If you will, turn with me to
Luke chapter eight. We started this chapter out with
a three-verse study, and then we had kind of a gap between
that with several verses, and now we're going back to another
three-verse study. Lesson gonna be taken from Luke
chapter eight, verses 19 through 21. Let's read these verses together. Then came to him his mother and
his brethren, and could not come at him for the press. Now, he doesn't say it, but almost
all the commentators feel as though he were in a house. in
the place where he was at and he was preaching to the people
or in a synagogue. And they couldn't get to him
for the press. It was shoulder to shoulder. And it was told him by certain
which said, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring
to see thee. And he answered and said unto
them, my mother and my brethren are these which hear the word
of God and do it. Now, there is in these three
verses a lesson preserved by the Holy Ghost, I believe, concerning
the family of God. And that's what I titled the
lesson this morning, of God, God has a family. I have a family,
you have a family, God has a family. And I was shocked when I began
to study this that some of the best commentators of our day
totally ignored these verses, just left them out of their study
altogether. Or perhaps they included them
in something else that they did, in a message that they preached
or something. But anyway, they felt it unnecessary
to include these things in their verse-by-verse commentaries. And some of the best commentators
of days gone by talked as though Luke had a lapse in memory and recorded
these things out of place. And the problem I have with both
of these things is that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. There are no mistakes in it. I may make a mistake. I may stand
here and be convinced of something and say something and in two
or three years learn that I was wrong and have to apologize and
take it back. But not these men. These men,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God. They spake, Peter said,
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And so I say to you that
these three verses are given to us by the Holy Ghost. Now Luke wrote them, but he wrote
them as the Spirit of God inspired him to write. And he wrote with the same divine
inspiration as Matthew, and Mark, and John, and Paul. And I see in these things three
things that I want us to look at and consider this morning.
Three things. First of all, I see our families. I see our families mentioned
here and how to view them, how to... We have a family and so what
does that mean? What does that mean? And then
secondly, I want you to see, as you mentioned here, God's
family. And what does that mean? Who's he talking about when he
talks about the family of God? And then thirdly, I want us to
see which family has the priority. And these things are recorded
here and they're pretty clear, I think. And so you don't think I'm just
simply using these verses as a springboard to jump into a
lesson that's out of context. Let me remind you of the lessons
that I've already brought that lead up to this. We talked first
of all about the providence of God and the preaching of the
gospel. Preaching is always the result of God's providence. He arranges providence. He arranges
where I'm gonna be all the time. All the time, where you're gonna
be, what you're gonna do. He either controls all things
or he controls nothing. Everything's left to chance.
And we know that's not so. We know he worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. And the heart of the kings
and the hand of the Lord, the same as the rivers and waters,
and he turneth it whithersoever he will. Providence and preaching. And
then in the second lesson in Luke 8, he gives us a parable
that illustrates this, this preaching and providence. He talks about
a sower that went out to sow. He didn't just get a bag of seed
and take off down the road there and just reach in there and give
him a handful and just start throwing it every which way.
He had a field already prepared And the husband man, the farmer,
had already given him the proper seed and told him where to go
plant it. But in the process back then
of broadcasting seed, there was wind you had to compensate for,
and that wind would blow that seed over this way a little bit
and over that way a little bit. Might stumble. Might stumble. Throw a little seed here, throw
a little seed there. So, some of this seed fell in
places where he didn't intend it to be. And it didn't produce. No matter what it was. If it
fell in the thorns, it didn't produce. If it fell in the stony
ground, it didn't produce. If it fell in the road, in the
It didn't produce. And there was reasons for all
of it. And it's the same when we go out to sow. Who am I sowing? What is the
purpose behind all of this? It's God's providence, God's
purpose. He has a people. He has a people. He's gonna convert that people
with his seed. He's gonna save that people with
his seed. He's gonna produce something
in them by that seed. And he has the means already.
He's chosen them, prepared them, he sends them out, he arranges
for the people to hear and so on. But that seed's gonna get
broadcasted where he don't intend it to grow anything. Background's not prepared. nor
will it ever be prepared. And that seed's gonna fall there,
and them thorns, and there's nothing wrong with the seed.
