Turn in your Bibles this morning
to 1 John. 1 John chapter 3. The title of
my message this morning as sons we are and have been. Sons we are and have been. The fact that God saves his people, the need of their salvation, That is not the most important
thing. The important thing is that God
gets glory, all the glory in doing it. In about 1777, There appeared in a publication
that was called, in that day, the Gospel Magazine, a hymn. They would often put hymns that
people had written. And I believe that this was one
that was written anonymously. But the first verse of this hymn, His sons we are through God's
election, who in Jesus Christ alone, by eternal destination,
sovereign grace we here receive. Beautiful hymn all the way through,
many, many verses. But in the course of time, someone changed some words, as
they often do. And they never change them for
the better. They always bleed that which
glorifies God alone out of them. And there are so many So many
that have done that, that was one of Brother Rupert's pet peeves. How they had taken the old hymns
and taken the glory of God out of it. Made them man-centered
rather than God-centered. But someone changed it to this. Sons, we are, through God's election,
who in Jesus Christ believe. That's true, isn't it? All of God's sons, all of his
people, they're brought to believe on Christ? Well, it's true, but it's not
altogether biblical. You see, the first writing says,
who in Jesus Christ alone, the second writing says, who
in Jesus Christ believe. But the truth of scripture is
that the children of God, these sons of God, are sons before
we believe. Believing is not the cause of
our sonship. Neither is it the condition of
salvation. Some say salvation is by grace, but faith
is the only condition of salvation. No. Saving faith is the consequence
of being saved. We're never anything by God's
grace because we do something. So that's my title. Sons we are
and have been. That's what the Bible teaches. And he says here in 1 John chapter
3 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us. Men are always glorifying the
love of God, but they fail to tell how God has manifested this
love. This love is an everlasting love. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. It didn't know He was the Son,
it doesn't know us as the sons of God. Beloved, now are we the
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be,
but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him,
for we shall see him as he is. Now I know that the scriptures
clearly show that every descendant of Adam, which is all of us, every descendant of Adam fell
in Adam. They were alienated from God. They died spiritually. They sinned against God. They lost all fellowship with
God. It says, in Adam all die. If you're only in Adam, death
is written over you in every way. But it says in Christ, all who
are in Christ are made alive. And when we see in the scripture
that this is the overall state of all mankind, and while that
is true, but that is not the first state of some. and nor
is it the last state of some. Because a people out of that
mass of fallen humanity were the objects of God's eternal
grace. And because they have received
grace from God, they shall also receive glory from God. They've been brought into an
eternal, unchanging state from which they could not fall altogether
and finally. Because this grace of God precedes
time. It doesn't begin when somebody
believes. They believe if they do truly
believe because of that grace of God that has gone before in
Christ. And it is this people called
in scripture God's elect. Just read your Bibles, just go
and see how many times it refers to God's people as God's elect. And it is that people that Christ
came to redeem. It is that people that God was
in Christ reconciling unto himself. And when we read such words as
redemption and reconciliation, those words imply a previous
relationship. You don't be redeemed unless
you were the possession in the first place. You don't reconcile
enemies. See, all of scripture shows this
relationship with God in Christ before the world began. And God
the Father, in an act of His own, being alone, He chose this
people and He put them in union with Christ as their head. They're like the body, He's the
head. He put them in a relationship
with Christ as their one mediator, as their surety, and in all these
things the Bible says that he blessed them. Blessings don't start when we're
born. Blessings from God start in old
eternity, and God the Father purpose in Christ to bring his
people into his family. He determined a spiritual adoption. An adoption as we find it in
the scripture and justification cannot be separated one from
the other but they must be distinguished. They're not exactly the same. They're a part of the whole,
but they must be distinguished. And justification is something
that God does as a judge. whereby he releases us from all
condemnation on the basis of Christ's blood shed and he accepts
us as righteous based on his righteousness imputed to us,
accounted for us. But adoption is something God
does as our Father, whereby he appoints us his children, and
in Christ, on the basis of that same work, he makes us what he
calls joint heirs with Christ. Joint heirs with Christ. If we
ever receive that eternal inheritance reserved in heaven, it will be
only as being joint heirs with Christ. And God the Son, in his
work of redemption, He removed all the obstacles from his people
receiving and discovering this adoption. Justification, it has been said,
brings us into his favor, but adoption manifests us as his
family. You see, we don't really know
anything about the love of God until we know what a miraculous
thing of grace and glory it is for He in that love to make us
His family, His children, His sons. And adoption, as we find
