and I didn't
say a word. And he walked over to me, and he looked at me, and
Patches said, this is Tommy Robbins. He's a preacher, too. And I said,
well, glad to meet you. He said, glad to meet you. I'm
Reverend so-and-so. I said, I'm Tommy Robbins. Glad
to meet you. Don't call me reverend. If you ever write me, don't address
the envelope reverend. I don't like that. I'll probably
just throw it in the trash. I'm not reverend. Holy and reverend
is His name. I'm a servant. I'm a servant by the will of
God. Paul said this, and I can say
it. I'm a child of God. I'm a son of God. He said, I'm
least of all the apostles. I'm least of all the saints. And you that know me, some of
you have known me a long time. I'm like an old shoe now. I've
been on your foot so long, under your feet so long, you know me
good. I'm the least of all. The least of all. The least of
all the saints. He's wonderful. Holy and reverent
is his name. He's the counselor. The mighty
God. The everlasting Father. The Prince
of Peace. He's the Son of God. He is the
Son of God. I introduced this message in
this way so that we wouldn't confuse. I know I wouldn't any of you here,
I don't think, but we're not all Jesus Christ's. I'm not Jesus Christ and you're
not Jesus Christ. We're not the Son of God as the
Son of God, the only begotten of the Father. We're sons of
God. We're not God. We're not Christ.
Believers are sons of God by spiritual birth and by adoption. We're sons of God by birth. Spiritual
birth. Born again. Born from above. We're born a second time. If
you're a child of God, you've been born twice. He's born when
you come from your mother's womb. Paul said, I thank God who separated
me from my mother's womb. He said, I'm glad my mother had
me. And the reason she had me is because of God's purpose she
had me. And called me by His grace to
reveal His Son in me. The Lord told Nicodemus, He said,
You've got to be born again. Unless you're born again, you
can't see the kingdom of God. You can't know God. You can't
go to heaven unless you're born the second time. And Nicodemus,
I don't know if he's being sarcastic. I've heard all these stories. Whatever you think, And I think it's not going to
make any difference. But Nicodemus said, how can a man be born when
he's old? Nicodemus knew a man couldn't be born when he's old.
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb? Well,
any fool knows he can't do that. How can these things be? How
can these things be? We're born from above. We're
spiritually dead. We're spiritually non-existent,
and God gives us life. He gives us His Spirit, Christ
in you, the hope of glory. We're raised from death to life. We are Christ's brethren. by His incarnation. The Lord Jesus Christ became
flesh. God became flesh according to
John chapter 1, verse 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. He became what we are, sin accepted. He didn't become
sin until He died on the cross. And then He becomes sin. But
in His birth, in His incarnation, He became flesh. That's what
we are. And in our spiritual birth, we
became Spirit. You see, it took both. He must
be made flesh, we must be made Spirit. He must be made flesh,
we must be given of His Spirit. He must die, we must live. Just as sure as the Lord Jesus
Christ died, all those whom he died for must live. If he died,
they're going to live. If he arose, they're going to
live. And he died, and he arose, and
we live. We're sons of God by his incarnation,
by our spiritual birth and adoption. We are joined heirs with Christ.
What did God give Christ? Everything. As a man, and there's
a lot of mystery still here for me. I don't understand very much,
Terry. I'm still, like the old preacher
used to say, I'm still in ABC class. I guess that's kindergarten
now. I'm still in kindergarten. But God gave Christ everything.
Not that he didn't have everything, but he became flesh. He'd never
been flesh before. And he made him flesh. And as
a man, as flesh. He inherited all things. He died,
and He arose from the dead. And He inherited all things. And the Scripture says all things
are yours. We're joint heirs with Christ.
And He's not ashamed to call us brethren. 2 Peter 1.4 says we're partakers
of the divine nature. We're sharing it. We're joined
ours with Christ. So whatever is Christ's is mine. Now, I can't imagine that. I can't comprehend that. But
whatever Christ is mine. He has raised Christ up and set
him together, set him in his right hand. And he's raised us
up together in Christ and set us in heavenly places in Christ. And everything's His. Everything
belongs to Christ. The man Christ Jesus. And I'm
a son of God. I'm Christ my brother. And I'm joint heirs of Him. So
all of those blessings, see, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
God of glory, is very, very free with what he possesses to all
of those who are his sons, who are his children. He's very free.
