Nature

The Apex of Divine Love: Sonship

0:00 In that very familiar verse in 1 John chapter 3, the Apostle John says, Behold, pay attention, seriously consider what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. And here in that text, or in this text, the Apostle John indicates that to his own thinking the highest privilege of divine love is that of entering the status of sonship. The great accomplishment of divine love is to bring aliens into the position of sonship.

0:49 In the thinking of John, the apex, the pinnacle, the highest point of the privileges that we have as the people of God is indeed the privilege of adoption. And so if we would have an intelligent appreciation of this great provision of grace, we must then address ourselves to the Scriptures with the serious intention of having clear and well-defined views of what it means to be the sons and daughters of the Almighty. In our Sunday morning expositions, we have been considering for a lengthy period of time the cardinal blessings of the salvation which we receive in Christ and seek to proclaim in the name of Christ.

Review: Adoption in the Scheme of Redemption

1:47 The threshold blessings of that salvation come to us in the biblical terms of calling and of regeneration. Having passed over the threshold and into the kingdom of God's dear Son, we are immediately blessed with the great provision of justifying grace. And now we are studying the second of these great blessings that comes to us the moment we are united to Christ in faith, the blessing of adoption. And all we did in our initial study last Lord's Day was to underscore the importance of this provision of grace in the scheme of God's salvation.

2:32 We saw that adoption was central in the saving purpose of God. Ephesians 1 and verse 5 says, having predestinated us unto adoption as sons. And then we saw that adoption was central in the saving acts of Christ. Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5.

2:57 In the fullness of the times, God sent forth His Son to redeem with a view to imparting the adoption of sons. And then we noted in the third place that adoption is central in the initial application of salvation. John 1, 12. As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the sons of God.

3:22 And finally, we noted that adoption is central in the final application of salvation. Paul there in Romans 8, verses 23 and 24, describes the full realization of our privileges of redemption at the return of Christ in terms of adoption. For he says we wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. Now, what I propose to do this morning is to begin to set before you the nature and the privileges of this grace of adoption.

Adoption Defined: Transfer from an Alien Family into God's Family

4:00 Having underscored the importance of adoption, I trust that each of you is now concerned to understand what precisely is this great blessing so central in the whole scheme of redemption from eternity to eternity. In such key passages as Galatians 4, 5 and Romans 8, 15 The word which the apostle uses for adoption Is a word which literally means to place as a son And so we may think of adoption in its simplest terms As an act of transfer from an alien family into the family of God

4:48 It is an act of transfer from an alien family into the family of God. Now as such, adoption is obviously concerned with the fatherhood of God realized in His relationship to men. More precisely, the fatherhood of God in relationship to sinful men and women. And if something of the glory and wonder of this privilege is to grip our hearts, so that we will find no difficulty exclaiming with John, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God,

5:36 then we must come to grips with the nature of this fatherhood that is peculiar to adoption. And so what I propose to do this morning as we address ourselves to this matter of the nature and privileges of adoption is to isolate that fatherhood which is peculiar to the grace of adoption. The doctrine of the fatherhood of God is not a simple doctrine, but it is a complex doctrine. When we open the scriptures and begin to read them, we will discover that there are different dimensions of divine fatherhood.

6:20 And only one of those dimensions is peculiar to the grace of adoption so central in the scheme of salvation as we saw last week. And so our study this morning has three negative statements and then concludes with a positive. Now this grace of adoption, the fatherhood of God in adoption, first of all, is not the fatherhood which exists in connection with the Godhead. The fatherhood of adoption is not the fatherhood which exists in connection with the Godhead.

Negative One: Not the Fatherhood Within the Godhead

7:00 Will you turn, please, to 2 Corinthians chapter 1, and consider with me briefly a specimen passage which points to a fatherhood with which we, as believers, have nothing to do. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints that are in the whole of Achaia, grace to you and peace, now notice, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the fatherhood of adoptive grace, a fatherhood which Paul shares with all of his fellow believers.

7:51 But then in the very next verse, he speaks of another fatherhood. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Here you see the God who is our Father by adoption is here described as the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a parallel passage in Ephesians 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

8:31 Furthermore, when we read in the Gospels, we note, particularly in the Gospel of John, though not exclusively, that our Lord again and again refers to His Father. He speaks of His Father who is in heaven. He speaks in addressing Him in prayer, Holy Father. In the Garden of Gethsemane, O my Father.

