Alright, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. The past few Sunday mornings
I've been dealing with what I call the realms of salvation. There
are four realms of salvation. And all of these realms of salvation
I believe are important for our understanding, for those of us
who claim to be saved. And that, you know, it's a sad,
sad thing that people, many people claim to be saved, but they don't
understand the reality and the scriptural teaching of salvation.
And that's why I wanted to do these messages. The first realm
was the eternal realm of salvation. I call them realms because salvation
is a kingdom. Being a citizen of the kingdom
of heaven, the kingdom of God, subject of the king, Christ the
king of kings, Lord of lords. And if you're a Christian, true
Christian, if you're saved, a sinner saved by grace, then your citizenship
is not in this world. Scripture teaches this now. Christ
said you're in the world but you're not of the world. The
world there he's talking about is the world in opposition to
Christ. The unbelieving, the fallen world. Now we fell in Adam. And by nature
of the world. But God delivers us from that
if we're saved. That's what salvation is. There's
several words for salvation. Deliverance. Redemption. We could go on and on about that.
But the first realm is the eternal realm, and we have to speak of
that. That's one that we can't really grasp and bring down to
our level because it's just too high above us. But God is eternal,
and He reveals this about Himself in the Scripture. When I preached
on that, somebody would ask, you know, well, if we can't understand
it, why preach on it? Well, because it's in the Bible.
And I don't have the choice to say, well, I'm going to leave
this. You know, the Bible is not a supermarket. I can take whatever
brand I want to take, you know. If it's in the Scriptures, we're
to preach it. And if any man says, well, I
know it's there, but I'm not going to preach that, he's claiming
to be wiser than God. The Bible says the Scriptures
are able to make thee wise unto salvation. That's what I want
to be. That's what I want you to be.
But God is eternal. And this salvation that he has
purposed and freely provided in Christ is older than this
world. Older than the world. Think about
it. The preaching of the gospel of salvation is the preaching
of the terms and the provisions and the promises and the accomplishments
of an eternal covenant. Christ Himself, who is our Savior,
is eternal. He's the second person of the
triune Godhead. The Son of God, without beginning,
without end. The Alpha and the Omega. The
eternal I Am. I Am. I Am. Somebody said, well
you can divide it up. I have been, I am, I will be.
He's the eternal presence. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. You can't grasp that mentally. But it's so. And I believe that's
what the men of the Bible, you know, that express these things.
I believe that's where they come to. I believe that's where we
come to. That you just step back in awe and say, what a great
and glorious God we have. Hallelujah, what a Savior. This
salvation was given us, Paul said, in Christ Jesus before
the world began. God chose a people. I know some
people don't like that, but the Bible teaches it. and predestinated
them to become, to be made like unto the image of his son. That's
what predestination is about. A fellow told me one time, he
said, I don't believe in that predestination. And I said, well,
where do you think that come from? I mean, did somebody just
pick that word out of the air and just say, well, I'm going
to stick that into a religious context or something? No, it
came from the Bible. So he said, do you believe it?
I said, I believe what the Bible teaches about it. And the Bible
teaches it. So it didn't come from me. It
didn't come from Noah Webster. It came from the Lord. That's His Word. That's His truth. And He said to men like Paul,
He said, Paul, write it down. And you read it to the church
at Rome. Write it down and read it to the church at Ephesus.
We're to see it and to know it and to bow to it. Submit! You
know, salvation is a lot about submission. We just don't like
submission. In the Old Testament, or in the
New Testament too, you know what they call that? Stiff-necked.
Just won't bend. And that's what God the Holy
Spirit does when He saves a sinner. He brings that sinner to bend,
to bow, to submit. Submit to Christ. And now we're
talking about the legal realm. There's the eternal realm, the
legal realm. We're going to start talking
in a couple of weeks about the spiritual realm, which what I
mean by that, and I hesitate to use that term because all
of salvation is spiritual. We're part of a heavenly spiritual
kingdom, citizens of the spiritual Jerusalem. But what I mean by
that is the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation, in applying
it to us individually in our experience. And then we're going
to talk about the glorified realm. That's future. When we're glorified
with Christ. There's the four realms. But
we're talking about the legal realm of salvation. And when
we talk about the legal realm of salvation, we're talking about
two things. I preached on one last week. Our justification
before God. Now right there is the ground
of our salvation. When we talk about the ground,
what are we talking about? Well, let's put it this way.
