I'm going to read this before and
after the message. Hopefully, by God's grace, it
will take on a different meaning after the message, if you'll
bless the message. 1 John 3, look at verse 1. Behold, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called sons of God. Well, we're going to look this
morning into the most marvelous and mysterious thing or subject
which a mortal man could entertain his brain with. We're going to
look at the fatherhood of God to a human being. In other words,
the adoption of human beings as children of the Most High
God. Now, I know what the world says
of the love of God. We've already been talking about
it. I know how the world says that the love of God is universal,
or it applies to everyone without exception. That's not so. It's just not so. When you read
verses like John 3, 16, we've got to understand some things.
We've got to understand who is talking. God is talking, Christ
is talking, and what he's talking about is the new birth. He's
talking about spiritual birth, regeneration, and who he is talking
to is a religious Jew. Now, listen to me. The Jews back
then and now were the most bigoted people on the face of the earth.
The Jews, God did choose the Jews in the Old Testament. They
were his chosen people, typically. Not the Gentiles, not any other
nation. I read that to you in Amos 3, too. You only have I
known of all the families of the earth, he said. God chose
the Jews. Therefore, the Jews got lifted
up with pride. They got so puffed up and they
became so bigoted and prejudiced and hateful, they called anybody
that wasn't a Jew, they called them a dog. A dog. And therefore, they thought we're
the only chosen people on the face of the earth. And Christ was talking to one
of these fellows. And to be above that, he was
a religion, he was a leader of the Jews. a teacher, a master
in Israel. Oh, he was a top dog. He was a Jew of Jews, a Hebrew
of Hebrews. And Christ was dealing with this
fellow, Henry, and he said, God loves the world. God just doesn't love Jews. He loves the people out of every
tribe, kindred, nation, tongue, Gentile dogs. God so loved. And the way he said so was in
this way. In John 14, God loved in this
way a people that he sent his Son to be a bloody sacrifice. Now, we saw a moment ago how
that in 1 John 4, look back there again, 1 John 4, we saw how that
the word world can mean so many different things. Look at verse
4 again, you are of God, little children, and have overcome them
Who's the them? Well, look at verse 5. They are
of the world. Therefore, they speak of the
world, and the world hears them. Doesn't there seem to be a distinction
in the us and the them all the way through John? 1 John, he
talks about us, and he talks about them. He talks about us,
believers, and they, doesn't he? He talks about believers
and the world. OK? All right. Now turn to Romans
chapter 5 with me. Romans chapter 5. Now, I'm not
preaching this morning to try to prove the point. I'm
not preaching to prove or disprove anything. I'm not preaching as a dissertation of doctrine.
I'm not doing that. I'm preaching doctrine, all right.
But I'm not preaching just to prove doctrine. But I'll tell
you what, though, this needs to be dealt with. I'm getting
sick and tired. I'm sick up to here with all
this talk about the universal love of God. I get so tired of
it. I get so sick of it. Religion
today, what they say about the love of God, they talk about
God loving every single person without exception. That cheapens
and blasphemes the love of God. And I'm tired of it. I'm just
getting sick today. The zeal of God's love is eating
me up. They say God loves you. Everybody
says that every preacher comes down the pike says God loves
you and so do we you know through that? That foul grin, you know that
false grin I Say God loves you, but he can't do anything for
you unless you let him I'm telling you that cheapens the love of
God and It makes the love of God useless,
doesn't it? It makes the love of God vain,
a useless thing. It doesn't do me any good. I
tell you what, somebody who's helpless, hopeless, condemned,
a dead dog sinner who realizes what he is, he needs something
more than love that just wants to and can't. He needs more than
just pity. He needs somebody to love him.
He needs the love of God that will come and do for him what
he can't do for himself. and make dang sure it's done. Take him all the way, love him
eternally, never quit loving him. That's the kind of love
a dying sinner needs. You take a poor widow who's without
a husband, who's living on meager means and so forth, or an orphan
who has no mother or father. That widow, she needs a husband.
to love her. She needs somebody to come get
her, come to where she is, and hand-pick her, and set his love
and affection on her. And that orphan needs somebody
to come down where they are and choose them, pick them out of
a whole bunch of other orphans, and set their affection on them,
and take them all the way home and love them eternally. Never
let them go. Provide for them. Nurture them. Love them. Take care of them. And that's what a real sinner
needs, doesn't it? Needs love that'll do something.