He don't withhold anything. As a matter of fact, in Ephesians
chapter 1, I believe it is, he's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is, his
sons, his children. We are the sons of God by our
identification with Him and in Him. We're identified. The Lord Jesus Christ has identified
Himself with us. That is an amazing thing. He identified Himself with us. That's what He came to the world
to do, to be identified with us. And we now, by birth, are
identified with Him. How do we pray? Our Father, which
art in heaven. Our Father, who prays to the
Father? The children. Holy and reverend,
hallowed be thy name. He identified himself with us,
and we identify ourselves with him. God's children are identified in him. They have the life of
Christ and the Spirit of Christ, which are one and the same. We
are sons of God. In 1 John 5, 12, he that has
the Son has life, and he that has not the Son of God has not
life. That's our identification. As
we read in our text and context, this morning, they who are led
by the Spirit of God, for as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. Do you know what leads you
naturally in this world, naturally speaking as a man? The Spirit
within you. The Spirit of life, the Spirit
of the life of the flesh leads you. That unseen thing in you, that
life that dwells in your body, leads you. It got you out of the bed this
morning, got you dressed, got you here to this place, this
spirit of life, physical life, that the Lord made reference
to in John chapter 1, that lights every man that comes into the
world. He breathed into Adam the breath of life. And man became
a living soul. That natural life. The spiritual man, the sons of
God, what leads them? Life. The spirit of life. We
live. The life that we now live in
the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us
and gave Himself for us. Being led by the Spirit doesn't
mean acting weird. laying down on the floor and
wallowing, jumping over pews, having visions and hallucinations
and revelations and visions and all these things, being led by the Spirit of God
simply is Christ living in you in truth, being alive spiritually, being
led by God. And I want to broaden this a little bit, if
that's the right term. Romans 8-11, this passage that
we read, but if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from
the dead dwell in you, if he dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies,
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Now this has two implications
here. Number one is this, or one of
this, I don't know which would come first. But someday this
mortal body shall be quickened in the resurrection. And secondly, that even as we
live in this world, in this body of death, in this flesh, Christ in us, the Spirit of God
dwelling in us, quickens us, quickens us to look
to Him, to worship Him, to do according to His good will and
pleasure. We are not left unattended in this world, neither spiritually
or inwardly or outwardly or physically. Man devises ways, but God directs
his steps, and this does not exclude the believer. He is our
Father, and we're His children, we're His sons. Know ye not that
ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you? Know you not that the Spirit of God, don't you know,
don't you understand? that the Spirit of God dwells
in you? In Colossians 127, to whom God
would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles. What is the riches of this glory,
this mystery among sinners? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Have you ever worshipped? Do you believe? Do you seek the
Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have a desire for Him?
Do you want to know Him and love Him and follow Him? Do you really
want to? Do you know why you do? If you do,
it's because you're led by the Spirit of God. That's what the
Spirit of God does, leads us to Christ. Christ in you. He was made partakers, a partaker
of our flesh. We are made partakers of His
Spirit. He has made one with us, and
we are made one with Him. You see, we are sons of God by
our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not sons
of God because we come to the front of a Baptist church or
any kind of church and knelt at an altar. We're not sons of
God because we've made a decision. We're not sons of God because
we believe certain doctrines. We're sons of God because He
beget us, because He gave us life and the Spirit of God dwells
in us. In John 17, 20 verses 20 through
23, in John 17, Our Lord said, neither I pray
for these alone. He was praying for His disciples.
But for them also which shall believe on Me through their word.
Those that will believe later on down the road in 2008. Those
that will believe on Me through their word that I have inspired
them to write the Word of God. That they all may be one. As
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me in the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they
may be one even as we are one, I in them, Christ in them, and
you in me, God in Christ, that they may be made perfect in one."
Now how much more perfect could you be? than Christ being in
you and God being in Christ and we're all in God. How much more
perfect could we be? And the world may know that they
have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. God loves His sons. He loves
His children. He loves his children more than I can express, or than
can be expressed. I'll tell you how much he loved
us, and I can't grasp all of this either. But he loved us
enough to kill his son for us. Do you know what we'd want to
do if somebody killed our son? We'd want to kill them. But he killed his son for us. You say, well, I thought sinners,
evil men, killed Christ. They did. But God delivered him
into their hands. He's God's sacrifice. And he's
my sacrifice. How much does God love Me and
you, if we're His sons, look at Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified. That's
foolishness to the world. It don't make a bit of sense.
