2025-04-27 Sermon Notes

Every letter by Paul begins with the apostolic salutation, with slight variation: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

• It is important that we grasp the significance of these words.

This grace is beautifying

This peace is stabilizing. It empowers us to stand strong even in the midst of great trial

• Paul says they come from God, our Father.
• Paul says that this letter is from "all the brothers who are with me".
  • In what way are we brothers? How are we siblings? It is because we share the same Father. God is our Father.

• God is our Father by creation.
  • Acts 17:28-29 'For in him we live, move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.' Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
  • Hebrews 12.9 Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh (biological fathers) to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits (our Heavenly Father), and live?
  • Luke 3.38 the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
• Man's fall into sin marred that Father and child relationship
  • Though we are His children because He created us, He has disowned us because of our sins. Because of our sins we are no longer His children because we are unworthy. But wait, there's more to the story.
• God is our Father by adoption
  • Those who believe in Christ are graciously adopted as sons.
  • Ephesians 1.5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,
  • Romans 9:22-26 What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved." "It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'children of the living God.'"

• Through faith in Jesus Christ
  • John 1:10-12 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own, and those who were his own didn't receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God's children, to those who believe in his name:
  • Galatians 3.26 For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.
• The Holy Spirit regenerates us and gives us the gift of faith to believe in Christ, and also gives us the heart of a son of God.
  • John 1.13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
  • Because He regenerates us, we love our Father in Heaven. We want to please Him. And we bear a family resemblance to our Father in Heaven.
    • There is an evident spiritual lineage.
• The Father predestines us
  • Ephesians 1:3-9 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him

• 1 John 3.1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn't know us, because it didn't know him.
• Romans 8.29 For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

• How could God love us when we are so unworthy?
  • John shows us in his Gospel that when we sin, we show that our Father is not God, but the devil.
• How could God love us when it cost Him so greatly?
  • Ephesians 1.6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
    • Why do parents adopt children? Often, it is because they are unable to give birth to a child. But God already had a Son.
    • Furthermore, when God adopted us He had to pay a price, His one and only Son.
      • Why would God be willing to pay this immeasurable price? Love. He loved us.

• How is being adopted as God's child any different from simply being God's child in creation?
  • Galatians 4:5-7 that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children. And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba, Father!" So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
  • We receive an inheritance from our Father, because we are His heir.

• We have the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• We have the gift of God's providential care. (In other words, we know that our Father cares for us and will continue to care for us)
  • Matthew 6:25-33 Therefore I tell you, don't be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothing? See the birds of the sky, that they don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you of much more value than they? "Which of you by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan? Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don't toil, neither do they spin, yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won't he much more clothe you, you of little faith? "Therefore don't be anxious, saying, 'What will we eat?', 'What will we drink?' or, 'With what will we be clothed?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first God's Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
  • God provides for us, His children.
• Another blessing of God is when God brings us Discipline and hardship.
  • Hebrews 12.7 It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn't discipline?
  • Hebrews 12:10-11 For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trainedgym by it.
• We receive an inheritance from our Father, because we are His heir.
  • Galatians 4.7 So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
  • Many earthly fathers leave an inheritance for their children. Sometimes such an inheritance is even a great wealth. But even the biggest inheritance pails in comparison to the inheritance that we receive from God, our Father.
  • 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
  • 1 Peter 1:4-5 to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn't fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
  • This inheritance, is not provided to all creation. Those who have rebelled against God in their sin will not receive this inheritance, but those who are adopted by grace through faith in Christ will receive this inheritance.
• God gives us grace and peace in the measure that we need them.
  • 1 John 3.1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn't know us, because it didn't know him.

• And not just in the sense of being your Creator, but in the sense of being your loving, caring, familial Father.

• Perhaps you have had a difficult, painful experience with your earthly father.
  • Please know that your Heavenly Father, is nothing like your earthly father. Your earthly father is unsatisfying because he is an incomplete approximation of your Heavenly Father.
• Perhaps, you had a kind warm father.
  • Please know that your Heavenly Father far exceeds this!
• John 1.12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God's children, to those who believe in his name: