Well, this evening, as I normally
do when they pass us away for the midweek service, I'll read
a sermon of the late pastor, Mr Matronola. And this sermon
is entitled Adoption of Sons. It was a sermon preached on the
Lord's Day morning, 27th of September, 1992. And the Text is 1 John chapter 3 verse
1. 1 John chapter 3 verse 1. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. The subject I want to speak on
with the Lord's help is the adoption of the sons of God. Christ is
the Son of God, both in an essential and in an eternal sense. Although
in several scriptures the angels are called the sons of God, and
the elect are called the sons of God by adoption, the sonship
of Christ is altogether different. He is, in the words of the hymn
by Josiah Condor, of the full deity possessed, eternally divine. He is not a son that is in any
sense inferior to the Father. He is not a created son. He is
the eternal son. He is eternally begotten. what
is termed the eternal filiation or the eternal sonship, the eternal
generation of the son. He is a son to the father and
the father is as a father to the son from all eternity. This is part of the great mystery
of godliness, which mystery is heightened when you consider
that which follows, and without controversy great, is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The Eternal Son took our nature
upon Him, which will come presently to our text, but I want first
to make certain points on the doctrine of adoption. What do
we mean by adoption? Question 34 in the Shorter Catechism
is, what is adoption? The answer is, adoption is an
act of God's free grace whereby we are received into the number
and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. Those of
you who are familiar with the Catechism will know that this
definition of adoption follows shortly after the definition
of effectual calling. The Catechism's definition of
adoption is seen therefore within the setting of the effectual
call, that which makes us a Christian. When we are regenerated, when
we are called by grace, when we are brought to repentance
and faith, then we become new creatures in Christ and are converted
to God through him. Then we partake of justification,
adoption, and sanctification, and all that flows from these
things. And this is how adoption is often
treated, as flowing from effectual calling. When we are regenerated,
we are justified and we are adopted, we are brought into the number
and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. You know
what civil adoption is. Civil adoption would be practiced
in most, if not all, nations of the earth. It means that those
can be adopted as children who are not the real children of
the parents. Childless parents may adopt others to be their
children. Or those who already have their
own children may, for reasons of their own, legally adopt other
children to be part of their family. There is also such a
thing as religious adoption. The Apostle Paul speaks of the
Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption. Romans 9.4 The
children of Israel were in a sense adopted as God's family. God chose the nation of Israel
out of all the other nations of the earth, showed it many
favours and was a father to it, and they became as his sons and
daughters. There was a sense then in which
the Jewish people were religiously adopted as a nation, although
of course that did not mean that every one of them was savingly
brought into the family of God. It meant only, but in an external
sense, they were in a place of national privilege. We know only
too well, and this is the sad fact of the redemptive history
of Israel, that though they as a nation were treated in this
special way, yet there were but few at any time within the nation
who knew a circumcision that was a circumcision of the heart. All knew the circumcision in
the flesh, but only those who were called by grace knew the
opening of their hearts and what it was to be the sons and daughters
of God by adoption. Religious adoption is, therefore,
to be seen not merely as the adoption of the nation, but rather,
in the New Testament sense, that the elect are adopted. They are brought into the number
and given the right to all the privileges of the sons of God. When we are called, we are brought
to know these rights and these privileges of being the people
of God. We are those that are sons of
God. The Shorter Catechism is correct
as far as it goes. But I don't think that it is
an adequate statement of the doctrine of adoption. For by
confining adoption to our experience, after we have been regenerated,
that we are then brought into the family of God, it leaves
unsaid that we are those who are chosen eternally to be the
family of God. Adoption must be seen not only
as something which comes to us in experience, subsequent to
our receiving of the Gospel, so that we are brought to know
that we are justified, we are adopted, we are being sanctified,
but rather we have got to see it as being in the mind and will
of God from all eternity. It is plainly shown in the Scriptures,
without any shadow of doubt, that our adoption is an everlasting
adoption. We were adopted into the family
of God before the worlds were framed. And anything we experience
of adoption in time is because of the eternal election and will
of God. In the opening verses of Ephesians,
Paul gives this description of praise. who have blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He has chosen us in Him from the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will." In the
Council of the Godhead. There was the predestination
of the elect unto the adoption of children. It was then that
the family were chosen, and that company were numbered to whom
God would be a father, and they would be his sons. In the will
of God, adoption precedes calling. Adoption is not something which
comes about because Christ has died and therefore we are adopted
in Him. Rather, it is because of an eternal
adoption that there is a Saviour who dies. He dies for a number
that they might be the children of God, that He might be just
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. You see this
so plainly in Paul's epistle to the Galatians, where the subject
of adoption is treated at some length. The apostle speaks concerning
the fact that we, when we were children, were in bondage under
the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. Galatians 4 verses 3 to 6. If
you follow the Apostles' teaching in these verses, you find that
Paul is saying that we were children, we were the adopted family of
God, we were in the mind of God from all eternity. Then in time, Generation after
generation in the Jewish dispensation included those who were of the
children of God, but they were in bondage. They were still in
their minority. They were the adopted family
of God, but they had not yet been brought to that place when
they knew the glorious privileges which were theirs in Christ.
