Characteristics of a Son (08/17/2003)

The Finished Work of Christ and the Doctrine of Sonship

Greg I may have to ask you to bring me a little cup of water when you get that on in a minute. John chapter 3, we've been talking about the great finished work of Jesus Christ in days past. All the things that he has accomplished by his death on the cross and we've discussed many topics for there are many things that were accomplished by his death.

He accomplished things for God himself. We call that propitiation doctrinally speaking. That means that, thank you, that means that Jesus' death on the cross satisfied the father as the payment for sin, excuse me, but we've talked about so many things where we benefit.

Things that Jesus' death accomplished for us. And so we've come to the place where we talked about our sonship. The fact that his death made it possible for us to become sons of God. And that's what we've been talking about the last couple of Sundays.

So we'll do a little bit of review in case you're a visitor this morning and you weren't here last time. We're speaking of the characteristics of a son, the characteristics of a son, a son of God that is.

Last time we talked about the first characteristic of a son of God is that a son is brought into being by the pleasure of the father. The son plays no part in his own birth. We spoke on that last week and we're just mentioning it by way of review this morning.

If you remember, I said there was a subtopic or a subtitle, characteristics of a son. The subtitle is this, points one, two, three, and four of my 1 ,000 reasons you cannot lose your salvation. Now, I think that as we look at Jesus' example of what salvation is like, he uses a physical example we're all familiar with, or at least all of the adults are familiar with, to teach us a spiritual truth.

He says being saved is like being born. In other words, he told Nicodemus, you must be born again. He was speaking of a spiritual birth, but he said if you want to learn more about spiritual birth, look at physical birth, look at the characteristics of it, and they parallel the characteristics of spiritual birth.

So if you think about physical birth as an example of spiritual birth, we talked about last time how it's impossible for a child while still inside the womb to cut a deal with its mom. I don't think Matthew spoke to Charlotte and said, if you'll let me be born, I know you already have four children, but if you'll let me be born and be the fifth child, I'll be obedient, I'll obey you all the time, and cut a deal with her.

So she says, okay, therefore, on the basis of your obedience, you may be born. That's ridiculous, isn't it? It is ridiculous because God created birth in such a way that the child being born is not the one that caused the birth.

It was the parents. It was of the parents' will and of the parents' desire that that child be born into those parents' family. And that's the way it is with God. We're foolish when we think we're better parents than God is, or when we think we're better planners than God is.

And so the truth is, a child is brought into the world by the pleasure of the parents. The child plays no role in its own birth. That is a fact of physical birth, and Jesus said being born again is like being born.

There's a parallel. You can learn things if you look at physical birth. We find in many places in the scriptures, we mentioned last time, Ephesians 1, verse 3, where it says, and all the way through to verse 5, where it says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

Our birth is because of the will of the Father. It's because of the purpose of the Father. In John chapter 1, verse 12, it speaks of how to be saved. It says, as many as receive him, that means the Lord Jesus, as many as receive him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

Now listen to this, which were born, and it tells you three ways you're not born. It tells you three things that don't cause spiritual birth. You're not born of the blood. It's not something you can inherit because your parents had it.

How many times have you been out witnessing and you ask someone, well, do you know the Lord? Are you saved? And they say, oh, yes, my grandfather was a preacher. We've probably all heard that one, but did you know you cannot inherit salvation just because your grandfather was a preacher?

So the Bible says they were born not of the blood, secondly, not of the will of the flesh. You cannot be born spiritually because of the desire of your own flesh or anyone else's flesh. And thirdly, you cannot be born again by the will of man.

Your mother can want you to be saved. Your father can want you to be saved. Your friends can want you to be saved, but it's not by the will of man. So what is it? Which were born not of the blood nor the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God.

You see, just as in physical birth, the child is born because of the will of the parents, the desire of the parents to bring one into their family. In spiritual birth, it is the same way. You are born again because of the desire of God and his purpose to bring you into his family.

