Now turn to the portion of scripture
that we read. We turn then to Galatians, and
in chapter 4, and I want to direct you for our text to the words
that we find here at verse 6. Galatians 4, 6. And because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. In Galatians 4, verse 6. And because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. On Thursday, when we held our
prayer meeting, directed you to those first two words of what
we call the Lord's Prayer, that patterned prayer that Christ
taught his disciples in Matthew 6, verse 9, and the words, Our
Father. And I was struck, I've been struck
in the past, but struck again recently, reading what Bernard
Gilpin has to say concerning the content of the Lord's Prayer
He simply says, what a substance, adoption, adoration, submission,
daily bread, mutual love, love even to our enemies, forgiveness
of sins, deliverance from temptations, and from all evil. It is really not just a patterned
prayer that might be said to be a theological gem, the words
of the Lord's Prayer. And we were thinking on Thursday
how that God is our Father. And I spoke in terms of creation
and salvation and supplication or prayer. But I did emphasize
when speaking of how God is our Father in salvation, I emphasized
the truth of adoption. And remarked on how this is a
very precious thing to the people of God, that we're God's adopted
children. And it is that that Satan will
challenge and seek to make us many times to question. He'll fill our minds with doubts
or he'll fill our thoughts with the fear of presumption that
we should presume to call God our Father. And I remarked on
how when we see the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is truly
the Son of the Father, not an adopted son, but the Son of the
Father in truth and in love, the eternal Son of God. And how
the Father owns him at his baptising and says there, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. And then, as we know, the Lord
is led by the Spirit and who willed this tempted of Satan
over Satan's first, his prime temptation is to challenge that
very sonship. If thou be the Son of God are
the first words that the tempter speaks to the Lord Jesus. And
we quoted the lines of Joseph Hart in the hymn, that impious
if. He thus had God incarnate through,
no wonder if he casted us. and make us feel it too. If he
challenges the Lord Jesus Christ concerning his true, his eternal
sonship, how he will time and again challenge us and tempt
us to doubt that we are those who are truly the adopted sons
of God. And I thought it would be good
and I trust profitable for us this morning to continue a consideration
of this great truth, this great doctrine of adoption. And so we have it here in our
text, in Galatians 4, 6. Because ye are sons, God hath
sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your heart, crying,
Abba, Father. And I want to divide the subject
matter that I'm going to deal with into two parts. I want to
speak about the cause, of adoption, and then secondly the effect
or the consequences, the practical implication as it were, of this
great doctrine of adoption. But first of all, to say something
with regards to the cause of it. Here at the beginning of
this sixth verse, we read, ye are sons, and because ye are
sons. And believers are God's sons
in a two-fold sense. Believers are those who are God's
sons by adoption. And what we see in adoption is
the grace of God towards his people. They are made his sons. But then believers are also God's
sons by the new birth. And in the new birth, we see
God's grace in his people. In the new birth, in regeneration,
they are those who are manifested to be the sons of God. So think
of it like this. With adoption, we see God's grace
towards his children. In regeneration, we see God's
grace in his children. But then, stepping back, as it
were, We have to recognize what we are by nature as we are born
naturally into this world. We're in that state of alienation. We're those who are enemies of
God. The natural mind, the carnal
mind, it's enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither indeed can be. What are we by nature? We're
children of wrath. We're children of disobedience. That's what we are by nature. We're not, in that sense, the
natural sons of God. But here in the text, we read
of the adoption. The adoption of sons, the end
of verse five, and then verse six, because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Adoption, of course, is really
taking a stranger into one's home and treating that individual
as a son in every sense. That adopted child becomes part
and parcel of the family. And we have the example in Holy
Scripture in Exodus chapter 2, when Pharaoh's daughter finds
the little boy, Moses, there amongst the poor ushers and she
takes him to her own home and he becomes her son. She adopts
him as her son. And this is what God has done
in his grace towards sinners. In divine adoption, God has taken
these sinners into his own family and he makes every provision
for them. And just think for a while what that provision is
that God has made for those who are his adopted children. He
provides them, first of all, with an education. Think of the
words of the Lord Jesus. He tells us they shall be all
taught of God. Oh, there's the mark of those
of our God's adopted sons. They're all taught of God. Everyone,
therefore, that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
unto me, says the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, our very coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ is the evidence that we are the adopted
sons of God. And what are God's teaching?
Well, we have those words of Elihu in the book of Job. Behold,
God exalteth by his power. None teacheth like him. How does God teach us as adopted
sons? We have to learn what we are
by nature. We have to learn what our natural
condition is. We have to be shown Our sins
is that work of conviction that must take place in the soul of
the sinner, that sense, that realization that we are so very
far, far from God by our wicked works. How the Lord takes his
children in hand. Sometimes, like any father, he
has to deal with us in a manner that might seem to be severe.
