Now my text this morning is the
portion of scripture that Brother Mark just read in Romans chapter
8, specifically verses 14 through 17. The title of this message
is Children of Adoption. But before I get back to that,
I want to go back to the passage that I read at the beginning
of the service in 1 John chapter 3 because that sort of sets the
tone or what I want to say this morning, what the Lord has laid
on my heart. I'm going to talk about adoption in a little more
detail. It's an amazing, an amazing truth
of God's grace and God's love. How many ways does God express
his love towards his children? He expressed his love in our
election before the foundation of the world. He expressed his
love at the cross when Christ died for our sins. Herein is
love, John wrote in 1 John 4 10. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation, the sin-bearing
sacrifice that brings satisfaction, the propitiation for our sins. What love, unconditional love,
love to those who don't deserve it and have not earned it. There's
no reason in us that God should ever love any of us. And yet
God does love his people. Every reason in us that God should
hate us like he hated Esau. Dealt with that last week a little
bit. But God loves the people. He chose the people. He redeemed
them. And then God's love to us in regenerating grace when
he sent his spirit to shed that love abroad in our hearts, Romans
chapter five speaks of. by raising us spiritually from
the dead, giving us a new heart, new life, a new spirit, new minds. And then he expresses his love
towards us in his providential care for us. He'd given us so
much, hadn't he? Even in this life. And again,
undeservingly, without earning it, it's all God's goodness towards
his people. He expresses His love towards
us in His preservation of us. Every one of you who know Christ,
truly know Christ, who have been born again by the Spirit, you
know that if God did not keep you, preserve you under glory,
you would not continue. Isn't that right? We all know
that. And so He expresses His love
towards us. And I believe that's what John,
all of that's what John has in mind here as he's inspired by
the Spirit to write these words in 1 John 3 and verse 1. Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Who are
the us there? We, he says. That we should be
called the sons of God. Who are the we there? That's
sinners. We who fell in Adam. Rebelled
against God. Turned against God, the Creator. I mentioned this last week in
the message. Is God really my Father? We all pray, Our Father. Everybody says, Our Father. Is
He really my Father? It wasn't so by nature because
I fell in Adam, ruined by the fall. That's what that scriptural
doctrine is all about. We fell. When Adam fell, we fell.
We forsook the Creator. And we sold ourselves out in
Adam to another father who is called the devil. John 8, 44,
you're of your father the devil. Ephesians 2, 1, we're by nature
children of wrath even as others. Now God's elect have never been
children of wrath as far as being under the wrath of God. Because
we were vessels of mercy from the very beginning. But by nature,
as we were naturally born into this world, we're no different
than the children of wrath. We followed our own unbelieving,
spiritually dead selves. And therefore, if God is my Father,
if He's really my Father, then what does the Bible teach me
about how that relationship came about? And I mentioned by adoption.
But look at what John says there, that we should be called the
sons of God. And he says, for that reason,
therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
The world doesn't know our Father. Well, they have some notions
of a deity. But the God of this book, now,
that's what he's talking about, the God of this Bible. Myself,
growing up in religion, I thought I knew God, but I didn't. Until
the Lord opened himself up in revelation by the Spirit in this
book. Who is God? And I came to understand
by the power of the Spirit that He's a holy God, He's a just
God. Yes, He's loving and gracious
and merciful, but He's first and foremost just and righteous. And every act of mercy, every
act of grace, and every act of love is perfectly consistent
with His justice and His holiness and His righteousness. And if
that's not so, in my heart and in my mind, then I don't know
the God of this book. There it is, verse two. Beloved,
now are we the sons of God. Right now, I don't have to wait.
If I'm truly a child of God, a son of God, a daughter of God,
we'll say that's all, you know, he's talking about all believers,
male and female here. And he says, now are we the sons
of God. It's not something that we achieve
or have to become in the future by our efforts. Just like you
parents, you have sons and daughters. They're born into your family.
They don't have to achieve or earn that position. You see? Now, they may have to
earn your respect, but they don't have to earn that position. They're
sons and daughters. They're your sons and daughters.
God gave them to you. But he says, now are we the sons
of God, and it doesn't yet appear what we shall be. That's talking
about our glorification. How do you know that? Well, he
says, but we know that when he shall appear, that's his second
coming, the second coming of Christ, we shall be like him.
We will be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, who is
our elder brother. For we shall see him as he is.
