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Romans chapter 8 verse 14.
Welcome to church this morning.
Turn to your neighbor and say you're welcome to church.
Say it's time to learn the word of God.
It's time to learn from the word of God.
Romans chapter 4, verse 8 rather, from verse 14.
We're reading from verse 14 down to verse 17.
Just look at your neighbor.
If your neighbor doesn't have a Bible, a hard copy Bible, not in the phone, a hard copy
Bible and you have share with your neighbor.
And if your neighbor does not have a hard copy Bible, ask the neighbor why didn't you
come with a Bible?
Ask the person why didn't you come with a Bible?
What's the person's reply?
Now move further and say brother or sister, next week I want to see with your hard copy
Bible.
I can hear many voices, it means that many people don't have their hard copy Bibles with
them.
Hallelujah.
For as many as are led, see if you are led by the spirit of God, you carry your hard
copy Bible to church.
And if you didn't carry your hard copy Bible to church and you're usual in this place,
you may announce that you are living in disobedience.
Amen.
Because God speaks through men, right?
He speaks through men and often times we say bring your hard copy Bible.
It's very important for the study.
So I want to encourage you to do as we've been instructed.
For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit
of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father.
The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And if children then hear us, heirs of God and join us with Christ, even did we suffer
with him that we may also be glorified with him.
Hallelujah.
So in Christ we are coheirs with him.
And what this means is that all that belongs to God belongs to Christ and all that belongs
to Christ belongs to you that are in Christ because you have been brought into this union
that is everlasting.
So God has brought you into his family through Christ Jesus.
We said the last time that God was never referred to as Father in the Old Testament.
God was never referred to as Father in the Old Testament part of the scriptures.
And it was abnormal actually for anyone to say that God is his Father.
Even up to today there are people that don't believe that God can be Father.
And even when we saw Jesus Christ in scriptures, Jesus who came under the Old Testament system
had troubles with the people of his day because he was referring to God as his Father.
After seeing him as a human, they see him, they know his supposedly biological family,
they know his siblings, they know his occupation is a carpenter that often comes to maybe fix
their furnitures.
And lo and behold one day he just rise up and say that God is his Father.
So it put him in trouble.
John chapter 5 verse 16.
John chapter 5 verse 16 says, for this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill
him.
It was up to this extent that they wanted to kill him for identifying God as his Father
because he had done these things on the Sabbath.
Now he had performed a miracle, right?
John chapter 5 verse 16 verse 17.
But Jesus answered them, my Father has been working until now and I've been working.
Verse 18, therefore the Jewish sought all the more, their anger intensify, their rage
intensify to kill him because he not only broke their tradition, their Sabbath, Sabbath,
you know performing miracle on a Saturday was him working according to them, but also
said that God was what?
God was his Father.
So in saying God is his Father, what has he done?
He has made himself equal with God.
He has made not equal, he has made himself of the same nature with God.
What he has said is that he has made himself divine.
He has made himself of a divine nature.
He's not a human but he's a divine nature by the virtue of identifying as the Son of
God.
So it was abnormal and they sought to kill him.
So Jesus himself in scriptures prior to his death, his burial and resurrection, Jesus
himself never faced God as the Father to any man except himself.
Why?
Why was it that?
Because the family of God is the product of Christ's redemptive work and at this point
Jesus had not yet died.
He had not yet died and resurrected.
So never in scriptures do we see Jesus making mention of God being the Father of men.
We see clearly even in the altar seminar it was prophetic.
So no man has clearly in scriptures identified as the Son of God or has been of the same
kind with God except Jesus.
But at the resurrection we see a change.
We see God as Father to mankind, John 20 verse 11 to 18.
We see a change that Jesus is not only the Son of God but Jesus becomes the firstborn
among many sons.
But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping and as she wept she stood down and looked
into the tomb and she saw two angels in the white seat in one at the head and the other
at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.
Then they said to her, woman why are you weeping?
She said to them because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have
laid him.
Now when she had said this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know
that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, woman why are you weeping?
Whom are you seeking?
She supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, sir if you have carried him away tell
me where you have laid him and I will take him away.
