Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able to remain standing,
please do and let's turn our attention to
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Ephesians chapter one. So Fusians one, I'm going to read verses three through
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fourteen, but a sermon this evening
will focus particularly on some words in verses
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for through six. Let's give our
attention to God's word here. Effusions one,
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chapter three. Blessed be the God
and father of our Lord, Jesus
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Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
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places, even as he chose us
in him before the foundation of the world,
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that we should be holly and blameless
before him. In love, he
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predestined us for adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of
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his will, to the praise of
his glorious grace with which he has blessed
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us in the beloved in Him,
we have redemption through his blood, the
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forgiveness of our trespasses according to the
riches of His grace which he lavished upon
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us, and all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of
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his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as
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a plan for the fullness of time
to unite all things in him, things
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in heaven and things on earth.
In Him we have obtained in an inheritance
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having been predestined and according to the
purpose of him who works all things according
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to the counsel of his will,
so that we, who were the first
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to hope in Christ, might be
to the praise of his glory. In
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Him. You also, when you
heard the word of truth, the Gospel
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of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
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who is the guarantee of our inheritance
until we acquire possession of it,
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to the praise of his glory.
Amen, he may be seated. So
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why do we praise God? Why
do we praise God? Why? Why
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aren't we to be thankful to God? That everyone is right. Not everyone
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who is thankful. Not everyone praises
him back. Many, many people don't.
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Many people don't give God a second
thought. And yet here the Apostle
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Paul, begins this passage, this
section of his letter to the church in
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ephesis by saying this word of praise, blessed be the God and father of
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our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be
the God and father of our Lord Jesus
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Christ. Why? Well, because
he is blessed us in Christ with every
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spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
And he goes on from there, from
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verse to verse, to verse to
verse, opening up these treasures for us,
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helping us to understand what it is
that we have been given as Christians
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and therefore why we ought to praise
God, why we ought to be thankful,
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why we ought to bless his name, why we ought to walk in
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love, many other things. That
lots and lots of implications. Of these
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things. He's opening up our hearts, and one reason is to be a
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more thankful and more Praiseworthy People.
If you ever find yourself with ingratitude and
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a kind of ungrateful slump, this
is a good passage to read, effusions
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one three through fourteen, because here
he reminds us, God reminds us of
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what he has done for us,
what he has done for us. Now.
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The thought begins in verse three,
where he says, even as he
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chose us, rather a verse four, even as he chose us in him
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before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holly and blameless before
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him. Tonight we focus on this
next passage and where he continues this where
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he says in love he predestined us
for adoption as sons through Jesus is Christ
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according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace
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with which he has blessed us in
the beloved he chose us before the foundation
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of the world. He picked us
out. He put his purposes on us,
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is what he is saying. And
that happened before we were even born,
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before the world was even born.
God did something, God chose something.
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He he chose, he chose us. Now he expresses a similar thought
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when he says he now predestined us. Some people hear this word and immediately
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get chills a little bit. But
is there anything in this passage? Is
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there anything in the word of God
which should make you feel nervous about the
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word predestined? Is there anything cold
or unloving here? That's just the opposite.
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It says in love he predestined us. There's nothing cold or callous,
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there's nothing cruel here, it says. God says in love he predestined us,
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and then he has six different phrases
to help us understand this. Paul
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slow goes down on this gift a
little bit. Before he says he chose
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us in order that we might be
wholly and blameless before him. Now he
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says he predestined us for something else, and he explains what what that thing
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is. The word predestined is similar
to chosen. It's a little different.
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It means in Greek basically what it
does in English, which means appointed or
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marked for something, marked for a
particular purpose, but here it means marked
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beforehand, right, predestined for something. It is probably related to a noun
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which means a marker. Dr Steve
Bab points this out in his commentary where
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he says this. It's probably related
to like a boundary marker. That what
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you would have for a land right, as a way to mark your property
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off. You would use this thing
to market, you would appoint this line
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in a way, as a way
to designate and and show that this thing
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belongs to you. Well, the
word predestined is is similar to this word
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marker. It's you are being marked. The Bible says appointed and, more
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than that, pre appointed or predestined
for for something. That's something. What
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we're going to focus on tonight.
