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e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] welcome to everyone it's good to be back in the house of our God on this Lord's day for our call to worship you can turn with me in your Bible to Psalm 47 Psalm 47 I'll begin reading in verse one to the chief musician the psalm of the sons of Kora oh clap your hands all you peoples shout to God with the voice of Triumph for the Lord most high is awesome he is a great king over all the Earth he will subdue the peoples under us and the Nations under our feet he will choose choose our inheritance for us the Excellence of Jacob whom he loves say lot God has gone up with a shout the Lord with the sound of a trumpet sing praises to God sing praises sing praises to our king sing praises for God is the king of all the Earth sing praises with understanding god reigns over the Nations God sits on his holy Throne the princes of the people have gathered together the people of the god of Abraham for the shields of the earth belong to God he is greatly exalted amen well please turn to Psalm 32 Psalm 32b as in bravo and we'll stand as we sing together [Music] for him to S holy the [Music] son [Music] bless to [Music] heart [Music] is my streng with my was my [Music] soul my my S from me [Music] I and th for me [Music] let [Music] our well we shall we their heart to the Lord Mighty sa me from Sal my heart my Gra [Music] the and with my heart my Cel for soul to understand the willing to [Music] my his Mercy shall [Music] the [Music] your GL [Music] rightous let us pray our gracious God and Father we thank you again for the Lord's day we thank you for the privilege to gather in the house of God to worship and to serve you for you are the most high and you are worthy of all praise and worship and adoration we acknowledge that you are glorious and wondrous and we thank you that you are Father Son and Holy Spirit a God who is a God for us who has not left us in our sins but has delivered us from our transgression we bless you for the gospel of of our salvation for the sending of the son of your love into this world Sinners to save we we thank you for that incarnation of the second person of the Trinity who took on our Humanity such that he could live for us so that he could die for us and be raised again for us on that third day we praise you as well for the current session of our Blessed Redeemer we thank you that he ever lives to make intercession for us and that he is that he is our Advocate with the father and we look forward to his return again in glory to judge the living and the dead may it be the case that all of us would be forgiven of our sins and clothed in his righteousness such that we may be accepted on that great and glorious day we ask God that you would look with favor upon all of our children and our young people and the babies and the wombs we ask that you would look with grace and mercy upon each one cause them by grace to remember their creator in their youth and may they look unto the Lord Jesus Christ with saving faith we ask now that you would forgive us for all of our sins and unrighteousness we're conscience conscious as we enter into your presence that you are a god of absolute Hol and righteousness and there is no ability in you to look upon uh sin favorably so we confess our iniquities and our transgressions trusting in our shity trusting in that Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world we ask he would wash us and purify Us in his Precious Blood and for those who are dead in their trespasses and sins we we pray that you would awaken them that you would grant them The Graces of faith and repentance that they may come to the Savior King confessing him as Lord we ask God that you would be gracious as well in the context of our church terms of the temporal needs we know there are many who are struggling with physical challenges and hardships we just commend them to you and to the word of your grace praying that you would bless each one we pray specifically for our sister Bev in the hospital we just ask God that though the outer man does decay day by day that inner man would be renewed and that she would have fond thoughts of her blessed savior even in this time of distress we ask as well God for all of us we are in a world filled with temptation we know that the Devil roams about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and we confess at times our our weakness our propensity to to to wander to leave the god that we love so may you strengthen us and may you fortify us and may you supply in great measure the Holy Spirit to teach us concerning Christ to guide us into all truth and to protect us from the the the the the wicked one and as well father we just pray that in in all of this we would acknowledge your kindness and your goodness to us and that we would live lives expressing our gratitude and our our our love for you we pray for your blessing upon the situation in Myanmar we just ask God that you would continue to watch over our dear brother Peter you would sustain him physically and spiritually and emot tionally we know he has been tasked with a very great task and God we thank you that you have sustained him thus far we we pray and and ask and trust that you will continue to sustain him give him the resources necessary to provide well for all of the orphans and God be merciful in that land and may there be a ceasefire May there be some return to stability and Order and God just be merciful and from this bring forth good things in terms of many Sinners coming out of Darkness in that land as well we pray for your blessing upon the entirety of the persecuted church we know that many suffer many for the cause of God in truth find themselves in prison they find themselves with uh no business with no family and all manner of desertion yet God we know that you don't desert your people