The gospel according to John
chapter 1 starting in verse 6. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. The same came for a witness to
bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was
in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew
Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Now,
I'm not even going to try to explain that God incarnate in
the flesh. There's some things we just I
think that's what we'll be spending eternity, is seeing the scriptures
like we've never seen it before because we're going to see Christ
like we've never seen it before. But to me, not only is it a mystery,
according to godliness, that God came in the flesh, but that
God would adopt sinners, such as we are, into his family. Now that's truly amazing. Now this word, I know in your
marginal reading, verse 12, that as many as received Him, to them
gave He power. And that, in the margin, is right
or privilege. But the expanded definition of
that is He dignified those to become the sons of God. He dignified. That's what, dignified. And we
are a part, even though we still have the old nature and we're
still sinners, and that's not going to go away until we're
buried six feet under, but to be dignified, be privileged,
to be called the sons and daughters, not by birth, but by adoption,
by adoption. other text which shows this blessed,
the blessed free grace of adoption. And we'll look at these, turn
with me to 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6. And verse 18. and will be a father unto you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord. You'll be my sons and daughters.
Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one and starting
in verse three. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, according as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Verse five, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Now, when
you read these things, there's no stench of us, there's no stench
of man in that. It's all according to the fact
that He chose us. It's outside of us, from before
the foundation of the world. He's predestinated us unto the
adoption, unto the privilege, unto the dignification, you know,
to dignify us with adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself
and, oh incidentally, that's according to the good pleasure
of His will. We didn't have anything to do with it. We're simply recipients
were simply recipients. I can't help but think of so
many illustrations in Hosea. Hosea, he was after his beloved,
Gomer. Well, what was she? She was nothing. She was less than nothing, worse
than nothing. And he kept bringing her gifts. And she thought her
lovers, Gomer thought her lovers brought her these gifts, but
it was him. And you look at your life before the Lord redeemed
you. If you can remember that time,
some time before, and you lived your life the way you thought
you wanted to, and you had no care nor concern. I was raised
Methodist, so there was no gospel there. I remember when I was
in college, when I first heard of election, it made me so mad.
Oh my, mad. God's gonna tell me who I can
pray for and I pray for or be instrumental in their salvation?
No, no, he's gonna choose whom he will. So his I wills are gonna be shells. It's not like us, we will say
something and we may or may not be able to accomplish it. But
this adopting is according to his good pleasure and his goodwill,
which is outside of any action by us. Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter four, verse
seven. Let's look at verse five. To
redeem them that were under the law, that they might be received
the adoption of sons. And because you're sons, God
has sent forth 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 is in an heir of
God, again, and all this comes to us through Christ Jesus. You
know, in Ephesians 1, we looked at Ephesians 2, everything God
has for a sinner is found in Christ. I've said this time and
time again, if you're investing, if you're looking at doing portfolios
and all this other kind of stuff, you diversify, but God does not. God has all of his eggs in one
basket, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything he has for the
sinner, he has in Christ. Well, this adoption, this placement,
this is, I look at the word adoption in the Greek and it's the placing
by appointment or purpose of sons or to his children. It's
the placement of sons. That is the placing, the appointment
or purpose of his sons and daughters, as we've seen in 1 Corinthians.
So adoption, first of all, is an act of pure grace. From God
to usward, who by nature are like everyone else, wicked from
birth, nature and practice, separated from God, vile and corrupt in
every regard, So if we did not have any right to sonship, how
then is it that it is so that we are dignified with sonship?
How do we have sonship? Well, look back at Ephesians
1 verse 5, having predestinated us unto the adoption. One vessel
unto glory, unto adoption, unto mercy, the other vessel passed
by. The two on two thieves on the
cross. They both cast the same in Christ's teeth. They both
back into his face. But for some reason, one was
going to be adopted and one was going to be passed by. Lord,
remember me in Luke 23. Lord, remember me. Who could make a difference?
Who could make a difference? A sovereign, electing, merciful
God can do so. Oh, blessed, free, and sovereign
grace to sinners. We sing this song here, which
is probably my favorite song. You know, Moose Parks has got
a favorite song. Well, I've got a, I can have a favorite song
too. This one by Francis Scott Key. And I've told this as many
times every time if I go to a sporting event and you stand before the
first tip-off or playoff or puck drop, you sing this song. And
I'm thinking of this man, Francis Scott Key. I'm not thinking about
the National Anthem. I'm thinking about this guy's
my brother. Praise, this is the verse three,
praise thy savior. God that drew thee to that cross
knew life to give, held a blood-sealed pardon to thee, bade thee look
to him and live. Praise the grace whose threats
alarmed thee, roused thee from thy fatal ease. Praise the grace
whose promise warmed thee. Praise the grace that whispered
peace. That whispering is You're my
son and daughter. I've adopted you. I've adopted
you. That's amazing. That's amazing
indeed. Now, I want to look at six things. And you can thank Thomas Watson,
1600s, because this is, this is, I got this from, it's just,
I've always loved this. And so I told you I was going
to preach this, you know, pretty soon. And I didn't think it would
be this soon. But six things to consider that should display
the wonders of adoption to your heart and to my heart and hopefully
tender us to do his will and work his way and to go out like
we were the men back there praying and Nathan brought up in Matthew
how the Lord fed the 5,000 and he break bread and that's what
the Lord does with us. He breaks our hearts and he gave
the bread to the disciples And then the disciples turned and
gave it to the multitude. Now if that isn't the progression
of evangelism, I don't know what is. We gather together, break
the Word open. Hopefully He breaks our hearts.