What is the something? This predestination is
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broken up, we might say into
two halves. First, the thing we
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are predestined for, namely adoption as
sons through Christ or through Jesus Christ.
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The second three things describe of the
ground of it, according to the purpose
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of his will, or, I'm
sorry, yes, according to the purpose
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of his will, and then the
reason, to the praise of his glorious
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grace. Want to focus on that
first part, adoption, adoption to himself,
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adoption to himself as sons through Jesus, through Jesus Christ. What is
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adoption? Well, we probably know
what adoption is. Some of you in
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this room have been adopted, some
of you have adopted or you know people
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who have been adopted, and adoption
in the Greek Roman world of Ephesus is
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similar in many ways to adoption today. Adoption is when you bring someone into
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your family that didn't previously belong.
Now they become a part of that family
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in which they weren't before. But
there are also some significant differences between adoption
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back then and adoption now that are
worth pointing out. One because it helps
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us to understand what Paul means when
he says adoption. Right, we want
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to be careful about reading modern things
back into earlier things. So what does
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Paul mean when he says adoption?
Well, there are some significant, Soni.
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Significant differences between adoption then an adoption
now. One interesting thing is that
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adoption to a household was in some
ways bigger than we often think of it
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now. When we think about adopting
someone into our family, for example,
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most of us, hopefully none of
us, don't own slaves. This wouldn't
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be the case in the household of
an ancient world. There would likely be
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slaves and other people who belonged to
that household. So to become a part
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of something meant becoming a part of
something bigger, a part of something bigger,
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and that's not so much important just
in of itself that it's a bigger
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thing, but you'll see why it's
important a little bit later. One of
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the other differences is that adoption was
that there are there are these various Greek
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words in the ways that you adopt. So, for example, you can
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adopt a child. That's a word
that we have in Greek. It's one
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word, but we also have these
other words adopt as a daughter or adopt
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as a son. There are sort
of specific words for these things. You
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can speak neutrally about it or you
can be specific as to the gender.
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Paul is specific here. He says
you are adopted as sons, and that's
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important because in our society, and
American Society, we have inheritance still,
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but not to the same degree that
they did back then and not with the
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same structure and same rules and ways
in which inheritance and households, in the
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passing down of things, was really
locked into the law and to society and
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very deep ways. And the way
that worked is that when a father who
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was the ruler of the household,
the women, the children, the slaves,
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the property, everything, and was
the decision maker and the owner of
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those things, when the father died, he would pass that household and all
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of that. That was on too
and an air. Now, in some
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cases you would not have an error, as you might imagine, how you
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might be a father who, for
whatever reason, doesn't have a son and
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so you wouldn't pass on, you
wouldn't be able to pass on that household.
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Well, the household wasn't just the
right to rule, it wasn't just
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the people and property that belonged to
that household, but it was even more
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than that. It also included things
like titles, honor and society, perhaps
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even citizenship and things like that.
So if you didn't have a son,
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this would be a sad thing in
a way. You would not be able
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to pass on your household and all
of it had been earned and grown over
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the years would perhaps disappear. So
what do you do? Well, what
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they often did is they would go
and look for someone to adopt. They
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would go often to their extended family
members and find a nephew over here or
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an uncle over there, or some
probably not an uncle, but someone below
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you that you could adopt into the
household as a son, right, so
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that you could then pass everything down
to. Now I want you to imagine
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yourself as the powder Familius, the
family right. Imagine that you don't have
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a son, don't have an air
to pass down, and now you are
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going to look for someone to give
a to pass down, to give this
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inheritance to. Who would you look
for? That's my question. Who are
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you going to look for? I
know what I would do if I had
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worked hard and I had myself been
granted various privileges and wealth and whatever,
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no matter how poor I was or
how rich I was, no matter how
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honorable I was or not, whatever
I had, I would pat want to
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pass on to the best possible person, right, somebody honorable, somebody with
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integrity, somebody who's not going to
squander everything that he had been given.
