WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.660 (mumbles) All right, good evening. 00:00:08.660 --> 00:00:20.699 We'll continue our series through doctrines that we should not shun, or I will say we shall not shun. 00:00:20.699 --> 00:00:32.280 We are discussing or I'm teaching on the doctrine of adoption, the doctrine of adoption this evening. 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:36.200 We're gonna be in three key texts. 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:42.280 The first one is Ephesians chapter one, verses three through six, if you'd like to turn there. 00:00:42.280 --> 00:00:55.240 Ephesians one, verses three through six, excuse me. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:07.840 The next grouping or the next key text is Galatians chapter 4 verses 3-7. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:15.599 If you have multiple ribbons in your Bible you can go ahead and mark the space but I will give some time when we get there. 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:26.280 And then the last reference or last key text on the doctrine of adoption is Romans chapter 8 verses 14-17. 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:29.420 Romans chapter 8, 14-17. 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:33.079 So Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3-6. 00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:36.120 Galatians chapter 4, verses 3-7. 00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:43.760 And then Romans chapter 8, verses 14-17. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:46.879 Let me read now in Ephesians 1, 3-6. 00:01:46.879 --> 00:02:00.879 It says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:10.439 Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:29.719 Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 00:02:29.719 --> 00:02:48.120 So the first thing we see here on the doctrine of adoption, is that we see that adoption is one of the spiritual blessings Paul begins writing about in the beginning of Ephesians. 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:57.719 Notice there in verse 1, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:11.759 And you might say, "Well, what are these spiritual blessings in which we have apparently all of them in the heavenly places?" Well, that's exactly what the list is behind it. 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:23.879 He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, that He has predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:34.199 This is all according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the beloved. 00:03:34.199 --> 00:03:37.960 These are every spiritual blessing. 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:43.580 These are the every spiritual blessings under the heavens in Jesus Christ. 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:46.099 It is the doctrine of salvation. 00:03:46.099 --> 00:03:56.280 It is the way that we are made accepted by the Lord, both now and into eternity. 00:03:56.280 --> 00:04:04.680 So we see adoption here as one of these great heavenly spiritual blessings. 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:21.079 Another thing to note here from these verses is that predestination, it says that we have been chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. 00:04:21.079 --> 00:05:09.160 Verse 5, "having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." This shows us that predestination, often when we are thinking about it, often when we are learning about the doctrine of predestination, we think of it as kind of this cold act that God does before the foundation of the world that he's arbitrarily choosing some for the predestination to adoption and some he passes over and they are not predestined to adoption and therefore not predestined unto salvation. 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:14.720 They are passed over, they are left in the dominion of darkness. 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:28.860 We can think upon this as a cold and distant act of God but notice the context, notice the direct phrasing of the doctrine of predestination here. 00:05:28.860 --> 00:05:34.319 It's that we are predestined to be adopted. 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:46.620 So when God is before the foundation of the world doing the act of predestining the work of predestination, what is he doing there? 00:05:46.620 --> 00:06:01.420 Well, he's not distant and far and separate or doing this cold act, but when he's predestining, he is choosing, he is predestining us as sons. 00:06:01.420 --> 00:06:44.899 He is, when, or we could say more personally this way, or Brian Borgman puts it this way, when God chose you, predestined you to use the biblical language here when God chose you predestined you he was choosing you as a son or a daughter. That's the furthest thing from a cold and distant act and we know that this isn't a okay this is not a session on the doctrine of predestination but we know that he didn't do it because he saw something good in us and then therefore and and therefore chose us. 00:06:44.899 --> 00:06:48.060 No, what does the very text say? 