The theme of the names of believers. What's in a name anyway? Well, there's a local organization
here in the Twin Cities which is exercising quite a ministry, discovering the meaning
of names. Perhaps some of you have their plaques in your home. Biblically, a name often tells
something about a person or something that God is intending to happen. For example, we
looked this morning at the life of Abraham. The name Abraham means the father of a multitude,
doesn't it? The name that he had before that though was slightly different. It was
Abram and meant exalted father. Both are true of him. If you think of Moses, you're reminded
that his very name means what? Does anybody know? I think somebody said it, but I can't
hear very well because of a fan up here which I'm not about to turn off. Drawn out is what
the name means. He was drawn out of the bulrushes. His name was Moses. I think of the two sons
of Isaiah. Shiar Jeshu was his first son. His name means a remnant shall return. A real
encouragement because of the name of that boy. A remnant shall return was the promise
of God regarding his people Israel. His second boy wasn't quite as pleasantly named. His
name was Mahershalol Hashbez. That's one of my favorite Bible names. Mahershalol Hashbez
means haste to the booty, haste to the prey. In that name is signified judgment. It was
a warning that Assyria was going to conquer the northern kingdom of Israel or Samaria
and would destroy as well Syria and Damascus and would come up to the neck of Judah. It
wouldn't overrun the nation and it didn't. Names mean something in the Bible. The very
name Jesus means Jehovah is savior or Jehovah saves. Likewise today, names and titles signify
truths or positions. We speak of someone being president. It means he presides over something.
If he's a prisoner, it means he is incarcerated. If he's a supervisor, it means that he is
supervising people. If he is an operator, it means he operates something. Names and
titles have significance. That's why we're looking at some of the names and titles of
believers. We have seen the names peculiar people, the called of Jesus Christ, priests
unto God. Tonight we want to look at one that may be a little more familiar to most of us
and that is Children of God. For our key text to begin, let's turn to John chapter 1. If
you have read the Bible much, you know immediately where I'm turning to. John 1, verses 12 and
13. After speaking about the fact that Jesus Christ, the Word, the Light, has come into
the world and was rejected by his own people, he says in verse 12, but as many as received
him, to them he gave the right, the authority to become children of God, even to those who
believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God. The Apostle John does not call believers sons of God. He chooses
to reserve that name son for the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, he chooses the name children
or technon. It means the born ones. He says as many as received Jesus Christ, to them
he gave the right to become the born ones of God. The name Children of God implies three
things. It implies first of all a birth. That we have this name, Children of God, implies
that we are offspring of God. And more than in a general sense, more than in the sense
of Acts 17 where it describes all men as being his offspring. There it has the idea that
he gives life to all and that is true in a physical sense. But in a special sense, we
are his offspring who are called the Children of God because we have received our life from
him. A child is one who is born to parents. Life has been generated. In the case of the
child of God, we have been regenerated. There has been a new birth, an impartation of both
life and nature by the Spirit of God. Both life and nature are part of children. How
well parents realize that. For they not only give birth to living beings, but to little
children who have something of the nature of mom and dad. Have you ever noticed that
once? Sadly sometimes. You know sometimes I think that in the raising of our children
we have the toughest time with the ones who are most like us. Have you ever noticed that?
The ones who have some of the same characteristics that we perhaps don't like in ourselves.
