(a): Sons of God; (b) Brethren of Christ

Introduction to the Series on Adoption and its Foundational Importance

0:01 Now let us turn to that passage of God's Word that we have just sung, 1 John chapter 3, and I shall read the first four verses.

0:20 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. And we are, for this cause the world does not know us, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him even as he is.

1:00 And? Every one that has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure. But let us again pray and ask for the blessing of the Spirit of God upon our study of the Scriptures.

1:23 Our Father, how we long that you will so instruct us and so kindle holy emotions in us, based upon that instruction. That we will be able to enter in wholeheartedly to John's exclamation of wonder and amazement. That we, natively, lost, spiritually blind, dead, hell-deserving sinners, should be called your children, because that's what you have made us. O Father, drive away our spiritual...

2:06 Our spiritual dullness, that we may enter in with all of our hearts to John's exclamation of wonder and praise. To this end instruct us this morning, drawn here by the ministry of your Spirit, to preacher and hearer alike, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. You and I, as believers, must never allow ourselves to be led into...

2:41 What I would call the never-never land of false and disappointing expectations by the promise that there is one master key to living the Christian life. No, as I have demonstrated in my little booklet entitled, Living the Christian Life, you and I need the whole Bible to make us whole men and women in Christ. However, there are some foundational principles, some core issues that form what I like to call the structural framework of the entire edifice of the Bible's teaching on how we are to live the Christian life. And one such structural principle is this. You and I, as believers, must increasingly understand...

3:42 And believingly embrace who we are and what we are in Christ, if we are to live as we ought for Christ. Let me give it to you again. You and I must increasingly understand, that has to do with our noggins, and believingly embrace, that has to do with our hearts, who we are in Christ, and what we possess in Christ, if we are to live as we ought for Christ. It was for this reason that I preached twenty-five sermons on the biblical doctrine of justification. That you and I might understand that in Christ we have a standing before God in the light of the law, in which we have nothing. To fear, that by the life and death of Christ, a perfect righteousness has been wrought for every sinner, who flees to Christ, becomes united to Christ by faith, and is declared justified. Well, in the same way, I'm now preaching a series on adoption.

5:06 Why? Well, basically, because it's my passion, as one of you, to preach. Why? Well, basically, because it's my passion, as one of you, to preach.

5:12 The seats are made for each, on the one hand of the countenance of God. And they are the seats one of your pastors, that you as the people of God, understand more clearly,

5:22 and believe more firmly who and what you are, in Christ, as adopted sons and daughters. For in that understanding, and in the believing response to that understanding, will be your immerse and stability as a child of God. We come this morning, to our fourth study. in this amazing privilege of God's redemptive grace called adoption.

Recap of Previous Messages: Distinctions, Centrality, and Meaning of Adoption

5:48 In our first study of this provision of God's grace in Christ, I set before you three crucial distinctions which must be understood if we are rightly to understand and spiritually to profit from the biblical teaching on adoption. Do you remember those crucial distinctions? I trust you do. Adoption is different, but never separate from justification.

6:19 Adoption is different, but never separate from regeneration. And the fatherhood of God in new covenant adoption in Christ is different from all the other fatherhoods revealed, the other fatherhoods of God revealed in the scriptures. Having identified those three crucial distinctions, I then made an earnest pastoral plea,

6:45 and I repeat it this morning, and it is this. Don't allow what you are learning and embracing, I trust, and enjoying of a deeper understanding of your adoption to dilute, to distort, or to replace the other realities of your relationship to God in Jesus Christ. God is still your creator, lawgiver, and judge, even though He is now your loving Father. Jesus is still your Master and Lord and High Priest, even though, as I trust you will learn and be persuaded this morning, He is nothing less than your elder brother.