Jesus said to her, Mary.
She turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher.
Jesus said to her, do not clench to me for I have not yet ascended to my father but go
to my brethren that I say to them and say to them I am ascending to my father and your
father and to my God and to your God.
Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had
spoken these things unto her.
So we see here the first instance where there was a change in the way Jesus was referring
to God as his father.
God does not only become at this point in time the father to Jesus but also to men.
God is referred to as a father to men.
So the believer now calls God father.
We can call God father, Romans 8 verse 15, we can call God father because of the redemptive
work of Christ.
We receive adoption by whom we cry out word we cry out father.
So the idea of God being referred to as father was not an invention by Jesus in the New Testament.
Jesus didn't invent that idea of God becoming a father to men.
Jesus only came to fulfill the prophecies of what?
Of the Old Testament.
Jesus only came to do what?
To bring to completion or to bring to manifestation all the things that were prophesied by the
prophets in the Old Testament part of the scriptures.
Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 and 18 we'll see where Jesus was speaking about what he was
here to do.
He says do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.
That is Jesus did not come to nullify the writings of Moses and also the writings of
the prophets.
I did not come to destroy but to what?
But to fulfill.
For assuredly I say to you till heaven and earth pass away one jot or one title will
know by no means passed from the law.
Meaning you know will be ignored or will not come to manifestation till all is what is
fulfilled.
Till all is fulfilled.
Look 24 verse 44 we see Jesus emphasizing his role in this.
Then he said to them after resurrection these are the words which I spoke to you while I
was still with you.
That all things must be fulfilled.
That is all the things that the prophets have said must be fulfilled.
Which were written in the Lord of Moses and the prophets and the psalms concerning me,
concerning Jesus.
And then he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures so they
can see visibly the fulfillment of all the things that have been said by the prophets,
by the mouth of the prophets.
So the concept also of God's being father to men was not all also it wasn't an invention
of or creation of the apostles.
You know the apostles didn't just wake up one day and they found it to be a nice idea
since they are forming a new religion, a new movement, a new sect.
It will be a nice idea for us to sound different from the Pharisees and the scribes.
Please call God our father.
No.
It wasn't a new idea.
They also follow in the same way Jesus explained the scriptures.
All that the apostle would teach in scriptures or practice must find its roots from the Old
Testament.
For example, now Paul explained the gospel.
The idea of Jesus being the Messiah, you know, as explained in scriptures by the apostles,
we see it in scriptures.
For example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we see how Paul explained the idea of salvation.
1 Corinthians 15 from verse 1.
To see that the apostle never invented something new.
Paul said, moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which
also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved if you hold fast
that word which I preach to you only unless you believed in vain.
For I deliver to you first, what did he deliver?
The gospel message, right?
For I deliver to you first of all that which I also word, I also received.
So Paul never created something of himself.
It is that which he received that he word, that is presented to them.
For I deliver to you first of all that which I also received.
What did he receive?
That Christ died for our sins.
Where did he get that from?
According to the scriptures which means that he may have gone through the scriptures.
The scriptures here will refer to the Old Testament text.
That he has gone through the scriptures and the scriptures have confirmed that the Christ,
the Christ is an individual, is an office, is someone that will come and die for the
sins of men and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to what?
According to the scriptures.
So the explanation of the dead and the burial of Jesus Christ is found in the text of the
Old Testament scriptures.
Verse 5.
And that he was seen by Cephas then by the 12th.
After that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remained
to the present or some have fallen asleep.
After that he was seen by James then by all the apostles.
Then last of all he was seen by me also as by one born out of due time.
Hallelujah.
So he received something and then he is passing on to.
So consistently we see in the writings of the apostles, in the teachings of doctrines
of the apostles is that they never invented something new.
So also the idea of God being the father is not something that they themselves came up
with it as a beautiful idea but that they have to find its roots from the scriptures.
So if God is referred to as father in the New Testament we can also as a matter of importance
trace the origin of this concept from the Old Testament scriptures.
And we say that from Genesis to Malachi which is what we are referring to in the context
of this teaching the Old Testament scriptures is the collection of books that contains types
and shadows, promises and mysteries.
