Tell them what's given to us.
It's testimony, it's revelation of thyself in thy
Word.
And we thank thee that the Holy Spirit,
who caused it to be written exactly as
thou hast wanted us to receive it, is
here with us, in us, to open thy
Word and to minister to us the things
that thou hast prepared for them that love
thee.
Show us where we are, give us a
glimpse of where thou dost want us to
be and what thou dost want us to
be, and quicken that resolve that we've made
to be everything that the Lord Jesus intended
us to be.
So to that end, speak to us through
thy Word and by thy Spirit, in Jesus'
name and for his sake.
Amen.
Ephesians, in the first chapter, last Lord's day
when I was with you, we began by
saying that the Bible does not teach systematic
theology.
The Bible teaches responsibility, privilege.
Men systematize it.
Men will take all that the Bible has
to say about a given subject and organize
it and arrange it, put it into a
system, and then interpret it.
I see nothing wrong with that, as long
as you remember who did what.
If you remember that it's men that did
the arranging and the systematizing and the organizing,
and God that gave the revelation, then there's
no problem.
You can benefit from what men have done,
as long as you remember who did it.
You don't want to be confused about that.
You want to keep your mind clear.
You don't want double exposure.
You don't want double vision.
You want to see it exactly the way
it is, and the Scripture teaches responsibility, and
where God teaches responsibility, he does it on
the basis of theology, does it on the
basis of truth.
God teaches privilege, and when he teaches privilege,
he does it supported by truth.
Now we're talking about the sovereignty of God.
As that sovereignty is revealed in Ephesians, here
in the first chapter, we saw in our
consideration the other day, the first five verses,
we saw that the Father is infinite, and
he is omnipotent.
That is, he has no limit to his
attributes, and that he has all power, limitless
power, and that this one is the source
of all blessing.
All blessing is from him.
We saw that the Father had only one
Son.
The eternal Father had an eternal Son, with
whom he fellowshiped through all eternity past, by
and through the eternal Spirit.
The Son, the eternal Son, for he never
began to be Son, he is the eternal
Son.
The Son always did only that and all
that which pleased the Father.
From eternity past, the Father has been absolutely
pleased with the Son.
Now, from eternity past, God as Father has
planned for, and may I say, since the
Scripture reveals that God is love, and that
love ever always seeks an object, someone like
itself, someone that needs that love and is
capable of receiving it and returning it, so
as to satisfy the heart of the one
who began this love process, I say, from
eternity past, God as Father has yearned for
and longed for children.
Now, in order for these to be the
fit and proper objects of his love, they
had to be like him.
We can only love that which is like
us.
Therefore, he had to give to these his
children certain abilities, certain capacities, making them like
himself.
They had to be able to think and
feel and will, or to choose.
Now, to make a being that can think
and can feel and can will represents a
degree of hazard, because what if by a
certain thinking process they elect to feel
something that isn't for their best interest, and
they will to obtain that which they have
felt.
In other words, when God made man, he,
to meet the need of his eternal heart,
his yearning, longing heart for a beloved, for
children to be the objects of his love,
it was a calculated risk.
The only being that could be the fit
object for his love had to be one
who could think and feel and will, had
to have, as a triangle would show, the
mental aspect of his personality, the emotional aspect,
and the volitional aspect.
And only then would he be in God's
image, in God's likeness, and only then would
he be an appropriate object for God's love.
Now, if God had made man so that
he could only think in a straight line,
as God wanted him to think, and only
feel within certain limits, and only will in
a certain restricted area, then man would not
have been the object of his love.
He would have been an automaton.
He would have been a machine.
Now, let me illustrate the problem this presents.
Suppose you, all of us as parents who
reared children, have sometimes been a little bit
concerned because in the early years they behaved
so much like their parents.
Probably the father felt like the mother, and
vice versa.
The opportunity presented itself.
But at any rate, suppose to eliminate this
recalcratance, this stubbornness, this willfulness, this disobedience, you
could, would have, when your children were that
age, been able to hypnotize them so that
your mind totally controlled their mind, so that
that child now no longer has a will
of its own.
You know what's best for the child.
You know what's going to be to its
long-term best interest.
And therefore, you simply have eliminated the possibility
of the child doing something that'll hurt them
by mind control, by hypnotizing them.