Now, we talk about judgment. Here's the judgment. You come
before God at judgment. Now, upon what ground before
a holy God will you claim salvation? Upon what ground will you say,
Lord, allow me to enter your presence, enter your fellowship
eternally, enter heaven? upon what ground will you stand? What reason? And this has to
do with our justification before God. And the Bible teaches that
in order to be saved, we must be just before God. And God must
be just. He must do right to justify us. How's he going to do that? You
know, in the law, under the law, if a person's guilty, they're
guilty. And there's no way of changing that. And technically
speaking, if we went by the letter of the law, the law says that
if you've done the crime, you do the time. It doesn't always
happen in our courts, but that's what the law says. Well, God
can't change His law. God cannot pervert His law. God
cannot deny His law. He must be true to the law. Why?
Because He must be true to Himself. He's a holy God. And so when
he justifies a sinner, he's got to be just in doing it. And we
talked about that in Romans chapter 8. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. And that's
our justification before God. Think about that, though. To
be just before God. You know what that means? That
means to be cleared of all guilt. No guilt. No condemnation. How is that possible? Only in
Christ. Only by His blood. Justified
by His blood. He died for me the death that
I earned and deserved. He came under the curse of the
law. He was made sin. My sins were charged to him. The debt of my sin, the condemnation,
the guilt, the curse of the law was laid to his account. He took
it willingly. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter. And what that means is he did it because he wanted
to do it. John 13 says he loved his own
until the end, until the finishing of the work, his own people.
And he went under the curse of the law, the penalty of the law,
for his people, for his sheep. He said the good shepherd lays
down his life. For who? The sheep. The church,
he bought and purchased the church with his own blood. That's what
sin demands, death. The law demands death because
of sin. But when our sins were charged to him, he died. And
we're cleared of all guilt. But not only that, and that's
in God's sight now, not in the sight of each other. I mean,
we look at each other, we see a lot of stuff going on, don't
we? A lot of bad stuff, a lot of messing up, a lot of sin.
But we're talking about in God's sight legally. The books are
clear. God sees no sin in His people
as far as that legal guilt. Not guilty. Not guilty. And that's not pretend. That's
not God making a fictional statement. It's real. Because God said it. God judges according to truth.
Somebody paid the penalty, but not me. Christ did. Somebody
had to pay. But not only that, we stand before
God righteous. Now how are we made righteous?
Not by our works, you see. But by His righteousness, Christ's
righteousness charged to us. The merit of His obedience unto
death. He is, that's why He's called
Jehovah Sid Canu, the Lord our righteousness. But that's, now
that's our justification before God. His, our sins imputed, charged
to Him. His righteousness imputed, charged
to us. That's the legal realm of salvation.
And don't let anybody diminish that. For you, don't let anybody
Put a black mark on it. Don't let anybody call it a legal
fiction. I told you that. That's what the Catholic Church
calls it, a legal fiction. Because, you see, they want works
involved. Man wants his works. Man wants some place to glory
other than Christ. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross. You see? That's our legal justification. Well, the second part of the
legal realm of salvation is this, and I want you to pay close attention.
It's our adoption into His family. Our adoption into His family. You know, it's an awesome thing
from the Word of God to think about a sinner. A sinner like
me. Sinners like you. Being declared
not guilty. Being declared righteous before
a holy God. who knows my every thought, my
every motive. He knows everything I have done,
am doing, or will do. Things that, listen, things that
you don't know about me, God knows. He's omniscient. And yet He declares me not guilty
because of one thing. Why? Because I joined the church?
Because I got baptized? No, because of one person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. His blood has washed away all
my sins. His righteousness is mine. That's
an awesome thought. That God looks upon somebody
like me, a wretch like me, and says righteous just because of
one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's an awesome thing. Couldn't
we spend eternity just meditating on that? But hold on. There's more. You see, the Bible
says, in Romans 5 and verse 20, it says, where sin abounded. And the picture there in the
wording actually draws the picture this way. Where sin is overflowing
us like a flood. We're drowning in a sea of sin.
