 and then we should okay the recording has started good morning everyone welcome to this class on our identity in Christ thank you for connecting to the class this morning we're going to pray then we're going to get started and I'm sure the others will join us in the meantime okay let's just take a moment to pray and we'll start I would like to pray could just pray for us together can I pray faster okay Rebecca go ahead thank you Lord thank you Lord thank you Lord hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh thank you father thank you Lord thank you master oh thank you Lord we come again upon you Lord Jesus yes Lord last night you save us and protect us from all enemy Lord yes father and give us a new day for your children Lord yes Lord oh Lord we glorify you Lord we lift your name high Lord yes father oh Lord thank you Jesus oh Lord I pray that fill it your spirit in our in our heart Lord give your prayer prayers in the sessions Lord through pastor we understood your scriptures for depth of our heart Lord yes Lord and open each spiritual it is ice and open each spirit is yes Lord that can we stand in your name Lord oh Lord make us according like you Lord Jesus yes father change our life Lord Jesus oh Lord we want your presence in the sessions Lord Jesus oh father you are great in your mercy Lord you're great in your oh peace Lord Jesus yes father oh Lord oh Lord I pray for the pastor Lord through pastor whatever we Lord we are understanding Lord Jesus yes yes Lord oh thank you father thank you master Lord oh Lord according oh Lord in his teachers Daniels Lord those who teach your words other they will sign like star Lord and those who make a gun may need to right place Lord like the stars forever and ever Lord or Lord like that we make our teachers and your students Lord Jesus yes father thank you for this new day Lord Jesus oh Lord we want your pleasure for bringing to ending Lord Jesus oh Lord give your wisdom and fill your wisdom Lord and guide us and lead us Lord Jesus because you are the good guidance and the good leader Lord oh thank you father thank you father for hearing our prayer Lord Jesus in Jesus name Lord I pray Lord Jesus amen amen amen amen amen amen thank you thank you thank you all right welcome everyone once again thank you for connecting good to see all of you it's a new new week and a new month and it's amazing how 2021 has gone we lost down to the last three months of this year so much has happened in 2021 and yeah and looking forward to these three months as we have two months of classes October November and then we break for December and then we pick up again in January just all of you who've joined us hope that August and September has the two months of college has been enriching meaningful something that's blessed your life spiritually and your walk with God so yeah thank you for being part of this online college I know it's not the same as sitting in face-to-face and interacting but at least it's something that we can use this platform connect from different places and study the word of God together and yeah just grateful that we're able to do this all right we've been in this wonderful journey in the word of God looking at the revelation of our identity in Christ and this is such an amazing truth in the scriptures and like we said on the very beginning the Lord Jesus said that this revelation will come you know we read in John 14 verses 19 and 20 he said in that day you will know that you are in me and I am in you so he spoke ahead of time he said look at revelation is coming and sure enough it's amazing how God touched the life of a man named Saul who was actually a persecutor he was against the church against Christ himself and God just touched him turned his life all around and through him primarily and of course through other apostles as well we have written scriptures the episodes in which we see the unfolding of this amazing revelation that we are in Christ Christ is in us and what that means how it changes our lives each of us because we are in Christ and so this course has attempted to to put this this this revelation in a kind of a systematic way so that we can look at it piece by piece and digest it take it in and let it let the word of God transform us and so that we can be conformed to what God wants us to be and the main important the important thing for all of us is to understand this is my identity in Christ this is my inheritance in Christ and then so therefore this is how I'm going to live my life from that truth now we have to admit that a lot of the church God's people they're good people they're well-meaning people they love Jesus but when we don't understand when you don't receive this revelation then it's very difficult to to live out of that you know so it's almost like among believers we seem to have those who are trying to who've understood enough trying to live out of that revelation who we are in Christ and then there are those who walk as mere men they walk they're saved but they're still living just you know confined to the natural and so sometimes it's very difficult to as those of us are trying to live out about this truth of identification who we are in Christ and say this is who we are in Christ and let's try to live that way let's live like Jesus and then there are others you know they are they love Jesus they're born again but because they've not received that spiritual understanding they end up living as just mere people normal natural people and so then there's this it's almost like a two different kinds of people trying to you know be part of the body it is difficult but then we just have to continue and then we share the truth with people help them understand look this is what the Bible says but like the Apostle Paul said the eyes of our understanding must be enlightened so that