I want to again thank everybody
for coming here to hear the gospel once again. This morning, both of my messages, the one
at 10 and this one, I had heard some messages by a dear brother,
Pastor Gary Shepard, back a while. He had some sermons that he He
had preached quite a few years ago having to do with these topics
here and these messages that I'm about to deliver. And I used so much of what he had
out there to put these messages together. So I do think that
God uses different men to bring forth this gospel to his children,
his people. And this morning, the next message
here that we're about to get into is titled, Sons by Election
and Adoption. Now, I call this message and
give it this title when I use the word sons that's here, I
use it in the biblical sense, the word means something like
offspring or children. Not necessarily a male child,
but the offspring of God, the children of God. And so that
makes it very interesting when we read this fourth chapter of
Galatians that Mark just got through reading. The scriptures
clearly show that every descendant of Adam, which is all of us by
nature, are in bondage to sin by nature. We're born that way.
We all fell in Adam and we're separated and alienated from
God. And in Adam, all men died spiritually. Now, we all, due to Adam's sin, according
to Galatians 4.3, lost all fellowship with God, and that includes God's
elect. But that's not the first state
or the last state of some of Adam's race, those that fell
in Adam. The good news is that out of
all mankind that fell in Adam, out of all that mess of fallen
humanity, there were some who were objects of God's grace. Note what it says here in verse
three. So we, when we were children,
This clearly states that God's elect, his children, were still
his children while we were in bondage to sin. And prior to
God, the Spirit given us life in our regeneration and conversion,
and through the preached gospel to us, we're still God's children.
Now those that are objects of God's grace, his children, those
are the ones that shall receive glory. because glory always follows
grace. And it is these people, these
children, these sons, who are called in scripture God's elect.
These are the ones that Christ came to redeem. That's what he's
talking about here. He came to redeem them. Look back at Galatians 4, 5.
It says, to redeem them, that were under the law that we might
receive the adoption of children, of sons. It's these people that
God was in Christ reconciling them unto himself. And they are
the only ones that God reconciled unto himself. Both redemption
and reconciliation, both of these words imply a previous relationship. so that when we read them, we
know about God the Father choosing these people and putting them
in union with Christ as their head, as their mediator, and
as their surety. And Christ having blessed them
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Everybody
wants to speak about how God has blessed them in their lives,
but these people were blessed of God before time. And God the
Father purposed in Christ to bring them into his family. Look
back at Galatians 4.4. It says, to redeem them that
were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. As amazing as it sounds, as wondrous
and glorious as it sounds, as far-fetched as that sounds, God
purposed to bring them into his family. And so he determined,
God determined our spiritual adoption. God determined our
adoption and our justification. And these cannot be separated
from one another, but they can be distinguished from each other. We read about them in the Bible.
You see, justification is something that God does as a judge, whereby
he releases us from all condemnation. on the basis of Christ's blood. And he accepts us as righteous
based on Christ's righteousness, freely imputed to our account.
This is not some new doctrine. We read about it all over the
Bible. Adoption seems to be something that God does as a father, whereby
he appoints us his children, his children in Christ. And he
does this on the basis of Christ's work. And he makes us join heirs
with Christ, all on the basis of Christ's work for us. I love
that Bible term, heirs of Christ. And so God the Son, in his work
of redemption, he removed all the obstacles from his people,
receiving and learning of and discovering this adoption. Now, You might say it like this. Justification
brings us into God's favor as a holy and just God, but adoption
brings us into his family, the family of the Almighty God. When
trying to compare God's adoption with adoption in our day, you
have to be careful. Although they may have a lot
of similarities, they differ in certain ways. An example is
that God's adoption of sons is totally out of love, grace, and
mercy. But so many adoptions in our
day is connected with selfish motives. We're sinners. Adoption
in the Bible means the placing of one as a son or the placing
of one as a child. It has to do with sonship in
relation to God. The world says that we all are
God's children, but only in the sense of creation, not in the
sense of grace. We're all his creatures, but
we're not all his children, except we be sold by grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at Ephesians 1, beginning
at verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly
blessings in Christ, according that he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. Paul begins blessings and praising
and thanking God on his behalf, as well as those believers of
Ephesus and all believers throughout all time. Nobody wants to hear
anything, any word in this Bible that puts everything in the hands
of this sovereign God. Preachers don't preach about
it. Professing Christians read quickly over it so many times. But if we know anything about
the grace of God, we've got to trace it back to the fountainhead.
