Our natural identity is flawed—if it were not—we wouldn’t need redemption. In all of us is the issue of sin, which God through His eternal plan has chosen to lead us to the correction through Christ His Son. Consider all the words that describe man’s state before adoption and the antonyms that correspond to them. LOST, REDEMPTION; CONDEMNATION, DELIVERANCE; FORSAKEN, RESCUED; OPPRESSION, LIBERATION; SLAVERY, EMANCIPATED; IMPRISONED, and FREED. You don’t need Deliverance if you’re not Condemned. You don’t need Emancipated if you’re not enslaved. If you’re not in trouble—you don’t need a way out—you don’t need saved. But the truth is that all have sinned, all have been previously charged (Rom. 3:9) and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:32) and Paul is telling us that through Christ we have redemption (Eph. 1:7). 

Redemption is God’s way of setting you free from the debt—forgiving the debt through the payment made by the blood of Christ Jesus our Savior. And let’s be real, and let’s be honest—we not only have committed sin, but we have committed numerous sins in our lifetime. Sin is accruing a debt, it just keeps mounting up higher and higher and our sins are…

The question is are children born in sin, or do they learn sin? The truth is every one is responsible for their own conduct. Paul said, Col 3:25 “But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality”. Gal 6:7&8 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” Fact is that God made man upright “Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes” (Eccl. 7:29), and “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you” (Ezek. 28:15 ). Babies are beautiful and they bite, but until they learn biting is wrong, they aren’t guilty of sin! Sin happens when we go beyond God’s Word “Whoever transgresses(προάγω) and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9).  Listen in as we learn from God about children. . . 

We are saints—we are chosen, and we are the ones “Predestined For Adoption”. 
Paul wrote, “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He [a]made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:5–6). Before we get to the concept of adoption let’s take a moment and explain the term Predestined which has been so twisted and misused by the majority. The word “predestined” [προορίζω] is a verb and is defined by Thayer’s as : “to predetermine, decide beforehand”. Literally—from PRO which means to “before” and HORIDZO “to mark out the boundaries or limits”. It means just what it sounds like — to decide something to be – before it is.  Just like God decided that He was going to have a people for Himself and first that was Israel. The church exists because it was predestined – thought of in the mind of God before it was. Friends—this simply means God determined, decided ahead of time that the church would exist at some future point in time. Nothing more. 

Simple Example: A group of people are meeting in one family’s home as a church. Because of their evangelistic efforts they begin to outgrow the home where they meet. So, they predetermine—that is decided to build a building that is larger than they currently need. Why larger? Because the also predetermine that they will grow in number, that by sharing the gospel, others will obey and be added to their number. So, as they say, that my friends is that! There isn’t a supernatural, super-spiritualized, or mystical meaning attached – it just means God determined ahead of time as the New Living Translators put it, “God decided in advance”.

As for this lesson we want to focus on what God decided in advance…namely our “Adoption” and on the five basic truths. 1. Adoption is not cheap! 2. You cannot make someone adopt you. 3. Adoption is decidedly permanent. 4. God wants to adopt you, and 5. To the praise and the glory of His grace.  Join me in this study as we learn about who, when and how one is adopted into the family of God. . . 

We the question asked, is a person continuously saved, no matter what, which is what the majority of religious leaders promote, you’ll likely hear the cry, “Once Saved Always Saved”, which is their teaching of  religious error called “Continual Cleansing”. The bottom line—they say—you can’t loose your salvation, nor your place in heaven no matter how “bad” you are. One example: Sam Morris, deceased, once Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Stamford, Texas, wrote in his Bible tract, “Do A Christian’s Sins Damn His Soul?” “We take the position that a Christian’s sins do not damn his soul! . . . and all the sins he may commit from idolatry to murder will not make his soul in any more danger. . . . The way a man lives has nothing whatever to do with the salvation of his soul”. Another is Mr. Bill Foster a Baptist preacher in Louisville, KY who commented, “If I killed my wife and mother and debauched a thousand women I couldn’t go to hell—in fact, I couldn’t go to hell if I wanted to.”

If you have been taught this, you’re not alone, and you have been taught wrongly. Let’s examine the God breathed scripture (2 Tim. 3:16) on this subject a bit, and listen to what the Creator, and Almighty God has to say. Then, if what you have believed is not according to truth, then throw it out. If what you hear taught is according to God’s authoritative word, then you have no choice but to obey. 

