back to index2021-11-06 THE DOCTRINE OF GOD'S UNSTOPPABLE AFFECTION IN OUR ADOPTION
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Greetings from the Saints at Lighthouse San Diego. 00:00:13.960 |
And I remember those of you old school folks when we were like 30, 40 here and just to 00:00:27.640 |
And so it's a great privilege and joy to be with you for many reasons, but especially 00:00:35.160 |
because of this topic that I would like to address. 00:00:40.560 |
Even as His people, it's a subtle temptation to allow the wonder provoking, deeply personal 00:00:46.280 |
truth of our adoption in Christ to become kind of like some mere fine print of our great 00:00:55.280 |
It's to our contemporary joylessness and ineffectual pursuits and missionary complacency that we 00:01:02.200 |
either forget or functionally fail to believe that God our Father by His unstoppable grace 00:01:09.720 |
pursued us, forgave us, embraced us, loves us, cares for us. 00:01:16.960 |
See, it's not at all enough to have heard that Christ died for sinners. 00:01:22.520 |
It's not salvation at all to merely give intellectual assent to the truth that salvation is by grace 00:01:31.620 |
Even demons and enemies of the cross of Christ know that, James 2.19. 00:01:38.440 |
It is nowhere close to being born again to only say that we really, really respect Jesus 00:01:43.400 |
and we're trying very hard to live a good life. 00:01:49.080 |
Such are grossly insufficient in of themselves and by themselves. 00:01:54.600 |
So it's possible to believe even sincerely that one is going to heaven because of one's 00:02:01.720 |
church attendance or one's moral performance or baptism or coming to the front or some 00:02:07.520 |
past emotional experience or by one's friendly association with many Christians. 00:02:13.760 |
And yet sadly, still be as lost as lost can be. 00:02:21.360 |
No instead because of Christ's love, God's children will believe and say with every fiber 00:02:25.960 |
of their being, tears welling up in their eyes for sheer gratitude and for the elation 00:02:37.240 |
Save me, is merciful to me, disciplines me, is transforming me, cares for me, is for me, 00:02:53.000 |
First because my wife, Sandy, and I have three precious children, Tobias, Piper, and Kristen, 00:02:59.920 |
I'm so proud of my children, especially my older two and how they have embraced our 00:03:19.600 |
And a part of our family's story though is our youngest, of course, was adopted by us 00:03:28.480 |
The day of our adoption concluded our joyful yet difficult journey of three and a half 00:03:33.720 |
years as foster parents, actually with Olive Crest here in Orange County. 00:03:38.880 |
Prior to her, we had the blessing of caring for four other children of varying ages and 00:03:43.400 |
varying needs and trauma, Elena, Ignacio, Jose, and Isabella. 00:03:50.280 |
It was no romantic journey, at times extremely humbling and painful because of what we've 00:03:57.360 |
seen these children go through, because of the way our own sins and weaknesses were exposed 00:04:02.600 |
as a married couple, because of the frustrations and fallenness of our foster system, because 00:04:08.280 |
of the way family, friends, and even church members criticized us or opposed us, let alone 00:04:15.200 |
the plight of these kids coming out of the brokenness of our very own local communities. 00:04:23.920 |
So at times in the process, let me be honest, there are moments we felt abandoned like the 00:04:34.400 |
Then when those children were reunited with their birth families, we were simultaneously 00:04:38.600 |
rejoicing as well as devastated that we had to let them go. 00:04:45.440 |
However, we were more concerned what it would cost them to not be cared for than what it 00:04:54.600 |
It was devastating to lose them, but it was totally worth it to have the opportunity to 00:05:02.520 |
We had Ignacio for almost six months, and we wept for days after he left our home. 00:05:14.200 |
Even saying his name is emotional for me, even almost a decade later. 00:05:24.760 |
I remember falling into a season of depression, but through that the Lord was working in our 00:05:30.840 |
hearts and I was reminded of something I knew in my head but did not remember in my heart, 00:05:38.440 |
that the pursuit of adoption, like all godly parenting, is not about me. 00:05:44.520 |
It is not about fulfilling the desires of dad and mom. 00:05:49.360 |
It is about the glory of God and loving others, that Christ loves us. 00:05:57.280 |
So we were happy to see their lives and homes become whole again. 00:06:02.200 |
Therefore, it was a joy and is a joy to be a part of that. 00:06:08.360 |
Right now, Kristen, as our precious daughter, is grace, undeserved grace beyond words. 00:06:14.040 |
Some have said to us, well-intentioned, Kristen is so blessed to have you, but we don't ever 00:06:28.960 |
I get to be daily confronted with the things that are disease-ridden in my own soul, thus 00:06:37.480 |
I get to hold her in my arms as her daddy and point her to Jesus. 00:06:44.640 |
A second reason is super personal to me, is something that most people who meet me don't 00:06:54.640 |
That might be a surprise to some, but it really shouldn't be. 00:06:58.600 |
The thing is, I wasn't an orphan in the way that most people think. 00:07:01.800 |