We'll see him in the perfection of his glory. That's what that's,
we see Christ. That's written in Hebrews chapter
2. We do see Jesus, but we see through a glass darkly now, don't
we? But in that day, we won't see through a glass darkly, we'll
see him perfectly. With perfect, sinless, uncontaminated
eyes. What a message. Well, look back
at Romans chapter 8. Is God my father? Is he your
father? Am I truly a child of God? Are
you really a child of God? If so, how did this relationship
come about? It wasn't natural. It's not by
physical birth. As I said, born fallen in Adam,
born dead in sin, children of wrath even as others, by nature
in ourselves, our hearts, our minds, children of the devil.
If we're truly sons of God, if we can make that claim rightfully,
according to the Bible, how in the world did that relationship
come about? And the answer is by the adoption
of grace. Look at Romans 8, look at verse
14. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they," and as Mark said, they only, are the
sons of God. Those who are truly God's children,
God sends forth His Spirit. We're going to see that in another
passage here. He sends forth His Spirit to
lead them. How does He lead them? He first
gives them life from the dead. That's called regeneration. That's
the new birth. In other words, a child of God
is one who has literally been raised from the dead in a spiritual
way. Just like Lazarus out of the
tomb was raised physically, every true child of God is raised from
the dead spiritually. That's called the new birth.
And the Spirit of God takes up residence in their hearts and
leads them. Now, where does He lead? Well,
He's already talked about that. He starts off there in verse
1 of Romans 8. There is therefore now no condemnation. Now, the
Spirit of God testifies by the Word of God now, not by feeling.
When the Spirit of God leads, it's not by feeling, it's not
by mysticism, it's not even by experience. Now, there can be
a lot of feelings involved, there can be some experiences involved,
but that's not how he leads. He leads by the Word of God. And what does he say? Well, there
is therefore now no condemnation. Now, is that where his leadership
stops? No. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus there's your
key the Spirit of God when he leads for whatever purpose Whether
it's in conviction of sin Whether it's in obedience Dedication
worship prayer Whatever it is I'm going to tell you where the
Spirit of God is going to lead you He's going to lead you to
Christ Jesus Christ as the Redeemer, Christ as the one by whose blood
your sins are washed away, Christ who is your only righteousness
before holy God. He's going to lead you to believe
that the reason you're not condemned, deservedly and rightfully so,
is because you have a surety, a substitute who stood in your
place, having your sins charged, accounted, imputed to him, and
that that substitute, who is none other than God in human
flesh, died in your place, and took the full punishment of the
curse of the law, the wrath of God, and God's justice against
your sins, and drank damnation dry, and satisfied that justice,
and brought forth the only, the only righteousness that you have
before holy God. Totally His work, and that righteousness
is that which is imputed, charged, accounted to you. That's where
He's going to lead. He's not going to lead you to
the waters of baptism for the forgiveness of sin. Now, He may
lead you to the waters of baptism, but to do what? To confess Christ. You see the difference? The Church
of Christ says He'll lead you to the waters of baptism because
that's where He washes away your sins. That's where the blood
is applied. Not so. That's not the Spirit of God. He won't lead you to your efforts.
He won't lead you to yourself. He'll lead you to Christ. If
you're led to yourself, that's what it means here in verse 5
to be fleshly minded. Look at it in verse 5. He says,
for they that are after the flesh, who walk after the flesh, do
mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit,
who walk after the Spirit, they mind the things of the Spirit.
What are the things of the Spirit? What did Christ teach in John
14, John 15, and John 16 as the things of the Spirit? That's exactly what He taught.
Christ said, He shall not speak of Himself. He shall testify
of Me. He shall glorify Me. To be carnally
minded is death. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. What is it to be spiritually
minded? Does that mean that you're holier than thou and people don't
even like to be around you? Does that mean y'all better get
away from me? My holiness might rub off on
you? No. To be spiritually minded is to be Christ-minded. To be
Christ-minded. The carnal mind, the fleshly
mind, is in me. It may be a religious mind. It
may be a moral mind. It may be dedicated and sincere.
