Great Doctrines of Salvation, Adoption

What's adoption mean? What's it mean in terms of how do we look at adoption? Taking somebody from outside the family who wasn't born in your family and bringing them into your family and making them part of your family. Now, usually adoption in our society takes place when? when they're babies, right?

Babies. I mean, that's kind of you. There are adoptions that take place as when children are a little older. But usually in our society, we we adopt them as babies now. The word for adoption in the in the in the in the word is we off as a we are is the first part of it, which means son.

We've heard we've we've talked about this before. There are two words that you'll see a lot of when we'll talk about them today. We Austin and Technon, we us as a son. Technon is an offspring. Well, the root word of this word is is we us, which is son.

And what's the definition? What did Marchbank say? was the biblical definition of adoption. The placing of a son. It means that... Now, what's different about that than the way we do it? Okay. Probably the best explanation, and maybe some of you aren't old enough to have ever seen this movie.

How many of you have seen, what was the name of that movie? Charlton Heston was in it? Ben-Hur. How many have seen Ben-Hur? Okay, there's a couple of scenes in Ben-Hur. He's a Jewish guy. And he gets the Roman prefect mad, and so he exiles him as an outboard motor on one of these boats, where he does this all his life, you know. And so he rows in one of these galleons, and that's his whole, I mean, for the rest of his life. Well, he rows on the ship that's the general of the army, a centurion or something, happens to be his boat. So they get in a battle, the boat gets blown up, and this guy, this Ben-Hur, saves the life of the general.

Pulls him up on a piece of wood and saves his life. And so the general is very appreciative and takes him back to Rome. And there's a scene in the movie where they have this big celebration, and this Roman general adopts Ben-Hur. Now when he adopts him, Ben-Hur becomes his only and legitimate offspring with all rights and titles to all of his property, all of his name recognition and everything right then.

The difference is that in ancient adoption, the father did not have to die in order for you, the son, to be placed as a son to inherit. In our society, you have to die. usually, before dad gives you the Volkswagen, right? Well, not so in ancient society, and so this word adoption is the ancient viewpoint of the word adoption, and it means that there is the placing of a son in a position, while both the father and the son are still alive, of all the right title and the treasury of the father. and another scene in the movie is when he goes back to Jerusalem and he goes to the governor's house and presents himself as Arius, the son of this general and he sends in the ring as his credentials and to the surprise of the governor when he sees him, he knows who he is he's Ben-Hur, he's not Arius but from the Roman culture, this is the son of the general because he's gone through this adoption ceremony.

So that's what it means in ancient times. And that's the way the word is used here. It means to be placed as a son and an heir. We're going to talk about these two words. In terms of a relationship, where relationship is concerned, What causes us to become one of God's children? How do you get to be one of them? That's right. Come on. You guys know that. I mean, if this is too tough for you, you're in the wrong class. How's that? That's great. Now we can hear them more than you. Oh, good. That's really good.

A little humility on a Sunday morning. So we've covered pretty much the difference between adoption of ancient times and what this means and what we would say today. What causes us to become children of God, and by children I mean just offsprings, and I know you don't think of yourself that way, is by new birth. How do you view yourself as just a child of God?

Is it a title? Stay awake. Is it a title? It's a what? It's a position? Is that all it is? It's a relationship? What else? It's a privilege? What do you share with your father? What's the most important thing? Life. How about this phrase? Do you consider yourself a legitimate, organic offspring of the God of the universe? In life. I don't just mean in title. I mean in life. Are you God's son? Not by creation, like Adam. but by rebirth into Christ. Do you share the same relationship to God the Father as the Lord Jesus Christ does?

Do you? Sure? Absolutely. You think of yourself that way? Yeah. I mean, you know, God is in fact your legitimate Father. You're His offspring. And that's a position that you enjoy. Now that's different than just plain ordinary, or I shouldn't say just plain. Does that give you a position in the family? What's your position? I'll make it clear.

By being born again, you become a technon. You become an offspring, a child of God. How do you get to be one of these, a placing of an adult son? How does that happen? Do I have to have a ceremony for that? A big party? I'm up for parties. How do you get to be one of those guys?