Hallelujah.
So when you read through the text what will you find?
You find symbolisms.
You find a mood of communication, a way of writing that there are symbols, there are
symbolisms, there are types, there are shadows, there are promises made in the text and there
are what there is what we call mystery contained in it which means that whatever is mystery
will need to be unraveled.
Hallelujah.
We need to be unraveled in mystery.
We need to be unraveled.
What was spoken by God through the prophets are promises wrapped up in shadows and figures
of speech what we call mysteries.
And when we say mysteries or types and shadows or promises is actually what was fulfilled
in Christ Jesus.
So mystery here means something that requires an explanation.
We are not talking about something that is full of magic and spookiness.
When we say mystery here we mean something that requires what?
Requires an explanation.
Hallelujah.
It means that it requires an explanation which means that the writings of the Old Testament
text requires what?
Requires an explanation.
There is a specific explanation for the writings of the Old Testament text.
There are not many explanations to the writing of the Old Testament text because the writer
has an intention for writing a particular text.
Therefore, for you to come to a conclusion of what the writer was intending to communicate
you must seek the writer's interpretation of his writing.
Hallelujah.
So there are not many other explanations but there is only one explanation.
So mystery here refers to what?
Something that requires an explanation.
So when Jesus died and rose again we see him giving explanation to the mysteries.
Luke 24 verse 25.
Luke 24, 25, 27.
Then he said to them, All foolish ones and slow of heart, believe in all that the prophets
have spoken.
Out not the Christ who hath suffered these things and entered into his glory.
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets he what?
He explained, he gave an explanation to them all the scriptures.
The things concerning himself.
So there was a need for an explanation.
And even when he rose again from the dead, 40 days he spent with them, what was he doing?
He was explaining to them the scriptures.
Explaining to them the things that were written in the text.
Expounding and expanding, interpreting to them the parables.
Explaining to them the symbolisms.
Only the things that concern him.
In the same light the epistles, the writings of the apostles, the New Testament part of
the scriptures by the early apostles are an explanation of the things concerning Christ
as promised through the prophecies in the Old Testament scriptures.
So the apostles themselves have to explain as Christ has explained to them the Old Testament
text.
So in our understanding of God as Father, it is important that we go in the same way.
Now we will see a prophecy about this in Isaiah 53.
Now let's go to Isaiah 53, particularly verse 10, but let's begin from verse 1.
Isaiah 53.
Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness.
And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised and we did not esteem him.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem him stricken, smitten
by God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement
for our peace was upon him and by his tribes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray, we have torn everyone to his own way and the Lord
has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He was led at a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
He was taken from the prison and from judgment and who will declare his generation for he
was caught up from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people he was
stricken.
And they made his grave with the wicked but with the rich at his death because he had
done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he has put into him grief.
He has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his
seat, he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge my righteous servant
shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide a spoil with
a strong because he poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors
and he bore the sin of many and made intercessions for the transgressors.
Hallelujah.
Now with your understanding of the New Testament when you read this definitely you will see
Christ painted in this part of the text.
But imagine in those days even before the coming of Christ the prophet Isaiah have prophesied
he has foretold what God will do in Christ and for us we can see vividly this promise
being fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
Now let's focus on verse 10 particularly verse 10 we see in it a profound prophecy about
Jesus Christ the Messiah capturing his redemptive work, his suffering, his death and his resurrection
in that verse and the result will come from that which he will suffer.
In this verse let's see it again it says yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him so God was
entrusted in afflicting Christ.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He was put he has put him rather to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin
he shall see his seed and we try to explain what this seed is from the last week.
He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall do what shall prosper.
Shall prolong his days.
The word prolong is the Hebrew word araq and we see another word zira that is for seed
or descendants seed or descendants.
This holds deep significance in understanding God's promise for a family.
These two concepts araq and zira that is prolonging his days and the seed which will come as a
result of what he will do holds a significant importance for us in understanding God's promise
for a family to arise through Jesus Christ.
