ONE SON - LESSON 5

                              BY J W LUMAN

                    THIS SON IS A FINISHED WORK

We are dealing with THE RESTORATION. Turn with me to Ephesians.
This Son of God. This Son that we are in Christ Jesus, the Son who
is the result of the finished work of Christ. You know, that word
"finished" is just growing in my soul. "Finished, completed, summed
up". It is a finished work that He is revealing in us. Now, in us,
it is ongoing. In Him it is finished. In Christ it is finished in
that He is fully raised up and in Him dwells all the fullness of
God. It is finished. He stands as the very person and very
expression of all truth and wisdom and knowledge and all power and
all that the Father Himself is. Christ stands as the expression of
that. And you and I are totally and completely in Him. We are there
by the New Birth. We are there through baptism. We are there
through regeneration. We are there through the operation of the
Spirit of God. We are in Christ Jesus, and He is fully in us. But
all that He is in us is progressively being revealed in us,
imparted in us by the very ministry of the Holy Spirit. So much so
that there is a transformation taking place, being transformed into
His very image. 

                   TRANSFORMED INTO HIS IMAGE

Old-time Pentecost got hold of that to a degree and called it
"sanctification"; but, unfortunately, they began to focus it upon
outward deeds and the doing of things, rather than the indwelling
work of the Son Himself. He that sanctifies and they that are
sanctified are all of One, the Scripture says. It is He that is
sanctified, and we who are being sanctified, and we are all of One,
one Seed, of one kind, and one Father. I just  want you to know
that the work that is finished in Christ is ongoing in you. You
have a finished work being unfolded in you, a finished work being
revealed in you, that we may grow up into Him Who is the Head in
all things. All that He is being revealed in you, if you are
following on to know Him, if you are following after the Spirit of
God. So, this Son we have been talking about, we can say in the
very absolute, it is Son that we are, but we can also say just as
absolutely, it is the Son that we are becoming, in that we are
being transformed into His image. It is the Son that we are,
because we are in Him and He is in us; but it is the Son that we
are becoming and shall be, because all that He is, is being
unfolded and worked out in us. This is not a Son in theory. This is
a Son in practice. It is not a Son we are learning about. This is
a Son into Whom we are being transformed to become the expression
of Him in the earth. This truth which is Christ, this mystery which
is Christ is not a series of sermons or lectures or teachings. It
is a Person being revealed in you by the Holy Spirit, so much so
that you begin to live as the Body and the fullness and the
expression of that indwelling Person. We are not dealing with
sermons. We are dealing with TRUTH. We are not dealing with
lessons, we are dealing with LIFE. We are not dealing with
doctrines, we are dealing with manner of living. What am I saying?
I am saying it is getting off the page and into the heart, getting
out of terminology and into the nature and character and
manifestation. He is not a sermon we preach, but a life we live. He
is not a religion we have, but He is the Son Whose Body we are. 

I remember one time talking to a Moslem, and this person was a very
foolish person and a very stupid man; because he had converted from
Christianity to Islam, and Christianity at its worst is better than
Islam. But, he was a very stupid man and I had very little patience
for him because he was stupid. He sat down and immediately he began
to challenge me on the issues of Christianity. I listened to him,
and he brought out all kinds of good points. He brought out every
failure of every church that he had been part of. He brought out
all of those points and all those things, and then he said, "You
just tell me now. You claim there is one God." I said, "Yes". He
said, "Well, so do we. You claim there is one Son." I said, "Yes".
"and that the church is one church." I said, "Yes". He said, "Then
how come there are so many different denominations?" I said,
"Because in the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, ignorance reigns
supremely, and we have need of the truth." But, he went on to quiz
me and he happened to mention the term religion. "Our religion,
therefore, seeks to serve the same God as your religion." I said,
"No. Because I do not have a religion. I am not a religious person,
and I do not have a religion. I have a Life, and my life is a
Person, and He dwells in me through His eternal Spirit, and all of
your Koran and all of your teachings, and all of your readings do
not promise you that, nor can they." 