Water baptism? Well, if you come out of Catholicism, it could be this thing they call confirmation. Is this because God says so? You could say that I became, by being born again, I got adopted at the same time. By adoption. So, when you and I are born again, we are considered immediately to be adult sons.

Isn't that interesting? Not babes, adult sons, with all the rights and titles to all that being an adult son of God affords you. Isn't that interesting? Positionally, are you with me? Do I need to explain position and condition? Positionally, you are an adult son, and your father treats you as an adult son from the minute that you're saved forward. What do you think? Pretty cool? Or kind of scary? Are you an adult son? Absolutely you are. We're adult sons. We've got the ring. We've been through the ceremony. We are entitled to all the rights and privileges that who else has? The Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that interesting?

Not to say that there isn't a period of growth in our lives where we conditionally, the Lord grows us up into our condition will match our position. Usually in the ancient times this adult adoption ceremony took place when the man was a teenager. I think bar mitzvah in the Jewish tradition is kind of the same thing. Now he may be Lord of all, but he may not be in charge of all.

See that? So although we have been adopted, there is the growth time in which we learn to accept the responsibility, learn to maybe implement the responsibility that's been given to us by being adult sons. And that takes a while. You alright with that?

Come on, you have to talk some more. So in terms of adult sonship, are we to consider ourselves as full grown? Are you a little arrogant by saying that? You guys are all spiritually mature? Yeah. And you're full grown. And you're an adult. Isn't that interesting? And that's the way God looks at you. Nothing lacking. So spiritual growth doesn't necessarily mean that you're adding anything on to yourself that you didn't have before. It means coming into what you already are. It's interesting how God works.

Steve? You see, in that last paragraph, he seems to make the distinction that we need to grow, but that we're full grown because that's how we are regarded and treated. Yeah. I think that's a critical point with believers. And it takes a while for them, I think for us as believers, to kind of settle down that God treats us and views us from the time we're saved as adult sons. He doesn't say, well, you've got to spend 14 years in kindergarten and then we'll think about it.

You're an adult son. And he comes at us that way as an adult. Now, if there was not the principle of position and condition, it would be very difficult to reconcile, well, wait a minute, I have this adult sonship, but, you know, man, if I'm introspective and look at my life, it doesn't match up with who God says I am. I mean, if this is what adult sonship is, God has made a huge mistake. How do I get functioning like who God says I am? Hence, spiritual growth, the conformity to the image of Christ, so that you function like what you are, maybe is a way to say it.

Any questions about that? God always treats us as full grown, although Paul says in a couple of places, like the Corinthians, what did he tell the Corinthians? He would like to treat them as full grown, but he had to treat them as babes. Why? They were fleshly, they were carnal.

Reconcile that for me. How can you be an adult son and be treated as though you aren't? How does that happen? It's the same thing as position and condition. You may not be there yet. Yeah, that's right. And so full grownness. Give me a description of what it would mean to be mature or full grown. OK, so why not dead? OK. So, then you could say, the logical question is, why don't we always act like we're full grown? I mean, realistically, God says, hey, look. Before that, we may not even know them. So the very first thing is to know, right?

If no one ever said to you, you're an adult son, and explained all the rights and privileges of being an adult son, you would never consider yourself to be such. Do you agree with me? And so therefore, if you're in an environment where you're under the Mosaic Law or any kind of a law system, there's never this adulthood that's presented to you because you're always under the law system and never quite measuring up.

But once you discover, through your own study in the Word of God or somebody tells you, or you read it someplace, that you're an adult son and you begin to get an understanding of a position that you have, then what's the next step? You've got to believe it. You've got to believe that what God is telling you is true. And then you discover, well, wait a minute, if he's going to deal with me in my life from the position of adulthood, then he expects me to believe him. Now that doesn't mean that if you don't measure up conditionally to adulthood that he's going to say, well I'm just going to pass on you until you get your act together and I'll come see you later.

He feeds you milk with the intended purpose for you to get to a point where he can feed you meat. Now what would you consider the milk of the word as opposed to the meat of the word? Give me an example of the milk of the word. So we're kind of in a milk class, right?

