Framework – Our Position Before God

The Foundation of Devotion: Sound Biblical Conversion

0:01 of this church when they invited me to come and minister in your midst is the subject or vital theme of devotion to God. Now as we saw in our initial study last night, to be devoted to God is to be given up to God, to a life controlled by the one great ambition of pleasing God and serving God. If you sit here tonight as a man, a woman, a boy or a girl, of whom it can be said that you are devoted to God, what is meant by that is that you, by the grace of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit of God, are living a life that is pleasing to God as you seek to serve God.

1:02 In our initial study last night we examined what I entitled the foundation of all true devotion to God. And we studied together a passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 which describes the conversion of the Thessalonians and I submitted to you this very simple but fundamental truth that there can be no life of devotion to God until there is first of all a sound biblical conversion to God. And no passage that I know of in all of the Bible describes more accurately what it is to be converted to God than does this passage where Paul says of the Thessalonians, you turned unto God from your idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. Now I'm not going to re-preach last night's sermon though I look out and see faces tonight who were not with us last night. Suffice it to say that if you are a stranger in your experience to what Paul describes in this passage there is

2:25 no way that you can live a life devoted to God. Because by nature you came out of your mother womb, not devoted to God, but devoted to sin, to self, to the world, and to the devil. And no human being can ever change that condition. You, no friend, no priest, no minister, no rabbi, there is no ritual that can change it, no amount of water, drops on your forehead, a bucket on your head, or get dumped ten feet under. There's no ritual. There is nothing that can change that condition but what Paul describes in verse 5 of this chapter, the gospel coming to you, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much conviction. And it is only when the gospel of the grace of God comes to men in the power of the Spirit that they can change that condition. That they are ever turned to God from their idols with a disposition to serve him and to wait for his Son from heaven. And until that is true of you, you cannot live a life

3:46 devoted to God. Romans 8, 7 says, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed to the law of God. And it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed to the law of God. And it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. It cannot be. And so my dear friend, if you're here tonight as one who knows nothing of that work of the Spirit through the gospel, showing you your lost condition, your state of rebellion and alienation from God, and bringing you to turn away from that state through the Lord Jesus Christ, embracing the living God, and bringing you to turn away from that state through the Lord Jesus Christ, embracing the living God, as your God, determining to serve him from the heart with your affections fixed upon his dear Son, if that's not true of you, then everything I say tonight, in a sense,

4:42 is putting the cart before the horse for you. The foundation must be there. But I must move on in treating the subject, and I can't just preach on the foundation for four sermons. So tonight we move on to consider...

The Framework of Devotion: Our Position Before God

4:58 The framework of true devotion to God. Last night we considered the foundation. But now if you're erecting a building, after you've put in the footings and laid the foundation, then you set up the framework of that house, that building, that church, whatever it is. And it is that structural framework which determines the exact size and shape of the building. We're going to talk about that in a second.

5:31 For example, we hope to move in one month, at last, into our final place of ministry for at least a while. We've been several years in a two-stage building program. We've built the first stage, completed it in January of 81, and we've been worshiping there, two stories, with a temporary auditorium and Sunday School classrooms below, building about 12,000 square feet. And we've outgrown it, and phase two is just about completed.

6:02 In about a month's time, we hope to move in. But for many months now, we have known exactly what the shape of that building will be. You know why? Because the framework of that building has been constructed.

6:16 The laminated beams are in, and the studs are in, so we have known exactly what the framework of the final building will be, because there it sits. So we're going to think tonight about the framework of a life devoted to God. Those two things, we're going to look at one of them tonight, the second one, God willing, in the study tomorrow morning on the Lord's Day, which will determine the precise shape and form of our life of devotion to God. And what is that framework?

Clear Understanding and Constant Apprehension

6:50 Well, I'm going to describe it, explain what I mean, and then we're going to dig into the scriptures to see what it is. And then we're going to see that this is indeed the framework of a life devoted to God. The first part of that framework is this, a clear understanding and constant apprehension of my true position before God. If we are to live a life devoted to God, we must not only have the foundation of a sound conversion to God, but we must also have the foundation of a sound conversion to God.

7:27 But we must also have the foundation of a sound conversion to God. We must have a clear understanding and constant apprehension of our true position before God. Now let me explain my words. We must have a clear understanding of our position before God.