But if it's not Christ-minded, it's death. And you want me to
tell you why? Because life can only be found
in Christ and His righteousness. Look down at verse 10. If Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin. He's talking about our
physical bodies. We're suffering the consequences
of sin, aren't we? In these physical bodies. That's
why as we get older, we have to take so many pills and see
so many specialists. You young people, I know you
don't know anything about that yet, but it's coming if you live
long enough. I mentioned last week, you can
live to be 989 years old like Methuselah, but his epitaph was
three words, and he died. He still died. Somebody says,
well, I want to live longer. Well, I do, too, if the Lord
wills. But I'm going to tell you something. That graveyard
out there and over there, there's full of people who wanted to
live longer. They died. This body is dead because of
sin. Look at verse 10. But the Spirit is life. Now why
is the Spirit life? Because of righteousness. And
where are you going to find righteousness? In Christ Jesus, the crucified,
risen Lord of glory, who is the Lord my righteousness. That's
it. And that's what the Spirit does,
look at it, for as many, verse 14, as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Is Christ your only hope? I'm serious now, is Christ your
only way of forgiveness, your only righteousness before God?
Do you look to anyone or anything but Christ and His righteousness
alone for your completeness, your justification, your acceptance
before God? Because if you do, you're not
being led by the Spirit. And if you're not led by the
spirit, what does this verse say? You're not a child of God. And then verse 15, he says, for
you've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. Now
bondage, let me tell you what bondage is. Bondage is basically
legalism. The bondage of legalism. In other
words, it's being forced into a relationship that is dependent
upon you and me. In other words, if my salvation
is conditioned on me, that's bondage. If it's conditioned
on something I do, must do, try to do, plan to do, promise to
do, or something I don't do, if it's conditioned on that,
then it's bondage. I'm under bondage. I have to
earn. I have to work my way into it. I have to keep, keep on keeping
on. That's why these denominations,
now let me tell you something, I'm not saying this just to be
mean. I'm saying it because it's true. That's why these denominations
that call themselves Christian, but who claim you can be saved
one day and then lost the next, you know what that is? That's
bondage. Because it's dependent on you.
And of course, you know how the natural man thinks about that.
He says, well, if it's not dependent on me, then I don't have to do
anything. Well, you see, they forget that the Bible teaches
that God's free, unconditional grace towards His people not
only justifies them based on the righteousness of Christ,
but sends His Spirit right here to give them life from the dead. And He gives them a new heart,
gives them new life, a new spirit, whereby they look to Christ.
and they follow Him. They're still sinners, aren't
they? We all are. And I'll be honest
with you, in this life, no matter how many improvements the Spirit
of God enables me to make, I'll still be only a sinner saved
by grace. This is my story, to God be the
glory, I'm only a sinner saved by grace. That's my claim to fame. I'm
only a sinner saved by grace. You say, but you're better than
other sinners. I don't think so, but if I were, I'm still
only a sinner saved by grace. That's my story, and I'm sticking
to it. But that's the issue. You've
not received the spirit of bondage, salvation by the works, the will
of men. That's bondage. Sinners are in
bondage by nature. But he says here, but you have
received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. What a word. You got word adoption. In our English Bible, you know
what it is? It was a legal concept, both
in the Greek world and the Roman world back then. It literally
means, the original word literally means placed as a son. Not by natural birth now, but
legally under the law to be placed in that position. That's what
the word means. It's used five times in the New
Testament. One of them is a historic reference to the nation Israel
in their national temporary adoption. And it was temporary as a nation. But four times it's given to
describe for the true children of God the blessings of adoption.
And in every one of these texts we see The Godhead involved in
that adoption. We see the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit involved in it. Obviously, here you can see the
Spirit. We've received the Spirit of Adoption. That's who the Holy
Spirit is. He's the Spirit of Life. He's
the Spirit of Adoption. Whereby we cry, Abba Father.
In other words, He doesn't lead us and bring us into a relationship
with God that is legalistic and bondage. where I have to keep
on earning my way into God's favor, into God's blessings,
even the rewards. You know, people talk about rewards.
Well, I'm not earning my salvation, but I'm earning my rewards. That
is not in the scripture, folks. That's not biblical. In fact, the blessings of grace,
the Bible tells us that they're all in Christ. And all the promises
of God are in him, yea and amen. And it also tells us that all
of those blessings are part of an inheritance that we are legally
brought into as children of adoption. You inherited. You know what
that means? That means you didn't earn it.
And you may not deserve it. Well, you don't deserve it. I
don't deserve it. And it cannot be undone. You're
right. It is totally, totally, totally by the grace of God.