it in this book, is not like the adoption of our day that
we naturally think about, but rather adoption, though it has
some similarities, is different in this way. It is, in scripture,
the placing as a son. And this sonship is in respect
to God. It's a revelation of His grace
to us in making us His children. Turn over with me to Ephesians
chapter 1. Everybody is always talking about
how God has blessed them. Well, His blessings, if we be
truly blessed of God, didn't start when he got us a new car,
or a new house, or good health, or a good family. God's blessings
to his people began in old eternity. Listen to this. Paul says in
Ephesians 1 and verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. Past tense. All blessings. All spiritual blessings. in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him. That's where that verse really
ends. And the next two verses are a
part of the next verse. Listen to this. Here we are talking about the
love of God. In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. How did we ever become the children
of God? It is because that He, God, in
love, in an act of He predestinated us, that means marked off beforehand,
separated unto himself. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ, in Christ, to himself
according to the good pleasure of his will. Not their free will. not an act of their will, not
an act of their believing, not a work that they'd ever do on
this earth, but he did this in love, he did it powerfully and
mightily and unchangeably, he did it in Jesus Christ and he
did it to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children. It's not just some blank doctrine
of predestination. It's in Christ. It's not just
some fatalistic thing. It's an act of His love. It's
an act of His grace and for His glory. The one translation says,
having foreordained us. unto the adoption of sons in
Jesus Christ. And when Christ came into this
world and he took upon himself a body, it was in order to die. And it was so that he might shed
his blood as all those Old Testament sacrifices pictured, that he
might by that sacrifice pay the debt of their sin against the
justice of God which was the sole basis upon which God blessed
this people, called them righteous, loved them as his children, referred
to him as his offspring, and he did it all before time. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And this justifying work, this
blood shedding, this sacrifice, this covenant work of the Lord
Jesus Christ in time was the just foundation upon which every
prophecy and every promise that was made concerning them as it
was even before they were born. It assures that because they
have no part or work in all of it, God alone will get the glory. And these prophecies not only
spoke of this relationship and showed how that Christ and His
work would accomplish their salvation, but also the fact that they would
be manifested for what they are. to God, the sons of God, the children of God. What an amazing thing that sinners
such as you and I, that rebels such as we are, that those of
us who cannot even remember him on some days, who so vilely have
often in past times just presented him for that which he was not,
who lived so many hours and days in total ignorance of God, that
we should be called the sons of God. And he's been saying this a long
time. Isaiah 44. For I will pour water
upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy
seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. Isaiah 56, even unto them I will
give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better
than of sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off, they'll never be disowned. Never for anything before they're
converted or after they're converted. Why? Because they're His children. How many of us as parents have
looked and witnessed and felt and known of such things as our
children do and say to us as they do and how thankless in
everything they may prove themselves to be, but never at one time
did they cease to be our children. I've only said it about a million
times here. But the truth is, you can pick
your friends, but you're stuck with your family. They're his children. And he
compares that, he says, would you give your children a stone
for bread? Or would you give your child
a stick for something else? Neither would your heavenly father
do so. Neither would he treat you in
this way. The Father's will concerning
them will be made known. I know of a number of people
who before this world and before whom this Christian world supposedly
have not presented themselves as what we think they ought to
be, but that doesn't change the fact that they might be his children. I've often thought about it in
condemning my own self for actions and words and thoughts and all.
How could you be a child of God? The devil often reminds me of
that. But God is the same yesterday
and forever, and he says to us, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
Your sons of God, but your sons of Jacob by nature, your sons
of Jacob are not consumed. I've entered into a family relationship
with you. A just family relationship. A
family relationship in Christ. And that never is a reason for
the children of God to do any wrong that they do. But it's
their only hope. when they do it. The Father's will concerning
them will be made known, and the Son's work concerning them
will be effectual and will be declared, but also the Spirit's
working in them shall be made evident. And the sons of God will be revealed,
will be made manifest by the Spirit of God, using the Word
of God, the Gospel of the Grace of God in Christ's Crucifixion,
and in that they shall by the Spirit discover, discover their son Jesus. I remember reading a story about
some opal hunters in Australia. And they're just walking along one
day. They've been looking here, looking here, and looking there.