No. Foundational stuff. And Hebrews 6 lays out what the foundation is. There's five or six things there. And what would they be? The issues we're discussing in this class, you know. Justification, repentance, all of the things that we're talking about. Because without a solid foundation you can't grow, right? What would be considered the meat of the word? What's meat? Depth. Specifically what information is meat?

Positional truth. Identification truth, right? positioned in Christ in the heavenly kind of truth. We were talking this week, and you've heard me say this before, if you're just a reasonably rational human being, your mind works pretty good and you can look around and gather evidence and make a decision on whether the evidence you're viewing is accurate or not just by watching and observing.

Then when someone comes to you and says, you know, 2000 years ago you died in that cross with Christ, you were buried and resurrected, your natural mind says, no way. Makes no sense. Does that make any sense? Makes no sense. So the meat of the word comes at you and it really is sort of against your natural mind.

The fact that God says, oh, you're an adult son, I've placed you as an adult son, you know, I think it's difficult to say to the Lord, oh, I see what you're saying, and okay, I believe you. Because until we grow a little bit, we're more experience-oriented than we are just faith-based people. Do you agree with that? I mean, you started by faith alone, and we're to grow by faith alone. But the information of the Word of God, especially the meat, is... How about when he says, since you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Or he talks about that you're blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.

How did I get to be in the heavenlies? What does this in Christ business mean? Does that mean I have another car in my driveway? I think so. And how you got to the heaven reality conditionally. That the fact that God is approachable, that you are in Christ, that you are seated, all of these truths that really go against your daily experience in the fallen world. And I think there's a time of reckoning when you say, well boy, either this is true or it's the biggest hoax ever. Is it true? And I'm persuaded that it is.

Just like adult sonship. So what did you do to receive your adoption? Anything else? You just believe, right? And so that's all it took. Just like salvation, that's all it took, because it all came in the package. So what does God do to demonstrate to you that you're an adult son? What's that? Part of it?

Let's go, let's look at Romans 8.15.

And on this side, and this side can look up Galatians 4.6. So, whoever gets to 8.15 first can speak up.

But you have not received the spirit of bondage. So what does God do? What does He do? You received the Spirit, the Spirit of God, and what does He do? Don't you find it interesting that Without the Spirit of God, one, you don't even know that you're a son. But don't you find it interesting that the core work of the Spirit in revealing to you your sonship is based on what? Abba Father. What's Abba Father mean? What's Abba mean? Papa, Daddy. What's Father mean? position.

He's my father. I have a position as his son before him. But the other really important aspect is that he's also dad. He loves me. So the Spirit of God not only reveals information that has to do with your being adopted, but also information that he's dad and he loves you. And trust me, you wouldn't know that if he didn't do that. Can you elaborate on why you say you have become adopted rather than, he says so, received a spirit of adoption? That's really good. So, if God is a spirit, and we are born again, we're spiritually alive, right? We weren't before. So, being a son of God means what? How are you? Are you physically a son of God? Yeah. Part of your make-up. But what is God himself? What's the core of his existence? His spirit, right? So how is he going to communicate to you? through his spirit, right? That's how he's going to do it.

So the communication is to you that you receive the spirit of adoption, and I didn't look this up, but I wrote in my notes that it's the spirit himself, the Holy Spirit. And it's his witnessing to my spirit that I'm a son, adopted son. It's a spiritual connection. Okay, so I think that's why that's there.

So that's where you were saying about this poster, about the previous questions, and I think of this and, you know, how we feel about going and crying, Abba Father, Daddy, and that intimate relationship and all these things. Your example of Denver and all these, you know, do we really feel going before the God of the universe, with the intimacy that we have with our earthly father. And I think this goes back to when I talked about the crux of the old man dying on a cross.

The man hurt. He had to save the general. Our natural man says, we have to do something. And of course, we don't. Believe only. I just always have that thing, you know, born before God, because as a son in front of a father, I'm just not worthy of the humble, you know. It can't be done. The old man has got to do something more. Earn that sonship. Earn the sonship. Other than just being born into it. Yeah, and just enjoying that fellowship without, you know, the requirements or anything else. Yeah. Well, and I'm not criticizing anybody's family.

