SPEAKER_00: Our scripture reading this morning is found in the book of Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: I'll begin reading in chapter 3, verse 23, and conclude in chapter 4, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Please turn there with me.
SPEAKER_00: And if you happen to not have your Bible with you this morning, there should be a Bible located right there in the shelf in front of you, and you can find it on page 974.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't own a Bible, I encourage you at the close of this service, that Bible that you're using right now, please take it home with you as our gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: We would love for you to have it, to read and study, and to learn what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ through faith.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 3, I'll begin reading in verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned under the coming faith, until the coming faith would be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
SPEAKER_00: But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a guardian.
SPEAKER_00: For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.
SPEAKER_00: For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are in Christ, if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
SPEAKER_00: I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.
SPEAKER_00: But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
SPEAKER_00: And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: So you are no longer a slave, but a son.
SPEAKER_00: And if a son, then an heir through God.
SPEAKER_00: Today is Orphan Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning we're going to talk about perhaps one of the most neglected truths in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about what it means to be a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: What it means to be adopted into God's family.
SPEAKER_00: The vertical informs the horizontal.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about adopting children, but oftentimes we make a mistake and we begin by thinking about our understanding of what adoption is horizontally, and then we read that into what the text is saying about adoption.
SPEAKER_00: There is an analogy to be made.
SPEAKER_00: However, the biblical description of adoption in Christ through redemption is so much richer and fuller, and it informs what a human adoption should be all about.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what we are going to be focusing on this morning primarily is what it means for us to be brought into the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is honestly the most important sermon I never heard.
SPEAKER_00: Or if I did hear it, it never registered in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I think the issue of spiritual adoption is one of the most neglected doctrines in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: And to be honest with you, I have lived most of my Christian life as an orphan and not as a son.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a little bit of personal history.
SPEAKER_00: I've been a Christian now for over 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: I graduated from college 20 years ago with a biblical studies major.
SPEAKER_00: I've been in pastoral ministry now, full time for 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: I finished seminary during that time, graduating with a Master of Divinity.
SPEAKER_00: And I would have to say that until this year, the reality of the depth of this truth never penetrated my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Higher even than justification.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what Packer goes on to say.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child.
SPEAKER_00: And having God as his father.
SPEAKER_00: If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayer and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I have to be honest here.
SPEAKER_00: I think for most of my Christian life I didn't understand Christianity very well.
SPEAKER_00: And that I lived more as an orphan than a son.
SPEAKER_00: This week, God has been opening my eyes to an area of sin in my life.
SPEAKER_00: That this week God has been showing me how much I covet, how jealous I am.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about in a superficial way.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we all want things that we don't have.
SPEAKER_00: We see a nice car, we see some of these, we go to somebody's house, they have a nicer house than us, things.
SPEAKER_00: But as God has been revealing these things to me, of realizing how deep and systemic and long-lasting these sins have been in my life, and I haven't seen them or addressed them, and because I haven't seen them or addressed them, I haven't confessed them, and God in his patience has been allowing that until this time.
SPEAKER_00: In years past, my reaction would have been either to deny it to myself or just to fake it, because I can't admit to anybody that I'm I'm really that pervasive of a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: But more than that to run from God.
SPEAKER_00: More than that to say, I can't look at the mess that God's showing me.
SPEAKER_00: I can't show this to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And so I need to run and hide until I felt bad enough, until I had done enough emotional penance, until I thought that I had I had beat myself up enough, and then I could come to my father.
SPEAKER_00: But this week, as God was revealing this to me, I realized because of the truth of the reality that He is my heavenly Father who loves me and cares for me, that I can run to Him, that I can run to His arms with my mess, not having to hide, not having to be afraid, not having to pretend, not having to lie to myself or to pretend to anybody else, and to realize that God, my Father, already accepts me completely and perfectly because I am his precious child.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what it means to be adopted.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we confuse different doctrines.
SPEAKER_00: We confuse doctrines sometimes, and I think this is part of why we don't understand the depth and the richness of adoption.
SPEAKER_00: And for some of you, especially you theological wonks out there, um, all two of you, uh, let me explain this for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, adoption is not the same as justification.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna explain what those words mean because sometimes I think we confuse these two ideas.
SPEAKER_00: Uh justification means that before God in his judicial court we are declared not guilty.
SPEAKER_00: That forensically, that before God, because Jesus Christ paid the penalty that we deserve, because he paid our debt, because God's wrath was poured out on him, that we don't receive God's wrath.
SPEAKER_00: And in addition to that, we have been declared righteous because we have been clothed with Christ's righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So he took the penalty for our sins, and positively, we are declared righteous because we're clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the doctrine of justification, to be declared just before God, to be made acceptable before God.