Now, suppose you as a parent enjoyed having
the child express love for you.
You as a father, mother, long for love
from your child.
Now, in order to protect against what the
child might do that was wrong, you hypnotize
them, they're still under hypnosis.
Now, you as a parent want to have
an expression of love.
So, still under hypnotic control, you say to
the child, walk across the room.
And like a little toy soldier, they walk
across the room and stand in front of
you.
And the next order is, climb up on
my lap.
And so mechanically, the child climbs up on
your lap.
Then your next order is, put your arms
around my neck.
Mechanically, little arms go out like a robot
around your neck.
And then you say, put your lips on
my cheek.
The child puts its head over and puts
lips on your cheek.
Now, say, mother, I love you.
And stiff little mechanical lips say, mother, I
love you.
Now, let me ask you, mother, would this
in any way ratify or satisfy your heart
for love from your child?
Would it?
No.
Not at all.
You see, there's nothing about the compression, the
auricular compression of, you know, what is it?
The anatomical juxtaposition of the auricular muscles in
the state of compression.
There's nothing about that that in any way
gratifies the human heart.
No more than pressing your lips together.
That's not a kiss.
They're your fingertips together.
That's not a kiss.
Not an expression of love or an expression
of affection or a meaning.
So God, then, making man in his image,
yearning from eternity past for an object for
his love, made a calculated risk.
He made him so that man could think
and feel and will.
That is, he had a mind, emotions, and
volition.
He could think, feel, and will.
Now, suppose to protect man, having given to
him these attributes, these capacities, God would have
then said, well, because he can think and
feel and will, I, therefore, must control his
environment so that there is never any stimulation
of his mind to the point where he
thinks the wrong thoughts.
He's perfectly free to think, but I am
going to totally control every stimulation of his
mind so that at no time ever does
he have anything coming in to stimulate his
thought contrary to what I want.
Now, let's ask that question a little further.
Do you feel that that behavior on the
part of one, on your child, for instance,
suppose, with your child, you were to rear
that child in a, in a isolated environment,
no disease germs could get to them, no
conversation could get to them, no literature could
get to them, nothing could touch that child
physically or mentally that would stimulate their minds
contrary to what you wanted.
Would you feel any degree of happiness or
pleasure at the behavior of a child that
has been so insulated and so isolated?
Of course not, because the question would always
be paramount in your mind, what would this
one do?
Were the opportunity given for him to think
some other way than I've conditioned them to
think?
So when God made man with the capacity
to think, the ability to feel, the power
to choose, he did something else.
The environment that he created for that man,
in his sovereign wisdom, apparently was the very
penal colony to which at some time in
the far distant past he had cast his
archenemy.
The Lord Jesus said, I saw Satan fall
as lightning from heaven.
Well, where did he fall through?
You don't have to, from this point for
a next moment or two, you don't have
to agree with me at all.
I'm going to give you some of my
metaphysics.
And when I'm taught, whenever I come to
metaphysics, I'll identify it so you're perfectly free
to turn off your tape recorder at night,
because I can't validate what I'm about to
say.
And when I can't support it from Scripture,
then I'm going to tell you I can't
support this from Scripture.
But it does say in Genesis 1-1,
in the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.
And in Genesis 1-2 it says, and
the earth became without form and void.
Not was made, but became.
And without form means that there was destruction
of whatever order there was, and void means
that there's death reign.
Well, you say, well, what caused the destruction
in Genesis 1-2?
And I can't, I don't know.
But the Lord Jesus said, I saw Satan
fall from lightning from heaven.
Now that's Scripture.
Paris Redead's metaphysics is that the place he
fell to was the earth, and that the
earth became without form and void when he
lit.
Because who is he?
He is the very opposite of God, is
this one.
He's called the God of this world.
And what are his attributes?
Well, God is love, so he is hate.
God is light, so he is darkness.
God is life, and if he's the opposite,
then Satan is death.
And God is truth, and Satan is a
lie.
So this God was cast out of heaven,
this one who would be like God, made,
put down in his own little terrain where
he could use his attributes and create his
world.
And the world was without form and void.
Now, there are more stars than they've ever
been able to count, and more planets, and
they still don't know how big or how
far or how much many, but I'm certain
that if God in his sovereignty had wanted
some other place to put man, he would
have been able to work it out.
