I'm going to play it again. ? Every knee shall bow to Thee
? ? Let your saddle bow for Thee ? ? No more shall they kneel
in scorn ? ? No more shall bow to Thee ? ? Shake his sheep and hear us say
? ? For thou art risen from the dead ? ? Every knee shall bow
to thee ? ? Precious family bow before thee ? ? Every tongue shall sing to thee
? ? Prisoner who lives in me ? ? Begone, tis thy jail-like
tomb ? ? Vanquished for its chains, its doom ? ? Thou art free, the
sword of my hand ? through thy triumph, death shall come. Every tongue shall sing to thee,
his own lamb who lives in thee. ? Every tribe shall come to thee
? ? Worthy lambs so sweet through me ? ? Kingdom kindreds tribes
and tongues ? ? Out of each shall praise thee, song ? ? May from
every shade and rest ? A tapestry of lavishness. Every droid shall come to thee. Bird in hand, soul speak. Turn in your Bibles this morning
to Galatians 4. You know, things don't go the way we think they ought
to go. And people don't do the things
we all think they ought to do. But that does not in any way
alter who God is and who he is to His people what He has made
them by His grace. I call this message, Sons by
Election and Adoption. When I use the word sons, 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
to read this fourth chapter of Galatians. I'll begin reading
in verse 1 and read through verse 7. Now I say that the heir, as long
as he is a child, differeth nothing at all from
a servant, a slave. The heir in childhood is no different,
it seems, than the slave is, though he be lord of all. But he's under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of 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 you are sons, God
has sent forth His Spirit, the Spirit of His Son, into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son, and if a son than an heir of God through Christ. As I said last week, the scriptures
clearly show that every descendant of Adam, which is all of us, fell in him were alienated from God in him,
died spiritually, sinned against God, lost all fellowship with
God. In Adam, all die, all sin. But that is not the first state
or the last of some of Adam's race. Because a people out of that
mass of fallen humanity were the objects of God's grace. And they shall receive glory. Glory always follows grace. And it is this people, these
children, these sons, called in Scripture God's elect, that Christ came to redeem. That's what He's talking about
here. He came to redeem them. It's this people that God was,
in Christ, reconciling unto Himself. They're the only ones, but every
one of them He reconciled unto Himself. And both redemption
and Reconciliation. Both those words imply a previous
relationship. So that when we read them, we
know about God the Father choosing this people and putting them
in union with Christ. as their head, as their mediator,
as their surety, and his having blessed them. Everybody wants to speak of how
God is blessing them, or has blessed them in their lives. These were blessed of God before
time. And God the Father purposed in
Christ to bring them into His family. as amazing as that seems,
as wondrous and glorious as that seems, as far-fetched as that
seems, God purposed to bring them into His family. And He determined our spiritual
adoption. Adoption and justification cannot
be separated from one another, but they are distinguished when
we read about them in the Bible. You see, justification is something
that God does as judge. whereby he releases us from all
condemnation on the basis of Christ's blood, and he accepts
us as righteous based on his righteousness imputed to us. We read about that 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 on the basis of Christ's work, and he
makes us joint heirs with Christ. I love that Bible term, joint
heirs with Christ. And so God the Son, the Son,
in his work of redemption, he removed all the obstacles from
his people receiving and discovering this adoption. You might say it something like
this. Justification brings us into
God's favor as a holy and a just God. But adoption seems to bring us
into His family, into the family of Almighty God. And adoption
in the Bible, as we read about it in the Bible, we have to be
careful. Adoption as it is in the scriptures
is not like adoption in our day, although it may have some similarities. But 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 this sonship
in relationship to God. I know what the world says, we're
all God's children. only in the sense of creation,
not in the sense of grace. We are His creatures, but we're
not His children except we be so by grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
3, the reason why Paul begins blessing and praising and thanking
God on his own behalf and on the people at Ephesus' behalf,
the believers at Ephesus and believers in all times. He says,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. in heavenly places,
or in the heavenlies, in Christ, according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Now look at this
next verse. Having predestinated it. Nobody wants to hear about 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. 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 tree to the root and the ground of it all, the divine
patriarch. He says, having predestinated
us, marked off beforehand, or foreordained us unto the adoption
of children. Somebody, Brother Joe, is going
to be adopted into the family of God because he predestinated
it. And men can talk about what God
will do. The Bible talks about what God
has done. He has, having already done this,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. No other way. No other one. By Jesus Christ to himself. His children, to His self, His
glory, according to the good pleasure of His will, not free
will, but His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted. He has graced us in the Beloved. I'm going to talk about people
accepting Jesus. He's not up for acceptance. But
it says here that He made this people accepted. He accepted
them in the Beloved. One translation says, having
foreordained us unto the adoption of sons in Jesus Christ. And this is exactly what the
Apostle John is saying in that third chapter of his first epistle
when he says this, Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. This isn't merited, this isn't
earned, this isn't deserved. God just in love and love bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. What love. What grace! What mercy! What a miracle! Therefore the world knows us
not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is. We're not waiting to become children.