SPEAKER_00: It's our legal standing before God, being declared not guilty and being made righteous, positionally before God.
SPEAKER_00: Sinclair Ferguson makes this astute observation.
SPEAKER_00: He says this.
SPEAKER_00: Contrasting the idea of being just before God and being adopted, he says the very fact that a judge pronounces the verdict of not guilty does not commit him to take the accused to his home and allow him all the privileges of a son.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that a judge pronounces the verdict of not guilty does not commit him to take the accused to his home and to allow him all the privileges of a son, and that is what God has done through adoption.
SPEAKER_00: Adoption is not the same as regeneration or being born again, being made spiritually alive.
SPEAKER_00: In the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 12 and 13, John writes this: But to all who did receive him, who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what John says here.
SPEAKER_00: He says that we have been born again, that God has made us spiritually alive, that we have been given new birth, new life, so that we can receive sonship.
SPEAKER_00: That we can be the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: When we were born again, when we were made alive, when we were regenerated, we were given the nature as sons.
SPEAKER_00: In adoption, we are given the right to have the true status as sons with all the privileges of sonship.
SPEAKER_00: So in regeneration, we have the nature, we receive a new nature, but in adoption, we now stand before God as his beloved children with all of the rights and privileges of being a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is why John in his epistle could say this, and I love how the NIV translates this.
SPEAKER_00: The exclamation of it, it captures the weight of what John says and the wonder and the awe that it says.
SPEAKER_00: See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what we are.
SPEAKER_00: We are called children because we are adopted.
SPEAKER_00: And adoption, like justification, is not subject to degrees.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean when you have a good day, you're more his son, and when you have a bad day, you're less his son.
SPEAKER_00: God's love for you is perfect and constant, and you are his child.
SPEAKER_00: You stand before him always and forever, accepted the object of his love.
SPEAKER_00: And it is an unchanging, unyielding status that never goes down, and it can't go up because it's perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what's the definition of adoption?
SPEAKER_00: Our spiritual adoption is about estrangement, not that we need parents.
SPEAKER_00: Author Dan Kruver, who uh heads an organization for adoption, he writes this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, from God's perspective, adoption is not necessarily about orphans at all in the sense of needing parents.
SPEAKER_00: It is essentially about estrangement.
SPEAKER_00: Adoption is about God taking into his home those who have rebelled against him.
SPEAKER_00: All humanity is naturally estranged from God.
SPEAKER_00: We are all rebels, all disobedient sons, for we were all made in his image and created to worship him.
SPEAKER_00: Yet we have rejected him, as did Adam, as did Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Adoption is about the reconciliation of the rebellious.
SPEAKER_00: Our confusion comes when we look at human adoption and end up focusing on the fact that a child needs parents.
SPEAKER_00: God focuses on the fact that a lost person needs saving.
SPEAKER_00: We were slaves, we were enemies, we were children of wrath, and we were unworthy.
SPEAKER_00: There was nothing within us that would cause God to place his love for us.
SPEAKER_00: It was by his sheer grace and mercy that he chose us and brought us into his family.
SPEAKER_00: There is a relationship in adoption to the adoption in the Roman society, and unlike our own, though, Paul uses this as the basis, but he expands on it and deepens it.
SPEAKER_00: In Roman society, and like our own, the purpose of adoption and laws was not to safeguard the rights and privileges of the child, but was exclusively thought of in terms of the benefits and blessings which the adopter received.
SPEAKER_00: The illustration, think of human adoption for a moment, and let me just bring out some points, and we're going to look at the text to see how God, this illustration fills out.
SPEAKER_00: And in human adoption, it's put on our hearts to adopt a child, and the child is chosen.
SPEAKER_00: And even before you meet or know the child, you begin to love that child.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you read a description or saw a picture.
SPEAKER_00: And from the beginning, there is love there.
SPEAKER_00: Preparations are made, and then the child is brought into the family with all of the blessings and privileges and rights as a son or daughter.
SPEAKER_00: And he is no less your child because of how he entered your family.
SPEAKER_00: He is equal to every other member of the household.
SPEAKER_00: And this is just a glimpse of the beginning of an illustration of what God has done for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: And so, for a little bit, let's go and look at some of the passages that talk about adoption.
SPEAKER_00: We won't cover them all.
SPEAKER_00: Turn first to the book of Ephesians, chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Keep your finger in Galatians because we're going to spend a good bit of our time there.
SPEAKER_00: But let's begin in Ephesians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul tells us here, what the Bible tells us, is that our adoption was planned before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 6 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
SPEAKER_00: In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.
SPEAKER_00: There is an amazing truth here that Paul unfolds in this long, if we were to study this whole passage from verse 3 to 14 is one long, glorious run-on sentence, but but we don't have time to study all of it.