they always have The Nearness of God as their good so we pray that they would Faithfully persevere in the midst of Affliction and hardship and that they would bring glory and honor and praise unto you and be with our Brethren and eldoret we thank you for pastors napali and Moses and Remy uphold these men use these men in that in that uh part of the world to continue to hold forth the word of the gospel and may they know the the blessing of God upon their Ministry of the word be with t and kumu as well be with our dear sisters and the team there that is ministering in kakamega we just pray that they would be protected by you that by your grace they they would return home safely on Thursday and that they would have been uh uh would be able to just give all praise and glory to you for your kindness and your mercy to them in this time of missions Lord continue with us now we pray bless our brother cam as he comes up in a few minutes to preach the word fill him with your spirit and give us ears to hear and hearts to receive that truth and we pray through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen will you can turn again with me in your hym books to 242 242 we'll stand as we sing [Music] together for creation you have chosen Us in love and that love so so moving as us to Christ still in in chrone the world change his passion you will still the sing your compassion and your com through [Music] Alles shall forever praise your name for is our story is our all the day Mercy free and never are will the [Music] rest us he his only [Music] son [Music] you in your graise and our song will s forever and we see you face to face glory to the L of [Music] you can turn in your Bibles to the Book of Joshua Joshua chapter 18 as we move our way through the Old Testament Joshua chapter 18 remember we're in the section where they're dividing the land they have entered the land they have conquered the land and now they are in the process of dividing the land the latter section of the book will deal with how they retain the land and that will be by being faithful to our great God now as we know from subsequent history they are not faithful and they ultimately are they themselves elv dispossessed from the land through the Assyrians in the 8th Century BC and then through the Babylonians in the 6th Century BC so essentially what happens is the children of Israel go into the land and then they ape the Canaanites and as a result they reap the Judgment of God most high so beginning in Joshua 18 at verse one now the whole Congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle of meeting there and the land was subdued by before them but there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance then Joshua said to the children of Israel how long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you pick out from among you three men for each tribe and I will send them they shall rise and go through the land survey it according to their inheritance and come back to me and they shall divide it into seven Parts Judah shall remain in their territory on the south and the house of Joseph shall remain in their territory on the North you shall therefore s survey the land in seven parts and bring the survey here to me that I may CA cast lots for you here before the Lord Our God but the Levites have no part among you for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance and Gad Ruben and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the East which Moses the servant of the lord gave them then the men arose to go away and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land saying go walk through the land survey it and come back to me that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh so the man went passed through the land and wrote the survey in a book in seven Parts by cities and they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh and Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord and there Joshua Divi divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions now the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families and the territory of their lot came out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph their border on the North side began at the Jordan and the Border went up to the side of Jericho on the North and went up through the mountains Westward it ended at the Wilderness of Beth aan the Lord uh excuse me the Border went over from there toward L to the side of L which is bethl Southward and the Border descended to adero Adar near the hill that lies on the south side of lower Beth horon then the Border extended around the west side to the south from the hill that lies before Beth horon Southward and it ended at kirjath Bale which is kirjath jiram a city of the children of Judah this was the west side then the South Side began at the end of kirjath jiram and the Border extended on the west and went out to the spring of the Waters of NEPA then the Border came down to the end of the mountain that lies before the Valley of the son of henon which is the Valley of the reame on the North descended to the valley of henon to the side of the jebusite city on the south and descended to en rogel and it went around from the north went out to to n Shemesh and extended toward galilo which is before the ascent of adumim and descended to the stone of boan the son of Reuben then it passed along toward the north side of arabah and went down to arabah and the Border passed along to the north side of Beth hogla then the Border ended at the North Bay at the salt sea at the South End of the Jordan this was the southern boundary the Jordan was its border on the East side this was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to its boundaries all around according to their families now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho Beth hogla emch kazis Beth arabah zarame bethl aim perah