Let me read the verses that I
just read again. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and in earth is named. I've entitled this message, The
Family of God. the family of God. Notice our text speaks of the
whole family in heaven and in earth. Now this is a reference
to all of God's elect. There are those who are in heaven,
the saints in light, seeing the Lord Jesus face to face. no longer
dealing with sin, perfectly conformed to Him's image. There's a great
host right now in heaven, the saints in light. And they're the saints who are
still here on earth, possessing all that the saints in heaven
have. I love that line, more happy, but not more secure. are the glorified spirits in
heaven. We have all that they have, the
saint here on earth, but there's something we have that they do
not have. We still possess this sinful,
evil nature. And one day we'll be done with
it. But the whole family of God The ones in heaven and the ones
in earth. The complete family of God. Now this is the family that will
never be broken. I want you to think about that.
This is the family that will never be broken. How sad a broken
home is and it's so rampant in our day. that this home will
never be broken. The family of God. Now in a family, there are three
relationships. There's the relationship between
the parents and the children. There's the relationship between
the siblings in the family. And there is the relationship
of the husband and wife. And all three of those are seen
in the family of God. God is our father. We're brothers and sisters in
Christ. And the church is his beloved
bride, the whole family in heaven and earth. And this is the family
I want to be in. And not all of Adam's race are
in this family. Not all of Adam's race are the
children of God. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
you are of your father. Anybody know the next words?
The devil. And the lusts of your father,
you will do. You remember the parable of the
wheat and tares, the wheat are called the children of the kingdom,
and the tares are called the children of the wicked one."
Paul spoke of the children of wrath, and he said in Romans
9, the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
the God, but the children of the promise are counted for the
seed. And then we're given the example
of Isaac and Ishmael. Remember when God said to Abraham
with regard to Isaac, take now thy son, thy only son, Isaac,
whom you love and offer him up as a burnt offering to me. Do
you know that Ishmael was never acknowledged as a son? Ishmael
represents salvation by works. Ishmael is never acknowledged
as a son. And we think of Jacob and Esau
for the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, but the purpose of God, according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it's written,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Jacob, is loved by God,
a child of God. Esau is hated by God. Now, let me remind you that God's
hatred is not like our hatred. Our hatred is a vengeful, spiteful,
you did me wrong, I'm mad at you, but that's not God's hatred.
God's hatred is with regard to holiness and righteousness. And if he hates someone, it's
because of his holy nature, his righteous nature. And he sees
that person outside of Christ. They're not his children. There
are those who are children of the devil. As a matter of fact,
every unbeliever is a child of the devil, every single one of
them. And every believer is a child of God. Now, look back to Ephesians
chapter one, beginning in verse four. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him. in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. Predestinated to be his adopted
children. Romans 8 29 says, for whom he
did foreknow Then he did also predestinate that they might
be conformed to the image of his son, that he, the Lord Jesus
Christ, might be the firstborn among many brethren. Oh, what a family. But more than being adopted,
every believer is born into this family. I mean, I'm very thankful
to be adopted in the family of God, aren't you? But, oh, to
be born into this family. Turn to John chapter one. Verse 12, but as many as received
him. Now, hold on before we go on
reading. If you've never received him, he never gave himself to
you. If you've received him, it's because he gave himself
to you. There's no merit in the act of
reception. It's what people do when God
gives himself, they receive him. Everybody that he gives himself
to, everybody that he has mercy on, they receive him. Now, what
does that look like, this thing of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ? What does one do when they receive
the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, let's go on reading. But
as many as received him, to them gave he power, the right, the
privilege to become the sons of God, even to them which believe
on his name. What does it look like to receive
Christ? What does it look like to be
a son of God? You believe on his name. His name is his attributes. It's his sovereignty. It's his
justice. It's his holiness. It's his righteousness. It's his mercy. It's his power. It's his wisdom. Now, when you
believe on his name, you're relying on him to save you as an act
of his sovereign will, giving commandment for your salvation.
You're relying on his justice to save you in a way that honors
his justice and honors his holy law. You're relying on his grace,
the freeness of it to save somebody like you. You're relying on every
single attribute that's manifest in his name. And that's what
it is to receive him. You believe on his name. You're
relying on his name. I'm relying right now on all
the attributes of Christ, that God looks to Christ for my salvation,
that God saves me in a way that honors all of his attributes,
all of his glorious attributes that he's revealed in the word.