It has nothing to do with what you do. A child's birth can have nothing to do with what the child does. We discussed last time that the fact is the birth of the child, he is already in the family before he even has the opportunity to do good or bad.

So obedience is not the cause of the birth. It is the result of it. The same is true in spiritual birth, but we have many people who call themselves brothers and sisters who don't understand this and who teach a different gospel than this.

Do you know that this is the only thing that can really be called the gospel? Because the word gospel means the good news. Now you tell me, would it be good news if I walked up to you and said, let me show you how to be saved.

Here's what you do to be saved. You promise God you'll be obedient and then you have to be obedient and then you'll get to go to heaven. Now tell me, would that be good news? Who in here thinks that would be good news that if I told you you can go to heaven, if you'll promise God you will obey him.

You know why that's not good news? Because you can't obey him. You're going to fail. That's what sin is. That's in fact why we have a save your, because we can't save ourselves. So the good news is this.

You don't play any part in your salvation. God purposed you in Ephesians chapter one before the foundation of the world to become part of his family. And therefore once you are born and you're aware, you can then choose to obey or not.

But that plays no part in whether you're part of his family or not because you're already in his family once you're born. Now, Jesus used physical birth to typify all these things. And I think that it would be very, very dangerous for us to fault his allegory.

How can we bring fault to the allegory that Jesus himself uses to teach us? Many verses that we gave last week, Acts chapter 13, 48, Romans chapter nine, verses 11 through 13, 2 Timothy 1, 9, which says, who had saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose.

You see, it's the father. It's the parent who purposes the birth according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. If it was given to you before the world began, then what part did your obedience play in it?

Please tell me. Zero. This is not only good doctrine, it is plain doctrine. It is clear doctrine. So the first point about salvation is that it is caused by the father, not by the child. Child plays no part in his own birth.

The Divine Nature and Being Re-Gened

Here's the second point. When you are born, you have the genes of your father. Now look at John chapter three, verse seven. You have the genes of the father and you have the nature of the father, or you can say of the parents if we're speaking of physical birth.

The genes of the parents and the nature of someone in the lineage, wouldn't you say, from the genetic code? Well, John chapter three, verse seven says, marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again.

It's very interesting when we look at the Greek behind this English translation, because the word for born in the Greek is the word geneo. And the word geneo comes from a smaller Greek word, which is genos, which if you looked at how it's spelled, G-E-N-O-S, you can see clearly that our English word genes comes from this Greek word.

So in John three, seven, where it says you must be born again, we discussed this last week as well, but just to review, the word again here means from above, literally is the meaning of it. It can mean from the first, which means the alpha and the omega, God being the first of everything that is.

So when it says you must be born again, listen to this, it's saying you must be gened from above. You must be gened from the first one who is God. Now I want to show you another place where a similar, but different word is used.

Turn to first Peter chapter one, verse 18, we're going to come back to John three, but just turn over to first Peter one 18. I want you to see this idea of having the genes of the father. Remember, we have many brothers and sisters who have a problem with the doctrine that you cannot lose your salvation.

And I would hope they might get their hands on this tape and just go through the scriptures with us and then rethink their view because they've been taught that view by their mama. And when your mama teaches you something, it's hard to say that's wrong, isn't it?

Your grandmama, your mama say, well, you can lose your salvation. Your daddy says you can lose your salvation. I knew one over there got saved, came up, gave his testimony, and now he's living in the bars, lost his salvation.

It's hard to think that the parents or the grandparents or even the preacher could be wrong. But I will say this, if what they say violates the word of God, the clear word of God, then they're wrong. And isn't it true that we're all fallible?

Certainly not a surprise that our parents could be wrong. I know we've been talking to Matthew. They just went out, didn't they? Well, anyway, Matthew, my littlest one, just probably about three or four weeks ago discovered for the first time as a philosophy that his mom is not always right.