No, I was in a condition far more serious, horrible, and desperate. 00:07:07.240 |
I was a total stranger, a willful outsider, a slave of sin, an enemy of God, a zealous, 00:07:13.040 |
rebellious blasphemer, an object of the just wrath of God. 00:07:20.040 |
At times, I intentionally expressed my hatred for Him. 00:07:25.320 |
At other times, I only mechanically conformed to people's expectations of what a good boy 00:07:32.520 |
But then, God mercifully, mercifully interfered, intervened. 00:07:38.720 |
He intercepted me on the path that I had been on, and I heard the good news of God's grace 00:07:44.520 |
And as I listened, God regenerated my flat-lined, dead heart to believe. 00:07:50.880 |
He convicted me of my sinfulness, my cosmic treason, my spiritual bankruptcy, my utter 00:07:56.360 |
inability to save myself, and I stopped running away from God, and I ran to Him. 00:08:03.720 |
Up until my conversion, I hadn't ever known happiness like that my entire life. 00:08:09.520 |
And so I wanted to tell people, I had to tell people what happened to me and for me and 00:08:15.020 |
how God had loved me and how God still loves me, not because of me, but despite me. 00:08:23.000 |
And so I did tell people, and though I was not conscious of it yet at the time, I was 00:08:29.640 |
also welcomed to heaven's praises into a new family, where God the Creator, the righteous 00:08:37.480 |
judge became instantly, eternally, and only my perfect Father. 00:08:45.840 |
It's precisely because of the privileges of God's adoption of us in Christ that my wife, 00:08:51.000 |
Sandy, and I were strongly compelled to pray, ponder, plan, and pursue adoption, even in 00:08:56.960 |
our dating fellowship time, in our engagement, and into our marriage. 00:09:01.920 |
It has only served to deepen our understanding of the gospel, fueled our zeal to be salt 00:09:07.720 |
and light, and allowed us to know more intimately God's great love for us and His church. 00:09:18.800 |
D. F. Packer in Knowing God wrote, "To be right with God the judge is a great thing, 00:09:24.360 |
but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater." 00:09:29.040 |
John Piper adds, "Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in God's family, but not 00:09:37.120 |
Turn with me, if you would, to the eighth chapter of Romans, Romans chapter 8, Romans 00:09:43.800 |
chapter 8, starting from verse 14, Romans chapter 8. 00:09:49.280 |
Due to time, of course, this is not all that could be said biblically about adoption, nor 00:09:55.560 |
will it be a full exposition as might normally occur with me, but more of a doctrinal application 00:10:11.820 |
This is the word of the Lord, "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these 00:10:18.040 |
For you have not received the spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but you have received 00:10:24.320 |
the spirit of adoption, as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba, Father.'" 00:10:30.840 |
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. 00:10:35.980 |
And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we 00:10:41.960 |
suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. 00:10:47.620 |
Verse 18, "For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared 00:10:55.700 |
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 00:11:02.480 |
For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of Him who subjected 00:11:07.040 |
it in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption 00:11:13.360 |
into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 00:11:18.960 |
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together 00:11:24.600 |
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even 00:11:29.800 |
we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly, waiting eagerly for our adoption 00:11:47.680 |
Father, this is your word, and so not a word of it fails, and every syllable of it is true. 00:12:00.480 |
For we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from you. 00:12:05.360 |
Let us know the pure gold of its truth, the sweetness of its application, the need of 00:12:11.480 |
humility to penetrate the obvious cracks of our latent self-righteousness. 00:12:17.040 |
Renew our minds with the matchless joy of freshly understanding your sovereign mercy 00:12:25.200 |
In your grace, do that life abundant and everlasting. 00:12:32.280 |
Give us eyes to see as your objective revelation bears on our hearts so that by the work of 00:12:37.900 |
your Spirit we might submit ourselves exhaustively and exclusively to you, right now and not 00:12:48.480 |
Engrave in us that we are not our own, that we've been crucified with Christ and we no 00:12:55.840 |
Awaken us to the fact that this life is short, that we have no business worshipping the idol 00:13:00.800 |
of convenience, the idol of natural children or no children, the false gods of our own 00:13:08.200 |
To repent of such spiritual adultery, that our new identity is reason to prioritize true 00:13:13.080 |
priorities to lay our treasures in heaven and not in our stuff. 00:13:18.760 |
That we both ought to and that we now can walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. 00:13:26.120 |