ofra Kar H H ham excuse me hamoni again a sign that I love Cam that I haven't had him reading these sections ofne and Gaba 12 cities with their Villages gibian Rama baroth mispa cira mosa r name earel terala zah elth j jabus which is Jerusalem gith and kirath 14 cities with their Villages this was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families amen well as I said last the last two readings basically every city named every border extended every place given is a fulfillment of God's promise to the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob he swore to give them uh swore to give them a a massive land they have now gone into that land having gone through much trial much tribulation and much difficulty the Deliverance out of Egypt through God's Mighty power the wandering in the wilderness through pillar and Cloud uh guiding them and now they have arrived at their particular destination and just one further OBS observation other than the faithfulness of God is Joshua's charged to these remaining tribes in verse three it comes as sort of a re reproof or a rebuke basically he is telling them to be cautious that they do not engage in any sort of unbelief or in gratitude or complacency he says uh then Joshua said to the children of Israel how long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you Joshua is well able to say that because of his own experience remember that reconnaissance mission in numbers chapters 13 and 14 when the tribes are or the men are sent out by the various tribes and only two of them are men of faith it is Caleb and it is Joshua while the 10 uh leaders the anti-ret are basically saying oh no there's no way we can go into the land there's there's Nephilim there there's Giants there's all kinds of of threat it's Joshua and Caleb that say let's go up at once we can take the land God gave this to us and as well the Book of Joshua Begins by God instructing Joshua to be strong and of good courage Joshua then in turn exhorts the children of is Israel to be strong and of good courage so Faith does not mitigate the necessity for courage Faith rather is the foundation for our courage it is an expression of Faith to have that kind of Courage that hears the promises of God and then acts upon them lays hold on them and that's the nature of Joshua's admonition here do not be complacent how long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you pick men out send men out survey the land come back to me here at Shiloh and then we'll divvy up the land God sent us for this purpose you need to act upon it and you need to get about it so Joshua is a faithful leader and one that has served well or had served well not only in terms of leadership but being a servant to Moses and expressing the kind of faith and faithfulness necessary in the man of God well let us pray Our Father in heaven we thank you for your word we thank you for your faithfulness your covenantal faithfulness as we see it here fleshed out in the pages of the Book of Joshua we thank you that the God who promised Abraham Isaac and Jacob is the god who brought it to fruition in the conquest as well we thank you that all of this points forward to our Lord Jesus Christ that one who is the the yay and amen of all the promises of God and we thank you for New Covenant blessing we thank you for all of the mercy and the grace that you've poured out upon us as a result of this greater than the old Covenant Joshua even Jesus our lord and savior and we pray in his Most Blessed name amen well please turn with me again in your hym books to 463 463 we'll stand as we sing together of [Music] Jesus bless he as a mighty ocean in his full over me all around me is the C [Applause] of all [Music] to [Music] Glorious Jesus [Music] his to [Music] ever love change never never how Hees for his to call all his how for [Music] SE watch for from the thr of [Music] Jesus the o [Music] s of Jesus to and to Glory [Music] for up to [Music] the you can turn in your Bibles with me to the Epistle of first joh John just taking a taking a short break myself at least from uh the book of Galatians just for uh for one sermon so I can jump back into its its subject matter so this evening we're going to look at 1 John 3:1 and the status of Christians as those who are the sons and daughters of God a blessed privilege that we have as Christians a privilege undeserved that we can be called the sons and daughter daers of God or the children of God so I'm going to read first John 3:1 we'll pray and then we'll have a look at this this blessed verse behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him amen well let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you for your word we rejoice in your goodness to us here this evening and worship worship that we can freely gather uh to worship our blessed God the one and only living and true God Father Son and Holy Spirit that we can reflect upon the glories of Jesus and that we can sing of your Amazing Grace and we pray as we continue in Worship in the act of preaching you would be with us by your spirit illumin our minds that we might understand all the more the things of your holy word and we pray that Saints would be edified that Sinners would be saved by spirit and word and that in all things you would be honored and glorified we pray in Christ's name amen well it's a wonderful verse that we have before us we're going to we're going to look at doing five things in an analysis of sometimes one single word but other times certain Clauses that we have in this particular verse and the the five things we're going to look at are these first the Christian imperative to consider and be astonished secondly The surpassing Wonder of the love of God thirdly the unmar love of God God fourthly the Christian status in Union with Christ and then lastly the result of all this as it concerns the world so first off with regards to the