We've got to go back in this family, this family tree, to
the root and to the ground of it all. The Apostle Paul says,
having predestinated us, marked off beforehand or foreordained
us until the adoption of children. Somebody has to be adopted. into
the family of God because God has predestinated it. Now, men
can talk about what God will do, but the Bible talks about
what God has done. He hath, it says, having already
done this, having predestinated us to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ. And it's to his glory, according
to good pleasure of his will, doesn't have anything to do with
free will. And this will is to the praise of God's glory. And
it's of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. He has graced us in the beloved.
Men talk about people accepting Jesus. It's not up for acceptance,
but it says here that He made these individuals accepted. He
accepted them in the beloved. One translation says, having
foreordained us into the adoption of sons in Jesus Christ, and
this is exactly what the Apostle Paul is saying here in 1 John,
1 John 3, said, 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. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. The elect of God didn't merit
this adoption. We don't earn it by something
that we do, and we certainly don't deserve it. God in love
and out of his love bestowed it upon us that we should be
called the sons of God. What love, what grace, and what
mercy, and what a miracle it is to be called the children
of God. We're not waiting to become children, and we're not hoping to become
sons. Behold, now we are the children of God. When Christ
came into the world and took upon himself a body in order
to die and shed his blood, it was a ransom prize that he paid.
It was a ransom prize paid for the dead of our sins, the elect
sin, against the judgment of God, which was the sole basis
upon which God had justified these individuals and blessed
these individuals and called them righteous. and loved them
as his children and referred to them as his offspring. And he did this in his mind and
in his purpose before time. God never refers to them in any
other way, any other lesser way, than his people, his children,
his elect, his sheep. This justifying work of the Lord
Jesus in time was the foundation of the just foundation. upon
which every prophecy and every promise was made concerning them,
even before they were born. These prophecies not only spoke
of this relationship and showed how that Christ and his work
would accomplish their salvation, but it also showed the fact that
they would be manifested for what they are to be and what
they are to God They're his sons, his children, his beloved ones.
Isaiah records it like this in Isaiah 44. For I will pour out
water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.
And I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon
thine offspring. A seed the Lord hath reserved
for himself whom he had chosen in Christ before the world was,
to be holy and happy and to grant them grace here and glory hereafter,
that they should believe in him and to profess his name and to
serve him. God has a family. The basis of
being a child of God is always and always has been in God alone. in his son, Jesus Christ. Isaiah also says in Isaiah 56, even unto them I will give in
mine house and within my walls a place and name better than
of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting
name that they shall not be cut off. There's only one name that's
everlasting. There's only one name, and that's
the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus. I'll give them a name, and it's
going to be His name. I'll make them join heirs with
Him, and it will never fail. And the Father's will concerning
them will be made known to them, and the Son's work for them shall
be declared, but also God the Spirit working in them shall
be evidence. It is sure and certain that the
sons of God will be discovered and will be manifested. Not that
God needs to discover them, but he will discover himself in them. And every one of them will be
discovered by the spirit of God using the word of God and the
gospel of the grace of God. All of it in Christ crucified,
and they shall also by the same spirit learn of their sonship. Every once in a while, you hear
somebody that's died and everything. Supposedly, they don't have any
heirs to leave their inheritance to. And they have a vast fortune. They don't have any heirs to
give it to. And then somebody comes along with some information,
some DNA, some DNA test. and discover a relationship that
had been long before. And this determined accurately
and legally that this person is an heir of this vast fortune. I think that would be good news,
wouldn't it? Well, that's what this is all about. And this is
a picture in Ezekiel 17 When God sends Ezekiel and I had a
message on this a little while back He sends Ezekiel out to
preach to a valley of dry bones these people who are dead and
They're brought to life under this message and Preaching and
they discover something they found out they find out God's
grace and every one of the sons every one of these children every
one of his elect They shall, in what scripture calls, the
day of his power. They will be made willing in
the day of his power. These children are made to learn
of their sonship by the Holy Spirit of God. In Psalms 102,
verse 13, says, thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, God's
church. For the time to favor her, yea,
the set times come. There is a set time that God's
determined to reveal himself to his children. We don't know
that time, but there's a set time that he's going to bring
them up under the sound of the gospel, the gospel that identifies
him as a just God and a savior, identifies Christ as our savior. It won't be through a vision.