But the place he came was a place
that was without form and void.
And then we find that there begins the
recreation, and the Spirit of God brooded over
the face of the deep, and the Lord
said, Light be!
That was the first thing, and then there
was light and darkness to show the contrast.
And then this planet was recreated.
And what you have record of in Genesis,
the first chapter, is the recreation of the
planet.
The preparation of it is the habitat for
man.
And he made a garden, and he put
man in the midst of the garden.
And he knew whose terrain he was on,
and he knew all about the one who
was there.
One day he said to Adam and Eve,
You can't come into the garden anymore.
And he put an angel there with a
flaming sword to keep them out.
Now, if God in his sovereignty had wished,
had so willed, he could have sent that
angel two days or a little while earlier
to keep Satan out.
But he didn't do that.
In his sovereignty, he permitted the prince of
darkness, the God of this world, in the
form of a serpent, to speak to Mother
Eve.
And what did he do?
He spoke ideas to her mind.
Now, what was it that God had done
when he made man in his image?
He gave him the ability to think.
And what is the proposition that's coming from
the God of this world to Mother Eve?
It's an idea.
Idea that in its effect says, You think
God loves you?
God doesn't love you.
God's your enemy.
You thought he was your friend.
You think God wants you to be happy?
God doesn't want you to be happy.
He wants you to be miserable.
Why, look at this fruit.
He told you not to eat it.
He knows it's good to eat.
He knows that it will make you wise.
He knows it'll make you like God.
And he doesn't want you to be like...
Who's saying this?
The one who before said, I'll put my
throne above the throne of the most high.
I'll be like the most high.
That's the one who's saying, he knows you'll
be like God.
But what you see, you have to understand,
we don't know what angels were.
We don't know much about them.
But we do know that the Bible does
not say they're made in the image and
likeness of God.
Only one so described as man.
And we do not know much about their
attitude or the relationship between angels and God.
But we do know that the Bible says
that God loved man.
And it doesn't say that he loved angels.
Now, I don't know what his attitude was.
I just know what it says and what
it doesn't say.
And therefore, the only creature made in the
image and likeness of God is man.
And to this member of this race, to
Mother Eve, the proposition was presented to her
mind to satisfy her good appetites in a
bad way.
That's what temptation always is.
A proposition presented to the intellect to satisfy
a good appetite in a bad way.
And she thought about it.
And the more she thought, the more she
felt.
And the more she felt, the more she
thought.
And the more she thought, the more she
felt.
And it went on.
It was a revolving process.
She felt, she thought.
She felt more, she thought more.
Until finally, she decided.
She exercised her volition.
She made a choice.
And that's always the way it goes.
It's always the way it goes.
Mental, emotional, volitional.
She thought, she felt, she decided.
Ever and always that way.
Words to the intellect, ideas stimulate the mind,
which affected the emotions, which affected the will.
And so, Mother Eve chose.
She sinned.
She decided to satisfy a good appetite in
a bad way.
Temptation, that's a proposition presented to the intellect
to satisfy a good appetite in a bad
way.
That's why when the Lord Jesus was tempted
in all points as like as we are,
yet without sin, he rejected the temptation.
Temptation is not sin.
So, what happened was that Mother Eve sinned.
And when she sinned, she went back to
Adam and had to report what she had
done.
And in effect, she said, Adam, you got
a choice.
You can stick with me, if you like
what you got, or you can stick with
God.
But I've already done what God told us
not to do.
Now, she was beguiled as she relistened to
this, but he now is making a decision
that is not in the same degree.
Beguiled as she relistened to this, but he
now is making a decision that is not
in the same degree.
His temptation is there, but it's different.
It's not the precise to...
Apparently, Lucifer did not tempt Adam the same
way.
That might not have been effective with Adam,
but it was with Eve.
Now, the issue is, are you going to
go back to the state you were before
when you were alone?
Are you going to have Eve, whom you
can see all 24 hours a day, or
God, whom you visit for a few minutes
in the cool of the afternoon?
What are you going to have?
What are you going to do?
And so, his decision is that he is
going to stay with Eve.
That's his decision.
That's his sin.
That is the decision that he makes.
Now, what has happened in this?
Well, they have died.
The day thou eatest, thou shalt surely die.