This talk of the universal love of God is cheap talk. I don't
need a love that can't do anything for me. I don't need a love that's
no more powerful than my love. I say I love my daughter, but
if she gets in a circumstance that's beyond my control, I can't
do anything for her. That's not the love of God, is
it? If his children get in a circumstance,
it's in his control. It's always in his control. He's
the sovereign God and his love is sovereign. And no matter what
they get into or what befalls them, he is able and he is willing
to pick them up and save them from that. His love is effectual
love. And to say that God's love doesn't
do anything or can't, only what you let him, that's blasphemy. You'd think a man would fear
to take that on his lips. God loves you so much. He wants to do, but he can't.
Oh, you'd think he'd stop his mouth. God can't. Is there anything
that's too hard for the Lord as Scripture says? Doesn't it
say that? Doesn't God ask that? Is there anything that's too
hard for the Lord? They say there is. God can do
everything but overcome your will. I tell you, I'm sick of it. I'm
sick of it. But like I said, rather than
prove a point this morning, I'm not trying to prove a point.
I think most everybody in here believes what I'm saying here.
I want to talk to some real sinners this morning who need this love
of God and rejoice and glory and praise God for this love. That's who I want to talk to
this morning. Look at Romans 1. Chapter 5, verse 8. God commendeth his love toward
us. Who's the us? Go back and read
Romans 1, talking all the way through there to believers. To
believers. It's written to the saints. It says, "...all that be in Rome,
beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you, and peace
from God our Father." It's written to believers. God commendeth
his love toward us. Who's the us? Those that be in
Rome, those that are called by God, called to be saints, chosen
by God, believer, commendeth His love toward us." Now, get
this, in that, in this way, God so loved us in this way that
while we were yet sinners, He sent His Son down here to
be a bloody sacrifice, slit His Son's throat. Now, get a hold
of this, folks. God doesn't love sinners. That's
not what they're saying. God loves us, believers, who
are sinners. There's a difference. I'm going
to go on to explain this in a minute. But listen, we're sinners, though.
The fact is we are sinners. The fact that God Almighty, the
holy and righteous God of heaven, who's of two pure eyes to look
on Think upon iniquity, look upon iniquity. The sun and the
moon aren't pure in his sight, the Scripture says. To think
that this holy and righteous God would have anything to do
with such maggots as this human race. That's what David said
in Psalm 8, wasn't it? What is man? Have you ever stopped? We went up to, it's Kings Island
Amusement Park, last Monday. Took our daughters there. That's
Todd, Nybert and I. You know, the more people you're
around, the more you're around people, mankind is vile, I'm
telling you. Every public restroom bears witness
of the filthiness of man. He's the most filthy and wicked
and vile creature on the face of the earth. Yes, he is. Filthy. Brother Todd and I were standing
there looking around us, you just can't even, the floor, the
walls, you let a human being get near anything, he'll defile
it, won't he? filthy, we're looking at all
the people just tattooed, covered, just looking like dirt, to think
that God would love any of us. And some of us are right out
of that mess, still got a lot of it in us, don't we? We wake up in the morning, just
the vilest of thoughts, right now maybe, the wickedest thoughts
going through your brain, the fact that God would even think
of, much less love some of these people, set his affections, and
say, I'm going to love them no matter what. In spite of that
vile, wretched creature, I'm going to love him. It has to
be sovereign. He has to make himself love us,
doesn't he? We're unlovely. Oh, I tell you,
the love of God is sovereign. I tell you, it's unconditional,
too. It better be unconditional, hasn't it? He does not love anybody.
If it was conditioned on anybody, if it had anything to do with
anybody's good character, he wouldn't love anybody. There's
none good, no, not one. There's none that doeth good,
none righteous. You see, the holy God, the righteous Lord,
loveth righteousness, right? Terry, this explains to us where
the love of God has to be, doesn't it? That's what you said in your
message Wednesday night. He only loves righteous things,
and he can only love righteous people. And how are we going
to be righteous except be made righteous in Christ? And this
work of salvation is God doing everything it takes to transform
one of these vile, wretched, sinful, iniquitous creatures
into a son of God, lovely, holy, spotless, unblameable, unapprovable,
perfect as Jesus Christ. This is what salvation is all
about. God can't have anything to do with us, Henry Sowell.