7:47 And what do I mean by that? Simply this. Our minds must be illuminated by the Holy Spirit to grasp what the Scriptures say about our position before God. We must not have some vague, woozy, foggy, misty notion that somehow or other, because by the grace of God through the Gospel I've turned to God through the Lord Jesus, everything is all right with me and God.

8:19 Now don't. Don't ask me to describe how it's all right and the precise nature. I leave that to the theologians and the preachers. I'm just a humble Christian, and I just know everything's all right between me and the Lord.

8:31 And I say, well, what do you mean everything's all right? Well, it's just all right. Well, yeah, I know. But what do you mean by all right?

8:38 Well, all right's all right.

8:41 Now when I say we must have a clear understanding, I mean we've got to have something more than that. I'll never forget picking up a hitchhiker one time years ago when it was still legal to do so. And I began to witness to him, and I finally had a chance to ask him, are you saved? He said, oh, yes, I'm saved.

9:00 And I said, what makes you think you're saved? He said, well, because I'm for Christ.

9:06 I said, you're for Christ. Now that's interesting. What do you mean you're for Christ? Well, I'm just for Christ.

9:13 I said, well, explain what you mean. And you know that fellow could not explain. I almost put the words in his mouth. He had the most vague, nebulous, misty thought.

9:22 All the idea that in some way or another he must be saved because he was, quote, for Christ. Now, my friend, hear me tonight. You will never experience a life of true devotion to God unless you have some clear understanding of your true position before God. An understanding rooted in the very language of the Bible.

9:48 And an understanding imparted as the Holy Spirit takes the truth. And enables you to see it with your spiritual eyes. But we must not only have a clear understanding of our true position before God, but a constant apprehension of our true position before God. Now, why did I use that big word?

10:14 To impress you? No. I have no desire to impress you with anything. I do have a desire to help you.

10:21 Now, I use the word apprehension because it. Accurately states what I want to say. Now, you pick up your paper Monday morning and you read. On such and such a day, the police apprehended Mr. John Doe for such and such a criminal offense.

10:38 What does that reporter mean when he says the police apprehended somebody? I'm waiting for the attention of two young people. I won't look in your direction to embarrass you, but I'm not here on a fool's errand. I want your eyes on me.

10:52 I'm not preaching to myself. I'm preaching to you. If I see you do it again, I'll look at you and rebuke you publicly. Now, I've looked right up at the ceilings and nobody knows where they are, but they know who they are.

11:05 And that's a warning.

11:08 Don't put me to the test to see if I carry out my warnings. Ask my kids. They'll tell you. All right?

11:14 Now then, apprehension. Someone's been apprehended. What did the police do? Well, the police saw a certain man, John Doe, whom they had reason to believe was guilty of a certain crime.

11:28 And they went and forcefully laid hold of him and took him and put him behind bars. To apprehend someone is to lay hold of them and to keep them in your custody. Now, what I'm saying is, if we are to live a life of true devotion to God, we must not only have a clear understanding of our true position before God, but we must have a constant laying hold. Laying hold of that true position before God.

12:02 In other words, we must not only see these truths and point to them and say, oh yes, I believe them, but we must seize them and keep them in custody within the bars and walls of our hearts.

12:18 Now, aren't you glad I used the word apprehension and explained it? You weren't scared away by it? Now, you tell me a word that describes it better than that. Until I find one, that's the one I'll have to use.

The Nature of Our True Position: Justified Before God

12:29 Now, what we have to do is, what we have got to understand clearly and continually apprehend is our true position before God. And what do I mean by that? I mean simply this. How God actually regards us in the court of heaven, in the house of heaven.

12:51 How God actually relates to us who have turned from our idols to him, to serve him and to wait for his son from heaven. The us is all of us who have been truly converted to whom the word has come in, not word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit. All right? First of all, then, we consider tonight, what is the nature of our true position?

13:23 I've said we must have a clear understanding of it and a constant apprehension of it. Well, what precisely? What exactly is the nature of our true position? And then a few minutes at the end, what is the ground of this position?

13:39 So a very simple outline. We're considering tonight our true position before God, its nature and its ground. Now, I think even you kids could give that outline at the door if I asked you, what did the preacher talk about? He talked about our true position before God, its nature and its ground.