I do not have time to argue religion with ignorant and stupid
folks. You think those are nasty names. They are not. They are
Scriptural names. It is a state of mind and a state of condition of
a corrupt mind, and resists the truth of God that is in Christ
Jesus, and it is stupid and foolish to do that. We do not have time
to argue religions, but to declare THE LIFE that we have, and the
Son that we are; and you do that by the living of His life, not
just by talking about it and arguing Scriptures and what doctrine
is or is not right. I am telling you that God is after a
manifestation of that Son in Whom He has placed us, that Son Who is
in us, that Son Whom the Holy Spirit comes to declare; and it is
through that Son being manifested in us as the finished work; that
Son being revealed in us as the One forgiven, and the One restored,
and the One reconciled, that we shall begin to live as His Body,
forgiven, restored and reconciled, and as His Body begin to
minister forgiveness, restoration and reconciliation unto the
complete and full coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 



                     THE WILL OF GOD 
 
Let us re-read this portion here, because we are dealing with
something now. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, (declaring where we are now in Christ Jesus),
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy, without blame, before Him in love."
So, now, he declares that we are there now, because God saw us
there from the very beginning, and chose us there from the very
beginning. Then, he goes on, and we just touched on it in the last
lesson, and will continue here. All of this is because of a
predestined plan and will that God has conceived in Himself.
"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ
to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." God,
having in His own Heart a will, a desire, more than a desire - a
will. The will of God is more than a desire. The will of God is a
projection and an extension of Himself. More than just a desire
with Him, it is an expression, an extension, a projection of
Himself without - the will of God moves all things. At the will of
God every knee bows. At the will of God every tongue confesses. At
the will of God Hell is moved out of its place, if you will pardon
the expression. At the will of God Heaven shakes. At the will of
God things happen. God's will was for sons. 

                 THE INCREASE OF ONE SON

We will see what kind of sons. It was for sons in the exact
likeness, sons in the exactness of His image. It was the will of
God to have an increase of this one Son, Who is the expression of
the Father Himself, and it is the Father's desire to have an
increase of that One Son, that One Son increased many times over.
When I say "increase", I am not talking about sons that are other
than Him, but sons that are the very increase of Him. Still One
Son. This is the will of God, and because of that will, His Plan
was formulated, and He chose us in that Son; and because He did
that through the working of Christ at the Cross, He brought us
forth and placed us in that Son. Now, that we might, (to go on a
little farther), that we might be to the praise, that is the
shining forth, the speaking forth, the speaking forth of His will,
the praise of His will, that we might be the expression of His
will, the showing of His will. He hath sent the Holy Spirit that
the Spirit may work in us through revealing the Son in us, that He
may work in us all that this Son in Whom we dwell now is. So that,
as He reveals the Son in us and we are conformed to the image of
that Son, we actually begin to become the expression in the earth
of the will of God. You see, it ends with us becoming the
expression. 

Look at it here. "To the praise", that is the showing forth, the
setting forth, the showing of it. "To the praise of His will".
Verse 14, "Who is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession..." "Until the redemption",
and that means the full redemption. That means the full growing up,
the full coming forth into the very image of Jesus Christ. "...unto
the redemption of the purchased possession..." and what is that?
Unto what? "...Unto the praise of His glory and the showing forth
of His good will, the good pleasure of His will." There is
something that is important here and that is the term "adoption"
and "predestination". "Having predestinated us unto the adoption." 
                    THE EXPRESSION OF HIS WILL

How is it that we become the praise, the shining forth of His
glory? How is it that we become the expression of the good pleasure
of His will which He purposed in Himself? The Scriptures say that.
"Which He purposed in Himself." Verse 11, "In whom we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him
Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." Look
over here in chapter 3 verse 10 of Ephesians, "To the intent that
now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be
made known by the church..." Who is going to manifest this?
"...might be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God
according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus
the Lord." That which He has purposed in Himself, that which He has
set forth in Christ, we are to be the expression of it in the
earth, and before the very Heavens and principalities and powers.
All of this planned and purposed in God, all of it set into
operation through Christ, and all of it revealed in us and worked
out in us by the ministry of the Holy Spirit if we walk in the
Spirit, and resist not the dealings of God by His Spirit. There is
so much of Him that is yet to be revealed; that, in that we may
become transformed within to become the expression within and
without. But, how is this worked out in us? How is this worked out
to the degree, how does this forming take place? How are we
conformed? How are we transformed? What is this working in us that
we become the expression of Him? It has to do with ADOPTION.

