We rejoice to know that "God is love!" Love is an attribute of his holy Being without which he would not be God. We know that God is love because his love is revealed and made known by his deeds. Love is active. It is never dormant. Like fire, it must break out. It cannot be contained. It is known only when it is experienced, not by words, but by deeds. We know the love of God is that love that "passeth knowledge." Yet, God's love is revealed and made known by these six deeds of indescribable love.
1. The first act of God's love was OUR ELECTION IN CHRIST (Deut. 7:7-8).
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 "The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: (8) But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."
Election is not a hard doctrine. It is a delightful doctrine. Were it not for God's electing love toward sinners, there would be no salvation (Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13). We would never have come to know and love Christ, had he not first loved us (John 15:16; 1 John 4:19).
2. The second act of God's love was OUR REDEMPTION BY CHRIST (Rom. 5:8; 1 John 3:16; 4:9-10). "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends!"
Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
1 John 3:16 "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
1 John 4:9-10 "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. (10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
Because he loved us, the Son of God assumed our nature, assumed our sin, assumed our guilt and died under the wrath of God as our Substitute, to put away our sins. "The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me!"
3. The third act by which God reveals his love to sinners is HIS EFFECTUAL, SAVING GRACE (Jer. 31:3).
Those whom the triune God loved, the Father chose to save. Those whom the Father chose to save, the Son redeemed. And those whom the Son redeemed, the Holy Spirit will effectually call, by his irresistible grace, to life and faith in Christ. "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee" (Psa. 65:4).
4. The love of God is revealed fourthly in THE ABSOLUTE PRESERVATION OF HIS ELECT IN A STATE OF GRACE (Rom. 8:39).
Romans 8:39 "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
John 10:28 "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
Can you imagine one who is loved of God falling from a state of grace, perishing and suffering the wrath of God forever in hell? Why, such a notion is worse than nonsense, it is blasphemy! The love of God is…
5. Fifthly, God's love for his elect is seen in OUR SAVIOR'S TENDER, PROVIDENTIAL CARE FOR US (John 11:35-36).
John 11:35-36 "Jesus wept. (36) Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!"
Our God and Savior really is touched with the feeling of our infirmities! We really are the apple of his eye!
But there is one act of love that goes beyond election, redemption, effectual calling, preservation, and providential care. Great and marvelous as those things are, there is one act of God that goes beyond them all.
6. If the climax of God's love is our redemption by Christ, the apex of God's love is OUR ADOPTION INTO THE FAMILY OF GOD (1 John 3:1).
1 John 3:1-3 "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (2) Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (3) And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
Our subject tonight is ADOPTION, our adoption by God into his family as the sons of God.
Proposition: Election is the great fountain of grace. Redemption is the greatest mystery of grace. And Adoption Is The Greatest Privilege Of Grace. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not."
Divisions:I. WHY HAS GOD ADOPTED US INTO HIS FAMILY?
No reason can be found in all the Bible for God's adoption of sinners into his family except his sovereign love (Eph. 1:4-5).
Ephesians 1:3-6 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (4) According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (6) To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."
Adoption is experienced and known in time; but it began in eternity. We were not adopted into the family of God when he gave us his Spirit, but when he chose us and accepted us in the Beloved. He gives us his Spirit in regenerating grace, not to make us son of God, but because we are the sons of God!
Galatians 4:1-7 "Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; (2) But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. (3) Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: (4) But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (5) To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (6) And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (7) Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."
The only distinction between the children of God and the children of wrath is the distinguishing love and grace of God (1 Cor. 4:7). And this distinction was made by God in eternity.
1 Corinthians 4:7 "For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?"
II. BY WHAT POWER DO SINNERS BECOME THE SONS OF GOD?
Were it not for the perversions of religious tradition, this question would be redundant. Man, by nature, is enmity against God. He cannot become one of the sons of God because he chooses to be!
A. The preacher has no power to make men the sons of God.
B. The church has no power to make men the sons of God.
C. You certainly do not have the power to make yourself a child of God! (Rom. 9:16).
D. The only power that can translate a sinner from the family of nature into the family of grace (Jer. 3:19) is the power of God.
Jeremiah 3:19 "But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me."
Adoption is God's work! You cannot become a child of God but by the choice, power, and grace of God!
III. WHAT IS THE METHOD OF GOD'S ADOPTION?
We must never suggest, or imply, or imagine that God must do anything, or that he must do anything in a specific way. God is totally free and sovereign. He can do whatever he is pleased to do. And he can do it however he is pleased to do it. But God does reveal in his Word his method of grace in adoption (John 1:12-13).
John 1:12-13 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (13) Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
NOTE: If you would understand the doctrine of this text, it must be read backwards. Here John tells us three things about God's method of grace in adoption.
A. First, God drops the life of grace into a person's soul (v. 13). "Born of God!" The new birth is God's work.
NOTE: Here God's adoption differs from civil adoption. He gives his sons his nature! This gracious gift of God is altogether the work of his free and sovereign grace in Christ.
B. As soon as God drops life into the soul, the regenerate sinner receives Christ, believing on his name.
To believe on his name, "The Lord Jesus Christ," is to receive Christ as my…
C. And as soon as you trust Christ, God gives you the right, the power, the authority, the privilege of being his child.
This power, authority, and right of sonship is the assurance of sonship conferred upon believing sinners by the Holy Spirit. That person who trusts Christ alone as Savior and Lord knows that he has the right in Christ to speak to God almighty as his heavenly Father.
NOTE: If any of you think you are the sons of God who have not yet believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a lie - Sonship, Adoption is bestowed upon faith -
IV. WHY ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD SO MISUNDERSTOOD AND MISREPRESENTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD?
If you are born of God, if you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, if you live in this world as a child of God, the men and women of the world will never be able to know you. You will be misunderstood and misrepresented.
The reason for this misunderstanding is quite simple - "Therefore, the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not."
V. WHAT ARE THE BLESSED PRIVILEGES OF ADOPTION?
I have already told you that the greatest privilege of grace is adoption. Now let me show you that that statement is true. Being the sons of God, ours is a blessedness beyond comparison.
A. We have an assured interest in God's infinite, everlasting love (John 17:23-26).
John 17:23-26 "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (24) Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (25) O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. (26) And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."
B. We have the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:14-16; Gal. 4:6).
Galatians 4:6 "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
Romans 8:14-16 "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (15) For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (16) The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:"
God the Holy Spirit has been given to us, bequeathed and bestowed upon us by Christ our Lord.
C. We have been brought into the discipline of our Father's house (Heb. 12:5-11).
Hebrews 12:5-11 "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: (6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (7) If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (8) But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. (9) Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? (10) For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. (11) Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."
The Father's chastening rod is a blessing of grace by which our heavenly Father…
D. We are assured of our perfect conformity to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).
Romans 8:29predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
E. And our adoption into the family of God makes us the heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.
Our inheritance is an inheritance of grace! An inheritance of pure, free grace in Christ!
Revelation 7:16-17 "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. (17) For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
I really cannot tell you what the blessing of being an heir of God shall be. Only eternity can do that. But I can tell you this - It beats being an heir of hell! I know. I've been both.
Application:
If you come to Christ, you shall be an heir of God; you are a child of God! May God make you to do as Mary did long ago, to choose that good part that shall never be taken away from you!
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