He thought that was astounding because he assumed his mom and dad were always right. And somehow she taught him, no, mom can make mistakes. And he's been really thinking about that. So what he does now is, mom, it's really interesting how children are, you know, she teaches him this wonderful truth.

So now she'll say, now, Matthew, I don't want you to, I'll just give you a silly example because I can't think of a real one. I don't want you to touch the stove because it's really hot and you might burn yourself.

So he then turns to me, dad, and he says, dad, if you touch that stove, could you burn yourself? And I'll say, yes, son. Why did you ask me? Well, because mom can make mistakes. So I haven't taught him yet that dad can.

I don't think I will for a while. I'm going to wait a year. He needs to have some guidance. Did he? Yeah, that's been going on. So, so there we have it. So it shouldn't surprise us that our parents could make mistakes.

So why couldn't they make mistakes about doctrine? Well, I want to tell you something, friend. If your mama taught you that you can lose your salvation once you're truly born into God's family, she taught you something wrong.

She didn't mean to, but she did. Because Jesus Christ teaches us in John 3, 7, that to be saved at all, you must be gened from above. Now, in 1 Peter, I said all that to give you time to find 1 Peter 1, 18.

Are you there? Let's read it together. For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things, now, would you agree with me that works are a corruptible thing? Religious activity, that's corruptible.

Getting baptized in water, physical baptism is corruptible. It will perish. It's not something that will last forever. He says clearly you're not redeemed with corruptible things. You're not redeemed by religious things.

You're not redeemed by things such as silver and gold. You're not redeemed by the vain lifestyle received by the tradition of your fathers. Whatever your parents taught you about how it works, getting to heaven, rethink it with the scriptures.

Now, your parents might have been right, but they might have been wrong, but the word of God is right. So it says you're not redeemed by these things. You're not even redeemed by whatever the tradition was your parents taught you.

But verse 19 says, but with the precious blood of Christ. Do you understand that's something that only he can do? You play no role in your own salvation. No role in your own salvation. You say, well, yeah, I did.

I did. He offered as a gift, but I had to reach out and take it. I had to have faith. Dear friend, do you not understand that the scriptures teach that you are only saved by the faith of Jesus? That's his faith.

And that faith itself is a gift from God, you could not work it up yourselves. You can't work up faith. If you don't believe me, go out and try to pray and get a tree to be rooted up and thrown over into the sea.

Try that. Jesus said, if you can believe you can do that. So go do it. You know what you'll do is you'll sit there in the flesh and try to work up faith and human faith. I believe, I believe, I believe it's not going to happen.

True faith that does anything in the spiritual world, including save your soul, comes from the heavenlies down to you as a gift. So you played no part in your salvation. God birthed you. Now, because this is true, look at first Peter 118 and 19 again, it says, but.

By the precious blood of Jesus, you are redeemed by something Jesus did, the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Could you have ever been that way? If you could have been without blemish and spot, then, yes, you could save yourselves.

But if you have one spot on your soul, if you've ever sinned one time. You cannot save yourselves, nor can you add to your salvation because a holy God will not receive that which is unholy. Therefore, it's by the precious blood of Christ who is a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Now, I was going to talk to you about being born again. Look at this being born again, not of corruptible seed, not of the blood, not of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

This is kind of fascinating, this phrase where it says born again. It's not exactly the same as it is in John 3, 7, where Jesus said you must be born again. When Jesus said that, it was actually two words that Jesus used.

And he said, you must be gened from the first, you must be gened from above, you were gene from below when your parents gave you birth, you have the genes of your mother and father. But to be saved, you must be gene from above.

Now, in First Peter 1, 18, as the Apostle Peter writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he uses a slightly different word because his word for born again is just one word. And it is the word geneo, and it's interesting, I'm sorry, it's the word on a geneo and it's comprised of honor, which means the idea of again and the word geneo, which is the same as in John 3, 7, comes from genos, genes.