I'm relying right now on his name. Now, here's how this came
to pass. Let's go and read him. Verse
13, which were born. You see, you have to be born
from above to rely on his name. No natural man will do it. This
is the act of this birth, which were born, which were birth,
not of blood. No one has ever been saved because
their mom and dad were saved. There's no fleshly connections. You were not born of blood. You
were not born of the will of the flesh. This thing of being
born again has nothing to do with what men call free will. Now, in your first birth, how
much did your will have to do it? Nothing. It's the same in the
second birth. You're birthed as a sovereign
act of God through the word into the kingdom of God. This is salvation
to the Lord. You're born not of blood, not
of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man. Now, let's
say there's somebody here that doesn't believe and everybody
agrees we're going to pray for him and we're going to keep praying
for him and we're going to set a perfect example to him so he'll
be saved. Is that going to save him? No. Man's not saved because a
bunch of men get together and do everything that they think
is necessary for that man's salvation. That's not going to bring one
sinner into the kingdom of God. How are they born? Of God. Not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, but of God. They are born. They become something that they
were not before. Now, when God births someone,
they're given a new nature, a nature that they didn't have before.
That's the nature that believes the gospel. It's what Peter calls
being made a partaker of the divine nature. Now, this is what
all of God's children have in common. They're born of God.
Given this nature that was not there before, that's what believes
That's what loves Christ. That's what sees the beauty of
Christ. That's what sees the filthiness and the wickedness
of sin, this new nature. Before you're given a new nature,
you don't have any understanding of these things. I mean, boom,
it goes over your head. Doesn't mean anything to you.
But when God gives you this birth, birth of God, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now, when this birth
takes place, you've been born of God. Now, if I'm a child of
God, an adopted child and a child born, both things, that's true
of every believer. He adopted me into his family. He chose me before time began
to be his adopted child. And he birthed me into his family.
He gave me a new nature, a nature that was not there before. Now,
when I am brought into this family, God is now my Father. What are we taught to pray by
our Lord? Our Father. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Now that means I have his fatherly
love. I wish I knew how to talk about
that the way I ought to talk about it. But I know our Lord
said this in John chapter 17, verse 23, thou has loved them. Speaking of all of his children,
speaking of every child in here, thou has loved them. as thou
hast loved me." Now, I want you to think about the love of the
Father to the Son. Infinite. He sees His Son as worthy of
His love, glorious and holiness and beauty. At that, the Father
sees His Son. Oh, there's no spot in His Son. He's perfectly and completely
satisfied with His Son. Thou has loved them as thou has
loved me." Not only do we have the fatherly love, we have the
fatherly provision. I love to think about his provision.
I like that scripture that says, they that provide not for their
own, especially of their own house, are worse than an infidel
and they've denied the faith. That can be never said of our
Heavenly Father. Oh, how He provides for His own. And everything that He requires,
He provides. Now, He requires perfect righteousness.
He provides it. It's the gift of righteousness.
He provides satisfaction to the demands of His law. He provides
it. He requires new heart. He provides it. He requires satisfaction
for sin. He provides it. He requires faith. He provides it. He requires repentance. It's
his gift. He requires persevering all the
way to the end. He provides it. all that He requires. Now this is so blessed if the
Lord can give me the grace to just get a hold of this. Everything
He requires of me, He provides for me. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord
will provide. Abraham and Isaac are going up
Mount Moriah. Isaac said, here's the wood,
here's the fire, where's the lamb for the burnt offering?
He said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. He provided the lamb. You know,
I couldn't provide anything, not one thing, but he provided
the lamb and all that means for the burnt offering. Turn with
me for a moment to Psalm 23, talking about his provision.
Psalm 23. David says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I shall not
lack. I shall not be need of anything
because my shepherd is the Lord. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. I'm not going to want rest. He
leads me beside the still waters. I'm not going to lack peace.
He restores my soul. I'm not going to lack restoration.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake.
I'm not going to lack righteousness. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil for thou art
with me. I'm not going to lack companionship.
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. I'm not going to lack comfort.
Thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. I have his fatherly protection. If God be for us, Who can be
against us? You know, I've got God for me. What protection? I have his fatherly
pity. As a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. And I have his fatherly
chastening. Now, I don't want to be chastened.