It's the same seed that goes in a prepared ground. You see
what I'm saying? And all of these things is what
he calls pervenient grace. That's what the writers all called
it, pervenient grace, grace before grace. God's grace working. before you knew anything about
grace. John describes it in John 1 16,
of his fullness he said, have we all received and grace for
grace. If God wasn't gracious to send
you a gospel, you wouldn't know anything at all about the grace
of God. Paul describes the whole thing
looking at it on an eternal basis. He describes it like this, vessels
of mercy and vessels of wrath. The vessels of wrath are fitted
for destruction. They're not fit for anything
else. They're doing what they want to do. They're hearing what
they want to hear. They're reacting the way they
want to react. But vessels of mercy, he describes
them this way. of four prepared unto glory. Grace for grace of his fullness
have we all received. And when I think about the scope
of this prevenient grace, I find myself just lost in wonder, same
as Paul and all the other writers in the scriptures. You can't
help but just find yourself lost in wonder. This provenient grace.
God has purposed his grace and acted in grace from the foundation
of the world. This grace is his character. It's who he is. He's gracious. And when he talks about grace,
he said, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Paul wrote to Timothy and said,
God hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose. Now listen,
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. That's provenient grace, isn't
it? Grace before grace. And in this eternal preparation,
he ordained certain things that symbolize to help us to understand
these things. He has ordained certain things
and brought certain things to pass, created certain things
that help to communicate this truth to us so we can understand
it. He's just given us one in the
sowing of the seed, now he's gonna give us another in our
relationship, both to one another and to God. And the first thing I see here
is our families. We all have families. In Matthew's
account, our Lord answers those who addressed him in the form
of a question, and he said in Matthew 12, 48, he said, who
is my mother? And my brethren, who is my mother? Who is my brethren? Who are my
sisters? And every relationship in this
world in some way pictures our relationship to God. That's why
that relationship was ordained. It didn't just happen. It didn't
just evolve out of nothing. Somebody said, well, I think
I'm going to start a sweet potato farm. And he starts it. Well,
I'm going to have to have some employees. There's never been
an employee, but I'm going to have to have some. And then it
just evolved. No, these relationships were
ordained of God. They're ordained of God. There's
no such thing as a servant. But Adam kept that garden for
the Lord, didn't he? Huh? He kept that garden. He worked in that garden. And
he served the Lord. Every relationship in this world
in some way pictures our relationship to God. We're taught to pray
our Father. What possible knowledge could
you have about your Heavenly Father without any concept of
what a Father is? It would be like God talking
to you in a foreign language. You remember when He talked to
Nicodemus He said, you must be born again. And Nicodemus, he's
an intellectual, he's a Pharisee. And he kind of looks down his
nose at the Lord and he said, are you saying we have to crawl
back in our mother's womb and be born again? The Lord said,
Nicodemus, I'm talking to you in earthly terms, so you can
understand. What would you do if I talked
to you in heavenly terms? You think you could understand
that? No, and he's talking to us here in these verses in earthly
terms. He said husbands love your wives
as Christ loved the church. There's a relationship there,
a relationship there. He often calls the churches bride.
And without any concept of a husband or a wife, all that he tells
us would just be meaningless, wouldn't it? Servants, he said, obey your
masters. And again, all of that would
just be empty without some concept of that relationship. And every
natural relationship has a place in creation that communicates
our relationship to God. And so we have a natural family,
mother, father, sister, brother. And because God has ordained
these relationships, we're not to disregard these relationships
and say, well, they're just pictures, so they're meaningless. Oh, no.
No, no, no, no, no. That's where they get their value.