13:58 All right? What is the nature? Then, of our true position before God. If the gospel has come to us in power, in the Holy Spirit, in much conviction, we've truly turned to God from our idols to serve him and to wait for his Son from heaven, let me submit to you that our position is a glorious three-fold position before God.

14:27 First of all, we are justified before God, and we'll notice, secondly, we are reconciled to God, and thirdly, we're adopted by God. First of all, then, we are justified before God. Now, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that every truly penitent and believing sinner is justified the moment he repents and believes the gospel. Look at these witnesses out of the book of Romans, chapter three.

15:01 After Paul has demonstrated that everyone by nature is a sinner, and under the wrath and displeasure of God, guilty and condemned, now he says that there is a provision of God's grace for guilty, condemned sinners. Notice verse 26. For the showing, I say, chapter three, I'm sorry, in verse 26, of his righteousness at this present season, and here's the part that we want to look at, that he that is God might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. Wherever there is true faith in Jesus as revealed in the gospel, not Jesus as some kind of an exalted guru, Jesus as some kind of nebulous embodiment of all good and all noble and all right, and all that is virtuous, but the Jesus of the gospel, Jesus who died for sinners, Jesus who was buried and was raised again from the dead the third day, Jesus exalted to the right hand of God the Father, and constituted Lord and Christ before the entire universe, wherever there is faith in that Jesus, the apostle says,

16:28 God justifies him that believes in Jesus. Verse 28 of the same chapter. We reckon, therefore, that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. When a man truly believes, he is justified.

16:51 Chapter four in verse five. But to him that does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned or accounted for righteousness. Chapter five verse one. Being therefore justified by faith.

17:15 Now I don't want to weary you with the biblical witness. It is plain and clear in chapter after chapter, book after book, that the moment a sinner in all the filth and all the rottenness, and guiltiness of his sinful state, the moment he looks away from trying to fix himself up and help himself, and forsakes all confidence in himself and others, and throws the weight of his guilty soul upon Christ as presented on the gospel, that very moment he is justified. Now that's the teaching of the Bible. But now the question is, what does it mean, to be justified? And here I am amazed at the nebulous, foggy notions that God's people have about what it means to be justified. And this is why there is such a low level of devotion to God. Because it is only in the context of a clear understanding and a constant apprehension of my position as justified, that devotion to God will really thrive and flourish.

18:32 What does it mean to be justified? As a believer, that's my position. But do I have a clear understanding of it, and a presence laying hold of it, and keeping it within the bars and walls of my heart? Well, justification basically has two sides to it.

18:54 One is negative and the other is positive. There is a negating work of God in justification. He takes something away. But there is also a conferring work of God.

19:06 He imparts something, like the returning prodigal. He not only had his tattered clothes and rags taken from him, he had the beautiful robe placed upon him. In justification, God does those two wonderful things. First of all, He completely, irrevocably pardons all of our sins, never to bring upon us His wrath against sin.

19:42 He may bring fatherly chastisement for sin. There may be a disruption of communion on account of sin committed and sin not repented of. Yes, the Bible teaches that. But the Scriptures teach that the moment a sinner believes on the Lord Jesus, all of his sins are pardoned and put away in the language of the prophet.

20:09 They are cast behind the back of God. They are buried in the deepest sea. Go back to Romans chapter 4 and notice this aspect as emphasized by the Apostle Paul. Having said in verse 5 that to him who does not work, believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.

20:34 Now notice he's going to go on to demonstrate this from the Old Testament. Even as David also pronounces blessing upon the man unto whom God does not reckon God reckons righteousness apart from works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin. That is, lay sin to his account.

21:05 Now do you see the aspect of justification that's emphasized here? It's the negating aspect. Here the aspect of justification that is emphasized is the forgiving and the covering and the non-reckoning of sin. Do you see those three things in the text?

21:24 Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered, to whom the Lord will not account sin. And that's the first aspect of God's justifying grace. That sin is truly forgiven. Sin is truly covered.

21:48 Sin will never be reckoned against me, put to my account with a view to being summoned before God and judged, and punished for that sin. For the wages of any sin, one or ten billion, the wages of sin is death. And if there is one sin I have ever committed or ever shall commit until the Lord comes or I die and go to meet Him, if there is but one sin that does not come under the provision of justifying grace, I've had it. I've had it.

22:23 And my friend, you've had it. If there is but one sin, one sin, or one sin, Adam was driven out of paradise. And for one sin you and I will be kept out of heaven. The glorious provision of justification, the negating part, is that God forgives iniquity, covers sin, no longer reckons sin to us.