We receive it. We're disciples. That's not male
or female. That's men, women, boys and girls. If we're His disciples, we take
that bread. And if we don't take it and utilize
it, if we don't spread it, You know, they don't have to do that. They took it from the Lord, received
it, and that's what gracious souls do is they go out in the
community and tell neighbors, friends, family about the great
things God has done. Well, let's look and consider
these six things. The first thing, that God would
adopt us. Take it personal. Don't say,
look at the person in the next two years behind you, say no.
Take it, apply it. As I said, we looked at James.
The book is to be applied to self. The first one to consider,
first thought to consider on adopting grace is that God would
adopt us seeing he already had a son. He's already had a son. And such a son, was Christ ever
disobedient to his father? Never. Are we? Oftentimes we
are. Such a son, he was, the scripture
says, made so much better than the angels, Hebrews chapter one.
The son, he's called the son of his love. He's called, in
Colossians one, God's dear son. We needed a father, but he did
not need sons, plural, sons and daughters. The fact that he already
had a son and a perfect son, no guile, holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, he didn't need more, but he did. Consider secondly, what we were
before God adopted us. Evil, wretched, blind, halt,
lame, without hope, scripture says, without God, simply put,
ruined. Men will not, they will never
adopt a son or daughter with such qualities or blemishes. I remember reading, and I can't
remember, I thought it was Thomas Watson, but it wasn't. It must
have been somebody else. In merry old England, back in
the 1800s and 1700s, they had orphanages. And if you wanted to adopt, you
went to this and you filled out, you know, if you had to even
fill out paperwork, but you went in and you looked at the yard,
the area where they were playing. And, you know, kids are running
around and the kids are supposed to be in their best behavior.
But this is us. Imagine somebody going into an
orphanage and you're in there. And you're not playing with any
kids. You don't want to talk to any kids. You got blemishes,
you're not attractive, you're dirty, you're nasty, and you're
in a corner. And then as the father makes his way to you,
you spit on him, you mock him, you kick dirt on him. You don't
want to have anything to do with him. And then the man, the father
goes back to the keeper of the orphanage and says, I want that
one. I want that. I want that. Rotten. No good. Irresponsible, disrespectful
child. That's what we are. God did not
set upon us when we were lovely or beautiful in our own persons,
but while we were yet sinners, the scripture says Christ died
for us, we were diseased, we were leprous, and of nought,
that's what Romans, nought. Amazing love divine is truly
not in us, but in Christ and through Christ only. He set his
love upon us. Thirdly, consider the expense
of our adoption. The expense of our adoption,
not monetarily, not of our worth. When God set out to adopt, the
payment was very costly. The ransom price was beyond comprehension. The angel stood in all, never
was such nothings paid for by the dying and sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Such grace, such mercy, such
love, such a payment is higher than we can comprehend, is higher
than we can, greater than we can acknowledge or estimate,
and it exceeds our very understanding. And when I got to thinking about
the cost of our adoption, the price of our adoption, greater
than rubies. I began to look at and think
about other scriptures and perhaps adoption makes sense of Isaiah,
excuse me, you don't have to turn it, Isaiah 52 verses 13
and 14. Listen with me. Behold, my servant shall deal
prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. And as many as were astonished
at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man and his form
more than the sons of men." We don't know how much of a bloody
stump he looked like visually, which is a good thing probably.
But as it says here, his visage was marred more than any man.
Why? Adopting grace. Because he had
many sons and daughters to gather. And we love this passage in Isaiah
55. Everyone that thirsts and come to the waters that hath
no money that you don't have, you can't buy. You can't eat
and come buy a wine and milk without money, without price.