Overwhelm us by your greatness and grace into the white-hot affection of genuine worship 00:13:30.400 |
and daily discipleship as we consider our own adoption. 00:13:43.120 |
We entrust ourselves into your perfect, timely, and fatherly care this Lord's Day. 00:13:49.720 |
In Jesus' name, for Jesus' sake we pray, amen. 00:14:02.760 |
I don't think I'm used to preaching two services, so. 00:14:17.280 |
Number one, I want us to see the gospel importance of our adoption. 00:14:36.320 |
That we're saved by God, from God, to know God. 00:14:40.080 |
That though we deserve punishment as rebels, we experience the greatest joy of all possible 00:14:47.160 |
Receiving the right to become children of God. 00:14:51.600 |
He redeems us from slavery to sin and Satan from the broad road that leads to destruction. 00:14:56.320 |
And he frees us, again not because of us, but despite us. 00:15:00.840 |
Martin Lloyd-Jones once asked, "For some inexplicable reason, it is a doctrine, the 00:15:06.800 |
doctrine of adoption, about which we very rarely hear about. 00:15:12.760 |
When was the last time, if ever," he asked, "that you heard a sermon on the doctrine 00:15:23.400 |
He says, "If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out 00:15:29.480 |
how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father. 00:15:34.720 |
If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole 00:15:38.680 |
outlook on life, he says it means that he does not understand Christianity very well 00:15:52.400 |
Paul declares in our text, in verses 14 to 15, "For all who are being led by the Spirit 00:15:57.800 |
of God, these are sons of God, for yet not received the spirit of slavery leading to 00:16:02.600 |
Now, one of the distinguishing marks of true believers in this letter to the Romans is 00:16:08.800 |
that the Spirit of God lives in them and leads them. 00:16:12.960 |
So a person is either controlled by the flesh or by the Spirit, Paul says, and he's a child 00:16:20.320 |
Now we might not like to hear that, but the Bible says it's either one or the other. 00:16:25.400 |
And by nature, the former is true and by grace alone, the latter becomes true. 00:16:30.960 |
Romans 1, we know, states that everyone believes that God exists. 00:16:35.360 |
So there are really genuinely, the actuality is there's really, there are no true atheists 00:16:44.640 |
Rather man in his, natural man in his prideful independence instead chooses to suppress the 00:16:51.800 |
Prefers to live in denial and lie to himself, trying to escape any notion of accountability, 00:16:56.960 |
even while ironically holding everyone else but himself to account. 00:17:03.880 |
Giving God the hand, he questions God's greatness and goodness only to exalt his own supposed 00:17:10.280 |
And that's what we are seeing all around us in our society. 00:17:15.080 |
Romans 3, 23 says, "We've all sinned," past tense, "and fall short," present tense, "of 00:17:25.920 |
Romans 5, 6 adds that the sinner is not needing help, but is absolutely helpless. 00:17:33.600 |
To be helpless apart from God is also to be hopeless apart from God. 00:17:39.760 |
The late David Pallison said it well, "The core insanity of the human heart is that we 00:17:46.520 |
And he says this, "We will love anything except God unless our madness is checked by 00:17:55.640 |
But the good news is God has made a way in his love. 00:18:00.440 |
From the moment of the fall, God promised in Genesis 3, 15, the proto-evangelium, a 00:18:05.400 |
future seed who would crush the head of the serpent. 00:18:12.560 |
And over and over again in the redemptive saga, the human lineage of the Messiah was 00:18:16.220 |
on the verge of extinction against all odds, humanly speaking. 00:18:21.500 |
But that line was sovereignly preserved all the way to our Lord Jesus. 00:18:28.940 |
This redemption was no plan B. Turn with me, if you will, to Ephesians chapter 1. 00:18:44.080 |
There it declares, Paul says, "He chose us in Him." 00:18:50.200 |
Ephesians 1, verse 4, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we 00:18:57.900 |
In love He predestined us to," speak to me, what does it say? 00:19:03.960 |
"He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ Himself according to the kind 00:19:08.860 |
intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed 00:19:15.040 |
Interestingly, John Stott comments on this text. 00:19:21.440 |
He says, "He destined us for a higher dignity that even creation would bestow upon us. 00:19:32.840 |
We were loved long before we actually experienced God's love. 00:19:40.280 |
Creation was loved in my family's heart long before she ever came into our lives physically. 00:19:48.840 |
Romans 5, verse 8 says, "God demonstrates His own love for us in this, that while we 00:19:56.440 |
Galatians 4, verse 4-5 declares, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth 00:20:01.200 |
His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that purpose, so that He might redeem those 00:20:11.640 |
who are under the law, that purpose, we might receive the adoption as sons." 00:20:20.280 |
In other words, our redemption rests not in our choosing Him, but in His choosing us. 00:20:26.560 |
Is that not a picture of what adoption looks like? 00:20:30.640 |
Now not in a creeper way, but sometimes when my kids are asleep, I quietly go into their 00:20:36.560 |
