Perhaps someone would die for a good person, but Christ died for what?  The ungodly.  So you know, that time of the second resurrection is going to be so absolutely fantastic.  Can you imagine what a fantastic thing that it’s going to be for people who’ve been in circumstances like that?  To be reared in a society like those in New Guinea and New Caledonia?  To be reared in a society as was shown on this thing “Shogun”?  Can you imagine what it’s going to be like?  The last thing that you remember dying was a big sword coming down on the back of your neck.  You wake up and….  Satan is going to be removed, and I think God is gracious and generous in doing that for them.  That is so fantastic it is just marvelous.  And not only what God is going to do for us.

#2.  We are put into a special category with Jesus Christ.  We are called friends.  John 15, let’s turn there.  Now to be in a special category where you are called the friend of Jesus Christ.  I’m sure that all of us have acquaintances.  I’m sure that all of us have relatives.  Are all your relatives your friends?  No.  They may be relatives but they sure may not be friends.   And a friend is a special relationship that brings you in closeness.  And Christ, being our friend then has a vested interest in seeing us into the Kingdom of God.  That’s why the whole psychology of beating people into overcoming, and beating them into the Kingdom of God defeats the whole purpose.  Christ is our friend.  And how many times have we viewed Christ as what?  Almost our enemy.  Now that is not right.

Here’s what he says in John 15:12.  “This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.”  Now that means that we have to give a whole lot more latitude and leeway then, doesn’t it?  It means that we have to understand and love each other even more because of what Christ has done for us and is doing for them.

You know why there is a lack of love when there should be love?  It just occurred to me just now.  Because they don’t understand that Christ is our friend and it is put in such a way that “I want to be in the Kingdom of God, but I don’t know about you.  And since I want to be there I’m going to make sure I get there, and I hope you get there.”  It doesn’t work.  Whereas if we consider ourselves with this commandment to love each other as Christ loves us, “Greater love than this, no one has, that one should lay his life down for his friends” (John 15:13, BGI paraphrased).  Now people may lay their lives down to be burned (Romans 13, “For if we burn our bodies and don’t have love it hasn’t profited anything”).  They may do it for the publicity, they may do it for whatever, but they’re not doing it for love.

But if you lay your life down for your friend, and a friend is not going to cheat you, is he?  A friend is not going to stab you in the back when you’re not looking, is he?  A friend is going to defend you, isn’t that right?  A friend is going to help you.  Jesus said, “You are My friends…” That’s quite a statement, isn’t it.  But also notice that it’s conditional.  “…If you practice whatsoever I command you” (vs. 14) Like anything else, a friendship has a close, intimate, understood set of rules.  Now there are rules for conduct that are not close and intimate.  One of them is that when you go to the airport you have to go through this machine to see if you have any metal.  Bam - you must do it - that’s it.  What are the rules of friendship?  Trust, loyalty, love, protection, dedication.  All of those things.  Does Christ love us?  Yes.  Does He protect us?  Yes.  Does He defend us?  Yes.  Does He watch out for us?  Yes.  We don’t want to lower the relationship with Jesus Christ to then on the human plane become sloppy in the relationship by saying, “Oh well, Jesus is my friend.”  But we need to uphold it in honor and love and esteem.  And as Jesus said, “If you continue practicing what I command you…”, so there are conditions.  If you have a friend who deliberately lies to you, what happens?  He is no longer your friend.  If you’ve ever had that happen you drop that friend, bam.  Why?  Because he couldn’t be trusted.  Christ won’t lie to us, and we are under this grace of God.  Now that’s a tremendous thing for Christ to say, “You are My friends.”

#3.  Not only are we friends, but we are also relatives.  We are brothers.  So that’s bringing everything real close together.  Let’s go to Hebrews 2:10, “For it was becoming to Him, for Whom [are] all things and by Whom [are] all things, in bringing many sons to glory, that the leader of their salvation should be made perfect through suffering” (BGI, paraphrased).  So Jesus, although He was perfect, was perfected.  Jesus was not offered as a sacrifice when He was twelve.  But He was offered as a sacrifice after He finished His ministry and He was some 33 ½ years old.  He was perfected.  And I’m sure God’s understanding was perfected in the human experience.

