As we look at our scripture here, you can remain standing,
but I want to say 1 brief thing while you're still standing.
Sam's prayer prompted me to say there's some amazing things
happening in this in this church and God is on the move globally
using many of you, but we need to hear your stories.
But Sam prayed about some of those things, but we just want
to say it is incredible little stories.
What people might think is just a little little thing turns out
to be something significant for the Kingdom.
So e-mail us your stories, tell us what God is doing in your
life. Let us know and we're going to
try to figure out 1000 different ways to let you know.
But it's happening and great things are happening and we need
that encouragement. So with that, we'll be
significantly encouraged by Ephesians chapter 1.
We're looking at verses 5 through 7.
In love, He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons
through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to
the praise of his glorious grace with which He has blessed us in
the beloved. In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses
according to the riches of His grace.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God you may be
seated. Let us pray.
Holy Spirit, you have called us and awakened us and allowed us
to be here at this 8:00 AM service.
So will you let the messenger be seated and let the message go
forth by the power of your Holy Spirit, only you're an errant.
Holy Word matters. So will you do whatever it takes
to encourage our souls and to challenge us and to remind us
that we are your beloved adopted sons and daughters and we pray
this in your name, Jesus, Amen. There is a spectacular book and
I hope that many of you have read this.
This is called gentle and lowly. It is phenomenal and this book
has is has rich. It is it is got the word of God
and it just squeeze all into it and it is a powerful book.
Dane Orton has is the author of this book and he has this very
provocative chapter that fits perfectly.
He he reminds us there's two ways that you can live in a
Christian life. You can live for the heart of
Christ or from the heart of Christ.
You can live for the smile of God or from the smile of God.
You can live for a new identity or from your new identity in
Christ. The battle of our Christian life
is to bring our own hearts into the alignment by the power of
the Holy Spirit into Christ's heart.
So that means every morning we start over, we have to get up
and we have to take our orphan thinking our natural mindset
that's about earning and performing in order to gain love
and let it be baptized by a complete transformation of the
Holy Spirit to remind us of our full and free adoption in the
family of God through the work of Christ.
And it this becomes something we all deal with right?
Even on Sunday mornings. Then he uses a just a little
story to remind us of how this is still true and no matter how
long you've walked with the Lord.
He talks about a a little 12 year old boy that grew up in a
healthy, loving family with parents very attentive to him
and this this boy had a wonderful family.
But one year he decided I'm going to do all I can to earn my
place in this family. How can I guarantee that I will
not be removed from this family and stay in there?
So he works on a birth certificate and and documents he
makes in his room. He determines the next week to
scrub every single part of the kitchen and make it spotless and
and every dish and every aspect of that kitchen clean.
Then he says I'm going to do whatever I can do to imitate my
dad and help my dad. So he goes and does that for a
whole week. Finally the parents go, what is
going on? What are you doing?
This is way too much. What is happening son?
And the son replies, hey mom, hey dad, I'm just doing all I
can to secure my place in the family.
That's all I'm doing guys. And his parents were like, oh
stop, stop. You had nothing to do.
You could not have earned anything to come into our
family. And you can't not lose it,
period. You are ours.
And that settles it. And though it is interesting,
funny little story, it does kind of go to the heart of how we
often, as we live our lives in this tension of living in a
world where we're having to prove it all the time, earn it
in order to have our keep and constantly being tested.
And yet, and yet, as we drill down on this amazing passage in
Ephesians, we are stunned the fact that we cannot earn our
adoption in Christ, though we would love to.
We know it is impossible and that our tendency is to always
want to be working, always wanting to live in order to to
earn it and, and pursue it and and achieve it as if we could do
something we cannot, right. We know this, we all that the
etiquette crowd knows this and you know that we are in awe of
what the Lord is doing in all of our lives, especially in this.
We're going to focus specifically on our adoption.
And yet there are times when we act like that 12 year old boy
trying to continue to earn it. But this Scripture, these two
little verses is actually part of a larger profound passage,
verses 3 through 14. This is 1 long sentence in
Greek. It's one staggering, amazing
sentence. And in in this, there's no
periods, it's just runs straight through.
And there's 202 Greek words in this one sentence between verse
3 and verse 14. And it is like a firework show
of God's grace and glory. It rolls through things like
election, predestination, redemption, forgiveness, our
inheritance, the sealing of the Holy Spirit, lions and tigers
and bears. Oh my.