Christian imperative to consider and be astonished we're going to consider the very first word of this verse and this word alone the word behold and it's not usually the case that we just simply focus on one one single word but there's something uh significant about this word not only here but also also how it's used in elsewhere in the Bible in fact in in the New Testament there are at least 10 different words for what is translated look or see or behold or uh the word low as in low I Am With You Always even to the end of the age and some of those looks are are looks of Investigation sometimes it's a look of scrutiny uh sometimes it's a look of anticipation of something that is forthcoming um in the case of the the word that we have here that's translated behold it actually comes from a a Greek word that we through the ages of emology get our word idea uh something that something that is formed in the mind something that captures the mind um and something that we see in the way uh in the way of an idea or a significant thing uh the word base being used here is the same of that announcing Angel when he says Behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son uh as well that that well-known behold behold the lamb of God who takes Away The Sins Of The World the the word form here though it's a little bit different than that it's the same base word but the word is uh an imperative a command a call to attentively consider something of very great significance and so this word behold is not simply a common look or see but something wherein the Apostle John here is calling upon his audience to lay hold of something of great significance Jesus Christ uses the same employ when he says behold my hands and my feet and the the Samaritan woman uses the same word when she says come see a man who told me all all things I ever did and the angels at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ when they say come see the place where the Lord lay so we have this word behold and it's given as an imperative it's given as a commandment but not some burdensome one it's a joyful command it's a joyful imperative to for the recipients of John's letter to to to get their mind captivated by the subject matter that that is to follow to look with eyes of faith upon something of great significance and that's what we have secondly in The surpassing Wonder of the love of God notice behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us what manner of love this this blessed phrase captures at least three things and I I think what's primarily in view is the Divine love demonstrated in the incarnation of the son which is the source or Foundation of our adoption as Sons and Daughters of God the the soteriological the salvific the simply the saving Foundation uh for our uh status as children of God so we often think about that demonstration love of God the the love of God as it is demonstrated but the first thing we ought to consider with this behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us is the love of God in light of his essential Glory notice if you turn with me in the same epistle to 1 John 48 1 John 48 as we consider the love of God in light of his essential Glory notice in 1 John 47 beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves loves is born of God and knows God he who does not love does not know God for God is love as Pastor Butler has said on a on a number OFA occasions in his preaching when we consider the Creator creature distinction and when we consider the Divine Perfections or the the attributes of God we're not to consider those things for for our case this evening the love of God we're not to consider these things as if God is on the same scale or chain of being as his creation a as if to say we have cockroach dog cat dolphin Raven man Angel God and that if we if we just jump in at the point of humanity that we have man's love and God is just sort of the the maximal expression of human love but on a higher scale when we consider the creator of all things his love as he says himself is himself the theologians say all that is uh all that is in God is God and this verse speaks to that blessed reality that God is not made up of his Perfections there there aren't things that are more absolute than God like love like goodness like justice like righteousness that he sort of appropriates to to make himself to be God but God is the very things that are predicated of him Gregory of naanis wrote speaking of the the Perfection of the godhead for seeing that its every quality is incomprehensible and Beyond The Power of our intellect how can we either perceive or Express by definition on such a subject that which is beyond our Ken or beyond our knowledge how can the immeasurable be measured and the godhead be reduced to the condition of finite things and measured by degrees of greater or less a as John is writing behold what manner of love he he wants us to see what the Bible everywhere speaks that the love of God is immeasurable and it is immutable this is a wonderful thing with regards to our God he is beyond all metrics and we want a we want a God who is that um the the theologians of old would say a God who can be measured is no God at all and certainly not a God to be worshiped God is God dwells in in an everlasting and an eternal boundless now in his infinity and his love is boundless he doesn't love us a little bit more on Thursday and then a little bit less on Friday his love does not wax and wne but his love is perfect because God is love Augustine wrote God is not what he has but he is what he is for in him it is not one thing to be and another to be great or another to be good but for him to be is the same as to be great to be good and to be wise and whatever else we can say say of that simple multiplicity or rather that multifold simplicity so when we speak of the love of God when John opens up and