“For both He who sanctifies and those that are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren…” So we are the brothers of Christ.  And brethren includes more than just the male gender.  That means those who are of the family of God, brethren.  “…Saying, I will declare Thy name to My brethren…” That is Jesus will declare the name of God the Father to “My brethren”, those that are in the Church, “…in [the] midst of [the] assembly I will sing praise to Thee.”  Then it goes one step further showing we are also the children, verse 13.  “And again, I will be trust in Him.  And again, Behold I and the children which God gave Me” (vs. 11-13, BGI, paraphrased).

Let’s come to Romans 8.  We’ll get into the children of God, here in just a minute.  We touched on it right there.  Romans 8:14, “For as many as are let by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.  But you have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but have received the Spirit of sonship whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:14-15, BGI, paraphrased).  And that’s all a part of the family of God, and we’re getting into the thing of the children of God, the sons of God.  #4 then is the children of God.  We’re right there with it.  Sons of God, the children of God where we can call Abba, Father.

Now in the societies that we are talking about here, it is completely indiscrete to call someone not of your family by an endearing term like Daddy, or Mommy, so forth.  Even the German language to this day carries that through.  When you meet someone on a formal basis, you do not use terms of endearment to them.  It is very formal.  It is very straightforward.  Here, not only are we then the friends of Jesus Christ, not only then are we the brothers of Christ, we are also of the family of God and we can call God our Father in an intimate way, Abba, which means Daddy.  And that means that the formal barriers have been broken down for the family of God.  We still honor God, love God, respect God, but we can have that close intimate relationship with Him.  That’s what the grace of God does for us.

Now it says here, I want you to notice the word for sons of God, verse 14.  It is pronounced huio, which in the singular is pronounced huios.  That ui is pronounced we.  And “the sons of God”, it can refer…”son” can refer to the male gender distinctly.  It can also refer in the term “sons” to male and female.  Now the word for children is…  There are two words for “children” but the main one I want to cover is called tekna, and tekna means either gender, male or female.  Called the children of God.

Let’s go to 1 John 3 and we’ll see this.  Let’s just begin right here in verse 1.  Now the King James says “Behold”, or it means see.  “See what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God…” Now notice the word children, it is tekna.  “On account of this the world does not know us because it knew Him not.  Beloved, now are we the children of God…” (1 John 3:1-2, BGI, paraphrased).  Now, I don’t want to get into a lot of theological discussions and things like that.  We are the children of God.  When a mother is carrying a child it is a called a child, yet it is not yet born.  So likewise we are called the children of God because we have the begettal of God’s Holy Spirit, but we have not yet entered into the Kingdom of God because the resurrection has not taken place.  But God calls the things that are not as though they were (Romans 4), because He told Abraham, “Your seed shall be as the stars.”  They weren’t yet, but He said they would be.  And God calls the things that are not as though they are.  That’s why we are the children of God, but it will be a concrete fact at the resurrection in a spiritual sense.

“Beloved, now are we the children of God and it is not yet manifest what we shall be…” And the implication is “as the children of God” to the fullest extent.  “…But we know that if He be manifest, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is” (vs. 2).  So we are the children of God.  We can put down here #5 then is the sons of God, huio, or you could probably put those pretty much synonymous together.

Now let’s go to 2 Corinthians 6, and let’s look at something here.  Ok, I missed one in sequence so I have to renumber this now. #4, is the children of God.  #5, is the sons of God.  And of course we enter into this sonship.  It is not an adoption in the sense of the way that people think of adoption.  Adoption is taking someone that is not your offspring without your seed.  However, until we receive the Spirit of God as the seed of God, we are not truly His children.  Once we have received that then we are His children because we have the seed of God in us.  So the son’s of God.