It's tough to see that in the other person. Both life and nature are imparted by physical
birth and by spiritual birth. We have the eternal life of God and we have the nature
of God imparted to us so that we are new creatures in Jesus Christ. Here the apostle John equates
believing with receiving. He says the two are the same. To receive is an act which demonstrates
trust. It has to do with confidence in the thing that is offered. It means to appropriate
it for one's own personal possession. So when we speak about receiving Jesus Christ,
that's what it means. It means to take what is offered to be one's own possession. In
other words, it is to believe on Jesus Christ. There are many people in our world today who
believe in Jesus Christ with a superficial knowledge. That is, they know he lived, that
he died, they hear that he rose again, they celebrate Christmas and Easter after all,
but they have never actually believed on him in a saving sense because that means to receive
him, to appropriate him. We find another word about this over in James 1 verse 18. He says
in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we might
be, as it were, the first fruits among his creatures. Dare I point out to you the first
phrase in that verse which follows up what we've said this morning? In the exercise
of his will, he brought us forth. That word brought forth means to give birth to. It means
that God, by the exercise of his will, sovereignly, decisively, creatively, has given birth to
us. How has he done that? He says by the word of truth. Paul calls it the gospel of your
salvation. That is the seed that is planted in the heart by which the Holy Spirit can
bring forth life of regeneration in the sinner. Just turn back a couple of pages to Peter,
I should say ahead to Peter, 1st chapter verse 23. By the way, Peter is the only one who
actually uses the term born again. Did you know that? In John 3 it literally means born
from above. But Peter talks about being born again and in verse 23 he says, for you have
been born again, not of seed which is perishable. In other words, not of a human seed, but rather
imperishable. That is, through the living and abiding word of God. When you and I share
the gospel with another person, we are planting in that heart the living, abiding word of
God. It is that seed which the Holy Spirit can use to create faith and new life in the
person. That is why it is so important that as we witness to people, we tell them more
than just how we got saved, but in the process of that, that we plant within them the word
of God, the word of God, the word of God. They cannot escape the word of God. People
can get away with what happened to you or my experience, but it is the word of God that
remains. It is the word of God which is planted there, which the Holy Spirit uses to cause
birth to take place. James says that God has done this so that we might be, as it were,
the first fruits among His creatures. That is a great thought. We who are born again,
who have been regenerated, who have been made the children of God, are the first promise
of God's new order. The new order of creation that God is going to consummate in the new
heavens and the new earth to be created after the millennial reign of Christ. We are a part.
We are the first fruits, the first promise, the pledge that He is going to bring to pass
that new order of things. I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to that order.
This order is so corrupt and wicked and miserable. It is an order that is degenerated because
of the fall of man, because of sin. But God is going to bring about a new order of things,
and that is the order that is going to last for all of eternity. We are a part of that.
We are the very first part of it, the first fruits of it.
The title child of God involves a birth. It also involves a likeness. In Matthew chapter
5, Jesus says, Be therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. Does that mean
that He expects us to be sinless? Actually, the word perfect there means full grown or
complete in every detail. What He is saying is that God's will for us as His children
is that we be full grown in our likeness, in our resemblance to the Father. In other
words, when others see us, they should see the moral nature of God. They cannot know
of God's omnipotence by looking at us or His omnipresence, but they can see something
of His love, of His mercy, of His purity. You see, by looking at your life and my life,
the world should be able to see the likeness of the family we belong to. As people look
at your children, don't they often say, Oh, he looks just like you, Dad, and is probably
as you look at the child, you say, It couldn't be further from the truth. That's my wife,
if it's anybody. And yet people look and they say, Oh, there's a resemblance there. I see
it. Well, as people look at us, there ought to be a resemblance to our spiritual family
in the way that we live. For the key text in this, I'd like you to turn to Ephesians
chapter 5. It's a very important text. It's a very important text. It's a very important
text. We're going to look in detail here at some verses and probably spend most of
the rest of our time right here. In Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1, He says, Therefore be imitators
of God as beloved children. We are children of God, and here He commands us to be mimes
of God, to mimic God, to imitate God, so that when people see us, they see what God is like.
Now we want to look at the broader context to see what all of this is about. To be imitators
of God, there are at least 10 characteristics that should be present in our lives. If we
are going to have the likeness of God's family, these 10 things are involved. Let's back
up to where this paragraph really begins to verse 25, where He says, Therefore, laying
aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members one
of another. We're part of the same body, or can we say the same family? And therefore,
He says, we should be characterized by truthfulness. Put away pretense and every form of hypocrisy.
Don't lie to each other, but rather, He says, speak truth, for if we lie to another believer,
we are lying to ourselves because we are members of each other. We're part of each other.
We are so used to putting on shows, to having a certain front that most people don't get
by, that this verse should strike to our hearts with some conviction. And so, we are not going
to be characterized by the fact that we are members of the same body, but rather, we are
part of the same family. There have been people who have come to our church, folks, who have
gone away discouraged. You know why? They've gone away discouraged because as they've
looked around and as they've sat through the service and they've listened and they have
watched, they have concluded, however incorrectly, that none of us have any problems. Now, can
you imagine anything that's so ridiculous as that? But you know what? Most of us like
to put on that front, that everything's fine with us. We have all things settled. There
are no problems in our home. Our kids are perfectly behaved. We never have a rebellious
problem with one of them. And my wife and I never have a misunderstanding. And I don't
battle sinful impulses. They're all under control. Isn't that the way we like to come
across? But there's not a one of us here tonight of whom that's true. Not one of us.
