Before we get in the lesson, and I completely slipped my mind last week. Some of you might have been wondering why he was going to say this and he didn't say it. BEAMS, Bible Education and Missionary Service. We need to decide how much money we're going to send in. I think we decided, I asked for response. I suggested $24 a month, which would purchase three Bibles. And I did get response, and all of them were, that's not enough. So I appreciate that, and that's what I want to do. I want to come in under. I don't want to ask you to do too much. But I think the next good number to go with would be $48 a month, which would be six Bibles a month. But I would like to do this and give you all a think about it just a little bit. To do six Bibles a month, So we would send them $48 a month, just round it up to 50 to make it easy to keep up with, but send them that. But I think what we could do, because we've already got some money toward it, what I'd like to do is this week and next week, well maybe through the rest Sometime this month send them a bigger offering to start with And then start the $48 a month because we've already got like close to $150 for it So I would like Anybody got any questions on that $48 a month take you this month and then send them a lump sum and then start $48 a month Can I get a, I do want to take a vote on this, if you don't mind. Everybody raise your hand if you're okay with that. All right, I think that was everybody. If you didn't, then you can send it. I think that's the way we do it at Independent Badges, after we get to majority. So we'll do that then. At the end of the month, we'll send what we have in to them. And then, as we told, yes sir? I didn't catch, I didn't catch it. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. So, as we told you, I think I told you that when they send a Bible out, they put an address, they put an envelope, or first they stamp the Bible And this is what will be on it. And then they'll put an envelope in there. If somebody wants to send something back, they can. We may not ever hear anything. But this will be inside the Bibles, each Bible that we donate or pay to be donated. All right then. See if I got anything. Now then, remember, this is a long-time commitment. And if we've start going low on money, we might need to take up extra for flowers and food because we're just giving it all together so we don't have to take up two or three times. So I think we can handle that. Matter of fact, that was one of the suggestions was we need to get bibles. We can always pay for food and flowers. So that's what we'll do. All right, I appreciate y'all being so good to get along with on that. So we will go now, Becoming a Child of God. Now the lesson itself is titled, A Child of the Heavenly Father. And of course last week we did talk quite a bit about how to be saved. So this week we're going to talk about Becoming God's Child and then A, is God wants everyone to be his child. Now, there are people that don't believe that. Thank you, sir. Anybody need Lesson 12 outline? Got no one over here? Two, three, four, they get five. They got four, got five, got four, got five. Five, and you got six, six, six. All right. Keep Eddie busy. He needs exercise. Gets him knees moving. Right, Eddie? Gotta keep him knees moving. So God wants everyone to be His child. John 3, 16 makes this very plain. And it seems that if you didn't have any other verse in the Bible that said it, this makes it plain enough. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And again, we talked about how to get everlasting life last week. So, we're going to talk about the other side of that verse to start with. In case someone would be reading the Bible and wonder what parish means here. Now, if you just Google what does parish mean in this verse, you'd have 1,500 different answers. But it actually defines what it means inside the verse itself. So it's very easy to understand. Look at the last seven words of that verse. It says, should not perish but have everlasting life. So if you know what but means, you know what perish means. So but is a conjunction. It joins two parts of a sentence together. It's used to introduce a phrase or clause contrasting with what has already been mentioned. I'll give you an example. I am clean, but you are dirty. Or you say, I'm dirty, but you are clean. How about that? That might sound better to you. But if you didn't know, if you knew what dirty meant and you didn't know what clean meant, you really would because it's the opposite of dirty, right? So, the same thing. The verse says again, should not perish but have everlasting life. So, perish means the opposite of everlasting life. So, just as much as everlasting life means living eternally with God, perish means to live, to spend eternity dying without God. That's what it means. If you'll never accomplish that death, you'll be eternally dying. Not eternally dead, but eternally dying. So we know through John 3, 16, no one has to perish. And we know through 2 Peter 3, 9, we know it's not God's will that any should perish. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So it's not God's will for anybody to die and go to hell. So if it's not God's will for anybody to go to hell, whose will is it for somebody to go to hell? Whosoever's. John 3.18 says, He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now everywhere in that verse where you see he, you could put whosoever. So let's read it that way, because he is a whosoever. Whosoever that believeth on him is not condemned. But whosoever that believeth not is condemned already. Because whosoever hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So, you decide. We make that decision just as much as we make the decision to be saved. We make the decision to stay lost. Because the Bible says we're condemned already. Jesus left nobody out when he died on the cross. The invitation for salvation is open to all. Romans 10, 13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He invites everyone. The individual is responsible to either accept or reject the invitation. John 1, 12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And all the way through to the book of Revelation, in Revelation we have the last invitation chapter 22 verse 17 and the spirit and the bride say come and let him that hearest say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life free. So it's whosoever will or whosoever won't. It's a choice to be made. And then B, God will never disinherit a family member. Now, last week we talked a lot about how to get saved and now we're going to talk, maybe spend a little time about not, about staying saved. That we will not, once we're saved, we will always be saved. When we get saved, we enter into a father-child relationship. Many people ask or many people already have an opinion on this. Once we're saved, can that relationship be broken? And we know that you cannot lose that salvation. And if we look at the illustration that the Bible gives of a parent-child relationship, it's a blood relationship. The fellowship can be broken and you know even as little children and a lot of times when they get to be older children it gets even much worse case that the fellowship is broken completely sometimes, sometimes for years. But the relationship cannot be broken. You can no more change the parent-child relationship of two people than you can change the relationship of the DNA between those two people. It cannot be done. A child can cease to get along with his parents, but nothing and no one can change the blood relationship. Accepting Christ as our Savior puts us in a blood relationship with Him. Christ shed His blood for our sin on the cross. The moment we become a child of God, that blood covers our sins. Now, we cannot see that blood But God cannot not see that blood. See, He knows it's been applied. He knows that you're saved. There's never a time, God don't have to look in a book, and I know we talk about our name being in a book, but God doesn't have to look in the book to see if our name's in there. He knows if we're saved or not. 1 Peter 1, 18-19. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Through Jesus we have a blood relationship with God. Our fellowship again can be broken but our relationship with God can never be broken. Another reason we know that this relationship can never be broken is that we were born into the family. The Bible refers to it as being born again not physically born again but a spiritual birth. Now you can no more be unborn physically than you can be unborn spiritually. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So, we're not saved by works, we read in the verse earlier, we're not saved, we don't purchase it, we're not saved by gold and silver, we're not saved by some tradition, we're not saved because we were born, physically born into a certain family, but we are saved by the gift of God, by the grace of God, by the blood of Jesus Christ. To put it simply, we did not get saved by being good, And we cannot stay saved by being good. Therefore, we cannot lose our salvation by being bad. Because we didn't do it. We didn't work for salvation. We didn't give ourselves salvation. We didn't earn salvation. Galatians 1, 3, Paul talking to Galatians, he says, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, received ye the Holy Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the flesh? I don't know if it makes any difference or not, but I've had some friends, I believe, say that they're in a denomination that doesn't believe in eternal security. Sometimes I wonder, if Paul said that to them, would they listen to him? Wait a minute, he did say it to them. He wrote it down. It's right there. But they go back to tradition of what they've been taught instead of looking at what the Word of God says. Any of us can learn something wrong, and we all probably have. But when we clearly see it in the Word of God, we need to be willing to believe the Word of God and not what we thought was right. No one can take your status as a child of your parents away from you, and no one can take your salvation and your status as a child of God away from you either. John 10, 27, 29 through 29. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. You can't get any plainer than that. So, does the child of God commit sin after he's saved? Absolutely. I hope we don't have anyone in here that's been saved more than a day and say, I've never sinned since I've been saved. You probably need to study your Bible a little bit. I know Dennis only once with Dennis today. But we've all sinned. What happens when we sin if we don't lose our salvation? Well, the Bible is very plain on that as well. 1 John 1, verse 8, verse 10. We'll come back to 9 in a little bit. 1 John 1 and 8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. That's the reason I said what I said because that's what the Bible says. Verse 10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So if I say, I've been saved since I was 13, if I say I haven't sinned, I make God a liar. And anybody that makes God a liar, the truth is not in him, right? So God says I have sinned, and I have sinned. When a Christian sins, fellowship is broken with God because God will not tolerate sin. Because of God's mercy, we have verse 9 in that same chapter. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we confess our sins, but what if we choose not to confess? So what I'm trying to do is eliminate the idea that there's a certain amount of sin and I was just researching on really a saved man, a great man of God that he never believed and he didn't believe in eternal security. So what I'm trying to do is get us to understand that no matter how smart somebody is, doesn't matter if they are saved, what the Word of God says is what's right. So what happens If we don't confess our sins, well, what happens is very similar to what a wise parent does when his child disobeys. When your child disobeys, does he cease to be your child? If he continually disobeys, does he or she cease to be your child? No. You set appropriate consequences for the misbehavior. You punish the transgression. But you do not stop loving your child and you do not stop being that child's parent. But now Hebrews 12 and 6 tells us that's what God does. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. To chasten means to correct by punishment or reproof. To scourge is to inflict severe suffering or punishment. Now we know what scourge means by what Jesus did in the temple, John 2, 15. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables. Sometimes punishment has to be more than, don't do that. We cannot raise a child properly if all we ever say is, no, don't do that. They'll learn it. Don't do that just means don't do that. We're human even as little children we're still human and we will try to do what the flesh wants to do. So we have to be corrected. God will do whatever is necessary to correct our behavior but he always corrects us in a view toward restoring us back to fellowship with him. The desire of God is never to see us hurt. The desire is to see us return to fellowship with Him. He disciplines us because He loves us. So what happens when the chastening doesn't get the job done? Well, what happens when an earthly father cannot bring their child into subjection after trying to for years until the child is no longer a child and he can no longer physically control that child. Unfortunately, it may come to the last straw where the father must figuratively kick the child out of the house because of the destruction that they are causing in that house. Now that's a very hard, hard, hard thing to deal with. I've never had to deal with it. But I've known people that have. It's a hard thing to deal with. Now, as I said, You remove, or like I say, figurative kick. You don't kick them, right? But that's a term we use. That you kick somebody out of your house. And so, is that what God does? Actually, He does the opposite. We've been disobedient and we're in a terrible state. God doesn't kick us out of His house. He comes down. He picks us up. And He brings us home with Him. And you say, you mean they die? Yeah. See, when they get home with Him, they'll act right. There'll be no more disobedience. There will be no more sin. And they will love Him and He will love them. His love for them will not increase any because He already loves them. And because He loves them, He stopped them from sinning. and shaming the name of Christ. That's hard to deal with. That's hard to do. God doesn't want to do that. But it comes to a point, He's going to correct His child. 1 Corinthians 5 to deliver such in one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. You will find no scripture saying that once someone is saved because of sin they are no longer saved. Although a lot of, actually most denominations teach that exact thing. But they can't give you what or how much sin that is. And the reason they can't because it's not in the Word of God. They can't point to the word of God and say, well, if you do this, it's not there. So we know that by the blood of Jesus Christ we're saved. When we recognize our sin and ask Jesus to forgive us for our sin and trust in his death, burial and resurrection as payment for our sin, he will save us. We know God loves us and we will always be His child. Now, the next part of the lesson is the benefits of being God's child. Now, we could probably look at, I'm sure growing up, you saw kids and I know kids today see other kids that, well, they got a lot of benefits. They live in a big fancy house. They turn 16. Well, I used to say when I was driving, they get a $10,000 car, but now they get a $100,000 car, you know, they wreck it and they get another $100,000 car. Boy, they really got the benefits. Nobody has more benefits than God's children. Now, just like when you get a job, of course, now, if you don't have a job and you need the money, you're going to take what you can get. But you're going to look for benefits. If you have a choice of two jobs, you're going to also look at the benefit. Insurance, paid holidays, vacation days, paid sick days, availability