22:59 And that's what I call the blissful negative blessing of justification. The blissful negative blessing. Blessed is the man. And that word blessed in the Hebrew, we can't bring it into the English and even the Greek word that's used to translate the Hebrew word.

23:17 It's untranslatable. It's sort of a mixture like your granola's. It's got some oats in it and some other nuts and other grains. And they're all mixed up and that makes granola.

23:32 Blessedness is happiness, spiritual peace, tranquility, fulfillment. All of those things are bound up in it. So I call it the blissful negative of justification. Sins are forgiven.

23:47 My sin, all the what? Bliss of this glorious thought. My sin not in part but the whole is forgiven. It's nailed to his cross and I bear it no more.

24:02 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. That'll make people shout whether they ever had any Pentecostal in their background or not.

24:13 That'll take you out of the realm of just having a nice, polite, neat, little religious thing and bring you to the place where with David you want to say oh the blessedness of it. At least you'll shout in the privacy of your closet. Though you might not dare to do it in the sanctuary. All right.

The Nature of Our True Position: Reconciled to God

24:35 But now, but now seriously, that's only the negative side of justification. There's not only the blissful negative, there's the blissful conferral. And this is the aspect it seems so few of God's people understand. And that's why their devotion to God so often flags and is weak and so pathetic.

24:57 And it is this. In justification, there's not only the complete pardon and forgiveness and non-reckoning of our sin, but there is the positive putting to our account of the perfect record of Jesus Christ. In other words, we do not have a position before God of forgiven criminals whose record has been blotted out. God goes beyond that.

25:26 And what He actually does is to take the perfect record of Christ and credit that to our account so we're not just guilty criminals forgiven and then treated as though we were model citizens all the days of our life and had fully kept every single precept of the land. You say, where in the world do you find that in the Bible? Well, I'm glad to tell you where I find it. Right here in Romans chapter 5.

25:58 Let's look at it. Romans chapter 5, verses 18 and 19. Paul is showing that the method of giving salvation is a method in which God works on the many and for the many through the one. As He worked in the one Adam, so He works in the one Christ.

26:23 And in the midst of developing that argument, he says in verse 18, so then, as through one trespass, that's Adam's trespass, the judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so through the one act of righteousness, the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. For as through the one man's disobedience, that's Adam, the many were made or constituted sinners. When Adam was in the Garden of Eden, may I say it this way, God had the whole world and the whole human race piggybacked on Adam. God had decreed that in Adam the whole human race would stand upright and obey Him, or the whole human race would fall in Him and with Him. And when the whole human race was, as it were, piggybacked on Adam, the Scripture says that through that one man's disobedience, all of us were constituted sinners in Him and with Him. We sinned, we sinned in Him, the one whom God had made our head and representative. But now look at the last part of the verse, even so, even so, in a like manner, through the obedience of the one, that is the perfect life of obedience

27:52 wrought by Jesus Christ, shall the many be forgiven? No. Shall the many be made or constituted righteous? You see it?

28:06 Adam's disobedience is credited to us and we fall in Him, but in Jesus Christ, the second Adam, what happens? His life of perfect obedience to the law of God is credited to us, so that before God, God views me not as a criminal who has been forgiven and now has to prove himself and earn a good status by my behavior until society will accept me after a period of probation? The moment the sinner believes, God for Christ's sakes pardons all his sins and at that moment puts to his account the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ which is His righteousness. And I am regarded before God as though I had perfectly kept His law from the moment of my conception. May I say it without being irreverent? He regards me as having kept that law as perfectly as His Son did because it is the perfect obedience of His Son that is reckoned to me.

29:31 You say, that's too far beyond me. How can I grasp it? You never will unless the Holy Spirit enables you to grasp it. The provisions of God are like God, too grand and glorious to be understood and grasped by the human mind apart from the enablement of the Holy Spirit.

29:54 But oh, when God by the Holy Spirit enables us to understand and then presently to apprehend and lay hold of what it is to be justified, then the wheels of devotion to God turn more quickly. And with much greater fervor and desire to honor and glorify this God who's made such glorious provision for me, will I serve Him in my generation. Think of it. Sitting here tonight with all of our limited understanding, we've never seen God's glory pass before us while God hit us in the cleft of a rock as did Moses. We've never spoken face to face with God as did Moses. We never were caught up into the third heaven and heard things unlawful to utter as the Apostle Paul. We were never struck down to our face with a direct voice out of heaven.