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His
Son to redeem them that were under the law that they might
receive the adoption not that they might be adopted
but that they might receive the adoption which already existed
in the mind and will of God and because ye are sons God hath
sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba
Father The elect therefore were the adopted sons of God before
the creation of the world, before the fall of Adam. To reiterate, the elect, in the
days of their minority throughout the Old Testament period, when
they were under the law and were not yet brought into the finality,
the fullness and the completeness of grace, did not yet know the
extent of their glorious privileges in Christ. but they were ever
the children of God. There never was a time that they
were not the children of God. Christ came for those who were
the children of God. This is plainly seen in Hebrews. I will put my trust in him and
again behold I and the children which God hath given me. Hebrews
2.13 Here Christ views those who were given to him in the
covenant of grace, I and the children which God have given
me. Here is the adoption of sons. The children already existed
in the mind of God before they were born, before they fell,
before they were called by grace, and they were given to Christ.
For as much then as the children as the adopted family of God,
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. In order that the children the
elect of Adam's race might be redeemed, it was necessary that
the Son of God from all eternity should take our nature upon him.
Wherefore, in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Christ
suffered for them in their humanity because they were the children
of God. Because they were of Adam's posterity,
flesh and blood, He came in time and took their humanity that
He might represent them and He died for them. You see that brought out in a
forceful fashion in the words of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was an
ungodly man, Yet he spoke these words prophetically, not comprehending
the significance of what he was, under God's sovereign influence,
made to speak. One of them, named Caiaphas,
being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know
nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that
one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish
not. And this spake he, not of himself, but being high priest
that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation
and not for that nation only but also he should gather together
in one the children of God that were scattered abroad then from that day forth they
took counsel together for to put him to death John 11 verses
49 to 53 he died for the children who were scattered abroad, those
who in the eternal purpose had been adopted in Christ to be
the children of God. Adoption, therefore, is not to
be conceived as something which did not exist until Christ died,
and that it was only as a result of Christ's death that there
was the adoption of believers into God's family. It is rather
because there was a family in the sovereign purposes of God,
the people who were given to Christ in the Covenant, that
Christ came and took their nature. It is because of the adoption
that He came to gather those who were the outcasts of the
children of God. It is because of the adoption
that being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Adoption
is in the divine decree, and in the divine decree it is settled
everlastingly. God has had a people in Christ
from the very beginning, indeed from before the beginning, because
beginning belongs to time. Before this world was created,
before angels were made, before anything was brought into being,
there were the sons of God by adoption, by divine love. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. There was the predestination,
then the adoption, there was the representing of us and the
redeeming of us by Christ because of adoption and it is bestowed
upon the elect in their experience now are we the sons of God because
God has chosen us and God effectually calls us and by the Spirit we
are brought into the blessings and benefits of it Let us leave the doctrine of
adoption at this point and come more directly to our text. And consider what we have before
us. Behold what manner of love! Behold what manner of love! The
new international version, the NIV, omits the word behold and
does not translate it, although it is clearly there in the Greek.