But we bring our children up, and if you don't perform, we'll withdraw our love for you, or give you one of these, you know. And so I told John the other day, I said, you know, you're going to be a man, and trust me, you're going to make it. in spite of everything.

That's the culture of the old man. The culture of the old man is, I've got to earn my position. I think it goes back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam lost his first estate, what has he been trying to do ever since? Get it back. Isn't that what Adam's all about? He wants to get back to Eden, things were better there.

So when God comes at us graciously, and let's talk a little bit about grace. Give me a definition of grace. I would add one word to unmerited, and the word would be unlimited. So God's grace comes at us, it's totally unmerited, it's also totally unlimited. Isn't that cool? And Romans 5 said, we're sinned and abound, what happens? Grace much more abounds. So this grace coming towards us is in character always over the top.

It's always way more than you need. So it's unmerited and it's totally unlimited. So you enter into this environment, you come out of a works performance acceptance mode, being born again, and you instantly are an offspring and an adult son, and now you change operating systems or environments from performance to grace. So now, positionally, I'm in an environment where God unlimitedly unlimitedly, blesses me overwhelmingly, and it never stops.

And it's always way more than I need. And that's the environment I live in. Well, that's a shock, isn't it? I mean, wait a minute. And so what does my old nature try to do? It's always looking for a place to fit in. And you know what? It fits nowhere. in this new creation. Nowhere does it fit. And you know, the beginning of the new creation, when you were born again, you entered into this grace environment.

This is the way it's going to be for all eternity. It's never going to change. We're not going to go back after a thousand years to a performance-based deal. We're not going to do that. It's always going to be grace. And so you're always going to be the receiver, and God's always going to be the giver.

And so the cool thing about that, the only thing that a man can do that fits under grace is what? Faith. That's the only act you can do that's gracious. By God shedding grace upon you, and your response is thank you, it means you believe Him. You see that? That's the only thing you can do. So it has to be by faith, otherwise it wouldn't be of grace. It can't be anything else, because those are the only two things that fit. Is that fairly clear?

So when we talk about the basic doctrines of salvation, what are we talking about? All these elements of grace that have come towards us. We're reconciled, God has been propitiated, All of the things that we've been studying, what are we really talking about?

Grace. Grace. And grace is the one thing that now and for all eternity we will never stop learning. Spiritual growth is really, in my mind, learning grace. to please God, sure. Faith is the receiver, maybe is the way to say that. It's by faith you receive the grace, conditionally. So what do you learn when you study Paul's epistles in the New Testament? What do you discover? Grace, how it functions, what it's doing, and where you fit. Your involvement in the grace is by one act on your part alone, and that's by faith. That's it. Nothing else. Anything other than that.

The old man says, wait a minute, God, one, isn't that gracious? Couldn't be, because I'm too big of a sinner. And two is, the thing about grace is that it totally, because of grace, leaves the old man out of the equation. One of the worst things you can do to a person is just exclude them. Just exclude them. There's no room for you here. There's nothing for you to do. You're just not part of it.

Well, the old man says, nonsense, there's plenty for me to do. I'll find a place. And so, as soon as the old man enters in, he brings the law with him, and it spoils the grace. So it's either one or the other, it's either 100% on with grace, or zero. There's no 50-50, 80-20, none of that. It's either all grace, because it's different creations, it's different environments. It makes sense? And so adoption is a gracious thing. And our entering into it is to do the gracious thing, which is belief.

And you all are students of the Word of God. Don't you find that the more you are engaged in the Word of God, the more the grace overwhelms you? Because where do you find anywhere in the New Testament where Paul says, I've given you all this grace, but there's one thing I forgot to tell you, that you've got to do this. You have, I don't know, 1,200 commands in the New Testament? How could they possibly be commands and be gracious at the same time?

Explain that to me. Burns' answer is logical imperative. I think they're gracious imperatives. Because I think that grace is the greatest motivator ever. I raised my son by law, hope for reward, fear of punishment. Imagine what it would be like in my house if I raised him under grace, where the logical imperatives or the gracious imperatives were, because he was so overwhelmed by the grace, he couldn't respond any other way.

