WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.900 You know, I've always had a great deal of respect and admiration for the infomercial. 00:00:09.460 --> 00:00:15.120 ! And this is something that's in the US. I hope that there is something similar to this in the UK. 00:00:15.120 --> 00:00:22.080 But in the US there's something called the infomercial. It takes a 30 minute block of time on the television 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:30.559 and it doesn't actually show anything entertaining. It is just one long commercial. 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:36.539 And what I find so interesting about these things is that there's a certain degree of rhetorical prowess 00:00:36.539 --> 00:00:43.019 that goes into an infomercial. It's like a street hawker who's selling his wares but instead of being 00:00:43.019 --> 00:00:48.879 in the marketplace he's decided to set up right outside the movie theater just for the extra 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:55.580 challenge. There's actual entertainment just a click away but they're trying to grab your attention 00:00:55.580 --> 00:01:02.240 sometimes even for a whole 30 minutes when you could click away at any given moment. And so they 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:09.760 have to try to grab your attention. And sometimes when I was young I'd sneak downstairs early trying 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:16.219 to see cartoons early watching some Tom and Jerry but the programming at that point would just be 00:01:16.219 --> 00:01:21.879 infomercials. But sometimes I would just sit there and watch the infomercials. I'd actually be 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:28.060 captivated by them because there's something hypnotic about them. You're sitting there and you're watching 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:34.439 the Boneflex Gym Stairmaster 3000 whatever set of knives they're selling and they're trying to one-up 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:41.700 themselves for 30 minutes when they're only selling this one product. And so what they do is they take a 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:46.480 knife. They show you a knife. They show you this is the most wonderful knife. It can cut through anything. 00:01:46.579 --> 00:01:53.040 It has incredible craftsmanship. And then they say this could be yours for $19.99 and they put it on the 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:59.700 table. And then they keep going. They say you know you need a paring knife. No kitchen is complete without 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:04.000 a paring knife. And then they show that. And then they put that on the table. And then they just keep 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:09.659 bringing out the goods. They say you know here's a cleaver. Here's a turkey baster. Here's something else 00:02:09.659 --> 00:02:15.680 you need. And they lay it all out on the table. And the way they stereotypically end is at the very end 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:21.740 of the commercial they say we can't do this all day. But if you call right now we'll double the offer 00:02:21.740 --> 00:02:29.819 absolutely free. All of this could be yours. You know and as a six-year-old child I'm ready to break 00:02:29.819 --> 00:02:36.699 open my piggy bank. I'm ready to invest in culinary equipment because I don't need it but I see the value. 00:02:36.699 --> 00:02:45.459 And what I think Paul's doing here in Ephesians is rather similar. And by that I don't mean that 00:02:45.459 --> 00:02:52.739 Paul is some sort of sleazy infomercial salesman. Paul's not after your wallet but he is after your 00:02:52.739 --> 00:03:01.959 heart and he is after your voices. He is absolutely convinced that the salvation we have in Jesus Christ 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:08.400 is the greatest thing in this world and it is the greatest thing in this universe. There is nothing 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:17.620 that we can conceive of that compares with that salvation. And he has 12 verses going on and on 00:03:17.620 --> 00:03:25.219 about it. And he is just piling up blessing after blessing, grace upon grace. And he's trying to get us 00:03:25.219 --> 00:03:33.180 to see that the riches we have in Jesus Christ are truly magnificent. And we've already gone over 00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:39.800 verses 3 and 4 and he's opened up with a big blessing. He's opened up with the blessing of 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:46.539 election. How God's grace is shown to us and that he chose us before the foundation of the world. There 00:03:46.539 --> 00:03:55.359 was nothing in us that was desirable but God still loved us and showed his love to us. And he's even 00:03:55.359 --> 00:04:03.180 now molding us to be holy and blameless in his sight. You know that's a real blessing. That is a powerful 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:09.560 blessing. And we as Presbyterians appreciate a predestination and election. That's something we 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:16.879 talk about. But here he says, you know, if you can't believe the wonders of the blessing of election, 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:24.920 just wait until you see what election