And this is the version of the Bible which in many evangelical
pulpits has ousted the authorized version. It is a false version. The more I consider it, the more
I see that it is an erroneous and unfaithful version. It is
most inadequate. Much of the confusion in Christendom
today is because of the attitude to the scriptures that so-called
scholars have taken in the last 100 years. Not only the liberalism and the
modernism which deny what the Bible says, but the very denial
of the Bible itself. What more devilish thing than
for Satan to cause men to bring into the pulpits a Bible which
is unreliable? The word BEHOLD is removed in
the NIV, here and in every other place. Subtraction from the Word
of God brings down, according to the words of Scripture itself,
God's curse. If any man shall take away from
the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away
his part out of the book of life. Revelation 22.19 The word BEHOLD
is included because here are things which make us to wonder. and which lead us to worship
God. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God, not servants but sons. We should be called the
sons of God because that is the fact of the matter. It's not
just that we are given a title which has no relation to fact,
as the Queen is called the Defender of the Faith. is not merely a
courtesy title. It means that we are called the
sons of God because we are sons of God. We are called the sons of God
because in the elective purposes of Jehovah we were appointed
thereunto. We were given our portion as
sons before the world was formed. It is a wonder that any are called
but it is a greater wonder that I am called. In the words of
the hymn, why me, why me, O blessed God? Why such a wretch as me? We can only think of the words of
the apostle, ye see your calling brethren, how that not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.
1 Corinthians 1 verses 26-29 Why any are called is because
God hath chosen them. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. His precious and unique doctrine
belongs only to the Church, although there are those who believe that
it belongs to all men. God, they claim, is the father
of all men. He is their creator and their father. It is true
that God is the author of creation and in that sense men are, as
Paul says, the offspring of God, seeing he giveth to all life
and breath and all things. But that does not mean that there
is a universal fatherhood of God. Rather, he who is the Father
from all eternity, and who as the first person of the Godhead
is to be worshipped as the Father, has willed to bring himself into
a relationship out of his pure love towards certain of the human
race to whom he will be merciful in Christ. there is a particular
fatherhood of God which belongs exclusively to the church. God is the father of his adopted
family, those whom he has chosen to be his in the councils of
the Godhead. This doctrine is so precious
because it is so meaningful to the church. As I've just said,
that we should be called the sons of God is no empty title. It's no empty title, it's full
of meaning. As an earthly father is towards his children, we are
to see that God is all of that to his children. He is so in a perfect way, and
beyond anything we can dream of in human terms. like as a
father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him for he knoweth our frame he remembereth that we are dust
oh God is a perfect father to his adopted family and this brings
certain benefits and blessings to us it brings assurance to
us For he declares, I will be a father unto you, and ye shall
be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians
6 verse 18. 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 itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. was
8, 15 to 16. The Spirit of God is the Spirit
of adoption, whose work it is to convince us of sin and to
give us a view of Christ and a hope in Christ. The Spirit
assures us by virtue of these things that we are the children
of God. If we were not the children of God, we would not have been
brought to conviction of sin. we would not have been brought
to the place where we look to Christ and see him as the God-man
who was wounded for our transgressions and who died in our room instead.
It is because God has chosen us as sons that in our calling
we are called the sons of God and we are brought to the assurance
that God is our Father. We may never have known our earthly
fathers We may have long since lost dear fathers after the flesh. We may not have had a good father.