we may know you may know him that we may know the hope of his calling and that we may know the riches of his inheritance that he's given to us right so we need the eyes of our understanding our spiritual understanding to be enlightened so that we can receive this revelation and then begin to live out of that so in as much as you know we have learned this and we will continue learning pass it on try to share it with others and teach it to others that they may also know the truth of our identity in Christ and our inheritance in Christ and encourage others to live out of this this truth of what God has done for us in Christ today we're going to go to the next chapter which we're going to focus on the fact that we are children of God and because we are children the Bible says we now become heirs of God hairs of God and joint hairs with Christ and so we want to understand what does that mean if you are in hair of God and you are a joint hair with Christ you know what does it mean and how do I live out of that because it's very powerful this is spiritual truth it is not fantasy it is not just some imagination this is truth God says you are his son you are his daughter that means you are somebody and he says because you're my son you're my daughter I've made you my heir and I made you a joint hair with Jesus Christ that's amazing and it's what we want to kind of delve into that find out what that means and how do we live out of that practically right so we've put out the PDF on the coursework you can you can take it from there I'm just going to share it for us and we will get started so we're going to talk about the fact that we are children of God and consequently you know what what happens because of that now the truth that we are the children of God is something we have all embraced we all know it's not new to us so we just you know quickly read a few passages Galatians 3 26 and John chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 could somebody read both of these passages for us please these are familiar verses Galatians chapter 3 verse 26 for you are all sons of God through faith and Christ Jesus John chapter 1 was 12 to 13 but as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood not of the will of the flesh not of the will of man but of God so we see this truth brought out for us in many places but the Bible repeatedly tells us we are children of God we are sons and daughters of God and it has happened through faith right so everywhere it says you know through faith through those who believe to those who have received him right so we become children of God by faith in Christ Jesus by receiving him and we also see that God planned this for us way ahead of time and Ephesians 1 verse 4 and 5 could somebody read that for us please Ephesians 1 4 and 5 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ himself according to the good pleasure of his will thank you so he chose us in him he chose us in Christ and this he did before the foundation of the world we saw this earlier he did before the foundation of the world and he predestined us to adoption he predestined us to adoption by Jesus Christ as as his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ so God had thought of this ahead of time he had planned this ahead of time he chose us in him we're gonna look at that a little bit later he chose us in him right so these scriptures you know are teaching us that God had actually planned to have a family and way ahead of time even before the foundation of the world this was in his heart to have people who will belong to him as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ and so this was something he predestined we will talk about these these words chosen predestination we talk about those words so he he preplanned these things and this was according to the good pleasure of his well that means this was what he was pleased to do this was something's really excited about he was really pleased to do this right and we will come to these additional scriptures here that that I've listed here let me see here okay so there are several scriptures which we are going to read as we go along but let's kind of start breaking it down right so first of all we read here in Ephesians why he predestined us to adoption right so we want to just kind of dwell on that word we are adopted as sons and daughters right so we are children of God but the Bible also says we are adopted as sons and daughters we are he predestined us to adoption so once again we see this whole idea on I shouldn't say idea but this truth of adoption mentioned to us in several places we read it in Ephesians 1 5 he predestined us to adoption we will read it in two more passages could somebody read Romans 8 14 through 17 please for as many as are led by the spirit of God these are sons of God for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out above father the spirit himself is witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then as as of God and joint as with Christ if indeed we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together amen and also Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 through 7 it kind of repeats the same truth could we read it please but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons and because you are sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out above father therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an air of God through Christ hmm so let me look at these passages they're pretty much parallel Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 through 7 Romans 8 14 to 7 they kind of say the same thing or similar things but let's let's kind of you know look into it piece by piece the first thing is we find this word adoption repeated right in Ephesians 1 5 or in Romans 8 14 through 17 as well as