7:29 Then in message two, we put our minds into the wide-angle setting, and we viewed the central place of adoption in the scheme of redemption. Begin. Beginning with an examination of Ephesians 1, 4 to 6, and ending with a consideration of the teaching of Romans 8, 18 to 25, we saw that from eternity to eternity, God's purpose to save hell-deserving sinners is nothing less than bestowing upon them through Jesus Christ the marvelous status of sons of God, and not only, bestowing upon them the status of sons, but so working in them by His regenerating and sanctifying grace the very likeness of His own Son, the Lord Jesus. Then last Lord's Day, in our third message, I sought to open up in your hearing what I described as the basic meaning and significance of adoption, and I did so along three lines. We looked, first of all, at the meaning of adoption in the special word used by the Apostle Paul, that word, which means to place as a son. It defines a legal transaction by which an adult male, ordinarily an adult male,

8:59 might be brought into a family and endowed with the status and privileges of a son, one who was not by nature that son, or the kindred of the father who adopts him. So, in the light of Scripture, when God uses this word, we must regard adoption as an act of transfer from an alien family into the family of God. And then we considered the meaning of adoption in the attendant realities of adoption within Roman law. And here I was indebted to Sinclair Ferguson, the old family, who said that the family ties are radically and permanently severed.

9:44 New family ties are legally and permanently established, and new mutual commitments are made, commitments by the adopted to the one adopting him, and commitments by the father to the one thus adopted. And then, thirdly, I said we can be helped by the meaning of adoption given to us in the helpful, biblically-based definition, of adoption in the Shorter Catechism, the Baptist version. Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby all those who are justified are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God, to which I added this phrase, and the solemn duty to obey the duties of. So what is adoption? How are we to think of it? It's an act of God's, free grace, whereby all those who are justified are received into the number, have a right to all the privileges, and are given a solemn duty to obey the duties of the sons of God.

Transition to the Privileges of Adoption and Clarification on Terminology

11:00 Now this morning, we begin to take up the next major category of our study in this marvelous provision of salvation in the New Testament. In Jesus Christ. Are you tracking with me? We looked at the three crucial distinctions with an earnest pastoral plea.

11:18 Secondly, the central place of adoption in the plan of salvation. Thirdly, the fundamental meaning of adoption. Now we come to the good stuff. We come to consider, in our fourth major category, the privileges of adoption.

11:36 The privileges of adoption. Adoption. Or, if you will, why the Apostle John is carried away in holy wonder at the kind of love that would make us children of God. That's what we're going to look at in the next couple of studies.

11:56 And as we begin to consider these privileges, there are two things I want to say before taking up this morning the first two of those privileges. First of all, I want to say a word, a word about the way I'll address them. Some years ago, I preached a series on adoption at a family conference. And when I came to open up the privileges of adoption, I divided them into what I called the legal privileges, the objective privileges, and then secondly, the personal, subjective, or experiential privileges.

12:32 Well, I was attempting to do that in my preparation for this series, but the more I labored over, the more I became convinced that these categories of the privileges of adoption really overlap and interpenetrate one another so that that division, though it was neat and had three heads under each, was artificial, so I jumped it. And then the second thing I want to say is about the use of the word sons or sons and daughters. The Bible is very clear that spiritual privilege, the privileges in Christ, know no differing levels because of sexual identity. Paul could say in Galatians 3, 27 to 29, these very explicit words that should leave no one in any question regarding this issue. As many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female, for you are all one man in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise.

13:53 With respect to spiritual privileges, when God brings anyone into union with Christ, male or female, young or old, bond or free, cultured, uncultured, all those distinctions are leveled. So, we, we come in on equal footing in Jesus Christ in terms of our spiritual privilege. However, the language used in connection with adoption in the Bible is often masculine language and refers to sons of God, and God is not overly fastidious to constantly pause and say, by that I mean sons and daughters of God. Now in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 8, God does say, and I will, you will be to me, sons, the standard word for a male progeny, you will be to me sons and daughters. God says sons and daughters. However, in the major passages in Romans 8 and Galatians 4, where the term sons of God, quios, the standard term for a son, God does not constantly say, but I also mean daughters. Why do I say that by way of introduction?