gets you. It gets you the blessing of adoption. You know, this 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:32.319 blessing here in verses 5 and 6 is the blessing of adoption. And it is not playing second fiddle to 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:39.560 what has come before. It is just as marvelous as and as impressive. And so what I want us to do today 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:46.639 is I want us to take our love of God, that all-important metric of how we are doing in our Christian lives, 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:54.659 and I want us to clothe our love of God with greater and greater reasons for that love as Paul is doing 00:04:54.659 --> 00:05:02.180 here. And what I want us to do is see how adoption should make us sing better to our 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:10.600 heavenly Father. And to do that today, I have three simple headings for you. What, how, and why. What, 00:05:10.980 --> 00:05:17.680 how, and why. Very simple headings. But I should warn you that it's a little front-loaded, so don't get 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:22.920 too concerned when you see how long the first point takes. We'll make it out of here in time for lunch. 00:05:23.620 --> 00:05:30.500 But here, let's see, look at this first point. You know, what. The what of this passage is that we are 00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:39.920 adopted as sons. Paul here is announcing that Christians are adopted by sons, as sons, by God 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:47.079 himself, and that would have been astounding to all the Jews who were listening. Now, this is something 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:52.199 you may not quite realize, but if you go to the first five books of the Bible, and you go to the 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:58.199 Torah, and it lays out the Mosaic Law, if you read it, it has all sorts of ins and outs describing all 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:02.479 sorts of things. There's all sorts of ceremonial rights. There's all sorts of laws about all sorts 00:06:02.479 --> 00:06:10.399 of things. But there's no actual mechanism in the Mosaic Law to take someone from one family, 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:19.039 bring them into your own, and give them your own name. That actually doesn't exist in the Mosaic Law. 00:06:19.139 --> 00:06:25.779 There's no mechanism for that. The families have to be distinct, partly because of the way the land 00:06:25.779 --> 00:06:34.819 gets inherited. But, you know, we see here that adoption is a very small, minor theme in the Old 00:06:34.819 --> 00:06:41.479 Testament. You know, individual Jews are not supposed to call upon God as their particular 00:06:41.479 --> 00:06:47.439 heavenly Father. You know, the Jews could list off their blessings that they have, and they could say, 00:06:47.559 --> 00:06:52.339 we have the law, we have the prophets, we have the temple, we are God's covenant people. All of those 00:06:52.339 --> 00:07:00.759 are great blessings. But none of them say, God is my Father. You know, in a certain sense, we can see in 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:08.479 certain passages that God is like a Father to the nation of Israel. Or He may act as a Father to the 00:07:08.479 --> 00:07:15.479 kings of Israel. But the ordinary person in the pew in the synagogue wasn't just supposed to call out upon 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:24.700 God as their Father. When Jesus does that in John 5 18, and He says, God is my Father, everyone picks up 00:07:24.700 --> 00:07:33.800 stones to stone Him. When you see the Lord's Prayer, and it says, you know, our Father who art in heaven, that is a 00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:43.160 radical statement. That is something new. You know, each one of us is able, personally, to call upon God as Father, 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:51.939 and expect to be heard as sons. And I want you to see there, I'm purposefully using the language of 00:07:51.939 --> 00:07:57.320 sons. And if you look at whatever Bible translation in front of you, you'll probably see something 00:07:57.320 --> 00:08:04.379 similar. The NIV says we are, you know, predestined for adoption to sonship. The ESV says we're adopted 00:08:04.379 --> 00:08:12.600 as sons. Sometimes it says children, but what it's literally saying there is sons. And that's on purpose, 00:08:12.600 --> 00:08:17.879 by Paul. And that's not because he's some sort of misogynist. He's not trying to say women are 00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:25.460 second class. He's not trying to dismiss them. It's actually entirely the opposite. You know, Paul 00:08:25.460 --> 00:08:31.760 is in the ancient world, and in the ancient world there are very real differences between a daughter 00:08:31.760 --> 00:08:39.600 and a son when it comes to inheritance. You know, sons get the inheritance, the daughters don't. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:44.879 In the inheritance, the daughters have to be provided for, but they don't get goods themselves. 