Friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the worthy name of the Lord Jesus, our Saviour. This is your Bible teacher of the air speaking, J.W. Bramhall, giving you a hearty welcome to the continued study of God's precious Word, and our particular theme that we are considering, God our Father and His Family. It is a wonderful theme to consider, the fatherhood of God, and together with the children belonging to him in his family. May we make an introductory remark? Nothing that we have not said before, but we would like to repeat it for emphasis. We do not believe that the Word of God teaches the universal fatherhood of God over all men, or the universal brotherhood of men, meaning by that, We do not believe the Word of God tells that every man, woman, boy, and girl are the children of God, and that He is, in relationship to them, their Father. But we believe that God is only the Father of all them who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and who are His children. And those who are His children, have been born again and by the Spirit of God regenerated, brought into his family through faith in the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, upon the cross. But it is a great joy to recognize the fatherhood of God. We have emphasized that it is the New Testament in particular that brings this emphasis of God being the Father and his children being in his family. We would now begin to consider the children in the family of God. And first of all we read a scripture portion in the book of Ephesians chapter one, where we would like to present this precious truth. God the Father desired and determined to have a family. And that family he determined should be obtained from the human race. In Ephesians chapter one we begin reading at verse three and we shall read down through verse seven. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption, or to the place of children, by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted him the beloved. in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. We bless God for this great portion of his precious word that brings to us an amazing fact, something in relation to God before the foundation of the world. My beloved radio friend, may I magnify before your heart and your mind the greatness of the Word of God. This blessed book, the Bible, goes back before human history in its revelation of truth. No other human being upon the earth, no other human source upon this scene below, can ever tell us with clear indication and In truth, one existed before the world began. But the Bible, which is a book of divine revelation, written by the Holy Spirit of God through holy men of old, goes back into the greatest distance of history in the past. And we have in our Scripture the revelation that before the foundation of the world, God determined he would have a family of children. One may well recognize in the opening verse of this particular reading, chapter one in Ephesians and verse three, the beloved apostle eulogizes that blessed person whom he calls the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He does not speak of him directly as the Father of those who belong to him. But ah, he speaks more directly that he was the God as well as the Father of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he praises God the Father for the spiritual blessings that are in the heavenly places in Christ provided for his beloved children. But then in verses three and four, we have what we would emphasize today. The predetermination before the very world began its existence, before the ages of time ever commenced, the predetermination of God to have a family. And these words declare, in verse four, according as He, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has chosen us in Christ. before the foundation of the world. Now the words are expressed be written to the children of God, those who are in his family, and we are told that before the foundation of the world, God made the determined choice that he would have a family. And please note the character of that family of children he declared would be his, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. My beloved radio friend, I want you to consider with me the great revelation that God desired and determined to have this family of children to be in moral character like Himself. They would be holy. They would be without blame before Him. the very object of his eternal love. No, I'm sure that you will recognize, and I hope you readily confess, as I do. You and I, by nature, we are not in that condition. We are not holy by nature. We are not without blame before God. For well is the word of God declared in Romans three twenty-three. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But let me repeat again, the predetermined purpose of God, that my children who will be in my family, I shall bring them to myself, and they will be holy. They will be without blame. They will be before me as the object of my eternal love. Thus the apostle has gone on to declare that he predetermined Having predestinated as unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Now you may raise, and rightly you should raise the question, why should he want this family? Why should he choose to take this family from the human race? My beloved, I cannot answer that question, neither can you, except to say that it was his sovereign will. and his predetermined choice, that he should take from the human race a family of children, and that he should obtain that family of children by Jesus Christ, that he would bring that family of children by Jesus Christ to himself. And then you ask then why? The only answer we can give is at the end of verse five. according to the good pleasure of his will. My beloved, it was the determined will of God, predetermined before the ages of time. He would have a family who would be morally like himself through his son and before him forever in love. And they would be, as verse six declares, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Now again I state I cannot tell why he should choose to have a family, and that why he should choose that I or that you should ever be taken into that family through Christ, except it was the good pleasure of his will, and that each one would be to the praise of the glory of his grace. I can only add the words, the fitting words of Isaac Newton, or John Newton rather, as he wrote. Amazing grace, how sweet a sound that say the wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. We say it is amazing grace. God desire to have a family. God determined he would have that family. God determined they would become His through His Son. Well, then, does the Scripture in closing tell us in verse six and seven concerning that Son, wherein God the Father hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. We may well recognize that the determined will of God to have this family, its accomplishment rested upon the work that was entrusted to the beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was ever in the bosom of the Father in the eternal ages past, and who came to this earth to bring and bring forth and manifest, prove and declare redemption. to bring the children of the Father to himself, out of the human race, through the power of his redeeming blood, through the giving of the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Beloved, may I declare, these words, though there are in them depths of meaning that you and I may never fathom, they clearly indicate the Father sent the Son to obtain the family and to redeem that family, to bring them to himself, cleansed by his blood, to be forever with him, holy and without blame in love. May I indeed repeat, these scriptures we have covered today, they reveal the Father's will and determination to have the family of children. May you rejoice in it. I pray that you're one of his children through faith in the Savior. Father, we thank thee for such truth. Sanctify you to the hearts of all in Jesus. Name for his glory. Amen.