What we need to be doing is telling people how to live a better,
victorious life. How to be an asset to society. No, we need to tell folks of
Christ. God the Father, God the Son,
and all the children of God are an eternal, chosen, spiritual
family. In Ephesians 3, 14-17, for this
cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. The whole
family. I'm named after him. You know, you don't hear it much
anymore, but a lot of folks named their children Junior, the boy
Junior. Clyde Junior, or Horace Junior,
or Richard Junior, were named after the Lord Jesus Christ. That He would grant unto you
according to the riches of His grace, the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." We're sons of God. We're His
sons, and we're His sons because of His love for us, His everlasting,
sovereign, efficacious love. His love is effectual. His love
makes things happen. You know, no matter how much
I love you, I can't make you love me. Have you ever tried
to make somebody love you? Give it up. It ain't going to
happen. You'd do everything you could
think of. You'd be every way that you thought they wanted
you to be. You've tried every way. You've just exhausted yourself
to make them love you, and they still don't love you. It cannot
be done. But I know what? That His love
is effectual. We love Him because, because
He first loved us. Why do I love Him? Because He
loved me. That makes His love effectual,
don't it? That's saying His love is effectual. Because He loved
me, I love Him. Oh, 1 John 3, verse 1, Study about this. Look at it
intently. That's what that word behold
means. Look at it for a while. Sit still a while. Think about
it. Mull it over. Consider it. Behold what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Behold what manner of
love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. They are the sons of God. Who
is? Those He loves. Those are led
by Him. The world don't know us, but
it didn't know Him. The world thinks they know us.
The world thought they knew Him. The world thinks they know Him,
but they don't. But we know Him, and He knows
us. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. That's life. That's the essence of a believer's
life, is knowing Christ. I know whom I believe. I know him. I know it. He knows me. That's
the most important thing. If He knows me, then I'll know
Him. Jeremiah 31, verse 3 says, It's
all because of His love. We're sons of God because He
loves us. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Does He just love me when I do
something good? I hope not, because I ain't never done nothing good.
There is none that doeth good. That's what Scripture says. Sometimes
I think I do. Sometimes I feel like I do. Sometimes
I pat myself on the back and expect others to. I'm just telling
you how it is. And you're the same way. You are the same way. Don't deny
it. You are. But there ain't nothing lovable
about me. I've never done nothing, never done nothing right. Never. But He loved me with an everlasting
love. Unlovable. He don't just love
me when I do something right, or never did. When did He love
me? He never didn't love me. There never was a time when he
didn't love me. Mistress Virgin preached a sermon once on the
love of God. And after he got through preaching,
this lady made her way up. Thousands of people came to hear
him. She made her way up. She wasn't going to leave until she told him what
she wanted him to know. She made her way up and finally
got up to where she could talk to him. She said, I just want
to tell you something. She said, I know That if the
Lord loves me now, such a vile person as I am, that He must
have loved me from all eternity. Because there ain't nothing in
me now that would cause Him to love me. And how right she was. He said, I have loved thee with
everlasting love. Therefore, with love and kindness
I have drawn thee. We are His sons because of His
everlasting love. 1 John 3 Beloved now. He's talking to those beloved
of the Father. Those chosen. Those elected. Those ordained
into eternal life. Those He loved with everlasting
love. Beloved now are we the sons of God. Now. That's what
John said. He said, brethren, I want to
tell you something. God's telling you something.
We're the sons of God right now. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, not all the particulars, what exactly how it'll be. It
don't appear exactly how it'll be, how we'll be, all of the
particulars. That's what He's saying. But
we know that. We know this. We know this because
God's told us this much, that when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him. How? Sons of God. For we shall
see Him as He is. We'll see Him as He is. We'll
be like Him. We'll be without sin. We'll have His righteousness.
We'll be like Him in that sense. We'll be clothed with His righteousness.
We'll be without sin. We're now the sons of God. Notice the word Beloved. Hang on to that word a moment.