                           ADOPTION

"...having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus
Christ, Who Himself..." Verse 5 and verse 11, "...being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all
things according to the counsel of His will." Turn to Romans 8. Let
us follow through on this business of adoption. What does it mean
to be adopted? What is the process of this business of being
adopted? Romans 8:14, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God." Throughout your Bible you will find that
term, "as many as". God never deals with numbers. He deals with "as
many as". It does not say, "As many as 10", or "as many as 15".
See, this is the way Abraham argued with God. "How about 50?" "OK".
Then, "How about 30?" "OK". Then, "How about 15?" Then "How about
5?" Do you understand what I am saying? Because God is dealing with
"as many as". He does not care about your numbers. Christ is not
measured by numbers, but by the measure of the Spirit. But there is
a condition. It is "as many as". "As many as are led..." We do not
have time at this point to talk about what it means to be led by
the Spirit, but I will make a suggestion to you. "When He, the
Spirit of Truth, is come, He will lead you into all truth..." 
 
Scripture cannot be reversed, and does not deny itself, nor does it
contradict itself. Throughout the teachings of the New Testament we
are given to understand that the true leading of the Spirit has to
do only with truth. The true leading of the Spirit has to do only
with truth. He leads only in truth. Most who assume they have been
led by the Spirit, have not been led by the Spirit at all. All who
are in Christ have been called by the Spirit. They have been sought
out and found and called by the Spirit. They have responded to a
Spirit calling, and have found themselves in Christ Jesus; but that
is not being led. We have many who are in Christ who find the
Spirit directing them daily in matters concerning daily life and
Spiritual warfare. The Spirit will prompt one to pray at this time.
The Spirit will prompt one to go here or go there, or do this or do
that, drive down the road three blocks, stop, knock on the door
that has the white shutters on the third window from the left-hand
corner. He is directing, you see. And, when the person comes to the
door, say thus and so forth. But that is not leading. Now, I am
just suggesting this to you, but that is not leading. That is being
directed by the Spirit of God. This is not a play on words. There
is a very essential difference here. The Holy Spirit can direct a
child. He can direct a babe. He can direct an immature one, and He
can call a sinner. But He can only lead a son, and there is a
tremendous world of difference. 

                       ONLY SONS CAN BE LED

In directing a child, "do this, do that, go here, go there". Yes,
that requires obedience. Certainly it does. To call one who is
unsaved to the Lord, (no man can come except the Spirit call or
draw), requires obedience. But they that are led are sons. Only
sons can be led, because leading has to do with truth. That is
essential to our lesson here, because adoption is not dealing with
born ones. Adoption is not dealing with new birth. Adoption is not
dealing with you and I getting into Christ. It is not dealing with
you and I being planned in Christ, or chosen in Christ. Adoption is
the operation of the Spirit whereby you and I are conformed into
the image of the Son Himself. Adoption is an ongoing work of the
Holy Spirit whereby Christ is being formed in you. Adoption is a
work of the Holy Spirit leading a believer who is becoming in
understanding and knowledge, a son. That is the only difference
between a son and a child. A son understands and a child does not.
They are both born. "Child" in your Bible and in the Greek is "born
one"; but sons are "maturing ones". There is a difference, not only
in the definition, but in the reality. The Spirit of God is given
liberty in the life of a son to lead him where he has never been
before; and, before the Spirit can lead you, He has to have been
there. So the Spirit leads you where He has already been. And "the
Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God"; and that
is where He leads you. He will only lead you where He has already
been. He goes before you. That is what leading you means. It is not
telling you to go somewhere. It is leading you as one who goes
before and leads you into that place that only He knows about. That
has to do with the fullness of the life of Jesus Christ. There are
many believers assuming that they are being led of the Spirit, and
they are not being led of the Spirit. They are being dealt with by
the Spirit, called by the Spirit, directed by the Spirit; but they
are not being led of the Spirit. 

For the Spirit leads you into all truth. That is His  work
connected with leading and guiding. Yes, it is the most familiar
work of the Holy Spirit. It is the most intimate work of the Holy
Spirit. I trust that you can see that. So, who are sons? Ten or
twelve. No! Thirty or forty? No! Who are sons? "As many as are
led." Not as many as are born, but as many as are led. Who are
born? Children of God. Born ones. Precious ones. But, now we are
dealing with sons. Now we are dealing with an operation of the
Spirit whereby you are conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
"For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, 'Abba
Father'." "Whereby we cry 'Abba Father'." Galatians 4. Surely you
have noticed this. Let us bring it into the light that we are
dealing with now. 

                         AS LONG AS...