says behold that is Captivate your minds and for a moment Rouse yourselves and with the eyes of Faith lay hold of something and when he brings forth that something as the manner of the love of the father were to to glory in and the beholder is to look upon a God who does not change in his love but is most loving perfect in his love with a love that cannot lessen that cannot increase because it is perfect and secondly Under The surpassing Wonder of the love of God we should consider the love of God in light of our sinfulness that that's something that's in view here when he writes behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of of God we are to consider our our former sinfulness our present sinfulness as far as our remaining corruption but our former sinfulness that though we were marked as those who were dead in trespasses and sins though we were marked as those as Paul writes to Titus for we ourselves were once foolish disobedient deceived serving various lusts and Pleasures living in Malice and envy Etc that though we were were marked by that nevertheless God and his unchangeable love made us to be children of God by virtue of the blessed and perfect work of Jesus Christ when we consider the love of God we are to consider his Divine Perfections and we are secondly to consider the fact that he made us alive in Christ when we were dead in our trespasses and sins you can turn with me to Romans in chapter 5 Romans chapter 5 five speaking of the glory of the love of God in light of our sinfulness we have this wonderful passage in Romans 5 that that speaks to the love of God in spite of the fact that we were once ourselves marked as those who were F foolish disobedient deceived Etc notice Romans 5 beginning at verse 6 for when we were still without Strength In Due Time Christ died for the Godly for scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet Perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us what a what a wonderful thing we have here in the demonstration of divine love the the height of the demonstration of divine love is seen in exactly this that his love is De demonstrated towards us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us in other words as we find our way back to First John our status as children is not because we're awesome because we're great because we've somehow earned it by virtue of some natural greatness but rather in spite of our sin and while we were yet uh while we were still yet sinners dead in our trespasses and sins God made us alive in Christ to be the children of God a and that is what we see next thirdly under this surpassing wonder of the love of God is the love of God in light of the Incarnation of the Son of God the same word used here where we read what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that language of bestowed is the same word used the same word form used in John 3:16 Pastor Butler uh spent some wonderful time on that in the last few minutes of his his sermon this morning speaking of the fact that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son it's the same word used here with regards to bestowed it's a it's a gracious Divine gifting uh of something but we're we're not quite there yet in light of the Incarnation of the Son of God notice in first John 4 speaking of the demonstration of the love of God with regards to the Incarnation and this is this is more pointedly what John has in view not that he doesn't have the Perfection the Divine Perfection of love in View and of course not that he doesn't have uh the former sinfulness and the love of God visited upon those who were dead in sins but he probably has primarily the demonstration of the love of God in the incarnation in you notice in 1 John 4 after that portion that we read with regards to God is love notice at verse 9 1 John 4:9 in this the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him in this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for for our sins this is in essence what John is calling upon his audience and what God is calling upon us to behold to look upon to to grasp with the eyes of faith it is the glory of the visitation of divine love in the Incarnation of the Son of God this um this language of of behold in its weightiness as a as an imperative and its waiting this as calling upon an audience to look upon something is is picked up by by the early church fathers and it's picked up by by Chris Austin in in a in a in a more elaborate or repeated way and the language he uses isn't necessarily behold but in his stylish way he would use the language of attend to his audience attend I entreat you and Rouse yourselves and at the point of the Dem demonstration of the love of God uh in the Incarnation of the Son of God he uses that language in his exposition of Philippians 2 5-11 which speaks of the Incarnation the one who's in the form of God who uh did not consider equality with God something to be held on to but humbled himself in the Incarnation taking on the form of a bonder servant um chrysostom says attend I entreat you and Rouse yourselves and then he gives this glorious picture of he kind of personifies Philippians 2:5-11 as a warrior with a sword and he he sets up this picture of all of these these Heretics throughout the ages who have opposed the glory of the Incarnation of the Son of God his person and his work and he calls upon his audience to behold to to look at a spectacle where this warrior with a single sword comes crashing down upon uh upon what he pictures as Roman soldiers that are the Heretics who are shielding themselves under Shields and the sword of the spirit of Philippians 2:5 to8 the glory of the Incarnation comes smashing down and and shatters them into a thousand pieces we we behold the spectacle of such Glory we behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us in light of the blessed incarnation of the Son of God he