In what aspects did death come?
Well, look at it for a moment, because
that's what you see here in this next
verse in Ephesians 1.
What happened?
Well, first they died in the sense of
physical.
Physical death became the consequence.
Up till then, God had made man so
that he was capable of living indefinitely, because
every cell in the human body is renewed
every so often, and age is an insult
to the Creator.
He made us so that we could go
on living indefinitely if it hadn't been for
another principle that he introduced because of man's
moral character.
Man began to die physically.
Then man came under legal death.
At that point, man forfeited all right and
claim upon God.
The only thing that man could ask of
God at that time was, be just when
you judge me.
That was the only claim he had because
he had sinned, and therefore God had no
longer any responsibility to care for man.
Man had taken himself away.
You've seen ads in the paper.
Having left my bed and board, I am
no longer responsible for the bills and debts
and obligations of so-and-so.
Legal death.
Legally no longer responsible.
That's what happened when man sinned.
Then the third thing that happened was that
man was separated.
Death is always separation from fellowship with God.
The ad is expressed in the fact that
that first pair are hiding in the garden,
when God is expected to be in the
garden, trying to pull the leaves down over
them, whispering to one another, get down, get
down, so he can't see you.
They no longer want fellowship with God, and
there are no longer any basis for it.
And then, of course, the last is eternal
death, eternal separation from God in hell, a
place of punishment because of the nature of
the crime against God.
Well, all of these things happened.
Now, God had foreseen them.
In his being, in his infinite, limitless attributes,
he had anticipated and foreseen this.
So, as God had, from eternity past, longed
for children, and God had planned that at
a certain point in time, he would make
a being in his image and in his
likeness to be his child, so God had
recognized and realized exactly what he had to
do with that being, the kind of opportunity
he had to give to man.
And if he knew the kind of opportunity
to give to man, he also would know
the response that man would make, not because
he had to.
Now, let me ask you, why did Mother
Eve sin?
What was it that caused her to sin?
What was it?
Did I hear someone say a fallen, sinful
nature?
No, there wasn't any fallen, sinful nature.
It was a choice, a mind, emotions, will.
And then what made Adam sin, a fallen,
sinful nature?
No, a mind to think of alternatives, emotions,
will.
Up until that time, 100% of all
the people in the world sinned, and they
didn't have a fallen, sinful nature.
Well, it's only two, but that's still 100%.
The point I'm trying to make is that
the element of sin that gives sin the
character of a crime is the fact that
it is the function of the intellect, the
emotions, and the will, the choice, the choice.
So what am I pointing out?
I'm pointing out this, that in that environment,
God knew that with no other inducement than
just a proposition to the intellect, the function
of the emotions, the will would be exercised
contrary to him.
God anticipated this.
God saw this.
Now, if that would be true with that
first pair, then it would be subsequently true
of all that were to follow, because they
would have not only the proposition to the
intellect, the emotions, and the will, but they
would have the environment and their natures.
So it would be true then subsequently that
all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.
There's none righteous, no not one, none that
understandeth, none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way,
or they are together become unprofitable.
Now, God saw that before he ever made
man in the first place.
That's what you've got to understand.
In his sovereignty, God decided to make man
knowing all of this that would occur.
Knowing all of this, why?
Because his son was the lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world.
As a bridegroom for a bride, I will
be willing to give myself to redeem this
one that we're going to make, that I
will make in our image and our likeness,
because he's the agent of creation, is the
son.
But in making man, even before he made
him, he had to anticipate everything that was
going to happen.
Well worked out.
All the details there.
Everything is in place.
Everything has been anticipated.
No room for error.
No room for chance.
We are told that in America, out of
every new business, out of the new businesses
that are started by people who want to
go into business, 95% fail in the
first two years, and four additional percent will
fail in the next three years.
So that by the end of five years,
only about one or two out of a
hundred that started out are still functioning.
And the reason was simple.
They didn't do their homework.
They didn't get the facts.
They didn't find out what was involved.
They didn't realize what had to be done.
I'm sure you do.
I'm sure you saw that as a professor.
Now, this is a tendency of the human
heart, to leap.
Half taught, half prepared.
Are we going to attribute that to God?
Never.
Not our God.
Not the God of the Bible.
Not this one who has infinity above all
of his attributes.