15:11 Because I don't want to be put in bondage constantly to be saying sons and daughters, sons and daughters, sons and daughters. Nor do I want to be accused of being sexist or a misogynist, a woman hater, if I don't say sons and daughters, sons and daughters, sons and daughters. Any more that I want to be called sexist or a misogynist if I still use the masculine, indefinite pronoun him, he, in ordinary writing or speaking. It is wicked to charge a man with being sexist or misogynist if he simply speaks as God speaks.

15:57 And so I make no apologies for the fact that though I will say from time to time, sons and daughters, I'm in the lids of my Bible in which God is not at all fastidious, about speaking that way. All right. So much of that introduction material. Now then, what are the privileges, some of the privileges, of the adopted children of God?

Privilege 1: Irreversible Legal Status as Children of God (John 1)

16:21 Well I hope to open up just two of them this morning. Number one. We are given an irreversible legal status as sons and daughters of the living God. In fact, I went back over, I looked over my notes after I had fully written them, and I said, no, I ought to change the heading so that we put it in the first person. What are my privileges as an adopted son of God?

16:56 What are my privileges as an adopted daughter of God? And to say, I am given an irreversible legal status as son or daughter of the living God. And now I want to look at two texts with you and have you open your Bibles to them and consider them with me. First of all, John chapter 1.

17:25 John chapter 1. And by the way, I use the phrase, sons, daughters of the living God. That terminology is found in Romans 9 and verse 26.

17:39 John chapter 1. John having established that the Christ of whom he will be writing is none other than the eternal word, the one who was with God in the beginning, through whom all things were made. John then tells us in verse 11, This one came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Now I want you to think back through these verses. Starting with verse 13. Because those whom he describes as having received him, that is, Christ, who are given right to become children of God, that is, those who believe on his name, are those who were born.

18:47 They have experienced a divine begetting. And so we learn from this passage a spiritual birth by the gracious sovereign will and act of God issues, in receiving Jesus by faith. Whenever someone among the mass of humanity embraces Jesus by faith, that is, believes upon his name, entrusts himself or herself to the Jesus of Scripture, on the terms of Scripture, it is because God has done something in them that issues in their receiving. And what has God done? God has birthed them. God has begotten them by spiritual operation, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. A spiritual birth by the gracious sovereign will and act of God issues in receiving Jesus by faith.

19:57 Secondly, receiving Jesus by faith results in the conferral of a right to adoption into the family of God. But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name. Receiving Jesus by faith, which is the evidence of the operation of God in new birth, new birth, leads to receiving Jesus by faith, thereby giving a right to adoption into the family of God. Thirdly, the right of adoption confers upon us the status and designation children of God. To them gave he the right to become children of God. So this passage highlights the first and foundational privilege of adoption, namely, we are given an irreversible status as children of the living God. I must say to myself, having embraced the Lord Jesus as he is offered in the gospel, in that embrace, I am given right, this is legal terminology,

21:17 I am given right to be considered part of the family of God, to call myself a child of God, not only a child by divine adoption, not only a child by divine birth, the regenerating work of God, the first evidence of which is an embracing of the offered Christ in the gospel, but embracing that Christ, I am given the right to be called a child of God. Now then, turn to our passage in 1 John 3. 1 John 3.

Privilege 1: Irreversible Legal Status as Children of God (1 John 3)

22:03 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God, and we are. For this cause the world knows us not, because it knew him not, a kind of parenthetical statement, beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him. We shall see him even as he is.

22:36 What do we learn from this passage? Number one, because of God's amazing love, and its appropriate acts towards us, we who are born of God and adopted are called children of God. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. What was that?

23:02 What was that manner of love? Well, John tells us in chapter 4, verse 8b through 10. God is love. Herein was the love of God manifested in our case, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

23:24 Herein is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be, the propitiation for our sins. So when John says, Behold, what manner, what kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God, it was not a love that just gushed out of his heart and said, Oh, there's some children of the devil. I love them. I'm going to make them my children.

23:51 Hug them to my bosom. No, no. God's love cut a swath, cut a channel through Mary's womb, through the bloody cross, of Golgotha, through the open tomb and the glorious resurrection of his only begotten Son. John says in chapter 4, Herein is it love, that he sent his only begotten Son to do what?