This is the adoption of grace. And whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The true church of the living
God, made up of true believers, the saints, the redeemed of the
Lord, is the household and family of God. And most scholars agree
that the pattern of Paul's thought here, as he was inspired by the
Spirit, is the Roman law of adoption. Now, in the Roman law of adoption,
do you know it was never for the sake of the child? In other
words, we see some couples today who would adopt an infant, and
it's because they want a child or they want to do that child
some good. But in Roman law, the adoption was never for the
sake of the child. It was for the continuation of
the family. Well, how does that apply to
the believer's adoption? Well, it is the glory of God. to save his people by his grace
through the Lord Jesus Christ and bring them unto glory. It
was for his glory. Why does God save anybody? It's
for his glory. It's for himself. It's for his
honor. You know, the salvation of a sinner by God's grace through
Jesus Christ is the highest manifestation of the glory of God. Because
in that salvation, we see how every attribute of God's nature,
working consistently together, is honored. He's both a just
God and a Savior. He's both a righteous judge as
well as a loving, merciful Father. How can He be both? Which tells
us this, that if you come before a holy God at judgment without
Christ, without being washed in His blood and clothed in His
righteousness, you're not going to face a loving Father. You're
going to face a righteous judge and be condemned. But if you want to stand before
God as Abba Father, that word Abba, you know what it is? It's
the Aramaic form, address of God. To address God in the Aramaic
word. We really don't have an English
translation for it. Some people say it's like saying
Papa, Papa. It may be, but you know, the
Jews would never use that term. They thought it was disrespectful
to God. Well, let me tell you something. For an unbeliever,
whether he's Jew or Gentile, to address God that way is disrespectful. But we who are in Christ, adopted
into His family, we say, Abba, Father. That's
a special relationship. That's children of adoption.
That's for those whom the Holy Spirit has convinced of sin and
of righteousness and of judgment, and nobody else has that privilege
or that right. Abba, Father. And what happens
is, verse 16, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit.
Now our spirit is the new life, the new spirit that God the Holy
Spirit has given us in regeneration, in the new birth. You see, unbelievers
don't have this spirit. This is the spirit of life. We're
born spiritually dead. Remember what I talked about.
When God the Holy Spirit does His great work in the new birth,
He literally raises us from the dead. He gives us a new heart.
He gives us a new spirit, new life. And so, what happens then? He witnesses with our spirit
that we are the children of God. He gives us the assurances that
we are the children of God. Now, how does he do that? Well,
as I said, it's not by feeling. You say, well, I just feel like
I'm a child of God. Well, big deal. That doesn't
mean a thing. Everybody feels like they're
a child of God or they feel like they're loved. You know why?
Because they think they deserve to be. But here's our attitude. I don't feel like a child of
God. Behold, what manner of love that the Father hath bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God, the children
of God. That's amazing. That's amazing grace. Isn't that me? You see, I know a lot of things
about me that you don't know. And there's a lot of things that
just wouldn't look to you if you knew them. Man, that guy's
a child of God. Now, if you're going to be honest,
you'd say the same thing about yourself, wouldn't you? So how does the Holy Spirit testify
to our spirits? Through the Word of God. And
it goes back to this. Do you have any other hope other
than Christ and His righteousness alone for your salvation? We are the children of God. Verse
17, if children then heirs, heirs of God, we have an inheritance.
And why is that inheritance given to us? We're joint heirs with
Christ. Somebody died to bequeath that
inheritance to us. Who died? Christ died. And we
get the inheritance. If so be that we suffer with
him. How did we suffer with him? He's our representative, he's
our surety, he's our substitute. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I arose
again. That we may be also glorified together when he comes again.
Remember last week I said this adoption involves three things? Turn to Ephesians chapter one.
I'll read you just a few verses here. Ephesians chapter 1. Whenever a Roman citizen wanted
to adopt a person into their family, and you need to understand
about Roman adoption back then, it wasn't always infants. In
fact, a lot of times it wasn't infants that they were adopting.
They would actually adopt young people. And it was for the perpetuation
of the family name. to continue the family on. It
wasn't out of the ordinary for him to adopt a 20-year-old man,
for example. But the first thing the one who
was going to adopt had to do is he had to choose who they
would adopt. Within our adoption into the
family of God involves God's choice of whom he adopted. Look
at Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him, and when did He choose us? Before the foundation
of the world. And what was the goal of that?
That we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Verse
5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. God chose those whom he would
adopt. And you see here that our adoption
is related to our election. Now, they're not the same thing.