to contribute to retirement, how much they contribute to your retirement. That's the things that they do in today's world. There's benefits. Psalm 68, 19 says, Blessed be the Lord who daily loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation, Selah. The child of God receives an incredible benefits package. And we're going to go over some of these benefits. And number one, A, we get a family name. Now, you have a family name that you were born with, and I know some people who are adopted and they get their name that way, and that's good too. But that family name. When you go to school, and some of you in here had older brothers and sisters or younger brothers and sisters, so when you get to school, your name already has a name, right? And so, you could be fortunate or you could be unfortunate because your name already has a name. And so, I know when our daughter went to school and when the whole time our son was four years younger. So, you know, it was Michelle Money and then Caleb Money was Michelle's brother. Basically, the whole time he was in school. After she graduated, he went into the ninth grade. And after about a year or so, you know, he got his own name. You know, he made his own name. And my daughter became Caleb's sister. And because she was so quiet, and he is so outspoken, and because, you know, just to the difference in the personalities, She will always be, at Gospel Like Christian School, she will always be, except for about 10 of her closest friends, she will be Caleb's sister. With them, he's Michelle's brother. But we have a name. And we're born with a name. And some people, we all have a name. And we're born, we're born again, we have a name. And it's Christian. And as we got this name, the Bible says we were first called Christians in Antioch. And we talked about this on Wednesday Night Electives that we didn't choose that name, but we gladly accept that name because it means to be Christ-like. The name Christian means a follower of Christ. It doesn't say specifically who gave it, but just where the name started at, and that was in Antioch, Acts 4 and 13. Also tells us, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. So they were associated with the name of Jesus. This is Acts 4.13, of course, is after Christ had died and buried and resurrected and ascended into heaven. So they said, well, they haven't been to school. How do they know all this stuff? Because they had been with Jesus and because they were living like Jesus and they were saying the same things that Jesus said. There ought to be something special about the people of God that is noticeable and noteworthy to those who do not know God. If you're around somebody, if you're a Christian, and you're around somebody for a length of time, they should know something different about you. Maybe they don't know anything about God, but just by watching you, they can see there's something different about you. And if they know about Jesus, then they will know why that is. And so we have a family name and then we have an inheritance, B, inheritance. As children of God we have a family name and we have an inheritance. Paul mentions our inheritance as children of God several times. Ephesians 1, 11 through 13 and we'll do this part of this one and then we'll finish up on inheritance next week. Ephesians 1, 11, and whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated, now we'll define predestination in verse 13, it defines itself, according to the purpose of him whom worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. I'll read those two verses again. and whom also we have obtained inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will that we should be to the praise and glory who first trusted in Christ. So we are saved to glorify Jesus. Now it says we're predestinated. Does that mean we're predestinated to be saved? No, after we're saved we're predestined to glorify Jesus. And verse 13 tells us that verses 11, 12 happens to these people. And whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. So those that have been sealed with the Holy Spirit are predestined to glorify Jesus Christ. You can't do anything to glorify Jesus Christ until you're saved. And we will read these next set of verses here, Romans 8, 16, 18. The Spirit itself bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we might also be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So the Bible tells that we're not just heirs, but joint heirs. Now, if you're... happen to be a joint heir to some with somebody here on earth and that person passes on to heaven and Randy maybe when you're a great rich uncle you know maybe you're a joint heir with somebody when he passes on you get the same amount they get well that sounds fair right? it's not fair that we're joint heirs with Christ but that's our inheritance It's not fair because we didn't do what he did. We're not who he is, but that's what God gives us as inheritance. We get to enjoy heaven for eternity with Christ. We'll finish this part up next week. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this stage you've given us. Lord, we thank you, Lord, for eternal security, Lord, that we have once we have accepted you as Savior. And Lord, we thank you, Lord, for 22 years that you've given our pastor here at Currytown. Thank you, Lord, for being able to celebrate that today. In Jesus' name we pray.