That's what we are by nature. So where sin abounded, Grace
did much more abound. Now, how much more? How much
better can it get? Well, not only are... You know,
it's one thing to free the prisoner and clear him of all guilt and
declare him righteous, but it's another to take him home with
you and make him part of your family. And that's what this
adoption of grace is all about. Now, adoption is a legal term. derived from Roman law back here
in this culture. We know something about adoption
today. If you're going to adopt a child
and do it in the right way, there's some legal things that have to
take place first. Am I right? I mean, you just
can't go over and buy a child. If you do that, I know it's wrong.
But if you're going to adopt a child, there's some legal matters
that have to be taken care of first. And back in this culture
under Roman law, there were two stages of adoption, and that
was legal. Now, I'm not saying, I'm talking
about the legal realm of salvation. People say, well, you're saying
salvation is nothing but legal. No, no, no, not at all. But it
is legal. There is a legal realm of it.
That's not all of it. There's four realms, you know.
All right. But in this legal adoption, here's
what would happen back in this culture. And this is the way
they understood it. First of all, a Roman, like a nobleman,
for example, would choose and identify the child he wanted
to adopt. That's the first thing. He would
choose and identify the child that he wanted to adopt, and
then he would have that child clothed with robes appropriate
to his new status. That was the first thing. Well,
how does that apply to salvation? Well, God chose His people before
the foundation of the world. And He sent Christ into the world
to redeem His people. and clothe them with the robes
that are appropriate to their status. That's the first stage. Here's the second stage, and
it came later. That was the public identification and pronouncement
of the adoption whereby the adopted child entered into their full
and active rights as a member of that family. Now, that would
be equivalent to our regeneration and conversion to new birth,
and we'll talk about that later. But that's what would happen.
The Roman nobleman, he'd choose the child he wanted to adopt.
He had that right. Now, nobody got mad. And when
he went into the orphanage, and there's all these children there,
and he's going to choose the one he wants to adopt, nobody
got angry at him because he didn't choose every one of them. He said, we'll just bring them
all. No, he didn't do that. And he didn't come in there and
he'd say, well, now how many of you want to be adopted? He
didn't do that. He just went in, chose his child,
and then he told them, put the robes that are appropriate on
him. So he had to be elected, and
he had to be redeemed. That's what basically that is.
A lot of times there was money to be paid, a price to be paid,
a ransom price. So think about it. That's the
adoption of grace, the adoption of grace. So it's one thing to
be cleared of all charges. and to be declared right, and
think about it, to be not guilty. But then there's more, to be
declared righteous in God's sight. And then there's more, the other
great blessing of God's love and grace in Christ to be made
part of his family, to be brought into his family. Now why is that
such an awesome thing? Well, here it is. Because number
one, we are by nature children of Satan. children of Satan,
by nature. When we say we're by nature children
of Satan, here's what I'm talking about. That's how we're born.
That's our natural birth. Natural born sinners. There used
to be an old rotten movie out called Natural Born Killers.
Well, we're natural born sinners. That's what the Scripture teaches.
We fell in Adam. and were born in sin. Look at
Ephesians chapter 1. Now, let me say this. There is
a sense in which we who are truly children of God have always been
His children. There is a sense in which we've
always been His children. That's the eternal realm of salvation.
God elected us before the foundation. And there's a sense in which
God has always seen us in Christ. He's always viewed us in Christ.
That's eternal justification. Now that doesn't deny the fact
that Christ had to come in time and die. We're also justified
at the cross in that sense. What God purposed before time
had to be accomplished in time. You know why? Because we're creatures
of time. We're made in time. So there
is a sense in which we've always been children of God eternally
in the eyes of God in Christ. Look at verse 3 of Ephesians
1. Now here's our text. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now who's he called? God there,
our Father. The Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. There's no blessing outside of
Christ, no eternal blessing. And then verse four, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Now you see, that's the Roman nobleman chose the child. And
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. This
is how God saw the purpose of it as fulfilled in Christ. Verse
five, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children. You see it there? by Jesus Christ
to Himself. He took us to Himself. How? By the adoption of grace by Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ being the firstborn
brother who paid the price, who provided the robe that's appropriate
to our status as children of God. What is that robe? It's
His righteousness imputed to us. And He says it's all according
to the good pleasure of His will. That means He didn't choose us
because we were the best of the best. He chose the worst of the
worst. That's what He did. He didn't look over the children
in the orphanage and say, well now who's the strongest? Who's
the best? Who's the best looking or what?