He won't let us into heaven unless we're just like Christ. And that's
what this whole thing, you see, when we talk about holiness and
all that, what we're talking about here. We're not talking
about a judicial, just a legal transaction necessary. We're
talking about a work of God in three, four, about concerning
a glorification of a human being into a son of God. Look back at Galatians 4. Now,
here's our text. Galatians 4. Galatians chapter
4. A son of God. You see, the reason
we can't comprehend this is because we didn't see Christ. We can't
comprehend what holiness is. The closest we see is in some
of our brethren. We see some good traits and so
forth. That's the grace of God. That's
a little bit of the image of Christ. But I'm telling you,
Christ Good. Everything about it. The fiber of his being is perfect. And that's what God's doing with
us. It'll never be perfect in this life, no. But it's maturing.
It is maturing. We don't see it. Others do. Well, now he says here, now I
say, Galatians 4, verse 1, that the heir, as long as he is a
child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord
of all. Here we are in another letter.
Now, who is Paul talking to? Over in chapter 1, he says, Paul,
I'm talking to the churches of Galatia. Grace to you and peace
from God. He's talking to believers again
here. All right? Right? Understood. Paul is talking
here in Galatians 4.1 to believers, true people of God. And he says
now, he's talking about us being heirs, the heir. A believer in
Christ is called an heir, an heir of the promises. Look at
verse 29 of chapter 3. If you're Christ's, then you
are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. OK?
Heirs. If we're a believer, if we trust,
rest, believe in, cling to, love, are recipients of the mercy,
the grace, the salvation that's in Christ, we're heirs. That
is, we're beneficiaries of the love of God, all the promises
of God, the salvation of God, everything that, the blessings
and provisions of God. The Scriptures call us joint
heirs with Christ. And do you remember who was it?
Was it Donnie or, it doesn't matter who said it, at our conference? Talked about us being joint heirs
with Christ, and that is not in the sense that, oh, we're
going to give, here's the whole. Here's a whole of what God has
to offer, and here he sliced a little slice of pie over here,
and a slice over here. That's not the sense in which
we're heirs. We're joint heirs of the whole
thing. Everything that Christ has got coming to him. What has
Christ got coming? All things are delivered to me and my Father.
We're joint heirs in the sense that all that the Father has
given Christ, he's given to us. Can't get a hold of that much,
can we? But it says now here we're heirs. We're the heir.
We're heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. But the heir, as
long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant. As long
as a child or an immature, weak, ignorant little baby doesn't
appear to differ from a servant. Now every, though he be Lord
of all, every human being serves God, whether they want to or
not, whether they know it or not. Everything on the face of
the earth serves God. Yes, they do. He is Lord of both
of the dead and the living. And us, even though when we were
dead in trespasses and sins and so forth, we were children of We were children of God, though
we differed nothing from the rest of the world, though we
didn't appear to look any different than anybody else, though we
didn't appear to be any different, though we're heirs and joint
heirs of God. Now look, verse 2, and he is
under, this heir is under tutors and governors until the time
appointed to the father. The law, the law is a tutor,
a teacher. Scripture calls it a schoolmaster,
right? A schoolmaster. The law teaches.
The law instructs. The law admonishes. The law rebukes. The law punishes. The law gives
strict, severe, unbending punishment. And the Scripture says all of
us are born under the law. Yeah, it does. Until the time
appointed of the Father. Until his good time, when he
shows the children you're no longer under that law. Now look
at it. So, you see, the image here that
he's given, this is kind of a story, an analogy Paul's given here,
is of a rich landowner. Here's a rich, say, king. He
has a son who's a prince, and we're princes to God. God's the
king. He has a son who's a prince. Now, he puts that son, he's a
little child, he's rebellious, he's like all other children,
brought forth from the womb, speaking lies, he's rebellious,
and this He puts him under a hard, strict taskmaster for his rearing,
for his instructions and so forth. Places him in the air under a
governor to keep him in line. You know, you've seen old English
plays and stories like that. God in his goodness gave us the
law. The law is good and holy and
just. David said, I love thy law. We
never make cast disparaging remarks on the law of God. The law of
God is holy. It's good. I love it. I love
it. God is good in giving us the
law. Listen, what would the world be like if God hadn't given the
law? He said in one place, I can't recall it right away, but he
said the law was given because of transgressions, right? Until
he should come. The law was given because of
transgression. The law exposes, first of all, it exposes sin
and corruption. I had not known sin except by
the law. The law's good, even to the child of God. The law
restrains all manner of evil, or some manner of evil, the law. If there were not laws in our
country, we'd have total anarchy, wouldn't it? It's almost that
way anyway. But think if there was no governing laws, it'd be
just like the heart of Africa, wouldn't it? cannibalism and
all that. The goodness of God gave us the
law, but here's the goodness of God not leaving us under it. Now, here's the good news. This
is what the gospel entails. When I enter the law, we're under
grace. I'm going to get into this in
a moment. Now, even so, we, verse 3, we, when we were children,
children of wrath, even as others. Remember? Paul said that. Disobedient,
strangers from the commonwealth, enemies in our mind by our wicked
work. Even so, we, when we were children, we were in bondage
under the elements, the rudiments of the world, things that had
to do with this flesh. Come on, stay with me now. You're
going to get some blessing out of this. We were children of the
world. We were orphans without a heavenly father, seemingly.