That's why he says we should lay aside falsehood. That doesn't mean we have to go around hanging
our dirty laundry all the time either. That gets a little old. But what it means is let's
not pretend. Let's put away pretense. And when there is an opportunity where we should
be transparent and honest and we can share that with other people, let's do it. Because
that will encourage them to know that we fight the same kinds of battles and we have the
same kinds of problems. None of us have arrived. We're all working through our own sets of
battles. Let's be truthful. And then he says in verse 26 and verse 27, be angry. He doesn't
stop there though. He says, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down upon
your wrath and do not give the devil an opportunity. Here he says, be characterized by self-control.
Do not get the idea that Christians should never be angry because there are times when
we, if we are not angry, are sinning. Because there are some things that should downright
make us mad that take place. There are things that should make us righteously indignant
and angry. Most of us have a different kind of anger we have to deal with though, don't
we? He says, be angry but in your anger do not sin. Do not sin. What are you really angry
about? Is it pride that's involved? What is the motive for your anger? Is it the glory
of God? Is it the truth of God that is being defamed and that makes you angry? It should.
When you sit in the barber chair and the barber is using every foul word under the sun to
describe to you something that's taking place, that should make you very uncomfortable and
even angry. And if you say something to him kindly and with self-control, that's fine.
He needs to be rebuked for blaspheming God. If God's glory and God's truth is involved,
then it's right to be angry. If, however, it is my pride, if somehow self is involved
in it, then I had better look very closely to be sure that I'm righteously angry. I'm
not to sin in my anger. He goes on to say, don't let the sun go down upon your wrath.
He says, even when we are righteously angry, this is the principle we follow. Don't go
to bed mad. Get it out of your system before you go to sleep. That will help you spiritually.
It will also help you get a good night's rest. It will help you physically. And he
says, if we don't do that, we may well give the devil an opportunity in our lives, a foothold
that is. We don't want to do that. So deal with that anger. In the day that it occurs,
then put it away. Be self-controlled is his thought. Let's go on to verse 28. Let him
who steals, steal no more. The way he phrases this, it seems as though there were some people
might be stealing. But him who is stealing, steal no longer. But rather let him labor,
performing with his own hands, what is good, in order that he may have something to share
with him who has need. Here the characteristic is honesty. Apparently there were some freeloaders.
He's talking about people who were in the family who apparently were taking it easy
and living off of others. Actually what this verse is, is God's blessing upon the work
ethic. God blesses work. And he says rather than mooching off of others, what we should
be doing is working with our own hands to provide for our needs, to provide for what
is good. But not then just so that we can accumulate wealth for ourselves either. He
says so that we can have something to share with the one who has need. That's a good
balance for us, isn't it? For some of us believe so strongly in the work ethic that
we're working 70, 80, 90 hours a week literally and accumulating all these things, whose are
they going to be someday? The reason God gives us strength and the ability to work is so
that we can accumulate for our needs and then provide for the needs of others. Verses 29
and 30 he talks about speech. One of the characteristics of a child of God should be edifying speech.
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth. The word unwholesome literally means
rotten. My brother-in-law came to visit us from Kentucky last weekend and brought us
two bushels of peaches. And oh man are those peaches good. I love good peaches, don't
you? As I went through them last Sunday night and laid them out on a piece of cardboard
so they wouldn't be laying on one another, I found some of those peaches that had little
fuzz on them, you know, a little mold or something growing. So I laid those aside and do you
know by Monday morning some of those peaches were absolutely covered with that stuff? They
had just become rotten overnight. Didn't eat those, I threw them in the garbage. I love
peaches but there's a limit. Now he says here that it's possible for our speech to become
rotten, corrupt. He says don't let it proceed out of your mouth. Keep it behind your teeth.
But only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment that it
may give grace to those who hear. Folks, how important these words are. How easy it is
for us in conversations to become negative and to tear down people and things that are
going on in ministries. And sometimes even do that in a so-called spiritual way. The
favorite one is saying let me share this prayer request with you. Ha! It's just a juicy bit
of gossip, that's all it is. Now don't misunderstand me, there are times to share prayer requests.
It depends on the context of it. We just need to be careful that when we do that kind of
thing we're not saying more than that needs to be said and we're saying accurately what
we know to be true. When we are in conversations with members of the family, let's let our
conversation be wholesome, be that which builds people up and does not tear down the work
and the glory of God. He says and do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for
the day of redemption. In other words, that kind of talking grieves the Spirit of God.