he died as a an expression and demonstration of the love of God as he bore substitution arily the wrath of God in our stead um the the language the language of Galatians 2:20 is glorious remember what Paul writes there he he writes that uh as far as he lives by the spirit he lives by faith in the Son of God and he doesn't say Who Loved Sinners and gave himself for Sinners though that would be glorious and that that is glorious and that's true he doesn't say who Christ who loved us and gave himself for us though that's true and that's glorious but he says the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me the connection of love to the Incarnation of the Son of God connecting to the the behold which is to land upon the eyes and ears of Christians to cause them to look with eyes of faith upon So Glorious a demonstration of divine love that the father would send the son in the fullness of the times to give himself for guilty Sinners what a glorious expression what manner of love the father has bestowed on us notice thirdly the it's the unmar love of God what manner of love the father has bestowed on us again that same word base employed in John 3:16 the gracious gifting by God our confession of Faith uses the language that God vouchsafed us to be partakers of the grace of adoption that's wherein our sunship and our daughterhood consists our our children of godness consists in God vouch safing us that is giving us a gracious gift unearned unmar undeserved to be the children of God what a what a blessed thing it is it's the unmar love of God the father has bestowed on us that we are or that we should be called the children of God as the Bible everywhere does as God through Revelation everywhere uh does um he calls us the word calls us to reflect upon the fact that we are Christians not because of us but because of God we are Saints by calling not because of us but because of God we are the children of God certainly not by nature and certainly not because of us but solely and alone because of God and we'll notice here uh shortly um that the reality is set forth that we're children of God not because of us because we once were children of Wrath but the unmar love of God it the whole scheme of Salvation the whole Plan of Salvation the whole blessed uh chain of redemption connects itself to the fact that we are the gracious undeserved uh or we are the the the the B uh the Blessed yet undeserved recipients of the gracious gifting of God as we reflect upon our former selves as we reflect upon the fact that we are vves were once foolish disobedient deceived serving various lusts and Pleasures full of malice and envy and we reflect now upon the fact that we can come into a place and with joyful Christian Hearts worship the Triune God rejoice in Christ and sing the Praises of Grace We're to reflect upon the fact that our Salvation is by virtue of divine condescension in the bestowal of love and grace and all those glories connected to the goodness of God fourthly the Christian status in Union with Christ and this this gets to the core of this statement here with respect to Christians being the children of God the Christian status in Union of God behold in Union with Christ behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that so this is the the sort of the the thing that is to be beholden um the thing that is to be beheld rather what man of Love is certainly to be beheld the bestowal of a certain status is to be beheld and all of that comes to this that we should be called children of God the the language uh or we should say the theme of sunship is uh takes up Prime real estate in the Bible the theme of fatherhood and in sunship just a brief tour through the biblical sunship that we have in uh in the Bible and there are a number of them there are a number of them uh they're all significant and some of them connect more than one connect to the theme that we have before us as Christians being children of God we have at at least 10 types of sunship in the Bible we have the first and greatest of all which is the unique Eternal sonship of the Son of God he is Son of God by Nature he is one in substance one in being uh of one nature with him who begat him he is eternally begotten of the father in in a manner that is that is glorious and that is impossible to comprehend yet is revealed truth and a revealed truth that we are to glory in the unique Eternal sunship of the Son of God we also have Angelic sunship Angelic sunship the the angels are called the sons of God God in the Book of Job not only there but primarily in the Book of Job and specifically the Angels probably created on day one of creation they're created on day one and they behold the glory of the creation and they sing with joy uh we have thirdly creational sunship we are as humans the sons of God by virtue of creation but not in that special Redemptive and glorious and Christian way the apostle Paul appropriating a poem about Zeus and to Zeus in Acts 17 appropriates it for a sacred and glorious use to argue that we are all the offspring of God in that Proclamation uh to the Athenian philosophers um we also have diabolical sunship Christ says to the unbelieving Jews you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do we have Adam sunship we are the sons and daughters of Adam by virtue of our connection to him outside of Christ we are the sons and daughters of Adam we are the recipients they our our confession calls them our first parents we have as well National sunship and this probably takes up the larger portion of for example the Old Testament it is typological and it points forward to Christ but the national sunship of Israel within that you have abrahamic sunship according to the Flesh and you also have the sons of God The Godly sethite line connected to that in in Genesis 6 but National sunship God calls Israel his son the Israelites call God their