Let's turn together to Romans chapter 8. Romans the 8th chapter. Verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he, that is, this is the object and purpose of God in election, predestination, providence, and in all his acts of grace and kindness toward us, that his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, might be the firstborn among many brethren."

Now, I like those words, many brethren. They imply both multiplicity and unity. There is a great multiplicity among the saints of God, among those who are numbered in the church and kingdom of God. God's elect are described as many sons whom he will bring to glory, many for whom the Son of God had tasted death, many vessels who are prepared by God unto everlasting glory, many for whom the Lord Jesus Christ gave his life a ransom. Now, I fully grant at any given time and in any given place in history and in this world below God's elect appear to be looking at things from the human standpoint, looking at things as we see them here. They always appear to be few. Indeed, our Lord Jesus said himself, looking at things from the earth's vantage point, many are called, but few are chosen. He said it twice. That is not the exception, that's the rule.

In this world, God's elect have always been and always will be the minority. There's no question in my mind concerning that. When our Lord God came in the days of Noah, there was one man in whom the grace of God was found. Now don't let it surprise you when you see in our generation great multitudes of people all around us, religious people, who are totally ignorant of God, his gospel, and his grace.

It's always been that way. It's always been that way. When God came and called out a people for himself in the Old Testament, he found Abraham whom he chose and called and separated and made of him a nation that was the fewest of all people. And the same thing is true in our day. In this age, in this day, In this world, God's elect always appear to be in the minority.

But hear me, God's few, God's few shall be many when they are gathered together in heaven. There we are told the saints of God shall be a vast, vast multitude which no man can number. Hold your hands here and look at Revelation chapter 5 for just a moment. Revelation the fifth chapter. Verse 11, And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beast, and the elders, and the number of them, that is, the number of the preachers and the saints, the number of those living creatures who are God's messengers to his people, and the number of the saints of God gathered in heaven was ten thousand times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. Ah, a great multitude, which no man can number.

Look in chapter 7 and verse 9. He's talking about the 144,000. But when he gets done talking about the 144,000, he uses that term simply to describe a specified chosen people whom God has set for himself. But then he describes them in verse 9 like this.

After this I beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands." So there is a great, great multitude who are numbered among God's saints in glory.

God's many are called out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. You imagine that now. Every nation, every kindred, every tribe, every tongue, God's got some. That's what it says right there. They came out of all parts of the world, out of all realms of society, out of all races of men, out of all ages of time.

God's many include all of those elect ones who were conceived in the womb but never breathe the breath of life in this world. Now, I know there's some controversy about that, but I have absolutely no hesitancy and no reluctance in stating that all who die in the womb or die from the womb in God's good providence are God's elect. I don't have any hesitancy about that whatsoever. You stop and consider the many, many miscarriages and the many cruel, barbaric abortions committed by people in this world while they break God's law and violate his character in taking human life, they populate his kingdom. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. God's many who shall inherit glory are found among the countless multitudes who die as infants and imbeciles." Well, how can you say that so confidently?

David did, didn't he? David said with regard to his son, I can't go to him. He can't come to me, but I shall go to him. And he wasn't talking about going to the grave. He wasn't talking about just going down and laying his body in the grave, there's no hope in that. He's talking about going to heaven and glory.

Now listen to me, listen carefully children of God. Infants dying in infancy are not somehow transformed into angels. God created his angels before ever he made a man on the earth. Infants dying in their infancy are chosen, redeemed, and quickened by God the Holy Spirit, and they're full-fledged saints around the throne of God, every bit as much aware of his grace as you and I shall be when we stand before him.

You understand that? God has populated his kingdom according to his purpose. We have the blessed privilege in our congregation of having a young man we've watched raised with great pain and difficulty at times by Bill and Vicki, but I'll tell you what God will do with Tony Raleigh one of these days, exactly what he'll do. One of these days he will set that young man for whom we all feel so sorry, that young man whom we all pity in so many ways because of his present condition, and he will set him robed in the righteousness of Christ before a wandering world as a monument of his wisdom and grace in the perfection of woman. Now I'm just absolutely confident that's so.

