Four Experiential Blessings

Introduction: The Context of Adoption and Experiential Privileges

0:00 If ever I were able to do what Richard Baxter said every preacher ought to do, to preach as a dying man to dying men and women, it should be relatively easy for me to do that today, for June 30th would mark the 49th anniversary of my wedding, had God spared my beloved. This is my first anniversary with her in heaven and me still here, weary of earth but more happy at age 71 than I've ever been in my life. And it was eight years ago today that my voice was piped through these speakers from a hospital bed when my prostate gland had been excised, and we received the good news that there was a very minimal amount of very localized, contained, and highly-accompanied blood. As I recall that that would have been the only way to get out of this terrible disease that I was already having. But I had a chance to meet Richard Baxter at my funeral and go through a trial and I also experience the pain and the pain of a life such as this.

1:29 And as I have said before, this is my first anniversary with my beloved, Richard Baxter. this morning, Romans chapter 8, and lest some of you be distracted wondering what in the world version does he read from? Well, it's the old 1901 American Standard Version, martinized by stripping away the Elizabethan endings to the verbs and the Elizabethan form of the nouns, and occasionally my own imposition of the tenses of the verbs. So now you know, and you hopefully will not be distracted, as I read in your hearing Romans chapter 8, verses 1 through 17.

2:08 There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death, for. What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the ordinance or the righteous standard or requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Son. For they that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither is it subject to the law of God.

3:29 Neither is it subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you.

3:49 But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead. And the spirit is not alive because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you.

4:21 So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

4:48 For you received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but you received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.

5:24 We come this morning to our third study of the book of Revelation, the book of Revelation, this amazing reality of redemptive grace and salvific privilege, which the Bible calls adoption. And with the introductory issues taken up in the first message, acting as a kind of spiritual quality control on our ongoing study, I then set before you yesterday morning the nature of adoption and the legal privileges of adoption. As to the nature of adoption, we can do no better than to remember, to memorize the answer of the shorter catechism to the question, what is adoption? The answer of which is adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. And as to the nature of adoption, we can do no better than to remember, to remember the legal or objective privileges of adoption. We examined three of them.

6:33 We are given an irreversible status as the sons and daughters of the living God. Secondly, we are given the unspeakable privilege of becoming brothers and sisters of our elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly, we are given a shared airship with, our Lord Jesus Christ, and all on the basis of the saving work of the Lord Jesus. That very work which constitutes the ground of our justification likewise constitutes the ground of our adoption in the courtroom of heaven. And now this morning we will consider together the experiential privileges of adoption. That is, not the aspects of adoption that are transacted in the family court of heaven, but those that are experienced in our own hearts and lives as the adopted ones, experienced here on earth, experienced now, and experienced gloriously at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ in power and glory when we shall be manifested.

7:56 We shall be manifested with Him in glory as the language of the Apostle in Colossians 3 informs us. As time permits, we shall focus our attention on four of the experiential privileges of adoption. And as I was telling Pastor Donnelly on the way here, this is the first time I've ridden this horse. This is all new material in the manner in which I'm presenting it, and I'm not sure how long it's going to take to get through the various heads, so I may...

8:26 I may have to shrink or perhaps even mostly admit one of those four, for the first will take the bulk of our time. It is the most crucial, it is the most misunderstood, and I feel a sense of pastoral responsibility to park there for a longer period than the others. So if you're one of these who, when the pastor says, I'm going to have three heads or four heads, and it takes 20 minutes for the first head, you look at your watch and say, oh boy, four times 20. We're going to be here for 80 minutes.

8:58 Now, of course, nobody here is so carnal as to do that except me. Your laugh is self-condemning. So, God helping us, four of the experiential privileges of adoption. And if you know a little bit of arithmetic, you add the four experiential with the three legal, and you come up with seven, the number of perfection.

The First Experiential Blessing: The Gift of the Spirit of Adoption (Galatians 4)

9:22 I didn't discover that until I was writing my introduction this morning. So be that as it may, I leave it with you. First of all, then, as to the experiential blessings and privileges of adoption, we come first of all to the gift of the spirit of adoption. The gift of the spirit of adoption.

9:45 And there are two watershed passages which declare this fact with unmistakable clarity. And I want to attempt a brief exposition of both of them. The first is in Galatians chapter four, verses four to six. The first, the paramount blessing of adoption as to our own internal spiritual experience is the gift of the spirit of adoption.