#6.  The daughters of God.  2 Corinthians 6:16, “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?”  You are the temple of God.  “You are the temple of the living God, according as God has said, I will dwell among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be to Me a people.”  Now it’s interesting, the way you pronounce that word for people is laos.  And we have a word today of a nation that is called Laos.  Be interesting to try and trace that derivation back.  “Wherefore come out of the midst of them and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you; and I will be to you for a Father, and you shall be to Me for sons and daughters…” Here the word huios, in this case plural it is huiois, it refers to the male gender exclusively.  And then we have the daughters, thugaters, I think where we get the name Agatha.  And Agatha also comes from the Greek word “good”.  So it’s not too good of a sounding name in English.  You think of someone called Agatha.  It’s not the best sounding name, but in the Greek it means “good” - Agatha.  Horaios means “beautiful”.  “…They shall be to Me for sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.  Therefore having these promises, beloved, we should cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 6:16-18, BGI, paraphrased).  And we went through how to do that.  That is through the grace of God.

#7.  Joint heirs with Christ.  Not only did Christ die for us.  Not only are we called the friends of Jesus Christ, and the brothers of Jesus Christ, the sons of God, the children of God, the daughters of God, but we are also joint heirs.

Now let me ask you a question.  When you start into heirs and inheritance it starts getting a little legal sounding, doesn’t it?  Now the Bible says, there is what?  There is one lawgiver.  Therefore God is legal, because law He’s got to be legal.  Now don’t think in terms of laws of the land or attorneys, or judges in that sense because that will cloud your thinking in this particular case.  When we are joint-heirs… and why don’t you study this through because I don’t believe that anyone outside of the first resurrection are joint-heirs.

Let’s go to Romans 8 and then we’ll talk a little bit about being joint-heirs.  Ok, let’s pick it up here in verse 16.  “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”  There it is, children teknon theou.  “And if children, also heirs…” Now what is one of the main things that the whole prophecy of Israel hinges on?  Not only just on Christ.  That is one main promise, or the promise of grace.  There is the promise of the birthright.  And the birthright is by inheritance.  It is a legal thing.  When someone dies they leave a will and they say, “I give so and so such and such”, and so forth.  Christ died and the part of the will was that we become heirs.  If you’re someone’s offspring and they die, you are entitled to part of what they own, legally.  Now legally, because God has brought us into this relationship, God has entitled us, if we continue in the things that He has said, if we continue in the grace of God, we will be, as it says, let’s read it on here, we are heirs.  “And if children, also heirs: heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs of Christ; if indeed we suffer together, that also we may be glorified together” (Rom. 8:16-17, BGI).

What did Jesus Christ inherit?  He inherited the universe.  Who owns the universe?  God does.  Didn’t God say, “The earth is Mine and the fullness thereof.”  Didn’t God say, “All gold is Mine, and all silver is Mine.”  Yes, He did.  He let’s us use it, but who owns it?  God does.  Now if we are to inherit it, it’s not just some will-of-the-wisp thing.  It is an inheritance.  We are going to co-own with Christ everything that He owns.  Now just let that sink in for just a minute.  Think on that.

Let’s look at it another way.  Why is it, and it’s motivated out of greed in many cases, that a woman will want to marry a rich man, or a man will want to marry a rich woman?  And in the case of tremendous avarice and greed, there’s even murder that has been known to take place to do in either the husband or the wife, for what?  To inherit what they have.  So when we’re talking about joint-heirs with Christ…  Let’s go back to Hebrews 1 and we’ve almost gone full circle to the first place we began in Hebrews 2 of God has put all things in subjection under Him, and it was Jesus.  Hebrews 1 is the lead-in to it, and the very first part of it says, “In many parts and in many ways of old God having spoken to the fathers in the prophets [that is through the prophets], in these last days has spoken to us [by or through] in His Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things…” (Heb. 1:1-2, BGI, paraphrased).  Now if Christ is an heir of all things…now it didn’t say the heir of air.  It’s not just something out here in space that is nothing.  It is the heir of all things.