that we're able to identify. It won't be through some miraculous
miracle of hell. It won't be through a bunch of
other things that men claim these days. But it will be by the revelation
of the Spirit of God through the Word of God. They'll come
to the conclusion that I believe God talking about me. I believe
this is for me. Well, how can I believe that
this is for me? Well, it's by the faith that
God gives His children through His Spirit. We come to realize
and know it's for us. We know that the Spirit bears
witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. Now,
all of this, all of this, Our eyes being opened by the Spirit
of God, through the Word of God, by the Holy Spirit. In this role,
in accomplishing this work, He does it all in them, and this
is called the Spirit of Adoption. It's the Holy Spirit and the
Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Christ. It's the Spirit of Adoption. It's the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of Truth, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Adoption. Let's
look at Romans 8, 15. You know the Bible is designed
to give comfort to the sons, so he begins by saying this in
verse 15. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear. We ought to just immediately
be suspect to anything and everything that would make us fear our standing
before God in Christ Jesus. God's word says, for you have
not received the spirit of bondage to fear, but you've received
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. I'm told
this term, Abba, Father, is not just a relationship for us, or
a formal addressing of the Father's will, but an intimate expression
of a relationship of love, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. because
the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're children
of God. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of
adoption, bears witness with our spirit, in our hearts, and
in our minds, affections, and will, that we're children of
God. So many times, as I said earlier,
I can conduct myself and do things that I say to myself, well, maybe
that don't look like I'm a child of God. That old sin nature comes
to me and says, there's no way you can be in the family of God,
this holy family of God, but the spirit of God, the spirit
of adoption bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of
God and also reveals to me How that I'm a child of God, and
that's through Christ and Him crucified. Look at Romans 8,
17. It says, and if children, no
other pre-qualification, no other way. There's no if you do well
or you'll be rewarded with this. He says, if children, then heirs.
and heirs are those who receive an inheritance. If children and
heirs, heirs of God. Now that's a wonderful inheritance,
heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with him. Well, it also says that the heirs
suffer with him sometimes. They suffer for his glory, they
suffer for his gospel, They suffer just because this suffering will
cause them to go to Him, to lean on Him, and to trust Him more,
and to glorify Him. Then it says here in Romans 8,
18, for I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation
of a creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. Why don't everything in this
world just blow up, dry up, or burn up, or just a thousand other
things that they're warning us about every day? Why isn't it
just going to be that way? They say it's going to be. Those
that prophesied doom and destruction, especially in our day with the
fanatics of climate control, people are so demented that they
believe that they can control this climate. They have truly
made a God out of climate control. Why is it that all of these false
prophecies will always end in a lie? Well, it's because God
has subjected the whole creation to stand and to wait for something
This earth is preserved for something. So what is it preserved for?
As it says here in verse 19, it's preserved until all the
sons of God are manifested. In other words, it's preserved
until all of God's elect, his children, his sheep, his lost
sheep, are brought into the fold. Romans 8 20. says, for the creature
was made subject to vanity and not willingly, but by reason
of him who had subjected the same in hope. Because the creature
itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
and to the glorious liberty of the children of God. You see,
when man fell, the creation fell under the curse as well. But
the creation is going to be delivered. when all the sons of God are
made manifest. Also, the creation of God is
going to be brought under a glorious manifestation of itself. But
we must see this, and that is that the Spirit of God who moves
sovereignly as he is likened to the wind in John 3, the Spirit
does not do this in order, he doesn't do it in these people
in order to make them or to enable them to be sons of God, but because
they are sons of God. When you manifest something,
you show what already exists. I think that's the great meaning
of what glorified means. When something is glorified,
it's shown or it's unveiled or manifested to be what it actually
is. And in time, these sons of God
going to be manifested for what they actually are and have been
in God's mind and purpose from all eternity. They in time will
be manifested to be children of God. You see, sons of God
are not children of the devil who become children of God, and
they're not goats that become sheep. You remember what Christ
said to the Pharisees. in John 8, 44. It says, you are
of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you'll
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abide not in the
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie,
he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and a father of it.