8:54 and he used language which on the ears of his contemporaries was loudly declaring a unique sonship to the Father. So much so that it became the occasion of an attempt upon his life in no fewer than two instances. In John chapter 5 verses 16 through 18 we read, John 5 verses 16 through 18, And for this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work.

9:38 For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. And you have a parallel passage in John 10, 29-33. Here our Lord speaks of a fatherhood that has to do with the very constitution of the Godhead, the great and foundational mystery of all being that there is but one true and living God, but that this one true and living God exists in three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit and that those three persons are co co all of them share in the same substance of the Godhead

10:38 Now, there never was a time when God was not Father in relationship to the Son. There never was a time when the eternal Word was not the Son in relationship to the Father. Now, the Scriptures clearly teach that there are new dimensions of Sonship effected by the incarnation, by the resurrection, and by the ascension of our Lord. For instance, the verse, This day have I begotten thee is used in connection both with the resurrection and the ascension.

11:18 There are new dimensions of sonhood and fatherhood, or sonship and fatherhood, in connection with the incarnate God-man Christ Jesus. As He fulfills His functions as Messiah, I repeat, there are new dimensions and aspects of sonship and fatherhood, but that in no way undermines this element of truth to which I am pointing your attention, that there is an eternal sonship of the Eternal Father, so that our Lord is nowhere ever recorded as saying in the presence of His disciples, Our Father. He says, as we find in John 20 and verse 17,

12:08 I ascend to my God and your God, my Father and your Father. It is the same person, but the relationship is not identical. Now why do I underscore this? Well, for the simple reason that some have construed the doctrine of adoption as being a doctrine which teaches that we are incorporated into a relationship that in many respects is identical to that which Jesus Christ bears to His own Father in the uniqueness of inter-Trinitarian relationships.

12:50 And I don't know what else to call such teaching but blasphemy. So whatever adoption is, it is not the fatherhood which exists in connection with the Godhead. That is not transferable. That is not communicable.

Negative Two: Not the Fatherhood of Creation and Providence

13:10 It is unique. It is singular. It is exclusive to the Lord Jesus Christ and to God the Father. But then secondly, the fatherhood of adoption is not the fatherhood which exists in connection with creation and providence.

13:30 One of the most common notions abroad, and it has been popular as far as I know in reading church history for at least a couple of centuries in the English-speaking world, is the doctrine that we are all God's children by creation. And this notion is made the basis of a lot of silly and sentimental talk. You will hear appeals made by the leaders of our own government and by religious leaders. Since we are all part of one brotherhood with one common heavenly father, let us all be sweet and bury all racism and bury all nationalism and bury everything that is not sweet and lovely and kind.

14:17 And unthinking people assume that that's gospel truth, that we are a brotherhood of humanity because we all have one common heavenly Father. Now it may surprise some of you to hear that there is not one clear text from Genesis to Revelation which states that God is a Father to His creatures simply because He is their Creator. There is not one clear text in the entirety of the Word of God. However, there are several texts which do indicate a fatherhood after a sort that is rooted in the doctrine of creation.

15:02 Let me read such text in your hearing. In Acts chapter 17, the Apostle Paul, speaking on Mars Hill, speaking to pagan philosophers with their misconceptions of God expressed in idolatry, attempts to demonstrate the folly of that idolatry and asserts in verse 24 of Acts 17 the God that made the world and all things therein he being Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands neither is he served by men's hands as though he needed anything seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things

15:50 And he made of one every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek God, if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, even as certain of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, silver, or stone graven by art and device of man. Now in this passage the apostle declares emphatically the doctrine of creation.

16:37 God made the world and all things therein. He goes on in that context to use terminology taken from their heathen poets that we are the offspring of God. And the poets are quoted at the end of verse 28. Now, using that language in verse 29, it is interesting that he does not then switch from the language of the poets and use the term offspring with a synonym or give the impression that the standard words in Pauline language for child or children are synonymous with offspring.

17:18 He uses that very terminology of the pagan poets. Being then the offspring of God, in what sense? in the sense that God has created us, and if He is our Creator, then how stupid for us the thing that is created to make something that we create and call that God. He says, you see how stupid it is?