Infinite wisdom.
Infinite knowledge.
Infinite power.
Limitless in all of his...
Are we going to attribute that to him?
Oh, we'll accept it for ourself, because we
know it's true, but not for him.
So we're going to have to realize that
before God ever started this undertaking, he knew
all that was involved in it.
And when he decided how he would save
men, he knew to whom those methods could
be effective with the limits that he must
impose upon himself, how he would do it.
So what do we find?
So from eternity past, therefore, God the Father
has planned and purposed all that this family
-to-be of his children would ever need
before he made the world.
He purposed salvation.
And he knew everything his children were going
to need.
He knew what was going to happen.
He knew how they were going to...
what sin was going to do, the damage
it would do.
He knew all about it.
So he, before he made the world, he
had already anticipated everything that his children were
ever going to need.
I think that's wonderful.
He planned it, because he knew what they
would need.
He purposed it.
He knew what they would need.
That's before the world began.
Now, in the fullness of time, God the
Son came into the world not only to
satisfy the law's demands in regard to these
that were to be adopted into the family,
because the law had to be satisfied, not
only to pay the penalty for sin so
that God could be gracious and forgive sinners,
that, but that was only one aspect.
That was the legal aspect of what the
Lord Jesus did on Calvary.
But the other aspect was this.
God had planned everything that man was going
to need.
God had purposed everything that man was going
to need.
That included justification, that included satisfying the law,
but it was much more than satisfying the
law.
It was everything that man was going to
need.
Do you see?
God, in His sovereign good pleasure, said, these
that I'm going to adopt into my family,
I'm going to give them everything they need
to be everything I want them to be.
So when the Lord Jesus came, He said,
He came to do the will of the
Father.
What was the will of the Father?
The will of the Father was that He
accomplish everything that the Father intended for Him
to accomplish.
So, before God made the world, He planned
and He purposed our salvation.
And in the fullness of time, the Son,
by His death and burial and resurrection, provided
instead everything the Father purposed.
Now, do you see?
The Father anticipated and He planned and purposed.
The Son, in the fullness of time, provided
not only justification, not only regeneration, but also
our sanctification and our provision for everything we're
going to need to be everything the Father
wants.
The Father purposed, the Son provided.
Now, we find in the latter part of
this text, in verses 13 and 14, that
everything that the, before the foundation of the
world that God the Father planned and purposed,
everything that in the fullness of time God
the Son provided, now God the Holy Spirit
is waiting to perfect in us, make real
to us, accomplish in us everything that the
Father planned and the Son provided.
That's all in His sovereign good pleasure of
His will.
Ooh, we get, this gets to be pretty,
not heady, but hearty stuff, doesn't it?
It really gets down to the heart here
when you find out how much He knew
about you and how much He loved you
and how much He provided for you.
Let's go, let me, let me replace one
word what you said and I think I
could handle it as far as the adversary
is concerned.
Permit.
Permit the adversary to do what he did
because what, there's a big difference between His
making Him do it and permitting Him to
do it.
And He did it because God didn't, right,
okay, so interpret, provide in terms of permit.
Yeah, that's what happened precisely.
Okay, now, now we go back that I
can't find it.
I got a metal block, but as I
say, I got a marvelous memory, but it's
awfully short.
At any rate, it says, I hath not
seen or ear heard, neither hath it entered
into the mind of man.
The things which God hath prepared for them
to love Him, but God hath revealed them
unto us by His Spirit which He hath
given us.
Well, maybe so.
Let's not get off into angelology now here,
Rob, because I wouldn't want to, I don't
want to rob the Lord of what He's
done here in this particular one.
So from eternity past, God the Father planned
and God the Son provided, God the Holy
Spirit perfected, and now, now, let's look for
a moment.
Who are the adopted?
Who are the ones that are going to
be the heirs of this great salvation?
What's the invitation on the gate?
What does it say out there on that
gate?
Does it say, only the elect dare enter?
Oh, it doesn't say only the elect may
enter.
What does it say?
Whosoever will may come.
That's what the message is to the world.
Whosoever will may come.
Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but
have eternal life.
See, we don't need to worry about who
the elect are.
That's not in that's not any responsibility of
ours.
Our responsibility is to go to all men
everywhere and plead with them to repent the
way Paul did in Ephesus.