10:17 Galatians four, four to six. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his Son into not your hearts, but our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So then, you are no longer a bondservant but a son, and if a son, then an heir, through God.

10:59 Now, just a word about the context. In this section of Galatians, Paul is demonstrating that in the advancement of redemptive history, the Mosaic covenant, which treated the people of God as underage heirs, treated them as children in their nonage, has been superseded by the new covenant, which brings all believers, into the position and privileges of full grown sons the moment they are adopted. Unlike some wealthy Roman citizen who had no heir to all of his possessions, who would adopt a mature son in order that should he die he might receive immediately the inheritance, did he adopt someone underage, he would be treated like a servant. And so Paul draws those parallels. But he says under the new covenant, the moment we are adopted, we are adopted as full grown sons. And as such, we then receive this great blessing of the gift of the spirit of adoption.

12:17 That's just a word about the context, and key to it is this phrase that shows that it is embedded in the history, the context, and key to it is this phrase that shows that it is embedded in the history, the history of the Roman empire, the history of the Roman empire, history of redemption, when the fullness of the times was come. And that phrase immediately reminds us that Paul is thinking in terms of the manner in which God has unfolded his redemptive purposes through history. So much for the context. Now, what are the major assertions of this passage?

12:50 Well, in verses 4 and 5, here are the major assertions. The great end God had in view in sending Christ as our Redeemer was to impart to the believing community the status of sons come of age. The great end for which God sent his son when he sent him was to impart to the believing community the status of sons come of age. And then notice in verse 6, this second clear assertion, that when the status of sons is given, the Holy Spirit is graciously and freely given to all those who have been adopted into God's family. Paul is speaking to the Galatians, you, you. But then when he speaks of this reality, and because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, he places himself within the framework or bracket of a recipient of this new covenant dimension of God's saving work in which all who are constituted sons by God's act of adoption,

14:14 all without exception, are freely given the Spirit of adoption. And then in verse 6, we have this libe, we have this third assertion, that the primary activity of the gift of the Spirit in connection with adoption. Now that's the qualifying phrase. I'm not saying that the primary activity of the Spirit generically or comprehensively, but in this context, the primary, the primary activity of the gift of the Spirit in connection our adoption is the impartation of a conscious filial or family disposition in our dealings with God. Now do you see that in the text? Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts. He is not crying, Abba, Father, but he is enabling us to cry, Abba, Father. So God constitutes his people his sons when upon the secret powerful

15:34 operation of the Holy Spirit they are brought to repentance and faith. All those who receive the son are given authority to become sons and daughters, and to those who have been constituted sons, God gives the spirit of his son. Particularly, as he is designated in the parallel passage in Romans 8, the spirit of adoption. Not the spirit who adopts us, but the spirit given in conjunction with our adoption who, according to verse 6, is given particularly for this purpose, that we might have an internal, reflexive, conscious, filial disposition in our dealings with God. Granted, when the spirit is given, he is given as the spirit of holiness. He is given as the spirit who will eventually, totally conform us to the likeness of Christ, body and soul, many other dimensions of his ministry. But in this context, the emphasis upon this simple reality, that we need the gift of the spirit as the spirit of adoption, that we might have a full, complete, complete, complete, complete, complete, complete, complete, complete,

16:53 felt, internal, reflexive, God-granted ability to enter in, in our hearts, in relationship to God, for what we really are, his sons and his daughters. Now, you may ask the question, why in the world is this necessary? Well, think with me for a minute. If you're a Christian, you have come to some very shattering, some very disturbing, understanding about God and about yourself. You may have thought of God as the sort of near-sighted, doting, old, something or other up in the sky. But by one means or another, God brought you to the realization that the living God who made you, and the God who is your judge, is infinitely holy and inflexibly just, of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity, who will bring every work into judgment, every thought, every word, every deed, every motive, and that has unstrung you. And it's brought you to some degree of a felt awareness of the terror connected with the word God.

18:10 To some degree, you've come to this discovery about yourself, what you are, not only in Adam, but what you are in your own experience as a sinner. And then you've heard the gospel, that though there is this great chasm between a holy God and you, the sinner, Christ, by His work, has bridged the chasm, and Christ has provided a way of access to God that you may come into His favor, having your sins all forgiven, being credited with a perfect standing before the law in the court of heaven, and perhaps have even heard. And in that gracious embrace of, or in that embrace of Christ, God graciously not only deals with you in the civil court, but He will take you into His family. Marvelous truths. But there's a problem. How can I be brought to an internal, felt reality that that's what really has happened?