Do you see that? It would be an awesome thing to see. Don't come over to my house because you won't see it there. Do you see Grace as a motivator? Do you see Grace being an incredible motivator? That's right, because that isn't the environment they live in.

Even the old man. They do work in that environment because if God didn't allow that, they wouldn't be able to take another breath. Isn't that interesting? I mean, if you're walking down the street and you call death, maybe your friend across the street... Yeah, my buddy over here, yeah. His very next breath is dictated by God's grace alone. That's right. Yeah, he eats the same food you eat, by God's grace. That's exactly right.

But we don't view it that way, or the old man doesn't view it that way, because it isn't in... How do I say this? Because sin brought in death, which is a reigning principle, it cannot view anything as grace. Lewis Barry Chafer says grace is the most hated thing on the planet. I'm beginning to think he's right. Because it doesn't leave any place for you to function.

And you think, oh, we're very gracious people. If I invite you over for dinner, don't you think like you owe me? What? You can't take the grace? What's the matter with you? Do you understand what I'm saying? We are so built responsibly in Adam. That as believers it takes a long time just to be the receiver of grace from our fellow Christians. Isn't that right? If I bring you over for dinner and all you give me is a thank you a couple of days later, I'm thinking, well, gee, they ought to have done more than thank me. Isn't that how you think? They could have sent me a thank you note. You see how the old man functions? But the new man functions totally in grace. He's a total receiver. with no thought of payback. And the reason there's no thought of payback is because what he receives, he couldn't pay it back.

Do you see that? And so it's just an incredible, the most incredible motivator there is. And so the Word of God is designed to reveal grace to the believer. Why? So he'll live graciously. He can't do enough. Well, it also tells us to go, you know, just boldly go to the Father. He's our Abba. He's our, you know. It's assumed that that's how we are going to approach Him. That's also... That's exactly right.

It's not a human, it is not a human thought to be self. No, no. Self has always got to, you know... meet some requirements. So when you find in Christian circles the little add-ons that you see in like lordship salvation and second baptism, charismatic kind of thing, where's all that, the source of all of that? It's not from grace, it's from self-thinking that's got to add something on to God's grace. There's got to be more than just believing Okay. Next question.

Oh, the next verse was Galatians 4.6. Who's got it? Anybody? Isn't that cool? When's the last time you thought about that concept?

That you walk around every minute of every day with the Spirit of God in your heart, and what's He doing? He's convincing you that God is your Father and He's also your Dad. Why? So that you would be a gracious son. You would be a receiver. See that? I mean, it's interesting. I know how the natural mind thinks. It thinks, well, gee, the Spirit's in there and He's unstuck. It's like a recording. Abba Father, Abba Father. No. It's not that. It's the actual revelation to your spirit and to you as a person that God is your Daddy and He's your Father. Which one of those is adoption? Daddy or Father? What's the difference between a servant and a son? Relationship?

What's that? That's a really critical part. If you have a servant or slave or an employee, does the employee know your business? What you're thinking all the time? What's your direction? You may have laid out a plan for him, but he doesn't know why you're doing it. It's like if you've ever run a company or you've ever been in a position of authority, you have a plan.

We all have plans. As men, anyway, we go to work and earn money to do what? We have responsibilities. We have families. We have things like that. So what do we do? We know that we have a responsibility to feed them, take care of them, educate them, that kind of thing. And then we always feel like, well, we probably ought to leave them a little something. So you plan and work, have a little thing set up where some money goes aside and that kind of thing.

So you've got a plan. You don't share that with anybody but your family. You know? You say, well, I'm going to send my son to Harvard Business School. You start saving when he's two. You've got a plan. But all the people that you engaged work-wise, they don't know what your plan is, but you're working towards that goal.

The thing about the father is, is that as a son, he lets you in on what he's doing and why he's doing it. So what's he doing? Growing us up into full adult sonship, conformity to the image of his son, in whom he finds all of his pleasure. And then he starts telling you things like, well, you know, when your job is done here, you're going to come and be with me, and be with my son, and you're going to rule and reign with me, and we've got all kinds of cool stuff we're going to do for all eternity.