There are some churches where this kind of thing is so prominent that the Spirit of God
is grieved. He is not free to work in the church. The Spirit of God is sorrowful because
of this kind of sin with the tongue. Verses 31 and 32, he talks about forgiveness. He
says let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you
along with all malice. Just like he said falsehood should be laid aside in verse 25, so here
he tells us some other things should be put away. Bitterness, the word is piquriah and
you get the idea from the very sound of the word. It means to cut or to pick. It is a
sharp, stinging kind of disposition. No Christian should be characterized by bitterness or by
wrath, which is a hot, passionate furor, or by anger, which is a settled indignation that
looks for revenge. Like somebody says, I don't get mad, I just get even. That's anger.
Clamor, a violent outburst. Do you know there are some people, not very many thank God,
I don't know of anybody in this church, but there are some people I have avoided in my
life because they were characterized by clamor. And if ever they had something that crossed
them, Mount Vesuvius just exploded. There was this outburst and he just wanted to crawl
away somewhere because you are embarrassed to be around them. No Christian should be
characterized by that. Slander, the word literally blasphemy, not just against God but against
others. He says, let that be put away with all malice. The word malice means a vicious
inclination, a delight in injuring someone else. You say, oh my goodness, could anybody
delight in injuring somebody else? There are times when every one of us can fall guilty
of malice. These things should not characterize us, but on the positive side he says, be kind.
Be kind. That is graciously useful to one another. Folks, be kind to the people you
meet because every person you meet is fighting some kind of a battle. Be kind. Be kind to
one another tender-hearted. A place for emotion, for tears even. Forgiving each other just
as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Folks, the forgiveness that we give to other members
of the family should be the same kind of forgiveness God has given us. What kind is that? Free
forgiveness. Free forgiveness. Even if they do not ask our forgiveness, we should nonetheless
extend it to them because if we don't, when we harbor a grudge, it's not hurting them
anyway, is it? It's only hurting us. So it's for our benefit as much as theirs that we
immediately forgive another who does something against us. Now he's not talking here about
things that we imagine others do against us. He's talking about those things that really
happen. Whether they're imaginary or actual, we ought to forgive. There are some of you
tonight who may be carrying grudges. You may carry a grudge against your wife or you're
bitter against your parents or some other member of the family of God. Will you tonight
obey what is said here? Be kind and tender-hearted and forgiving. Forgive the same way God's
forgiven you, for Christ's sake. A sixth characteristic is found in verse 2 of chapter
5. It's love. Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us
in offering a sacrifice to God. Here he tells us that in our love for other members of the
family, we are to sacrificially give ourselves. We are to be willing to pay a price to sacrifice
for the sake of others in the family. In so doing, we live like Jesus. Love is part of
our likeness. Then he tells us in verses 3 through 6 that purity is involved. If we're
going to have the likeness of the family of God, we must be a pure people. He says,
do not let immorality, that word is pornea. It's the root for pornography. The Greek word
means every kind of sexual immorality. But he goes then to thought as well. He says,
for any impurity or greed, do not let these things be even named among you as it is proper
among saints. He goes on to say, there must be no filthiness or silly talk or coarse jesting.
There are some people who see how dirty they can get without crossing the line. You know
what I'm saying? They want to see how suggestive their language can be without actually saying
something that is rotten and filthy. That's what he means here, by coarse jesting. He
says these things are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. He says, for you know with
certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. In other words, the people who are characterized
by these things are not a part of God's kingdom, his family. So don't you, as members of God's
family, be characterized by them. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because
of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, not the sons of
God. By the grace of God we are forgiven even when we fall into sins like this. But he says
so bad, so rotten are these kinds of things that God's wrath is coming on those who are
characterized by them habitually as a pattern of life. So don't even let those things be
named among you. Purity. Then verses 7 through 14, it is separation. The Lord Jesus Christ
was with sinners, but he never compromised righteousness. Now there were times he was
accused of it. In fact, he was so willing to identify with sinners that he was accused
of being drunkard. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ kept a separation from sin. And you
and I need to do the same thing in our society. We need to befriend those who are lost. We
need to share our faith with them. We need to build a trust with them so that we deserve
or earn the right to share our faith with them. But we are not to live like they live.