And all of a sudden, they just see something ahead of them,
pick it up, and it's the biggest opal. And they named it, The Welcome
Stranger. Is that opal? How did he get
that? It was put there by God. How
did they find it? They were in the province of
God, moving along on this path, and they didn't discover it,
but he rather discovered it to them. That's the way it is with
sunshine. It's been there a long time.
It's a relationship that's been there for time and eternity. It isn't anything new, because
God isn't anything new. And He brings His people at that
time. sometimes through the path and
the lonely deserts and rocky places of religion and life and
failures and immorality, whatever it might be. But He always brings
them to the hour when He gives them this good news and enables
them to believe it. You are a child of God by grace. But how can absolute free grace,
God's favor, God's will, God's work And they come just like
they did in Ezekiel say, like in Ephesians there in chapter
37. They lay like a desert place
that he saw full of dead dry bones. They're just hopeless. They're
already dead. That's the way we are. Born dead in trespasses
unseen. And Ezekiel is just like every
gospel preacher. He's sent out to preach to dead
folks. And he goes at God's will. He
does what Ezekiel prophesied to these dry bones. And he prophesied
to these dry bones, and he spoke, and as he spoke there was a wind,
typifying the Spirit of God, sovereignly blowing here and
there, wherever he willed. And it's always to his people
to raise them up from the dead spiritually, and he saw these
bones coming together and making a human being again and it raised
up an exceeding great army. You can read it in Ezekiel 37. That's what happens. These who are dead in trespasses
and sins. These who have no faith. These
who have no ability. God brings this message to them
and is joined with the power of his spirit and he raises them
to life and they are manifested in the children of God. They are not raised in perfection
of this flesh. Every preacher in the world has
given you some way that you can have evidence that you're a child
of God. And it's always pointing back
to you. There is no evidence that you're
a child of God looking at you. The evidence is that you can only
look to Christ. I'm my only hope. My only salvation. My only righteousness. Only God's
grace. Only God's mercy. Not me plus
anything, but Christ is everything and all. And he does this and
he calls it the day of his power. Thy people, he says to the son,
says to his king in Psalm 110 or 115, he says, Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. The day of thy power. The acceptable
year of the Lord. They may go all their days like
the thief and as a thief. But it will be manifested before
they die. That other thief, I'm sorry,
he had no life given him. But here is this thief who has
no evidence, and that's why God did this I believe, so that he
could show us, not that we don't do and obey him and all these
things, but to show us who it actually depends on. He has no
hope in himself. And he's even reigning against
Christ up to a point when the Spirit of God gives him faith
and opens his heart and he says, Lord, remember me when thou comest
in my kingdom. Some people say he didn't know
anything. I say God taught him a lot soon. Christ said today, without baptism, without your
good works, without somebody to brag on you, without church
membership, without anything else on any other basis but me
and what I'm doing right now, today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. You got that kind of hope? If
you'll do it, you'll get it from the same one. The Holy Spirit
in this role accomplishing this work in them is called the Spirit
of Adoption. He manifests to us, reveals to
us this adoption. We're back to Romans chapter
8. Romans 8. Look at what it says in verse
14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God. Does that mean that they're led
by the Spirit They walk in this unwavering walk of obedience. No? It means they're led by the Spirit
of God to Christ. Christ said He'll take the things
of mine and show them to you. Reveal them to you. where as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. And the Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. I don't know how to make that
any simpler, plainer. The spirit himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. Gives us faith
to believe that. then heirs, heirs of God, and
joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that
we may be also glorified together. And this next verse struck me
this week. For I reckon, this is the reckoning
of faith. accounting of faith, I count
this, that the sufferings of this present time, do you know
anything about them? Are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. for the earnest
expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the
sons of God. We suffer. We suffer over our
own failures and sins. We suffer at the hands of men
and women persecuting us for the faith. Somebody told me this week that
a fellow, he said, I'm sure he hates you. Well, I've never been anything
but nice to him. What does he hate me? He hates
the gospel I preach. We suffer. Sometimes we suffer
afflictions in the body. Sometimes we afflict a sufferer
being cast away by the world. But he's saying here, there's
no way that this could even be compared to the glory, the majesty,
the wonder, the splendor, the eternal glory of being manifested
as one of God's children. But the Spirit of God, who moves
sovereignly as He will, does not do this in these people in
order to make them or to enable them to become the sons of God. He does it because they are.