Now it really shows the ridiculousness of being materialistic.  It shows the ridiculousness of just striving after the fleshly things to have them for the sake of having them because Christians are going to have the best of everything through Christ.  Appointed heir of all things.  That’s everything that there is in the universe we will co-own.  But there are going to be rules for using it.  And the rules are that the Church is to be subject to Christ as the wife is to her husband.  So that’s how we inherit it through then that marriage of the Church in Christ.  We become joint-heirs.  Let that sink in for a minute.  How rich are you?  Don’t try and calculate it in dollars because I don’t know what unit of value that God uses for what He’s created.  But it talks about, which we will come to in Ephesians 3 in closing in just a minute, but it talks about the riches of the grace and glory of God.

Now, I’ll tell you one thing.  When we are clothed upon with our spiritual tabernacle, as it says there in 2 Corinthians 5, it’s not going to be an ill-fitted warehouse suit.  I will guarantee that.  And when God says that we have the right, and it’s not only going to be a property right in New Jerusalem and in the universe, we will own part of that.  Not to use as any way we want.  Not to destroy.  Not to sin.  But to use it for the glory of God and what God has planned.  And I’ll tell you this much, if God has planned what He has for human beings on the earth at this point, we’re going to have to have a spiritual mind to comprehend what God’s plan is going to be when we are the sons of God.  We can only, like Paul said, looking through the glass darkly.  We can get a glimpse of it but when the fullness of that comes in that’s going to be something.

Anyway, I’ve often wondered what kind of vehicle God is going to say, “This is yours.”  And you just take off wherever you want to go.  Won’t have to be stuck in some car behind the traffic.  I got stuck last night in a traffic jam… I was all through at 5 o’clock, but I was in Redwood City, so I was on my way home and I got stuck in a traffic jam that began all the way from Mountain Home clear down south of San Jose.  And it was just a creepy crawly all the way.  You know, that’s a good time to think, well what kind of a vehicle is God going to give us in the Kingdom of God.  And angels will be our servants.  That’s going to be absolutely amazing.  We’re going to have to get used to it.  Not in this life.  Ok, let’s go on, where was I?

#8.  We’ve already covered part of that.  God is our Father. That’s what the grace of God does for us.  God is our Father.

#9.  Christ is going to marry the Church.  Ephesians 5.  I’ll just summarize it with this verse.  “This mystery is great, but I speak as to Christ and to the Church.”  Ok now, it’s talking about the Church.  Let’s go back.  I’m going to have to go back.  I can’t just summarize it with that.  Let’s begin here in verse 22.  “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as also the Christ [is] head of the assembly of the church, and He is Saviour of the body.  But even as the church is subjected to Christ, so also should their wives be to their husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your own wives, even also Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for it, that He might sanctify, having cleansed [it] by the washing of the water by [the] word that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, that it might be holy and blameless.”  And the only way that can be done is through the grace of God.  “So men ought to love their own wives as their own body, and he that loves his own wife loves himself.  For no one at any time has hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as also the Lord does the church.  For we are members of His body, of His flesh [that is through the crucifixion], and of His bones.”  That is, just like Eve was created out of one of the ribs of Adam, so the Church has been created out of the innermost being of Christ.  That’s what the analogy is then.  “Because of this a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and they two shall become [be] one flesh” (Eph. 5:22-BGI, paraphrased). And so it’s going to be that we are what? We are joined in one Spirit with the Lord.  And it’s going to be a spiritual and practical relationship for all eternity.  So #9, Christ is going to marry the Church.

Now let’s go back to Ephesians 3 and let’s talk about some of the things concerning the grace of God and the riches of His grace, and the tremendous thing that God is doing.  And I’ll just have to admit to you today that from verse 14 on to the end of the chapter is my favorite the part in all of the Bible.  And I perhaps have given more sermons ending up here and coming to this than any other.  And yet, through all the times that I have, I never cease to gain more from it, to have more feeling and more understanding of it every time I do.