SPEAKER_00: But let me just highlight a few things of what the apostle Paul says here to tell us the privileged position and the status that we have and the grace of God at work in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Blessed be the God and Father who has blessed us in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: When we came to Christ, we were in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We became a part of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: We are placed in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have union with Christ, and as a result of that, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is ours.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: That God chose you.
SPEAKER_00: That it wasn't haphazard and random that you are here, that you are a part of God's family, and that we love him because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_00: God was the great initiator of our salvation, and it was in his mind before we even existed.
SPEAKER_00: And God set a goal.
SPEAKER_00: It was to be in Christ, yes, but more than just forgiveness of sins and justification.
SPEAKER_00: It was that we would be his children.
SPEAKER_00: He says, in love, he predestined us, he set a goal for us, a purpose for us, more than just forgiveness, that we will be the sons and daughters through Christ according to his purpose, to the praise and glory of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: Our status has changed from a person who is alienated from God under the authority of sin to formerly being brought under a new authority and being called children of God.
SPEAKER_00: One author writes, God inaugurates us into a new relationship with himself by adopting us into his family and bestowing upon us the rights and privileges of true children.
SPEAKER_00: And this adoption was worked out in time and space.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul is talking about in Galatians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Before Christ came, people were under the old covenant held captive under the law as guardians until Christ came.
SPEAKER_00: But in the new covenant, following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have entered into a deeper, richer, and more intimate relationship with God as our Heavenly Father through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's look at the present reality of our adoption.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that our adoption, first of all, was planned before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, secondly, the present reality of our adoption through the sacrificial death and bodily resurrection of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you're looking in Galatians chapter 3, look at verse, beginning in verse 26, and we're just going to walk through this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we don't have time to bring out all of the richness of what Paul is saying here, but let me just highlight.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier, he says, we have union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have been united with Christ by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at verse 2026 in Galatians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: He says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But you know, now that faith has come, that Christ has come, the fullness of our salvation has come, the reality of Christ's death and resurrection in time and space to accomplish God's purpose has come.
SPEAKER_00: For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul here, of course, means sons and daughters, using the word sons to cover all of us as God's children.
SPEAKER_00: But that reality that we are sons of God through faith.
SPEAKER_00: That we are God's children.
SPEAKER_00: And look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you know, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ Jesus, you came to faith in Christ, you followed him in baptism, you've put on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He says, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this, that when you came into God's family, when he accepted you as his son, you have an equal status with every other believer.
SPEAKER_00: There are no second class Christians.
SPEAKER_00: There are no stepchildren.
SPEAKER_00: There are no favorites with God.
SPEAKER_00: We all stand before God as his children.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter what sins you've committed, it doesn't matter the false guilt and shame that you've carried throughout your life.
SPEAKER_00: God has called you his child, and you stand before him, accepted equally with every other believer, you and Billy Graham standing side by side, equally accepted before the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says in verse 29, and if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says here that we've been grafted into the people of God and are heirs of all of the promises of God in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That all that God has been purposing and planning and working in redemption of history, redemptive history, we have become a part of that when we became united with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In verses 1 to 3 of chapter 4, he talks about a change in status.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I mean that the heir, as long as he's a child, is no different from a slave.
SPEAKER_00: Children in biblical times had no status and no rights.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you were a minor child until you came to a certain age, you wouldn't have the rights and privileges of being a child in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: And so, but Paul says, I'm not talking about a child in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: He says that though he's uh though he is an owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's contrasting the reality prior to Christ's coming and what it is now.
SPEAKER_00: He says, in the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Christ came.
SPEAKER_00: We who were under bondage, we who were slaves, and those who were alienated, that we now, because of Christ's death, have been redeemed so that, verse 5, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6 says, But because you are sons, because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to look at Romans 8, 14 through 17, but Paul says they are very similar here.
SPEAKER_00: But you have received the Spirit of Adoption, the sons, by whom we cry, Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: The word for cry isn't a word that is talking about a restful repose and a baby who might make a few sounds.
SPEAKER_00: This is a picture of a child who has fallen, who is hurting, who is bruised, who is battered, who is beaten, who is in pain.
SPEAKER_00: And he cries out in the midst of his pain to his father in this tender term.
SPEAKER_00: The word Abba is a word of respect and of tenderness.
SPEAKER_00: It's like daddy, but it's more than that because there's an attitude of respect that's there.
SPEAKER_00: But it was a word that a child would call to his father because he knew that his father loved him and cared for him and accepted him and was for him and would be there so he could cry out in the midst of his pain, in the midst of his mess, and his father who loved him would hear him and run to him and pick him up and care for him and clean him off.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, We have been given the Spirit so that we can cry, Abba, Father.