17:42 If we are the product of God's creative activity, how can we create something and then call that God? That's like the grandchild calling itself the grandpa.

17:55 It's stupid. Now you see, it's only in connection with exposing the folly of idolatry that he even alludes to a relationship that is even remotely connected with fatherhood. Being then the offspring of God, and the context determines the significance of that relationship in the sense that we owe our existence to God, both by creation and providence, for in Him we live and move and have our being. He gives us life and breath in all things. We are God's offspring. But to read into that any doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God is to play loose with the language of Scripture and with the very context in which the statement occurs.

18:44 But there is in that sense, you see, a general, at least a remote notion of the fatherhood of God by virtue of creation. Then the other text is Hebrews 12 and verse 9, a very indistinct text as far as its precise meaning, dealing with the subject of divine chastisement, drawing a parallel between earthly fathers and the Father who is God. He says, shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? Now in what sense is God the Father of spirits?

19:21 Is he the Father of all spirits of all men? Or is he the Father of those holy spirits sent forth to do service to the heirs of salvation, angels? Or is he the Father of the spirits of believers? There is nothing in the language or the context to determine the point.

19:40 So we have to say the text again is not a conclusive text. It only points in some general way to the possibility that God may be considered Father again as the Creator of our spirits. Now it should be clear that in whatever sense we may conceive of God as Father to all men because of creation, It is in a very limited, restricted relationship. Now, why is it important to emphasize this?

20:15 Well, for the simple reason that there are multitudes who live under the delusion that since God is the Father of all His creatures, what father would ever take one of his own children and put his thumbs in a thumbscrew and start tightening down that thumbscrew and watch his child wiggle and squirm and scream in agony and then continue to tighten them down and tighten them. What father would do that? And everyone says well of course no father would Only a tyrant would Well they say how could a loving father take any of his children and put them in a burning hell

21:01 How could a loving father ever take any of his sons and daughters by creation and put their souls in the thumbscrews of eternal torment? And so the doctrine of hell is caricatured on the basis of an assumed fatherhood of God. And it's only assumed because it doesn't rest upon careful consideration of the Word of God. No, the Bible is abundantly clear that the primary relationship we sustain to God, And here one can find literally dozens and hundreds of texts.

21:45 We are His creatures, accountable to Him because He has made us. We are subjects of His government, answerable to His law, because He is the God before whom we shall stand in the last day. And so the human race is not viewed primarily in Scripture as a race of sons and daughters, even disinherited sons or daughters. But the human race is viewed primarily in the language of Romans chapter 3, that all the world may become guilty before God.

Negative Three: Not the Fatherhood of National Israel

22:27 We are viewed as criminals, liable to the wrath and anger of the Almighty. And so whatever adoption is in Scripture, it is not simply declaring what already is with a few extra dimensions of blessing. So the adoption that we speak of is not in any way connected with that fatherhood that is peculiar to the Trinity, nor is it the fatherhood that is at least with some reservation found in connection with creation. Thirdly, it is not the fatherhood which existed in connection with the nation of Israel.

23:08 Now this you must understand or you are going to misunderstand some very precious portions of Scripture. In Romans chapter 9, the Apostle Paul is enumerating the distinct blessings of the nation of Israel. He does so in the context of his tremendous burden for their salvation and conversion to Christ. He says in verse 3 of Romans 9, I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

23:45 Who are the Israelites? Whose is the adoption? Now, he uses the technical term for adoption that is used of our adoption by grace into the family of God. It's precisely the same word that is used.

24:05 But you see, the use of a word does not necessarily mean identity of meaning. Here the apostle is speaking of an adoption that pertains to people that are still lost. For he began the chapter by saying, I have sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart for my Israelite friends and relatives and kinsmen. He goes on in chapter 10 and says, My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

24:36 And yet it says, they have the adoption. So you see, this adoption is not an adoption which is unto salvation. It is not an adoption which brings all the privileges of grace. What is that adoption then?

24:50 Well, it is that adoption in which God Himself takes to Himself the nation of Israel as a son, and appoints that nation to be the special recipient of special privileges, and assigns them special responsibilities in the unfolding of the history of redemption. And when his purposes are accomplished, then that adoption ceases. In Exodus chapter 4, we have perhaps the first clear indication of the nature of that adoption. Exodus chapter 4, and beginning with verse 22.