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I would want to pass on my
household to someone who would take care of
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my family, who take care of
his brothers and his sisters, who would
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take care of the people and maybe
even the slaves in the household, somebody
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who would do a good job.
Maybe I would even try to find somebody
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who could help lift my household up
a little bit, if I could find
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somebody who's maybe a slightly higher status
than me or who had money himself or
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could bring something into the family.
Even better. Right, this is who
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I would pick and no doubt who
you would pick. Two. So who
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did God pick? Who did God
pick when he predestined us for adoption as
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sons through Jesus Christ? Now,
it's significant that he says as sons,
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that they we are adopted as sons, because it's only the son that receives
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the air. This is significant to
you if you're a woman. What he's
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saying is that women and children and
slaves and Jews and gentiles and everyone.
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People that were often excluded are now
being brought in, and not just being
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brought in as a freed person,
not just being brought in as a general
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family member, but are being brought
in as sons, and not just sons
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in general but, as we read
elsewhere, coairs with his natural born son,
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Jesus Christ. That's an extremely significant
thing. Who of US would go
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outside of our family if we had
one son that was to receive everything and
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bring someone else in so that he
they could share it with that son,
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especially when that son is God himself, to be co heirs with God of
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everything, as he says in verse
ten. This was all as a plan
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for the fullness of time to unite
all things in himself, things in heaven
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and things on earth. We are
given and, as we will continue to
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see in Ephesians, this great gift
through Christ, through whom we are made
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co heirs with as sons, whether
you are male or female, honorable or
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dishonorable. In fact, we read
throughout the scriptures that God did not pick
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what was honorable and well bred and
wealthy to be adopted as sons in his
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family. Who did he draw?
I'm drawing again from Dr Ba he summarizes
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these things from various parts in scripture. Romans seven, he did not draw
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those who deserved anything good. From
First Corinthians one hundred and twenty six through
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thirty, he did not draw the
wellborn, the powerful or the wise.
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Instead, we read it in Ephesians
two three that he drew people who were
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not just not natural born, but
who were children of Wrath. Orphesians five,
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six and eight, sons of disobedience, Romans five, six through ten,
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helpless, wicked, sinful enemies,
people who were captured by darkness,
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who walked in evil, who followed
the passions of their flesh. To quote
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our professor, he says it surpasses
even the unthinkable idea of a Roman emperor
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adopting a slave from the most barbaric
hinterlands to be the next emperor. It's
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beyond that. Imagine being the Great
Emperor of an entire Roman Empire, with
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a natural born son and maybe even
several in your household, extended family and
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all the rest. And he says, you know what I think I'll do?
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I'll go away, far away to
the edges of the empire and even
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beyond to some non citizens, some
grubby non Roman and I'm gonna pick that
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person who is my enemy, who
hates me, who isn't honorable, who
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is lowest in Societe, and I'm
going to make him the next emperor.
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How do you think that would go
over? But that is exactly what God
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does with us. He doesn't pick
loving, loyal citizens of his kingdom.
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He picks children of Wrath, sons
of disobedience, people that are messed up
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and in all kinds of trouble and
constantly commit treason against him as the Lord
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and King of the universe. And
he then says, I am going to
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predestine you for adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ. Why? Not because of
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anything good in us, but according
to the purpose of his will, to
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the praise of what his glorious grace. How else could you explain it?
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There's no other explanation. But he
doesn't just take these wild, vile people
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and bring them into his household and
the say have fun, I'm done here.
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No, he changes US IN A
way. What does it say?