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:52.659 Only the sons get those. And so, when Paul here is saying that we are adopted as sons, he is saying 00:08:52.659 --> 00:09:01.360 that all Christians, male and female, are adopted as sons. We all have access to all of the rights and 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:07.940 privileges of being sons of God and as being heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:16.880 All of us receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It is all ours. We are all adopted 00:09:16.880 --> 00:09:24.960 as sons in Jesus. We all get it all if we are in Jesus Christ. And I want us to take a moment, and I 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:33.540 want us to think on some of the rights and privileges that we have of being sons of God and what a dramatic 00:09:33.539 --> 00:09:44.500 difference they make in the Christian life. Adoption radically changes your relationship with God. 00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:52.759 There is a dramatic change before and after. Before you are adopted, you are an enemy of God. You are 00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:58.620 actually in rebellion against Him. You are an enemy. You are, what R.C. Sproul says, you know, 00:09:58.620 --> 00:10:07.659 guilty of cosmic treason before God. But in adoption, you are changed from being a traitor and 00:10:07.659 --> 00:10:14.980 an enemy of God, and you are brought into the family. You are brought into as close a relationship 00:10:14.980 --> 00:10:22.779 and as intimate a relationship as we can describe in this world. You are brought into the very family 00:10:22.779 --> 00:10:30.439 of God. And what that does is it should change your perspective on everything you experience in this 00:10:30.439 --> 00:10:38.419 life. Because everything that we experience is actually ordained by God. You know, everything is 00:10:38.419 --> 00:10:45.439 planned by God. And if He is your Father, that should change the way you experience things. 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:53.320 All the good things that you experience in this life. Everything. Down to the smallest dollar you 00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:59.120 receive. Down to simply going outside, enjoying the fresh air, seeing the grass, and seeing the beauty 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:07.320 of creation. You are called not simply to receive those things as gifts from some great distant 00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:13.640 benefactor somewhere. Someone who is showering a gift upon you, but they're very far away. You are called 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:24.159 to receive those gifts as if they are from the hand of your Father. Those as a gift from Father to Son. 00:11:25.439 --> 00:11:33.620 It is intentional and purposeful for God to shower His blessings upon you. And everything you experience, 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:41.299 every good thing you experience, you are called to realize that God is giving it to you. Not simply out of 00:11:41.299 --> 00:11:47.799 common grace, but out of His grace, the grace that He is showing you as a son and child of God. 00:11:49.839 --> 00:11:55.799 But adoption also doesn't simply change the way you perceive the good things that God gives you. It 00:11:55.799 --> 00:12:01.859 actually also changes the way you perceive the bad things you experience in this life as well. 00:12:03.099 --> 00:12:09.479 You know, you also are, you experience, even in your adoption, you sometimes experience the wrath and 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:16.060 displeasure of God. Not in the same way that you had experienced before, but it is possible for God to 00:12:16.060 --> 00:12:22.500 be upset with one of His children. It's in a different way, but still it is possible. But God 00:12:22.500 --> 00:12:29.680 disciplines His children. He doesn't simply punish them. He disciplines His children. And what we should 00:12:29.680 --> 00:12:37.680 truly be scared of is the idea that God doesn't discipline us. That is actually the greater curse in 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:42.859 Scripture when God just lets us. When God just lets go and just lets someone go off into their own sin. 00:12:43.819 --> 00:12:51.739 God disciplines us and brings us closer to Himself, turns us away from our sin, intentionally punishes us 00:12:51.739 --> 00:12:58.319 in order for us to see that we are to be close to Him and cleave to Him and Him alone. 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:05.959 You know, that is important for us to see because it brings purpose to our suffering. 00:13:05.960 --> 00:13:12.860 We are called to see that our God oversees all things and He's doing things for our own good. 00:13:13.560 --> 00:13:19.680 And that is a great comfort because what we have is not a harsh Heavenly Father. What we have is the 00:13:19.680 --> 00:13:27.400 gentlest Heavenly Father. And He cares for us and He cares enough about us to discipline us. 00:13:28.560 --> 00:13:34.400 You know, that sometimes means that things are hard. You know, it's hard when you have a Father who's 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:38.939 upset with you. It's hard when you have someone close in your family upset with you. It hurts because 00:13:38.939 --> 00:13:47.419 there's a closeness in that relationship. But we are bound together in Jesus Christ. Our standing before 00:13:47.419 --> 00:13:55.899 God is secure. God cares for us. And we are called to see that everything that we receive from God, 00:13:55.899 --> 00:14:05.340 good and bad, is from Him as our Heavenly Father and is actually for His glory and our good. 00:14:05.340 --> 00:14:15.079 You know, no matter what, you can actually approach God's throne of grace with boldness. 