They are. They're not the children of the
devil. that become the children of God. That's what Christ said
to the Pharisee. Stop to think about it. The most
moral and religious people of his day on this earth. He said,
you are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father will
you do. No biblical adoption has most
to do with the public, open, spiritual discovery and display
of his sonship and the setting forth of these children as sons
and heirs. I like that term, heirs, heirs
of God. Eternal inheritance. Reserved
in the heavens. The moth can't eat it. The rust
can't corrupt it. Because it's eternal. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
4. Same language, same thing. Galatians 4 verse 1, Now I say
that an heir, as long as he is a child, differed nothing from
a servant, though he be lord of all, but is under tutors and
governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so, when
we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of
the world. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. He did all this that we might
receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Abba. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son, and if a son than an heir of God through Christ. Abba, Father. I was thinking, you know in our
day it's such a twisted people are offended of this and
they're offended of that and they want to be called just right
and spoken of in just perfect terms and always a battle going
on there. One of the things that they say
in rewriting their translations and such as this is they want
to make sure that the male is not confused with the female. We'll just all call them the
children of God. Well, they are the children of
God. But in scripture he speaks of them as the sons of God. And I believe that is to show
where salvation is in all this, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And their identity with the Son.
and their salvation in the Son. The headship of the sons. That's
what the marriage relationships are all about. It's not that
the female is inferior to the male. That's not got anything
to do with it. It's the mark of God's sovereignty. He has done what He has done. He has called us what He has
called us. And the devil uses that kind
of thing to, oh, you're not as good. You're a second class citizen
in this kingdom. But look at what it says. Verse 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek. This isn't about a nationality.
There is neither bond or free. This is not whether you're a
slave or not. There is neither male nor female. Listen. In heaven they'll neither be
marrying nor giving in marriage. All the Mormons who are planning
to see their family and carry on their family in this world
They would be sadly disappointed, neither male nor female, but
as the angels. For ye are all one, Christ Jesus. There's a mark, I believe, of
divine sovereignty in you so that you will always be you. So grace will be known to you
particularly. But it won't be male or female,
young or old. You're all one in Christ. And when the Spirit comes to
us, gives us life, gives us faith in Christ, causes us to believe
the truth, causes us to hear this good news, causes us to
confess that this salvation is of the Lord. And we find out we've been His
children. and that eternal family, that
eternal covenant since before the world began. Here I always
thought I was a poverty stricken, wretched, forgotten nobody, which
is what I am in myself. My bridge is full of holes. There's nothing but sons of God, the children
of God. And we cry out then just as the
son who said, Abba, Father. All things are possible unto
thee. take this cup from me, nevertheless not what I will,
but that what thou wilt. After his resurrection, Christ
said to the women, touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to
my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend unto
my father I am your father. And he teaches us to pray. Our father who is in heaven. The Lord blessed me with a good
day. The day he died I could stand
and say, an unpleasant thought. I know not everybody can do that,
but I can say that I didn't have an unpleasant thought about him.
But he's not really my father. I believe he's in the same family.
But he's not my father. My father's in heaven. What you
think might be good and wrong for me, it's not even worthy
to be compared with the glory. Sons, we are, through God's election,
who in Jesus Christ alone, by eternal destination, sovereign
grace, we here receive. Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us. Sons, we are, have been. Our Father, we pray this morning
that Thy name would be exalted, that Thy people would be made
to have manifested to them this glorious election, glorious sonship,
that they might find comfort, joy in their souls at the wonders
of Your love and grace. We pray for your people, no matter
what their state. If they're full in confidence
of faith or if they're having to say, Lord, help my unbelief. That doesn't change this relationship. And we pray and ask it in Christ's
name. Thank you.