room and I watch them sleep peacefully and stare at them and admire them, right? 00:20:49.440 |
My kids were here in the first service, so they're a little weird out when they heard 00:21:02.520 |
When I look at my daughter, Kristen, and I don't think a week doesn't go by where I think 00:21:07.200 |
this, I look at her and I wonder how different her life might have been and how different 00:21:17.960 |
Perhaps she might have perpetuated a generational cycle of dysfunction, sin, and heartache, 00:21:22.200 |
private things I will not share, but of course I cannot know for sure. 00:21:28.160 |
But her former heritage had been spiraling down long before she ever came into the world 00:21:32.680 |
and it threatened to pull her underneath its waves. 00:21:36.920 |
Today she is just our adorable daughter and Toby and Piper's younger sister, but like 00:21:45.860 |
So sometimes she can be a very difficult person to live with, like her daddy. 00:21:53.600 |
That makes me pause and ponder with gratitude, where would I be right now if my father in 00:22:05.280 |
I think I would be in prison or dead or trying to make it rich and find my happiness and 00:22:09.920 |
possessions and probably be miserable or I'd be deceived about my supposed happiness, which 00:22:18.180 |
But I think of those possibilities as a man filled with deeply suppressed rage as a youth, 00:22:27.280 |
I sometimes think apart from God's grace and intervention I would have eventually reaped 00:22:31.320 |
the consequences of my violent heart and ended up dead or in prison. 00:22:41.920 |
I'd be far from his blessing, but that wasn't God's will. 00:22:48.440 |
Romans 8.1, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:22:58.080 |
I've been adopted as one of his children and the Holy Spirit lives in me." 00:23:10.200 |
Let me remind us that it says, "All things are working together for," I'll put it personal 00:23:19.440 |
For I've been predestined, called, justified, and being sanctified will be glorified so 00:23:24.160 |
that one day I will be as," the next verse says, verse 29, "be conformed to the image 00:23:33.620 |
So that as an adopted one, the last verse of this chapter, verse 39, "so that nothing 00:23:39.720 |
will be able to separate me from the love of God." 00:23:44.640 |
John MacArthur wrote, "The old life of the adopted person is completely obliterated. 00:23:50.160 |
It is as if he was born the day he was adopted. 00:23:52.560 |
He is like a new person who just started his life." 00:23:56.640 |
Thomas Watson, in contemplating our adoption, weeped, "God has a son of his own and such 00:24:07.160 |
And Watson says this, "We needed a father but he did not need sons." 00:24:15.040 |
Number two, want us to see the glorious identification in our adoption. 00:24:20.860 |
The glorious identification in our adoption that we've been given new family. 00:24:30.440 |
Romans 8, verse 15, "But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we 00:24:39.360 |
It's an affectionate term but it's a reverential one nevertheless. 00:24:44.280 |
I don't think daddy exactly captures it but there's a spirit of that. 00:24:54.160 |
The spirit says, testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. 00:24:58.880 |
Verse 16, "The humble request for forgiveness becomes the intimate confidence of belonging 00:25:04.960 |
that we could affectionately say without any fear of rejection, 'Abba, Father.'" 00:25:11.160 |
He approaches the throne of grace with confidence. 00:25:15.440 |
There's no spirit of fear, no spirit of slavery, but the spirit of sonship, the spirit of acceptance 00:25:19.760 |
and assurance, the spirit of intimate access, of really belonging that he's my father. 00:25:27.080 |
There's an old story of a boy who was the son of the town's judge and his friends, they 00:25:30.840 |
wanted to do something awful, namely to steal something from the local store. 00:25:40.160 |
So his friends teased him saying, "You won't do it because you're afraid your father, the 00:25:48.840 |
Suddenly that devoted son responded, "I'm not afraid my father will hurt me, I'm afraid 00:25:56.160 |
See, that, that, that, beyond that response is the loving spirit of devoted sonship. 00:26:02.600 |
That's the heart of all of us as believers, is it not? 00:26:05.920 |
As adoptive parents, my wife and I have received all kinds of strange looks, to be honest. 00:26:10.640 |
You know, they double take, you know, when my wife comes and they see our child doesn't 00:26:21.520 |
And we've been asked all kinds of insensitive questions. 00:26:25.880 |
I don't usually think it's out of any malice, which only reveals my own need for grace to 00:26:39.180 |
But let me suggest it reveals a flawed understanding that many believers have about the gospel. 00:26:45.960 |
Inevitably someone will say to us, "Oh, she's adopted? 00:26:54.600 |
To which Sandy and I will respond, "They're all our real children." 00:27:03.920 |
That is to say, Kristen isn't a second-class child. 00:27:06.280 |
She's fully our child, truly our daughter, truly belongs, equally beloved as our birth 00:27:13.680 |
We're happy to explain the reality that she's been adopted because it's a part of her past 00:27:22.280 |
But as Russell Moore wrote, "Adopted is a past tense verb, not an adjective." 00:27:28.800 |