It is loaded with a profound insight and every one of the
words we could spend months on. That's why we're doing two weeks
on adoption. You notice that.
And so why are we doing that? Because we're trying to really
slow it down and really understand and metabolize the
these profound theological words that are real, that are true.
It's all pointing back to the Christ, to the beloved.
It is not a it's, it's way more than a logical flow.
It's a doxology flow. It is, it is all to praise and
it always leads to the praise of His glory that God gives us in
Ephesians 3 through 14, a spectacular run through of all
the privileges we have in Christ, given by God, secured by
Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit to you and to me who are
in Christ. And so as we look at adoption in
particular, we, we are amazed how this one little word can
stump us if we're not careful. Because everything in this, in
this passage here, particularly these two verses, all goes back
to the praise of his glory in Christ, in Christ.
In fact, that little phrase in Christ is 11 times in this one
passage, 11 times. That is how they looked at
themselves. You they did not use the word
Christian very rarely. Instead, they just view
themselves for those who are in Christ really speaking to our
union. And so as we look at this, we
see many things Here we go as the Father planned it, then the
Son accomplished it and the Spirit applied it.
And so when you think about this passage in Ephesians, do you
remember the very first sermon that Mark preached?
He asked a very a very challenging, provocative
question and he actually allowed us to have silence to answer.
It was it was from the Puritan legend himself, John Owen.
Here was the question he's he asked this John Owen made a
statement that our greatest hindrance in the Christian life
is what fill in the blank. And hopefully you had that
opportunity to kind of wrestle with that.
Maybe today, maybe you missed that, but when he did that, he
gave everyone silence and they had to fill in the bike.
What would you fill in? What would you say?
I'm going to read it again. Our greatest hindrance in the
Christian life is what? And so here is the answer.
Not our lack of effort, but our lack of acquaintance with all of
our privileges. These are the privileges we have
in Christ. And so that is what John Owen
says is our greatest hindrance in the Christian life.
And may we, as we study Ephesians, find it not so
hindering anymore as we marinate in the profound reality that and
as we we become acquainted with our privileges.
The privileges are staggering that we have here and it's just
overflowing in there. In fact, I want you to think
about this as we are in this, this first week of Lent.
What if you flip the script or a thought outside the box in
these, in this season of Lent as we prepare and go all the way to
Easter? And maybe instead of giving up
something or denying yourself something, you can do that if
you want to. But what if you marinated and
wrestled and studied with the privileges that you have in
Christ? What if you went on to the
positive side of things and let the Lord reveal the staggering
privileges to be well acquainted with those as you walk all the
way through Lent into Easter? Because our adoption and our
union with Christ is a profound, profound reality.
There's no better place really for us to kind of summarize that
we can't outdo the Westminster Confession of Faith.
This was actually our profession of faith last week, if you
remember, it says this. This is helping us define
adoption. All those who are justified, all
those who are justified, God graciously guarantees to make
partakers of the grace of adoption in and for His only
Son, Jesus Christ. By this act, they are taken into
the number of God's children and enjoy the liberties and
privileges of that relationship. We are given His name, we
receive the spirit of adoption, we have access to the throne of
grace with boldness, and we're enabled to cry out ABBA Father
like a Father. He has compassion on us to
protect, provide, and to chasten, and yet never, never,
never to be cast off. But we are sealed to the day of
redemption and will inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting
salvation. It is worth another look for
sure because each phrase is loaded with hundreds of of
passages of Scripture anchored to this and if you if we dare.
It's really challenging, but I I try to how would you define it?
How would you boil it down even even more specifically if you
could. One scholar said this adoption
is the act of God whereby he makes us members of his family
and if you think about how profound that is compared to
what we were. If you are in Christ now, then
we can rejoice that we are members of His family, but we
were not that we were actually children of wrath prior to that,
as Galatians 4 says that we were not members and actually doomed
to hell. Galatians 4 says we were in
slavery in the elemental, elemental spiritual forces of
the world, but when the time had come fully, God sent a son born
of a woman born under the law to redeem those under the law, that
we might receive adoption, sonship, because you are His
sons. God sent the Spirit into His Son
into our hearts. The Spirit cries out, ABBA
Father, so you are no longer slaves, but God's children, and
since you are His child, God has made you an heir.
The contrast is staggering, is it not?
It's so good for each of us to to think again what we were and
what we are. If you have trusted in Christ,
then you have been transformed from from a child of wrath into
an adopted beloved child. Amen and Amen.