God chose beforehand to build a church that would be filled with saints, who have become saints through obedience to the faith, by the blood of Christ. Therefore, every soul that obeyed the gospel becomes one of the chosen.  Great imagery of being chosen comes from the Old Testament. Israel was chosen by God. Listen to how Moses describes the selection of Israel in Deuteronomy 7. “6 “For you are a [a]holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. 7 The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of [b]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut. 7:6–8). 

Chosen because God wanted them. Not because they were great in number—not because they were particularly holy. Nothing Israel did warranted their deserving of being chosen—to be God’s special treasure. Imagine: A very short youth named Michael who has a strong passion for basketball: How broken hearted he would be—never chosen to play by his school’s team. . .because of his stature, and because of his perceived lack of ability. Now imagine Michael moves to new school and the team captain calls out his name. Chosen despite his stature—regardless of his ability—chosen just because they wanted him—they call out Michael, Michael come and join us. 

A million times more would the feeling be to know that God wants you to be in His family, so much more than that is how especially honored you should feel—knowing…

Moses said to the people, “Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged” (Deut. 1:21). Yet even after seeing the good land, taking from its fruit, and reporting, “‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us” (v.25), the people refused to go and possess the land and rebelled against the command of the Lord God. Their own brethren discouraged their hearts, by saying “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven…”, and Moses responded with, “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you. . .” (vs.26-29). We in the church have nothing to fear because God is on our side. 

The term saint, like many other Bible words, has been utterly perverted, mistaught , and misapplied by religious leaders who seek only their own glory. To make a short lesson of this, every baptized believer is a saint. Not because of anything they did, only that they obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ and were added to the body the church by the hand of God (Acts 2:38, 41, 42, 47) . That’s it in a nutshell. If you have been taught that to be a saint you must meet certain other qualifications like performing a miracle before, or after death. You have been deceived. If you were told that only certain church leaders can apply sainthood on an individual, you have been lied to. 

Such things we will study in this lesson. I hope you’ll listen with an open heart, and reason these things, and filter all teaching through the word of truth, which is the word of God (John 17:17). Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Let’s learn truth together. . . 

The greatest cause for religious error to date is lack of respect for Bible Authority.  Second to that are people who claim falsely that God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit speaks to them directly. This is untrue, and has cause tremendous confusion in the area of religion. I know of a couple who believe strongly that their religious leaders receive revelation from God, saying things like, “God just spoke to me”. Paul warned of these people who “pervert the gospel”, speaking apart from the word that was originally preach, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be [b]accursed” (Gal. 1:8).  In this lesson I will reason with you from the scriptures, why people who claim such are deceiving many, and why it is unreasonable to believe that God who by His, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2 Pet. 1:3), who has delivered the faith to the saints, “once for all” (Jude 3), why it is unreasonable to believe people who claim new revelation from Jesus. What would God need to add to a completed message, what is missing? What can man add to the inspired, God breathed word which completes us spiritually (2Tim. 3:16)? Answer, not a thing!

I hope, have a simple lesson on What Causes Division and Error and following up this evening with answer to the question Does God Speak to Man Today Apart from the Bible.  All these lesson are intended to be helpful for us – the church – so we know what commands we must obey, and continually learn how to answer everyone who asks us of the hope that is in us. Now as Paul wrote, if we are to be the Christian that pleases God and Christ we must always to His words. “1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain” (1 Cor. 15:1-2). What causes division and Error? I believe can be narrowed down to just three points — root causes if you will for religious error: Ignorance, which can be either from a lack of interest or study—or from a willfulness to remain in a comfortable state. There are some who are simply liars, for selfish gain, even some who lie to keep others from learning the truth and third is more common which is when people love the world more than God. . .

In that last message we discussed how Christians may be redlining people for various reasons such as differences in income, education, race, even physical appearance. In this message we will consider the fact that Christians will be redlined because of their love of Jesus, and their love for other souls. Being hated for your service in the Lord’s kingdom is far from uncommon, in fact Jesus made it very clear in many of His teachings. “18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. . . ” (John 15:18).