father there is a we could call it covenantal or a corporate sunship we have also in bear with me with this one typological monarchical sunship we have God in the promise to David uh the davidic Covenant that his sons would be blessed ultimately it points to the greater than David David's son properly speaking the Lord Jesus Christ who would in the fullness of the times perfect Covenant promises but the the sons of David according to the flesh the lineage of monarchs uh were sons of God we have getting closer to our sunship that's before us we have the unique mediatorial sunship of Jesus Christ and this Bears a a very important connection as does the adamic sunship that we previously mentioned to our text tonight but the unique mediatorial sunship of Jesus Christ this speaks to the regard to uh the fact that Christ is a son in the Incarnation to God remember remember that language at at the B baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ and then later at the Transfiguration where a voice comes down from heaven and says this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased uh no doubt he is the beloved Son with respect to his unique Eternal sunship as the one who is eternally begotten of the father but as the last Adam and as the obedient and true Israel he is the obedient son that perfects obedience for his people we have as well Evangelical sunship John uses the language of my little children Paul uses the the language of Timothy being his son the apostles would have sort of Sons and Daughters by virtue of they being the recipients of the Proclamation of the gospel and in a way spiritual sons and daughters and then our last sunship is given to us here and that is Redemptive sunship behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God Redemptive sunship and what a blessed thing that is because what were we beforehand we were children of Wrath we were we were uh Sons and Daughters of Adam justly deserving the punishment for the transgressions uh our transgressions against the law of God the apostle Paul uses that language we were once children of Wrath just as the others so what a blessed thing then it is for Christians to behold the manner of love that our blessed God has bestowed on us that we can now be called the children of God a as you as you can reflect upon your career prior to being adopted into God's family by Amazing Grace as you can reflect upon transgression born each and every day and and each and every second that you were children of Wrath that we are were that we all were children of Wrath what a blessed thing we can say now that we are the children of God not because of us but because of the Perfection of the work of Christ and the amazing grace of God applied to our souls our previous sunship we were children of Wrath we were the sons and daughters of Adam the rightful and inheritors and Heirs of Eternal damnation but we now have a present and abiding sunship we have the the spirit of adoption and our Redemptive sunship looks back then upon the fact that we once had a sunship as Sons and Daughters of Adam inheritors of the curse but the obedient son the one who has a unique Eternal sunship who took on in the Incarnation our Humanity to Bear a mediatorial sunship unlike Adam who was a Son of God unlike Adam he is perfectly obedient to the law of God unlike Israel Who Bore a national corporate covenantal sunship to God the Father the true Israel Jesus Christ perfects obedience for his people who are turned by Grace from being children of Wrath to Children of the Blessed God just to briefly look at the fact that we are Sons and Daughters of God by adoption you can turn first with me to the book of Ephesians the language of adoption is used with regards to our sunship because we are not by Nature children of God you know the the common Trope or the the common theme uh of the spiritually ambiguous and the uh the well-meaning but terribly wrong Christians who say we're all children of God in in this some sort of universal way um H has emotional weight but it doesn't have biblical propriety we are the children of God we are adopted Sons and Daughters of God humans are not the sons of God redemptively by nature but notice in Ephesians chapter 1 we have this wonderful language of adoption being connected to the verse three blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and Without Blame before him now notice in love having predestined us to adoption as Sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of his glorious Grace by which he made us accepted in the Beloved having predestined Us in love to adoption as Sons by Jesus Christ you can turn to Galatians here in Galatians 2 uh Galatians 4 rather the Apostle Paul here connects adoption our adoption to the mediation of Christ his Incarnation specifically and the giving of the spirit notice in Galatians 4 at verse vers four but when the fullness of the time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law notice that we might receive the adoption as Sons so one of the purposes of the Incarnation was to make those who were once children of Wrath the sons of God through the Perfection of saving work and by the grace of God the the Incarnation designed to bring many sons from wrath to Glory through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and notice the the spirit connected here in verse 6 and because you are Sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out Abba Father therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ think of that for a moment we're we're Heirs of God having once been by virtue of our connection to Adam and Eve as the the sons and daughters uh of Adam and the inheritors The Heirs of everlasting curse and Damnation we are now by Grace those who are hirs of God through Christ we're we're to behold that with with the full weight of our uh of our Christian son sight the eyes of Faith