It speaks to the continuity of Jesus's influence and life beyond just his death that through
the seed or through descendants that will come forth as a result of his sacrifice.
So here we see there's an explanation that the Christ will be put to death and then out
of it we see that a seed shall come from that experience.
Now the word zira symbolizes not only fiscal lineage but spiritual descendants that is
a new creation that will birth from the resurrection of Christ.
This is essential, this is very important for us to understand and this aligns with
other texts that speaks about you know the anguish and the pain that the Messiah will
go through.
Isaiah 7 verse 14, Isaiah 9 verse 6 for telling the Messiah who will be God with us and also
establish it an internal kingdom.
Now the promise to prolong his days implies that his life and mission will extend beyond
his earthly life through the life of those who will believe.
Him prolonging his days means that what?
That the effect of what will happen is not only in his earthly days but even after he
has left the earth.
This is one of the scriptures we see in the Old Testament that seems or that gives us
a hint about gospel and concerning you know a family, the idea of seed that is there of
descendants, the idea of God having descendants and these descendants will come from what?
From the redemptive work of Christ.
Now let's look at some few.
Let's look at one in Hosea.
Let's look at Romans, Romans 9 verse 25 and 26.
Romans 9 verse 25 and 26.
And it says also in Hosea, now the writer of Romans 9 is making reference to which book?
To the book of Hosea and Hosea is found where?
In the Old Testament, right?
So and he says also in Hosea, I will call them who?
My people.
So in the book of Hosea we're going to make look at the cross reference.
I will call them my people.
Not that I am calling them my people but I will what?
I will call them my people who were not my people and her beloved who was not beloved.
And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people.
There they shall be called sons of the living God.
These two verses are two different places in the book of Hosea.
Now for Hosea, verse 25, give me verse 25, verse 25, let's read verse 25.
And it says also in Hosea, I will call them my people who were not my people and her beloved
who was not beloved.
We will see that in Hosea chapter 2, verse 23.
Hosea chapter 2, verse 23.
Then I will sow her for myself in the earth.
Now what we saw in Romans is the interpretation of this verse, explanation of this verse.
Then I will sow her for myself in the earth.
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy.
Then I will say to those who were not my people, you are what?
You are my people.
And they shall say, you are my God.
Hallelujah.
And then the verse 26 of Romans 9 can be found in Hosea chapter 1, verse 10.
Hosea chapter 1, verse 10.
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as a son of the sea.
Amen.
Is it literally true that the children of Israel are as a son of the sea?
If you are smart enough and you put simple logic, you discover that this is not exactly
what he's saying.
Hallelujah.
But it's a way of communication, right?
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the son of the sea, which cannot be
measured or numbered.
And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people.
There it shall be said to them, you are not just my people.
But you are what?
You are sons of who?
Of the living God.
So this is another place where there was a prophetic declaration of the plan of God having
a family of sons.
Hallelujah.
We also see 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18.
Paul said, it was caught in here.
It's a quotation from the Old Testament.
It says, I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord
Almighty.
We can find this from 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 14.
I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the wrath of men and with the blows of
the sons of men.
And we can see also other texts, Isaiah 43, verse 6, Jeremiah 31, verse 9.
Paul uses, you know, this 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18.
He rather uses these scriptures to explain or to emphasize what Christ will do.
Now let's go back to Romans 8.
Romans 8, verse 29.
For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Hallelujah.
The he is talking about here, the be the firstborn among many brethren is who?
Is Jesus Christ.
So through Jesus, we have come into the family of God.
We that believe have come into the family of God.
So in this text, we will see the plan of God.
The word foreknew prognosco, P-R-O-G-I-N-O-S-K-O, means to have knowledge beforehand, which
means that God right beforehand has predestined, which means that he preplanned, which means
that God in his knowledge has planned before the foundation of the world.
Which means that we coming into the family of God is not something that just shows up
in history, but right from the foundation of the world, the intention of God for you
and I is that we become part of his family, that we become a family.
From here is a Greek word that is spelled, let me spell it for you, S-Y-M-M-O-R-P-H-O-S,
sumophores.
It means having the same form as another.