24:15 To be the propitiation, to be the one who would receive in himself the outpouring of divine wrath for our sins, and in the light of that, turn away that wrath, so that God might righteously and justly embrace us, as his children. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be designated, we should be called children of God, because of God's amazing love and its appropriate acts towards us. We who are born of God and adopted are called children of God. Secondly, we are called children of God, because John says that's what we really are. We are called children of God, but that's not just a name God has given us. He says, and we are. You see what he's doing?

25:12 He's standing amazed, and he figures maybe a few of us will be amazed, and he wants us to be certain that this is not just some nice poetic notion that we're God's children. He says that's what we are. We have been taken into this relationship in reality. And then he gives a little parenthetical statement.

25:35 For this reason, the world does not truly know us, even as it did not know him. But then he comes back to the amazing subject. Notice now, he says, Beloved, now are we the children of God. It's not yet made manifest what we shall be, but we know that if he shall be manifest, we shall be like him.

25:57 What is he telling us? What we are as children of God is what we will always, always be. And the best of what we shall be as children is yet to come. Look at the shalls.

26:11 Beloved, now are we children of God. That's what we really are. It's not yet made manifest what we shall be. But we know that if he shall be manifest, we shall be like him.

26:25 For we shall see him as he is. John does not envision that any who are now the children, the children of God, would cease to be his children, would somehow be cast out of the family. No. He envisions that all who have been constituted the children of God will remain children of God.

26:48 And the best of what it means to be a child of God is yet to come. Why? Because in our adoption, you and I are given an irreversible, legal, status as the sons and the daughters of the living God. Now by application, let me say this.

Application of Irreversible Status: Regulating Life by Truth

27:13 I trust that we are all learning more and more what it means to define ourselves as justified sinners. I hope as a result of those 25 messages on justification that more and more, more of us, more of us, more of us, more of us, more of us, more of us, when we wake up in the morning can say in the language of Romans 5.1, having therefore been justified by faith, we have peace with God. I awake and face this day as a justified man, a justified woman.

27:54 All of the claims of God's law in terms of the demand to punish my sins have been met by my Savior. All of the demands of the law for perfect righteousness in order to be accepted by God have been met in my substitute, in my head, the Lord Jesus. I am a having been justified man. There are no claims of the law unmet with respect to me.

28:24 Its authority, its governing principles and power and direction I gladly embrace. But its sanctions, its condemnation, its promise of reward for obedience has nothing to do with me. I am a having been justified by faith man. Romans 8.1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, regardless of how I feel, regardless of how oppressed or depressed I may be in the light of a recent fall before a besetting sin. If I am a depressed man, if I am a justified man, woman, boy or girl, no condemnation. For me the day of judgment has come and passed. I hope, I hope you are regulating your life more and more by those realities.

29:18 Well, in the same way, on any given day you wake up, you may feel like a disowned, sulking brat whom no one in the universe would want to own as a child.

29:33 But, if you have embraced Christ as He is offered in the Gospel according to John 1, if you have received Him, God has given you the right to be called His child. And according to 1 John 3, having been given that name and title because that's what you are, that's what you ever will be, and the best is yet to come. And you and I need to learn to regulate life by that reality. My Savior says to me, when you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven.

30:18 And even when you're confessing your sins which you must do, you are confessing them to your Father. When you say, forgive us our trespasses, forgive us our deaths, it is speaking to your Father. Even though you feel ashamed to come into His presence because of that sin, it does not alter your status having embraced His Son. You are His child by an irreversible, inviolable declaration of the family court of heaven.

30:55 Each day, say to yourself if necessary, many times throughout the day, I am a having been justified by faith, man or woman, all the claims of the criminal court of heaven have been silenced by my Savior. I am a having been adopted by faith, man or woman, boy or girl, on the basis of my Savior's work, an edict has been issued in the family court, legally and irreversibly, such I am, child of God. And say that to myself. Oh, you say that's some kind of mind over matter.