Aliens, enemies. Yet God kept us in check. I remember my mother used to
say that when she was praying for me, when I was a wild buck
or less of a wild buck out there, my mother said she, after a while,
she started praying not so much that the Lord would save me,
it might not be his will, she did pray that he would save me.
But she prayed that he would restrain me. Or just keep me
from evil. That's what he tells us to pray
to. Delivers from temptation. God
kept us in check by his power. He restrained us by his grace.
Restrained us by his grace. He reserved us. We were reserved,
waiting. Waiting for his good time of
redemption. The time when the gospel call
would come and be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Now, some of us were in the rudiments of this—all of us were in the
rudiments of this world. Some of us were in religious
rudiments. Some of us were in sinful, wicked rudiments. There's
no difference. There's not a bit of difference.
Some of us were wicked, vile, wretched sinners in the church
house. Some of us were wicked, vile,
wretched sinners in the bar. There's not one whit difference. That's what Paul talks about
in Romans 2. There's no difference. Jew, Greek, Gentile, Jew. No difference whatsoever. They're
doing just as simple as the other. They're both unbelievers. They
don't give a whip. Neither one of them give a whip
for God. One thinks he is, but his heart's far from him. One
doesn't pretend to think so, but his heart's far from him.
Okay? Okay, now in the fullness of time, according to prophecy,
look at verse 4. When the fullness of time was
come, That is, in the fullness of time according to prophecy.
Why did God wait so long? You know, it was 400 years after
the prophecy of Malachi, before Christ was born. A long time. And the world dwelled without
the Christ for 4,000 years. Why did God wait so long? Because
every jot and tittle must be jotted and tittled. Every single
prophecy must be written concerning him. Everything must be written
to give absolute, perfect, undeniable proof and evidence of the coming
Christ. Everything must be written, all written of him for the fulfilling
of the scriptures. This is how you know the Christ.
So when the fullness of time was come, when everything was
written that needed to be written, God sent forth his Son. God sent
forth his Son. He said, Lo, I come, in the volume
of the book that's written of me, to do thy will, O God. Here I am. Well, I'm here. The angels pronounced it, didn't
they? We've waited. That's what Isaiah
25.9 said. Lo, this is our God. We've waited
on him. 4,000 years the world waited for this Redeemer. Here
He is, that's what the angel said, He's here! It said a multitude
of heavenly hosts. He's here! He's here! He came to His own, His own receiving
of it. That tells me He has received
it. Who's going to receive it? that were chosen by him, and
that election of grace before the Father. See, God didn't just,
let's try something. Son, you want to go down there
and give it a shot? I've done all I can do. Now it's
up to you. Son, go try your best. They won't
have me. They've rejected me. You go down
there and try what you can. And then they kill Christ. Oh,
no, that failed too. What are we going to do now?
Well, it's up to His will. Our hands are tied. We've got
no hands, no feet. Isn't that blasphemy? No, no,
this was a predetermined decree, sovereign decrees of God whereby
man must be saved. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Terry, Christ
must save his people. The blood of Christ must save
his people because God said it would. He must. And in God's
good time, he sent forth his Son. John 6, verse 38 says, I
came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will
of him that sent me. What is that will? This is the
Father's will. I hear a lot of talk about the
Father's will, don't you? Now, God's will, I don't have a wonderful
plan for your life. This is God's will for you. What
is God's will for me, man? This is the will of him that
sent Christ, that everyone that seeeth the Son, How are they
going to see? They're blind. You've got to
open their eyes. Everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on
him. Who's going to believe on him? Those that are called by
his grace. May have everlasting life. And
I will raise him up at the last day. I will. And the Jews murmured. And Christ said, Lo, I come to
do. God sent Christ. You see, God so loved the world.
