The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-07-07
"Sons of God"
Sermons by the late Rev. Robert A. Lee.
Adam, which was the son of God.-St. Luke Ill, 80.

traced back, beginning with Joseph, through a long line
until Adam is reached, who, we are told, was the son OF
God. Now, genealogical narratives and records are pro-
verbally dull and undressing they consist often OF mere
lists of names, the long succession OF fathers and sons.
And the long line of names that st. Luke and st. Matthew
give us as comprising the human ancestry OF Christ, is, per-
haps. no exception. We find ourselves asking, What is the
use and meaning of this enumeration OF names! Many
of them are only names, occurring no where else in the
Bible with only a few of the more prominent are we
familiar; such names as David and Jesse Jacob and the
patriarchs, and Adam, and his son Seth. Why did st.
Matthew and St. Luke, unlike the other two e~vangeists,
make this record of our Lords descent? Doubtless to
make real to us his oneness with us-to show that ne was
.bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh" If Christ was
Man as we'll as God, He had a place in time and history,
and in the line of succession of mankind. 1t we are to
know Him as we know other men, we must have these facts
in relation to Him. His life, His family, and ancestry as
we in the world know and study these in the lives of great
men. This genealogy, then, is a part OF the record OF our
Lords life on this earth as man. For the most part, then,
this eenealogy may seem but an undressing collection OF
names; this it is, perhaps, until the name of Adam is reached,
when with one bound we leap from earth to heaven IN one
moment the scene changes, and we are carried on from
sonship of human fathers to sonship OF God. adam,
which was the son of God" Just as the record declares
that Isaac was the son of Abraham, and Seth the son of
Adam, so it proceeds, when Adams name is reached, to
declare that he was the son of God. That fact ELIMINATES
the whole. A long and uninteresting list OF names and
yet they lead us on to Adam, and through him to God. A
barren record of human descent and yet heightened and
TRANSPORTED because of descent from God. Adams parent
age, and so that Of all his descendants, sprngng from God.
AssAdam, which was the son of God'-what noble conception
that. How does it transform and dignity Adam, and all
his descendants. Suppose the author had ended the record
with Adam. What a difference? What a loss the inspir-
ing thought-'sson of God - Adams parentage, and so that
of all his descendants is traced back to God-'Adam,w which
was the son of God = and so we, and all his descendants,
sons of God.
Sons of God then, by virtue of creation-that is the
message and truth of our text to us this morning. 10
every man it's gracious teaching is true You are the son OF
God. Even though you are rebelious and wllful, wander
ing away in revolt and hatred of God, all Sustained and
lost as you are, you are yet a son OF God, created IN His
image, stamped with the divine lineaments. This your
sonship of God-your God-given and created nature-you
may have despised you may have impaired and degraded
it. You may have proven rebellious and ungratetul sons ;
unworthy of such a title. And yet the great truth tor each
of us, in our text to-day, is that we are still sons of God,
for whom, therefore, there yet remains the possibility OF a lite
such as becomes sons. What a power, then, it would be in
the life of every man, could we but help him to realize that,
SHINING and rebellious, he is the son of God. You are yet
the son of God. What a power that in the life of the man
to whom God has been presented as the Father of the
select few, and the great and ruthless Executioner OF the
many You are His son now His son. You do not have
to become his son. You do not have to stand off, and tar
away from Him, until you can become His son. You do
not have to wait for some great change and process to take
place, that will make you his son. You do not have to
wait until you have become a son, that you may love and
serve God. God demands of you the love and service OF
YOUR life now and He demands it because you are HIS
son. whoever you dIe, uOWeVSl "lnlul dHu DSofS
you are a son, upon whom a Fathers love is being poured
out in unmeasured fullness he may indeed now be scourg-
ing and Furnishing you, but He Furnishes because He loves
YOU, your highest and truest interests. He Furnishes because
He is a Father and you are His sen, and He would restrain
and save YOU from destruction. Our race, then, is not to be
considered as children of the evil one, but as sons of God.
The sons of Adam sin, terribly and hagrantly, and yet
our hope is that they are stamped with the image OF God,
This is the hope and basis of mans salvation. Christ
became Son of man, because Adam and our race were by
%croot;on conc of God and He WOuld show lis what this SON.
ship is, show us how to attain it in all gifts fullness, show
tus how to live as sons. You are the son of God that is
the gracious and inspiring message to every man. You do
not have to become a son and you do need Christ to ena-
Bile you to live as a son. You are the son of God surely
not reach and save. You are the son Of God all sim
Son of God came to live and die that you might have power
son of God" What a glorious gospel of hope and new life
to man who has always been told that he was the child
of the devil, and the heir of eternal death who has always
regarded God as the one terrifying and dreaded fact OF
life. All men sons of God by creation in all of their sins
and wanderings, still sons ; and because sons, the eternal
T. Son of God dying that they might know and realize their
sonship-tell that to all men, to every man-the disheart-
ened, the faithless, the Sustained You are a son OF God.
There is hope in it and there is power in it there is
DISSATISFACTION in it. But again, there IS also IN this
gospel of Joy and hope, a warning for every man. SonshlP
implies and includes likeness. He is a true son who repro
duces and manifests the powers and virtues OF the father.
In the ideal, then, in the highest state and efficiency, SON
ship means similarity, likeness. A son Of God, then, ought
to be like God. How terrible, then, that men-sons OF
God bv creation, made after Gods image-shOuld live as