That's where they get their value. These things picture our relationship
to God. Into the law of God, our Lord wrote, honor thy father
and thy mother. You honor them. And because these things are
symbolic, does not mean to have no bearing on us. Let me show you something over
in 1 Timothy chapter five. Turn over there with me and let's
look at this. 1 Timothy chapter five. We have certain responsibilities
concerning our family. 1 Timothy five, beginning with
verse four. But if any widow have children,
her husband's dead, she has children. or nephews. Let them learn to
show piety at home. What does that mean? What's piety
mean? Well, the dictionary said it's
religious devotion or reverence or respect. Let them learn to
show respect and reverence at home. And then watch this. And to requite,
requite their parents, for that's good and acceptable before God. What does that word mean, requite?
It means to pay back, to repay, that's what it means. What are you trying to say? Well,
parents give their children their time, don't they? All of it. All of it. They give their children their
time. They give their children their love. They give their children
their concern and their labor and their kindness and their
protection. Who do you think watched over
you when you was one and two and three growing up, huh? Now, let me ask you something.
Is it then too much to ask that you do the same in return? You
see what he's saying here? Requite your parents. There's
responsibilities within a family. And then listen to this verse,
Ephesians 5 verse 8. But if any provide not for his
own, And especially for those of his own house. Does this have
any bearing on our relationship with God? Listen to this. He
hath denied the faith. Boy, that's strong language,
ain't it? He hath denied the faith and
he's worse than an infidel. Am I a father? Then let me do
what a father is told to do. Let me be a father. Am I a child? Then obey my parents as unto
the Lord. Am I an employee? Let me work
as unto the Lord. And he teaches us this throughout
scriptures. He teaches us this. And I keep
saying as unto the Lord, for he is the object of all these
relationships. And we have a natural family,
and we're to do as much as we can for them. But there's some bad news. They
may not let you. They may not let you. Because they're your family does
not mean they're not fallen children of Adam. I'm come, Christ said, now listen
to this, to set at variance a son against his father and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's
foe shall be they of his own household. They may not let you. I want my children, and I want
my nephews and nieces, and I want my family to hear the gospel. I want them to know who God is,
and who Christ is, and what the gospel is. I want them to know. But they won't let you. They
won't let you. A natural family, and that's
what we have on this earth, we have a natural family. A natural
family are made up of natural people. And the natural man,
it says, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. He's not
going to receive them. It takes an act of God. It takes
God intervening. for him to be able to hear and
bow and be willing. So that's our natural family. We have responsibilities toward
them. And it ought to be natural for
us. It ought to be. Who know God, these relationships
are given just for that purpose. And we know what our relationship
is to God. So it shouldn't be hard to have
that relationship with our family. But here's where the difficulty
comes in. They won't let you. They won't let you. And then secondly, God has a
family. They're called the household
of God. The household of God. It says in Hebrews 3, Christ
is a son over his own house, whose house are we, If we hold
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end,
we're of his house, his house. And from the beginning, God hath
predestinated us, it says, unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. He said, because we're sons.
Now, Jesus Christ came into this world. He was born of a woman.
When the fullness of the time has come, God sent forth his
son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. Why? That we might receive the
adoption. And because you're sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Those reconciled in Christ, he
came and preached to, he preached peace to them, and through Christ
he gave us access by the Spirit unto the Father, and now therefore
we're no more strangers and foreigners, but we're fellow citizens with
the saints, now listen, and of the household of God. We're God's
family. We're his family. And there's
no greater privilege given to anyone than to be a member of
God's house. God has a family. And as the
head of his house, he's made every provision. I tell you, I look back at my
own family and I think about my young life and how I disregarded
this and that and education and one thing right after the other,
and it hurt me and the provision for my family. But my mind wasn't
on those things back then. But God makes provision, full
provision for his family, both eternal and daily. Give us this day. Who are you
talking to? Talking to your father, our father. Give us this day, our what? Daily
bread. David said, I've been young,
and now I'm old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread. Why? Because God our Father is
a perfect Father, and he made full provision. He created a
whole race of beings to minister to those who shall be heirs of
salvation. He created a whole being of angels
for no other reason God doesn't need any help. He didn't get
angels to help him. These angels are ministers of
God, sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Provision. Christ said, in my Father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. He didn't hold anything else back. He said, I wouldn't
have held that back. I go to prepare a place for you.