"Adopted is a past tense verb, not an adjective." 00:27:34.120 |
See what we don't do or shouldn't do is go around introducing her as our adopted daughter. 00:27:40.840 |
Mrs. Toby Piper and our adopted daughter Kristen as some kind of qualifier or acknowledgement 00:27:47.120 |
of some ongoing difference, of some inequality or inferiority or lack of belonging. 00:27:53.840 |
That is anti-love, anti-family, anti-church, anti-gospel, anti-Christ. 00:28:00.920 |
I mean we don't go around usually or shouldn't go around introducing people in our lives 00:28:05.600 |
as, "Here's my short friend," or "My blonde cousin," or "My smartest child," or "My divorced 00:28:11.920 |
parents," or "My Jewish or black or republic co-worker." 00:28:18.680 |
I've had relatives and even two pastors tell me not to adopt foster kids because supposedly 00:28:29.400 |
Listen, knowing that's just wicked nonsense, I'm not minimizing the fact that there are 00:28:38.000 |
very difficult situations and different callings. 00:28:44.520 |
And this is not the only ministry that you and I may be called to. 00:28:55.040 |
It was humbling to be a foster parent for many reasons. 00:28:59.200 |
I mean there was a non-Christian couple in our classes. 00:29:15.120 |
So those two pastors told me not to adopt because they're damaged. 00:29:23.040 |
What are they then saying about our gospel hope and God's power? 00:29:31.440 |
The spiritual reality is that we're all damaged. 00:29:35.600 |
We all need the same hope and anyone can be transformed by the power of God. 00:29:46.880 |
A couple in our church have adopted a child who they later discovered is on the spectrum. 00:30:05.040 |
Let us never be ashamed to say that we've all been adopted. 00:30:12.520 |
For it is a very important, wonderful part of our testimony to celebrate. 00:30:20.240 |
Let us never think that it means any single one of us here are anything less than his 00:30:24.640 |
children equal in Christ, equal in dignity, equal in salvation, equally loved by God even 00:30:30.960 |
though we might have different roles within it. 00:30:33.920 |
Christians should know more than anyone there is no superiority or inferiority among us. 00:30:40.700 |
The gospel of grace calls for reconciliation and not reparations. 00:30:55.080 |
First Corinthians 12, 13 to 15 reads, "For by one spirit we are all baptized into one 00:31:01.480 |
body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of 00:31:05.760 |
one spirit, for the body is not one member but many. 00:31:09.600 |
If the foot says, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,' it is not for 00:31:17.240 |
Ephesians chapter 2, 12 to 14, we remember that you all at the time were separate from 00:31:23.880 |
Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of 00:31:27.960 |
promise having no hope and without God in the world. 00:31:31.160 |
But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the 00:31:36.800 |
For he himself is our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier 00:31:44.840 |
Ephesians 4, 2 to 6 says, "There is one body and one spirit, just as you also you 00:31:49.360 |
are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and 00:31:54.720 |
Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." 00:32:03.120 |
Meet any true Christian anywhere in the world, regardless of the language and cultural barriers, 00:32:08.400 |
and you instantly know there is a bond with that person. 00:32:14.000 |
Because in Christ, I not only have a new father, I have a new family. 00:32:20.840 |
Listen y'all, family has never been about blood. 00:32:26.440 |
Family is not about blood, but about belonging. 00:32:29.840 |
Family is not about blood, but about belonging. 00:32:34.000 |
Let me speak to those in Asian cultures who perpetuate a racist mindset otherwise. 00:32:43.600 |
When Julius Caesar adopted Octavius as his son and his legal heir, it allowed him to 00:32:49.160 |
succeed his father as Emperor Caesar Augustus. 00:32:54.940 |
There was no inferior status due to his past adoption. 00:32:58.740 |
It is not that we are saved, that we get to live then outside in some doghouse on the 00:33:03.760 |
outskirts of heaven so that at least we're not in hell. 00:33:07.840 |
It's not that we merely get a safe place of refuge away from immediate harm, like some 00:33:12.200 |
foster homes that are sometimes cold and loveless, where you will get food, clothing, shelter, 00:33:22.960 |
That's certainly better than being hungry, naked, or abused, but there are a lot of places 00:33:27.280 |
you can receive those necessities and yet feel profoundly empty, abandoned, and without 00:33:37.900 |
Not the least ounce of feeling loved and actually being loved. 00:33:43.720 |
Our adoption, our adoption in Christ is much more than receiving legal forgiveness and 00:33:49.160 |
justification which is already monumentally more than we deserve. 00:33:54.040 |
It is much more than just freedom and protection from our former father the devil. 00:33:59.040 |
It is much, much more than getting our own bed to sleep in and not having to wonder where 00:34:03.240 |
our next meal is coming from or even dreaming about what new toy we're going to get from 00:34:13.640 |
It means a home, a forever family where we are loved. 00:34:17.560 |