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:50.819 What do the very verses say? 00:06:50.819 --> 00:07:00.379 That he predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. 00:07:00.379 --> 00:07:04.939 That's the basis on which he did the work of predestination. 00:07:04.939 --> 00:07:09.939 It was according to the pleasure of his perfect will. 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:18.779 And so it was according to His pleasure that He looked upon you Christian and said,"I'm choosing this one as my son. 00:07:18.779 --> 00:07:27.779 I'm choosing this one as my daughter." This is a loving father that we are talking about here. 00:07:27.779 --> 00:07:35.180 This is a loving father doing this work of predestination unto adoption. 00:07:35.180 --> 00:07:45.240 The last thing I want to highlight in this key text on the doctrine of adoption is that that we are adopted in Jesus Christ. 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:56.779 This union with Christ as it is so emphasized throughout the New Testament, this union with Christ is the very basis on which we are adopted. 00:07:56.779 --> 00:08:02.819 We are not adopted outside of Christ, but on the very basis of Jesus Christ. 00:08:02.819 --> 00:08:10.100 We are adopted in him that we become sons in the only begotten son, Jesus Christ. 00:08:10.100 --> 00:08:24.819 That's the only way to sonship or, well, I don't want to say daughtership, even though that's what it is, but Christ is not a daughter, he is a son. 00:08:24.819 --> 00:08:35.659 But children of God, that's the way in which any of us, sons, daughters of God, how do How do we get into that status? 00:08:35.659 --> 00:08:42.019 Well it's through Jesus Christ who is the only begotten Son of God. 00:08:42.019 --> 00:08:48.100 Now through adoption we do not become equal status with Christ. 00:08:48.100 --> 00:08:51.220 There's always going to be something special about Him. 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:54.580 He is the only begotten Son of God. 00:08:54.580 --> 00:09:10.779 We are not, we do not become the only begotten Son of God but we become His children in a very real and true sense based upon the work of Christ that now that we are in Him we become sons. 00:09:10.779 --> 00:09:17.320 The Scriptures refer to us as Christ our brother and us being co-heirs with Him. 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:31.779 It is in this sense that Christ has accomplished adoption on our behalf and it is gained, it It is obtained by faith in Jesus Christ alone. 00:09:31.779 --> 00:09:52.820 Now let's move through Galatians chapter 4 verses 3-7. 00:09:52.820 --> 00:10:00.000 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:14.820 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive adoption as sons. 00:10:14.820 --> 00:10:24.039 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out Abba, Father. 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:33.860 Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:50.340 So the first thing I want to point out in this key text on the doctrine of adoption is that look at how it phrases salvation and adoption here. 00:10:50.340 --> 00:10:54.340 The purpose for which Christ came in verse 4. 00:10:54.340 --> 00:11:01.460 "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born unto the law," for what purpose? 00:11:01.460 --> 00:11:06.139 "To redeem those who were under the law," for what? 00:11:06.139 --> 00:11:17.899 "That we might receive adoption as sons." So this gives adoption as the conclusion or the end of Christ's work or the aim of Christ's work. 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:19.860 Would He come? 00:11:19.860 --> 00:11:30.100 He came to redeem us so that we might be sons. 00:11:30.100 --> 00:11:44.419 So at the right time, God sent His Son Christ, born of a woman, born of the law, to redeem those so that we might receive adoption as sons. 00:11:44.419 --> 00:12:05.379 It puts adoption as the conclusion or the "A" that we were saved and forgiven of our sins so that we might become sons of God, heirs with Jesus Christ, so we could call upon the Lord as Abba Father. 00:12:05.379 --> 00:12:13.360 The Galatians text here puts a very high premium on the doctrine of adoption. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:23.960 This is where it is distinct from justification or redemption or perpetuation that we have talked about previously in this Wednesday evening series. 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:27.200 Now those things are of utmost importance as well. 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:33.159 I am not trying to make adoption more important than those doctrines. 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:37.960 Those doctrines are a prerequisite for the doctrine of adoption. 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:41.039 You can't be adopted if you haven't been justified. 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:44.120 You can't be adopted in the Lord if you haven't been redeemed. 