"Now, I say, that the heir as long as..." Over here in the other
place "as many as". "As long as" is just like "as many as". It does
not say two weeks, three weeks, ten days, ten months, fifty years.
No. "As long as". How long are you going to make me sit here? As
long as. We would love to have a time. Your children..."Go to your
room for an hour". "OK" Try "Go to your room for as long as". That
immediately means I have to change to get out of my room, not just
wait out a clock. How long? Well, until you have been saved a year.
No! Until you have walked this way twenty five years. No! "As long
as". "An heir as long as he is a child..." Immature, without the
word, one without understanding, one without knowledge, one who is
not led. "...A child differeth nothing from a servant." My, how,
years back, I argued with the Lord about that. I said, "This cannot
be so"; so I got all my references books, and stacked them up all
around me, because this word "nothing" had to go. "Differeth
nothing, differeth in no, N-O-T-H-I-N-G, NO THING." It did not
leave me a way out. I said, "Surely God, there is some way I can
please You. I admit that, in most things I can't, but surely in
some way...." But the Father is telling me, a child is a child is
a child is a child  as long as he is a child. And, it does not make
any difference what he does, he is a child. If he drives a car, he
is still a child. If he plays with a rattle, he is still a child.
It does not matter whether he plays with a rattle or drives a car,
a child is a child. We are dealing with what he is, not what he
does. I could not get around this. I fought the Lord over it, and
finally I had to just fall on my face and confess. "Then You are
telling me that, in all things, I differ nothing from a servant." 
 
You talk about punching a pin in my balloon. No! He hit it with a
broad axe. He destroyed my balloon. I am still trying to say, "Now,
God, come on here. I read my Bible as much or more than most
people". Surely I do (whether I do or not). I am telling this to
the Lord. "Surely in some of these things I have found some grace
and some favor." He keeps telling me, "I do not care what you do.
I am dealing with who you are, and you are a child. You are
immature. If you are praying fifteen hours every day, you are
praying like a child. You are immature. In you Bible reading,
though you read until your eyeballs fall out on the page, you are
reading like a child, and you are immature. And, as long as you are
a child you differ nothing from a servant. You do not differ from
a servant when you pray. You pray like a servant. You read like a
servant. You think like a servant. You walk like a servant. You
talk like a servant. You preach like a servant." Now, He is not
talking about a servant of God here. I am saying, "My God".  

Then, to make matters worse, I went over to I Corinthians 13, and
saw that Paul had gotten hold of the same lesson. "As long as I was
a child, I thought like a child, talked like a child, acted like a
child; but when I became a man..." It is not something that I do.
It is becoming something. "But when I learned to pray thirty
minutes instead of fifteen." No! "When I learned to read two
chapters instead of one." No! "When I learned how to get up at 5:30
and pray, instead of waiting until 2:00 pm." No! We try all of
those things. I get amused going to preachers conferences. All the
preachers come and they all want to get up at 5:00 and have a
prayer meeting. I would just as soon have one at 3:00 in the
afternoon, when I am awake enough to pray. I have just never found
anything holy about praying at 5:00 a.m. If you pray at 5:00, then
pray. That is alright. But, I am sure to God it does not make a lot
of difference since He is not bound by 3 or 5, Monday or Tuesday,
or any other time. We all get on our holy robes, and we all come
stumbling into the sanctuary, before the cooks are even out of bed,
and we all lay down and go to sleep. Every now and then, we mumble,
"Praise the Lord". I spent all my life going to those things, and
I always wondered, and still wonder. But we go through that. "Lord,
what can I do?" But, He says, "As long as you are a child, you are
nothing but a servant." "When I was a child, I talked like a
child." It matters not what you say, you talk like a child. It
matters not what you do, you are a child doing it. Just a child
doing a bunch of things. A servant. 

                   A CHILD - WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE

Now, I know that is hard to hear, but it is so. It is a
realization. And, here is the pitiful thing. Even though he is lord
of all, even though he is forgiven, restored and reconciled, as
long as he is a child, ignorant and without knowledge, he differs
nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. Though his life
is Christ, and he is in Christ, and he be lord of all. It would not
be so bad acting like a servant if you were one. But to be lord of
all, and still be found serving the elements of the world, serving
the conditions of the world, serving the nature of Adam. Why?
Because Christ has not done the work? NO! Because we are ignorant
of what He has done and we remain as children. Born ones, but
children. Differeth nothing from a servant. 