So literally what Peter is saying is you must be re-gened. So Jesus says you must be gene from above. Peter says you must be re-gened. The genes that your parents gave you are not going to take you to heaven.

In fact, that imparts unto you what we call the Bible calls the old nature, which is what drags us away from God. But we must be re-gened if we're going to be born again. Now, when this happens, when you are born again, you are re-gened, you can't have one without the other.

You cannot be born again and not be re-gened. Now, let me show you what happens when you get the genes of God in your life. Turn to Second Peter, chapter one, verse three. We're talking about, you know, the first four reasons.

We're on point number two of my thousand reasons that you cannot lose your salvation if you are, in fact, a genuine child of God. The second reason is because you have God's genes and because you have his genes, look what else you have.

Second Peter 1, 3, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Do you see this as a gift? That his power gives us all. How much is all? What does that leave for us to do?

OK, he gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Then you can't be godly by adding something of your flesh and yourself to it. You cannot be. So all things for life and godliness. Now, listen, how does it come to us?

Through the knowledge you underline the word knowledge through the knowledge of him. That has called us to glory and virtue, that's God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So through knowledge of him. These things are given now, look at verse four, this is astounding.

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. Do you see that when you get regained, you also now have the very nature of God?

You know what nature means? It means a tendency to be a certain way. It means a tendency to act away a certain way, a tendency to be what you are. That is your nature. God says that when you get regained and you have the genes of God, that all of a sudden you have been given God's nature.

Now, let's stop for a moment. And let's talk about this before we move on. First, notice that verse four says whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises whereby we receive the divine nature.

Notice it doesn't say we're given commandments. Do you see that you are not given commandments in order to receive the divine nature? Therefore, obedience plays no part in it. You are given promises. Now, what can you do with a promise?

You can believe it, that's faith, you can either believe the promise or not believe the promise. Now, God gives us promises. A good definition of faith is do I believe God when God says something? If I believe God, when God says something, that's faith.

So you see here that the promise and the faith are two sides of the same coin. God gives the promise. He then gives us the ability to have the faith and to believe God when he says something. Now, there are many around us who can't believe God.

They are not his children. But those who can believe God have been regained, they have God's nature. It was the very nature of Jesus Christ to believe the father. He says all that the father has, he's given it to me.

He says all the words that I say are his words. All the works that I do are the works of my father. I always believe, he says. And so we've been given these promises, we've been given the nature of God.

Now, let's think about this minute. Why does a goose fly south in the wintertime? Someone tell me. It's his nature to do that. Why is it funny when we say, well, you look like a duck out of water. Why is that funny?

Someone tell me why that's funny. It's not his nature to be out of water, so he kind of waddles around and looks silly when he's not in water. It's his nature to be where? In the water. So let me ask you this.

Does a duck swim around in the water in order that he might become a duck? No. Why does he do it? Because he's already a duck. The the action, the works that he does are a result of his nature. Why does a blue jay chase a squirrel?

No, that's too easy. Why does he chase the squirrel? Or mockingbird does it even even better. Why does a mockingbird chase a squirrel? That squirrels after his eggs, her eggs. Right. Squirrels after her eggs.

And God has given her the nature to chase that squirrel all over the landscape. It's hilarious to watch. I don't know if you've ever seen it. What's the funniest thing? Well, I should say it shows I'm a boy.

I like to watch a squirrel going along electric wire and being dive bombed by a mockingbird. That is fun. Now they never fall. So don't worry about being mean about it. But it is hilarious to watch because that mockingbird is trying to make him lose his balance so he can't get in those eggs again.

It's all the nature that God put in them. Why does a cow not eat meat? Well, let me ask you this. Does he have to work really hard not to be tempted to eat meat? No. Why does a lion not eat grass? Not too appealing to him, but why?

God made the lion a meat eater. So let me ask you this. Is the lion going around saying, well, I better not eat that grass or I won't be a lion anymore? Or does the cow come up and say, I better eat this grass so I can still be a cow?