19:16 I still can remember my discovery of God's transcendence. And His holiness, and His majesty, and His burning justice and righteousness. And I can remember what I am by nature, what I am in Adam, what I've been in my own acts of personal defilement, and though I have embraced the truth and word of the gospel, and I believe my sins are forgiven, yet, yet, how can I, one moment, trembling at great distance from God, come into His presence, and not just whisper, but cry, cry from the depths of my being, Abba, Father. Most likely, this has been picked up from the oral reports of how our Lord addressed His Father in the garden. Abba, the term of great intimacy, probably the closest in our language, Papa, Dad. Daddy goes too far.

20:21 Papa. How in the world can...

20:24 It's God, whose majesty and holiness has shattered us, and shocked us, and undone us. How can we come to Him, and cry, not just whisper out of the side of our mouth, hoping maybe He doesn't hear us, and crush us for our cheekiness, but come into His presence and cry, Abba, Father. The spirit of adoption is given to enable us to experientially, from the depths of our being, to embrace psychologically and emotionally what we are judicially and legally in the court of heaven. And God imparts to us that disposition of filial liberty by the gift of the Holy Spirit. So that, and this was a new thought to me, we are enabled to address Him with all of the filial intimacy with which His Holy Son addressed Him, who never sinned. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing?

21:39 He cries, Abba, Father, we now, as brought into His family, are given the privilege of enjoying the same kind of filial access to the Father. That the eternal and now incarnate sinless Son of God has, when He addresses His Father. And God says, look, I know I've terrified you, and you needed to be terrified. I've disclosed to you who I am, and I haven't exceeded the reality.

22:18 I've disclosed to you who you are, and I haven't exceeded the reality. And I've told you in the word and promise of the gospel, how the chasm between you and your sin and me and my holiness and righteousness and justice is bridged in the person and work of my Son. And I have brought you by the mighty work of the Spirit to embrace the Savior in repentance and faith. But I don't want you groveling at a distance in your felt experience from what you now are.

22:51 So I will give you the spirit of adoption. Enabling you to cry, Abba, Father. Isn't that what the text says? And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

The Gift of the Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8) and the Witness of the Spirit

23:15 Now, I don't know whether you're stunned by that or whether you're still half asleep. But surely, you ought to at least be able to mumble an amen to that marvelous reality. Now, let's quickly turn to the second passage, the parallel passage in Romans 8. Romans chapter 8, verses 15 and 16.

23:45 For you received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but you received the spirit of adoption. This is not an exhortation. The Roman church, made up of all kinds of people from all kinds of background, Jews and Greeks, slaves, free men, all kinds, as the epistle itself reveals, Paul can say with confidence, though he's never been there, never had pastoral interviews to see if some got the sealing of the Spirit and some didn't, if some got the baptism and some didn't. No, he says of the whole redeemed community at Rome, you received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but you received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now again, just a word about the context. In this section of Romans 8, Paul is addressing the fact, concerning the facts, concerning the reality and nature of life in the Spirit. Hear me now.

25:05 The reality and nature of life in the Spirit. As the inevitable and necessary fruit of justification by faith. God never justifies a sinner believing in his Son, but what he introduces them into life in the Spirit. And Paul is opening up that reality in this section that I read in your hearing.

25:35 Now, in verse 15, the first assertion is that the Spirit received by all believers does not gender legal bondage resulting in fear. Whatever this phrase means, you received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear. This much is clear. That believers have not received a spirit that genders fear.

26:09 That's the first assertion. The Spirit received by all believers does not gender legal bondage resulting in fear. Now, the positive assertion. The second assertion is that the Spirit received by all believers is the Spirit of adoption who enables them to approach and address God with a deep felt sense of filial confidence and intimacy.

26:39 The latter part of the verse. But, you received. It's a fact if you're in the community of believing saints. You received the Spirit of adoption whereby.

26:53 Now, notice he again includes himself. We cry. We cry Abba Father. Now, we have two assertions.

27:03 Assertion number one is that the Spirit received by all believers does not gender legal bondage resulting in fear. But, the Spirit received by all believers is the Spirit of adoption who enables us to approach and address God as our Father with felt, internal, experiential consciousness of that relationship. Now, we come to the next assertion. In thus acting directly upon our hearts, the Spirit of adoption is bearing witness with our spirits that we are indeed God's children.