00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:54.559 You can't be adopted into the family of God if Christ has not made propitiation for your sins. 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:58.440 So these are surely prerequisites, but it is a distinction. 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:14.519 John Gill, in commenting on this text, says, "Though I am of opinion, they are distinct blessings of grace, and so to be considered, adoption is a distinct thing from either justification or pardon. 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:26.399 A subject may be acquitted by his sovereign from charges laid against him, and a criminal convicted and condemned may be pardoned, yet he does not become his son. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:45.799 If adopted and taken into his family, it must be by a distinct and fresh act of royal favor." So doctrinally or theologically, John Gill is trying to make a good distinction here. 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:56.240 The adoption is not justification or even necessarily an aspect of justification. 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:07.279 justification clears us or acquits us or pardons us from the condemnation of our sins. 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:18.120 Justification makes a declaration of righteousness on our behalf, but justification does not place us in the family of God. 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:22.940 Justification does not cause us to become God's sons or God's daughters. 00:14:22.940 --> 00:14:26.639 This is what God's act of adoption does. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:36.299 So this is a, as John Gilles put it, a distinct and fresh act of royal favor. 00:14:36.299 --> 00:14:47.879 This is the act of adoption is a distinct act of grace, is a distinct work of grace on our behalf. 00:14:47.879 --> 00:14:51.740 Adoption like justification is a legal term. 00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:58.620 Through adoption we gain the full rights as sons and daughters of God. 00:14:58.620 --> 00:15:04.399 John chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 helps us to understand this. 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:22.500 "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:26.879 So notice that language there in verse 12. 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:52.200 It says, "But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God." So through adoption, all the rights and privileges of sonship, of being a dependent of the Lord, given to us through God's work of adoption. 00:15:52.200 --> 00:16:04.240 Adoption is also a relational term, so it's a legal term and where rights, privileges, protection is given to us through God's work of adoption. 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:07.000 But it is also a relational term. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:13.519 Again, Brian Borgman says justification addresses our relationship to the law of God. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:19.600 Regeneration addresses our relationship to sin. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:25.320 Adoption addresses our relationship to God as our Father. 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:34.600 So justification acquits us of the law of God or pardons us of the demands of God's law of where we've been guilty against the law of God. 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:42.200 Regeneration, the transformation of our heart and the new life, addresses our relationship to sin. 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:53.399 So now we have a distinct and different relationship toward the nature of sin and our sinful nature. 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:55.000 Adoption does something different. 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:56.679 Again, this is a distinction. 00:16:56.679 --> 00:17:01.120 It's a fresh work of grace or a distinct work of grace. 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:05.400 Adoption addresses our relationship to God as our Father. 00:17:05.400 --> 00:17:07.779 Adoption is what makes us sons. 00:17:07.779 --> 00:17:10.799 Adoption is what makes us daughters. 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:18.720 And this is to go back to John chapter 1. 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:41.339 This is a sonship that is given to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood nor the will of flesh nor the will of man but who were born of God." This is someone who is not naturally in the family of God. 00:17:41.339 --> 00:17:54.240 Going back to our Galatians text, just in the chapter afterwards in Galatians chapter Chapter 5 it talks about our father being Adam. 00:17:54.240 --> 00:18:02.660 We are naturally born under the headship and sonship or daughtership under Adam, our first father. 