Adoption ( 1 John 3 v 1 - 3 )

Romans 8 v 15  - 16,reads, '' The Spirit you received  does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, 'Abba , Father''. The Spirit himself  testifies with our  spirit that we are God's children'.  F. F. Bruce writes,' The  term '' adoption'' may have a somewhat artificial sound in our ears; but  in the Roman world of the first century AD an adopted son was a son deliberately chosen by his adoptive father to perpetuate his name  and inherit his estate; he was in no sense inferior in status to a son born in the ordinary  course of nature , and might well enjoy the fathers affection more fully an reproduce  the father's character more worthily'. Commenting on this  John Stott writes, 'It is evident then  that the popular  notion of 'the universal fatherhood of God' is not true'. Every person born is God's offspring by creation, but it is only when one is born again by God's Spirit ,  are we adopted into God's family . John 1 v 12. reads,' Yet to all who receive Him ( Jesus)  , to those who believe in His name, he gave the right  to become children of God'.

A challenging question ( John 21 v 15 -33 )

 I am going to try something different, I want to tell you about an old rich man , who  married a very beautiful young girl. After a while the old man began to wonder, did she marry for my money ?, or did she marry me ,because she loved me?. So one day he spoke to her, and asked her a question. He said, ''darling if  I lost all my money, and you had to get rid of all your jewels, your Mercedes- Benz, our home in the south of France,  would you still love me''?. She took his hand in hers ,look into his eyes and said, ''of  course I would still love you'', he breathed a sigh of relief, but then she added,'' but I'd miss you''. I hope that makes you laugh, but lets hit on the serious aspect of this, I want to take you to a beach beside the sea of Galilee,  some fisher men were standing around a fire were a  man was preparing them something to eat,  The man was none other than Jesus, and he asked Peter one of the fishermen, a very challenging question, he said ,'' do you truly love me more than these?''.  Now let us put ourselves in Peters place, and Jesus asks us the same question,'' do you truly love me more than these?''.  In other words if  you lost everything , if I lost everything ,would we still love Him ,and follow Him?.

                                                     Will you come and follow Me

                                                     If I but call your name?

                                                     Will you go where you don't know

                                                     And never be the same?

                                                     Will you let My love be shown,

                                                     Will you let My name be known, 

                                                     Will you let My life be grown in you,

                                                      And you in Me?.  ( Words . G. Maule/ J.L .Bell)

He didn't die. ( Genesis 5 v 24 )

 I like going out for a walk each day, and of course I  don't go out on my own, no, the Lord is with me, imagine that, the God of all the universe, the one  who holds the whole world in His hands goes with me. Yes little old me, he walks with me, and I walk with Him. Did He not say, that He is with us always, yes He did, is that not a wonderful thing, I remember an old song, the first line went, 'my God and I go in the fields together', and so we do. Of course I am reminded of a man who walked with God, his name was Enoch, he did not die ,the N LT. puts it like this,' It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying.' ( Hebrews 11 v 5.) Now all who put their faith in the Lord  Jesus, will go to heaven, one day, for most of us it will mean ,going through the valley of shadow of death, but let us not be afraid ,for the Lord will be with us, as in life, so in death.( Psalm 23 v 4 ) But here is a wonderful truth, one day it may be soon, many like Enoch will go to heaven without dying. ( 1 Thessalonians 4 v 13 - 18 )For we have a blessed hope that Jesus is coming back again, to call from the world His own.

                                                 'Come Lord Jesus ,come'

Only a phone call. ( 3 ) ( John 3 v16 )

 We started by saying how trusting Christ changes ones life, but also ones eternal destiny, let us not fudge the issues, there is heaven and there is hell. Yes it is as serious as that, Christ coming was God's rescue mission, to save people from going to Hell and to take them eventually to heaven. Consider the words of John 3 v 16, For God so loved the world that He gave his only  begotten Son ,that whoever believes in Him should not perish  but have eternal life'. This verse stresses the awesomeness of Gods love, as the answer to the awful plight of humanity .God can do no more, to save humanity, from perishing, it is William Hendriksen who points out that the word perish does not mean, ceasing to exist or  annihilation, it means an existence of total banishment from the presence of God to dwell forever under  His wrath. As I have said it is as serious as that, we can escape such a dreadful existence ,if we respond to God's invitation and believe in Jesus, there is no other way you can be saved,' BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST ,AND BE  SAVED.