But if we are those of God's adopted family, we have the best
of fathers. And we have a glorious assurance
of it. The Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are
the children of God. Abba, Father. We should address
Him as Father. because the Lord, in his model
prayer, expressly teaches us to say, Our Father, which art
in heaven. Often the sense of the majesty
of God makes us reluctant to take the term Father upon our
lips, but the Spirit of God gives us entitlement to do so. Our Father. Our Father. Because we have such a Father,
and because of the relationship which He has brought us into,
there is provision. Take no thought for your life
what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, nor yet for your
body what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat,
and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air,
for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. If God provides for the birds,
are not those whom he has chosen from all eternity much better
than they? Take no thought, saying, what
shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we
be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles, those
that are not in this relationship, as sons to the Father, by his
choosing and by his calling, seek. For your heavenly Father
knoweth that ye have need of all these things, but seek ye
first. the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore
no anxious thought for tomorrow, for the morrow. We will be provided
for. We also have protection. In the
fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a
place of refuge. Proverbs 14 verse 26. Because
you are one of his children from all eternity, and because you
have been brought to know it by the gracious operations of
the Spirit, you will never lack a place of refuge. He preserves
us, he protects us, he watches over us. Instruction is another
precious benefit which the church as the adopted family of God
possesses. As earthly fathers instruct their
children, seeking to bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, so our Heavenly Father instructs us. He will
teach us His way. As our God, He Himself will instruct
those who are His family, and lead them in the way which they
should go. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which
thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalm 32 verse
8. Ball praise. that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know
what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory
of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to usward who believe. Yes, we shall be taught of God. We shall be taught of God. As
part of our upbringing as children, there will be correction. There is not to be the sparing
of the rod. The book of Proverbs clearly
sets forth God's way of discipline. He that spareth his rod hateth
his son. There is a need for the proper
use of correction. even in this day of grievous
error, where smacking is forbidden and corporal punishment has been
taken out of the schools, the legacy of which is increasingly
evident in our present society. There is a place for correction
where it is needed. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. He will scourge
those who are his, when it is necessary. But if ye endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom
the father chasteneth not? He chastens them out of love.
And we endure the chastening, we are brought to see that God
is dealing with us as with sons. Another blessing is that of inheritance. If children, then heirs, heirs
of God. and joint heirs with Christ.
Romans 8, 17. If a son, then an heir of God
through Christ. The Lord says in these lovely
words that he has gone to prepare a place for us. In my Father's
house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will
come again and receive you unto myself. And where I am, that
where I am, there ye may be also. We have a glorious inheritance
because we are the children of God in Christ from all eternity.
We were given an inheritance before ever we had a being. What a doctrine this doctrine
of adoption is. We are to behold with awe and
wonder the love which God has displayed towards us, that we
should be called the sons of God. What manner of love! What
manner of love! The word tropos, which is here
translated as what manner or what character, is rarely used
in the New Testament. The same word is used when the
disciples went out of the temple, and looking at the great stones
which were used in its construction, they said, Master, see what manner
of stones, what buildings are here! They were amazed at the extraordinary
nature and character of the great stones which had been cut out
for the building of Herod's temple. The same word is used of Christ.
What manner of man is this? What manner of man is this? For
he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.
It draws attention to something extraordinary. What manner of
love! The world cannot grasp it. The
world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Only those who
have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts can understand
anything of this love. In the classical Greek this word
has the meaning of what country or whence comes this. From what
country does this divine love come from? It certainly doesn't
come from the dominions of men, from any earthly country. It
comes from the courts of heaven. from God himself we must notice also who bestows
the love it is God the father who loves us the father had a son in the usual practice of adoption
a childless person seeks to adopt one to be in the place of a son
to them But the Father had a Son from all eternity, in whom He
delighted, and does delight. He had no gap that He needed
to fill. There was no need for the Father
to choose to adopt us to be the sons of God. But that is exactly
what He did. The Father has bestowed His love
upon us. Let us consider the children
upon whom that love has been bestowed. Paul tells us, We all
had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We were by nature strangers and
enemies. We were as far from what we would
imagine the children of God to be as could be conceived of. We were not noble, we were not
merely poor, as we have seen in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, but
we were vile sinners. Vile sinners. Yet we were unconditionally
loved and chosen to be constituent members of God's household, God's