That is, a multitude of people is a sand. It seems like the
world. There's so many. When we get
to heaven, if we get to heaven, it's going to seem like God saved
the world, everybody. There's going to be so many. Satan, somebody said this, one
of the old writers, Satan's not going to have the victory over
Christ. He's not going to have more in hell than Christ has
in heaven. Christ must have the preeminence in all things. Satan's
not going to have more servants than Christ. No, think of the
myriad, think of the millenniums of, the millions of children
who have died in infancy. Ah, they're saved. God so loved the world, a multitude
of people that he gave his son. John, we didn't choose him, he
chose us. God chose the people before the
foundation of the world, right? We didn't call upon him, he called
upon us, right? We did call, but not until after
he called us. We didn't come to him. Oh no,
we were all gone astray from the womb, right? Every man has
gone to his own way. But Christ, who is the way, came
down and said, now you're going my way. It's going to be my way
or no way. And we didn't come to him until
Christ was sent to us. You remember over in Samuel,
when Samuel said that to Jesse? I keep thinking about that verse
over and over. Samuel said to Jesse, now, we're
not going to sit down until that boy comes here. We're not going
to sit down until David come hither. And, folks, we're not
going to sit, be seated in the heavenlies. We're not going to
sit around that table until the Son of David come to us and save
us by his grace. Thakomah Shabboshaim. Oh, he didn't stand a so-called
chance, did he? He was an enemy of the king.
But the king came and fetched him, didn't he? And what did
he do? Sat him at his table. Old Masturbation wasn't going
to sit down until David sent someone hither to fetch him.
Oh, so clear. And Christ, the eternal Son of
God, ye very God of very God, came. And he's a son of man. Look at it, verse 4. He said
he's made of a woman. Made of a woman. The Scripture
says, did you notice anything there? Does that remind you of
Isaiah 9, 6? God sent his son, made of a woman. Unto you a child
is born. Unto us a child is born, yes. But son is given, right? There was a man, yes, he was
born of a woman, yes, but the Son of God lived eternally. He
was given. He just took up residence in
a body. He was made of a woman, made under the law. Listen to
this now. This is blessed. He was subject
to his own law. He didn't have to do this. Christ
was made, Christ who is God, was under the strict observance
and requirements and conditions of God's holy law that said,
this do and live. This do and live. Now, there's
not a man in here who's subject to his own law. Rick, you're
a husband and a father. You laid down rules for Sarah.
They're for Sarah. You tell Sarah to clean up her
room or whatever it may be, whatever type Love as a man. Now, listen. Adam, the first
man, failed miserably. He failed miserably. He broke
God's law. He disobeyed and failed. He was
of the earth earthy. But the Scripture said the second
man, who is the Lord from glory, he didn't fail. He said, He shall
not fail, nor be discouraged. It's tough, yes, living under
that perfect law of God, but he shall not fail. He lived that
law perfectly. Yea, the scripture says he magnified
the law. You see, I hear religionists
today talking about the law of God. They say, you shall not
this, you shall not that, the Ten Commandments is a rule of
life, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. Christ did
more than negative obedience to the law. The law requires
more than negative obedience, that is, thou shalt not. The
law requires that we love the Lord our God with all our heart,
mind, soul, and endeavors. You see, it requires much more
than just thou shalt not. It requires thou shalt be perfect,
to be accepted. That was your text, wasn't it?