31:37 No, it isn't. It is speaking truth to myself rather than listening the lies that the father of lies would have me speak to myself. Trying to illustrate this, I spoke to someone who has legally adopted some children in our framework. And I said, this is what I want to say.

31:59 Is that accurate? And he said, yes. And then he recounted that in the family court in Morris County, when all the legal paper work had been done, the day came when this man and his wife stood before the judge. And the judge asked the question, do you understand that for good or for ill, you are now parents of this child fully responsible for all that the child is and does All that may happen to him, you are entering into an irreversible relationship of parenthood.

32:45 That has echoes of what God does. God fully understands all the headaches and the heartaches you were to give him when by sovereign grace he regenerated you and brought you to repent and to believe the gospel. There's nothing you've done or failed to become that has surprised God. He's seen the whole spectrum of the life you've lived with all of its folly, stupidity, areas of stubbornness and blindness, times when you have not acted like a child of the king.

33:27 And he saw the whole thing. And yet he said, I take him. I take him to be my child with all the liabilities and all of the responsibilities and I'm committed when I'm done with him to bring him home to heaven fully conformed to the elder brother in the family, even Jesus.

33:54 That's who you are.

33:56 Now do you look at yourself that way? If you're a Christian, that's who you are. Say, that sounds too good. I don't care if it sounds too good.

34:06 Or too bad. Let God be true and every man a liar. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Now, such we are.

34:19 Why did he put that language? Because John understood that it's difficult for the true child of God, sensitive to his unworthiness, sensitive to his sin, sensitive to his failures. At times it's difficult and that's when we need to take hold and take hold. And lay hold in our minds and spirits of what God has said.

Privilege 2: Brothers and Sisters of Christ, Our Elder Brother

34:43 This is who I am. As a justified and an adopted sinner in Christ, I have been given an irreversible legal status as a son, as a daughter of the living God. But then secondly, as a justified and adopted sinner, in Christ, we are given the profound and precious privilege of becoming brothers and sisters of our elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ.

35:24 Let me give it to you in the first person now. As a justified and an adopted sinner in Christ, I have been given the profound and precious privilege of becoming a brother, a sister, a sister, a sister, a sister, a sister of my elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ.

35:49 God's work in redemptive grace is set before us in a number of ways in the scripture, a number of images or metaphors, almost all of them corporate in nature. For example, God's establishing a kingdom with Christ as the King, Luke 1, 32 and 33. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father, the throne of his Father, the throne of his Father, and establish his kingdom forever. And when God's all done, Revelation 11, 15, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.

36:26 Another metaphor is God is building a holy temple with Christ as the cornerstone. Ephesians 2, 19 and following. 1 Peter 2, 5. God is constituting a people to be a bride for his Son.

36:41 Ephesians 5, 5. Ephesians 5, 25 and following. These are some of the metaphors. God gives all these different pictures to show us what we are as God's redeemed people.

36:52 However, among those, he tells us he is gathering a family, a household of faith. Jesus gave a strong intimation of this in the days of his flesh. You remember that incident recorded in Mark chapter 3. It's also recorded.

37:11 It's also recorded in the other synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Luke, but in Mark chapter 3 and verse 31 and following. And there came his mother and his brethren, and standing without, they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him. And they said unto him, Behold, your mother and your brethren, the woman whose womb bore you, and the people that shared that womb, subsequent to your time there, they are without seeking for you.

37:47 Let me say by way of an aside, the Roman Catholic doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary is sheer, unfounded nonsense. In the language of Professor Murray, for Mary to have remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus turns her from a noble woman into a witch. End of quote.

38:12 Enough said. Verse 33. And he answered them and said, Who is my mother and my brethren? Who do I recognize as having a familial intimacy with me?

38:27 And looking round on them that sat round about him, he said, Behold, my mother and my brethren. For whoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother and sister and mother. By my presence among the sons of men, I am gathering my family. And my family is not those who shared the same womb with me, but those who have been brought into an attachment to me in which my word regulates their thinking, regulates their conduct.

39:08 My family are those in whom my word has effectually worked, binding them to me, and to my word. And therefore when we turn to the epistles, we find the terminology, the household of God. Ephesians 2 and verse 19. Ephesians 2 and verse 19.