For some of us, perhaps, the church is the first family in which we experience love. 00:34:32.480 |
Because his imperfect people are compelled by the love of Christ. 00:34:38.120 |
When the first Christians who were Jews asked, "Are the Gentile believers really one of us, 00:34:44.120 |
The answer, of course, from God was, "Yes, they are. 00:34:48.920 |
They're brothers and sisters more so than your natural family." 00:34:52.960 |
Sadly in churches today, brother or sister sometimes is just a metaphor for a friend 00:34:57.400 |
or acquaintance or our consumeristic preferences about which church we'd rather go to. 00:35:05.560 |
How big the church or similar people are to me or what will I get or not get by going 00:35:24.000 |
My friend John Kim, Pastor John Kim said, "Love is the litmus test of Christianity to 00:35:27.720 |
show whether your claims to faith are genuine or not. 00:35:32.320 |
You live out the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, 00:35:35.760 |
mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself." 00:35:39.440 |
Jesus said it better, "By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have 00:35:45.160 |
Remember, you and I do not just have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:35:51.060 |
We have a corporate relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:35:55.480 |
When given a family, we're not just given privileges, but we're given responsibilities. 00:36:03.360 |
And I pray that you are an active part of that as a member and not just a spectator 00:36:09.640 |
Your understanding about spiritual adoption has a lot to say about your pursuit of church 00:36:13.960 |
unity, forgiveness, practicing to one another, sacrificial kingdom giving, not being divisive, 00:36:19.520 |
about loyalty to your leaders and fellow members. 00:36:22.800 |
Here we must not be preferentially choosing who our friends will be. 00:36:27.280 |
No, we are brothers and sisters with the same loving Father. 00:36:31.800 |
Now I understand that a church this size, we may not know everyone well. 00:36:38.760 |
But we better look at each other as brothers and sisters, as family. 00:36:45.000 |
As new creations of Christ, we've been given a radically new life, new identity, new family, 00:36:50.680 |
At Kristen's adoption hearing, the judge and attorneys on both sides, they asked us 00:36:54.400 |
some very surprising questions, at least to us. 00:36:59.160 |
For example, they asked, "Are you going to treat Kristen as your same as your birth children?" 00:37:08.240 |
"Are you going to give her a full inheritance and all the rights of your other children?" 00:37:13.240 |
I mean, I can't imagine the cruelty of anything less. 00:37:17.000 |
It was a foregone conclusion, in our hearts, we love her. 00:37:20.960 |
John Calvin said about this text that the primary work of the Holy Spirit, as the Holy 00:37:25.200 |
Spirit is mentioned here, is to convince us of the gift of our sonship, ensuring and then 00:37:31.080 |
testifying to our hearts that we do belong, that we are children. 00:37:37.960 |
Ancient Rome's adoption process actually requires seven witnesses in the transaction. 00:37:43.760 |
Well, what happens if, when the father dies, if the birth children are resenting the adopted 00:37:49.480 |
son who is the heir and then try to accuse him of having an illegitimate claim? 00:37:56.120 |
So in the Roman Empire, they required seven witnesses to protect the adopted son's rights. 00:38:08.800 |
Verse 16 says the Holy Spirit testifies, witnesses that we are children of God. 00:38:17.240 |
As a Christian, I didn't belong, but now I do belong. 00:38:19.800 |
Fully, really, truly, publicly, completely, joyfully, eternally, I belong and God is my 00:38:29.400 |
At Christian's adoption hearing, I never forgot how Sandy and I, we're pretty calm and excited 00:38:36.920 |
but of all places to just start bawling like crazy, was when the lawyers and judge were 00:38:43.140 |
exchanging all the legal verbiage that had just confirmed the permanent reality that 00:38:48.200 |
we are not just her parents functionally, but also now legally. 00:38:54.080 |
I was born in California, code 94698.127, all this stuff. 00:39:06.440 |
And I remember, I remember, why, why at that point? 00:39:09.760 |
You know, it's because I realized that she was no longer a ward of the state and trusted 00:39:17.040 |
into our temporary care as her foster parents, but she became ours and we became hers. 00:39:25.120 |
After a year of caring for her as though she was our own, she was not legally ours until 00:39:30.140 |
that point, so as her dad, I could finally say with joyful authority, she's mine. 00:39:47.940 |
Our justification in Christ is not just a legal forensic positional righteousness. 00:40:00.620 |
Kristen's birth certificate was permanently changed. 00:40:12.060 |
New name, new identity, new inheritance, new father, new future, new trajectory. 00:40:23.540 |
Milton Vincent wrote, "When I see the cross, I see the premium that God places on the works 00:40:33.100 |
How valuable all of these works must be if Christ would die so that I might perform them." 00:40:38.580 |
At least with Kristen, we're seeing by God's grace that the multi-generational cycle of 00:40:45.020 |
neglect has now been broken, is still being broken by her adoption. 00:40:49.140 |