No. He chose the worst of the worst.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the what? The ungodly. And then he says in verse 6,
look at this, to the praise of the glory of His grace. It's
the adoption of grace. It's not an adoption of works.
He says, wherein He hath made us accepted. Accepted to Him. Now this is accepted. We are
not accepted of the world, but we are accepted of God. How? In the Beloved, in Christ. washed
in His blood. You see, He took that child and
He cleaned him up. How did He clean him up? From
all that filthy sin. He washed him in the blood of
Christ. And gave him a new robe like
Ezekiel's cast out infant. Do you remember Ezekiel's cast
out infant in Ezekiel 16? That infant who the umbilical
cord was not even tied, laid in his polluted blood. And he
said, I passed by and I saw you in your blood. That means you
were dying. That's what it was. And he said, I picked you up
and I cleaned you off, gave you ointments, and I put a robe on
you. You see all this? That's the
picture there of the adoption of grace. Now, what kind of people
did he adopt? Well, look over at Ephesians
chapter 2. Those who deserve to be adopted. Or those who earned
their way into a dark... No! Now look at it. It says in
verse 1 of Ephesians 2, listen to this. And you hath he quickened,
that's you hath he made alive. That's the new birth. Who were
dead in trespasses and sins. He chose dead children. Dead
in trespasses and sins, spiritually dead, that's what that is. And
it says wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world. That's who we are by nature.
You see, that's how we're born. We're not born saved. I know
some people say they think they are, but the Bible won't back
you up in that. He says you walked according
to the course of this world. Now you may have been religious,
but you still walked according... Of course, I was religious before
I was saved. How about you? He says, according
to the prince of the power there, who's that? That's Satan. The
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Now
when the Bible talks about children of disobedience, it's talking
about unbelievers. He said in verse 3, look, among
whom also we all had our conversation, our walk in times past in the
lust of our flesh. Now the lust of the flesh can
refer to anything that is an unlawful desire. I make that
point because you need to understand that. Here's Cain, for example. You remember Cain and Abel. Here's
Cain coming to worship God. How? By his works. Presenting
his works as the ground of his salvation. Now what is that? That's walking according to the
prince of the power there. It's walking in the lust of the
flesh. And look at verse 3, he says, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, that's the depraved mind. And
were by nature, as we're born into this world, the children
of wrath even as others. Now the children of God have
never been under the wrath of God. Because we're always in
Christ. But we deserved it. We deserved
the wrath of God. We earned it. And we were no
better off. By nature, we were children of
wrath even as others. You see what I'm saying? There was no difference between
you and the child of wrath before God saved you. But look at verse
4. But God. But God. Now there's the key,
isn't it? It doesn't say but you, does
it? But you did your part. No, it
says, but God, who is rich in what? Mercy. Mercy. For his great love wherewith
he loved us. What a great love it is. It's
unconditional. Even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ by grace, you say. We
are quickened together with Christ when Christ died, was buried
and rose again the third day. And hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Think
about that. Man by nature, fallen in them. Turn over to John chapter 8.
I want to show you something. Man by nature, fallen in Adam,
dead in trespasses and sins, always aligns Himself with His
Father in sin, who is Satan. And understand now, a follower
of Satan can be a religious person. In fact, right here, in John
chapter 8, look back at verse 38. Christ is speaking to the most
religious moral in the sight of men, dedicated religionist
of his day. That's who he's talking to here.
Listen to what he says, verse 38. He that believeth on me,
as the scripture hath said, out of his... John 8, 38. I'm sorry,
I'm in John 7. John 8, 38. He said, I speak
that which I've seen with my Father, and you do that which
you've seen with your Father. Now, who is he talking to? He's
talking to the religionists, the Pharisees, the scribes. He
said, I do that which I've seen of my father, that's God the
father. You do that which you've seen
with your father. Well, here's their answer. Look
at verse 39. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our
father. Well, Jesus saith unto him, if you were Abraham's children,
you'd do the works of Abraham. Now, what's he talking about?