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:20.299 Before adoption, you approach God's throne as a throne of judgment. But with adoption, 00:14:20.299 --> 00:14:27.519 you approach it as a throne of grace, as someone who has not simply been declared as righteous by the 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:33.339 judge, but someone who knows the judge and has access where other people do not. 00:14:34.959 --> 00:14:41.819 You know, my father is a seminary professor. He is now retired, but he has spent many, many, 00:14:41.959 --> 00:14:48.199 many years teaching different students. And what he would always do is he would hand out his phone number 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:52.980 to different students on his syllabus. And he'd say, if you're having an issue, you know, 10 years from 00:14:52.980 --> 00:14:59.520 now in your church and you need some advice, you can call me. And so he actually gets calls fairly often, 00:14:59.640 --> 00:15:07.500 perhaps even more than he wishes. But he gets calls. And he is happy to help them. But no one who calls 00:15:07.500 --> 00:15:15.740 my father expects simply just to call once a week, just to catch up, just to kind of enjoy chatting with 00:15:15.740 --> 00:15:19.840 each other. That can happen every once in a while. But if it happens once a week, you know, for an 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:26.139 entire year, it would be a little unusual. They haven't been given that type of access. 00:15:27.419 --> 00:15:32.899 But I'm able to call my father, you know, once a week with absolutely no problem. He is actually 00:15:32.899 --> 00:15:39.200 eager to hear me. He's actually eager to listen. I can call him at 3 a.m. and he will pick up the phone. 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:45.980 And I have done that before. He's actually surprisingly cheerful about it. That is an access 00:15:45.980 --> 00:15:53.080 that some student who was in one of his classes somewhere would not receive. The difference 00:15:53.080 --> 00:16:00.540 between me and one of those students is not that I'm a better student. It's not that. It's that I am a 00:16:00.540 --> 00:16:09.040 son. I have access to my father that those students do not. I am able to simply call and 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:16.579 enjoy him. And our adoption in Jesus Christ should be seen in all sorts of ways, but it should be seen 00:16:16.579 --> 00:16:25.039 especially in our prayers. You know, you should speak daily with him and lay out all of your cares 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:31.259 and concerns before him. You should ask with, about help with whatever you need. You can simply do that. 00:16:32.039 --> 00:16:38.839 You can actually pray to God without any cares and concerns. You can simply enjoy him and praise 00:16:38.840 --> 00:16:46.060 him for who he is, thanking him for what he has done in Jesus Christ. And that's because you should pray to 00:16:46.060 --> 00:16:54.920 him as your father. You are called to pray to him as he is your heavenly father and you need no other 00:16:54.920 --> 00:17:04.539 reason for prayer than that. That is a bold access. That is the type of access that the angels wish 00:17:04.539 --> 00:17:13.960 they had and we have been given in Jesus Christ. We are able to come before our God in prayer and enjoy 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:21.879 him in the most intimate of ways whenever we bow our heads. That is a great blessing that we have received 00:17:21.879 --> 00:17:29.359 in Jesus Christ. But the other aspect of the right and privileges that we have in adoption 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:35.379 is also that we are given a new nature. You know, when you're made a child of God, it doesn't just 00:17:35.379 --> 00:17:44.339 mean that your name changes. It's actually that you change as well. You actually begin to take up a 00:17:44.339 --> 00:17:52.439 certain family resemblance to God. You know, my father, my brother, you know, we all kind of have a certain 00:17:52.439 --> 00:17:59.179 family similarity to each other. You can look at our early family photos. You can look at us all when we're 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:05.159 a particular age and we look almost identical. The only way that you're able to tell who is who is 00:18:05.159 --> 00:18:11.119 basically on the, how detailed the camera image is. It's by, you know, what type of camera is used. 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:17.319 And that's a family resemblance. And many of you are related. You have families of your own and you can 00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:22.839 kind of look and you can see the fingers are similar. You can see the nose is similar. That is a family 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:31.740 resemblance. But you may not physically look like God. You may not physically look like Jesus Christ. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:35.579 And you may not physically look like each other in the room if you're not related to them 00:18:35.579 --> 00:18:42.799 genetically. But we are called to resemble each other spiritually. And we're called to resemble 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:50.359 our brother and our father spiritually as well. You know, when people look at us, 00:18:50.359 --> 00:18:55.419 that they should say, you know, you remind me of that Jesus I keep hearing about. 00:18:56.219 --> 00:19:02.059 The way you go through life reminds me of what I hear about in the Gospels. It reminds me of what 00:19:02.059 --> 00:19:09.079 I've heard about him. And that is one of the most impressive testimonies that we can give to others. 00:19:09.439 --> 00:19:15.139 That there's this dramatic change that we are brought into the family of God. And the Spirit works 00:19:15.140 --> 00:19:23.100 in us and makes us more and more like our Savior. So that that family, that spiritual family resemblance 00:19:23.100 --> 00:19:30.340 begins to be the most important thing about us. Even more than our genetic similarities to our real 00:19:30.340 --> 00:19:36.759 physical family members. That should be the most powerful thing. That there is a spiritual resemblance. 00:19:37.060 --> 00:19:44.120 They should look at us and see our brother Jesus Christ. The Spirit is at work in us, 00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:52.339 making us more and more like the rest of our family and our brother. That's part of the reason that Paul 00:19:52.339 --> 00:19:57.299 says some of the things he does. You know, when Paul talks to a church and he says, you're doing 00:19:57.299 --> 00:20:04.199 something wrong, he basically says, stop doing that. Our family doesn't do that. As part of the family 00:20:04.199 --> 00:20:13.319 of God, we as Christians do not do that. There's a certain way that we are called to act as Christians. 00:20:13.319 --> 00:20:20.079 And Paul wants us to live up to that calling. Act like we are part of our family. 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:28.919 This is one of the greatest privileges that we have in Jesus Christ. There's really no other 00:20:28.919 --> 00:20:35.079 higher privilege in the gospel than adoption. It's the apex of everything. Everything else is part of 00:20:35.079 --> 00:20:40.279 the mountain range, but adoption is sort of the peak of Mount Everest sticking above the clouds. 00:20:40.279 --> 00:20:48.720 Because in adoption, what happens is you get God and God gets you. It is a powerful picture of the rest 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:55.220 of the salvation we have in Jesus Christ. That we are brought to God and we are able to enjoy him and 00:20:55.220 --> 00:21:03.059 he is able to enjoy us. He is our God and we are his people. And we are able to call upon him as a family. 00:21:03.059 --> 00:21:08.559 You know, J.I. Packer was once asked, what is the simplest way that you can describe the gospel? 00:21:08.899 --> 00:21:13.599 And he thought about it for a long time and he simply said this, it is adoption through 00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:20.039 propitiation. It is adoption through the sacrifice of Christ that takes away the wrath of God. 00:21:20.220 --> 00:21:26.619 That is the simplest way you can describe the gospel. What we are called to do is we're called 00:21:26.619 --> 00:21:32.279 to work it into our hearts. We are called to understand our adoption in Jesus Christ more and 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:40.339 more. And we are called to see that full salvation and rejoice in it. That's the first thing we should 00:21:40.339 --> 00:21:47.959 see. That's the what. We are adopted as sons. But the second thing is that we're adopted by grace. 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:55.340 This is the how. We're adopted by grace. Paul is not simply declaring to us that we've been adopted 00:21:55.340 --> 00:22:03.700 as sons simply to wow us with what we've received. The real purpose is to try to point us to the grace 00:22:03.700 --> 00:22:12.200 of God. That's exactly what he says. All right, this is to the praise of his glorious grace. And there are 00:22:12.200 --> 00:22:19.240 few things that more vividly show us the power of God's grace for helpless sinners than adoption. 00:22:19.900 --> 00:22:26.680 It is a vivid way of seeing it. Now, this is the reason Paul follows up talking about election 00:22:26.680 --> 00:22:34.960 with adoption. You know, the reason we talk about election so much is because we are able to see God's 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:40.860 grace there. It is a powerful thing for us to be able to say that God simply unilaterally shows us 00:22:40.859 --> 00:22:50.000 his grace. We have no part in our election. He simply elects us. But if there's a problem with 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:55.419 election, if I can say there is a problem, and it's simply this. Election is a little abstract. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:05.959 It's hard for us to understand and get our minds around. But adoption is election made visible. It is 00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:15.420 election made concrete. Now, you look at verse 5. In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship 00:23:15.420 --> 00:23:24.500 through Jesus Christ. This is something that he does simply because of his own will. He does it not 00:23:24.500 --> 00:23:31.700 because of anything in ourselves. It is simply because of his grace. We don't do anything to make 00:23:31.700 --> 00:23:36.620 our adoption happen. We are not children in the orphanage crying out day and night, please adopt me, 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:44.860 please adopt me. There's nothing in us that is worthy of praise. But God simply loves us. Before we love 00:23:44.860 --> 00:23:53.960 him, adopts us into his family, and we are able to enjoy perfect communion with him as part of the 00:23:53.960 --> 00:24:05.500 family of God. We are able to be brought in as sinners, cleaned up from our dirty rags. We are able to put on 00:24:05.500 --> 00:24:10.559 the family clothes. We are able to sit down at the table with our brother and with our heavenly father, 00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:18.680 and we are able to enjoy communion with him and with each other. That is something that is the same 00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:26.160 thing as election, but it's made concrete. It is real in a different sense, where you're able to put 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:33.539 your mind around it in a different way. You are able to call upon God as a child, because God's grace 00:24:33.539 --> 00:24:42.220 alone is what saves us, redeems us, and adopts us in Jesus Christ. It is only in him that we are adopted 00:24:42.220 --> 00:24:48.440 as sons. As it says, we are predestined for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ. 00:24:49.700 --> 00:24:54.759 Every blessing that we receive, from the very smallest to the very greatest, that we receive 00:24:54.759 --> 00:25:03.519 from God is received in Jesus Christ. We are able to enjoy things because they are bound up in Jesus 00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:10.940 Christ. If we get Jesus Christ, we get these blessings. They simply overflow out of God, and we are 00:25:10.940 --> 00:25:20.000 able to see his love for us. That's the how. But the final thing I want you to see here is the why. 00:25:20.740 --> 00:25:29.299 We are adopted by God for praise. That's what we're adopted for. We are adopted by God for praise. That's 00:25:29.299 --> 00:25:36.140 the why. We are adopted in order, not simply for us to sit around and think about adoption, for us to be 00:25:36.140 --> 00:25:43.840 loud by the thought of it, but for us to actually open up our mouths and sing forth with hearts that 00:25:43.840 --> 00:25:52.060 are full of love for our Heavenly Father. We are called to be able to sing better because of these 00:25:52.060 --> 00:25:59.440 verses. And if we don't sing because of them, if we don't open up our hearts, if we don't open up our 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:08.480 lips in praise of God, we really have left something on the table with this passage. We are called to 00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:16.279 simply enjoy God for what he has done. And this is a great and tremendous blessing that allows us to 00:26:16.279 --> 00:26:21.860 see the grace of God. And so we are called to praise that grace. We are called to praise Jesus Christ, 00:26:21.940 --> 00:26:29.420 our brother, and we are called to praise our Heavenly Father. This is the why. It is 00:26:29.420 --> 00:26:38.300 theology moving to doxology, not simply thinking, but mind moving to heart, having it pour out of 00:26:38.300 --> 00:26:46.039 every facet of our beings. And that's once again part of the family resemblance. Just as when you see 00:26:46.039 --> 00:26:51.440 Jesus Christ walking through this world, and you are able to see in the Gospels, he is overjoyed with 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:56.000 the relationship that he has with his Heavenly Father. He's able to find comfort in that and joy in that. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:02.740 We are called to find that same joy in praise, and we are called to do it in such a way that others can 00:27:02.740 --> 00:27:11.779 see us, not because of us, but because of what God has done. To see the great wonders of God's grace 00:27:11.779 --> 00:27:19.640 that are in Jesus Christ and that are in adoption. This is a wonderful blessing that we have in Jesus. 00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:27.940 But there's one pastoral issue I want to deal with very quickly. You know, some of us actually have 00:27:27.940 --> 00:27:34.320 very hard relationships with our earthly fathers. You know, some of us have experienced and we've 00:27:34.320 --> 00:27:40.100 grown up and we remember our father in actually poor ways. We remember the mistakes. We remember being 00:27:40.100 --> 00:27:45.780 mistreated. And that's actually a real pastoral concern and difficulty. I don't want to dismiss it. 00:27:45.779 --> 00:27:52.399 But the way I want you to think about it is that that is a satanic attack designed to try to take 00:27:52.399 --> 00:27:59.720 away from you some joy in the Gospel. It is trying to destroy the relationship that you have with your 00:27:59.720 --> 00:28:03.980 earthly father in order to try to sully the relationship you have with your Heavenly Father. 