27:45 The Spirit himself is bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now, I'm fully aware that this concept of the witness of the Spirit has been a seed bed. A seed bed of debate, of great discussion, of confusion, fanaticism, et cetera, et cetera. But, nonetheless, because it's a watershed passage on our subject of adoption, I can't avoid it and stick my head in the sand.

28:17 And so, I'm going to attempt in a few moments at least to suggest what I believe the apostle is saying and leave it for you with a Berean spirit to wrestle through with the issue before your God. Notice what he says. The Spirit himself is bearing witness, some say with our spirit, some say to. Why?

28:41 Because the apostle uses an article in a case that can be in or at, with or by, to or for. So, you take your pick. Is it saying the Spirit bears witness to our spirits so that there is some kind of a direct witness borne by the Holy Spirit to our spirits, our internal consciousness that we are the children of God? Or is the thought that our spirits, that is, as we evaluate what a Christian is, what a Christian looks like, even in the context, and we can say, yes, I once was part of those who mind the things of the flesh.

29:21 I had no concern for the law of God. I was in enmity against God. I am no longer at enmity with God. I love God.

29:28 I love the law of God. I am no longer willfully, deliberately enmeshed in the pattern and lifestyle of the flesh. That's not me. My spirit tells me I'm a child of God.

29:40 I've been delivered from that ethical realm of flesh, and I'm now living in the ethical realm of the Spirit. My spirit tells me in the light of who and what I am, in the transforming grace of God, I'm a child of God. And is the thought then that the Holy Spirit comes, comes along and gives His witness to me? Yes, you really are a child of God.

30:06 Some say yes. And that's by a direct, almost like God was whispering in my right ear, while I'm whispering in my left ear, based upon the evidences, my spirit says you are a child of God. God comes along and whispers in my right ear and says, yes, you are a child of God. Now it's established at the mouth of two or three witnesses.

30:26 Well, I don't believe that's what the apostle is teaching. And I am greatly indebted to Dr. Warfield, by Professor Benjamin B. Warfield, in his treatment of this in his lovely little book, Faith and Life.

30:41 He has a chapter dealing, or an essay, an exposition of Romans 8, 16. And this is what Warfield says. This is his conclusion, and I concur with it. The witness of the Spirit then is to be found in his hidden ministrations, by which, the filial spirit is created in our hearts, and comes to birth in this joyful cry, Abba, Father.

31:11 Now, let Warfield expound himself a little bit. It is in our crying, Abba, Father, that the witness of the Spirit of God is here primarily found. The relation of this verse to the preceding, being practically the same as if it were expressed, here you Greek students, in the genitive absolute, thus it would be rendered, the Spirit which we received was the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, dash, the Spirit himself testifying thus to our spirits, that we are the children of God. How do I address God, with this felt sense of filial intimacy? It's with my Spirit, my whole internal being. And how can I do that? Unless in the very depths of my being, there is this supernatural, direct agency of the Holy Spirit, dispelling my native unbelief, dispelling my doubts, dispelling my vacillations, and enabling me with felt consciousness, that this is my relationship to the living God.

32:30 Yes, it is one thing to stand back, and we must evaluate whether we have biblical grounds to have our own spirit say to us, you are a child of God. If that's not so, throw out the book of 1 John. Hereby do we know that we pass from death unto life, because we've got a twittering in our left ventricle that is the witness of the Spirit. Nonsense!

32:57 Hereby do we know that we pass from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death. He that saith, I know him, and keeps not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. And you go through the book of 1 John, and you see the tests of spiritual life, and we must look at them honestly, and pray that God will disaffect our minds of prejudicing the case in favor of ourselves in a pattern of self-deception, ah, but we need something more than our spirits bearing witness to us that indeed there has been a transforming work of God that has no explanation, but that we pass from death unto life. And God has accommodated himself to us in grace, saying now that I've constituted you my son and my daughter, and I have put within you the power and the dynamic of a transformed life. I will come alongside by the gift of the spirit of adoption, enabling you from the depths of your being to call upon me as your father. And as Warfield so eloquently and I believe accurately states, for a person to say, ah, I have that witness of the spirit giving me the liberty of filial access, in whom there is no pattern of life

34:25 in the spirit, mortifying sin by the spirit, loving the brethren, that's delusion of the worst kind. Delusion of the worst kind. So what is the first and foremost privilege, the experiential privilege of adoption? I answer, it is the gift of the spirit of adoption.