Not only is her life being changed, so is ours. 00:40:52.980 |
And our prayer is her story of hope goes beyond her to her kids and their kids and their kids. 00:41:02.540 |
That God would reap joyous change through the glory of God. 00:41:08.660 |
However, let me suggest all of that pales in comparison to our gospel stories. 00:41:18.260 |
When we've been redeemed, set apart into his omnipotently loving fatherhood, sovereignly 00:41:23.140 |
adopted to a certain and glorious hope, many of us are still deeply scarred by a very painful 00:41:34.020 |
Listen, though the gospel does not erase our past, it does redeem us where we are. 00:41:41.020 |
Jason Johnson said, "The gospel like adoption is a multi-generational story of love. 00:41:46.300 |
It breaks our past cycles, forms our new realities, and offers us a future hope unburdened by 00:41:51.260 |
the broken context from which we originated." 00:41:55.140 |
Then he concludes, "He secures our futures and changes the trajectory of our lives forever." 00:42:03.220 |
Number three, the great inheritance of our adoption. 00:42:07.340 |
The great inheritance of our adoption that we are guaranteed a new future. 00:42:14.420 |
Romans 8 verse 17, "And if children heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, 00:42:20.260 |
if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. 00:42:24.500 |
For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the 00:42:30.780 |
For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for what? 00:42:38.180 |
So in one sense, we are told here in our text that we are right now the children of God. 00:42:44.980 |
But in another sense, that sonship has not yet been fully consummated. 00:42:50.820 |
Thus, we've yet to receive the full benefits of our present day adoption. 00:43:00.060 |
See, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. 00:43:03.960 |
So we, along with the rest of creation, eagerly await for it. 00:43:10.620 |
The full revealing of the sons or the children of God. 00:43:18.340 |
We will arrive because Christ takes us there. 00:43:23.540 |
We will receive brand new resurrection bodies. 00:43:27.060 |
We are now freed from the penalty of sin, being freed from the power of sin. 00:43:31.760 |
And one day we will be freed from the very presence of sin. 00:43:37.280 |
First John 3, verse 1 says, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we 00:43:50.060 |
First Peter 1, 3 to 5 reads, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:43:55.860 |
According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope. 00:43:59.620 |
Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, 00:44:04.900 |
undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power, not ours, are being guarded 00:44:12.100 |
through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." 00:44:18.060 |
Name one thing on earth that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. 00:44:37.080 |
Our adoption in Christ ought to radically change our perspective. 00:44:41.020 |
We should be living in a way that reflects our glorious, incredible future. 00:44:46.320 |
Joyfully, obediently, courageously, faithfully. 00:44:51.640 |
I mean, I think we tend to wonder if you're single, "When will I get married? 00:45:08.060 |
But let me suggest that sadly many Christians, we think of the 50 to 80 years or so we live 00:45:13.900 |
But when was the last time you asked yourself, "What will I be doing 10,000 years from now?" 00:45:21.740 |
We really don't have an eternal perspective as much as we desire. 00:45:27.740 |
Thomas Watson said, "The world is but a great inn where we are to stay a night or two and 00:45:34.780 |
What madness is it so to set our heart upon the inn as to forget our home?" 00:45:43.180 |
Jesus says it better in John 14, "In my Father's house are many rooms. 00:45:48.060 |
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 00:45:52.900 |
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself 00:46:03.260 |
Adoption is an opportunity to see God's provision. 00:46:05.620 |
As a pastor of a small church at the time, we qualified, at least in the county's eyes, 00:46:12.960 |
So it was a stewardship of no retirement plan, cheap vacations, no music lessons, no martial 00:46:19.740 |
arts, no sports teams for our kids, which there are times I felt guilty not able to 00:46:36.620 |
Jesus said, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be 00:46:50.300 |
I don't think my children are missing out on anything due to our choices. 00:47:04.460 |
Adoption is a great opportunity to be sanctified and see our children and our church encouraged 00:47:16.380 |
I want to emphasize adoption is not the only way we glorify God. 00:47:22.220 |
We will all be doing different ministries and God will lay on our hearts different things. 00:47:29.500 |
But I do want to speak to adoption in particular. 00:47:32.180 |
Some will object, "Well, some adopted kids can be very difficult and sinful to deal with." 00:47:41.660 |
Grace of God is sufficient to deal with that powerfully. 00:47:46.820 |
"Well, I don't know if I should or can adopt." 00:47:54.020 |
But you can support those who do if God lays it on your heart. 00:47:58.380 |
"Well, I won't know their medical history and potential health issues." 00:48:02.620 |