The plan of God is that we might be what we will have, we will be conformed, that is that
we will have the same image as who, as Jesus, similar to him, just like he is, and essential
identity just as Jesus Christ.
We see this word also used in Philippians 3 verse 21.
Philippians 3 verse 21, the word sumophores was used to explain how we will be when we
see him.
Give me yes.
Who will transform our lowly bodies that he may be conformed to his glorious body according
to the walking by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.
So the confirmation here is that the same body that Jesus Christ will have, right, at
the resurrection, at his appearing, is the same body that the believer will have.
So the same word is what was used in verse 29 of Romans 8, meaning that as Jesus is,
so we have come to be as a result of what, of his redemptive work.
We are fashioned in similar nature as he is.
We have the same nature as Christ.
Now the word conformed here is different from the one used in Romans 12 verse 2 because
sometimes the English dictionary or the English word, the English language uses the word conformed
and, yes, let's look at Romans 12 verse 2.
The conform in Romans 12 verse 2 is the words su, let me spell it, C-Y-S-C-H-E-M-A-T-I-Z-O,
su schematizo, su schematizo, the Y there is double O in the pronunciation, su schematizo,
which is to conform oneself, that is one's mind or character to another pattern.
Now the way it is used here, you know, we usually tell you that in the context of a
text we find the interpretation, right, and do not be conformed to this world, but be
what, be metamorphosized, the word transformed here, there is a word conformed and there
is a word metamorphosis by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good
and acceptable and perfect will of God, all right.
So in this text here it says do not be conformed, which means that you have an image already,
okay, because for you to transform, for a lover to transform into a purple in biology,
it means that he has, he is not transforming into an outside identity, isn't it?
The potential of that transformation is within, the metamorphosis happen from within.
So the believer here in Romans chapter 12, right there, is not Stuart to copy the world
because that is not his nature, are we together?
But he is to be transformed from what, from the inside.
So the conformed use in Romans 12 is not the same as used in Romans 8-29.
Romans 8-29 is a nature that we have as Christ, the conformity is what happened at salvation,
is what has already happened.
You're not trying to become like Christ, you're not trying to become like the Son of God,
you are already the Son of God by virtue of salvation.
So we are conformed to the first begotten at salvation, he is the prototype, he is the
firstborn and then we are his siblings.
And obviously we can get this interpretation from where we read in Isaiah chapter 53 verse
10, we bring the seed, a product of what, of his redemptive work.
So we have been conformed, say I have been conformed, I have been conformed into the image
of the Son.
Hallelujah.
So how did this confirmation happens?
It happened when we believed, amen.
It happened when we believe.
We are given the right to become the children of God by what?
By believing.
So if someone believes today, he automatically becomes a Son of God.
Automatically becomes a Son of God.
In John chapter 1 verse 12 to 13 we see Jesus Christ making reference to that, he says,
but as many as are, what?
Not led though, look up, it's all Romans 820, it's all Romans 8 here, it's all Romans 814.
But as many as received him, receiving him here will mean what?
Believing in him.
To them he gave the right to what? to become children of God to those who what?
Who believe in his name.
Who were born not of blood.
This birth is not what?
Is not natural birth.
When I say you are the Son of God, what we are referring to is not natural.
Amen?
It's not natural.
When we say Jesus is the Son of God, we are not referring to natural.
Amen?
Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh.
I was telling my people in the ceremony, I say there are some certain things that happened.
Jesus Christ decided to what?
To appear in this world.
Amen?
His appearance in this world was his decision, as many as are following the teaching, the
ceremony things.
His appearance to this world was his decision.
But you and I, a young man fell in love with a young damsel.
They decided that they want to make this love a life long thing.
They went to a court or to a registry or to a church and they saw an oath, right?
That they are going to live together for the rest of their lives.
And they sat down and they decided that they are going to give back to you.
And they did some things that they are supposed to do and then you appeared.
You never made a choice.
Absolutely, there's no choice.
You don't choose to come.
But then you appeared.
Amen?
Therefore when we say Jesus is the son of God, we are not saying that Jesus became a
son of God or he was born without his will.