30:56 But listen, you're standing before Almighty God if you believe upon Jesus. Sitting here tonight with all of your limited little pygmy experience, compared to Moses and Paul and Peter and John, with all of your failures and all of your limited usefulness, listen to me. Your standing before God is as perfect as the standing of Paul, Peter, Moses, John, and Elijah. And it will not be any better after you've been in heaven a billion years than it is right now.

31:31 You say, Preacher, isn't that just sort of carrying the burden and preacher's rhetoric to excess? No, that's the truth of the Bible. A lot of room to grow in grace, all kinds of sins yet to be mortified, all kinds of graces yet to be cultivated, this body yet to be glorified. And remember, my salvation's not complete until this body is resplendent with the power of Christ's resurrection.

32:05 But all that God has yet to do in me to perfect His work in me, His work for me, is already perfect in His dear Son. Do you see that with the inner eyes of the soul? And can you, sitting here tonight, lay hold of it and lock it up in the bars and walls of your heart? Dear Mother, pressed and harried with all cries of Mama this and Mama that and Mama this and Mama the other and in the midst of it your husband, Honey this and Honey that and Honey the other?

32:48 And there are times you feel so earthbound by dishes and diapers and demands of your kids and your husband and you just wonder, the Lord seems so distant. May I urge you in the midst of all of that to just pause for a moment and say, right now, believing on the Lord Jesus, all of my sins are pardoned and I am accepted in the beloved one. And my position before God is just as if I'd never sinned. Just as if I fully kept the law of God in every thought and motive and word and deed all the days of my life. Now that won't make the dirty dishes go away and it won't make the demands of your kids and your husband go away but I tell you your devotion to God in the midst of those demands when you can presently apprehend what you are before God as a justified sinner. And what's true of the harried mother in the midst of all of her pressures is true of any one of us. Whatever our responsibilities may be, our devotion to God is nurtured by the constant remembrance of our position before Him.

34:18 But I must hasten on for our position is not only one of being justified before God but we are secondly reconciled to God. We are reconciled to God. Now again the Bible makes it clear that when the Gospel comes in power effecting a sound biblical conversion the moment a sinner turns in faith to Christ that sinner is reconciled. Look at the witness Romans chapter 5 verse 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by His life. And here the emphasis falls upon the ground or we might say the redemptive act that procures and secures our reconciliation but then in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 we find the Apostle on the basis of what God has done in Christ pleading with men to be reconciled to God. Verse 20 of 2 Corinthians 5 We are ambassadors therefore on behalf

35:47 of Christ. I say by way of an aside that's why I demand undivided attention to the preaching of the word. I'm not here in my own name and in my own authority. I am an ambassador of Jesus Christ and I always demand a careful hearing for the word of my King.

36:08 My word means nothing and if I stood here telling you well I think and I believe and I think and I believe and when I was speaking to the people I said this is a very disrespectful and unattentive but I bring you the word of my King and so does any true servant of Christ and you better hear them because the King doesn't like it when you treat his ambassadors rudely. We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ as though God were entreating you by us we beseech you on the reconciled to god how does it come to them in the context of preaching the gospel and when our men and women reconcile to god when by the gospel they turn from their sins they repent and believe on the lord jesus as the gospel comes to them in power verse 21 of colossians chapter 1 and you being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind and evil works yet now has he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and without blemish

37:29 and unreprovable before him you were once enemies you now have been reconciled now what's the biblical idea of reconciliation reconciliation reconciliation reconciliation while we read in the paper that so-and-so and so-and-so had gone down that horrible road of filing for divorce but seeking counsel or under counsel the husband and the wife dropped their divorce suit and they were reconciled where once there was enmity leading to separation and dissolving of the marriage now there is once again amity and love and face-to-face comun contants and in reconciliation you have again these quinn said yes of removal of one thing anglica for all of us now oneaps remove didn rekons mDC all of god's Keeping your files avaş hvis you Papa yes although teaching analysis a lot of notification trap going around about unconditional love and unconditional forgiveness and we're told god is a god of unconditional love and forgiveness you won't find that taught in the bible my bible says