The old boy who lives next door to us and is as ungodly as he can
be is motivated by the same things we are motivated by. Hot-cold,
vacation, tiredness, time off, family, friends, holidays, having,
not having, feeling, not feeling. Differs nothing from a servant.
We could lean over the fence and just engage them in the
conversation right where they live and just have a good time;
because that is right where we live too. Talk about the things that
they serve a whole lot more than we can talk about the things that
are here, making any witness to them at all. Differs nothing from
a servant. What I am telling you is that God did not go through all
of this plan, and all that we have been talking about so you and I
could remain a child. He has a predestined plan, having
predestinated us unto adoption. All of this unto an adoption that
we may be to the praise of His Glory, not differing nothing from
servants. So we find ourselves under tutors and governors until the
time appointed of the Father. We are under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the Father. In other words, we stay in
school until the Father says it is time. We are under tutors and
governors until the Father says the time has come. We do not go
until we get tired and say, "I am through. I have gone twelve
years. I need my diploma now, thank you." 

                  THE TIME APPOINTED OF THE FATHER

This was a problem when I was involved in a rather large Bible
College, first as director of the College, and then later as
director of its missions outreaches, and placement of all its
graduates. The problem was that, many times, they went there three
or four years and they were ready to graduate with a diploma long
before the Father was ready to reveal the Son in them. I looked at
the program one day, and I said, "My God. All we are doing is
graduating children. They have been here four years, and they have
gone through so many hours, and now we give them a diploma and tell
them they are ready to preach Christ, and they do not even know Him
yet, let alone go preach Him." I discovered that when I was in the
jungles of India and came to a little crisis that we will not go
into now, and realized how unready I was. I thought, "We are about
to send graduates here?" "Until the time appointed of the Father".
See, we pray until we get through, or tired, then we quit. We
search until we get through, or tired, then we quit. There has to
be a time in our life that the Father begins to regulate, if we
ever want to be sons. How long do you search? You search until you
see Him. How long do you pray? You pray until He appears. That is
applicable to anything, any work, any ministry, all things. "As
long as". 

So, we are under tutors and governors until the time appointed of
the Father. Now, what is His appointed time? The Father has an
appointed time. I have skipped over the tutors and governors. What
are the tutors and governors? Galatians 3 tells us that the tutors
and governors is the law and the prophets, the letter. "For we are
kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward
be revealed." Before faith is come, we are kept under the law. The
law is our keeper, therefore the law is our tutor, our governor to
bring us unto Christ. Now Paul, in Galatians 3, is not talking
about coming to Christ in the initial step of salvation, in the new
birth. He is talking about coming to the faith of Christ. Read your
Bible. Read the context. See what he is saying. "Until faith is
come." So, he says, "The law is a school master to keep us until
the coming of Christ." The very next breath and continuation of his
thought here is, "But after faith is come." After Christ is come.
After faith is come. After Christ, by the view of the Father, after
the faith of the son of God is come. Then we are no longer under
the law, but we are sons. He uses the term "sons" there. He could
just as easily say, "We are no longer children, kept under the law,
but we are sons, led by the Spirit". That does not mean throw your
Bibles away. It is speaking of the mentality of the letter, rather
than the mentality of the Spirit, concerning that which is written.
It is not talking about getting rid of the Scripture. 

                       AFTER FAITH IS COME

Do you know that the Old Testament and the New Testament is not
Genesis, Leviticus, Exodus as opposed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John? That is not Old Testament and New Testament? I know that is
what we call it. But the Old Covenant is not Genesis, Exodus and
the New Covenant Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Old Covenant is an old
understanding with regard to the Book. The New Covenant is a new
understanding with regard to the Book, all of the Book. Paul
preached the New Testament out of the laws and the prophets. He did
not have a copy of Ephesians, Colossians, Matthew and Acts. When
Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures", He was not talking about the
gospel of John. The Old Testament is the old understanding, the old
administration, the understanding of the letter, but not the
Spirit. The New Testament is a new covenant and a new understanding
given of God with regard to the Book. It is not some section of the
Book. We must see and understand that. So, a child is one who is
kept under the law, because that is all... It is letter. It is law.
But, with the coming of faith. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word." By the Spirit of God revealing the Word of Whom the
Scriptures testify, we come out from under the letter of the Word
into the Spirit of the Word. We are not kept under, but we walk in
the fullness of. For, after faith is come, you are no longer under
the law, but you are sons of God. The law is tutors and governors.
We are kept under that until the Father says it is time. At this
point we need to just get practical. 