here he says we have received adoption the adoption right so the idea or the truth of what adoption is God has brought us from being orphaned or abandoned or fatherless into his own family where he becomes our heavenly father and also in adoption we are brought into something that we did not have before at all so now the earlier in in John 1 verse 12 we saw that we were born of him born of God so and so the Bible uses both terms one of being born of God one of being adopted by God right it uses both terms so you said well how can you be born of God at the same time be adopted of God well God is just using our language to communicate certain truth to us all right so we don't we shouldn't get too worried about the language itself but understand the meaning of what God is trying to tell us so on the one hand he says you have been born into my family that means we have his life and nature in us we are we are born of him but at the time he says I have adopted you that means he's saying look I have become your father and I have brought you into something you never had before so from that sense we understand adoption as well that God has been so gracious to us that he's brought us into something we would never have had access to if he had not done it that's the whole point of adoption somebody extends their goodness to us and we are brought into it that's what God did he adopted us as his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ and therefore that's the first thing the second thing we see in these scripture texts is that he's given us the spirit of adoption so the Holy Spirit has many titles God the Holy Spirit has many titles and one of his titles is he's the spirit of adoption or some versions would say the spirit of sonship right that means he's the one who's brought us into the family of God he's a spirit of adoption and because of his presence in our hearts we become sons and daughters of God and he is the one who gives us the ability to call God our Father and he is the one who gives us the conviction that we are children of God so the spirit bears witness the spirit is testifying he's giving us that conviction he's giving us that word a testimony in our spirit we are sons and daughters of God so if somebody says you know how do you know you're a son and daughter of God well there's a conviction in my heart but that conviction comes from the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of sonship so we are children of God that is we are born of him and into his family we're also adopted his sons and daughters of God we are brought into something that we never had the other thing I want to point out from these verses is that this adoption does a wave it's something in both Romans 8 and Galatians 4 we see this thing about the spirit of bondage to fear the spirit of slavery here again in Galatians 4 he says you're no longer a slave you are no longer a slave so what we are seeing is God is saying look I've adopted you into my family I've given you the Holy Spirit as the spirit of adoption he gives you the ability to cry out Abba father to call God your father he is the one who's given you the conviction that you are a son and daughter of God therefore do not see yourself as a slave do not behave like a slave do not think of yourself like a slave meaning the idea is think of yourself as a son and a daughter of God not as somebody who does not belong not as somebody who is you know who think think about a you know a servant who's you know in contrast a servant and a son and a daughter a son and daughter has that sense of belonging a servant doesn't have that sense of belonging a son and daughter you know feels welcomed before the father servant not like that you know so God says I want you to therefore behave or live like a son or daughter not like a servant a slave so God himself and we're seeing it in both these passages Romans 8 and Galatians 4 he says I want you to change your whole dynamic and how you relate to God you relate to God as a son and daughter because you are son and daughter and don't behave like a fearful servant you know so you have not received the spirit of slave bondage or slavery to go into fear you're not you're not here to be in that morbid fear of God but we are here to behave like sons and daughters of God and God is our father and we call them our father and we have that that that beautiful relationship as a son and daughter with Almighty God so that's what he wants for us and he's done this for us in Christ through Christ that means he's saying look this was my plan and now that you are in Christ you are my son you're my daughter and I want you to behave like that behave like that right so being adopted in the God's family now gives us this wonderful sense of belonging you know I I belong you belong to the family of God you belong to God and God is your Abba father and you can relate to him not as a fearful slave but as a you know loved son and daughter of God and in connection you know to being a child of God being a adopted son and daughter of God there are all these other things that we are going to examine the next truth we see here now okay let me pause at this moment just to make sure everybody is with me okay her answer yeah okay now I see that Divya has a question based on last week's session on freedom in Christ oh we were supposed to answer some questions okay yes thanks for reminding Divya I I just remembered now last week towards the end of the session we kind of rushed through a few questions I okay and I didn't have time to respond to some of these questions I forgot yeah let's take it up let's finish up those questions before we go forward go ahead Divya thank you Buster it's regarding the feast and the freedom from those rituals and feast that Jews used to do so I just posed that question okay can we