We do not have to do the same things they do in order to witness to them. He's talking
here about personal separation from an ungodly lifestyle. He says, do not be partakers with
them, that is fellow sharers. Don't share in the same things. He says, for you were
formerly darkness, but you are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the
fruit of the light consists in goodness, righteousness, and truth. Trying to learn what is pleasing
to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. Be separate from them in
what they are doing. Instead, even expose them. That's a strong word. It means, if
necessary, rebuke them openly for what they do. Not in a self-righteous way. Not saying
I'm better than you are. But showing them what they are doing is not pleasing to God.
He says, it's disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light. Who's the light? We
are. You see, as you live out there in that office, in that factory where you work, as
you live for Jesus Christ, as you share your faith, you are a son of light. And the very
purity of your lifestyle, the separation of it from the darkness of sin, serves to expose,
to make visible the wickedness around. He says, for this reason, awake sleeper, and
arise from the dead. Christ will shine upon you. Folks, as you are out there living for
Jesus Christ, he is shining upon those around you. He's reflecting his purity, his holiness,
his righteousness, his love off of you. Are you a good mirror? Are you a good reflector?
A clean reflector? Have you ever picked up a mirror to try to look into it and it's
covered with hairspray and other stuff? Some of you men can identify with that.
What do you have to do? Well, you have to wash the thing off so you can see. I wonder
as Jesus Christ picks us up and looks into our lives and desires that we be his reflector,
I wonder if he sees some cleansing that needs to take place so that we can be good reflectors.
In verses 15-17, he says, wisdom. Therefore, be careful how you walk, that is, how you
conduct yourself, not as unwise men, the lost, but as wise, making the most of your time,
because the days are evil. So then, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of
the Lord is. As we conduct ourselves in the world, there ought to be the likeness of wisdom.
Our God is the fullness of wisdom. People, by watching us, should see his wisdom.
Finally, verses 18-21, he talks about the fullness of the Spirit. If we are going to
live the way that we've talked about here and have the likeness of the family of God,
then we cannot do that in ourselves. We must have the fullness of God's Spirit.
And so he says, do not get drunk with wine, that's waste, it's dissipation, but be
filled, that is, controlled, empowered with the Spirit, speaking to one another, Psalms,
hymns, spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks for
all things, and being subject to one another. If you and I are going to bear the likeness
of God's family, it's going to be because the Holy Spirit is in control in our lives.
Now, finally, let me just touch on this. To be a part of God's family, to be a child
of God, thirdly means that we have an inheritance. Children share in what belongs to their father.
Humanly speaking, that may not be very much, but spiritually speaking, it means we are
fabulously wealthy. There is no way to calculate the riches that are ours as the children of
God. And as we have seen in Romans chapter 8 verses 16 and 17, if we are his children,
we are also his heirs. We are joint heirs with Christ. And we have said that that includes
all things. He says in 1 Corinthians 3 verses 21 and 22 that all things are ours in Christ.
Whether you talk about the Lord's servants, which is really the context, or even the future,
do you know the future belongs to you? Not just today, the future is yours in Christ.
You may not have tomorrow in this world, but my friend, you have a tomorrow. You have a
future in Jesus Christ. It belongs to you. And what a future you have as a child of God.
It embraces also the idea, this inheritance does, of the glory of a new body. He tells
us in 1 John 2 verses 28 down through chapter 3 verse 3 that it does not yet appear what
we shall be as the children of God, but when Jesus Christ appears, we shall be like him.
We will see him as he is. We are going to have a new body, folks. Isn't that great?
And we are going to have a new home. In fact, where we live now is not really home, is it?
We are pilgrims here. This world is an alien place, not created to make us comfortable
anyway. That is why we are a little uncomfortable here. Our home is in heaven. That is where
our citizenship is. And we look for the Savior to come and to take us there. In John chapter
20, Jesus said, well, you tell my brothers, Mary, that I am going to my Father and their
Father. He calls us brothers. Part of the family. Isn't that great? Back in chapter
14, he says, I am going away and if I go, I am going to prepare a place for you. And
I will come and receive you to myself that we can be together. He is not talking about
death, though we can apply it all right, I think, but he is talking primarily about his
coming in the rapture. When he says, I am going to come and receive you to myself and
we will be together forever, God's family. That is our inheritance. It is great.
We have a home. He is preparing for us. And I have asked Marsch to come tonight and to
just close our service before we sing a song together that is built around this theme of
the fact that we are God's children. And someday we are going to hear our Father say
those words, Welcome home, children, to the place I have prepared for you.