Application of the Spirit of Adoption: Vibrant Biblical Christianity

34:52 Now let me say by way of application, in a very real sense, it is this aspect of biblical teaching which forms a dominant reality in true, vibrant, biblical religion. In the words of one servant of Christ, this assurance of sonship attested by the spirit of adoption and validated by the other marks of the work of the spirit is denied by Roman theology, debated in the Bible, in Protestant theology, but in the New Testament it was a fact of glorious experience. Paul, writing to the Galatians and to the Romans, says we're all in this together. We have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we all together, as the family of God, cry Abba, Father, so that when our Lord taught us to pray, our Father who is in the heavens, we do not find it difficult to approach him as our Abba, as our Father. A dead, decadent religious life based on human merit, barren orthodoxy knows nothing of the quality of life

36:18 which springs from the believing embrace of Christ and these first fruits of our adoption. Conversely, a fanatical, delusive subjectivism and mysticism that denigrates the very doctrines which alone can bring us into the relationship with Christ that constitutes us true sons and thereby makes us candidates to receive the spirit of his Son leads to all kinds of nonsense and foolishness and delusion. But oh, when there is the maintenance of the pure doctrine of the Gospel, with the awareness that in addition to and as the fruit of the believing embrace of the propositional truths of the Gospel, when we become sons and daughters, because we are sons, he sends forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, enabling us to cry, Abba, Father, there is real, vibrant, biblical Christianity. And dear people, I want to bear witness, if that had not been true in the past two years, I wouldn't be standing here preaching to you this morning. When you hold the lifeless body of your wife in your arms

37:46 and can say, oh, my Father, you've done this, and you are good, and you are wise. As her father, you've taken her home. And as my father, you're going to sustain me by your grace. No distant God will do, staring the last enemy straight in the eyeballs.

38:13 But a God who is our Abba, he is our Father. Blessed be his name. Blessed, blessed, blessed be his name. And that's not a once-for-all witness, as it were, the indwelling Spirit as the Spirit of adoption becomes the conditioning element of your whole Christian life, as I hope we shall see in the final message.

38:42 And I have never, never known such blessed communion with my Father as I have known in the past nine months. I talked to him about everything. If someone ever bugged my house, they'd say, put this guy in the nut house. I'm mumbling all the time to my Father, oh, my Father, I need you here.

39:01 My Father, I need you for this. My Father, I forgot where I put the keys. You know where they are. My Father, help me find them.

39:10 And when I find them, oh, Father, thank you, Father. Father, the loneliness will curse me. My Father, come to me. And he comes.

39:20 Dear people, this is not just abstract theology. This is reality. To have that internal sense of filial identity that all the looking-outs at the marks of grace can never give, divorced from that mysterious internal but real and blessed activity of the Holy Spirit. And if you do not know this reality, it's for one of two reasons.

39:50 You're either not adopted, or as adopted, you're grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit. Notice I didn't give a third. Some would say there's a third. You've never sought and obtained the sealing or baptism of the Spirit.

40:06 No, no, if you're in Christ, you have received the Spirit of adoption. But if you're grieving the Holy Spirit in some ethical controversy, you, as it were, are stuffing a handkerchief in the mouth of the internal Spirit who would enable you to cry, Abba, Father. You can't grieve the Holy Spirit in ethical issues and expect to have his bright, powerful, ringing attestation of your sonship in your soul. You can't play games with Almighty God like that.

The Second Experiential Blessing: The Pledge of the Father's Provision (Romans 8)

40:40 So if you're grieving the Spirit, some conscious ethical controversy, neglecting the means of grace, being nasty to your wife and being too stinking proud to own your sin, no wonder your approaches to God are lifeless, colorless, joyless, or it could be, you've never been truly adopted. You've never truly come in penitent faith and cast yourself upon the Lord Jesus as he is so freely and fully offered to us in the Gospel. Oh, what a marvelous thing to have our Heavenly Father take us into his family and then do all that's necessary that we might have the full consciousness that we are indeed in the family with all the rights and privileges of that adoption, even the privilege of addressing him as Abba, Father. Well, then we move to the second of the personal experiential privileges of adoption. And the second is what I'm calling the pledge of the Father's provision. Next to the gift of the Spirit of adoption, we have the pledge of the Father's provision.

42:05 Now, a pledge is defined as, quote, a solemn assertion, promise, or guarantee. It's a good word. And God has made a pledge to all his children with respect to making provision for all of their needs. God has made such a pledge with respect to all whom he adopts into his family.