00:18:02.660 --> 00:18:04.819 This is what we are naturally born into. 00:18:04.819 --> 00:18:21.259 So to go into the family of God is not something that can be done naturally or not done out of the will of ourselves according to our own will or according to our own efforts or aims but this is something that has to be supernaturally done. 00:18:21.259 --> 00:18:31.400 We can't be born of flesh and blood or out of our own will but we must be born of God. 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:49.339 God actually has to take us and much like we're familiar with adoption in our own culture us into his own family by his own free will and work and choice. 00:18:49.339 --> 00:18:58.099 So it is also a relational term and adoption addresses our relationship to God as our Father. 00:18:58.099 --> 00:19:08.079 John Gerudo is an old school Presbyterian who kind of revives some writing on the doctrine of adoption. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:38.759 says this, Christ abund, Christ abidance as a servant, entitles us to bow, entitles us to bow before God's throne. But Christ's obedience as a son, entitles us to sit at God's table. So Christ's obedience as a servant, entitles us to bow before God's throne as a servant, but his obedience as a son, and titles us to sit at God's table. 00:19:38.759 --> 00:19:58.640 Remember that we gain adoption as sons, as daughters through Jesus Christ and it is because of His obedience as a son in which that is accomplished for us. 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:00.640 Let's go to Romans chapter 8 now. 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:17.200 Romans chapter 8 verses 14 through 17. 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:24.279 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 00:20:24.279 --> 00:20:33.900 For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, But you receive the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. 00:20:33.900 --> 00:20:38.279 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. 00:20:38.279 --> 00:20:48.420 And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. 00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:53.759 These are some absolutely amazing verses here. 00:20:53.759 --> 00:21:02.099 So the first thing we see is that the spirit gives us the spirit. 00:21:02.099 --> 00:21:13.660 We receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." So this is talking about the spirit of adoption here. 00:21:13.660 --> 00:21:19.400 My translation has that the spirit of adoption, spirit is capitalized. 00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:27.119 I believe that it should be in your translations in reference to the Holy Spirit. 00:21:27.119 --> 00:21:37.599 That the Holy Spirit gives us this experiential knowledge, this awareness that God is our Father. 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:44.200 This gives us the familial reality that the Lord actually is our Heavenly Father. 00:21:44.200 --> 00:22:00.319 The Lord doesn't just give us a legal declaration of adoption, but yet remains distant or far from us or we have no relationship with this God who has declared us our Father, but He gives us His very Spirit. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:36.680 The Holy Spirit is said to give us or that we receive the Spirit of adoption that we may then cry out, "Abba, Father." So it is the effectual reality or experiential reality that in receiving the spirit of adoption then we have this awareness, this knowledge, this understanding and relationship to God as our Father that was distinct from the relationship that we had from Him before. 00:22:36.680 --> 00:22:54.559 In verse 15 it says, "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.'" Also in relation to the Galatians' foretext, what were we redeemed out of? 00:22:54.559 --> 00:23:02.640 We were redeemed out of condemnation under the law. 00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:07.279 It says here that we have not been given the spirit of bondage again to fear. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:16.279 So, in our previous family, this family that we desperately needed, adopted out of. 00:23:16.279 --> 00:23:20.220 This family that was not good for us. 00:23:20.220 --> 00:23:22.619 It was the family of sin. 00:23:22.619 --> 00:23:26.099 The Bible also calls it the kingdom of darkness. 00:23:26.099 --> 00:23:32.299 This was under the fatherhood or headship of our first father Adam. 00:23:32.299 --> 00:23:42.279 This is a household of sin, this is a household of abuse and tyranny and neglect. 00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:46.400 This is the state in which we have been adopted out of. 00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:52.779 And now we receive, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 00:23:52.779 --> 00:23:55.839 And we have now received the Spirit of adoption. 00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:15.920 Now we can cry out to the Lord of the universe, the God of heaven and earth, Abba, father, which as you probably know is a very heartfelt, a very familial way to address God. 00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:23.079 It's like what a child may call you if you were a father, running and saying dad or daddy. 