He said, I was with you night and
day from house to house, teaching repentance toward
God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't you ever worry that somebody's going to
be saved who wasn't among those that God
didn't know.
Don't worry about that.
That's, you just, look, if we'll tend to
our business, we can trust God to take
care of His.
How's that?
Is that fair enough?
We'll just take our business and we'll just
let God take care of His and not
worry about whether or not He's up to
it.
See, so the message that we give as
we go out is this.
Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye
die as I live, saith the Lord?
I have no pleasure in the death of
the wicked, but that the wicked turn and
live.
Repent was the call that John the Baptist
put out.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shall be saved, said Paul to the Philippian
jailer.
Now, now, whosoever will may come.
There it is.
Look at it.
That great door.
Whosoever will may come.
Everyone everywhere is invited.
Now, the fact that when we get inside,
we turn around and look at the inside
of the gate and it says chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world, that
doesn't worry me.
That's got two aspects to that.
Everyone who would repent was chosen.
Everyone who would believe was chosen.
Everyone who would come was chosen.
So, and the responsibility goes back.
What about those who didn't repent and didn't
believe?
I don't know, but it was their choice.
It was their choice.
They, they chose not to.
God put the same spirit in to plead
with man.
Same message.
I don't know why one comes and one
doesn't, but I saw lots of things I
don't know.
As soon as I can define electricity, I've
got a lot of problems I'm going to
take up with God.
Really do.
But until they tell, I find out what
electricity is and somebody defines it, then I'm
going to leave some of these other problems.
Because look, we, we make our coffee with
electricity.
We, we fix our toast with electricity.
We cook with electricity.
We cool with electricity.
We get hot with electricity.
And nobody knows what it is.
So, since that's the case, then there are
some problems that I, some questions I haven't
had answered yet, but I can tell you
the day that we get a definition of
what electricity is, then I'm going to really
start pestering God about some of the questions
I haven't had answered yet.
But until that time, I think I'll concentrate
on wait for electricity because that, I'm dealing
with that every day all the time.
And the other questions really aren't interfering with
anything anyhow.
Because I can go to sinners everywhere and
say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved.
Whosoever will may come.
Whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but
shall have eternal life.
I'm not restricted.
Some other theoretical philosophical questions?
Yeah, I'm curious about it.
But you see, it would be just as
silly for me not to cook or cool
or heat or whatever or, or be entertained
and used or educated by electricity as it
would, because I can't define it, as for
one to say, well, until I can answer
that question, nonsense, sheer nonsense.
Let's be consistent.
Lots of things we don't understand.
Lots of things.
All right.
Now, we do know this, that there's no
reason at all in us, in anyone, why
we should be among those that are placed
in the family of God as his children.
Why we are accepted in the beloved.
Nothing in us.
You know, we're all cut off the same
bolts of goods.
Maybe you were a little different wolf than
mine.
My bolt may have been a little coarser
burlap than yours, a little more velvety silk.
But whatever the wolf is, I have news
for you.
The warp is the same.
All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.
The up and out, the down and out,
all the same.
So we know that in us, there's nothing,
nothing at all to commend us to him.
We're there not because of us, but because
of him.
Now, having seen a little bit about how
we are accepted and adopted for the son's
sake, not our own, we ought to take
a look as to how this provision that
God has made for the upbringing of those
adopted into his family is going to operate.
In verse 7, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace.
Oh, it's through the shedding of his blood
that our past sins are removed.
That satisfies the law.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die, the
Lord Jesus identified with us, and each one
who will ever be part of that family,
and he died in our place and in
our stead.
So all of us that are in this
family of the Father came as sinners by
nature, by choice, and by practice, and we
were brought to see the death of Christ.
Christ died for sinners.
Christ died for us.
We were sinners.
And all of us that came into his
family came by the same process.
Identically the same process brought each of us
into Christ.
It's amazing.
Wherever it may have been that you met
the Lord, there was a process.
Now, you may not have even known the
steps of the process.
I've talked to you about them in the
past, but I want to just refresh your
mind in a moment.
The process by which God brings one out
of death into life is always the same.
It can all happen in a minute.
In John Bunyan's case, it took eight years.
Maybe in yours, it took longer.
But they all happen.
The first phase of the divine operation is
awakening.
