We Are The Children Of God - Gen. 26:3-4.
What does it mean for us to be God’s children? Can we really relate to God as our Father if we haven’t had a human father in our life? How does God view us as His children and how do we matter to Him?
In this passage we’ll look at what it meant for the Hebrews to be God’s children and what that means for us. Over four hundred years after God spoke these words to Isaac, His servant Moses preached a message to the Hebrews reminding them of what it meant to be God’s children. This message will focus on four aspects of being children of God taken from that message recorded in the book of Deuteronomy.
God‘s people were chosen graciously. God chose Abraham and his family to be His people solely on the basis of his grace. Abraham wasn’t chosen to become a great nation and to have a people that would inherit and land of their own because God discovered something about Abraham that was more holy, moral or righteous than anyone else he lived around.
God chose Abraham and his family to be His people solely on the basis of his grace. Abraham wasn’t chosen to become a great nation and to have a people that would inherit and land of their own because God discovered something about Abraham that was more holy, moral or righteous than anyone else he lived around.Moreover, the Hebrews would go on to prove that they were no more righteous and holy than the nations they would remove from Canaan. They were God’s people by grace and grace alone.
Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. "Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Deut. 9:5-6.
God‘s people were valued highly. God’s people were important and valuable in His sight. They weren’t just pawns in a power struggle He was having with Satan. Nor were they simply regarded as servants who had no connection with their Covenant Lord. Their lives, struggles, pain, distress, oppression and sorrow meant something to their creator and redeemer.
God’s people were important and valuable in His sight. They weren’t just pawns in a power struggle He was having with Satan. Nor were they simply regarded as servants who had no connection with their Covenant Lord. Their lives, struggles, pain, distress, oppression and sorrow meant something to their creator and redeemer."For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. Deut. 4:32-35
But also their love, service, worship and obedience were important to Him along with their presence. God took them out of Egypt and brought them into the land of promise so that He could be present with them.
God‘s people were loved lavishly. God viewed His people with an infinite measure of unconditional, consistent, redemptive, affectionate love. His love toward them was so deep and profound that He was willing to make a unilateral commitment to bring and settle them in the land of promise. And it was out of His great love that God wanted to give them the supreme blessing of humanity which was taking them to Himself and being their God.
God viewed His people with an infinite measure of unconditional, consistent, redemptive, affectionate love. His love toward them was so deep and profound that He was willing to make a unilateral commitment to bring and settle them in the land of promise. And it was out of His great love that God wanted to give them the supreme blessing of humanity which was taking them to Himself and being their God."For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deut. 7:6-8.
God’s people were forgiven abundantly. The Hebrews like all other people sinned and their sin earned God’s eternal punishment. In fact their pattern of rebellion began soon after being released from oppressive slavery from Egypt. Time after time they rebelled against the Lord and time after time He listened to Moses who prayed for them asking the Lord not to wipe them out and the Lord listened to Moses.
The Hebrews like all other people sinned and their sin earned God’s eternal punishment. In fact their pattern of rebellion began soon after being released from oppressive slavery from Egypt. Time after time they rebelled against the Lord and time after time He listened to Moses who prayed for them asking the Lord not to wipe them out and the Lord listened to Moses."At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,' then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. "So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. And I prayed to the Lord, 'O Lord GOD, destroy not your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin Deut. 9:22-27.
Deut. 9:22-27.These were some of the privileges and blessings of being God’s people. And it was these privileges that were the keys to the lifestyle of holistic blessing the Hebrews were to enjoy in the land of promise if they obeyed God’s word.
To put it another way these were the privileges every Hebrew was born to. And these are the same blessings and privileges that God’s people have now even if you aren’t Jewish by birth.
The new covenant now defines God’s people in terms of our spiritual birth, not our natural ethnic birth. That’s Jesus surprised Nicodemus when He said that only those who’ve been born by the Spirit can understand and participate in the kingdom of God.
You are an object of God’s grace in that God chose you by grace to be among His people, He saved you by grace in Jesus Christ to the end that you are now and will always be in His favor.
in that God chose you by grace to be among His people, He saved you by grace in Jesus Christ to the end that you are now and will always be in His favor.You are also highly valued and of supreme importance in the sight of God. He knows you, your times, your life, your struggles, your cares, your pain, your distress, your anxiety, your fears and your trouble. Nothing happens in your life that He does not know and care deeply about.
and of supreme importance in the sight of God. He knows you, your times, your life, your struggles, your cares, your pain, your distress, your anxiety, your fears and your trouble. Nothing happens in your life that He does not know and care deeply about.Moreover, He values your presence. Your being with Him among His people is significant and important to Him. And it was so important that to secure your eternal presence He sent His Son to live a perfect life on your behalf, die a sacrificial death on your behalf and raised Christ from the dead so that you would know that He accepted the Son’s work of salvation for you.
Your being with Him among His people is significant and important to Him. And it was so important that to secure your eternal presence He sent His Son to live a perfect life on your behalf, die a sacrificial death on your behalf and raised Christ from the dead so that you would know that He accepted the Son’s work of salvation for you.You are loved. The consistent, unconditional, persistent, costly, redemptive, affectionate love of the infinite creator of the universe is directed toward you always. Now it was that love that God said was the motivation for giving the Hebrews the good land of Canaan.
The consistent, unconditional, persistent, costly, redemptive, affectionate love of the infinite creator of the universe is directed toward you always. Now it was that love that God said was the motivation for giving the Hebrews the good land of Canaan.You are forgiven forever. Even though we are still sinful in that though we don’t want to and strain against it, there are times when we break God’s word and disobey Him. And it’s during those times after we’ve sinned and we know we’ve grieved our God that we look to the cross for the assurance of the forgiveness of sin. The cross is our guarantee that all of our sins were once for all taken away.
Even though we are still sinful in that though we don’t want to and strain against it, there are times when we break God’s word and disobey Him. And it’s during those times after we’ve sinned and we know we’ve grieved our God that we look to the cross for the assurance of the forgiveness of sin. The cross is our guarantee that all of our sins were once for all taken away.Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16.
Hebrews 4:14-16.How do we respond to this? Once more let’s look at Deut to see how the Hebrews were to respond.
"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Deut. 10:12-15.
To Him Who Loves Us…
Pastor Lance