38:55 god is angry with the wicked every day he hates all workers of iniquity the wrath of god abides on him that believes not i've quoted from psalm 5 psalm 7 and john 3 36 paul could say in ephesians 2 3 that you were by nature children of wrath even as the rest that is by nature you were exposed and liable to the wrath of almighty god god has a controversy with us because of our sin and there is righteous enmity in god's heart to sinners who have balked against his authority and bucked against his laws and refused to bow to his will yet in the the , what god does is to remove that righteous enmity there is no longer in the heart of god righteous enmity that would keep sinners at a distance in reconciliation based upon the work of christ that enmity is removed now don't think that it's christ work that changed god's heart from one of wrath to love no he both loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved

40:20 and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved and hated at the same time he loved No, God's love is not secured by the work of Christ. The work of Christ is secured by God's love. God so loved that he gave. But the God who loved is the God who had a righteous cause of enmity against us.

40:41 And when we turn to God from our idols and through Jesus Christ embrace him as our God, the enmity is removed and God's heart is no longer a heart tinged at all with enmity. There is nothing but his goodwill and his good pleasure towards us. But there's something more than that. There's not only the removal of his righteous enmity, there is the conferral of his positive friendship.

41:12 It's like you have a neighbor and you did something, you didn't know what, that really got the guy upset. And every time you went by, he cussed and swore at you until finally it got to you and you said, Hey, friend, what in the world have I done? And he says, Well, you remember such and such and such. And you say, Yeah, but I...

41:29 Oh, now I see. I'm terribly sorry. Will you forgive me? Yeah, forgive it and forget it.

41:35 So the next day you go out, he doesn't cuss at you, but he doesn't smile either. Nor does he say, Hey, let's go on off down to the lake and fish for a while. His positive enmity seems to be removed, but he sure hasn't made...

41:49 made it plain that he wants to welcome you into the circle of his intimate friendship.

41:54 He's no longer out to pummel your ears with cussing, but neither is he about to open his living room for a cup of coffee. You see, there can in a sense be the removal of positive enmity without the conferral of the privileges of friendship. And in reconciliation, God does both. There is the removal of his righteous enmity and there is the conferral of his positive friendship.

42:19 His willingness to be identified with you and me and fellowship with us. He says that I will be their God and they shall be my people. I will not be embarrassed to be found eating them, holding fellowship with them. That means that if I am to know what it is to increase in devotion to God, I must come to a...

42:50 clear understanding and present apprehension of this glorious truth. I have reconciled to God.

43:03 His enmity has been removed and he's conferred upon me the privilege of his friendship. And as a true son and daughter of Abraham, as Abraham was called friend of God, I am a friend of God as a child of Abraham. Now, that's how God regards me. And we must regard ourselves as he regards us.

43:33 Have you ever known what it is to try to nurture friendship with someone against whom you had no enmity and towards whom you had positive feelings of friendship and you had opened, as it were, your heart to take them into the place of a close friend? And they weren't mad at you, but they simply would not draw near. Have you known that frustration? I've known it.

43:59 I can remember one dear brother. I had a peculiar affection for him in Christ for what I saw of God's grace in him and the wisdom of God. And I felt there was so much I could learn from him and what I saw of Christ in him drew me to him. And my heart was open to him, but for the longest while, I didn't know whether his heart was reciprocating.

44:24 And for there to be friendship, there has to be that reciprocation. And you see, God has reconciled you to himself. But if you do not have an understanding of and a present grasp upon that truth, you can be living at a distance from the God whose heart is toward you and who longs to take you into the intimacy of his friendship. You say, Pastor Martin, it all seems, why would God do such things like that?

The Nature of Our True Position: Adopted by God

44:54 I just feel I've been such a bummer and my life's been so rotten. If only God would just let me sneak in and know that I won't go to hell. I'm willing to sit over in the corner and cringe just so long as I make it to heaven at last. Listen, does a salvation like that glorify and magnify grace?

45:16 No, it's a salvation that takes those who were at enmity to God and towards whom God had righteous enmity and not only removes the positive enmity, but confirms the truth. It confirms the blessing of friendship and welcomes us into his heart and into his fellowship. But then, in the third place, we must have a clear understanding and present apprehension not only of our position as justified before God, reconciled to God, but in the third place, adopted by God. And once again, the Bible is clear. That the moment anyone truly turns to God from his idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, that very moment, he is adopted into God's family. Let me remind you of the verses. Familiar to many of you, but it's good to go back over the familiar.