Many brethren, you got that? Many brethren shall be gathered into heaven. And among those many, God's many in this world are his elect out of all the ages. Now though there is a great multiplicity in the family of God, There is also a great unity. All of God's saints are brethren. What a blessed word that is. How pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Brethren we have met to worship. Brethren, brethren. Brethren all have the same Father, our Heavenly Father. We're all members of the same family, one family.

That family is named after Jesus Christ in heaven and in earth. Brethren, all have one home to which we are going, one elder brother after whom we are named. one altar, Christ Jesus the Lord, at whose mercy we worship the living God. One hope of glory, one inheritance, and we are all of one blood, the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, you understand what I'm saying when I say this. We who are born of God from different walks of life and different backgrounds and different experiences and different races and different positions in this world, we're one. We're one.

Last week I talked to a very good friend of mine and his wife, a Korean couple who live over in Virginia. Last year we had a Vietnamese lady and her children here at our conference. I hear from them right often. I have black friends in this country and in Africa, Brother Weimers, ministry in Africa, all together with black folks, our brethren. I just got a letter last week from a very dear brother who's in Russia, who's working with Bill Clark in the distribution of literature there. I correspond regularly with a German friend over in Germany, some folks in India, folks down in Mexico, and all of these folks from varying walks of life have natural hostilities one with another.

Natural, natural things that cause them to be constantly jealous and envious of one another. I was talking to Teresa Edmondson down at your place. Her mother was half Chinese, half Japanese, and her mother suffered a great deal in China, or Japan rather, because of that racial mixture within her.

But in the kingdom of God, none of those things make any difference. I wish we could really get hold of that. I mean, they don't make any difference. In the kingdom of God, God's saints are one. We're brethren. Now, our Lord Jesus, we are here told, shall be the firstborn among many brethren. One of the hymn writers, I don't know where I picked this up, but it's good.

He expressed his concerns and his thoughts on this in this way. Vast beyond imagination is the host of God's election. more than all the sands of oceans, more than all the stars of heaven. Here they seem a small assembly, weak and poor and always needed. But when all are brought to heaven, what a mighty congregation, mighty through the land they conquer.

Lord, let me be in that number, fixed in your predestination. Savior, grant me your salvation. Christ shall be the firstborn among many brethren. Oh, I pray that you be numbered among them. But tonight, I want us to not talk about the brethren. Let's talk about the firstborn, talk about Christ himself. Now, throughout the ages, since the days the apostles wrote this description of Christ, the firstborn, there have been heretics to arise in the church who have taken this description of Christ and used it as an excuse for denying his eternal deity. for denying the divine trinity of the persons in the Godhead.

And so when I started studying this, I thought, well, they're going to be lots of material to look at. I was just very surprised to find out I didn't have in my library that I've been able to find yet a single sermon or even a chapter written dealing with Christ under this character as the firstborn. And it's an important subject. The more I studied it, the more delighted I was with it and the more comfort I found in it and the more enlightening it was to me. So let's look at it together.

In the New Testament, our Savior is called the firstborn or the first begotten of God seven times. In the Old Testament, you'll remember there were various laws given concerning the right of the firstborn and the responsibilities and privileges and obligations of the firstborn son in the family. Now all of those laws with regard to the firstborn in the Old Testament had direct relationship to the coming of Christ who is the firstborn one who's described here as the firstborn. Now let's look at these seven things that are said concerning him in the Word of God.

First, the word firstborn is an expression of priority and preeminence of position. In fact, that's probably the primary meaning of the word. The word has not so much the idea of first one to be born as it does the idea of the first one in preeminence. The first one in exaltation. The first one seated at the head of the family. So Christ Jesus is the firstborn in that sense.