What do I mean by that? Well, it's one thing to choose
people to save. And God did that. But it's another
thing to bring those whom you chose to save into your family. That's adoption. So just like
election is unto salvation, election is unto adoption. And the Bible
teaches us that God's choice of His children, whom He chose
to adopt, to save and adopt, had nothing to do with any worthiness
or merit in them. It's not that God looked down
through a telescope of time. That is totally an invention
of self-righteous men and women. The ones whom God chose were
sinners. alienated from God, even enemies,
the scripture says. Also, this predestination, you
know, some of the false Christian scholars, they'll say, well,
God didn't predestinate people, he predestinated events. Read
verse five again. Having predestinated us. That's not an event, folks. us
unto the adoption of children. How did He do it? By Jesus Christ.
Why is that? Because there's no worth or merit
in them. According to the good pleasure
of His will, verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace,
wherein He hath made us accepted, because He looked down through
a telescope of time and foresaw what you would do. No. Accepted
in the Beloved, and the Beloved there is the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember, secondly, this
adoption involves redemption by the grace of God. Turn over
to Galatians chapter 4. Turn to Galatians, just a page
or two back. Now, if a Roman's parent chose
one that he or she wanted to adopt, the first thing that had
to be settled in the court of law was does this person have
any debts that need to be paid? Because they could not legally
adopt that person and bring debt into it with them. Now that shows
you there that usually this adoption didn't involve infants. I mean,
what debt would an infant... Now we know that we're born in
sin, fallen in Adam. But the debt had to be paid.
So this adoption involves redemption. The pain of the dead by the blood
of Jesus Christ. Look at Galatians 4 and verse
4. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son made of a woman, made under the law. There's the incarnation
of Christ. There's all the conditions of
salvation conditioned on Christ, made under the law. To do what? To redeem them that were under
the law. To pay their debt to law and
justice. To satisfy God's justice. To
bring forth everlasting righteousness that was imputed to them. And
why? That we might receive the adoption
of sons. The debt had to be paid. And then that adoption involved
actually bringing that person into the family. That person
had to be made aware of the adoption, aware of the debt already paid,
and that person had to be actually brought into the family of the
one who was adopting him. And you know what happened? Legally
and ceremonially, they were given a new set of clothes, a new coat
to wear, they were given a new name, Their life began again. Started over from brand new. Their debt was paid. They were
informed of that. And they had all the rights and
privileges of a child in that family. And they had the inheritance
of that one who adopted them. Equally. And that's the regeneration
by the Holy Spirit. Over in John 6.44 that I read
last week, We talked about how the Spirit of God brings them
into the family through the preaching of the Gospel, making sinners
aware that we have nothing to recommend us unto God, we have
no righteousness before God, but that in the Lord Jesus Christ
all our sins, all our debts have been wiped away by His blood
and we have His righteousness alone imputed to us whereby we
stand before God whole, And we come into that relationship. And here's what that process
is. Verse 44 of John 6. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. That's the drawing
power of the Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. I'll
raise him up at the last day. This is the guarantee of our
glorification. It's written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. Just like that Roman father had
to inform that adopted son, you're my son now. So every man therefore
that hath heard, heard what? Heard the gospel of God's grace
and hath learned of the Father. What does that mean? Learned
how God can be just and justify sinners like me through the blood
and the righteousness of Christ. When the Holy Spirit teaches
you that through the word of God, through the gospel, you
know what you do? You come to Christ. You come to Him whom
to know is life eternal. And you realize you've got a
whole new coat to wear, the imputed righteousness of Christ. You
get a new name. You're a child of God. You're
a son of God. You're an heir. That's what he
said there in our text, Romans chapter 8 and verse 17. If you're children, then you're
heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. You don't
earn any of its blessings. You don't deserve any of its
blessing. It's all because of Christ. You're in a new family. And then down there in verse
23, he talks about how the full realization of our adoption,
you know what it is? It's our glorification. He says,
not only they, but ourselves, which have the first fruits of
the spirit, that's our regeneration, even we ourselves grown within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wed, or namely the redemption
of our body. That's glorification. God, the
Holy Spirit. Bringing us into that family
with the spirit of adoption. Whereby we realize we're children
of God. Children of adoption. Children
of grace. Chosen before the foundation
of the world. Redeemed by the blood of Christ.
Clothed in His righteousness. Raised again from the dead by
the Spirit. We have an inheritance. Peter said that inheritance was
incorruptible. That inheritance was a sure and
certain thing. Why? Because of what Christ did.