42:31 And as I seek to open up this heading, I want to do so, could look at many texts, under two watershed texts again, at the mouth of two witnesses, every word shall be established. And we're going to consider, first of all, the substance of the Father's pledge of provision. And I'm not sure, I'm going to be watching the clock. I may have to skip over what were to be the other heads.

42:57 After the substance of the Father's provision, I was going to consider with you the pattern of the Father's provision and the conditions of the Father's provision. Looking at the clock, I'm not going to be able to touch those heads. But I do want to at least give you the pledge. And the two texts that are the pledge of the Father's provision for all of his children.

43:17 The first is Romans 8 and verse 32. Romans 8 and verse 32. After Paul has given this wonderful litany of the blessings of the people of God, it's as though he puts his pen down, looks at what he wrote, throws his hands up and says, what in the world are we going to say to all of this? What are we going to say to this?

43:40 What then should we say to these things? Verse 31, if God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? What a pledge of the Father's provision.

44:05 You have, first of all, in 32a, the greatness of the Father's gift. He that spared not his own son, his idios, his one of a kind, his unique son, the inner Trinitarian son, now incarnate, representing his people, and he spared him not, delivered him up for us all, gave him up to the hands of wicked men, gave him up to the powers of darkness, gave him up to his own undiluted wrath and judgment, poured into his soul the unmixed wrath, the pure vengeance of incensed deity, until, feeling it, our blessed Lord cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me? He spared him not. He delivered him up.

45:16 Now, that's what God's done for us. How shall he not with him freely give us all things? Whatever we need between now and glory is some thing, strength for overwhelming tasks, wisdom for puzzling circumstances, patience for trying pressures, support in the grief of the loss of a beloved.

45:53 Anything you need to get you safely to heaven is a thing. It's a thing. But God didn't give you a thing. He gave you son.

46:07 He gave his son. He spared not, but delivered up his son. If he's given the son, anything else is piddling stuff. Even perseverance is piddling stuff.

46:24 Wisdom and grace and strength and all that we need is stuff. Some spiritual stuff, some material stuff, some mental stuff. But it's stuff, it's stuff, it's stuff, it's stuff. Can you argue from the lesser, I mean, the greater to the lesser?

46:42 He gave his son not stuff. He gave his son not stuff. And God says, I want you to reason from your present need of some thing through the cross to the heart of your Father and bring your crucifix into the Father's presence and say, Father, you spared him not. I got a little thing over here I need.

47:10 Would you be pleased to give it to me? That's the argument from the greater to the lesser. Do you know how to do that, child of God? You ought to. God wants you to.

47:23 That's why he gave you a text like this. And it says he will give them freely. The word that means graciously. He will give them in the context of the freeness of his unmerited generosity and favor.

47:40 I mean, dear folks, what more can God do as our Father to say, look, my heart is large to you. You come shriveling up to the throne of grace and try to sneak up behind one of the one of the legs of it and whisper shame on you. Your father wants you to come and say, Father, you have given me grounds to argue from the greater to lesser. I'm coming with the lesser.

48:08 You've given your son. Here's my thing. Oh, God, give it to me on the ground for what your son has done.

48:19 That's the blessing of adoption and the ongoing dynamic of the Christian life. Psalm 8411, the Lord God is a sun in the shield. No good thing will he withhold from his people. And then I was going to look at Philippians 4, 19 and 20.

48:41 But you can meditate on it at your leisure. I'm looking at that white faced, black handed man on the back wall. That's a clock in case you didn't get to get the message. So from the pledge of his provision, I have to come to this third head.

The Third Experiential Blessing: The Certainty of the Father's Chastisement (Hebrews 12)

48:59 It's so crucial. Not only not only do we have the gift of the spirit of adoption, the pledge of the father's provision, but thirdly, the certainty of the father's chastisement and discipline, the certainty of the father's chastisement and discipline. And here we turn to the book of Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12. And remember, this is one of the privileges of adoption.

49:32 This is not one of the dark sides of adoption. It's a privilege of adoption. Hebrews 12. The entire passage goes from verse four to verse 13.

49:42 You know something of the setting. These Hebrew Christians had forsaken Judaism and all the trappings of old covenant ritual. Embrace Christ. Christ is enough.

49:54 Christ is all. But now there is pressure to go back and to embrace the forms and the rituals. And they are suffering and some of them suffering greatly. And some have already turned back.