39:32 You are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. In Galatians 6.10, Paul uses the same term, the same terminology about doing good to those of the household of God. Now in that household, the Lord Jesus is the elder brother.

39:57 He holds the position of the firstborn. The prototokos is the one who has the preeminence. And in the household of God, Jesus gladly owns his place as the elder brother. But takes us into that brotherhood without shame.

40:20 Look at two verses. Romans 8 and verse 29. Romans 8 and verse 29.

40:29 Whom he, God, foreknew, he foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren. In God's scheme of redemption, Christ, is the firstborn. All of his people redeemed by his precious blood and renewed by his Spirit are regarded as his brothers. And in Hebrews chapter 2, there is a wonderful addition to all of this in terms of how Christ looks upon this assignment.

41:13 Verse 11, For both he who sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Saying, and then quoting from Psalm 22, I will declare your name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I sing your praise.

41:39 And again I'll put my trust in him. And again behold I and the children whom God has given me. Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood. He himself, in like manner partook of the same that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

42:02 For verily not to angels does he give help, but he gives help to the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest. He's not ashamed to call us his brothers. His brothers, his family.

Basis for Brotherhood: Sharing the Same Father (John 20)

42:30 And what is the basis for this profound and precious privilege? Well, let me ask the question. What makes people brothers?

42:41 You say when they have the same father. You got it. That's it. When they have the same father, they're brothers.

42:48 And this is precisely what Jesus made plain to his disciples. Subsequent to his death and resurrection, turn with me please to John chapter 20.

43:03 That that one whom he knew from eternity as father in the inner Trinitarian relationship, that one whom he addressed on earth as father, the obedient servant son. Listen to what he says in John chapter 20. You remember he has risen from the dead. He has risen from the dead.

43:26 He's disclosing himself now to Mary. John 20 and verse 17. Jesus said to her, touch me not. I'm not yet ascended unto thee, Father.

43:40 There is but one Father in the life and being of the Trinity. I've not ascended unto thee, Father. But go to my brethren. Go to my brethren.

43:56 Go to my brethren. He didn't say go to my servants. Go to my apostles. Go to my brethren.

44:05 Of all things he could have called them. This bunch that had split and forsaken him in the hour of his trial. My brethren. Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father and my God and your God.

44:27 And in those words our Lord is underscoring two very vital truths. He is saying he is my Father in a way distinct from any way in which he is your Father. So he doesn't say I ascend to our Father. I ascend to my Father and your Father.

44:48 There is a distinctive uniqueness in Christ's relationship to God as Father. That's an inner Trinitarian fatherhood. No one encroaches upon that. It is unique to the Lord Jesus.

45:05 My Father. But in the same breath he says I ascend to my Father and your Father. Not a different being. Not a different God.

45:20 The one who is my Father is also your Father. And because we share the same Father we are brethren. Go. Tell my brothers.

45:36 Tell my brethren. And it is that to which God through Christ brings us in his amazing redemptive grace that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is one and the same with our Father. Our Father is one and the same by adoption. His Father by the mystery of inner Trinitarian relationship in which the Father has always been Father to the Son.

46:09 In which the Son has always been Son to the Father. And you will never hear me using the terms by eternal generation or other things that would simply confuse you. There never was a time in all of eternity when the Father was not the Father. To the Son and the Son was not the Son to the Father.

46:32 And here is a bunch of Adamic rebels who were made in Adam children of God for Adam is called Son of God. He becomes disinherited alienated Son through sin and we in him and our spiritual Father is the Devil. And now this God this Father through the work of this God this is eternal Son who becomes true man while remaining all that he ever was as God. And through his work on our behalf he brings us into a relationship that goes beyond that of the judge who says in the criminal court I have no further claims against that hell deserving rebel. I pardon him for Jesus' sake. I accept him as righteous for Jesus' sake. He goes beyond that and in the family court he says I now take him as my son.