Only a phone call . ( 2 ) ( Luke 14 v 25 - 33 )

 Following on from yesterday let us consider the cost of following Jesus, now salvation is free, absolutely . The Bible clearly states that no actions on our behalf can save us, no works  can save,  ( Ephesians 2 v 8 - 9 ). False religious often stress that their followers, must do certain things to merit salvation, ( Galatians 3 v 10 - 11 ), Jesus paid it all. So we come by faith and trust in Jesus finished work, for salvation, that is how we become a Christian. But there is a cost in being  a  follower of Christ, there are moral standards we are expected to live by, sinful habits must be forsaken, the society we live in may see no harm in certain practices, but if  they are contrary to Gods moral standard we must not accept them. When President Trump was leaving office they played  the music to that popular song,' I done it my way', as a Christian it can no longer be my way but God's way. Everyday I pray for Christians who live with the threat of death hanging over them, there are Christians in prison on trumped up charges, simple because they are Christians. Remember what Jesus said, '' If  anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross  and follow me'' ( Matthew 16 v 24 )  Yes it is a big challenge  but God in the person of the Holy Spirit  will be in  us, and will help us, all the way .  We will continue on this next time.

Am I cursed? ( Romans 8 v 31 - 35 )

 In a recent movie released on Netflix called, 'The news of the world', which is  set in the period after the civil war. The main  character played by Tom Hanks is a Capt. Jefferson who fought in the civil war, when he returns home,, he meets up with an old friend, and they speak of Jefferson's wife who died while he  was away at the war. His friend says to him, 'it was just one of those things', but Jefferson disagreed and said it was a curse from God , for the things he had done during the war. Was he under a curse ? ,it is true that  in God's word we have God cursing, the earth, nations, even his own people, our Saviour did curse a fig tree, which had a symbolic meaning in relation to Israel. But as to the hear and now, there is no clear teaching on this ,of  course God does deal with evil hear and now, that  is different than saying what Jefferson said. He may have felt he was under a curse, but he wasn't. So we can all relax, or can we?, in Deuteronomy 27 v 26, we read ,'Cursed is  anyone who does not affirm  the words  of this law, by doing them'. In Galatians 3 v 10,we read,' Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God's book of the law'. No one be it Jew or Gentiles can keep the law perfectly ,we have  all broken Gods law, that makes us sinners. Roman 3 v 23.So we are all under a curse, and unless that curse is removed no one will be saved, we will all go to a lost eternity. So that's very bad ,but the gospel is good news, let me just say the law was not given to save us, it is to teach us that we need to be saved, but how?. In Galatians 3 v 10 - 12, Christ died to rescue us from that curse, by becoming a curse ,when he hung on the cross, it means simple, that when we trust Christ as our Saviour ,the curse upon us is removed.

                                                     Therefore , there is now no condemnation  

                                                      for those who are in Christ  Jesus.  

                                                                         Romans 8 v1 .                                                                                                                                        

Only a phone call. ( 1 ) ( 1 Timothy 1 v 15 )

 A  Christian minister had a phone call, nothing unusual about that , but that phone call would change a persons life, and change their eternal destiny. The person said , they wanted to become a Christian, so the minister spent over an hour on the phone, listening ,answering questions, and explaining  why a person needs to come to Christ. The reason being to have ones sin forgiven ,and the cost of being a Christian, in the end the lady trusted Jesus to be her Saviour.  It is important to realise that we are all sinners ( Romans 3 v 23 ),no one is excluded from the condition of being a sinner. Let me stress this, no one ,no matter how nice they are, is sinless, nothing can change that fact, we are born with a nature ,that is sinful. So our lives reflect that, in one  way or another, and to a greater or lesser extent. All people are not murders, but they could be, who knows the evil any of us could commit . In Jeremiah 19  v 9, we read, 'The human heart is  the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked , who knows had bad it is'. How many people never imagined ,they could have done such and such  a thing, but they did. Only God could provide an  answer, yes only God, and His answer was Christ death on the cross, His death satisfied a just God, so making a way for our salvation, do you want to make that phone call?. We will continue this next time.