46:20 John chapter one in verse 12. John's gospel chapter one in verse 12. But as many as received him to them. But as many as received him to them.

46:35 Now notice, notice the connection. As many as received him to them. He doesn't say as many as received him and then behave themselves very well for three months or they were very good children for six months. No, as many as received him to them.

47:00 All of them and the moment they received him to them gave you the right to receive him. The right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name. Just as there are no degrees of justification or reconciliation, there are no degrees of adoption. You're either in God's family or you ain't.

47:30 You are or you ain't. Ain't no middle ground, no halfway house, where if you prove yourself, then you show yourself to be worthy. Then God will bring you from the merely justified, reconciled state to the adopted state. The Bible knows no such distinction.

47:48 As many as receive him, young or old. Polite sinners, impolite sinners. Dark stained sinners, lightly stained sinners. Polite sinners, impolite, notorious, secret sinners.

48:04 It doesn't make any distinction in the Bible. As many as receive him. To them, to all of them, he gives the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 26, the same testimony.

48:20 We're just looking at some of the biblical testimony that adoption is the present state before God of every true Christian. Verse 26, for you are all sons of God through faith, in Christ Jesus. Now he is not teaching that all men without distinction and discrimination are the sons of God, no. He's speaking of those who either have come to faith and are in union with Christ or have faith in Christ Jesus.

48:57 It is only those who turn to God from their idols, have turned to God through Christ, and therefore their heart's affection and trust is fixed upon God. It's like a little child who's been born in Christ. They're waiting for the sun out of the heavens. Even Jesus, our text last night, all such Paul says, they are right now, not shall be, they are right now, sons and daughters of God.

49:28 Go down into Galatians 4 and verse 4. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, it's not just for a woman. It's for a man. For a woman.

49:39 For a man. For a woman. That he might redeem them that were under the law in order that we might receive the adoption of sons. Here the text says that the apex, the mountain peak, the pinnacle privilege for which Christ was willing to become incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

50:03 Why was he willing to be made of a woman? That is, why was the second person of the Godhead who spoke worlds into being willing to come to the dark, damp confines of a virgin's womb? Why? Why was he made in the condition under the law, circumcised the eighth day, keeping all of the Jewish ritual in the Mosaic legislation?

50:33 Why was he willing to submit himself to the very law? The very law that he had given, the moral law of God. Here's his great end. That those whom he redeems might receive adoption.

50:48 And here adoption is spoken of as the crowning glory of redemptive privilege for believers. And then you have that wonderful statement in 1 John 3, 1 and 2. Now we are the children of God, but it has not yet appeared what we shall. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

51:15 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called his children. You see what John is saying? When we have a clear understanding and a present apprehension of adoption, we stand amazed at God's love. And whenever anyone stands amazed at God's love, you know what happens very quickly, Paul says?

51:41 The love of Christ constrains us. And the one who is amazed by the love of God is then held in the grip of the love of God. And the one held in the grip of the love of God is the one who lives a life of devotion to God. Do you see the connection then?

52:01 It's not artificial. It's real. It's real. This very John was willing to be exiled.

52:08 To a lonely island as an old man, this lover of people, this shepherd of the churches there in Asia Minor, exiled for the testimony of Jesus. What makes an old man be willing to be shunted off away from all the people he loves? It's because the love of Christ constrained him. And that love, you see, was fueled by the contemplation of his position before God.

52:40 Behold, stand back in amazement and wonder and awe. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called, not just forgiven criminals, not even criminals who fully kept the law. He wasn't contemplating God in the courtroom, nor was he even contemplating God in the courtroom. He wasn't contemplating God in terms of personal relationship.

53:05 He didn't say, behold, what manner of love that we should be reconciled. But he was thinking of God in his home and opening his door and saying, come, not simply as a guest, but to be my very sons and daughters.

53:22 Now, what does it mean to be adopted? Well, it means, as I've already hinted, that we are not merely forgiven criminals who are now declared. To be law-abiding citizens, we're not merely enemies, declared or treated as friends, but we're brought into the nearest and dearest relationship to God that God can bring any creature. And that is the relationship of a father.