The reason Christ is not revealed in more believers is that most
believers are not kept under the law. They are law breakers. They
are law violators. They totally disregard the Scripture in its
letter form. They are not kept, and they are not brought by the
Scripture. Paul says, "I have searched the law and I have found
nothing wrong with it. God forbid. Yea, in fact the law is precious
and spiritual and holy. I am the one." No, the law cannot make me
holy. But the law can bring me to the understanding of the One Who
is. While I am fussing and fighting and arguing with the
Scriptures, and saying, "I do not need that any more. Bless God, I
am free. I do not care what it says. I can do what I want to do."
The Father says, "Well, we will just leave them there a little
while." But, when, as Paul, who comes forth and says, "As touching
the law blameless, and yet I am still not righteousness. Regarding
the thing, I am a Pharisee, and still I am not righteous." Falling
there and saying, "My God, my God, there has to be something more
than what I am seeing." But, how would most believers know? They do
not know three or four Scriptures by memory. How would most
believers know? They have never read a book like Hosea. How would
most believers know? They would not know where to go if you asked
them to find Lamentations. You see, I am not talking about keeping
rituals of the Jewish law. I am talking about the Scripture. Jesus
never preached rituals of the Jewish law. The Scripture is the
tutors and the governors. That which is written, the Scripture, is
tutors and governors. 

How can we ever come to faith by the Scripture as ignorant of the
Scripture as most of us are? Our homes are filled with... See, most
people are always wanting me to get subjective. I am not against
any of these things. I am just telling you that none of them can
bring you to Christ. As good and notable and honorable as the Wall
Street Journal is, daily searching of it will not bring you to the
place of the Father revealing His Son in you. I see nothing wrong
with its content. It just will not bring you to Him. But, while
most of us here today know something of the newspaper headlines of
this particular day, there are so many of us that are totally void
of the message of Malachi, an ever present word regarding the Son.
I did not mean to get into this, but what I am telling you is that
this is an ongoing process. I am not preaching theory to you. It is
all well and good to say, "We are going to be conformed into His
image, and transformed into His image, and become an expression of
God's glory." Not until the Son is revealed in us we are not. And,
He is not going to be revealed until the time of the Father. Until
we come to that time, we are kept under tutors and governors. We
may as well get where we are supposed to be and do what Jesus said
to do, search the Scriptures. "They are they which testify of Me."
In our obedience to the tutors and governors, we will be brought to
the place of faith. Before faith comes, we are kept under; but
after that faith. "For the law is a schoolmaster, bringing you
unto." But after faith is come. We all want to jump up and get out
of the Scripture before faith is come, and run around on feelings
and Holy Ghost blessings. "Wasn't that a good sermon that Brother
So-and-so preached?" Well, all of that is fine, but none of it will
bring forth Christ in your life, or my life. So much for
subjectivity. 

                      THE FULLNESS OF THE TIME

What happens when the fullness of the time comes? God brings forth
His Son. "For, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law." Why were we redeemed? That we might receive
the adoption. Now, he speaks about the work of God sending forth
His Son made of a woman, made under the law. Then he speaks about
the work of redemption. Then he says it is all that we might
receive the adoption. Then he speaks of the adoption. He says,
"Here is what the adoption is." "And, because ye are sons, God hath
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying, 'Abba
Father'." What is the ADOPTION? It is the continuing coming of the
Son. It is the Father sending forth His Son. It is the Son coming
into your understanding, coming into your soul, coming into your
heart, crying, "Abba, Father". That is what that is all about. 

              THE COMING OF THIS SON INTO THE SOUL

Here we have the believer. The man as created of God was body; and
he was soul. The believer, being born-again is spirit, soul and
body; but that living Spirit, that life-giving Spirit is the
indwelling Christ Himself. "For he that is joined to the Lord is
one spirit, and it is Christ in you, the hope of Glory." Then, what
is the adoption? The adoption is the coming of this Son into this
soul. The adoption is this soul being filled with the light of this
life. The adoption is when God sends the Spirit of His Son into our
hearts, crying out, "God, You are my Father." The adoptions means
the placement of a son, or son recognition. We are placed in
Christ, predestined unto the adoption. We are placed in Christ that
we might receive the adoption. What is the adoption? The adoption
is the Father recognizing His very own Son in you. You who have
been a child; who have been a child; who have been without
understanding, without the word, who differs nothing from a
servant, who serves the flesh. But, with the adoption, with the
Holy Spirit revealing the indwelling Son, you are no more a child;
but rather, the heart, the eyes of understanding are enlightened
and we behold the indwelling Christ. We see Him as He is. He comes
forth - there is a union between the heart and the soul, or the
soul and the spirit. There is a union formed there. For the first
time, my very soul that was created for His Word, receives the
indwelling reality of the everlasting Word. For the first time, the
Word is not something that my eyeballs read. It is something that
my heart partakes of and eats and feeds on and imbibes. For the
first time, the letter that I am looking at truly testifies of the
Living Word Who is the Person of Christ in me. For the first time,
my soul is awakened to the eternal Word, and the Word begins to
declare His fullness in me, and my heart begins to be filled with
light, and I begin to walk in the light as He is in the light. And,
my heart and my soul begins to have fellowship with Him. The Father
doing what He has me there to do, reveal His Son in me, bring me to
adoption by the recognizing of His Son. 