Biblical adoption has most to do with the public open discovery
and display of this sonship. It's the setting forth of these
children as sons and as heirs. Look back at Galatians chapter
four. I know I commented on these verses to start with, but I want
you to take particularly a look at this sixth verse. It says,
and because you are sons, God had sent forth His Spirit of
His Son to your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. It says here, and
because you are sons, it doesn't say that I'm going to make you
His sons, or enable you to be His sons, or to show you the
way to be His sons. It says because you are sons.
It says because you are sons, God sent forth His Spirit of
His Son to you. God does all He has done in Christ. And for these sons of God, He
does all of this by the Spirit of God. And He does it for these
children of God. As far as it concerns Christ,
it says, call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. And so the Spirit of God begets
in us spiritual life. all because of what Christ has
accomplished. And when this happens, when God
gives this faith to His children, when He shows us this glorious
gospel of who He is and how He saved sinners, when He shows
us how the Father has loved us and chose us, and when He shows
us how the Son of God has redeemed us and how He was dying on the
cross for us, and paying our sin debt as our surety. At this time, the elect of God
are manifested to be the sons of God by adoption. It's revealed. This is why the doctrine of universal
atonement is so dishonoring to God. Because in a sense, when
you believe in a universal atonement, that is that Christ died for
everybody, to everybody without exception, you actually believe
that Christ died for nobody except the ones who will make his death
effectual by their believing or by their words. And by believing
this, sinful man gets the glory. That's what universal atonement's
all about, that man gets the glory. Universal atonement is foreign
to the word of God. God's word says that Christ died
for the sheep. He laid down his life for the
sheep. God's word said that Christ loved
the church and gave himself for the church. In other words, Christ
died for all of these sons. He died and shed his blood and
paid their sin debt and redeemed them. He actually redeemed them. He purchased their redemption
and saved them by His grace. The Lord knows them that are
His and not in some kind of abstract love, not in some kind of general
love, and not in some kind of general, universal death of Christ. This love is a particular love. I look back, since the Lord revealed
the truth to me, And I can look back and I can't see one reason,
one obedience, which could be the basis of God's blessing me.
But He's always blessed me out of love. The scripture says that.
He saved me out of love. He keeps me out of love. And
does wonderful things for me every day. And this shows that
it's all of grace. It's all of God. and it's all
of Christ Jesus who is the heir of all things. Look at Galatians
4, 7. It says, Wherefore thou art no
more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. One thing for sure, there's no
peace, there's no true joy, there's no righteousness, there's no
hope, And there's no eternity with God. There's nothing of
value, nothing of eternal worth, but what resides in our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. God gives his grace to these
people, these children, these sons. He gives it to them in
the one who is the true heir of all things, Lord Jesus Christ. Look again, once again, at our
last verse this morning, Romans 8, 17. It says, and if children,
then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so
be that you suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together. The apostle says here, and if
children, then heirs, heirs of God, join heirs with Christ,
It says join heirs because God says that all He gives in Christ,
He gives to everyone who are in Christ. We're join heirs with
Him. Being a join heir kind of knocks
out this idea of rewards in heaven, that bigger mansion, better place
in heaven, more blessings. If you do this or you do that,
No, if I'm an heir, an heir of God, if I'm one with the heir,
Lord Jesus Christ, or if I'm a joint heir with Christ, I have
all things. All things in Christ. That's
what God's Word says. As a matter of fact, that's what
He says He gives. He gives us and He sends His
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of adoption. And by Him, by the Spirit, He
reveals to us all the things that are freely given to us.
One day everybody's going to know who Jesus is. Every knee
shall bow, every tongue shall confess that He's Lord, all to
the glory of the Father. But as many who believe Him now,
truly believe, do rest all their hope in the accomplishment of
the Lord Jesus Christ, they do know Christ and they are the
children of God. They're manifested to be the
children of God. Our hope is that we will be glorified
together with Him. That's our hope. And when the
Spirit of God comes to us, giving us life, and faith in Christ,
the Spirit of God bears witness in us that we're the children
of God. No matter where you come from,
no matter who you are, what nationality you are, when
the Spirit of God comes and reveals the gospel to you, the true God,
the true Christ, you're manifested to be a child of God, a son of
God. What a blessing. All of this because the Spirit
bears witness in us that we're children of God and causes us
to cry out to God as he is, Abba Father. We're enabled by the Spirit of
God to see And to call the true and living God, the sovereign
creator, the sustainer of life, we're able to call him Abba Father. Fellow believers, we are the
sons, the sons of God by election and by adoption. May God be glorified in this
message. Amen.