embrace the spirit behind the feast as some of them are given for remembrance of God's goodness and faithfulness towards these reliance also why is that even God is very specific about the appointed times in the New Testament for example Jesus died during the Passover feast the Holy Spirit came upon believers on the day of Pentecost okay all right so let's answer the second part of your question first and then we look at the first part so all that God gave his people in the Old Testament were a type and a shadow of the reality right so many things that we see so even these feasts the feast of Passover the first fruits the event feast of Pentecost these were a shadow a figure of of the reality which is Jesus Christ so when Christ came he not only resembled that shadow that means Christ for example said first question is 55 says Christ is our Passover Lamb sacrificed for us so he came and saw me resembling what the people understood but of course he was much more than that he was the reality of what all and that's why you find that God very intentionally did certain things the Jesus as a Passover lamb was killed at the same time he died on the cross at the same time as the sacrificial lamb would be killed he rose up on the day of the first fruits three days after the Passover intentionally right God planted he of course God could have raised him up within 30 less than 30 minutes that's not it's not a big deal for God but he intensely waited for the day of the first fruits and he rose up there so he was saying this is the real you know first fruits and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost 50 days after the first fruits that's why it's called Pentecost again God timed it now God could have poured out the Holy Spirit any you know anytime before or after but he chose to do it that way because saying this is that this is the reality everything else all those feasts are only pointing to the reality they're only shadows of the reality so God intentionally did that right so there's there's a lot of purpose and intentionality behind those those those works of God right so that's how God was very specific you know at the same time it's amazing that Christ was sacrificed he was resurrected and the Holy Spirit was poured out the church was born now the first part of the question is can we embrace the spirit behind the feast yes in the sense that you know we still need to study about the Passover why because that is that gives us understanding about the real Passover which is Jesus Christ so we go to Exodus 12 you read about it and say this is what happened on the first night of the Passover and that throws a lot of meaning when the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 5 that Christ is our Passover right and so in that sense yes we embraced you know the spirit and the meaning of what is being said but that does not mean that today we need to keep the the feast of the Passover or we that we do what the the Jews did you know in preparation for the fast Passover they had the you know seven days of unleavened bread and then they you know they cleaned house and they took everything out and then they had the they killed a Passover lamb and now you know if you want to go through it just for the sake of an experience or learning something you know that's this that's fine but to keep it as a ritual or to keep it as a feast thinking that it's going to give us something some spiritual benefit or maybe it will help us understand a little bit more about Christ a Passover maybe from that point of view you could you know engage you do it once or something just for the experience but we don't do it because it's going to make us any different spiritually in the sense it's going to make me any closer to God or something like that right so that's what we have to be careful the reason I say that is because you know in as much as we are as zealous about the Jewish people that they are God's chosen the Bible tells us to pray for Israel and all of that we shouldn't get pulled in to becoming Jews and that's in some in the church there is the segment of Christians or who are so passionate about Jews they begin to embrace everything about Judaism as though that's going to make us real Christians the Bible is moving the other way you know the New Testament is moving the other way it's moving out of Judaism into freedom in Christ and sadly today a lot of Christians are moving into Judaism thinking that's going to give us great closeness to Jesus Christ and that's not true yeah they're moving the they're actually moving opposite to the move the Holy Spirit you know they start practicing wanting to keep a lot of the Jewish traditions blow the shofar and you know light the minora and all I mean what is what are you doing you know the Holy Spirit is moving the other direction and you're saying I got to go back to Judaism you know to imitate some of those those practices why you know so if that's the motivation I would say avoid it don't get caught up in the that you know that and that's happening in certain part of Christianity you do see that happening I would say why why are you doing it because the Bible is telling us to go the other direction but thank you thank you best yeah thank you so much okay all right good any other questions that we didn't answer in the end of last class thanks for reminding me I forgot about those questions any questions from last week's class on being free in Christ okay so Wilma one if any questions come you're always welcome to ask anytime okay so you're with me so far as we start talking about us being children of God and sons and daughters adopted into God's family and yeah so we adopted into God's family that's that's what we've covered so far so let that truth sink into your heart I am a son I'm a daughter I've been adopted into the