00:24:23.079 --> 00:24:31.920 This is a very affectionate way to refer to the Lord as Abba Father. 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:37.839 We have privileges of adoption that Romans 18 shows us. 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:41.720 The first is that we get God's name. 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:44.000 We get God's name. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:48.160 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:52.519 We take on the very name of God. 00:24:52.519 --> 00:24:57.519 This is taking on a new identity. 00:24:57.519 --> 00:25:06.880 This is taking on a new identity, new name for yourself. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:11.880 You take on the name of your heavenly father. 00:25:11.880 --> 00:25:15.400 The first privilege of adoption is that you get God. 00:25:15.400 --> 00:25:17.359 He's the immediate inheritance. 00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:20.359 You get seated at his table. 00:25:20.359 --> 00:25:30.579 You get the privileges and protection and discipline and provision that the Lord offers. 00:25:30.579 --> 00:25:43.579 Going back to our first key verse in Ephesians chapter 1, as God's son, as God's daughter, you get every spiritual heaven there is under the heavens. 00:25:43.579 --> 00:25:46.440 So you get God's name. 00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:56.339 And because of that, the second privilege of adoption here, that you become an heir of God's glory. 00:25:56.339 --> 00:26:10.839 So you get God's name or you get to be claimed by him, you get to put God as your, well that's probably a poor example, I'm gonna say it anyway, you get to put God as your last name if you will. 00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:17.000 Just as if you were to adopt someone into your family, they take on your last name. 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:23.299 You don't keep calling them by their former parent's name. 00:26:23.299 --> 00:26:29.200 They are now your child, so they receive your last name. 00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:39.400 This is the way that it works from what I understand, and there are some members here that can educate me or correct me on this. 00:26:39.400 --> 00:26:55.619 But this is the way the adoption system works, at least in the United States, and that once a proclamation of adoption is given, once the courts legally proclaim this child yours, they issue a new birth certificate. 00:26:55.619 --> 00:27:00.759 And your last name, or the family's last name, is on that birth certificate. 00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:11.740 So as far as even their birth certificate is concerned, they're no more different or distinct than any of your other children. 00:27:11.740 --> 00:27:18.319 This is in a similar way, this is what we receive by taking on God's name. 00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:22.240 Because of that we become heirs of God's glory. 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:39.700 In verse 17, "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joined heirs with Christ, If indeed we suffer with Him, then we may also be glorified together." This is written into encouragement to Christians who are ongoing suffering. 00:27:39.700 --> 00:27:51.220 It's like yes, but if you suffer with Him, you are suffering for the name sake of Jesus Christ, you are suffering for the name sake of the Lord that you now have on you as He has adopted you into His family. 00:27:51.220 --> 00:28:05.119 But as you are suffering with Him, you may be an heir of the sufferings of Christ, but will also be a co-heir of the glory of Jesus Christ as well. 00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:11.359 So the inheritance is sweet in the family of God. 00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:25.480 Calvin writes on this, "Now, God's work is accomplished in them when, bearing the image of their heavenly Father in righteousness and holiness, they show themselves to be His true children. 00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:47.079 It should be firmly fixed in our heart that the Kingdom of Heaven is not payment owed to servants, but the children's inheritance which will only be enjoyed by those whom God has adopted as His children. 00:28:47.079 --> 00:28:51.380 Let me now move to some definitions of adoption. 00:28:51.380 --> 00:28:58.980 I mean by definitions, okay, let's summarize what these three verses are teaching. 00:28:58.980 --> 00:29:07.720 The first definition or summary is found in our church's confession, the second London Baptist confession in chapter 12. 00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:23.700 Chapter 12 is entitled "Of Adoption" and this is what it says, "God has granted that all those who are justified would receive the grace of adoption. 