I'd rather not be chastened, but I don't want to be without
it. Because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. And he scourges
every son he receives. Now, if we're children, we have
the family likeness. All of God's children do. We
have the family likeness. Now, what's that look like? The
family likeness is described completely in what is known as
the Beatitudes. And this is where the Lord tells
us what every believer is. Now, turn with me there to Matthew
chapter five. Verse one, and seeing the multitudes,
he went into a mountain and when he was set, his disciples came
into him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, and here
is the family likeness, blessed are the poor in spirit. Now everybody in this family
doesn't have anything to bring. All they have is Christ. That's
it. They don't have anything else.
Would that describe you? Poor. Blessed are they that mourn. They mourn over their sin. Now this thing of mourning. Mourning happens when somebody
dies and there's nothing you can do to bring them back. And
you're mourning over your sin when you see there's nothing
you can do about your sin. That's when you mourn over it.
You can't make it better. You can't make it go away. That
is when you mourn over your sin. And that's what drives you to
Christ. Blessed, verse five, are the meek. Every one of God's
people are meek. Now, some might not show it as
much as others. I realize that. But every one
of God's people are meek before God. Whatever he sends my way
is right because he's God. I don't mean to understand it.
If he said it, he's in control and you bow before whatever he
sins. That's meekness before God. Verse
six, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they should be filled. Now, this is what every one of
his children do. They know they don't have any righteousness
in and of themselves, but they hunger and thirst for it. to
be clothed in Christ. That's all they want. They hunger
and thirst for righteousness. And then it says in verse seven,
blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Now,
every one of God's people have experienced the mercy of God.
They've experienced being saved by the mercy of God, and they
are merciful people. You find me someone that's not
a merciful person, I'll find you someone that's never learned
the gospel, that's never been brought to a saving knowledge
of Christ. All of God's people are merciful people. They've experienced God's mercy
to them, and that's what makes them merciful toward others.
Blessed are the pure in heart. And all that is is the new nature. Every believer has a pure heart,
a new nature, a holy heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.
They're not looking for a fight. They're not contentious. Blessed
are the peacemakers. They are representatives of the
gospel of peace. They really believe the only
peace there is is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's their
message. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the
children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness sake. They believe that the righteousness
of Christ is the only righteousness there is. And there's going to
be folks that are going to be upset about that. They make nothing
of human righteousness. And the Lord says, blessed are
you under those conditions. I think of what Isaiah 63, 8
calls God's children, children who will not lie. Children who will not lie. Now, what does that mean? And
I've got to ask that question because everything that I've
ever said, even if it's true. Somehow I don't know why. If
I said it, if I said it, I might have said everything accurately
and true. But if I said it, somehow I said
it in such a way as to bring me up before me, maybe to bring
other people down. And so everything I say, there's
an element of lying to it. All men are liars. That's true.
And you're the only time you're not lying is when you acknowledge
that that's true. and you acknowledge before God
that you are nothing but a lie. Only then are you enabled to
look to Christ only. You don't have anywhere else
to look. And that's what this child is who will not lie. That's
the spirit in whom there is no vile, no deceit. That's the way
they come into God's presence. And then in Luke 7.35, we read
that wisdom is justified of all her children. We're all in agreement
with God regarding how sinners justified. God's glorious wisdom
in making a way to be just and justify the ungodly. And we say
to that, amen. That's how God saves sinners.
He makes us without guilt through the righteousness of Christ and
putting away our sin. We're all God's children. We're
all saved the same way by grace through faith. We have the same
teacher. They shall all be taught of God.