Where? In my father's house. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am there you may be also. God's family inheritance is secured
by his first begotten. If you go back in time and look
at the family, it was always on the head of the first begotten.
He was going to be the priest of the family. He was going to be the securer
of the family. Everything rode on him, on the
first begotten. God's family inheritance is secured
by his first begotten. He's the head of the body, the
church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Oh, my soul. And not only this,
but he's the firstborn of all creation. He's not only the creator of
it and predates it, but also the reason for it. And the scripture said creation
is by him and for him. And by him, it continues on. It has a continuum. This family is an eternal family
and not one member of it shall ever perish. God not willing
that any of those should perish. And I guarantee you, he does
what he will. And if he wills that not one
member's gonna perish, not one member's gonna perish. And listen to what Christ said.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Oh, well, yeah,
but what about this circumstance? Ain't no circumstance. All that
he gave me gonna come to me. He gonna see to it. Why? Because
they all gonna be taught of God. And when God gets done teaching
you, you're gonna come to Christ. That's what it says. Read John
chapter six. God has a family and nothing
can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
the Lord. He loves his family. And then
thirdly, the family of God must always take priority over the
natural family. Why? because all of these natural
relationships end in death. That's why. Now I hope you don't, like most
of this world, go down to a funeral home and start picturing little
babies in heaven and all this kind of stuff. I hope you don't
do that. I hope you don't go down there
and say, oh, I can't hardly wait. My wife been dead since 2019. I don't have any dreams about
rejoining myself with my wife in heaven. No marriage, no giving
in marriage. All of these relationships end
here in death. Not gonna be any prophets in
heaven. When I was studying the book
of Revelations, I couldn't believe how many of these men who seem
to know the gospel in such detail, And yet, now they're talking
about these elders and these different things in the book
of Revelation, and they're saying, well, this is talking about the
prophets. There won't be any prophets in heaven. Why would
you need a prophet? You're gonna be in the presence
of Christ himself. You're gonna be in the presence
of the Father. You don't need to grow anymore.
You're gonna be just like him. You see what I'm saying? We're
not going to need a prophet up there. We're not going to need
a father. We're not going to need a mother. We're not going to
need any of these things. We're all going to be like Christ. You read over there in the book
of Galatians, I think it's chapter 4, and he's talking about the
kingdom and how we're to view it. And here's what he said.
There's no Jew or Gentile. Now listen, there are no male
or female. Uh-huh. But we're all gonna be
like Christ. Ain't that what this is? My soul. This family takes priority
over our natural family because all these relationships are gonna
end. They're all gonna end when we
die. When we die. Will I still know Kathy? Absolutely. Absolutely. But not as my wife. Procreation, or the begetting
of children, is purposed of God to bring into existence His elect.
That's what it's here for. And to manifest His glory. in
their redemption through his son. And having redeemed them
and called them and justified them and glorified them, what
further use is there going to be of procreation? And the same is true of all these
other relationships. And if you heard even half of
what I've been talking about today, you ought to be able to
see the preeminence of God's family over our natural family. Every unbelieving soul is gonna
be cast into hell. Whether they're your sons or
mine. My daughters are yours. My wife
are yours. My mother are yours. My father
are yours. Every unbelieving soul will be
cast into hell. I know that from scripture. But
because of these relationships and this relationship now that
I know between myself and God, doesn't it make your heart go
out for them? Huh? Don't it make you desire that
they hear? Sure it does, sure it does. And
this family, this family of God is secure. There gonna be no,
I tell you, things happen. I was celebrating Christmas at
my brother's house. We got a phone call. His 16-year-old
boy committed suicide. Found him dead. I'll tell you,
it just knocked the socks off of us. Just knocked the socks
off of us. And things like this happen. They just happen. Everything's going fine. Boom.
Something happens. Something happens. But not in
God's family. We're never going to be separated.
Never going to be separated. Looks like we could get along
a little better down here, don't we? We're going to spend eternity
together. Looks like we'd want to seek
each other's company, fellowship. All right. That's enough. Thank
you.