47:41 I take him and all the liabilities of what it will mean to be his Father. All the responsibilities of what it will mean to be his Father. I take him into my heart. I take him into my fatherly affections my fatherly care my fatherly discipline.

48:05 I take him into the family in which my eternal and beloved son is now their elder brother in the family. Now notice he doesn't cease to be our Lord and our Master our good Shepherd all of the other things no he doesn't cease to be those things but he does become firstborn among his brethren and think of it by the Spirit Christ is present and smiles this morning and says I'm not ashamed to call this bunch my brothers.

48:52 Think of it. That's what Hebrews 2 says wherefore he is not ashamed to call them brothers.

49:05 Think of it. And he knows you. Remember? He stands in the church eyes as a flame of fire.

49:12 He knows the stupid silly carnal things you thought last week. The unkind words that came out of your mouth. The unclean things that came into your eyes. And you've been ashamed of them and you've confessed them.

49:29 But he stands among us this morning and said this is my family the fruit of the travail of my soul. And I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed to call them my brothers. That's who you are.

Concluding Application: Living in Light of These Privileges

49:43 That's who you are. Now does that make any difference how you live? Well if you internalize that and believe that and begin to live each day in the light of that it'll make all kinds of difference in all kinds of ways and in all kinds of relationships. When we come to the matter of the responsibilities of adoption we'll look into some of those of seeking to be like the Father.

50:12 Seeking to live and pray before the eye of the Father. Seeking in all things to please the Father. But for this morning all I want you to seek to grasp is that here are the two basic privileges of being an adopted son or daughter of God. You as adopted have an irreversible legal status as a son or daughter of the living God and you are given the profound and precious privilege of becoming a brother or sister of your elder brother the Lord Jesus Christ.

50:56 He stands at my elbow as my elder brother. He's gone before me. He took my flesh upon him. He took my human existence.

51:08 The writer to Hebrews says it behooved him in all things to be made like the brethren that he would save and constitute his brothers. And then the writer to Hebrews goes on to say because of that we have one who can feel with us in our struggles. One who can empathize with us in our temptation. We can commune with him and rely upon him and call out to him not only as our high priest at the right hand of the Father.

51:40 Our good shepherd to lead us and protect us. He's all that but he's something more. He's also my elder brother. And he wants me to live my life in the light of that reality and to shape the contours of how I make my way through this wilderness of this world on my way to the celestial city in the confidence and consciousness that he is my elder brother.

Invitation to Unbelievers and Future Study

52:11 Now remember this is for those who've embraced Christ as he's offered in the gospel and you who sit here who've not embraced him.

52:24 This is children's bread but as I said last week I hope what we have in Christ as I seek to expound it will make you jealous. That can be yours. It's in Christ and embracing Christ you too will have that status irreversibly given by almighty God who cannot lie that he will constitute you his child and once constituted his child forever his child it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall be manifested we shall be like him the utter certainty that once in the family of God always in the family of God kept by the power of God through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Well God willing in our next study we'll take up what is a precious corollary of having Christ as our elder brother because the Bible teaches us that as our elder brother he's an heir in the Hebrew family structure the firstborn was the legitimate heir of much more. Christ as firstborn and elder brother is heir to the firstborn is heir to the world the scripture tells us but the scripture tells us God's made us joint heirs with Christ

53:52 our elder brother is going to gladly share all that is his by right of inheritance may God grant that as we seek to internalize what we've meditated upon this morning God will fill our hearts with gratitude with fresh degrees of love that will cause us to say with John behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God and we are let's pray our Father we confess that our minds and our hearts seem so shriveled and so unable to wrap themselves around such high such marvelous provisions of your grace make us strong by the Holy Spirit in the inner man that we may grasp with fresh spiritual strength the wonder of the love that was in your heart ever to conceive and execute such a plan of salvation that would not only turn away your wrath and give us acceptance in the criminal court of heaven but would bring us by way of

55:21 the family court into the status of sons and daughters seal your word to our hearts and we do pray that you would draw some to yourself who have yet to know the blessedness of sins forgiven and acceptance in Christ hear our prayers we pray in Jesus name Amen