You don't know that with your birth children. 00:48:05.140 |
Are you going to stop loving them if they do have health problems later on? 00:48:09.140 |
Are you going to disown them or pull the plug because they get paralyzed in a car accident 00:48:22.540 |
Your maladies and mine, our radical depravity in the womb and out of the womb are far worse. 00:48:40.260 |
Yet we must hate our sin more than our suffering. 00:48:43.020 |
We must hate our sin more than our suffering. 00:48:45.460 |
Over and over again in Israel's history, if you look at the Old Testament, the Father's 00:48:49.660 |
heart is revealed repeatedly for orphans and widows, the fatherless, the broken, the poor. 00:48:57.000 |
And their open neglect was judged by God as the prophets spoke against the social injustice 00:49:03.100 |
at the time as being perpetuated by His very people. 00:49:11.860 |
In Rome they put unwanted babies on the city walls to either die or be taken away as slaves. 00:49:19.220 |
And it was the early church who counter-culturally rescued them. 00:49:24.140 |
Speaking to foster adoption just for a moment, the statistic I heard is if less than half 00:49:30.380 |
a percent of our nation's evangelical families adopted one child, then we would empty the 00:49:40.300 |
Let me be clear though, this is not about the social cause of adoption. 00:49:50.940 |
A lot of times those causes can devolve into something that has nothing to do with Christ 00:50:06.140 |
This is not about the social cause of adoption. 00:50:09.940 |
Because doing church and making disciples, they are not the same thing. 00:50:13.880 |
Doing church and making disciples are not the same thing. 00:50:18.700 |
I'm not asking is the church making disciples, are you making disciples? 00:50:23.580 |
Are you investing and pouring into someone else? 00:50:33.380 |
Many people can adopt, but not all do so for Christ's glory. 00:50:39.980 |
As much as I'm encouraging some of us to do so, it is ultimately about whether or not 00:50:44.660 |
the love of Christ controls your entire life. 00:50:49.260 |
It's not, the question is not will you adopt? 00:50:51.900 |
The question is does the love of Christ compel you? 00:50:57.740 |
Every nook and cranny of your daily life and future. 00:51:04.540 |
Jesus said, "Take up my cross daily and follow me." 00:51:09.500 |
It's about self-denial, all that God might call you to. 00:51:11.900 |
Jesus is our example for how we should then live our daily life in love of the Father. 00:51:16.420 |
John 10, 15, "Even as the Father knows me and I know the Father," Jesus says, "I lay 00:51:23.460 |
Luke 22, 42, "In that dark moment, Jesus prays, 'Father, if you are willing, remove 00:51:29.140 |
this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.'" 00:51:36.340 |
Our own adoption is the gospel at its most beautiful, most endearing, and most gripping. 00:51:43.380 |
Before I became a dad, I felt conviction of sin when I snapped at someone, but I never 00:51:48.460 |
felt as bad as when I do that with my wife or kids. 00:51:53.300 |
I feel compassion for kids who eat lunch alone at school, but thinking about that happening 00:51:58.540 |
to any one of my kids makes me cry in private. 00:52:02.940 |
Yet that doesn't even come close to comparing to our Father's love. 00:52:15.060 |
He will never give into sinful anger or graceless condemnation. 00:52:18.620 |
His love outclasses any other by his invincible power, infinite omniscience, eternal omnipresence, 00:52:24.220 |
so that we should repent immediately forever, having been anxious or worried or having complained 00:52:32.460 |
And yet the good news is that He will never disown us, never forget us, never stop loving 00:52:47.220 |
Luke 15, familiar text reads, "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw 00:52:51.980 |
him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 00:52:57.100 |
The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 00:53:00.500 |
I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 00:53:03.540 |
'But,' the father said to his slaves, 'quickly bring the best robe and put it on him. 00:53:10.620 |
Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fattened calf. 00:53:14.260 |
Fill it and let us eat and celebrate, for the son of mine was dead and has come to life 00:53:26.700 |
God's children more than any other people on this planet should both know and feel the 00:53:33.420 |
desperate need and life-changing joy of adoption. 00:53:39.620 |
Dear brothers and sisters, do we not know the joy of adoption better than anyone on 00:53:51.940 |
Father, we know that this is not adoption, the only issue or ministry that we can be 00:54:00.740 |
It is one of many that need to be saturated, not by legalistic moralism, not by self-righteous 00:54:27.740 |
You are the judge, you will bring justice one day. 00:54:32.380 |
But what this world needs is mercy, needs the gospel. 00:54:40.340 |
Thank you for this wonderful church and all that you are doing here, so encouraged by 00:54:49.760 |
Pray that our hearts' focus would be that we are living sacrifices. 00:54:57.860 |
And as your adopted children, I pray that your people here, your children here, and 00:55:06.660 |
all the children around the world of you will enjoy the warmth of the sunshine of thy smile