It is, it is, it is staggering when you think about that.
I hope at times I do this and I think we all do this.
We kind of hear things, we kind of let them roll off.
But this is actually what is eternally true right now.
It happened the moment of salvation for us.
And so, you know, to really kind of help us kind of wrangle in it
and think through. And I really want you to think
at the end of this sermon or later, I want you to try to
communicate to someone that you love who's who slept in and
didn't come to church today. And, and have I want you to
think, how would I define it and help explain adoption to them?
Biblical adoption as the scripture has revealed it to us.
It's helped, it's helpful to see how adoption, union with Christ,
our regeneration and justification all come in.
This is the, the kind of confluence of all of these
profound theological realities. They're they are names that we
give to the profound work of God.
And all of these, particularly justification and regeneration,
all come together in adoption. Hang with me on this, OK.
And and I want you to think with me on this.
So the wonder of the gospel is in our new identity of Christ is
really revealed in how you kind of put all these two together.
This is what Wayne Grudem says in regeneration.
We are made spiritually alive, able to relate to God in prayer
and worship, and able to hear his word and receive it with
receptive hearts. But it is possible.
Just think about this. He's kind of thinking about what
if that God could have created creatures, men and women who are
spiritually alive and yet not members of his family, not
sharing in the family privileges as adopted children.
In other words, he could have justified us and regenerated us,
but not adopted us. And so there's a little bit of a
nuance. There's a splitting of that.
And that is basically what the angels are, right?
You know, they are not, they have not been adopted into the
family of God like we have. And so these created creatures
have a separate identity apart from that adoption.
And so it is possible then that you could, that the Lord and his
Providence could have regenerated us without adopting
us with their privileges. But he did not.
He did adopt us and he could have, he could have justified
us. He could have justified us and
set us and and wiped the slate clean and yet not making us
children as well. So just think about how all
those come together. They have all different aspects
of it. But notice it's like he did.
He justified us, regenerated us and adopted us.
All those things coming at us at the same time.
That is unbelievable when you think about that, because he
could have done it so many different ways.
He could have. You know, regeneration is how
God makes those who are spiritually dead come alive.
He makes dead men live. Justification has to do with our
standing before God, our legal declaration by the judge, our
God, that sinners are declared righteous not because they are,
but because He declares them righteous and credits or imputes
to them. But adoption is unique in the
relationship. That's right in the relationship
because it is that intimacy in that relationship.
He folds us into this family and and in our family, we have now
been a part at the minute of our salvation into adopted family
for all of eternity. And we don't deserve any of
this. So there's a lot of ways the
Lord and his prophets could have taken this, But instead he
bundles them together in a staggering in our union with
Christ and puts it all for us. And and Ephesians is reminding
us of this in this one incredibly long, spectacular
sentence. It's the longest sentence in the
New Testament. So as we look and understand our
adoptions, we think through how much he loves us as he we think
through we have been set free and given access to the throne
of grace, all because we have the past like we're with Christ,
we're we're with him. We have special access because
the blood of the covenant for us has been shed and therefore we
have peace with God and our beloved adopted.
And so as Romans 8 says, we did not receive the spirit of
slavery leading us back to fear, but we have received the spirit
of adoption as sons and daughters with crowd ABBA
Father, the spirit bears witness to to us with our spirit that we
are children of God and if we're children, heirs and if we're
heirs, fellow heirs, provided we suffer with him in order that we
may be glorified with him this week.
Think about you are Co heirs with Christ and receive an
inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled.
No one can touch it. That is a staggering gift.
I don't think there's any good comparison on earth.
No matter what you would say, nothing matters.
This far outweighs anything that earthly examples or comparisons.
And that's why Ji Packer says adoption is the crowning
blessing to which justification? Justification clears the way.
That is amazing. That's a lot better than being
adopted by Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or any rich mega
billionaire, right? They can't offer in it.
No human can offer this even if they pour all their billions on
us. No one could receive the
inheritance of Co heirs with Christ.
No one. This is spectacular.
But the Father plan the Son accomplished in the Spirit
applies and secures to us all for the praise of His glory.
So in the last few minutes here, I want you to be honest and
think through how is it this is true in my head that my heart
drifts. Prone to wander, prone to lead
the God we love, prone to start over every day and go.
My orphan mindset is creeped back in as we start our day.
It is a longest journey right from our head to our heart.
And we know this, if we're honest, and I hope you are, this
goes so deep into our identity as who we are and whose we are.