How are we going to be accepted? We're altogether imperfect in
the Beloved, in the Oldest Son. He was made, that's the reason
he was made under the law. Why? Look at verse 5, "...to
redeem them that were under the law." to redeem them that were
under the law. You see, whatsoever the law saith,"
in Romans 3, verse 19, "...whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them
that are under the law," who? Everybody. Everybody. "...that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty, subject to the punishment and
the wrath of God." Now, listen. What is the punishment of God
in sin? The soul that sinneth most surely
what? Die, the spirit, the soul. That is, eternal annihilation
of that person, condemnation and destruction, the soul that's
in it. But Christ came, the Scripture
says, to redeem them that were under the law, to redeem them. The psalm says there is a redeemer. Job said it, the oldest book
in the Bible says, ah, there's a Redeemer. I know there is. God wouldn't have let this thing
go on if there wasn't. God wouldn't have let this thing go on by
chance. Well, sure, I hope it works out. Yeah, I'll throw the
dice. Now, there was a Redeemer, there
was a Savior, Steve, before there was a sinner. How can God foreknow
things certainly? Because he foredid things certainly
before the foundation of the world. There is a Redeemer, and
that is Christ, a mere kinsman. You know what Naomi said to Ruth? Ruth is a Redeemer. Oh, we're
helpless, we're hopeless, we'll never be. Yeah, no, there's a
Redeemer, a mere kinsman. He's got the right. He's got
the right, he's got the will, he's got the power to redeem
us and give us back everything that we lost. How? By being made a man. You say,
a man. That's what Peter was preaching
on Pentecost to those Jews. You hear this word. Men of Israel,
hear these words. It's the sweetest words a mortal
man can ever know. Jesus of Nazareth, a man's been
approved. Sent him through the ages. A
man! God has accepted a man. What
significance does that have? This man can be accepted. This man can be accepted now,
if God hadn't approved of that man. See, God's going to judge
the world in righteousness by that man, either in him or out
of him. Is this making sense to you? There is a Redeemer. He has the
right to redeem, because he's a man. Because as a man, he lived
the law perfectly and paid what we owe of imperfection. He's
willing. Thank God he's willing! He became obedient to death,
even the death of the cross, he was willing to go the way
that we should have gone. For the joy, he thought nothing
of the shame. The Scripture says he thought
nothing of the shame for the joy of redeeming a people. I wish I could get this out.
I feel like Brother Walter Gruber. We had that coming to us, but Christ took it and saved
us. You see, they that believe in Christ will never be put to
shame, the Scripture says. If we're not in Christ, you're
talking about the shame and the horror and the guilt and the
judgment that's going to come upon us at the judgment day. Shame after shame as the screen
is put up there and every sin and iniquity is brought against
us, every charge against us. Look at you, groveling in sin
and dirt like that. Look at you, in all the myriads
and hosts of heaven, look at what we've done. You understand? It's just plastered up, plastered
up there, but not those in Christ. There's no condemnation, no judgment,
none of that, but love. Enter into a blessed peace and
joy and fellowship. Well done, you good, well, I
haven't done anything. Come on in. Yeah, you have, he
did it for you. Come right on in here, you lovely, spotless,
holy child of God. That's the reason we're going
to be singing unto Him, unto Him, unto Him, not unto us, unto
Him. Whoa! Excuse me. I can't stand
it. To redeem us, a curse, you see. We don't understand it. We can't
get over it. We can't understand it. We can't
enter into it. The curse, you see, death. That rich man in
hell, he knows something about it. Just a touch. The curse of the law is death. Death, as said back in chapter
3, verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us. The gospel is substitution. in
the state of, he was made sin. When God saw Christ on that cross,
what he saw was King's Island. What he saw was every public
restroom in the country. Sin! You know how much we hate
all that perversion and iniquity? Go down in the inner cities of
New York, or go down to the red light district, go down to the
adult, all this stuff, San Francisco and all that. We feel like a
We'd be like a lot of vexed through the conversation. Christ had
all this heat on him, and God saw him. He said, I'm going to get rid
of that stuff. He was a sin bearer. And folks,
we've still got those grave clothes on us. We still smell like that,
don't we? If you're honest, if we're honest,
we've got that in us. It's just still running in our
veins, that sin. And every now and then it rears its ugly head.
And the price of our freedom from death and condemnation was
the blood of God's Son, the blood and His righteousness. He had
to live that life and die that death for us. Now, here's the good part, as
if that wasn't good. Look at this, verse 5, that we
might receive adoption of sons. Now, hang on to your britches,
as Donnie would say, we're going to jump a creek. Sons of God! Oh, my, the eternal reason and
purpose why we're being saved is to be like Christ, like I
said, the firstborn. You see, Christ is the spitting
image of God. He was spit on, literally. But he is the spit and the expressed
image of the Father. He's called the firstborn among
many brethren. And like Barnard said, God, one
day he looked at his son at breakfast and said, I want a whole bunch
of boys just like that. I know that's putting it familiarly,
but that's the way it is. God loved Christ so much, He
said, if I want to have any more sons, they're going to be like
that one. You can't improve on that one. You can't improve on it. And
this is the job of the Holy Spirit, conforming, molding, making a
people just like Christ, until someday, someday we appear with
Christ and we're going to look just like Him. We're going to
be like Him. I thought, is this here incomprehensible
or what? The reason we can't grasp this,
the reason we're not as interested as we should be, is because it does not yet now
appear unto us what we shall be, but when we see Him, we're
going to be like Him. There's some people on this earth
right now that I'd like to be like. I'll just go ahead and
say it. I love and admire so dearly Brother
Tom Harding of The National. Just the finest specimen of a
human being I've ever run into in my life. That's just one of
many. I wouldn't mind being just like
that man in every way. Right, men? He is truly Christ-like. You know why he's so lovely?