SPEAKER_00: It's so important that we recognize and understand our new identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We've been adopted into God's family, and he is our heavenly Father who loves us and delights in us.
SPEAKER_00: I was reading a book just this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I started reading another book last night, and it was kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_00: And the author asked this question.
SPEAKER_00: He said, If you were to picture God, what face is he making at you?
SPEAKER_00: Is he scowling?
SPEAKER_00: Is he making a face like he's going to give you a snake or is he going to give you a stone?
SPEAKER_00: And this author said, Is he looking at you, smiling and giving you an ice cream cone face?
SPEAKER_00: What is the picture that you have that you think God is looking at you?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says that God, that if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more does our heavenly father?
SPEAKER_00: What are the implications of our being sons and daughters?
SPEAKER_00: Let me list a few.
SPEAKER_00: God is our heavenly father.
SPEAKER_00: He exercises loving authority over us.
SPEAKER_00: Because he loves us, he disciplines us, he calls us back to himself.
SPEAKER_00: God as our loving Father showers us with affection.
SPEAKER_00: There is an intimacy of this reality of the relationship that we have with God.
SPEAKER_00: He loves us in Christ just like he loves Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: His love is perfect and complete.
SPEAKER_00: We have an intimate fellowship with God as our gracious Father.
SPEAKER_00: God as our Heavenly Father gives us dignity and respect regardless of our past, regardless of our sins, regardless of our present reality, regardless of our struggles.
SPEAKER_00: We have a new status as God's child.
SPEAKER_00: We're not orphans.
SPEAKER_00: We are his sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: Protection, provision, fellowship, honor, and discipline when we stray.
SPEAKER_00: God loves us and he will always act for our good in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Our adoption assures us of an even more glorious future.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans 8.23, it says, But we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, just the deposit, the down payment, he says in Ephesians 1, grown inwardly as we await for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to the full and final completion of the adoption that we have when we are resurrected and receive our glorified bodies.
SPEAKER_00: And our ultimate goal in the new heavens and the new earth is to behold God and see our Father's loving face, and we behold him face to face.
SPEAKER_00: You're thinking to yourself, Dave, your time's up.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't even talked about human adoption yet.
SPEAKER_00: You're right.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's so important for us to understand this neglected reality, to inform us of what it means to reach out missionally to this hurting, broken, and lost world.
SPEAKER_00: To quote Dan Kruver, again, the director of Together for Adoption, he writes, the ultimate purpose of human adoption by Christians, therefore, is not to give orphans parents, as important as that is, it is to place them in Christian home that they might be positioned to receive the gospel so that within family the world might witness a representation of God taking in and genuinely loving the helpless, the hopeless, and the despised.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on to say when Christians rediscover the extravagant love and delight in them that God has for them, they begin to live differently.
SPEAKER_00: They begin to live missionally.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone is called to adopt.
SPEAKER_00: And please don't hear me if that's what you think I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: That's a dis not a decision to be made impulsively or motivated by guilt or pity.
SPEAKER_00: As a church, collectively, we're called to care for the weak and the powerless, the orphan and the widow.
SPEAKER_00: For you, it may be that God is leading you to adopt.
SPEAKER_00: It may be that God is calling you to be a foster parent and open your house, or to become a big brother or a big sister to a child that has no healthy adult influences.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's praying for those who are the weakest and most vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it's helping another family who wants to adopt but doesn't have the initial resources, but has the home and is willing to open their home.
SPEAKER_00: Our moving out in faith, whether it's telling a person about Christ or adopting a child into your family, come to come under the hearing of the gospel, is motivated out of the overflow of your heavenly Father's lavish love for you.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible has called us both to declare the gospel in our words and to demonstrate the gospel in our lives, our actions, our choices, so that we live missionally for the purpose of glorifying God, proclaiming the gospel, and demonstrating it through the choices we make.
SPEAKER_00: One author said this biblical adoption and orphan care are tangible demonstrations and pictures of the gospel, of God's adoption of us, put on display for the world to see and give glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: God is calling each of us in different ways, but God is calling all of us collectively to care for the weak, the powerless, the orphan, the widow, to declare the gospel and to demonstrate the gospel for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: Words we don't use very much, or maybe at all, because we feel like we're orphans, or we feel like we're second-class children.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, I pray that the truth of the reality of our absolute and complete and total acceptance by you in Christ and your love and your affection and your interest and your care would penetrate our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: That this reality, this truth is not a legal fiction, it is a reality accomplished by the death and resurrection of Christ, that we have been redeemed for adoption, would penetrate our hearts, that we would live in light of your lavish love as your children.
SPEAKER_00: And then move us, Lord, and motivate us to declare the gospel and to demonstrate the gospel each day.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.