God the Spirit broods over your heart the
same way he brooded over the world in
Genesis 1.
Light be, and the sinner is awakened.
Discontent, unhappiness, dissatisfaction.
There's something wrong with my life.
I thought when I got here everything would
be fine.
I'm here and it's not fine.
I don't know what it is.
Something's the matter.
What is it?
Awakening, distress, unrest, discontent.
There's awakening.
And when the Word comes and it's brought,
then that awakening issues into another phase of
conviction when we're convinced that God is righteous
and we are sinners.
Conviction is when we take sides with God
against ourselves.
The next phase is repentance when we change
our mind.
We've been God up until now in our
own life.
We renounce it.
The fourth phase is faith that reaches out
through the years of history to embrace the
Son of God.
And the fifth is the witness of the
Spirit to our own hearts whereby we can
call Almighty God, Abba, Father.
Awakening, conviction, repentance, faith, and the witness of
the Spirit.
Now everyone who's in the family of God
has come that way.
May not remember when awakening became conviction or
conviction became repentance.
May all happen in a minute.
May take years.
May go from one back to another, but
it all is there once we're in the
Father's family.
We're there because each one, each aspect of
it has something of great value.
Now, point I want to leave you with
today as we start to consider the 8th
to the 12th verse is that all of
the adopted children, everyone brought into the Father's
family, are taught to know God's will.
And the one thing that characterizes the children
of God is desire to know God's will.
The one thing we have in common, regardless
of what our background was when we came
to Christ, the one thing we have in
common, you know, it's astounding to me to
watch the animals on the farm.
When you see a little leggy foal that's
born and you look at that weak sprawly
thing with legs so long and he gets
up and stumbles and falls all over itself
and puts his foot on its own ear,
you know, it's just a bundle of bone,
bag of bones.
But there's something in that little foal, if
it's born alive, that makes it want to
walk.
It will try to get up.
It will stumble and get up again, strength
coming with each effort.
There's something in that little life there, that
bundle of bones, that bag of bones that
said, you don't lie here all wrapped up
in your feet and lay in the grass
and smell the weeds.
There's some life there, some pressure, some instinct,
something that says, stand up.
And so it tries and it tries and
it tries and every time a little stronger
until it stands.
And then being able to stand up, it
says, there's something in it that says, walk.
So one stumbling step after another and those
spindly legs and then there's some pressure in
it that says, eat.
Now they never had a foal's operating manual.
No, no one ever gave it an operating
manual with step-by-step directions.
No, no, they didn't do that.
But there's some life in it and it
says, eat.
And it isn't long until it has made
the ultimate connection and it has discovered that
nature provided it with an ongoing source of
nourishment.
And I tell you, to me this is
thrilling.
This is wonderful.
Why?
Because it proves to me the little foal
has life.
Now when I find someone that says they've
been born into the family of God, they
passed from death to life and they're willing
to lay down next to the sin they've
lived in all their years with no pressure
to stand above it, with no inner desire
to walk from it and no appetite to
feed on that new nourishment.
Look, when I look at a foal and
its legs don't move and its ears don't
twitch and its eyes stare, no desire to
stand, no desire to walk and no desire
to eat.
Please don't think I'm cruel when I dig
a hole and roll it in.
The little foal is dead.
And please don't think me cruel when I
find those who name the name of the
Father in heaven and say they've been born
into the family of God and they're brethren
of Jesus Christ and they have no desire
to stand and to walk and to feed.
Is that cruel?
I think not.
Everyone who's been born into the Father's family
has a desire to know the will of
God and to do the will of God
and to be the best evidence you have
in your heads today is a cry in
your heart, oh, to be like thee, oh,
to be like thee, blessed Redeemer, pure as
thou art, come in thy fullness, come in
thy pureness, stamp thine own image deep on
my heart.
That's the cry of life in the childhood.
Father, we thank thee that all that thou
hast done is to the good pleasure of
thy will, redeemed by the blood of Christ,
that we might be to the praise of
the glory of thy grace.
So, Father, stir us up with that yearning,
longing to fulfill all that thou hast purposed
and planned and all the Lord Jesus provided
and all the Holy Spirit is willing and
waiting to perfect it.
We ask it not for our sakes, but
to glorify thee, the God of all grace.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, we
pray.
Amen.