Let me show you in the Old Testament. Come back to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 4 and verse 22. Exodus 4 and verse 22. Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn." But Israel wasn't the first one to be born. Israel was not the first one of God's elect. He was not the first one that God called out of the nations. But he had now been exalted above all peoples and nations as God's firstborn.

So it's a position of preeminence and great honor and dignity. The same is true of Deuteronomy chapter 21. Here the prophet is speaking to us concerning a man who has married one woman and she was despised in his eyes. And he might put her away or he might have a son by another and might be tempted to say, well, I didn't like this woman, so I'm not going to make my son by her to be the firstborn. But God gave a law. He said, you can't do that. You can't do that. Doesn't matter how much you dislike her.

Look at what he says here in Deuteronomy 21 and verse 16. If a man hath two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated, then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit, that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn." but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he hath, for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his." So the primary idea of the firstborn is that of exaltation, that of utter preeminence.

And that's exactly how the Apostle Paul uses this word to describe our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. That's the primary meaning here in Romans chapter 8. But turn over to Colossians. Colossians chapter 1. And he takes up this same subject describing the preeminence and the honor and the glory of Christ Jesus as the firstborn. Here in Colossians 1 and verse 18, I believe it is.

And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence." Now that's the first thing. God Almighty has made Christ to be the firstborn among many brethren for the object and purpose in redeeming grace of him being the preeminent, highly exalted one. All praise given to him. God's object in redemption is the glory of his name in Jesus Christ his son. Get that. That's God's object in everything and it ought to be ours.

Now look again here at Colossians 1 and verse 15. Here we read that Jesus Christ our Lord who is the image of the invisible God, he is the firstborn of every creature. He's called the firstborn of every creature because he's the beginning of the creation of God. That's what John says in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 14.

Now Christ is not a creature or a creation of God. He is himself God, the creator and sustainer of all things by whom all things consist. When the scriptures declared him to be the firstborn of every creature, or the beginning of the creation of God, three things are implied. First, his eternal sonship. Jesus Christ was and is the eternally begotten Son of God. He is the beginning of the creation of God, the firstborn of the creation of God, the firstborn of every creature. What on earth does that mean? What does that have to do with Christ's eternal being?

John Gill, I think, expressed it better than anyone I've been able to find on this passage. He said, Christ as the Son of God was begotten of the Father in a manner inconceivable and inexpressible by men before any creatures were made. So when you start thinking about Christ as the eternal Son of God, don't even try to imagine the relationship between the eternal father and the eternal son. It's beyond us. It's utterly beyond us. He's the son of God as we cannot imagine and we cannot express and has been from everlasting. There is no parallel to be made between the father and the son and the relationship they have with one another.

But this word also describes his creative power. He is the one out of whom all things were born. In fact, the word firstborn might be translated, and was in the ancient writings of the Greeks, often translated, the first parent. He is the one out of whom and from whom all things came, and so he's the first parent of all things, the creator of all things.

And this word firstborn, the firstborn of every creature, implies his sovereign dominion. The Lord Jesus Christ has been seated upon the throne of glory. And as the firstborn, he's been given dominion over everything, to rule and reign as king with the government upon his shoulder over all things. When God the Father said, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. That's what's implied in Christ being the firstborn of every creature. Thirdly, this word firstborn. is used in describing our Savior because he was the first to be born in order of time.

Now, we've already discussed the matter of his eternal sonship. Jesus Christ is God the eternal Son, and frankly, that's just more than I can even think about trying to express. It's an infinite, infinite, infinite subject that I just simply cannot begin to think about trying to explain to anyone. because it's beyond my comprehension, it's beyond my understanding, and I quit trying to explain what I don't understand. But as a man, Jesus Christ was the first to be born.

Let me show you what I mean. As our surety in the covenant of grace, as the man of redemption, as the last Adam, the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ was brought forth in the council chambers of the triune God to be our Savior. Turn back to Proverbs chapter 8. Proverbs the 8th chapter.