00:28:04.660 --> 00:28:09.460 And so there are some people who think, well, my earthly father was so horrible. How can this 00:28:09.460 --> 00:28:18.279 joy of adoption actually make me sing? I simply think about my earthly father? You know, that's a real 00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:24.539 concern, but it is possible to move by that. Now, I want to tell you the story of Henry Francis 00:28:24.539 --> 00:28:32.000 Light. Henry Francis Light was a hymn writer and he was born to a particularly bad father. This is a father 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:40.180 who abandoned his wife, went off, married another woman, and the stepmother said, you can either have 00:28:40.180 --> 00:28:46.500 me or you can have your son. It's one or the other. And his father packed him up to boarding school and 00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:51.700 they never saw each other for the rest of his life. The only communication he had with his earthly father 00:28:51.700 --> 00:28:58.480 was a series of letters done in a very business-like style. And at one point in one of those letters, 00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:02.960 it said, you know, it's about time. You're old enough. It's time for you not to call me father. 00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:07.779 It's time for you to call me uncle. And from that point forward, every single letter from his father 00:29:07.779 --> 00:29:16.480 was simply written, signed off by Uncle Light. But Henry Francis Light wrote one of the hymns that 00:29:16.480 --> 00:29:23.620 we sung earlier today, Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven. And in that hymn, it has this third verse. 00:29:23.619 --> 00:29:30.239 Father-like, he tends and spares us well, our feeble frame he knows. In his hand, he gently bears us, 00:29:30.599 --> 00:29:37.219 rescues us from all our foes. How is it that Henry Francis Light, having such a horrible father, 00:29:37.979 --> 00:29:45.099 is able to write those words? Well, the answer is that you need to move your eyes from your earthly 00:29:45.099 --> 00:29:51.299 father up to your heavenly father. And you're called to see the love that Jesus has for his heavenly 00:29:51.299 --> 00:29:56.680 father and the love that the heavenly father has for Jesus Christ. You're called to open up the 00:29:56.680 --> 00:30:03.139 scriptures and see the prayer of John 17 and how Jesus is pouring his heart out to his heavenly father, 00:30:03.460 --> 00:30:09.159 talking of the joy and the love that he has for them, how God has glorified him and he seeks to 00:30:09.159 --> 00:30:16.419 glorify God. You're called to see that, see the intimacy of that love and realize that is what you are 00:30:16.420 --> 00:30:24.019 supposed to understand God's love for us in adoption is. You're called to see that love in Jesus Christ. 00:30:24.140 --> 00:30:29.480 Look at Jesus's relationship with his father, because the love that the father has for the son 00:30:29.480 --> 00:30:36.880 is actually the same love that he has for us. You notice it says in verse six, to the praise of his 00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:44.160 glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. He has adopted us for sonship in Jesus 00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:53.340 Christ, in his own son, in his own beloved, and he loves us in him. We receive the same love of God 00:30:53.340 --> 00:31:00.080 that Jesus receives as the son of God. And that is a wonderful thing for us to see. And we're called to 00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:07.119 look at our brother and emulate him and rise above our earthly fathers. And that's actually a good thing 00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:13.759 if your earthly father is bad or if your earthly father is good. Because even if you have the best 00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:24.379 earthly father, your earthly father is nothing compared to our heavenly. He is true. He is perfect. He cares for 00:31:24.380 --> 00:31:30.160 you in ways you cannot imagine. And you can spend every single moment for the rest of your life 00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:36.020 praising him for what he has done, praising him for his mercy and his gentleness, praising him for the 00:31:36.020 --> 00:31:42.200 salvation that he has given you. And it would still be a drop in the bucket to the praise that he is owed. 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:50.000 That is a wonderful thing for us to see. What we are called to do because of adoption is simply bow our 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:57.920 heads in prayer. And there is a great promise for us in this text. If you bow your head today, perhaps 00:31:57.920 --> 00:32:02.940 for the hundredth time because your life is falling apart, perhaps for the first time in as long as you 00:32:02.940 --> 00:32:10.259 can remember, as soon as you say the words, my father, you are whisked into the throne room of God. 00:32:10.539 --> 00:32:17.039 The angels wait in line before you and you are sitting before your father enjoying the most intimate 00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:25.119 communion with him. You are able to skip in line where the angels fear to tread because of the adoption that 00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:33.039 we have in Jesus Christ. And if you are not in Jesus Christ, this could be yours. What you need is not 00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:41.339 1999. What you need is simply faith in Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins, turn to him, and you will be able to 00:32:41.339 --> 00:32:47.799 lead today, calling upon Jesus Christ as your brother and God as your father.