No.
Jesus decided to manifest as son.
Amen?
And the scripture says that he didn't withhold, he didn't count it what?
Equality with God.
He stood so low to become a man like you and I.
So here to be born again, let's read from the previous verse, verse 12.
It says, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become a children of
God to those who believe in his name.
The next verse, who were born, how were we born?
We were not born by what?
By flesh and blood, nor of the will of the flesh.
Of course this flesh is different, thinking about works, nor of the will of man, of course
the will of man here, but who will that you be born again?
It was an act of God.
God himself, doing what?
Effecting this new birth, bringing you.
And how did you come into this?
Is by believing.
Hallelujah.
So what makes you?
Sometimes we think, oh, I'm a proud child of God.
I feel like I'm a child of God today because I'm in my best conduct.
And oftentimes we feel, no, today I don't feel like I'm a child of God.
It's not a product of your will, but that you just believe and a new birth is what Christ
has achieved for us.
Hallelujah.
Galatians of the three, verse 26.
Galatians three, 26.
For you are all what?
Sons of God.
Through what?
Through your works?
How did he become a son?
Through faith in who?
In Christ Jesus.
Remember we explained Isaiah 53, verse 10, right?
And we said that our sonship is a product of what?
Of his redemptive work.
And for us to become sons, we believe in our redemptive work.
So for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
28, 27.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek.
There's neither slave nor free.
There's neither male nor female.
For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ, then you are what?
You are Abraham's descendants and as according to what?
To the promise.
Hallelujah.
So we are John Ayers.
John was brought into the context here because he believed himself.
So we are coerced with Christ just as Abraham believed God and he obtained the promise.
So you also believed in the promise that we see manifested through the redemptive work
of Christ.
Hallelujah.
We are now members of the household of God.
It's John chapter three, verse one to two.
We are not going to be members of God's family.
We are not waiting for a family to be formed.
Beloved now we are what?
We are now.
We are the children of God.
Even though it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.
But we know that when he is revealed, when he is raptured, when he's revealed, when he's
manifested, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.
Ephesians chapter two, verse 19.
Now therefore you are no longer strangers.
Now he's referring to the one that has believed.
Amen.
You are no longer what?
You are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with who?
With the saints and members of the household of God.
Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
What is the foundation of the apostles and the prophets?
Jesus Christ himself being what?
In the chief cornerstone.
In whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
I love this one.
In whom you are what?
Is it been built brethren?
Is it been built or built?
Pastor Victor will call this syntax error right?
In whom you also are built, being means it is present continuousness.
No.
You are built together for a what?
For a dwelling place of God in the spirit.
What happened in the spirit is once and for all.
So you are already been built into that.
You have been, it is not physical building brethren.
Don't think of architecture in explaining this verse.
Alright?
Think of family.
Think of inclusion into a family.
Think of being included in God's work.
The fellowship that we have together.
Hallelujah.
So you have already partake.
You have partook in what Christ has done.
You have come into what Christ has established.
Hallelujah.
Hebrews 2 verse 10.
No, no before that 1 Peter 2 verse 9 and 10.
1 Peter 2 verse 9 and 10.
But you are a chosen generation.
A royal priesthood.
A holy nation.
His own peculiar.
His own special people.
And you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light.
Once you were not a people.
Listen, this is like paraphrasing some text in the Old Testament that we just read earlier
on.
Once you were not a people, but now who are you?
Now you are the people of God who have not obtained mercy, but now, now, now, now.
We have obtained mercy.
See, we have already obtained mercy.
We have already obtained favor.
You are the favored one.
Amen.
You are the one that the Lord has shown mercy.
Amen.
You are the one that God had loved.
So your external doesn't define what he had done in the past in you when you believe.
Hallelujah.
Hebrews 2 verse 10.
Oh Lord.
Hebrews 2 verse 10.
For it was fitting for him, that is God, for whom all things and by whom all things in
bringing many sons to glory, to do what?
To make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
For both he who sanctifies and those who are, remove that bin.
For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of what?
Of one.
For which reason he is not ashamed to call them what?
To call them brethren.