The King's Decree: An Illustration of Adoption

53:52 Let me try to illustrate it this way. All illustrations walk on half a leg or one and a half legs, but at least they help illustrate if they're illustrations. Go back to the days when there were, and kings had unilateral power to destroy, to punish, to incarcerate all who rebelled against their rule. And imagine now, there was a notorious rebel in this man's kingdom.

54:22 He was known to set himself against every law of the king. He carried on a constant sort of one-man guerrilla warfare against the king and his laws. And the king knew about it. And the king sent out a decree that was, posted in the square of every town and village in his kingdom, declaring that he knew all about this rebel.

54:44 He called him by name, and he said, I know your crimes, and the punishment for your crimes are these. And he listed them, climaxing in public execution. And the king sends out his decree.

54:58 And one day, this man reads that, and he knows the king to be a man of his word. He doesn't fool around and play games. And he's suddenly struck with the horror of his position. I have rebelled, not just against a fellow human being, against my rightful sovereign.

55:15 And he has the right to do what he has said he will do. And I know him well enough to know he doesn't play games. What shall I do? Where shall I go?

55:24 And he begins to be a fugitive. He no longer carries out his rebellion out in the public square. He thinks somebody might turn him over to the king, and he might have it. Finally, word about this change gets back to the king.

55:35 The king then sends out another decree to be published throughout his whole kingdom, and it's this. He names the name of the criminal, and he says, Though I have every right to do as I said in the light of your many crimes, out of the mercy and grace and forgiveness of my own heart, I propose to you the following. If you will throw down your weapons of rebellion, appear at my palace, acknowledging that all my charges against you are true, making no plea but my mercy, I will fully and freely forgive you all of your crimes. Furthermore, I will accept you into my court as my friend. And furthermore, I will go to my court lawyers to have you formally adopted as my son and the legitimate heir of all of my kingdom. The man looks at that and says, The king could consume me and crush me in his wrath!

56:52 Not only all of it, He offers to pardon me, He offers to be my friend, but to make me his son and the legitimate heir of his kingdom?

57:07 That is precisely what God, for Christ's sake, says to every rebel sinner. God's law is his posted bond against you, the soul that sins shall die. And God's law shows you your crimes for which you ought to die. And when you begin to take that seriously, you'll want to run and hide.

57:35 Because you know God does not lie. God doesn't play games. God's not trying to spook you. He means business.

57:43 God's not saying, ROO! To see if he can get you to jump and say, Ha ha ha, I was only fooling you. When God says the wages of sin is death, He means it. When God says no liar, no adulterer, no whoremonger, no effeminate, no homosexual, no swindler, no murderer shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

58:06 God means business. You better take seriously his bond of indictment against you. But if you do, I have good news for you. Almighty God in Jesus Christ has posted another bond, and that's the gospel.

58:23 And in the gospel he says to every sinner, if you will repent, stack arms, lay down your weapons of rebellion, and turn to me. Come to my power. Come to my palace. Come to me, the living God.

58:39 I will not only pardon all of your sins for the sake of the work of my Son, I will not only accept you as a law-abiding citizen, welcome you into my court as a friend, I will see the lawyers of heaven and take out papers to adopt you as my son or daughter and make you heir of my kingdom. You say, Preacher, I'm not going to let your imagination run away with you, didn't you? No, you turn to Romans chapter 8. And I've just told you in figurative ways what is here in the Bible.

Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Christ

59:17 Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, and in the context that means under the guidance of the Spirit to a life of holiness, they have truly turned from their sins, they have truly turned from their sins, unto God. They are a repentant people, people with a new heart and a new nature and a new course of life.

59:47 As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry, Abba, that is, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now notice, and if children, all of God's children are heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be glorified with him.

60:23 In other words, if our attachment to Christ is real, it's not fake, it's not an attachment that we relinquish when the going gets rough. Oh, no. We've turned from our idols to God through Christ, and our heart's affection, our heart's affection is set upon him. We're prepared to suffer all for his sake.

60:43 That's true faith that is prepared to be identified with Christ in his sufferings. And wherever that's present, God says, you have a child of God, an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. All that Christ is to inherit as the fruit of his suffering and his obedience, he's going to share with us as his children. He is the Son, and we are sons and daughters.

61:13 And think of it, the scripture says, he is not ashamed to call us his brethren. Think of it. I'd never call Christ my elder brother. It would seem irreverent to me.

61:27 But he calls me his brother. He calls you his sister.