There are the chastings of God. This is how he teaches. we have
the language again of the apostle there in hebrews chapter twelve
whom the lord loveth he chastened us and scourged us every son
of yours if ye enjoy chastening God dealeth with you as with
sons how many times we need to suffer that chastening rod
when God causes us to smart because of our foolish ways he provides
his adopted sons with with education what else does he provide? well
he feeds them he feeds the spiritual life that he teaches his children
as newborn babes they are to desire the sincere milk of the
words well we have the holy scriptures and we should be those who read
God's word, who pray over God's word and we know that all scripture
ultimately bears its testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ. We
often quote those lines of the hymn, the scriptures of the Lord
bear one tremendous name. The written and incarnate word
in all things are the same. Christ said to the Jews, search
the scriptures. These are they that testify of
me. And is it not the Lord Jesus
Christ that we should desire to be feeding our souls upon? Or we have that lovely passage
in the sixth chapter of John where Christ is speaking of himself
as the bread of life. I am the bread of life, he says. Now he speaks here double verily
in verse 53 of John 6. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him." Here we have that
wonderful truth of a living union with the Lord Jesus Christ. One
with Him. How are we one with Him? eating
his flesh and drinking his blood. And now, do we do that? It's
not something carnal, it's not what the poor Roman Catholic
thinks happens in the mass through the doctrine of transubstantiation,
that that wafer has become the actual body and blood, the soul
and divinity of Christ. We don't believe that. No, we
believe that it is a spiritual feasting. All the gospel is a
feast, a fat thing. And here in the gospel we find
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's Christ who becomes the very food
of our souls. Are we those who delight to plumb
these great depths of truth that are found here in Holy Scripture
concerning the person of the Savior, that he is God, and yet
he is man, and he's not two, he's one person? All that great
mystery of godliness. Our God was manifest in the flesh,
and that great work that Christ has done over the recent weeks
we've been reading through the four Gospels, moving from Matthew
to Mark to Luke, and then we trust on to John. And as we read
all that Jesus began both to do and to say, and all leading
up ultimately to that great event of his dying and his rising again
from the dead, our God has provided is adopted children with food,
a spiritual feast, which we find in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
of course, in Christ also, God has clothed. He has clothed his
children. And what has he clothed them
with? A robe of righteousness, garments of salvation. Think of the language again that
we find in the scriptures there in Isaiah 61, Verse 10, the prophet says, I
will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with garments of salvation. He hath
covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. This is that provision that the
Lord has made then. truths of the imputation of the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine of justification. How that Christ is that one who
took upon himself all the sins of his people and has nailed
those sins to the cross and in exchange what has he given us?
He has given us his righteousness. There's the exchange of the gospel.
Christ taking the sins of his people and in exchange giving
them that righteousness that He wrought, His obedience. His
obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. All that
provision then that God makes for His adopted children. He teaches them, He feeds them,
He clothes them, and then also He protects them. And there we
need that protection. We cannot keep alive our own
soul Although we are prone to every evil still, we still have
that old nature within. We're still lost after the things
of the flesh. Peter speaks of those who are
kept, kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last hour. But the precious truth
that we're safe and secure in the Lord Jesus, once in Him,
In him forever thus the eternal covenant stands, says good John
Kent. And the language again that we
find in the book of the Psalms, Psalm 91 4. He shall cover thee
with his feathers, and under his wings shall thou trust. His
truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Our God has made every
provision there that his children should be preserved. Satan is
a wily foe. But there is one far greater
than that great enemy of the soul. There is the Lord God who
watches over his people and preserves them. And I think of the language
that we have in what some call the Traveler's Psalm. We have
the language there in the 121st Psalm where he speaks about God
keeps us in all circumstances. Psalm 121 at verse 4, following,
behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day or the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in. from this time forth, even for
evermore. Even in these days, are we not
those who look to the Lord to keep us? With all this scourge
that is upon the face of the earth, our trust is to be placed
in him who is the keeper of his people. And then also, thinking
of that provision that the Lord God makes for his adopted children,
ultimately there is inheritance. And we have it here in the context.