Now in regard to his eternal deity, there was never a time when Christ began to be. There was never a time when he was brought forth. There was never a time when he started being the Son of God. Our Lord Jesus is the eternal Son. But with regard to our relationship to Him in grace, with regard to His relationship to God the Father as our surety and Redeemer, the Lord God in the covenant of grace raised up His Son to be the head of an elect race. Look at what the scripture says here. Our Lord Jesus is speaking. Proverbs 8 verse 22.

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

Look down in verse 30. Then was I by him, as one brought up with him. And I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. I remember several years ago hearing Brother Farrell Griswold over in Harrisonburg, Virginia, bring a series of messages on the glorious humanity of Christ. And he taught me something I've never forgotten, and I rejoice in it.

When God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness, most writers, most theologians I've read over the years, says talk about a moral likeness. And I agree, there is a moral likeness between man as a creature of God and God who made him. But as you read the scriptures, there is one person who is said to be the image, the express image of God, Christ the Lord, as a man. He is that one who is the image of the invisible God. And Pharaoh said, and I think he's exactly right, when God made Adam in the garden, he said, the Lord God looked at Christ his son, whom he had purposed to send into the world to save his people as the second Adam, and he said, let's make him just like him. Let's make him as a covenant head. Let's make him like he shall come, so that the first Adam was made in the image of the second Adam in the covenant of grace, who stood as our surety before the world began.

As a man, the Lord Jesus Christ was the firstborn son of Mary. The scripture says Mary brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. Now that's important. Mary did have other children. She had several other children as we know from the scriptures. But when the Lord Jesus was brought forth from her womb, Mary had never known a man. She was a virgin. And the reason we insist upon that, the Lord Jesus was the first man ever to be born in this world without sin. And he had to be born without sin so that he might establish perfect righteousness for us as a man.

Our Savior in Revelation 1 in verse 5 is called the first begotten from the dead. That implies first that he lived for us, secondly that he died for us, thirdly that he arose for us, and now he reigns for us and soon he's coming for us. So the Lord Jesus is called the firstborn, the first begotten of the dead. There were others who had been raised from the dead before him, but he's the first one to be raised by his own power. He's the first one to be raised to immortality, never to die again. He's the first one and the only one to be raised by whose resurrection multitudes shall be raised themselves.

And Christ Jesus is the firstborn, the one in whom the priesthood of the family resides. A man, Christ Jesus, who is himself God. is the great high priest and advocate with the Father, by who makes intercession for us according to the will of God, and as the firstborn one, he's the priest that God has ordained, the one who represents the family in the worship and service of God. Now, turn to Exodus 13, too. Exodus chapter 13 and verse 2. Here's the fourth thing.

The firstborn son is the one in whom all the family is dedicated to God. And I told you that these laws concerning the firstborn had specific reference to Christ Jesus the Lord. The Lord's faith to Moses saying, verse 2, sanctify unto me all the firstborn. Whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it's mine. it's mine. The firstborn, then, is that one in whom the whole family is set apart and dedicated to God.

Let me show you what I mean. In the covenant of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ was sanctified by God the Father as the head of an elect race. He said, Thou art my son. Thou art my servant. My servant shall be exalted, he shall deal prudently, all those things. That took place in the covenant of grace. Now our Savior being sanctified or set apart by God as the head of an elect race, as the firstborn son, we were sanctified by God in Christ Jesus the Lord.

And our sanctification in Christ is threefold. Listen to the scriptures. The scriptures will give you clear understanding of these various doctrines. When we talk about sanctification, sanctification is God's work of grace for us and in us. It's not something we do for God, it's something God does for us. And Christ is our sanctification in this sense. We were chosen in Christ. Chosen for God. God said, you're mine. You're mine. Before the world began, he set us apart.