And remember the phrase, ìWe shall be like him.î In 2 Peter 1, 17, ìFor
he received from God the Father honor and glory.î The Lord Jesus
Christ received from His Father honor and glory as a man. He
pleased God and he fulfilled the law. He put away sin. He came and he did his Fatherís
will. He did all that the Father sent him to do. He received from
God the Father honor and glory when there came a voice from
the excellent glory saying, this is my beloved son. Beloved, now we are the sons
of God. Isn't that what John wrote? The
Lord Jesus Christ is beloved of the Father, so are all of
his children beloved of the Father. in whom I'm well pleased. I'm
going to tell you something. As Don Fortner said, now listen,
I'm going to tell you something. If you're his son, if you're
his child, he's pleased with you. You say, well that don't
make sense. It don't make natural sense,
but it makes scriptural sense, spiritual sense. He's pleased
with all of his children. Because they're His sons. And
we're just exactly as He wants us to be. Without sin, we don't
have any sin. The Lord put it all away. Christ
put it all away. We don't have any sin. And we
have the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're righteous. We don't have any sin in the
sight of God. Now, when I look at me, I say
unrighteous. When I look at you, I say unrighteous. I know you,
but I don't know me. We're a mess. And if I asked you right now,
any of you, are you a sinner? You'd say, yeah. But not in Christ. Not in Christ. He's well pleased. We're beloved. His children are
beloved. He loves us. We were by our fallen,
depraved nature the children of wrath, even as others. Children
of wrath, children of sin, even as others. But God, aren't you
glad for those but Gods in the Scripture? He gives a commentary
on this flesh, tells us exactly how we are, puts us down in the
mire and the muck of depravity and sin, and then but God. That means something is changing.
God's not going to change. He's changing us. He's showing
us something. But God who is rich in mercy. Rich in mercy. Now listen to
this next phrase. For His great love were with,
He loved us. We're sons of God. Children of
God. But God who is rich in mercy
for His great love were with, He loved us. even when we were
dead in sins. Loved us even when we were dead
in sins. That means that's all there was
about us, in us and outside us. We just see an inside and out
in every respect. He loved us then. Do you know
who Christ died for? He died for the ungodly. Do you
know who Christ calls to Himself? Not righteous men, but sinners. But all those unrighteous men,
women, boys and girls that He calls, all those He calls are His children. He said, I'll
say to the East, give up. To the West, give up. North,
give up. South, give up. He'll say, I'll call my sons
and daughters from far. I'll call them. They're mine.
He told Jacob, Israel, He said, I formed you. I created you.
You're mine. I've named you. You're mine.
I created you for my glory. Do you know what God is saying
in essence? And what He will say to the heavenly
host and all the world and everything is created? He's going to look
at you and me. We're His children. He's going
to show us off and say, look there. That's my son. He's mine. And we're going to be glorious
in His sight. We've made kings and priests unto God. He's going
to purify Himself a glorious church, not having spot, wrinkle,
or any such thing. He's going to show us off because He loved us. We were
dead in sins. By grace are you saved. And He's
quickened us together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Secondly, because of His love,
those who are led by the Spirit of God are led to the Word of
God. Do you know that all of those
that are His children, that He loves, they're led by the Spirit
of God, and the Spirit of God leads us to the truth? You're going to believe the truth.
You're going to believe the truth. You're going to believe the gospel,
the real gospel. He's going to reveal Christ to
us in the gospel. You're going to say, oh, I believe
that. I believe that. He's going to
give life and faith. Christ is the object of the faith
that God gives. Christ is revealed in His Word,
and He is the truth. He's going to reveal the truth.
John 16, 13. When He comes, the Spirit of
Truth, that is, when He comes, He will guide you into all truth.
He won't speak of Himself, but He's going to speak of me.
It's going to be from Christ, thanks to God. Be careful. And
I know you are. I trust you are. But these folks
are hung up on the Holy Spirit and not on Christ. They're watching. Because the Spirit itself, don't
speak of itself, speaks of Christ. And those that are always setting
forth the Spirit, the works of the Spirit, the operation of
the Spirit, sets forth that as an object and always out there,
the Holy Spirit Himself doesn't need to do that. The Holy Spirit
speaks of Christ. The Holy Spirit reveals the Word of God to the
sons of God. And Christ is the sum and the
substance and the subject. The psalmist wrote this in Psalms
25 and 5, Lead me in thy truth and teach me. Lead me in thy
truth. I want to know the truth. Don't
you? I want somebody to tell me the
truth. No matter what it does to me,
says to me, reveals about me, Are you? I want to know the truth. I didn't used to want to know
the truth. But now I do. I want to know the truth. Why do I want to know the truth?
Because I'm a son of God. And He's leading me that way.
He's leading you that way. You want to know the truth. I
want to hear the gospel. Every time I can, Jeff, I want
to hear the gospel. I don't want to hear a lie. I
want to hear the truth. I want to hear of Christ and redemption
in Him. The truth makes you free. Makes you free. I want to be
free. There ain't nothing like freedom,
is there? I want to be free. And if the Son has made you free,
you are free indeed. I want to be free to worship
God. Free to know the truth. Free to come to the throne of
grace. Free to follow Christ. Free to bow before Him. Oh, that
freedom. Free in Christ. Lead me in thy truth and teach
me, for you are the God of my salvation. On you do I wait all
the day. I'd rather wait all day to hear
the truth than go somewhere real quick and hear a lie in you. Folks wonder why some of you
drive 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 miles or 100, I don't know how
far you drive. It's amazing, people just don't understand.
