"HEIRS OF GOD"
I. GREAT TRUTHS.
A. I am a son of God.
1.
John 1:12 "But as many as received Him, Jesus Christ, to them gave He the power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."
2. By my natural birth I was a son of Satan.
a. Jesus said to the Jews, "You are of your father the devil."
b. I have been born again by the Spirit of God, into the family of God.
c. Paul wrote to the church in Rome,
ROM 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
ROM 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
ROM 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
ROM 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ;
d. John wrote, "Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is."
3. Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying Abba, Father.
a. Abba is the Hebrew word for father.
b. It is a word of endearment, more equivalent to our word daddy.
c. My children called me daddy.
d. Should they come up and call me father, I would be suspicious.
e. There is something cozy about daddy.
f. Therein lies the awesome grace. That though He is the holy, eternal, omnipotent God, yet He has opened His heart to me, and wants to be a daddy to me.
g. I think that the Abba, Father shows to us the fine balance. We need to have the utmost respect because of who He is, Father. But He desires in the same token that we feel a complete freedom to approach Him, Abba.
4. I was not born a son, but by His glorious grace I was adopted into the family.
a. When we went with our daughter and her family before the judge for the adoption of her little girl, the judge said, "Now you realize that in adopting this child she has all of the rights and benefits of your other children. She also becomes an heir." The judge then asked if the children one by one if they were willing to accept this. The idea was that if and when their parents die, she will receive her share of the inheritance.
b. God wanted to adopt us as His children, and Jesus consented to share the inheritance with us. Joint heirs with Christ.
B. I am an heir of God.
1. To the Romans Paul wrote, "If children then heirs."
2. Here he writes, "If a son, then heir of God through Christ."
3. I do not think that we can fully comprehend this awesome truth, to think that I am an heir of God.
4. When I was growing up, I had a cousin who when she was about six years old inherited 7 million dollars from her grandmother's will.
5. I used to fantasize what it would be like to inherit a fortune.
6. I used to think, "Wouldn't it be great to have some unknown uncle die and leave his fortune to me."
7. I discovered that I am an heir, an heir of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
8. I am a child of God with all of the inherent blessings and privileges.
9. One special aspect to this is that I do not have to wait for the death of the Father to claim the inheritance. "He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, The wealth in every mine, He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills, The Sun and stars that shine. Wonderful riches more than tongue can tell, He is my Father so they are mine as well."
10. There is plenty to go around. The resources are more than sufficient, and should anything run short, He can create as much as might be needed. I think that God in the creating the Universe, showed His tremendous extravagance. Why would He create billions of galaxies with billions of stars in each galaxy? They are not all necessary for our existence here on earth. I wonder how many of those stars have their own planetary systems?
II. INTERESTING TRUTHS.
A. A child who is the heir of the family fortune is no different than a servant until he comes of age.
1. My cousin who inherited the fortune from her grandmother could not have access to the money when she was six years old. The money was placed into a trust until she would come of age.
2. A sad tragedy is that she became mentally incompetent and has been in institutional care all of her life, and has thus not been able to realize her wealth.
3. Paul is using a similar analogy in describing how that the law was as the tutor of governor teaching us the basic principles of God.
4. As long as they were under the law, they could not inherit the promises that are made through grace.
B. In the fullness of time God sent His Son to open the way to receive the inheritance by placing us as adult sons, or sons who have come of age.
1. What Paul is saying is that by the grace of God, we can begin now to enjoy the benefits of our inheritance.
2. We sing "When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be." We do not have to wait till we all get to heaven to rejoice.
3. Peter wrote,
1PE 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