to behold So Glorious a thing and notice in this passage that we have the Blessed Tri Unity of God connected to our adoption the full when the fullness of the time had come God the Father sent forth his son of course the son and then we have the spirit of God sent into our hearts by which we cry out ABA father our adoption as sons and daughters of God is connected to the Blessed triun of God the Trinity of persons Father Son and Holy Spirit our present and abiding sunship it is an abiding sunship we are the sons and daughters of God we are the inheritors of everlasting life we have a blessed inheritance laid up for us and one of the things our confessions BR brings out and we're going to close if you turn back to First John there's one fin Clause that we'll spend uh 2 minutes and 33 seconds on but as the Sons and Daughters of God our confession brings out the reality that God then pies us as his children he protects us as his children and he chastens us as his children which are all called blessed privileges to those who are part of the the household of God as as children of God God we are under the the parentage of a blessed God who pies us who looks down upon us who sees our weaknesses he he sees our trials he sees our afflictions he sees that we are beset on all sides by wickedness and he pies us and he helps us by his Spirit and the the Blessed thing as well is that he also chastens us a as the Apostle Paul brings out in the book of Hebrews we should never we should never straight he doesn't say this but we should never straight arm the the chastening of God but we should welcome it as his children when he sends upon us the the trials and sometimes even the afflictions and the disciplines of chastening we are to see that as a gracious and a loving father bringing us through a season that we all that we might all the more on the other side of the trial on the other side of the Affliction on the other side of the hardship be all the more conformed to his blessed son closing then with 1 John 3 and verse one lastly the result of all this as it concerns the world notice the language at the end of verse one there's a therefore here therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him this is language that Pastor Butler has bring been bringing out very recently Jesus Christ know that if the if the world hates you it hated me first what what is what is the reason behind one of the significant reasons behind the world's emnity for Christians the world's opposition to Christians the world's ultimate their opposition uh to to Christ's people it is the reality that they do not know the father and so they do not know us and they look upon us as those representing the God and the Christ that they oppose by their actions by their thoughts and by their deeds the world does not know us we are the children of God and they know nothing of us and therefore ultimately they oppose us they persecute us and when they have their way they seek to destroy us we ought to be encouraged that in spite of all that and with that in life we are called the children of God by virtue of the Perfection of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and there is a God in high heaven who sits uh who sits above the Earth as it were looks down upon the Earth with derision upon those who oppose his church he pies he protects us and he strengthens us for this battle in this lower world not a battle according to the flesh but a spiritual battle against the enemies of the Christian Gospel we are the Blessed children of God and what an honor it is for us to be able to with eyes of Faith Behold The Blessed realities of divine love of divine gracious bestowal of the Blessed truth that we've been adopted into the family of God and that we are the inheritors of everlasting life a as we go into this week we should we should engage in that high and laof beholding of the blessings of God the the high and lofty uh Divine Perfection of love the the the the reality that though we were once dead in our trespasses and sins yet God in his love bought brought us forth to be his children to Behold The Blessed incarnation of the Eternal Son of God who took upon himself our Humanity to save us from our sins as we go into this week let us be encouraged by that even though the world does not know us because it did not know him the Lord Jesus Christ God uh Father Son and Holy Spirit though the world opposes us we can rest upon the fact that the Sovereign God of high heaven protects his children he encourages his children he uplifts his children and if you're here tonight and you're outside of Christ know that you are the children of Wrath the inheritors of everlasting damnation but there is such blessed hope in the god of Amazing Grace who alone has the power to make you a child of God believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and enter that blessed Household of Faith well let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you for your word we rejoice in your truth to us we thank you so much for the fact that we can be called the children of God not because of what we have done not by virtue of any good deed or or good thought or any obedience on our part but solely and alone by virtue of The Obedience of the obedient son even Jesus Christ Our Savior and Lord we pray that you'd help us to reflect with great Glory that we would behold with eyes of Faith the glories of our God in condescending love and making us who were once children of Wrath the children of God by Amazing Grace go with us into this week help us to glory in Christ help us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ and help us to return in one week's time to enter into this place to once again gather together as the Saints of Christ to worship Father Son and Holy Spirit and we pray in the name of Jesus Christ Our Savior amen we'll have a brief time of prayer when the piano e