Was Abraham their father physically? Yes, they were of the physical
seed of Abraham. They were Jews. But he's making
a point here. You see, this adoption is a spiritual
adoption into a spiritual family. It's not physical at all. In
fact, it has nothing to do with your physical heritage, your
physical seed, your physical family tree. It doesn't have
anything to do with your family tree at all. He says, if you were the children
of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham. Well, what
was the works of Abraham? Well, you got to read about Abraham,
don't you? And the main thing the New Testament brings about
about Abraham is that he believed God. He looked to Christ. John chapter 8, later on here,
it says, well, look across the page. Verse 58. Jesus said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Behold, before Abraham was,
I am. Alright? That's the eternality of Christ.
But look back up at verse 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. Now were these Pharisees rejoicing
to see his day, to see the day of Christ? No. They hated him. They rejected him. That's all
of us by nature. But he said Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he saw it and he was glad. Abraham looked to
Christ. That's the works of Abraham. But look down, look over verse
40. He says, but now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told
you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham.
You do the deeds of your father, verse 41. Then said they to him,
we be not born of fornication, that's idolatry, we have one
father, even God. And Jesus said unto them, if
God were your father, you would love me. You see what's happening
here? Whatever he's talking about in
this family of God, God being our Father, being adopted into
God's family, alright? He's not talking about what men
describe today as the universal brotherhood of man and the universal
fatherhood of God. I'll give you an example. We're
all children of God by creation, alright? But we fail and lost
all of our relationships. who fell in Adam. But he's talking
about children of God in a spiritual family by election, by justification,
by adoption, and by regeneration. We're not all children of God
spiritually. That's right. And he says, if
God were your father, you'd love me. You'd believe in Christ and
rest in him and follow him. He said, for I proceeded forth
and came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot
hear my word. You don't have ears to hear.
Now look at verse 44. You are of your father, the devil. And the lust of your father you
will do. Now what was their lust? Well, they were religious. They
were seeking to establish a righteousness of their own. They were seeking
salvation by their works. He said, he was a murderer from
the beginning. Well, how did he do that? He
told a lie. He said, you shall not surely die. He abode not
in the truth. He didn't abide in the truth
because there's no truth in him. And when he speak of the lie,
he speaketh of his own. In other words, when he speaks
a lie, he just speak of what's natural. When men preach a false
gospel of salvation by the works and will of men, you know what
they're doing? They're just doing what comes naturally. by nature. When men preach the gospel of
God's grace in Christ, that's not what comes naturally. That's
the spiritual miracle of grace. The grace of God. And he said,
for he's a liar and the father of... So what he's doing here,
he's drawing a distinct line between the children of God and
the children of the devil. You see, if every person is naturally
a part of God's family, then the concept of adoption in our
salvation is a meaningless term. If we're all, by nature, children
of God, then why would we have to be adopted into His family? That wouldn't even make sense.
Well, we're not. By nature, we're children of
the devil. And those who've been adopted into God's family, that's
an act of God's grace and mercy through Christ, the term adoption
itself. refers to a relationship that's
not natural. You don't adopt your own natural
children into your family, do you? They're yours by birth. It's a legal declaration. And
as a result of that legal declaration comes what? The new birth. And God's elect are made part
of His spiritual, eternal family. Now it's called, secondly, the
adoption of grace. God chose us to be His children.