And there's going to be this intimacy that will never go away. And you'll never stop learning of me. And I'm telling you about that. Because you're in the loop. You're family. And it's interesting, he does it with the Jews, but what he tells the Jews, the family thing in the Jews, is different than what he tells us. You agree?

So, according to the author, What does our father do to teach us to watch and be sober? To be diligent in our Christian life? What's the verse that he uses? Hebrews 12, 5 through 8. Oh no, that's not it either. That's not what I'm looking for. Oh, here it is. It's 1 Thessalonians 5, 4-6. Let's look that one up, and whoever gets it can read it. We go to Thessalonians so often, I can see why it's troubling.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. Okay, so here we are, our father adopted sons, and you have a responsibility being an adopted adult son. And the responsibility is to be alert and be sober. How does he do that? When he says, you be alert and be sober, does he mean everything is grace up until this point, but now here's your job?

But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the dress plate of faith and love as a helmet for hope and salvation. So you look at that and say, oh gee, I wonder how the Lord is going to pull that off because I'm sleepy. and I'm not very alert. I'm certainly not spiritually sober very often. I'm tricked all the time. The verse that I like is Hebrews 12, 5-8, and I'll read it.

And have you forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you, my sons? My son, do not regard it lightly, the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved of him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son he receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. And what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which we have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. The point is that the father knows what he's done to effectuate you to be an adult son adopted. He also knows that he's got to grow you up so that you can live under the responsibility of being an adult son. This is how he does it. Peter says that he chastens you for what reasons?

That you might be a partaker of what? Of his holiness. Isn't that cool? That's very cool. That God is about the business of letting me enter into the fullness of God's very holiness. Not only enter in, but I'm a partaker of it. And that comes through him being a dad. Isn't that what dads do? For what reason? So that you can be a conditional adult son. This one doesn't just make us aware of our position and that we're not out of it. It's interesting that servants can't be sons, voluntarily or involuntarily.

The Father is now your Father, and He is also your God. And so, because he has taken seriously what he's done, then he always works from what he's already determined, which is your son. And you've been adopted. And I'm working towards you from that perspective. And that's where I'm functioning in your life. And so the things that come in your life are designed specifically by me for you to function as an adopted son. You're not a slave, you're not a servant, you're a son. And you're an adult son.

I mean, it's comforting to me to recognize that what God has to accomplish in any believer's life is so far beyond the ability of the believer to accomplish it, you might as well just give up and trust him. Because you're not going to pull this off. You just can't. How can you pull it off? How could you possibly, if you live 500 years, manifest the life of an adult son of God? How could you do that? You couldn't. That's why you live under grace. Then the question is, why should a natural born child be adopted? Why should that even happen? Why don't you just settle for being born? Why not?

That's a hard question, isn't it? Are any of you students of history? To me, I didn't like history in high school. One of the things I didn't like about it, if you happen to be the second son, you are a sorry guy. I always took offense to that because I was the second son. And I thought, gee, the second son doesn't get anything. Boy, you better be born first or you're in trouble. Or if you lived in the Middle Ages, how did this work? The oldest son got the inheritance. The second son, what did he get? The third son ended up in the priesthood. I forget what the second I thought. Yeah. None of those options made any sense to me. To sum up.

Marchbank says that though God has given us a son place, we are now adopted into his family. We do not as yet have all the benefits of adoption. That's true. And then in his summary, I like his summary, he says, in summary, adoption gives us one, position as full grown sons of God. Two, it gives us privilege of being his representatives in this world.

What responsibility this carries with it as we serve the living and true God and wait for his son from heaven. And when he comes, we shall have, which is the third thing, perfection. For seeing him, we shall be made like him. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. I like the summary. It's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace and how we thank you for the fact that you have adopted us as full sons into your family. And so we look forward to growing in the knowledge and grace of your dear son and being representatives or adequate adult sons. And we thank you, Father. We pray in your son's name. Amen.