He's Christ-like. And we're going to be infinitely
better than that. We'll be just like Christ. You
see, this is every malady, every problem we have is because we
don't look like Christ, we don't act like Christ. All the sin,
all the problems we face is because we're not like Christ. And any
peace, enjoyment, comfort, help, hope, blessings we're going to
have is God conforming us to be like Christ. His holy, righteous, obedient,
lovely Son. Now, you see, look at there,
verse 6. We might receive the adoption.
You are sons. You are sons. You remember back
in 1 John 4, 17? As he is, so are we in this world. It says you are sons loved of
God. Does this put in perspective
the love of God, huh? Does it? Where the love of God
is found in Christ and those being made like Christ? Does
it put it in perspective where the love of God is? Does it?
Check it out. We're loved of God because we're
being conformed. We don't bear much in, but what
God sees of Christ in us, He loves us, accepts us, blessed,
holy. Because your son's God has sent
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of Christ. That tells who the Spirit
is, the Spirit of Christ. He sent him into your hearts.
He sent the Holy Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying. This is you crying now. Spurgeon said this is like the
first out of a baby's mouth when it finally recognizes and realizes
it's mama or it's daddy. Bye-bye-bye. Tryin' its best to express itself
to that parent. It's love. Its eyes are open
wide and it loves it, but it—bye-bye. Now, I'm talkin' in tongues here.
I'm givin' an illustration. Emma! What's the most endearing
term? You know up to a mama or a daddy.
Daddy. Dada! Right? God. Dad? We can call God, Dad. Now, believer, now this is the
reason I'm saying it's blasphemy to tell everybody that God loves
them. But I can tell every believer in here who trusts in Christ,
I can tell you God is your heavenly Father, and He loves you like
a daddy, more than a daddy. If you being evil, Joe Parks,
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more?
This perfect, holy, righteous Father gives good things, right
things, right things, the best things for His children, the
holy God. Now, he says, look at this, verse
7, "...wherefore, you are no more a servant." That is, a servant
to rules and regulations. This was what Paul had to deal
with in Galatians, right? Why, as though, why as though
you're not subject to this world and so forth? Why, if you're
a believer and all, why are you subject to rules such as testament,
testament and act? Cardinal ordinances and all that.
You're a son of God. Let me say this, though, it's
not that we're without law to God, we're under law to Christ,
but it's a whole different ballgame. We have a loving tender. This
is the reason we don't have to wear a hat. It's the reason we don't have to be
literally bound by rules and regulations. Oh, I better not
do that. Oh, I better not drink that.
Oh, I might get, you might, no. He's a loving, kind, tender,
gracious, merciful, wise heavenly being. He knows you're praying.
He remembers you're subject to . . . I'm not going to beat you
over the head, make you sit rigid. Oh, this is what we call the
glorious liberty of the sons of God. Those that don't know
anything about it, they're not in it, haven't experienced it.
You're no more servant, that is, of sin, not a servant to
sin. I'm not giving anybody a license to sin. We're servants of Christ
is the difference. Not for you to serve sin or the
world or self, but Christ. Christ. Now, look at it. He says,
not a servant, but a son. A son, and if a son, an heir. An heir of God through Christ. You see that? A couple more minutes. It says, an heir of God. Not
a servant, but a son. A son of God and an heir of God. What is our portion? What have
we got coming to us? Genesis 15, he said to Abraham,
I am your exceeding great reward. You get me. The world gets the
riches. You know, like little children,
they say, I want some of those toys. But you don't need it,
son. I'm giving it to them. I'm giving
them whatever their heart desires. I'm giving it to them in this
world. You give me. You see, it does not yet appear. We don't
understand it, do we? We're little children. We don't
understand what we're getting, Barbara. We don't understand what we've
got coming to us. We get in a little glimpse, every
now and then, just a tiny, faint little mustard seed glimpse of
what we've got coming to us in Christ. And we rejoice with joy
unspeakable. But then our joy is going to
be let loose. You talk about whooping. This is the reason we can't whoop
now. This is the reason we can't rejoice now, because we're bound
by flesh. We can't see, we can't understand,
we can't enter into it. We're going to praise God to
the top of our lungs, and we're going to enter into the joy of
the Lord. You see, everything good we enjoy
in this life—everything good in this life is the Lord. He only is good, and everything
good about this world is the Lord still. And we're going to
be consumed, filled to the brim with the Lord himself. We're
going to enjoy him. That's what David said. Whom have I in heaven, my faith?