00:29:23.700 --> 00:29:40.480 In and for the sake of His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God. 00:29:40.480 --> 00:30:18.599 Have His name put on them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are unable to cry, Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a Father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation." Now there's a mouthful, a big summary, a big definition there, but I encourage you to look it up, at least reference it. 00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:31.000 But there we've got, in a compact statement, most of what we've just talked through and looking at are key versus. 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:36.380 We see that adoption is granted to all those who are justified. 00:30:36.380 --> 00:30:45.900 is a prerequisite for adoption and it's a guarantee that all those who are justified will be adopted. 00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:52.099 There's not going to be any forgotten child like some of you may have forgetting your kids at church. 00:30:52.099 --> 00:30:54.900 God doesn't do that on a Sunday morning. 00:30:54.900 --> 00:31:01.259 He doesn't do it on any other morning of the week but all his kids may get into the van. 00:31:01.259 --> 00:31:05.779 So there is no one who is justified who will not be adopted. 00:31:05.779 --> 00:31:14.819 And if this is for the sake of his only son, Jesus Christ, then we are made partakers of the grace of adoption. 00:31:14.819 --> 00:31:24.339 We enjoy the privileges, liberties, benefits of being now in the family of God and those are listed there. 00:31:24.339 --> 00:31:27.900 John Murray has a definition of adoption. 00:31:27.900 --> 00:31:36.940 He defines adoption as the process in which the redeemed become sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty. 00:31:36.940 --> 00:31:44.140 They are introduced into and given the privileges of God's family. 00:31:44.140 --> 00:31:53.019 Going back to John Gerudo, his definition of adoption is this. 00:31:53.019 --> 00:32:14.779 Adoption is an act of God's free grace whereby for the sake of Christ he formally translates the regenerate from the failure of Satan into his own and legally confirms them in all the rights and immunities and privileges of his children. 00:32:14.779 --> 00:32:16.140 So this is what it is. 00:32:16.140 --> 00:32:43.299 This is why adoption is a fitting translation, a fitting word for it, is that the redeem becomes sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, that the Lord adopts us out of the tragic family of this world, the tragic family of Satan, and adopts us into his own family. 00:32:43.299 --> 00:32:55.160 This is going back to the distinction between justification and adoption is that it's one thing for a judge to declare you innocent. 00:32:55.160 --> 00:33:04.420 Okay, it's one thing for the Lord to declare you innocent, which is a great and glorious truth to declare you righteous before his law. 00:33:04.420 --> 00:33:09.539 I'm not trying to take away from that, but it's a whole nother level. 00:33:09.539 --> 00:33:35.019 It's a whole nother thing for God to now bring you into his home as his son, as his daughter, to set you down at his dining room table and say this is your seat, this is your plate, this is your room, these are your benefits, these are your blessings of being in my family. 00:33:35.019 --> 00:33:47.759 So now, as a point of application, living as sons, adoption should be the lens in which we view the whole Christian life. 00:33:47.759 --> 00:33:53.960 We have different New Testament identities or different identities in relation to God. 00:33:53.960 --> 00:33:55.960 Yes, we are servants. 00:33:55.960 --> 00:34:03.359 Yes, it even says in some places that we are slays of Christ and these things are true. 00:34:03.359 --> 00:34:14.559 But I think that the predominant identity, the predominant way we should view ourselves in relation to God is as His adopted sons and daughters. 00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:22.280 This should be the primary lens in which we are viewing our relationship to God or the primary way in which we relate to the Lord. 00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:26.440 This is the way that we should view the whole Christian life. 00:34:26.440 --> 00:34:42.019 I think this is probably the reason why Christ in His model prayer to us and teaching us how to pray he begins the prayers addressing our heavenly Father or our Father who is in heaven. 00:34:42.019 --> 00:34:44.639 This is the primary way that we relate to God. 00:34:44.639 --> 00:34:45.639 J.I. 00:34:45.639 --> 00:34:55.280 Packer says the entire Christian life has to be understood in terms of adoption. 00:34:55.280 --> 00:35:01.599 Mark chapter 3 verse 35 says Christ calls his disciples children of God. 00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:18.320 Or J.A. Packer referencing Mark 3 35 says Christ calls his disciples children of God for whoever this is now the verse for whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister and my mother. 00:35:18.320 --> 00:35:20.360 This is what is Christ saying there? 00:35:20.360 --> 00:35:28.239 Well he's saying those those who does the will of God is my family. 