Secondly, we were redeemed by Christ, sanctified by his blood. That means that Christ purchased us for himself and made us holy in the sight of God. And thirdly, he comes and invades the hearts of his people with his nature and makes us holy by his imparted grace so that we are declared to be for holy purposes made holy in the eyes of God and actually have become holy by a holy nature being imparted to us. So Christ is our sanctification in all those ways. Fifthly, the firstborn son was in ancient times the father's representative head in his family.

In Deuteronomy 21.7, we read earlier of the right of the firstborn, or 21.17 rather.

Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of God's family, his church, and his kingdom. He made him to be head over all things to the church which is the fullness of him that filleth all in all. As the firstborn son, the head of the family holds and manages and disposes of all the property of the household for the honor of his father. And so our Lord Jesus Christ holds, manages, and disposes of all things as the firstborn for the glory of God and the good of his people.

Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given him. And sixthly, come back to Deuteronomy 25. This caught my attention real good. Deuteronomy 25. It is in and by the firstborn son that the name and family of his dead kinsman is raised up and lives. The one who has the priority right of redemption as a kinsman redeemer is the firstborn son.

You remember when Ruth and Naomi came back from their time of terrible destitution and emptiness and wasting. Naomi sent Ruth out to glean in the fields and Ruth gleaned in the field of a man by the name of Boaz. And she came back with all the bounty that Boaz had deliberately left for her and told his young men to let her glean and leave some hands full of purpose.

And she just came back with heaps of barley. And Naomi said, where'd you get that? Where did you glean today? And Ruth said, well, I went over here and I went into this field. My half was, as far as she knew, it was just her half. She just fell into his field. Oh, but I were half.

Our happenings are arranged by God. And she happened, by God's decree, to be gleaning in the field of Boaz, and Naomi said, Oh, bless God! He's a kinsman. There's hope for us. He has the right to redeem us. He can save us if he will. And this is what she's talking about.

Back here in Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse 5. If brethren dwell together and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. And it shall be that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, and his name shall not be put out of Israel."

Now, listen to me. That was not an optional thing. That was not an optional thing. This fellow, whose brother had died, was honor-bound to marry his wife and raise up a seed to his brother's honor because that was what God ordained. Well, what if he chose not to?

You remember Boaz said to Ruth, said, you've got a kinsman nearer than me. You've got a, you've got a kinsman closer to me. And he has the first right. He has the first right because he's prior to me. And that kinsman said, no, I won't take her lest I marr my husband's brother, refuses to raise up under his brother, a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Then the elders of the city shall call him and speak unto him, and if he stands by it, he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her. No, I don't want her. Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, so shall it be unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. And his name shall be called in Israel the house of him that hath his shoe loosed. He'll bear the shame forever. He'll bear the shame forever.

Now, when Christ Jesus voluntarily became our surety and became the firstborn of an elect race in the covenant of grace before the world began, he said, Father, I will go and redeem this people. I will be the firstborn in the family of God. It became his absolute responsibility and duty so that he is honor-bound to redeem all his children. He's honor-bound to do it. He will take that which was lost in Adam, whose brother he is, and raise up out of the sons of Adam a people for the glory of God who will live forever. Because he's the firstborn son. He's the firstborn. Now let me show you one more thing.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And verse 23. In verse 22, the apostle says, You are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and unto an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn.

I think, I'm not positive, but I believe this is the only place in the scriptures where that word firstborn is written in the plural. It's the only place. And quite literally it could be read, the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn Ones. That's exactly what it means.

Here the Apostle Paul tells us that all who are born of God, all who are saved by his free grace, are given this high and honorable title that belongs to Jesus Christ our Lord, we're called the firstborn ones. The firstborn ones. What on earth does that mean? As the firstborn is given priority, preeminence, and honor above all the rest of the family, so the saints of God, all the children of God, In the family of grace are firstborn ones.

And the day is coming when God Almighty is going to show forth in us preeminent honor and glory to all his creation. He'll say, look here, these are mine. And that day when he makes up his jewels, the firstborn ones. Oh, may God give you a place now in his family that you may be numbered among the firstborn, in Christ Jesus the Lord. Amen.