You see, I'm preaching right now when you're laughing, I'm preaching the doctrine of those in the Church of Christ, the Pentecostal movement and the Methodists. And others, I'm not being unkind to them, even though last week I said that to be an Arminian is a mental disorder.

But but I'm just saying, you know, those who believe you play a part in your own salvation, that is just not right thinking. It is not reasonable to read this Bible and to conclude that you got that from your mama.

And your daddy and your false preacher, not from the word of God, rightly interpreted, just plainly read as it's written by God Almighty. It's it makes just as much sense to say that you go out and you do good things and hold out to the end so that you can be saved, as it does to say that this cow works really hard at eating grass.

So we'll still call him a cow. You see, it's all about the nature of a thing. And when you get jeaned from above, you are given God's nature and God's nature wants to do good. God's nature is good. It does good because of what it is.

And for the first time in your life, when you're born spiritually, you have the possibility of obeying. The only reason you don't obey all the time is because God teaches very clearly that the old man, the flesh that you're living in is not fully redeemed at all until the rapture.

It's changed in the air. So you're living in a body of flesh that is not pulling in the right direction. In fact, the Bible says it's one of the only three enemies you have, the world, the flesh and the devil.

You're living in a body of flesh. That's your old man. The Bible says he is crucified in Christ. He has died, but death doesn't mean he disappeared and vanished. It means he is separated. And the only thing that I can find on this earth that can do that in your life is the word of God, which can literally separate between the soul and the spirit, the Bible says.

So once you get born again, you get rejeaned, you get the nature of God. You then love the word of God because it's God's nature, by the way, to love his word. And so all of a sudden you find you like the Bible.

There are many things you like being in church for the first time in your life. If you have a problem with church, you hadn't been rejeaned. If you have a problem with church and the Bible, it's because you don't have a nature that loves the church and the Bible.

You've got the old nature that hates it. Think about it. It's that simple. On the other hand, if you love going to church and you love the Bible, you can't be proud about it because a cow is not proud that he eats grass.

He's just glad to have it. It's his nature. You can't be prideful if you didn't save yourself. If you find yourself in God's family, you can be thankful, but you can't be prideful. You'd be like being prideful that you sing well.

Listen, for those of you who can sing, you don't understand this, but it's not something you can learn. You're born with it or without it, as in my sad case. So when you're born into God's family, it makes absolutely no sense to say that what caused that was obedience or religiosity or being baptized in Church of Christ, water or this, you know, all the things that religions can tell you.

I could pick on the Baptist, too. In fact, I do that most of the time. So I'm cutting them some slack today. But these who teach that you are saved by doing a list of five things and then therefore, if you stop doing them, you're not saved anymore.

At least that's logical, because if you were saved by any of those five things, you could stop doing them and lose your salvation, could you not? But if you are not saved by any of those five things, in fact, not saved by anything that you do, but only by what the parent did before you were born, which is God, the father who purposed it before the foundation of the world and brought you into his family and regained you with his own genes and gave you his nature.

How can you lose that? Excuse me, I didn't mean to hit it that hard, but I got excited. That is the good news. And some of you needed to be awakened, so. That is the good news. So salvation has not to do with the child or the baby born, but with the parents.

The child plays no part in his birth. Secondly, salvation is there. And when it happens, it is a regening. You are given the genetic code of the father of Jesus Christ. And therefore, you now have the nature of the father.

Therefore, you can be obedient. The only time you're not is when you're walking in the old man and you don't have to do that. You can do it, but you don't have to make that choice. All you have to do is pray and say, Lord Jesus, I'm tempted right now.

Would you please give me your mind? Just let me see this thing through your eyes and you'll walk away from. You have the ability to obey because you have God's genes and God's nature. Now let's go to a third point.

It's half past the freckle. I just noticed I didn't wear my watch this morning. You're in trouble because now I just stop when I quit having fun up here. OK, third point. When you are born. Does this not make sense?