25:38 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, God speaking to Moses, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. And I have said unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. And thou hast refused to let him go. Behold, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn.

26:00 And here Jehovah identifies himself as the father of this nation held in the bondage of Egyptian cruelty, but a nation which He is going to bring out by His mighty power. Now that terminology is found quite frequently in the Old Testament. You have references in Deuteronomy 14, verses 1 and 2. Deuteronomy chapter 36, you find it several times in Isaiah.

26:29 For instance, Isaiah 63, verses 15 and 16, Art not thou our Father, though Abraham will not acknowledge us? Thou art our Father. Well, what is the nature of that adoption? Now follow closely. It was a relationship in which the triune God identified Himself with the nation of Israel and confers privileges and imparts responsibilities to that nation.

27:01 But no salvation is ensured simply because of that element of adoption. Paul goes on in Romans 9 to make this abundantly clear, even using the language of the family. Verse 6, It is not as though the word of God hath come to naught, for they are not all Israel that are of Israel, neither because they are Abraham's seed are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called, that is, it is not the children of the flesh that are the children of God, but the children of promise.

27:42 Now do you see the point the apostle is making? Though he said in the previous verses, to them was given the privilege of adoption. It was not adoption unto saving sonship. It was adoption unto the peculiar privileges and responsibilities of the nation of Israel.

28:06 Now furthermore, and follow closely, I know it's warm, I know it's hard to concentrate, but gird up the loins of your mind and do so anyway. Even those who were true Israelites in the old economy Who did have the true work of grace wrought in their hearts Their privileges came short of the privileges of adoption That come to us this side of the coming of Christ And the descent of the Spirit That's the whole argument of Galatians 3.23-4.7.

28:46 He says even the true people of God in that old economy were not like children come to age. They were like children who were still in their minority. They were not of legal age. And so they were under a strict master.

29:02 They were under strict tutelage. And he said, all of this until the coming of Christ, by which coming and the descent of the Spirit, everyone who truly believes now passes immediately into the status of a full-grown adult son in terms of the privileges of adoption. Now you say, Pastor, was all that necessary? Well, I believe it was.

29:27 So that when you open your Bible and you read in the Old Testament, Israel is my son. You say, oh, isn't that wonderful? They had all the privileges. No, no, my friends. That was not an adoption unto salvation. That was not an adoption unto the privileges of grace as we now know them.

Positive: The Fatherhood of Adoption in Gospel Salvation

29:46 And that brings us then finally to our fourth consideration and our positive statement. There is a fatherhood of adoption in connection with salvation in this present age. There is a fatherhood of adoption in connection with the salvation of this present age. And the two key texts with respect to that adoption are Ephesians 1, 5 and Galatians 4.

30:16 He has predestinated us unto adoption by Jesus Christ, unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. And when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made unto the law, that He might redeem them that are under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Now what are the leading ideas in those two verses?

30:51 They are this, or these, that this adoption is dependent on the work of the Father for its determination. He predestinated us unto adoption. It is dependent upon the work of the Son for its impartation. In the fullness of time He was sent forth in order that we might receive the adoption of sons It is dependent upon the work of the Spirit for its attestation Because you are sons he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba, Father.

31:33 So you see, this adoption is dependent upon the work of the triune God in a saving manifestation of his grace and of his power. Now it is this fatherhood in connection with this adoption which under God I hope we can unpack in the next few Lord's Day mornings. What does it mean to have such wonderful privileges as are afforded those who are adopted with an adoption that is not in any way an intrusion into the unique fatherhood that God the Father sustains to God the Son? that is not a fatherhood in connection with creation,

32:22 that is not a fatherhood that only goes as far as the privileges of some external relationship of a nation to Jehovah. What is the precise nature of that fatherhood, which has its roots in God's eternal predestinating design? An adoption that could never come to pass without the agony and suffering of the Son of God. An adoption the privileges of which we can never fathom or enjoy without the indwelling of the personal Holy Spirit.

Application: The Alien Family of the Devil and the Call to Come Out

33:00 Well, whatever it is, and that's not our purpose to examine this morning, I trust you've come to see that apart from such an adoption, what a miserable state and condition we are in. If adoption is that act of transferal from an alien family into the family of God, then by nature the Scripture assumes we are in such an alien family, and that alien family is nothing less than the family of the devil himself. Our Lord could say, ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do, He says you bear the family likeness. You share the family interests.