00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:29.239 They are my family. 00:35:29.239 --> 00:35:37.139 They are my, and this is why I use familial terms here, my brother and my sister and my mother. 00:35:37.139 --> 00:35:42.920 So this is a reference showing us that okay, what is our primary identity? 00:35:42.920 --> 00:35:50.880 It's the son of God, daughter of God, and the family of God. 00:35:50.880 --> 00:36:00.320 So we live the Christian life now seeking to imitate, glorify and please our Heavenly Father. 00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:15.260 My Father did this for me, I am trying to do this for my children and teaching certain Christian virtues, certain life lessons, certain ethics or even certain just rules of the household. 00:36:15.260 --> 00:36:22.199 There were many occasions growing up where my dad would say, "Danny, you are a Thursby. 00:36:22.199 --> 00:36:23.980 Thursbys do not act like this. 00:36:23.980 --> 00:36:25.480 Thursbys do not do this. 00:36:25.480 --> 00:36:26.780 Thursbys act this way. 00:36:26.780 --> 00:36:28.059 Thursbys do this. 00:36:28.059 --> 00:36:34.739 Thursbys work hard." Whatever the lesson was, he was trying to correct me on or instill into me. 00:36:34.739 --> 00:36:38.179 It was because this is what Thursbys do. 00:36:38.179 --> 00:36:49.300 Well, as now a child of God, as you have a new name, as you are in a new family, you do what God does. 00:36:49.300 --> 00:36:59.119 So therefore we seek to imitate, glorify, and please our heavenly Father in whose, it is His name that is on us after all. 00:36:59.119 --> 00:37:06.219 So therefore we take on His name, Christian, Son of God, Daughter of God. 00:37:06.219 --> 00:37:07.719 We do not do this. 00:37:07.719 --> 00:37:10.960 That's not what God's family does. 00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:12.559 We do this. 00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:14.679 This is what God's family does. 00:37:14.679 --> 00:37:18.840 This is what it is to be in the family of God. 00:37:18.840 --> 00:37:20.059 This is discipleship. 00:37:20.059 --> 00:37:21.800 This is the Christian life. 00:37:21.800 --> 00:37:29.360 These are God's instructions to His children that He gives us through His word. 00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:40.000 Lastly, living as sons, or not lastly, second to lastly, living as sons, we most identify with the children of God. 00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.559 I love my natural family. 00:37:44.559 --> 00:37:48.280 I love them dearly. 00:37:48.280 --> 00:37:54.000 Some of my natural family by marriage we get to worship with in this very congregation. 00:37:54.000 --> 00:38:05.300 So this is nothing to downplay the blessing and relationship I have with both my parents and my in-laws. 00:38:05.300 --> 00:38:09.360 The family of God is a bond that runs thicker than blood. 00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:12.980 It is a bond that runs thicker than blood. 00:38:12.980 --> 00:38:17.760 This is in the very same context of the verse that I read in Mark chapter three. 00:38:17.760 --> 00:38:34.059 Christ is teaching that, in fact, if you follow me, then it's going to cause strife between mothers and daughters and fathers and sons and mothers and daughters in law. 00:38:34.059 --> 00:38:36.199 that it's going to cause family strife. 00:38:36.199 --> 00:38:48.199 And in other areas, in other teaching of Christ, he says that if you're going to follow me, then you must hate your mother and your father. 00:38:48.199 --> 00:38:59.420 Now the teaching from that isn't that you go and despise and spite or seek to dishonor your mother and your father, but he's talking about a priority of allegiance here. 00:38:59.420 --> 00:39:04.960 You can't love your mother and your father more than you love me, that's what Christ is saying. 00:39:04.960 --> 00:39:47.519 So on that same line of thought, or on that same principle, on that same truth, the family of God, your brothers and sisters in Christ, there's a deeper, eternal, stronger bond there than between your own blood, brother and sister, maybe your own blood, natural mother and father, that we most identify our closest identification or the family that now, we identify the closest with is the very family of God, the very children of God. 00:39:47.519 --> 00:40:14.719 That it's your brothers and sisters here to the left of you, to the right of you, that you are in this family, the family of God, this particular branch of the family of tree of God known as Grace Bible Church of Conway, that in the perspective of the Lord matters the most. 00:40:14.719 --> 00:40:22.519 It's your relationship, your identity, your closeness with your spiritual brothers and sisters. 00:40:22.519 --> 00:40:36.840 Lastly, I want to conclude with 1 John chapter 3 verse 1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. 00:40:36.840 --> 00:40:42.000 What manner of love is this that we should be called the very children of God? 00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:50.239 How in the world did we go from a sinful rebellious enemy of God? 00:40:50.239 --> 00:40:55.519 But yet at the right time, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. 