family of God the spirit of sonship is in me he is my he's only gives me the conviction that I am a son and daughter of God and God does not want me to behave like a slave right so let me just mention a little bit here so in one sense we are servants of God Paul calls himself a born servant of God and we understand we're servants of God but we are not these fearful we don't behave like fearful slaves of God so we have the understanding that we are sons and daughters of God and yet you know the times we call ourselves servants of God what does that mean I mentioned willfully choosing to serve God but we are not servants of God in the sense of us you know being so fearful of God and not having that sense of belonging no that's not who we are we are sons and daughters we know we belong God is our heavenly Father and because we are serving him that's when we refer to ourselves as servants of God or born servants of God because we willfully choosing to do what he wants us to do okay so don't get confused by those terms now another aspect of being a child of God is to know that we were chosen so he chose us right and we see this this truth brought out in Romans the 8th chapter in Romans 8 and verse 29 it says for those whom he foreknew that means he knew beforehand he chose us beforehand so I paralleled he chose us with he foreknew right to for new men's he knew before time so the Bible is saying that we've been chosen by God just as he chose us in him that is in Christ even before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love that means he chose us to be that we would be before him in love be loved by him he chose us that we would be loved by him right now so that's an amazing thought that we've been chosen by God so the word chosen literally simply means to you know God picked us out you're that special person right and you're the one whom I'm going to put my favor my love on and so you're chosen by God so in one sense your hand picked and yet at the same time while we have this understanding that we had chosen we also understand that you know God gave the invitation to everybody right so because the Bible says many are called right so the invitation went out to the whole wide world for God so loved the world that he gave his only son so the gospel is available for everybody and those who will say yes to the gospel who say yes to Jesus they become what the Bible refers to as a chosen one right so the invitation is for everybody those who say yes to that invitation become chosen once that means we become the people God says look you're those people I've picked out but really that picking out was our response to his invitation he invited us and we said yes so when the scripture says you know John 15 16 you didn't choose me but I chose you and ordained you remember that God's choosing of us was not a partial arbitrary indiscriminate thing that he would favor one and not favor the other that's not God but God's choosing simply means he extended the invitation to everybody the whole wide world and there were some who said yes to that invitation they became the chosen ones but God foreknew who those people would be he knew that you know each one of us here would say yes to that invitation and we become those chosen ones okay so I'm trying to give both sides to this it might seem confusing but we need to understand God's choosing with respect to our individual response our individual yes to his calling right so God's choosing is not an indiscriminate arbitrary partial call on certain individuals that's not what it is but it is an invitation that was given to everybody and those who said yes they become whom God calls as the chosen ones and he knew foreknew he knew ahead of time who these people would be and his plan was that these people who become his chosen ones would be the ones who would have this privilege of experiencing his love be before him in love but today you can say I am a chosen one because you said yes to the gospel and God said therefore you are a chosen one you're chosen to be loved by him so James chapter 2 verse 5 again kind of brings out this thought that has not got chosen the poor of this world so when God chooses us he doesn't choose us based on our you know our natural standing on earth he just the invitations for everybody whether they are rich or poor educated uneducated whatever which were part of the world whichever nationality he just everybody's welcome and even the poor of this world have this wonderful privilege of being chosen once and then they become they become heirs of the kingdom which we will talk about shortly okay so understand that you are a chosen one of God and you're chosen to be before him in love chosen to be loved so you can say God zeroed in on me and said enjoy my love enjoy my love being poured out on your life now because we are children sons and daughters chosen God had a plan for these people whom he would call as sons and daughters whom he would refer to as chosen people so we've chosen in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blame without him before him in love but he also chose us so that he would predestine us for something so you find this word predestined predestined predestined means to plan ahead of time to plan the pre-plan so God planned ahead of time that all his sons and daughters all who would be his children all who would be adopted in his family all who would be these chosen people whom he foreknew he predestined that we would be conformed to the image of his son so what it got predestined us for that we would be conformed to the image of his son he predestined us according to the purpose of him he predestined us for his purpose he predestined us to adoption so what it got pre-planned for you and me he said i'm pre-planning this for you you'll be adopted in my family you will