50:07 Others are tottering. And so the writer to the Hebrews wants them to understand that the trials that come in conjunction with their attachment to Christ have a loving fatherly purpose. And so he's going to open that up. Verse four and following.

50:24 You have not resisted unto blood striving against sin. And excuse me, you have forgotten. You've forgotten something. You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as sons.

50:42 There is a peculiar filial context of this passage. You've forgotten something. Which is reasoning with you in your identity as sons. And then he quotes from Proverbs three.

50:58 My son, do not regard lightly the chastening of the Lord nor faint when you are reproved of him for whom the Lord loves. He chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. It is for chastening that you endure. Cod deals with you as with sons.

51:18 For what? What son is there whom his father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening where of all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us and we gave them reverence.

51:36 Shall we not rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them. But he for our profit. That we may be partakers of his holiness.

51:51 While chastening seems for the present not to be joyous but grievous. Yet afterward it yields peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby even the fruit of righteousness. Wherefore, lift up the hands that hang down and the palsied knees and make straight paths for your feet that that which is lame be not turned out of the way but rather be healed very quickly. Let's catch the main threads.

52:18 Number one, here are the major issues. God's paternal love for all his true children constrains him to chastise and discipline them. God's paternal love for all his true children constrains him to chastise and discipline them. Verses five and six and you have this combination of words chasten, reprove, scourge, which literally means whip them.

52:51 And I don't understand people that try to expound this passage and say it has nothing to do with God whipping his children. It just has to do with something else. I don't know what. But when God uses the words chasten, scourge, discipline, God is talking about those things that in the spiritual realm resonate with what it's like to have your father lay a belt on your backside.

53:19 I heard the tribute. To a godly man in a funeral service a few weeks ago. And one of the sons said, I bless God for my father. He raised me with hugs around my neck and a big black belt on my backside.

53:39 And he was rising up to call his father blessed. Raised me with hugs around my neck and a big black belt on my backside. Both were the expressions of his father's love. God's paternal love for all his true children constrains him to chastise and discipline them.

54:00 That's the teaching of verses five and six. But then he goes on to say God's specific goal in his loving chastisement is our conformity to the father's likeness. His goal in all his chastisement is conformity. To the father, to the family likeness.

54:22 Notice verse ten. But he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness. Why did God predestine us to sonship whom he foreknew? He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

54:50 The family likeness is deposited in Jesus. And God says he's going to be the firstborn among many brethren. When I get done with my family, no one will mistake that they belong to it. The family likeness will all be patterned after the elder brother.

55:11 And God says while they're down here and I'm working toward that end, I've got to put the belt on their backside sometimes. I've got to frustrate them. I have got to block up their way. They're going this way.

55:24 They think this is good for them. They want it. They'll pout if they don't get it. God says I don't care.

55:28 I know that would ruin them. That would mar the ongoing perfecting of the image of my son. I'll block up their way. I'll take away the darling of their heart.

55:44 I'll let them know the bitterness of the betrayal of closest friends. I'll let them know disappointment in their career ambitions. I'll let them know frustrations in their parenting. I'll do whatever I must do.

56:00 To get more and more of the image of my son in them. That's the end God has in view. The goal of his loving chastisement is our conformity to the family likeness. You see the same God who says I want them to feel in the depths of their being the reality of what I've made them.

56:25 And so I'll give them the spirit of adoption is the same God who says I want them to be made into the image of my son. And so he brings out the whip the scourge and the other forms of chastening and instruction and this passage says none of this. That's why I can't understand when people say it has nothing to do with these more negative aspects. None of it seems for the pleasant to be none of it for the present pleasant.

56:56 I never never never spanked one of my children and had them look up and see no dad. This is great. No, they cried. It wasn't pleasant enough.

57:10 They cried beyond what was warranted. They got spanked more for their lack of control. I say I'll give you something to really cry about. It doesn't seem for the pleasant present pleasant.

57:21 That's a tongue twister tongue twister. No chastening for the present and we've got to look beyond the present and say Oh God, I feel the frustration of the blocked ambition. Of the disappointed and frustrated aspect of the wrenching away of a dear one Lord. I feel it.

57:43 It hurts but all father. I know it hurts because you've got a glorious ending. And Lord, I'm committed to the same end that you are. Give me grace to embrace the chastening which brings us thirdly from this passage.