We're not hoping to become sons. Behold, now we are the children
of God. And when Christ came into the
world and took upon himself a body in order to die and shed his
blood, it was as their ransom price. He paid our ransom price. He paid the debt of our sin against
the judgment of God, which was the sole basis upon which God
had justified these people and blessed these people and called
them righteous and loved them as his children and referred
to them as his offspring before time. He never refers to them in any
other lesser way than His people, His children, His sons. And this justifying work of the
Lord Jesus in time was the foundation, the just foundation upon which
every prophecy and every promise was made concerning them even
before they were born. And these prophecies not only
spoke of this relationship and showed how the Christ and His
work would accomplish their salvation, but it also showed the fact that
they would be manifested for what they are to God, His children,
His sons, His beloved ones. Isaiah records it like this.
He says, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and
floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy
seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. God's got a family. I remember the first time I ever
stood up and claimed to preach. I was as lost as a goose. And my first subject was what
it means to be a child of God. Oh me. I had no idea. Because the basis upon which
I determined that was what the children of God do. The evidence
that they give. But the basis of being a child
of God is always and has always been in God alone, in his son,
Jesus Christ. Isaiah says again, even unto
them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and
a name better then of sons and daughters, I will give them an
everlasting name that 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
gonna be His same name. I'll make them join heirs with
Him, and they'll never fail. They'll never fail. And the Father's
will concerning them will be made known, and the Son's work
for them shall be declared, but also the spirits working in them shall
be made evident." Yes, sir. The sons of God will
be discovered, not that he needs to discover them, but he will
discover himself in them, and every one of them will be discovered
by the Spirit using the word and the gospel of the grace of
God in Christ crucified, and they shall also by the same Spirit
learn of their sonship." Every once in a while, you hear
about somebody dying. And supposedly, they don't have
any heirs. They have a vast fortune maybe,
and they don't have any heirs. And then somebody comes along
with some information, some DNA or something like that, a DNA
test, a discovery of relationship that had been long before, and
it's determined accurately and legally that this person is the
heir. I'd say that was good news, wouldn't
you? Heirs. That's what this is all about. And this is the picture in Ezekiel
37 when God sends Ezekiel out to preach to these people who
are dead. And they are brought to life
under this message in preaching and they discover something.
They find out God's grace. And every one of these sons, every one of these children,
Every one of his elect, they shall, in what he calls the day
of his power, they'll be made willing. They'll be made to learn
of their sonship. Psalm 102 says, thou shall arise
and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her, yea, the
set time is come. It's a set time. God sets it. God ordains it. We look at this
world and what goes on and it looks all messed up and jumbled
up and all hazardous and every way turning whichever it will,
but all the time, God has ordained all things and at the set time,
they'll discover it. Won't be through a vision in
the sky. Won't be through some miraculous
miracle of health. Won't be through a bunch of other
things that men claim it is in. But it will be by the revelation
of the Spirit through this Word. They'll find out I believe God's
talking to me. I believe this is for me. How
can I believe this is for me? The faith that God gives by His
Spirit can't have it any other way. We know it's for us. We know that He bears witness
to us that we're His children. And the Holy Spirit in this role
and accomplishing this work in them is called the Spirit of
Adoption. The Holy Spirit. Spirit of Truth,
Spirit of Christ, but the Spirit of Adoption. Turn over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. And look down
at verse 15. You know, the Bible is designed
to give comfort to the sons of God. 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 in our
stand before God in Jesus Christ. Anybody that can come along and
make us fear that Christ isn't enough or that he isn't one. He said, for you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. I'm told that that term, Abba,
is not just a relationship or a formal addressing of a father,
but an intimate expression, a relationship of love whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. Because the Spirit itself bears
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. You can read that any way you
want to, and I'm telling you it's going to say the same thing. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of adoption, bears witness with our spirit, in our
heart, that we're the children of God. I conduct myself sometimes, do
things that I say to myself, there's no way that you could
be a child of God. The devil comes to me and says,
ha, you're a big fraud. There's no way that you could
be in this 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 the way that I am by His grace through
Christ crucified. Notice verse 17. And if children, no other prequalification No
other, if you do well, you'll be rewarded with this. He says,