                  SON RELATING TO HIS FATHER

I should have said this before I started this lesson. The
definition of adoption is as given by the Greek, and as set forth
in the time of Paul. This is not my definition. It is a valid
definition. It has nothing to do with the Father going outside of
His family and bringing the seed of another in there and calling it
son. That is our adoption. When we go an adopt a child, it means
that child is not of our natural birth, and not of our natural
family. We bring them into it, and we give them a name, and I know
there are some who have preached that as salvation; but salvation
is not God bringing another seed other than His own into His House.
Salvation is the New Birth of His own Seed. It has nothing to do
with adoption at all. 

Adoption as it is taught in the Word of God and as it is in the
Greek in the days of Paul is just this. It is right here in chapter
four. It is a father placing his own son under tutors until his own
son is prepared to relate to him as father. He not only goes
through diaper training. He goes through a lot of other training
too. When the father sees that he is ready to handle the
inheritance, when he is ready to come and sit at the big table,
when he is ready to put his feet under the table without
embarrassing his father, when he is ready to take on all that the
father has and begin to administrate it, then the father threw a
banquet that far outshined any banquet that may have been thrown at
his birth. In fact, when he was born, the father did not really get
all that excited. Now, do not get mad at me. But, it was handled by
mid-wives, and it was handled by this and that. He was turned over
to teachers and governors. But there comes a time when the tutors
are all dismissed, the teachers are all dismissed, and that son
comes before that father, and a banquet is thrown, and all his
guests are invited to come and behold this day, and he takes this
child and stands him in front of everyone there, and he lays his
hands on this child, and he declares with a decree, "This is now my
son." With that, he delivers to that son his name, his inheritance,
his authority, and all that he is. And, from that time on, that boy
is not a child. He is not one born. He is one adopted. He is one
placed in authority. 

This is exactly what the Father is doing with His Son. First, He is
the New Birth in us. What is He to us? He is saving from sin, and
this and that. "Whom do men say that I am? Who do you say that I
am?" Peter hit it on the nose. "Thou art the indwelling, anointed
One. Thou art the Christ of the Living God. Thou art the Everliving
Son of the Living God." Peter made that as an outside declaration,
but when the adoption takes place, this soul makes it as an inside
declaration. All of a sudden, my heart, my eyes of understanding
begin to honor Him; and I see Him as the Father sees Him, not just
as one born, but one placed in authority in me, one placed in me
exercising all that the Father is and all that the Father does. I
see Him as my very life. I understand that I am one with Him,
because He is my life. And so, His Spirit comes in. There comes a
transformation. 

                      KNOWING AS THE SON

"Beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord, we are changed into
that same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord." There is a change that takes place as by the Spirit of the
very Son Himself I cry out, "God, You are my Father." It is Son
knowing. It is knowing as the Son. God does this. He reveals the
Son. He sends forth the Spirit of the Son into my  heart, and what
does the Spirit of the Son testify to? "God, You are my Father."
From that point on, I am no longer a child, but I walk in the
faith, the understanding, the knowledge of the Son. It is an
ongoing thing. It never stops. It just starts, because He is not
just the author; He is the finisher of our faith. What is the end
of our faith? What does Peter say? "The end of your faith is the
full transforming of your soul." So, that at the appearing of Jesus
Christ, you stand to the praise and the glory of God. But, in whom
is He revealed? In those who give themselves to the Word, to the
letter, to the searching, who are under tutors and governors. We
are not breaking traces and throwing off yokes, but remain until
the Father says, "It is time to reveal the Son." No man knoweth
that time, save the Father only. He reveals the Son and brings Him
forth. I am telling you, He has put you and I in Christ that we may
receive the adoption. He has put us there that He may reveal His
Son in us, that we may receive the adoption, that He may place the
Son, that He may give placement to the Son. 