You dwell in the house of the father. That makes sense, doesn't it? When a child is born, he dwells in the house of the father. That is true. Spiritually, we're talking about things that are true of physical birth, things that in pictures and spiritual birth.

So you dwell in the house of the father. John, chapter three, verse 12 says, if I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things and no man hath ascended up to heaven?

But he that came down from heaven, even the son of man, which is in heaven. Now, I'm going to come back to this and show you why it plays a role in this point in a few minutes. But there is a meaning in that verse, those couple of verses that will play a role in this point.

But I want you to just think a minute. Is it not obvious that when a child is born, he dwells in the house of the father? First Thessalonians five, nine says, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, if if you were appointed at all and if God knew you before the foundation of the world as one of his own, according to Ephesians one, many other verses in the Bible, then he did not appoint you to hell.

So how can you lose your salvation? You're not appointed unto wrath. But that means a contrast, not this, but that you are not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, before time began, God knew all of his own.

They were his children already in his mind and heart. He knew you by name. He knew the color of your hair. He knew everything about you. You were his child. He knew you before time began. Time then begins.

Man is made on the earth. Satan comes, man falls and time goes on and you come up to the point of your physical birth. You are brought into this world by the will of your parents. You played no part in it.

Then you wake up, you say, I'm here. I can either obey or disobey, but I'm still in the family of my parents. That's just a universal truth. Same is true spiritually. You are born of God. There comes a point in your life when you are born again.

That's what this verse says, for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to, that's future tense, to obtain salvation. What does it mean when you come to that point in life, in time and space? When is the day of your salvation?

Like the Apostle Paul said, Lord, what would you have me to do? You had a day like that. You were appointed to that day. It was going to happen because the birth happens because of the father. There was a time appointed when you would meet Jesus Christ and look up and see him with eyes that could see for the first time.

Before that, you were blind. You were deaf. You were dead. Your hands were filthy. Your feet were going the wrong direction. All of that. And there came that moment when you looked up and said, Lord, I see you.

What would you have me to do? Your point of salvation, that's what you were appointed to. But it goes on and says you were appointed not to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us.

That's who he died for. That whether we wait or sleep, we should live together with him. Now, look at this sleep in the Bible many times means physical death. Whether you're awake, living still or whether you're in the grave physically, your physical body's in that grave.

Of course, we know spiritually you're not there. Either way, you are with him. You are in his house. When you're born into God's family, you are in his house. Whether we wait, whether we sleep, we live together with him wherever he is.

That's where we are when we're his children. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify. Build yourself one another, even as also you do. It is not edifying to tell one another that you can lose your salvation, especially when it's not true.

It doesn't edify what does edify. He says edify one another with this is to teach one another that God has not appointed us to wrath. But to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ and that whether we're still here physically on the earth or whether we're going to be with him, either way, we're with him because we're living in his house and I go to Psalm 23, verse one.

Somebody tell me what time it is. 10 after 12. I thought it was about a quarter till. OK, Psalm 23, one. No, really, I could tell. Psalm 23, one. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

He leadeth me beside still waters. How much of this am I doing? How much is he doing? Who's the shepherd? Who's the sheep? We is OK. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Thou prepare us to table before me in the presence of my three enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. Thou anointest my head with oil.

That's the Holy Spirit. My cup runneth over. That's the joy in my life because of my salvation. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will say I might. If I don't lose it, it says I will dwell in the house of the Lord for a while.

Until I lose it. Doesn't say that, does it? For ever. Now, you either have to defy the meaning of forever. To say you can lose it. Or something. But you can't have it. You can't have a good sound definition of that word and still say you can lose your salvation, because when you're born into God's family, guess where you get to live?

In God's house. Now, we are we are out of time. So I'm going to save the good part of this third point for next time. But I'm going to show you how you can dwell in his house even while you're here. And you should dwell in his house even while you're still on the earth, because First Thessalonians says whether we wake or sleep, we are with him.