33:46 You are committed to the family concerns. Ye are of your father the devil. What a terrible thing to belong to the family of that wicked usurper. That prince of the power of the air who works in the sons of disobedience.

34:05 and that's why they are called children of wrath for they bear with that foul wicked one the frown of the Almighty as long as they remain in that family but you say is there any hope that I can come out of that family that I can be adopted into the family of God yes there is and God wonderfully entreats and urges in the language of 2 Corinthians 6 quoted from Isaiah Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. And I will be to you a father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. My friend, are you prepared to renounce your native family and your native father?

34:55 Are you prepared to renounce the patterns and the vision and concerns of the household in which you now are? A household in which your own will governs, in which the flesh rules, in which the world is the predominating influence, and Satan, your father, is himself the head of the household. Are you weary of all of that? Or is it still your delight to be a member of that household?

35:25 If it is, you'll remain such.

35:28 If God by the Spirit has brought you to the place where you see the bitterness, the emptiness, the horror of remaining in such a household doomed to ruin and to hell, my friend, come out from that household. Renounce your allegiance to the devil. Renounce your allegiance to the flesh.

35:55 Seek an entrance into the family of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He stands ready to receive all who come unto God by Him. And, O child of God, will you not plead with me in these coming days that as we seek to open up in some detail the great privileges of this unique fatherhood that God sustains to His adopted children in Christ, that God would grant the spirit of wisdom and revelation to enable us both to penetrate into the wonderful and unfolded mystery of this truth and then have faith strong enough to lay hold upon it and to live in the light of it.

Why the Devil Obscures Adoption

36:45 You see, the conviction has been deepening in my own heart, in my hours of preparation, that if adoption is the pinnacle of gospel privilege, and it is, and if the most powerful motives to holiness and service are gospel motives, and they are, if you were the devil wanting to cripple God's people, to keep them back from their most zealous service and their most fervent love to God, what doctrine would you seek to obscure more than any other?

37:25 You get the point? If adoption is the highest privilege, and if the most powerful motives are motives based upon our privileges,

37:36 why, I think it's understandable that so few of the theologians should even write of the doctrine of adoption. that so few of God's people seem to have entered into the glory of their privileges of adoption. Why? Because the man or woman who knows what he is in the family of God, that's the man or woman who walks with God securely, who serves Him fervently, who suffers joyously, and who is most likely to exhibit the most conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ, His elder brother in the household of God.

38:23 So let us plead with God that by the Spirit He would come and enable us to lay hold of all that we are as the sons and daughters of the Almighty, that the wheels of our obedience may turn with new zeal and fervor that our love will be intensified and that God will be glorified as He sees His people living in the light of the privileges purchased so dearly by the death of His own dear Son. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

39:05 Our God, we would not take lightly upon our lips that blessed name by which we are warranted to address you, our Father who is in heaven. We praise and magnify you for that fatherhood which has been yours from eternity in relationship to your Son, Though our minds cannot fathom the mystery of it, we do, as men and women of faith, confess our joy in the reality of it. We thank you that you do care for all that you have created.

39:54 We bless you for that peculiar relationship which you sustained to the nation of Israel. But, O God, we worship You and thank You this morning that there is a fatherhood, there is a relationship that goes far beyond that which all men sustain to You as Your creatures and which Your ancient people knew because of Your grace in marking them out for special privilege and responsibility. O by the Holy Spirit enable us to understand and believingly to appropriate the glory of our privileges of adoption. Send forth in copious measures the spirit of adoption into our hearts.

40:45 Enabling us not only to frame the words Father upon our lips. But to know the disposition of sons. O God, help us, we pray Seal to our hearts this study of your word And for those that are yet in that alien family Who are of their father the devil O God, we pray that you would cause them this day To obey the summons To leave that family And to renounce all allegiance to its head And all of the members of it and to be found identified with You through Your dear Son and with all of His people.

41:32 Hear then our prayer. Seal the word to our hearts and be glorified in us. Help us, we pray, to sanctify the remainder of this day to Your praise and to our own profit. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

41:51 Amen.

41:54 Thank you.