Now, verse 14, “For this cause [the cause of God’s plan] I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom every family in heaven and in the earth is named…” And of course that is the family of angels and the family of men on the earth who are going to be in the family of God.  “…That He may give you according to the riches of His glory…” That’s quite a statement.  How much can God give us when He’s already said we’re going to inherit the universe with Christ.  “…The riches of His glory…” Now that’s not just some poetic statement.  That means the riches the riches of His glory.  “…And that you be strengthened with power…” That is dunamis.  Here it is pronounced exactly in this place dunamei.  “By His Spirit in the inner man…”(Eph. 3:14-16,BGI, paraphrased), or person.  And how can you best be strengthened with the Spirit of God internally?  You can, by living in that state of grace, because God is more willing abundantly to give us of His Spirit and to pour out His grace to us.

Ok, let’s continue on here verse 17.  “…And for Christ to dwell in your hearts in faith…” In other words, that we come so close to God, and the Spirit of God that it’s actually like Christ living in us, living in our hearts.  Because our heart…what does it say?  Out of the abundance the heart the mouth speaks.  And if Christ is established in our hearts and in our very being then it’s not going to have to be that we live by the letter of the law.  We live by the grace of God.  That’s what he’s talking about here.  “…For Christ to dwell in your hearts in faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love, that you may be fully able to comprehend with all of the saints what is the breadth and length, and depth, and height; and to know the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ…” Now if we really come to that point through God’s grace, to understand how much Christ loved us, does love us, and is loving us, that makes the whole relationship with God a much more tremendous thing.  And God is more willing and able to give those things to us.

“…Being rooted and grounded in love, that you may be fully able to comprehend with all of the saints what is the breadth and length, and depth, and height…” You see, that’s why it says there, and when I first read it, back in Hebrews 6…it says, “Leaving aside the principles of Christ let’s go on to perfection…” And the first time I read that I thought, “What on earth is he talking about?”  I think I can understand a little more now. We’re not putting Christ aside.  We’re going beyond baptism and laying on of hands, and those rudimentary things that begins us walking on this path of grace so that we can come to this point to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the plan of God.  Now that’s a four dimensional thing.  And that can only be with the Spirit of God.  And we can only comprehend it through His grace.

“…And for you to know the unsurpassing knowledge of the love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God.”  Now that’s quite a statement, to be filled with all the fullness of God.  And if you will look at the words, it is very redundant the way it is said there, but to be filled with all the fulness of God has got to then refer to the resurrection when this will be accomplished.  “But to Him Who is able…” That is has the power.  Christ and God the Father have the power.  “…To do exceedingly above all that we ask or think…” Now that’s really something, isn’t it?  All that we ask or think.  The very greatest and magnanimous, wonderful, greatest thought we can possibly comprehend, God is able to do exceedingly above that.  And this tells me that to enter into the Kingdom of God as a son of God, to be a Spirit being, is going to be so utterly fantastic that the human mind cannot comprehend it.  I think it would be like taking a hundred watt bulb and screwing it into a socket, that when you threw the switch, would have 10 million volts of power.  You threw the switch and it would go blewie - nothing left.  I think that’s good comparison to what our minds are able to comprehend with what God would give us.  But we’re to grow in that.  “…You might be filled all the fulness of God, but to Him Who is able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think according to the power which works in us, to Him be glory in the church in Christ Jesus to all the generations of the ages…” (vs. 17-21, BGI, paraphrased), or it says here in the King James, “…throughout all ages, world without end.  Amen.”

So that’s an appropriate place to go ahead and end this one, and I hope that we can really begin to grasp and comprehend and understand the grace of God to it’s fullest extent.  Now I think we can comprehend more fully what Paul said.  “What, shall we sin that grace may abound?  God forbid.”