You see, that is what Isaiah saw. Isaiah  saw the picture of the
adoption. "I saw the Lord. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord." Where did you see Him? "I saw Him high and lifted up,
sitting on His throne, and I saw His train filling all of the
temple. I saw Son placement." What does the second book of Psalms,
verse six and seven say? "I have set My King in My holy mountain,
and I have declared a decree concerning Him." What is that decree?
"Thou art My Son. This day have I begotten.." But the word
"begotten" there in the Hebrew means "declared it to be so". What
did He first do? He sets Him in His holy mountain. "You are come to
Mount Zion." You are raised up together. And He sets Him in His
holy mountain. Then He declares Him. In all the holy mountain, He
begins to declare Him. And, to this soul He says, "This My Son.
Hear ye Him." And, for the first time since the Garden, the soul
hears the Voice of God that he was created to hear. The ears have
heard Scriptures, but the soul has not heard the Voice, until the
Father reveals the Voice of One in you. Paul comes along, and he
says, "If you think the administration of hearing by the letter is
glorious, wait until the Spirit reveals the Son in you." The
administration of the Spirit is so glorious that it makes this non-
glorious in comparison. That is where he says, "Then we all
beholding the glory are changed into that same image." What is it
all about? It is about the Father revealing His Son in you. We are
in Him for that purpose. We are predestined to the adoption of
sons. 

                           THE CALLED

Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are...." What? "...the called..."
The article there, "the", is extremely important, because it is a
descriptive term. "The called". "...according to His purpose..."
Who are they who know that all things work together for good? Those
who are the called according to this eternal purpose. They are the
ones who know it. They are the ones who understand it. They are the
ones who live in that understanding. We are not dealing here with
whether all things do work together for good, but we are dealing
with who knows it. "And we know that all things work together for
good to them who love God to them who are the called according to
His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate..."
Who did He foreknow? It shows us in Christ. "...He also did
predestinate..." That is what we have been saying. He has you there
for a purpose. What is the purpose? "To be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren."
What happens when Christ is revealed in you? You are conformed into
His image. The light of His life becomes the substance of your
soul. All that He is He is actively and actually made unto you. So,
now it is not just the changing of your vocabulary, but the very
intent of your heart. Now it is not just a constricting and
confining of deeds. It is the changing of the inner man from whom
all the words and the deeds flow forth. But, you see, as Christ,
the indwelling Spirit, Christ is revealed in the inner man, it is
these workings and these deeds and all that He is flowing forth 
and filling the soul, so that which comes forth is actually
proceeding out from the Son Himself. So that we become expressions
in word, in deed, in thought, in intent, in judgment, nature,
character of the indwelling Christ. Because God is revealing Him in
us. 

                 RESTORATION - CONFORMED TO SON

What are we doing here all the time? We are searching the
Scriptures. We are looking for Him. We are obedient unto the faith.
And we begin to live as His Body. We are destined to the adoption.
Why? That we might be conformed to the image of His Son.
Restoration is you and I being conformed to the image of the full
resurrected Son. We are not through with restoration yet, but
restoration is that. That you and I be conformed. It is not some
make-believe something. It is you and I being conformed,
transformed into that fully restored, full raised up, fully
resurrected Son Himself. It is that Son being revealed in you. It
is the adoption taking place, and that adoption is unto the glory
and the praise and the will of the Father. It is all for Him, that
we may be to the praise of His Glory. I am telling you, you who are
in Christ, that is why you are there. That is why He came. That is
why the whole thing started in Christ. That is the fullness of our
salvation. The whole purpose comes down to the Father revealing His
Son in us, the transforming of this soul, which is you, the essence
of who you are. Man becoming a living soul. So that this soul will
walk in the forgiveness of the Son, the restoration of the Son, the
reconciliation of the Son, and become a minister of forgiveness,
restoration and reconciliation, an expression of all that the
indwelling Son is. 

                     UNTIL THE ADOPTION...

But, you see, you will only express here what you receive and are
transformed into here. Else, it will be just a bunch of empty
words. You can say "I love you" until your tongue falls out, and it
is just empty words. You can hug and kiss until you rub perfume off
on each other, it does not mean anything. Unless it is proceeding
out from here, you can only express what has been transformed here.
You can talk about it for a while, and weep, but sooner or later,
when it comes down to an expression, then there is nothing to
express. There is just failure, and guilt, then there is
condemnation, then there is all the things that we face every day.
Until the adoption, until the Son placement, until we begin to eat
His Flesh and drink His Blood, until we begin to be partakers of
His divine  nature, and begin to walk in understanding of all that
He is, then we begin to express it here in reality. The finished
work is a restored Son, one who knows how to restore others.