58:01 Our response to the it's adoptive privilege of chastening is to be threefold from this passage expected understand it both its origin and its end and submit to it. Don't treat it lightly. Don't be dispirited and let it do its work. All that is in the passage.

58:20 I don't have time to open it up. Our response to this adoptive privilege is to be threefold expected. You say you've forgotten why you weren't expecting it anymore. You've forgotten remember it's part and parcel of being in the family.

58:38 You don't want it then ask God to take you out of the family and not going to do it. So it's going to come anyway. So expect it understand it. Its origin whom the Lord loves its end that we might be partakers of his holiness and then submit to it.

58:55 Don't treat it lightly verse 5 a don't be dispirited by it verse 5 be let it do its work 11 see by the way the word gumnadzo is in there. This is God's gymnasium to take us into the theater of discipline and chastening to accomplish his purposes. Well in the couple of minutes that remain. Let me just give you the fourth head.

The Fourth Experiential Blessing: The Fulfillment of the Father's Promise (Consummated Sonship)

59:22 All right, the privileges experiential privileges of adoption the gift of the spirit of adoption the pledge of the father's provision the reality of the father's discipline fourthly the fulfillment of the father's promise the promise of what a consummated sonship. Now we're not going to get that here. But when the skies part and when the last Trump is sound and when the voice of the Archangel Shouts this will be the revealing of the sons of God. And if I had time I would go to the Romans 8 passage 19 and following. That's what it's all about the father's commitment in promise that he will consummate all that he is committed to with the sons and daughters in his family and he will not be satisfied until the image of his now glorified son is perfected in them and as J. I Packer has so beautifully yet simply said that will mean sinless.

60:43 Souls inhabiting deathless bodies and that forever just the thought of the sinless souls in the first few weeks after Marilyn's home going many things some of them too sacred to share publicly but one I used to come down every Sunday morning and particularly have a little time by her large portrait hanging on the wall and while I was waiting for my coffee to drip down through and she's looking at me there. With a warm smile. I said I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking you poor fellow.

61:24 You can't go up and read your Bible and pray till you get some coffee with some caffeine in your brain. I've been at it all night and I'm not tired and I'm going to be at it all day and I won't be weary and you'll come trudging home and have to flop into bed poor fellow a perfected spirit. However, perfected spirits worship and praise and unceasingly adore the Christ whom they see. But then I talked back to and say yeah dear, but I'm going to out jump you when I get a glorified body.

62:04 I'll out shout you with my male lungs. You'll still be a woman. Think of it. Think of it.

62:14 You want something to meditate on that won't let you get to sleep. Do this. Think of a perfected spirit from which all dullness as well as all distractedness along with all sinful attitudes and desires that is capable of loving God with the full capacity of its being and I believe a growing capacity but with its full capacity think of it. What would you do right now if God perfected your soul in that body?

62:45 You'd kill yourself before the day is out that be like running 440 volts over a little skinny wire that can just take three. It would burn you out before the day is over. Think what it will be to have a utterly sinless soul inhabiting a glorious body with capacities beyond imagination and to serve to the utmost of our energy and desires and never have to stop and say Lord give me a moment here. I need to catch my breath.

Evangelistic Appeal and Concluding Prayer

63:28 Never have to look at anyone and say well see you in the morning. No day no night and that's what God's committed to give you as his child. Blessed be his name. Oh my unconverted friend don't pity us poor old fuddy-duddies.

63:49 We poor restricted Christians as Christians can't do this can't do that. You don't have a clue what life is all about. You were made for this kind. Of life.

64:00 You weren't made to be the devil's lackey. He comes to steal to kill and to destroy. He's out to bash and twist and distort your humanity now and let it be that grotesque thing that screams and hollers in hell forever. God says my children I'm committed to make them into the sweet lovely gracious gentle likeness of my son or come to Christ.

64:30 Say Lord Jesus I come to you. I want to be what I was made for take me wash me cleanse me renew me. Give me all those things the preacher talked about from your word this morning him that comes to me. I will in no wise cast out.

64:58 Oh our father. What can we say surely your heart has lavished. So much upon us and you've revealed so much to us of what is yet to come. We're ashamed at how we grovel in banal worthless stuff.

65:19 Oh forgive us lift our hearts heavenward that we might live on Earth as we ought to live holding loosely do everything here because we know the best is yet to come. Seal your word to our hearts. Continue with us in this interim of fellowship refreshment bring us back together again in the coming hour eager to hear your voice and by your grace to obey it. Amen.