We're looking at verse 6, here in Galatians 4, we look at the
following 7th verse. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. Or there is an inheritance that
God has provided for his adopted children. Again, the language
of Paul, Romans 8, 17, if children then heirs, heirs of God, and
joined heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. Joined heirs with Christ,
he is God's first event. He is the only begotten Son of
the Father. And he has, as the firstborn,
he has all the rights of the inheritance. but that inheritance
also comes to his people. We read in Hebrews 12 of the
General Assembly and Church of the firstborn which are written
in heaven. Every believer as an adopted
child of God is like the firstborn and has all that inheritance
of glory. Well this is that provision then
that God has made. In this great doctrine, the doctrine
of adoption. Now, I want to ask what I think
is a very important question. When does adoption occur? When does adoption occur? Well,
Dr. Gill, in his systematic theology,
says it is an imminent act of God. In other words, it is like
election. It is eternal. eternal election,
eternal adoption. It's before we know anything
of the work of the Spirit in our hearts. It's before we know
anything of the new birth, regeneration, anything of faith. It has been
observed that it's as wrong to speak of God adopting his regenerate
children as for a man to talk of adopting his own natural son. Here we see in the context in
the previous chapter that it is by faith that our adoption
is manifested. We're not made God's adopted
children by faith, but that condition of adoption is manifested by
faith. Look at the words that we have
in verse 26 there in chapter 3. We are all the children of
God, it says, faith in Jesus Christ. And that faith is what
comes as a result of the gracious work of the Spirit in the new
birth. The evidence of the new birth is that true faith, that
saving faith. But in that, there is simply,
as I say, the manifestation of sonship. Where God's adopted
children before the work of the Spirit. And we're God's adopted
children before the work of God the Son. We're already children. When
Christ comes into this world, He comes to do all that is necessary
to the salvation of those who were given to Him in that eternal
covenant. We have the language of the high
priest Caiaphas back in John chapter 11. And there at verse
51 we're told this speaker, that is Caiaphas, 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 that
also he should gather together in one the children of God that
was scattered abroad. Though they were scattered abroad,
though they were unregenerate, there in that scripture they're
still referred to as the children of God. The ones that Christ
himself came to die for. They were God's sons from all
eternity. Or doesn't the Lord Jesus Christ
himself say, behold I am the children which God hath given
me these are the ones these adopted ones that he came to redeem by
his precious blood as we have it here in verse 5 to redeem
them that were under the law that they might receive the adoption
of sons or they come to receive it subsequently but they were
already in that eternal covenant the sons of God, before the work,
before the coming of Christ. And clearly we see in Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 5 that they are God's adopted children by
the eternal will and the sovereign purpose of the Father. Ephesians
1.5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ, through himself, according to the good pleasure
of his will. What a precious doctrine this
is. That of adoption, and that adoption
is bound up in the eternal purposes of a gracious God. But having
said something with regards to the doctrine, let us in the second
place think about the consequences of the doctrine or the effect
of the doctrine. As I've already indicated, adoption
is received and it is manifested by the new birth. We are to receive
the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. What do we have here? We have
the Spirit of His Son. That's the expression that we
find in the middle of the text. And God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son. All the believer has in adoption
and in regeneration is rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ and
is rooted in Christ's eternal sonship, we're heirs of God and
we're joint heirs through the Lord Jesus Christ and you go
and think of that that we're told in Ephesians chapter 1,
we refer to it unthirstily verse 3 there, we're blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ and amongst
those heavenly blessings that we are blessed with in the heavens,
His adoption, verse 5, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. What a glorious effect
this is then. It's all in Christ. If any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. Well, we need
to know that gracious ministry then of the Holy Spirit, how
that power of the Spirit must come into the souls of sinners. And it does, of course, in the
great work of the new birth. Again, of the language there
in that opening chapter of Ephesians, verse 19, the exceeding greatness
of his power to us all who believe according to the working of his
mighty power which he brought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead, or the same power there when Christ rose again
comes into the soul of those who by nature are dead in trespasses
and sins. They're born again and they are
then clearly seen to be manifested as the sons of God. And we can observe something
of the marks of the Holy Spirit's ministry in those who are adopted. And as a minister, well, he leads. The Holy Spirit leads these people. He guides, he directs them. Romans
8, 14, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God. But while we're being led by
the Spirit of God, where will He lead us? He'll lead us into
the Word of God. He'll not only lead us to the great promises,
the exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel, He'll
lead us also to all the holy precepts of the Gospel. He'll
show us what manner of lives we are to be living. He'll cause
us to desire to be conformed more and more to the image of
the Lord Jesus Christ. when the lord jesus in those
chapters in john speaks of the coming of the spirit doesn't
he there tell the disciples that the spirit is going to lead them
into all truth i think of the language that we have in the
16th chapter of john and there at verse 13 how be it he says
when he the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all
truth For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and
shall show it unto me." Or do we look for that ministry of
the Holy Spirit to be leading us, directing us, and always
continually bringing us back to this complete and utter dependence
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, Him who is the son of the father
in spirit and in truth. And we, of course, those who
are God's adopted children, as the spirit leads, so the spirit
is one who also bears witness. Romans 8, 16, the spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
All we need to know, then, is that spirit of adoption. We're told, are we not, that
there is that unction? You have an unction from the
Holy One, says Holy John in his first epistle, and ye know all
things. And then he speaks later in that
same epistle of the witness, the witness of the Spirit. In chapter 5 and verse 7, of
his first epistle. He says, there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood,
and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is great. All to know that witness, a blessed
witness of the Spirit with our spirits, assuring us of our adoption,
that we are those who are truly the sons of God. He leads, He
witnesses, but does He not also cry out for us? And we need Him
in all our prayers, and we have it here in the text. Because
your sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Father. He helps us. He helps us in our praying. He
helps us in all our weakness, in all our infirmities. That
great promise of Romans 8.26, the Spirit help us in our infirmities. He make us intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be answered. How often we feel like
that. We cannot find words to speak. We scarce know what to
say. that we look to the Spirit or
we long and yearn that we might know what it is to be those who
are brought to even groan after our God. We think of David in
Psalm 38 where he says, all my desire is before thee. My groaning
is not hid from thee. It is only by that blessed ministry
of the Spirit then that we can come and address God in that
tender fashion As we were thinking on Thursday, we can come by Him
and say, Our Father. As God is pleased then to grant
to us that gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit, because you
are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, praying, Our Father. Will the Lord be pleased to bless
this word to us today? I'm going to read now the hymn
number 79.