What do I want to see in heaven? Mama? No. My mama. Who is my mama and papa? The
Christ. And whom have I on earth to say
to? In the air, being an heir of God. An heir of God through
Christ. It says through Christ. We have
all freedom and access to God as a child. It says over in Ephesians
3, 12, in whom, in Christ, we have boldness. Now, listen to
this. I'm going to quit. We have boldness
and access with confidence by the faith of, there it is again,
him, of Christ. We have boldness. Paul dealt
with this in Ephesians. Paul dealt with it in Hebrews
4 and Hebrews 10. This boldness, before we can
come boldly to the throne of grace, to ask help in time of
need. Let me illustrate that. You'll be turning to 1 John again,
1 John chapter 3. Let me read this to you again,
1 John chapter 3. I'll quit with this illustration
and then read this passage. We have access to God. Roberta, the world is talking
about how you just run up to God. You can't do that. The Jews
of old, people of old, they knew better than that. They didn't
dare come near that mountain that burned with fire and so
forth, let that be consumed. They knew they had to have a
mediator. They knew that much. Moses, I said, Moses, you go
speak to God for us. God can't be just approached
in your way. You've got to be in Christ. You've got to be wrapped
in Him. He's got to carry you to the Father. But we, as sons
now, you remember when Christ said there in John 16, He said,
now you can go to the Father. He loves you, too, through me. You can go to the Father and
ask Him anything you want to ask Him. I'm not saying you get
everything you ask for. Because most of the time you'll
ask a miss, why? You're a little child. Daddy, I want bubble gum. You're about to eat dinner soon. You can't spoil your dinner.
You understand? We might ask a miss, but you can ask anything. And you can come any old time.
Any old time. Abraham Lincoln had a son whose
name was Tad. Tad Lincoln. He loved that boy
dearly. Now, Abraham Lincoln was president
of the most powerful country on the face of the earth, the
most powerful man on the face of the earth at that time, Abraham
Lincoln, president, the commander-in-chief He had a special door to the
White House built for his son, Tad. A special door to his office
built for his son, Tad, in which Tad could come to him at any
time he wanted to. Now, he could be sitting in there
talking to the war office. He could be sitting in there
talking to his Secretary of State, the Treasurer, visiting diplomats. He could be sitting in there
dealing with serious matters, with weighty problems of the
country and the world at large and so forth. He could be sitting
there, but Ted could come in any old time he wanted to. Dad,
the shoelace is broken. Wait a minute, gentlemen, we've
got time to sunshine. But, Mr. Perkins, no, that's
for son. He gets preference over you.
I know it seems trivial and minor, but you get this, you get a hold
of what this says. The son is of God. God's controlling
the universe. Tell him that way to imagine.
And you remember when Christ walked down the street one day? Christ, the Son of God, on a
mission, going to the cross to bear the weight of the sin of
the world, some old woman with an issue of blood touched Him,
looking for Him, reached Him, and He stopped. The Son of God,
the Creator, stopped what He was doing to deal with some old
beggar. Now look at 1 John 3, verse 1.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us, that we should be called sons
of God. Daddy, my shoelace is broken. Oh, folks, we get a load of that. God help us. Okay, stand with
me, and I'll dismiss. Dear God, we... Words are... Words are so empty and hollow
to describe our feelings and our
thanks. Lord God, forgive us for not
being thankful like we ought to be. God, help us. Please forgive us for How grateful
and how thankful we are that you know our frames that were
children and were dust. And we just can't, Lord, we just
can't enter into these things like we'd like to. We just can't
receive them. We can't rejoice over these things
like we'd like to. Lord, help us. Forgive us, first
of all, but help us to realize these things, and if we did,
if we understood, If we believe just a little bit,
oh, we'd never have a complaint, and we'd never have a worry.
Lord God, reveal yourself to us in a special way as the Father. You children, sons of God, what
manner of love. And it's all in Christ, how we
thank you for Christ, the son of your love, and your love for
us through him. In that blessed name, we pray
and have met together. Amen.