Say, I have been sanctified.
I have been sanctified.
Sanctification is not in works.
It's your product of faith.
I have been sanctified.
Hallelujah.
He's not ashamed of you.
He's not ashamed to identify with who you are.
God in Christ is not ashamed to say you are my family.
You know there are some people when they see their siblings, they don't want to identify
with them, especially when they are not looking well kept.
We are your friends, your friends in the town and then suddenly you see your brother with
a torn clothes, dirty without shoes and he's calling you sister.
Don't disgrace me.
But listen, in your most unkept way, in your most, which word will I use now?
Unwelcoming way.
In your most devious behavior, in your most unlikely and the most disobedient status.
I'm speaking to somebody here.
God is not ashamed to identify with you.
Jesus is not ashamed to identify with you as a brother.
That is comforting.
He is not ashamed to identify with you as his because of his redemptive work.
So you can come boldly, you can come with confidence that there is acceptance in the
beloved.
Hallelujah.
You can come boldly that there is an acceptance in the beloved.
Now what he did on the cross is important concerning everything that you've done.
Hallelujah.
First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12 and 13.
For as the body is one has many members, but all the members of that one body, be many
are what?
Are one body.
So also is Christ.
For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body.
See when we come to the next phase of this teaching, I'm going to be revealing to us
how we should relate as a family because we are members of what?
Of one family.
Hallelujah.
Now all this is to set us up to a place when we begin to say that we are brothers, you
understand how we became brothers.
How we became of one family and how we should relate to one another.
How we should relate to those who are not of this family and who should be your friend
and who shouldn't be your friend.
For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body whether Jew, whether you are from
Zimbabwe or you are from Kenya, from Mozambique, from Nigeria, whether you are a slave or you
are free.
So long as you believe in Jesus as a Messiah, you have all been made to drink into one spirit
believing.
All right?
We are of the same family, we are of the same stock.
Ephesians 1 verse 4 and 5.
One Lord and one faith and one baptism.
Ephesians 1 verse 4 and 5.
Just as He chose us in Him, when did He choose you?
When did God choose the believer?
Just as He chose us in Him when before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame, before Him in love.
Verse 5.
Having what?
Predestined us toward to inclusion as sons.
How?
By Jesus Christ to Himself.
According to what?
It pleases Him.
That is what He wanted from the beginning.
According to His good pleasure, according to what God has intended from the beginning.
Hallelujah.
So what should this understanding bring to you as you walk through your life, as you
go through the week?
Does that build confidence in you that you are a son of God?
You are not unfortunate.
You are not an accident.
Your status as a child of God is not a product of a man's will, but is what God has willed
by Himself.
Just want you to begin to speak to God and say, Lord, let this revelation influence my
living.
Let this revelation influence my living.
Let this revelation of my identity as a son influence my living.
Colossians 1 verse 9.
Please pray.
Please pray this prayer and say, Lord, let the revelation of my identity stir up the
way I live my life.
Colossians 1 verse 9 says, for this reason, we also since the day we had it, do not cease
to pray for you that and to ask, what is he praying?
That you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.
Now the will of God, we've seen that is that you become part of his family.
Is that you are a son, whether male or female, that you are a son regardless of your nationality,
Greek or Jew, slave or free, that you be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom
and spiritual understanding.
Now this is the effect in verse 10.
That you may work worthy of the Lord.
The knowledge you have about your identity concerning the will of God, your identity
in the will of God should influence the way you walk.
That you will work worthy of the Lord.
And in working worthy of the Lord, you are pleasing him.
And in pleasing him, we see you being fruitful.
And your fruitfulness is in good works.
And good works refers to what the work of ministry.
That I live with the consciousness that I am a son.
I am not a slave, I am a son.
And I enjoy all the privileges of sonship in Christ.
All that Christ has are mine.
All that his redemptive work has brought is mine because I believe and I have been brought
into this family so I enjoy the commonwealth of God.
And this reality influences the way I live.
My conduct, my life, I live as one who belongs to God.
We appreciate you being here today.
We hope you carry this word with you throughout your week.
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Until next time, stay blessed.