and if children, then heirs. That is, those who receive an
inheritance, if children, then heirs, heirs of God. That's a wonderful inheritance. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. If so be we suffer with... Oh, the heirs suffer with Him
sometimes. They suffer for His glory. They
suffer for His gospel. They suffer just because His
suffering will cause them to go to Him, to lean on Him, to
trust in Him more, and thereby glorify Him. They sometimes suffer. If so be that we suffer with
Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the
glory which shall be revealed in us for the earnest expectation
of the creature, of the creation, the whole creation, waits for the manifestation of
the sons of God. Why doesn't everything just blow
up or dry up or burn up or just a million things that they're
warning us about every day. Why isn't it just gonna be the
way they say the prophesiers of doom and the ones who prophesy
the doom of this earth, the water shortages and the light and everything
that they always prophesy? Because God has subjected the
whole creation to stand and to wait for something. It's preserved
for something. What is it preserved for? It's
preserved until all the sons of God are manifested. For the creation was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected
the same in hope, because the creation itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. The creation. 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. The creation of God is also going
to be brought under a glorious manifestation itself. But we must see this. The Spirit of God, who moves
sovereignly as He will, likened to the wind in John 3, does not
do this in those people in order to make them or to enable them
to become the sons of God, but because they are. When you manifest something,
you show what something is. I think that that is a great
meaning, actually, of what glorified means. When something is glorified,
it's shown or unveiled or manifested for what it actually is. And
these are going to be manifested for what they actually are and
have been in God's sight from eternity, the children of God. Sons of God. They're not children of the devil
who become children of God. No. You remember what Christ
said to the Pharisees. He said, you are of your father,
the devil. He's your father. And the lust
of your father you will do. No, biblical adoption has most
to do with the public open discovery and display of this sonship,
the setting forth of these children as sons and heirs. Heirs. Turn back to Galatians
chapter four again. Now, I commented on these verses
to start with, but I want you to look particularly at this
sixth verse. It says, and because you are
sons. Not to make you His sons, not
to enable you to be His sons, not to show you the way to be
His sons, but because you are sons." God does all He has done in Christ
and does all He does by the Spirit of God for these sons of God,
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 all this, and when it happens, when He gives faith, when He
shows us this glorious gospel, When He shows us how the Father
has loved us and chose us. When He shows us how the Son
has redeemed us and how He was dying on that cross for us, paying
our sin debts in particular. That's why I hate universal atonement
so bad. Because in a sense, when you
believe in a universal atonement, that is that Christ died for
everybody, you believe that Christ died for nobody. Except those who will make his
death effectual on their behalf. And they'll get the glory if
there was such a thing. He died for the sheep. He laid
down His life for the sheep. He loved the church, gave Himself
for it. In other words, not only for
all of these sons did He die and shed His blood and pay their
sin debt and redeem them, actually redeem them and save them, but
He did it for every one of them in particular. Brother Rupert, He knew your
name. He knew your name. Ree, He knew
your name. He knows, the Lord knows them
that are His. He knows them. And it isn't some
kind of abstract love. It isn't some kind of general
love. It isn't some kind of general,
universal death of Christ. It's particularly, He loved us. Amazing as that can be, he loved
us because he loved us in Christ. But now we are not only blessed
to be sons, we're to be blessed as sons. You don't expect a son of a billionaire
to walk around in rags, do you? You don't expect the worst things
for the billionaire son, the worst place to live, the worst
thing. No, he blesses us as sons. And he chastises us as sons. As a matter of fact, the Bible
says, that if we don't have his chastisement, we're just not
who we claim to be. We're spiritual illegitimates. He doesn't punish his children,
but he does whip them. He does chase them. He's not
like the idea of love in parents today. The Bible says, foolishness
is bound up in a child, but the rod of chastisement will drive
it far from him. He chastens us. Oh, he pities
us like a father. But he chastens us. He lays a
loving hand upon us. And it's never on a legal basis
that we're blessed, but it's always on a love basis. The nation of Israel was never
blessed, naturally blessed, because of anything they did. Because
they always were disobedient. They were only blessed based
on God's mercy and grace. And I can look back, since the
Lord revealed the truth to me and saved my soul, I can look
back, count every day, and I cannot see one reason, one obedience, which could be
the basis of His blessings. He always blessed me out of love,
saved me out of love, keeps me out of love, does wonderful things
to me every day for me. And this shows that it is all
of grace, it is all of God, and it's all in Christ Jesus who
is the heir of all things. Now, I hate to tell you this,