My dad, I used to drive about 45 miles to church every Sunday.
We'd drive to church, the kids were little, and we'd go home
with somebody or lay down and take a nap on the pew and wait
till service Sunday night. Dad just couldn't understand
that. He said, you probably 75 churches going to that one. What
in the world is wrong? I said, they ain't preaching
what I want to hear. They ain't telling the truth. It's better to drive as far as
you have to drive. Do what you need to do to hear the truth. Why is that? Because we're sons
of God. We're led by the Spirit to the
truth. He said, I'll lead them. I'll lead them. Yeah, you can
hear a lie right quick. You don't have to turn around
twice to hear a lie. Sometimes you have to go to great
lengths to hear the truth. Thy Word, Psalm 119, 105, Thy
Word, the Word of God is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto
my path. The Lord Jesus Christ goes right in front of us and
He shines that light our way. Did you ever walk behind anybody
in the woods in the dark? I used to walk behind my dad.
He didn't care about the limb. I loved him. He was my dad. But
I mean, I got back on my face and I'd be bleeding. He just
swiped through them limbs and he'd come back and just slap
me in the face and tear me up. I'd be ducking. I couldn't see
him. And I thought about it since then. He had a light, but it
was in front of his feet. It wasn't in front of mine. I
was looking way out ahead of him. I was just miserable. But
I loved him and I wanted to follow him, so there I went. Boy, I
wanted that light. I wanted to be near Him. But
I was just thinking, boy, if He just put that light back there
where me and Him both could see. The Lord Jesus Christ, He's a
light and a lamp to our pathway. The Word of God. 2 Thessalonians
2.13, but we are bound To give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord. There's that word again. Beloved of the Lord. Boy, he
loves us, don't he? Just the older I get, the more
I'm seeing that God loves me. And the harder it is to take
in that He loves me. Beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning From the beginning. When was the beginning? I don't know. The scripture says the Lord Jesus
Christ is the beginning. He's the Alpha, the Omega, the
Omega, the beginning, the end, the first and the last. From
the beginning chosen you to salvation. Through sanctification of the
Spirit. Through the separation of the Spirit. By the work of
the Spirit and the belief of the truth. And the work of the
Spirit is to reveal Christ and give life. I've got four or five
more points, but I'm just going to read this passage in close. 1 Corinthians 2, 9-14. But as
it is written, as God has said, eye has not seen nor ear heard,
the natural eye and the natural ear, not seen it or couldn't
understand it, neither has it entered into the heart of man.
It's not even entered into his heart. It's a stranger to him. The things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. And like I said earlier, we love
him because he first loved us. We're his children. But God hath
revealed them to us by his Spirit. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. For the Spirit searches
all things, yea, the deep things of God. Like salvation in Christ. The things of God. Spiritual
things. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the
spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, we're born of that. He said, that's not
what I'm talking about, not the spirit of the world or the wisdom
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. That's what
we received in regeneration. That's what we received in our
birth, our spiritual birth. Not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that
are freely given to us of God. Things freely given. Given freely. I knew a person one time, this
person would never give anyone anything unless they had some
strings attached to it. Now if you ever get rid of it,
I want it back. No, if you're giving it to me,
it's mine. I ain't giving it back to you, I'm keeping it.
You see, you put strings on something, attach strings to it, that's
not any good, it's yours. About a year ago, we was given
a gift, the person said, it's yours, do what you want to with
it. Sell it, burn it, enjoy it, whatever you want to do with
it, it's yours. That's mine. Thank you. Didn't say I want
it back. God's not an Indian giver. I'd say I'm part Indian. But freely given to us of God,
freely given. Which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit
teaches. Comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the
Spirit of God. Why? There's foolishness to it.
It's foolish. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. They are the sons of God that
are led by the Spirit, led to Christ, led to the truth, led in our daily walk, there
is an unseen hand above that leads us through ways I cannot
know. Even though we're not aware,
the farthest thing from our mind, we're yet led by the Spirit of
God. Isn't that something? So I don't
despair. I almost do, but I don't despair because I
know He leads me. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He leads me in the path of righteousness,
for His name's sake. He leads me beside the still
waters. They are the sons of God.