Because it's already been paid for. Adopted. We've already been
adopted. What about in Daniel? Daniel chapter 9 and verse 26, the first part of verse
26. After three score and two weeks
shall Messiah, these are all passages we know are Christ,
He'll be cut off, but not for Himself. Not for Himself. Why? Adoption. Adoption explains this. Adoption
is the reason behind his suffering. Zechariah chapter 13 and verse 7. But it shall be one day which
shall be known the Lord, and not day nor night. It shall come
to pass that evening time it shall be light. I'm sorry, that
was wrong. Wrong verse. That was chapter 14. Chapter
13, verse 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man that is my fellow. Sayeth the Lord of hosts, smite
the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn
my hand upon the little ones. Why? Adoption. Adoption. And I love this one. In Lamentations, Lamentations chapter 1 and verse 12. Christ on the cross,
the agony, forsaken by all. Verse 12 of Lamentations. Is
it nothing to you, all you that pass by, behold and see if there
be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me, in the day of His fierce anger.
Why? Why? Why? Oh, may we praise the
God of sovereign, free, unmerited grace for adopting us. Fourthly, let us consider in
adopting us, in reality, He adopted His enemies. He adopted His enemies. such as you and I will adopt
for an heir, our friend, our beloved, but never our arch enemy. So scripture says we're strangers
and enemies. To say this is truthful in the
testimony of the book. To pardon God's enemies is one
thing, but to adopt us into his family is quite another. You
can forgive somebody and then never deal with them. And sometimes
we feel that's the way, that's the thing to do. But glory to
God in the highest. Not only did He forgive us and
pardon us, He took us unto His bosom and included us in His
family. And now the benefits that we
have are endless, are endless. We can go to Him, His throne
of grace, anytime, always. any situation, not major situations,
but the smallest thing to the greatest thing. We can go boldly
to the throne of grace. We have a spirit with us to keep
us and guide us and direct us. He's our shepherd. He's our friend. He's our near kins. All these
things, the benefits that we receive because we're adopted
into his family. Fifthly, consider with me about
this regarding adoption. It brings great hope. The fact
that God brings many sons and daughters from Satan's grasp
into his eternal family is mind-boggling. It's mind-boggling. Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10. For it became him for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
and daughters unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings. We set, as humans, our affections
upon one heir, perhaps, maybe two, but God opens heaven's gates
and has many sons and daughters. As the scripture says, as many
as the sand is in the sea. thereby giving hope to sinners
near and far. There's no sinner beyond the
grasp or beyond the adopting ability of his hand. I remember, you know, the old
Puritan, some guy came into his studies, an old pastor, and some,
one of the parishioners came and he said, did you hear God
save so-and-so? He was a skunk and a drunk and
all these things. And the man, you know, the preacher
looked up and says, well, since God saved me, I never lost hope
of anybody. And that's true. Many sons, your
neighbors, your family, your friends, your grandchildren. It could go on and on and on. If one, if only one person had
been adopted, It would still, we would still ring forth from
our lips, as the scripture says, he doeth all things well. But
to live for, to die for, and to raise up again many from the
dead, this is remarkable redeeming love, adopting grace. Lastly, consider sixthly, that
God should confer such honor upon us in adopting us to be
called the sons and daughters of Jehovah God. The more we note
this in the book and the more we believe this privilege and
honor, I believe the more God is honored among us and hopefully
others will see it and ask of the hope that we have. I was
a vagabond. I was Nothing. Nothing. You know, I was looking
at, when Bruce was teaching Bible class, I was looking in Corinthians.
It said some water, some plant. I planted, I watered, you know,
this and that. And he says that he that waters and does is nothing.
Is nothing. I thought, yep. Why? Because
God gets the glory. And when we talk about adoption,
it's not of us to do it. to have such honor conferred
upon us. Children of God the Father, members
of God the Son, temples of God the Holy Spirit. And I just found
this out when I was looking at this. You don't have to turn
here, but in Matthew 22 and verse 30, he says, we are as the angels
in heaven because we're adopted. And even more so than this, and
I'll close and won't leave you with this, even more so than
this, and I've loved this passage for a long time, but I never
saw it in the light of adoption. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3. When he speaks
of sons, he's speaking of daughters. He's speaking of all that redeem
the church. 1 John chapter 3. And verse 2, Beloved, now are
we the sons and daughters of God, and it does not yet appear
what we shall be. We know we're adopted, but boy,
we don't know the half of it. It's like the Queen of Sheba,
when she saw Solomon's stuff, what'd she say? I heard about
this, and we've heard about this, and we've heard the good news
this morning. But she said, I didn't understand even the half of your
kingdom and your servants and maidservants. Beloved, now are
we the sons of God. That's an established fact. Through
grace, through the blood of Christ, through the declaration of the
gospel of God's grace, it does not yet appear what we shall
be. But we know, we know that when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Wow. Wow. Oh, this and more simply
because it pleased the Father to make us his children, to reveal
his son in us and to us through the declaration and belief of
his gospel of the grace of God. You've got to hear. You're going
to have to hear. And then he's going to take you and make you
willing in the day of his power. Bless the Lord, O our soul, and
all that is within us. May we bless His holy name. Bruce,
would you close us please?