As the Lord helps me, I'd like
to look then at this precious truth, particularly from this
last portion of scripture that we read in the first epistle
of John chapter three, where John is speaking of this wonderful
doctrine. of adoption and how the Word
of God uses all the different family relationships of husband
and wife, of son and daughter, of brother and sister, all the
closest family ties are used in the Word of God. to illustrate
aspects of that love and relationship that Christ has to his church. And here in this doctrine of
adoption, which is the word adoption appears five times in the New
Testament, and how it's a picture you see of naturally adoption. It takes
place when we have a family, the natural biological parents
are no longer able to look after their children, or perhaps they're
unsuitable to look after their children, and they have to be
taken away from them, or they've deceased, they're not able to
look after them perhaps, and they have to be taken away and
put in a different family. And you see, this is taken in
the Word of God as a picture of we by nature, you see, we're
sons and daughters of Adam. In the fall, and Jesus also says
to others, ye are of your father, the devil. By nature, we're in
the wrong family. By nature, we're born into a
family, as it were, that are far off from God. And if we stay
in that family all our lives, and are faithful to the dictates
of Satan, to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
We will then spend eternity in a lake that burns with fire with
Satan and all his angels. But you see the Lord picks up
on this precious theme that the Lord many places in the Bible
it talks about justification, how that God justifies his people,
that act of justification whereby he stands in their place, he
bears their sin. We think of the courtroom where
the guilty one is in the dock and they've committed all these
crimes and the sentence is pronounced against those crimes and yet
the Lord Jesus stands in the place of that one who is guilty.
That's justification, an act of God's grace. But you see,
it doesn't stop there. If we think of justification
as God in the courtroom, we can think of adoption as the children
of God being brought into the living room, into the living
room, and to be a family member. And you see, this is what John
is making clear at the beginning of this chapter. Behold, this
is something to note, of great noteworthiness. Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the children of God. This is a love outside this world.
What manner of love? We think of that when Jesus was
on the boat in the storm and he rose up and rebuked the winds
and the waves and the disciples said, what manner of man is this? That even the wind and the waves
obey him. They couldn't understand what
sort of person this was. Well, here John uses the same
language, where he says, behold, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children
of God. This is 1 John, chapter three,
and the first three verses. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
children of God. So it's a wonderful thing. You
see, you have this situation where you can sponsor sometimes
a child in a foreign country. You can sponsor them to bring
them up with a good education and pay for their needs in various
ways and their medical needs. And that's very kind. And yet,
it's not the same as taking that child and bringing them into
your own family, to share your house, to give them a bedroom,
and to provide for them, and then for them to come into all
the family privileges and inheritances. You see, this is a different
level. And this is what God does for
his people. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
children, the sons and daughters, obviously that means as well,
of God. I just printed out from the 1689 London Baptist Confession
of Faith, the little article that it has on adoption. And
it says, all those that are justified, God graciously grants 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. Have his name put upon them,
receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of
grace with boldness, are enabled to cry Abba Father, are pitied,
protected, provided for, and chastened by him as by a father. You see, it's all in love. Yet
never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption and inherit
the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation. It's a precious statement,
isn't it? And that's what we mean by adoption. And you see, you might think,
well, when you think of adoption, you might think, well, it's that
you have these children that are so little and cute looking,
and you feel so sorry for them that you would adopt them into
your family. But really, when we think of this spiritual adoption,
it's something different. You think of the Saul of Tarsus,
yet breathing out threatenings against the Lord and against
his church. This Saul of Tarsus is going
to be adopted into the family. An enemy, while we were yet enemies,
Christ died for us. You see, these were enemies.