be joining with me in my purpose according to his purpose and i'm pre-planning that you will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ so God pre-planned this for you and me so those of us who have said yes to Jesus we the call was given to many but few became the chosen we became the chosen to be loved by God and God said i got a plan for you i'm predestining you to be my son and daughter i'm predestining you to my purpose that means you're joining with God in his purposes that that are being unfolded on the earth and i'm predestining you to be conformed to the image of my son that means i'm going to work in you as a son and daughter i'm going to work in you to carry out my purpose i'm going to work in you to change you and conform you to become like Jesus so predestined you find this word predestined here in both these passages so we are predestined to adoption to his purpose to the image of his son so to be predestined gives us a sense of eternal destiny that means God is saying look there's there's this eternal plan that i'm working through you so as you're here today or you know which part of the world you are there's something that God predestined which is working in you that means he planned ahead of time and that's it that plan is working through your life and that plan is ultimately you and i will be conformed to the image of his son so there's this eternal purpose of God at work in your life yes there is the immediate things that you and i are doing you know we have different things purposes and all of that but overarching all of that is God saying my ultimate plan for you is for you to be like Jesus that means all the smaller plans that i had worked in our lives are serving towards this bigger plan to make us like Jesus so while God does have his purpose working in each of us as individuals that individual purpose is serving towards this greater purpose of making each of us like Jesus Christ i'm going to pause here any questions on this before we go for a break you all with me so far go ahead to be a question please yes pastor thank you uh this is regarding the free will of man and how the predestination of God works through it so i was just thinking about in exodus when it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart i'm not sure whether we can uh compare the salvation and all the blessings of salvation to this but just if we take that particular instance so is it like God is overriding the free will of Pharaoh yeah so you know when you look at um God's dealing with Pharaoh you see both you see in the book of exodus and i will i will put this on the chat i'll just pull it out um that the scriptures say pharaoh hardened his heart and i'll give you the scriptures so pharaoh hardened his own heart he chose to say no so when moses came say let my people go pharaoh chose to say no so he hardened his own heart then the scriptures say say god hardened pharaoh's heart now when the bible uses this language god hardened pharaoh's heart attributing something like this to god it has to be understood in the light of the rest of scripture meaning god it has to be understood as god a loving pharaoh to harden his own heart not causing pharaoh to become a hard person for instance when you go to roman chapter one you read the same similar thing where it says you know man although he knew god he chose not to give glory to god but he became foolish in his thinking and he changed the glory of god into you know corruptible things like animals and peace and all that and then it says god gave them up to their own ways of thinking to their vile passions so god gave them up to a corrupt and debased mind so god didn't cause them to become like that he let them go that way he gave them up he let them go so look if that's what you're choosing i'll let you go so when you look back in the old testament and we see initial scriptures are saying pharaoh hardened his heart and then god hardened his heart it's like what actually happened well pharaoh chose to harden his heart god let him continue that way and so in that sense god hardened his heart not that god made him that way but god let him go that way so paul addresses this like we i think we spoke about it somewhere in romance after nine you know he addresses the same thing like uh does that mean pharaoh could turn around and say god you hardened my heart and you carried out your purpose which was to get your people out so why should i be judged if there was any person who could use that argument it would be judas is scared it he could turn around to god and say god i betrayed jesus but if i had not betrayed jesus jesus would not have gone to the cross and the world would not have been saved so my sin actually brought something good and god you predestined me to be the sinner for the salvation of the whole world so i have to be the greatest savior now could judas raise an argument like that of course not because it was not god even that god spoke ahead of time about judas that judas would betray jesus his speaking ahead of time did not predetermine his action it was a foretelling of his action but the choice judas made was entirely his choice but god threw it carried out his purpose that does not absolve judas of the fact that he did something wrong similarly to pharaoh pharaoh hardened his heart but through that god fulfilled his purpose and that does not absolve pharaoh of the fact that he was responsible for hardening his own heart against god and he would face the consequences of that okay okay thank you best it's very clear thank you okay come okay uh that's a very interesting question we will take a break now and come back and continue just looking at this old truth of us being children of god and what god has planned as children for us okay take a quick break we'll be back in 10 minutes thank you