But I'm glad to tell you this. There is no peace. There is no
true joy. There is no righteousness. There
is no hope. There is no eternity with God. There is nothing of value. Nothing of eternal worth. But what it resides in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because God, in giving his grace
to his people, gives it to them in the one who's the true heir. He's the heir of all things. In like universal terms, there's
one for you. all things. Which means, which means if I
am a joint heir with Christ, joint heir, I didn't say joint
God, I didn't say joint son in this great and eternal sense,
but I did say joint heir because God says it. That means all that
God has to give in Christ, He gives to every one of His children. That kind of knocks out of this
idea of reward, doesn't it? Bigger mansion, better place
in heaven, more blessings. If you do, if you're obedient,
if you're this, that, the other, oh no. If I have the heir, if I'm one
with the heir, if I'm a joint heir with Christ, I have all things. Well, as a
matter of fact, that's what it says He gives us, isn't it? He
sends His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Adoption, and by Him, He reveals
to us all the things that are freely given to us in Christ. That's so wonderful. And he says in verse 7 of chapter
4, Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. Look back in chapter 3, verse
23. He says, but before faith came,
we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. And those next three words were
added by the translators. You notice they're in italics. Where for the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ,
or until Christ. The law brings nobody to Christ. The law can only show how far
we are from Christ. that we might be justified by
faith. But after that faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster, for we are all the children of
God by faith in Christ. Romans 8 and 17, he says, and
if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ,
if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified
together. One day, everybody's gonna know
who Jesus is. I used to hear that song, everybody
ought to know who Jesus is. Nothing to that song. Everybody
is going to know. Every knee shall bow, every tongue
shall confess that he's Lord to the glory of the Father. But as men, who believe, who truly believe,
who rest all their hope in the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They are the children of God. And the great prospect is that
we'll be glorified together. Glorified together with Him.
glorified with the creation. And when the Spirit of God comes
to us, giving us life and faith in Christ, He bears witness in
us that we're the children of God and causes us to cry out
to God as He is, Abba, Father. To call the living God, Sovereign,
Creator, Sustainer, Father. This is an unutterable cry from
the Spirit of Christ to our hearts from our heart to the heart of
God, which he understands as a father does the cry of his
child. You parents, you fathers, there can be a whole bunch of
children playing out in the yard. You don't particularly pay any
attention to them, but when your child cries, You put that ear up. Because it's your child. You
love him. Because that's what Christ cried
out. Abba, Father. John 20, the woman Touch Jesus,
he said, touch me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my father,
but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my father
and your father. And so we can bow our heads in
our times of need, our times of thanksgiving, knowing that
they all come to from his hand and pray. Our Father, which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. There's an old hymn written back
in the 1800s. And I wanted to make sure that I
got the words to it right. So I searched on the internet
this morning. I found where a preacher had
plagiarized this hymn. It was ascribed three or four
verses of it to him. I knew it wasn't, but I found. I found the original. I found
in an old hymn book that they just had printed a copy of it
from. This is what it says. Sons we are through God's election,
who in Jesus Christ believe. By eternal destination, sovereign
grace we here receive. Lord, thy mercy doth both grace
and glory give. Every fallen son by sinning merits
everlasting pain. But thy love without beginning
has restored thy sons again. Countless millions shall in life
through Jesus reign. Pause my soul, adore and wonder. Ask, oh, why such love for me? Grace has put me in the number
of the Savior's family. Hallelujah. Thanks, eternal thanks
to thee. Since that love had no beginning,
and shall never, never cease. Keep, oh, keep me, Lord, from
sinning. Guide me in the way of peace.
Make me walk in all the paths of holiness. When I quit this feeble mansion,
and my soul returns to thee. Let the power of thy ascension
manifest itself in me through thy spirit. Give the final victory. When the angel sounds the trumpet,
when my soul and body join, when my savior comes to judgment bright
in majesty divine, let me triumph. in thy righteousness as mine. When in that blessed habitation
which my God has foreordained, when in glorious full possession
I with saints and angels stand, free grace only, free grace only
shall resound in heaven's land. Sons we are, by God's election,
by God's adoption, who in Jesus Christ believe. What a pedigree. What an inheritance. What a Father,
what a Savior, what a Spirit. Our Father, we thank you this
morning for such wonderful news, for such a wonderful purpose
of grace that you purposed in yourself, for such a wonderful
Savior who came and died for us, for such a wonderful spirit
that makes manifest to us what you've done for us and who we
are. We thank you and we pray in the
name of Christ. Amen. Amen.