_andthe specific relationship of God to somemen byvirtue oftheir faith. John
CLASSIC SERMON OUTLINES — Alexander Maclaren
B. Spiritual Blessings Require a Spiritual Capacity for Their Reception.
1. Man must be adapted and prepared for the present blessings of salvation. Inasmuch as God's deliverance is not a deliverance from a mere arbitrary and outward punishment: inasmuch as God's salvation, though it be deliverance from the penalty as well as from the guilt of sin, is by no means chiefly a deliverance from outward consequences, but a removal of the nature and disposition that makes these outward consequences certain. Therefore, a man cannot be saved upon any other condition than this, that _ his soul shall be adapted and prepared for the reception and enjoyment of _ the blessing of a spiritual salvation.
2. Man must be adapted and prepared for the future blessings of salvation. There is no inheritance of heaven without sonship; because all the blessings of — that future life are of a spiritual character. God is the heritage of His people. — II. NO SONSHIP WITHOUT 4
A. Sonship Is Not Innate, but Men Become Sons of God after Birth — by a Divine Act.
1. The distinction between the general manifestation of God to all men _and the specific relationship of God to some men by virtue of their faith. John '1:9, 12. Whatever else may be taught in John's words, surely they do teach us _ this, that the sonship of which he speaks does not belong to man as man, is. not Seeing tg eee after we are men, that those who become sons are not coextensive with those who are lighted by the Light, but consist of so-many of that greater number as receive Him.
2 The contrast between the sons of God and the world. I John 3:10; John' 8:42, 44, These are but specimens of a whole cycle of Scripture statements which in every form of necessary implication, and of direct statement, set forth the principle that he who is born again of the ' e Spirit, and he only, is a son of God.
B. The Implications of Sonship.
1. Communication of life. It involves that the Father and the child shall have kindred life—the Father bestowing and the child possessing a life