00:40:55.519 --> 00:41:14.199 And it wasn't just that we were let out of jail, or left off the hook of our rebellion, pardoned from our iniquity, pardoned from our sin, or even just let free from the demands of God's law to go live our own lives, but he said no. 00:41:14.199 --> 00:41:21.639 Sinner, you are now a saint, you are now even more than that, my own child. 00:41:21.639 --> 00:41:24.199 What manner of love is this? 00:41:24.199 --> 00:41:36.119 There's no love that is going to be found like this apart from God himself and He has bestowed it on you and on me. 00:41:36.119 --> 00:41:38.199 That is an amazing truth. 00:41:38.199 --> 00:41:47.039 amazing bestowal, amazing manner of love that the Father has bestowed upon us. 00:41:47.039 --> 00:42:07.559 The last end of that verse, "Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him." We have been rescued out of the sinful, abusive, neglectful family of this world. 00:42:07.559 --> 00:42:09.380 They know nothing of God. 00:42:09.380 --> 00:42:12.059 We've been adopted now into his family. 00:42:12.059 --> 00:42:16.579 Therefore, they are not going to know anything of us. 00:42:16.579 --> 00:42:20.079 It did not know him. 00:42:20.079 --> 00:42:31.119 So this is why, brother and sister, if you feel rejected by the world, it's because you have been. 00:42:31.119 --> 00:42:36.340 If you feel despised by the world, it's because you are. 00:42:36.340 --> 00:42:46.340 because they know nothing of your new father who has adopted you into his family, who has bestowed you with that love. 00:42:46.340 --> 00:43:32.639 So now do not live in a manner according to the way of your former family and it could take a while with great difficulty to learn how to live in God's household, to learn how to live not according to the way of this world, not marching to the demands of your former parent, but to live by grace, to live under the household of God. There's a new house with new rules. This can be difficult, but you don't know it because the world did not know it. But now that that you have been saved and adopted in the family of God, the world is not going to know you. 00:43:32.639 --> 00:43:48.920 But as you already know, if you do not know, if you have been saved, you are walking with the Lord as you already know, it is a sweet and rich fellowship with our heavenly Father. 00:43:48.920 --> 00:43:54.900 His words are good to us, His discipline is even good to us, His provision is good for us. 00:43:54.900 --> 00:44:02.900 This is a loving Father who again has chosen you as His son, chosen you as His daughter. 00:44:02.900 --> 00:44:11.300 So let's walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel, worthy of this new name that we have on ourselves. 00:44:11.300 --> 00:44:13.340 Let's pray. 00:44:13.340 --> 00:44:27.059 Our Father in Heaven we come to You, O Lord, our Heavenly Father, our good and gracious Father, Lord, in thinking of this manner of love that's been bestowed upon us, words pale. 00:44:27.059 --> 00:44:30.139 The only words that come close are your words to us. 00:44:30.139 --> 00:44:31.980 You even help us in that. 00:44:31.980 --> 00:44:37.820 You're even teaching your children now and the extent of your love to us, Lord. 00:44:37.820 --> 00:44:56.260 Father, I pray that we would think of ourselves primarily as your children, primarily in your good graces primarily as a child who can run into your throne room, run in before your throne at our heart's delight at any time. 00:44:56.260 --> 00:44:58.460 You're not going to cast us away. 00:44:58.460 --> 00:45:14.059 You're never too busy for us in your throne room, but we rush in and we run and we jump in your lap any time our heart's delight. 00:45:14.059 --> 00:45:19.380 It's an amazing reality that you've chosen us as your children. 00:45:19.380 --> 00:45:23.019 Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 00:45:23.019 --> 00:45:27.900 And as He is your only begotten Son, we have now sonship through Him. 00:45:27.900 --> 00:45:30.420 This is truly an amazing truth. 00:45:30.420 --> 00:45:33.980 This is a life altering truth, Lord. 00:45:33.980 --> 00:45:36.300 Help us to live with your name sake. 00:45:36.300 --> 00:45:39.139 Help us to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel. 00:45:39.139 --> 00:45:44.300 us to live as you want your children to live in your household. 00:45:44.300 --> 00:45:49.840 Lord, as the world despises us, I pray that we remember this. 00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:53.340 It despises us because it knows not you. 00:45:53.340 --> 00:45:57.739 It does not know what it is to be a child in your household. 00:45:57.739 --> 00:46:16.780 But, Lord, we can proclaim to the world what it is, and we should proclaim to the world what it is to be a child of God, that they may come and know your sonship or daughtership by you as well. 00:46:16.780 --> 00:46:20.019 Lord, it is in Christ's name we pray these things. 00:46:20.019 --> 00:46:20.619 Amen. 00:46:20.619 --> 00:46:23.940 Dick