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He chooses us to be holy and
blameless. He makes us as if we
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were natural born sons. He changes
us, he causes us to be born
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again. He does what no human
father could ever do. He predestines us
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for this thing and then he makes
it happen. He causes us to die
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a death to our sins in Christ
and to raise again by the power of
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his love and his righteousness. This
is what God has given to you.
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He's taken you and adopted you as
his son, to give you, as
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he says in Verse Fourteen, and
inheritance, even his holy spirit, as
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the promise of that inheritance, until
we require acquire the possession of it.
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This is what the Lord has given
to everyone who has heard this good news
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and believed it, who has heard
about his son, Jesus Christ, who
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is come into the world to secure
this position for us, who is done
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this great work of salvation, to
adopt us as his son's, capable and
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worthy of inheritance. Let this testimony, this word of God about what he
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has done in the world, entice
you. If you are yet living on
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the hinterlands of and among the barbarians, spiritually speaking, and you are seeing
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people around you, friends and family
members of yours, zipped off into the
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Kingdom of light, being adopted into
the household of God, are you going
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to stand there and not even ask
a few questions. What's going on?
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How can this be? Who is
this God? Who is this Jesus?
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Jerry Farnick, one of our missionaries
in the Czech Republic, tells the story
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that I always remembered. He said
that when he was in the Czech Republic
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during the communist days, there was
this common experience that everyone had, which
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is if you saw a long line, no matter what, you would go
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get in that line because you knew
at the end of it would be strawberries
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or linen's or something that would be
there for a few weeks and then would
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disappear. Resources and commodities and things
were very unpredictable and very hard to come
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by, and so if you saw
a big line at people, you would
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just go get in it. When
we hear not only that there's a line,
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so to speak, that there's interest
and things are happening among us in
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the world, the people are being
adopted into the family of God, and
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when we hear that there's not even
a line, you don't even have to
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wait, but that God freely accepts
us at any moment when we put our
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faith in him, that he draws
us into his family, that he makes
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us as his own and gives us
all the things that we've heard about.
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Are we going to pass by that
opportunity? Are we going to walk by
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and say, well, I'm busy
today. How can we when this is
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what is being promised to us?
Will you not at least be intrigued?
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Will you not at least ask a
few questions and find out more, because
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the invitation to become sons of God
is open to all? And if you
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have already arrived in the heavenly city, if you already belong to the household
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of God, will you not bless
your heavenly father? Will you not rejoice
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in him and walk in his ways? Will you not wait in the hope
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of the revelation of all of these
things? Will you not live your life
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on the basis of these promises and
let the Good News of the Gospel be
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precious to you? If it is, if they are, it will change
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you. The Gospel of God,
this good news that we've been hearing,
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is the power of God and to
salvation to all who believe, to the
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Jew first and also to the gentile, to the slave and to the free,
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to men and to women, to
young and to old, to honorable
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and dishonorable to every one. Jesus
Christ came into the world to save the
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world. No classes, no distinctions. All of us have open access into
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the family and household of God,
in which he promises to give us all
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things and every spiritual blessing. There's
so many more implications of these things.
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When we think about our self worth, do not these kinds of things apply?
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When we think about the worth of
other people, people that may be
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were struggling to love, do not
these things apply? It's one thing to
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be born in the image of God, which all mankind is. It's another
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thing to be born after the spirit
and to be brought into the household of
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God. There are people that we
are cohers with, that we may not
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necessarily like, that we struggle to
get along with, that we struggle to
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deal with. Will Not it help
to remember who they are in Jesus,
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to remember that they have been given
this gift even as we have? We
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could go on all night, but
I want to encourage you to meditate on
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these things, meditate on these truths, think about the ways in which they
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apply in your life. What does
it mean to you to be a son
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of God? What does it mean
to you that you have received an inheritance
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that is undefiled, unfading. I'm
kept in heaven for you. What does
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that mean to you? How will
that affect the way you live, the
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way you walk, the way you
believe? Let's think about those things.
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer
and ask for his blessing.