He gave us to Christ who redeemed us and gave us the robes appropriate
for that status. That's the righteousness of God
in Christ freely imputed to us. So remember, in justification,
God clears us of guilt, declares us righteous in His Son. In adoption,
He takes us into His family, makes us part of His family,
and establishes us as His children, and listen to this, and His heirs. We have an inheritance. Peter
said it's an inheritance that's reserved in heaven for us. Now,
you don't earn an inheritance, do you? Somebody else earns it
and he gives it to you. You don't, and you may not even
deserve it. Well, you certainly don't deserve
this one. I don't either. None of us deserve the inheritance
that we have in Christ. Christ earned it for us. Look
at 1 Peter 1. Listen to the language of 1 Peter
here. Chapter 1. He is talking to believers. And he says in verse 2, you are
elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. And
then he says in verse 3, 1 Peter 1, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. Now listen, to an inheritance
incorruptible, an inheritance undefiled, an inheritance that
fadeth not away, an inheritance that's reserved in heaven, for
you, for you who are kept by the power of God through faith
into salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That's the
adoption. So that's an inheritance that
we don't earn and don't deserve. That's all of salvation and all
final glory in Christ. What an amazing grace it is to
do that. So there's a division here. There's
a division in mankind. Let me read you a few scriptures
here. Then I'll close. In Matthew chapter 12, here's
the Lord Jesus Christ going throughout His earthly ministry preaching
the gospel. And He's talking to the people
here. Matthew 12 and verse 46. And it says in verse 46, while
he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother, and you know
who his mother, his earthly mother, Mary, and his brethren, that's
his half-brothers, see Mary and Joseph, had other children. Now Christ was not born of the
seed of man, Joseph. He was born of, he was called
the seed of woman, he was born of the Holy Spirit. Miraculous
birth, the virgin birth. But now his brethren, his half-brothers,
they were Joseph and Mary's children. And so here he is in a house,
he's talking with the people. You know what he's talking about.
He's talking about the gospel. He's talking about the glory
of his Father. And it said, Behold, his mother and his brethren stood
without. They were outside the house desiring
to speak with him. You see this? Mary and his half-brothers,
they came, we want to see Jesus. We want to speak with Him. Verse
47 says, Then one said unto him, Behold, they went in, and they
told Jesus, they said, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand
without desiring to speak with thee. Verse 48, But he answered
and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother, and who are
my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples, and he said, Behold, my mother and my
brethren. Now what does he mean by that?
He is saying, who is my spiritual family? That is what he is talking
about, my eternal family. Verse 50, For whosoever shall
do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my
brother and sister in my... they are my spiritual family.
Children of God. You see that? Now, this doing
the will of the Father, he said, whosoever shall do the will of
my Father, they are my spiritual family. Is he talking about people
who are better than those who won't do the will of the Father?
He's talking about sinners saved by the grace of God. Adopted
into His family. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
2. This is the portion that Brother Joe read. Let me show you this. Hebrews chapter 2. He's talking about how Christ
came to this world, died, suffered unto death, Verse 9 says, He's
crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God,
should taste death for every man. Now, who is the every man
there? Well, somebody says, well, that's
everybody without exception. Oh, no. Read the context. You
say, how do you know it's not? Because read the context. Read
what it says. Don't just stop at a verse. This
passage doesn't end there. What's he talking about? Well,
look at it. Verse 10. It says, for it became Him for
whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing what?
Many sons unto glory. Children of God. That's who He's
talking about. And He says, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings. That simply means that Christ
through His suffering unto death completed the work. Verse 11,
for both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one. His brethren are one with Him.
for which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren." That's
an amazing thing in and of itself. Not only are we in the spiritual
family, are his brethren, but he's not ashamed of us. We ought
to be ashamed of ourselves, but he's not ashamed of us. Verse
12 saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. He says, in the midst of the
church, that's the called out ones, the redeemed of the Lord,
will I sing praise unto thee. Verse 13, again, I will put my
trust in him, and again, behold, I and the children which God
hath given me. Remember in John 6, verse 36,
he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And
him that cometh me I will in no wise cast out. Verse 14, for
as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood.
He also himself likewise took part of the same. He had to be
a man, God and man in one person. Why? That through death he might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
Now what that means is his brethren cannot be condemned. They're
sinners saved by the grace of God. And verse 15, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. That's the bondage of condemnation.
Verse 16, for verily he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Who's the seed of Abraham?
Those who believe what Abraham believed. The promise. And so
wherefore in all things it behooved him. That word is debt. He took
on the debt to be made like unto his brethren. There it is. That
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. It's
his brethren. as his children. Behold, John
said, what manner of love that we, sinners, should be called
the sons of God. What manner of love. Now both
aspects of this legal realm of salvation ensures the accomplishment
and the application of salvation in the spiritual realm in our
new birth. And we'll be talking about that
later on. All right.