Be the Children of your Father

INTRODUCTION: Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, begins to introduce a new relationship for the believer—the Sonship of the believer and the Fatherhood of God. This is not the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man in the liberal tone. We have lost our relationship to God as Father by sin. However, it is restored in Jesus Christ. Those who are saved restore their relationship to the Father. Jesus demonstrated this in His relationship with the Father; then, He introduced that same relationship to the believers.

1. THE POSITION OF SONSHIP
1. By Regeneration (John 3:1-7)
2. By Adoption (Galatians 4:4-7; Ephesians 1:5)
2. THE PRIVILEGE OF SONSHIP
1. Given Power to Become the Sons of God (John 1:10-13)
2. Receiving the Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8:14-16)
3. Called the Sons of God (1 John 3:1-2)
4. Spared as the Son of the Father (Malachi 3:17)
3. THE PRACTICE OF SONSHIP
1. He is to Shine a Light  Before Men by Good Works (Matthew 5:16)
2. He is to Love Those Who Hate Him (Matthew 5:43-47)
3. He is to be Perfect According to the Perfection of the Father (Matthew 5:48; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Colossians 4:12; James 1:4)
4. THE PRICE OF SONSHIP
1. To Serve the Father in Secret (Matthew 6:1, 6, 16-18)
2. To Forego the Praises of Men (Matthew 6:2, 5)
3. To Wait for the Reward of the Father (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18)
5. THE PROVISION OF SONSHIP
1. Taking No Thought for your Life (Matthew 6:25-30)
2. Trusting in the Wisdom of the Father (Matthew 6:8, 31-32)
3. Seeking the Things of the Fathers (Matthew 6:33-34)
4. Expecting the Goodness of the Father (Matthew 7:7-11)

CONCLUSION:

• Do you know God as your Father?
• Do you enjoy God as your Father?

You Can Only Kill Me – “Jesse Boardman Hartwell worked for many years as a Baptist missionary in China from 1860 until his death in 1912. “One of the first fruits of Mr. Hartwell’s early ministry was a young man of the Tsung Family Village. So persistent was he in presenting the claims of Christianity to his unbelieving relatives and friends, that his clansmen felt disgraced at harboring so outspoken a follower of the foreign devils. He was untrue to the ancestors whom he no longer worshipped, and to his nation, for he was paying tribute to a foreign God. They took him to a cliff overhanging the sea and told him that unless he gave up the Jesus religion he would be thrown over and drowned. With a smile he said, ‘You can kill me but you can’t harm me. You will only be sending me home to my Father’s house.’ They decided to let him live a while longer since he was so happy despite their direst threats. He lived to a blessed old age and saw a handsome church building in his own village and many members of his family active in the service of the Lord.” –from Up From Zero in North China by Anna Seward Pruitt (p. 27-28).

Praying as a Child to the Father – “The Jewish law and the prophets know something of God as a Father. Occasional and imperfect, yet comforting glimpses they had of the great truth of God’s Fatherhood, and of our sonship. Christ lays the foundation of prayer deep and strong with this basic principle. The law of prayer, the right to pray, rests on sonship. ‘Our Father’ brings us into the closest relationship to God. Prayer is the child’s approach, the child’s plea, the child’s right. It is the law of prayer that looks up, that lifts up the eye to ‘Our Father which art in heaven.’ [Matthew 6:9] Our Father’s house is our home in Heaven. Heavenly citizenship and heavenly homesickness are in prayer. Prayer is an appeal from the lowness, from the emptiness, from the need of earth, to the highness, the fullness and to the all-sufficiency of Heaven. Prayer turns the eye and the heart heavenward with a child’s longings, a child’s trust and a child’s expectancy.” –from The Reality of Prayer by Edward M. Bounds (p.28-29).

Gerhard Tersteegen