He paid their debt, but didn't then tell them to go and live
in some area over there out of his way. No, he saves them to
bring them into union with himself. And the Bible is so full of showing
the union that exists between Christ and his church. It's not
just saving them. It's bringing them into the family,
bringing them into that relationship that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore, the world knows us
not. The world doesn't understand
why we find this so precious. They don't understand us because
we have different motives. We have different games. You
see, a true motive to a child of God is to say, I shall be
satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. You ask the world,
is that their greatest desire? To be found in likeness with
the despised and a crucified man? Is that their aim? Is that
their objective? But it is of a true child of
God. Therefore the world knoweth us not. The lust, the pomp, the
pride of life, that's what motivates the world. but to be motivated
to be more conformed to the image of his son. The world doesn't
understand us. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew not him. And that's why we have to be
separate from the world in that sense, because they have a different
agenda. They have a different aim. 1
Peter 4 and verse 4 says, wherein they think it strange that ye
run not with them to the same excessive riot, speaking evil
of you. They don't understand why we
can't spend our life enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season
because we've got something better. The children of God, you see,
they've got something much better. Beloved, now. Are we the sons
of God? Not something future, it will
affect the future, but it's something now. Now the people of God, and
you see, adoption is an act, as justification is an act. You're not adopted one week and
taken out of adoption the next. It's a once-off act. adopted
into that family, just as justification is. Sanctification isn't. That's
an ongoing work. But this adoption, you see, Jesus
does not call us coming into his kingdom as coming in to foster
children. See, when you foster children,
they come and they go, don't they? They come to a few weeks
for one place and they go somewhere else. But God doesn't use that
analogy. He says adopted. And in adoption
you see your biological parents lose all the legal rights over
you. And the new father and mother
take on all that responsibility to care. It's a beautiful picture
of, you see, we've lost, we've broken our ties with Satan and
all his hellish hosts and we've been brought into the kingdom
of God. It's a wonderful privilege. And you see, all the privileges
that come, you think of it naturally. If you were adopted, let's say,
into the royal family, you'd think, well, they've got so much. They've got such privileges,
such wealth and such inheritance. What would it be to be adopted
into something like that? But you see, if we rightly understand
the word of God, we've been adopted into a far higher family than
the royal family. No disrespect to the royal family.
Much greater, because this is the king of kings and the lord
of lords. This is the one that created
the universe. This is the one who has all resources at his
hands. This is the one who has the cattle upon a thousand hills
at his control. And this one is our father. Behold
what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the children of God, the sons of God. We're
called it, you see. We're called out of nature's
darkness. We're given a new name. We're given his name. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him. You tell that to the world, that
you're going to be like a despised and a crucified man. You're going
to walk a humble life. No attraction. Isaiah 53 picks
it up. There's no beauty that we should
desire in him. But to these sons and daughters
of the Most High, they say, that's lovely. That's beautiful. But
we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. He's our elder brother and you
see that, you see, in a family you say, that family you can
see the family likeness. You can see their brothers and
sisters. And so it should be seen that we can see the family
likeness between us and our elder brother. We should be conformed,
the whole purpose of God's working in our hearts is to make us conformed
to the image of his son so that we bear the family likeness,
not of our old family, but of our new. The one that God has
adopted us into by his grace. And then in verse 3 it says,
and every man that hath this hope in himself, purifies himself
even as he is pure. And you see, this is an ongoing
work. And that's where Jesus says,
blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Such a need to hunger after these
things. And Philippians, you see, is
speaking of these things. In Philippians 2 and verse 12,
it says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for
it is God which worketh in you, both to will and do of his good
pleasure. And then in chapter 4 of Philippians, it says this,
Philippians 4 verse 9, those things which ye have both learned
and received and heard and seen in me do. There's a practical
doing of the will of God, and the God of peace shall be with
you. You see, the assurance, and I believe that's what it's
speaking about in Romans, which we read in Romans 8, for ye have
received the spirit, ye have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit of adoption, that
means that these, you see you have that sometimes with adoption,
the children don't really fit, they don't really believe that
they're part of the new family, they don't really bond. But you
see, God is able to give us the spirit of adoption, whereby we
really believe that God is our Father. There's that sweet assurance. But look at the order of it.
Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard
in me do, we're to do the will of God. We're to walk in his
statutes as God gives us grace. And the peace of God will be
with you. In other words, that assurance comes after as it were
we seek to follow after righteousness. And you see, that's very important
in our lives. We mustn't expect high levels
of assurance coupled with low levels of obedience. David, when
he had low levels of obedience, he lost the joy of his salvation
with the matter of Bathsheba. But you see, when we have those,
when we hunger and thirst after righteousness, God has said that,
you see, then he blesses with his spirit, and the God of peace
shall be with you. There'll be that assurance. There'll
be that spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We come
to him as our Father, as his children, and we realize that
all he has for us is blessed. And then, of course, a wonderful
thought is that inheritance that God has for his people. Inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. This is
a wonderful family to be part of. To be part of this family
whose father fills the throne. wonderful privilege and as we
come on to the brethren praying now soon there is you see one
of the parts it picks up in this this statement about adoption
is have access to the throne of grace with boldness in the
boldness in the sense we come to him as our father that loves
us not arrogance but humble boldness, that this is the Father that
we love and that loves us, and we come and ask him, out of his
fullness, to provide for our needs. May the Lord add his blessing
on those few thoughts.