And we all believe the same thing. We believe Christ is all. Every
believer believes Christ is all. And they are united in that. And all the children love their
father. We love all of his attributes. We love him as he's revealed
in his word. And we do love him. We love the way he is. I love
the fact that God is sovereign and that everybody in here is
in his hands and that he's the first cause of all things. I
love the fact that God saves by his grace. I love the fact
that God saves in a way that's just and righteous and doesn't
just let sin be swept under the carpet. Every believer loves
the way God is. He is our father. And the children,
the siblings, The brothers and sisters in Christ all love one
another. He that loveth him that beget,
loveth him also that is begotten of him. Now I have three sisters
after the flesh, I love them all. It's also true that in an
earthly family, siblings through sin can become separated and
not even have anything to do with each other. but that does
not happen in this family. Doesn't happen. They're all children
of God. This is the family that cannot
be broken up. Now, there is such a thing as
love for the brethren. I love that passage of scripture
where the Lord saves murders Saul of Tarsus, and Ananias comes
to him, puts his hand on him, and says, Brother Saul. Brother Saul. You see, if God
saves somebody, that's my brother. That's my sister. Brother Saul. receive thy sight. Both he that
sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause
he is not ashamed to call them brethren. That's a special name,
brother, brother. What a relationship there is
between the siblings. Do they ever Squaw can fight
and get out a sword, sure they do, through the infirmity of
the flesh, sure they do. But they love one another. Somebody
that Christ loves, somebody that loves Christ, that's my brother,
that's my sister. Now that's the relationship of
siblings in this family of God. And then there's that special
relationship between the husband and the wife. That is the family of God. Christ is the husband, all of
the elect. That's his bride. That's the
lamb's wife. Turn with me for a moment to
Ephesians chapter five. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Ephesians chapter
five. Verse 25, husbands, love your wives even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. And before I go on reading, So
close is the union between Christ and his church that when Christ
is loving his wife, he's loving himself. Now, can I explain that? Of course not. Do I believe it? With all my
heart. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ,
so much so that when he loves me, he's loving himself. Remember that passage of scripture,
If we, hold your finger there and turn to 2 Timothy 2 for just
a second. 2 Timothy 2. Verse 11, it's a faithful saying.
For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If
we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he
will also deny us if we believe not. Yet he abideth faithful. And what's the reason? He cannot
deny himself. You see, if I'm united to him,
I'm himself. And he can't deny me because
if he denied me, he would be denying himself. Now back to
Ephesians chapter five. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
the two shall be one flesh. Now he's talking about the institution
of marriage that God ordained. A man will leave his father and
mother and he'll be joined to his wife and the two shall be
one flesh. I love Paul's comment. This is
a great mystery, but I speak, I'm not really even talking about
marriages here in the flesh. No human family is going to last. That relationship will be gone
in glory. No human family will last, even
one that lasted all the way till death breaks it up. It's still
over. No human relationship will last. This is the only one that does. The church, the bride of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What I've been saying about marriage,
it's good stuff. Paul says, but it's really not,
that's not the main point. The main point is Christ and
his church. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Now, back to our text, one other thing
I want to point out. Verse 14, for this cause, I bow
my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named. Now that's talking about the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know the way the bride takes
upon her the name of her husband? That's given for this reason.
Every believer is given the name of Christ. Let me show you that
in the scripture. First turn to Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23, verse six, in his days, speaking
of the righteous branch, the king that shall reign and prosper
and execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, Judah
shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his
name, whereby he shall be called the Lord, our righteousness,
Jehovah Sidkenu. the Lord our righteousness. Now turn to Jeremiah chapter
33. Look, the same thing is said
in verse 15. cause the branch of righteousness
to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness
in the land. And in those days shall Judah
be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the
name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness."
This is the name of every believer, named by God himself through
the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the name wherewith she shall
be called, the Lord our righteousness." Now, how can the gospel be any
clearer than that? He is the Lord our righteousness. His righteousness is my personal
righteousness before God. I don't want to have anything
to do with anything else. I don't want to have anything that has my fingerprint on it.
The Lord, our righteousness. And that's his name. This is
the name wherewith she, the church, every individual believer, this
is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord, our righteousness. Now, what a privilege to be a
member of this family. This is the family. that will
never be broken. This is the only family that
will never be broken. This family is eternal. And as we're getting ready to
take the Lord's table, this is a family gathering. You can't
take the Lord's table by yourself. You take it with the church.
This truly is a family gathering. Let's pray together. Lord, we are so thankful to be
adopted and born into that great family. And Lord, give us Grace,
that as thy children, we might honor our father through thy
blessed son, enabled by thy spirit. Lord, we ask that as we prepare
our hearts to partake of the table you have commanded us to,
we ask that we might be enabled to do this in remembrance of
thy dear son. Lord, take away anything that
would hinder us in doing this in remembrance of thy dear son. In his name we pray.