family. When civil adoption is practiced,
there's usually something in the child which predisposes the
person to adopt them. There are only two cases of adoption
found in the scriptures. Those of Moses and Esther. Moses
was adopted by the princess of Egypt because she had compassion
on the child. We are told, he was exceeding
fair, Acts 7 verse 20, and a goodly child. Exodus 2 verse 2. When she saw him, she loved him
and adopted him. She raised him so that for the
first 40 years of his life he lived in the palace of Egypt,
where possessions, wealth, acclaim, prestige, honor belonged to him. But Moses left it, choosing rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God, for he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward. For he looked to those things
that were invisible he saw Christ the other example is that of
Esther who was fair and beautiful Esther chapter 2 verse 7 fair
and beautiful she had no parents of her own so her uncle Mordecai
adopted her and brought her up Moses was a goodly child and
Esther was fair and beautiful but what were we when God adopted
us What were we when we came forth from the womb? We were
crooked and perverse, every one of us. Does this not only heighten
the love? Behold what manner of love, what
character of love was this? From what country comes this
love? From heaven itself. This is divine love. This is beyond powers of human
description. That he loved me and gave himself
for me. God set his love upon us so much
that he gave up his own son, his only begotten son, the son
that was in the bosom of the father from all eternity. God
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. God commendeth
His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Does this not affect you? Do
you not behold with wonder what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us? It's very interesting that these
inferior texts, these modern versions, make an addition, not
a subtraction this time, in the text at this point. They add
in the first verse that we are, they add in the first verse,
and we are. And we are. That we should be
called the sons of God, and, they add, we are. Even C. H. Spurgeon was carried
away with this, for in the 1886 volume of the Metropolitan Tabernacle
pulpit, he has a sermon entitled, and we are a jewel, as he calls
it, from the revised version. For far from being a jewel, these
alterations to the authorized version are but paste, mere imitations,
which have resulted in the undoing of many Anyway, there is no need
to invent a phrase when the very next verse, which is given by
inspiration of God, and which is in the received text, tells
us, Beloved, now are we the sons of God. This is not a question, are we,
with an element of doubt, but rather an affirmation. Now are
we the sons of God. Now we are the sons of God. Do you doubt today whether you
are a child of God? Is God your father? Are you his
son? Do you agree with John Newton?
Marks of grace I cannot show. All polluted is my breast. Martin
Luther. often had a problem with lack
of assurance. Yes, Martin Luther. He was asked
on one occasion, do you feel to be a child of God today, Martin?
And his answer was, I cannot say I do, but I know that I am. There is something profound in
his reply. There may be days when sin gets the upper hand,
when there is darkness, when we are depressed and we do not
feel to be the sons of God. But we are the sons of God. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God and we rest on the word of God. We rest on Christ. as many as received him. To them
gave he power or right to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. We've been brought to believe
in Christ and we leave it there. We rest our case. I do not always
feel to be a child of God and sadly I do not always behave
as a child of God. But I know that I am a child
of God. I know that although He corrects me, yet I am His
child. Indeed He corrects me because
I am His child. Nothing can separate me from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Can you say that? In the trials, the disappointments,
and the things which come to vex us, what a difference it
is to know that we are the sons of God. Even if, for example,
you're in a hospital ward, you can have the conviction that
you are a son or daughter of the Most High God. And this makes
a very big difference between you and those who may be occupying
adjacent beds who are not the sons of God. Oh would God they
were, would that they were. God alone can bring them into
that experience but what a difference it will make if you are a child
of God and he has given you to know that you are by the spirit
bearing witness with your spirit that you are his son. It should make us live with dignity. As a child of God I cannot complain. As a child of God I must watch
how I live. As such my Heavenly Father will
provide for me and protect me and will bring me to glory. We
are not always what we should be but surely at least some of
the time we are those who live up to our calling. We are called
the sons of God. The sons of God. There is royal
blood in our veins. which is better than any which
our monarch possesses by nature or by position. Earthly titles
are of no import whatsoever. They do not weigh in the eternal
balance. We are the sons of God. Therefore,
let us live accordingly. Let us live up to our profession.
We are the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, the best
of fathers. We are very unworthy, very poor
sons and daughters, but we are His. We are the sons of God. As this fact comes to us afresh,
and I trust that God will apply it powerfully to us this day,
it should give us a new incentive to live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world, that we may serve our generation
by the will of God before we fall on sleep. This is how the
Apostle John ends this little section in his epistle on the
adoption of sons. Every man that had this hope
in him purifieth himself, even as he is purified. It is a glorious
thing to contemplate that you are a child of God by adoption,
a son of God. When my father and my mother
forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Psalm 27 verse 10,
the Lord will take you up in time because he took you up in
eternity. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness, have I drawn thee. May these
things be blessed to us, for Jesus Christ's sake.