Again, we can either live for the heart of Christ or from the
heart of Christ. We can either live for the smile
of God or from it. How how do we do this?
How do we sort of beat it into our hearts?
This is true. This is true.
There's this an amazing archaeological find and all
throughout Israel and really all over the Middle East.
It's alive. They're finding new things every
day, sometimes in the middle of war.
And you may go there 10 years. You may have been Israel maybe
20 years ago. If you go there now, they'll be
stunning new discoveries and archaeological digs.
They found a fascinating place in northern Jordan near the
Syrian border several years ago. They found an underground church
underneath an existing church. And so it it's a Saint George's
church, dates about 2:30 AD And somehow they dug underneath that
and they found yet another church, what they think is an
original meeting spot, because it was hidden, it was in sort of
underground, submerged, and it would kept them from being
persecuted. And they found this mosaic in
there. And on the mosaic it was
written, it was the 70 beloved by God, that their identity was
encapsulated. And like, who am I?
I am 1, beloved by God. And that's who for all of us, I
hope we can say, yes, Lord, that is my new identity.
And I embrace it as an heir with you as one beloved by God.
So think about your how your identity is changed and how you
think about yourself and push it.
How do we push it down into our fickle hearts?
So what I would love to do I cannot do right now, which is I
would love after this worship service is over with or even
after communion is to have a a small group, OK, a little small
group study right. And it'd be very confidential.
Just a few of you. And then we could all do this
and we could all talk about honestly, do I really believe
that I'm adopted beloved Co heir with Christ?
And if I don't, how can sharing with one another, encouraging
when they're sharpening one another help us get to that
place because it is if we really embraced it, we might live very
differently. Now there might be several of
you and I wouldn't be surprised that you do embrace it and you
love it and you walk with the Lord and I say amazing Amen.
And now you can lead a small group to help the rest of us
understand and process. How is it sometimes these
profound truths can only be really pushed from our head down
to our heart by our awareness that we don't actually believe
it. We struggle with it and our
awareness to say I need help, I need, I need wisdom, I need time
and safety to admit the gap in my own heart.
Or is adoption and our struggle to embrace adoption actually
have something to do with something even more hidden or
nefarious, which is maybe there's something in our family
of origin or the way we relate to our father or the way in our
family brokenness. It's hard to build trust.
This is actually true. If you're like me, if you've had
a really kind of broken family situation, you did not have a
good father or something terrible happened, it's harder
to embrace these truths because you have fortified your own soul
to kind of guard against being hurt.
That's a very simplistic way to say this, but basically the
brokenness of our family of origins sometimes makes it very
difficult to embrace the truth of this gospel, especially in
familial ways, ways where God our Father and we're the adopted
son or daughter. And so if if that is happening,
that is worth going to counseling, that is worth going
to process where, why does the gap exist?
Like mind the gap. Think about where you really are
with the Lord. Be honest, name it and bring it
out. The Lord knows He's not shocked
about anything. The deepest worst part of you,
He knows he's just waiting for you to come bring it and name it
and reveal it to him and work with him in the power of the
Holy Spirit for healing. You might be thinking, if I'm
God's child, then why don't I feel like it?
If I'm adopted then why do does God seem so far away from me?
I, I believe God, I know he does, but I feel like he just
tolerates me or just like this is what he should do versus me
as an individual. The particularity of him
choosing each of us is no mistake.
It is His direct personal invitation to us for the
foundations of the world, says Ephesians.
And he designates and ordains us to be his children, adopted
children of God. Do not let anything, the world,
the flesh, the devil, Satan or shame or your broken families,
the origin, anything, get in the way of embracing all of it
because this is what we need. So until we have our small
group, until we process honestly, confidentially, will
you take up that challenge and go, OK, I'm just going to be
honest and I'm going to tell somebody and I'm going to work
on this. And I really want you to think
and and meditate on this passage, this three through 14,
memorize it, digest it, let it metabolize in your soul so that
when Easter comes along, you are embracing deeper the wonder of
being adopted by our Lord and Savior.
Let's pray, Father God, if we have nothing on our own, so
we're asking you to come and do something miraculous.
Oh, Lord, remind us again this free grace that has come to us,
where you put your name on us, that you give us the spirit of
adoption that cries out ABBA Father, and you make us heirs of
all these promises. How can it be?
Oh Lord, how can it be? Help us to understand it and
embrace it and fall in love with you.
Oh Father, have your way with us.
We pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.