Scripture Reading
Just begin reading in Galatians 3 at verse 26, through Galatians 4 at verse 7. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Amen.
Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we give You thanks for the Holy Scriptures. We give You thanks for our Lord Jesus Christ, for the salvation that we have in Him. And we just pray, even now, that Your Spirit would be upon us. We thank You that You have not only sent Christ into this world to die for us and to rise again, but You have sent the Holy Spirit to us that we may have that spirit of adoption whereby we can cry, have a Father.
Lord, what a blessed privilege it is for sinners like us to be able to call you Father. And we know it is only because of what Jesus has accomplished at Calvary. And we pray even now that you would forgive us and cleanse us from all of our sin, from all of our unrighteousness, and help us, God, to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And we ask and pray in His most blessed name.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, it is extremely difficult at this time of the year not to consider the incarnation of Jesus Christ. He was most certainly not born on December 25th. The Bible does not tell us the specifics, but from what we gather, it was not the wintertime, for shepherds were out in the fields with their flocks. However, in history and in the traditions of the church, this time has come to be associated with His incarnation.
So I believe while our thoughts are directed that way, we ought to inform them concerning that blessed truth that Christ came into the world, sinners to save. I believe the incarnation can be summarized very well And what I believe is a statement by Augustine. He said, the Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons of men could become the sons of God. I think that's an accurate description of the work of redemption and the meaning behind the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, this morning I want to consider verses 4 to 7 in Galatians chapter 4, where, interestingly enough, Paul is celebrating, Paul is highlighting the privileges that we enjoy as the sons and daughters of our Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks of the believer's portion under the promise in chapter 3, verses 25 to 29. And then he highlights the sonship that we enjoy under the gospel in chapter 4, verses 1 to 7. But we will just pick up at verse 4 and go through verse 7 under three considerations.
First of all, we'll notice the time identified. Here it is described as the fullness of the time. Secondly, the person described, the Lord Jesus is set before us here as a God-sent son, as one born of a woman. And then thirdly, we'll notice the three-fold purpose of His mission.
There are three blessings or privileges indicated in this passage that we receive through our commitment by God's grace to the Lord Jesus Christ. So we'll look at those three things and then tonight we'll focus in or hone in on particularly the responsibilities that are ours as adopted sons and daughters of our God. So
The Time Identified
first of all, notice the time identified. If you read through the Bible, you'll notice something very interesting. That Jesus is from the beginning to the end. We don't wait until Matthew chapter 1 to find evidence of the existence of our Lord Jesus.
All throughout the Old Testament, there is a deliverer promise. All throughout the Old Testament, there is a deliverer set forth as God's champion, as the one who would come. This promise originates in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. And that particular text highlights three things concerning God's champion.
He would be a man. He would be the seed of the woman. Secondly, he would achieve victory through suffering. He would have his a heel bruised in the work of conquest.
And thirdly, the deliverer would achieve a glorious conquest by bruising the head of the seed of the serpent. So way back in the garden, when man sins, God nevertheless does not forsake us. God is there with a promise. God is there to encourage.
God is there undertaking to restore man to his place of original integrity, which will only be realized ultimately in the new heavens and the new earth. That the coming of Christ is prophesied in the law. The coming of Christ is prophesied in the Psalms. And the coming of Christ is prophesied in the prophets.
Edward Payson commenting on Isaiah 9, verses 6 and 7, a very familiar text at this time of the year. Payson says, admire Him as wonderful, consult Him as counselor, adore Him as God, be born of Him as your everlasting Father, and submit to Him as the Prince of Peace. What a glorious statement concerning the multi-faceted person and the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ. So what does the Bible mean though when it speaks of the fullness of the time?
Well, it's recorded for us in Matthew and Mark and in Luke. That time when Jesus was born of a virgin. The fullness of the time had come. John Gill commenting says, the time agreed and fixed upon between God and His Son from all eternity.
Just think about that for a moment. God and His Son from all eternity. Our salvation was never an afterthought with God. It wasn't as if Adam and Eve fell in transgression and then God began to chew on his fingernails and knock his knees together and sort of wonder what to do now.
The Bible speaks of the covenant of grace. We're all very familiar with that. That covenant that God made with sinners by and through Jesus Christ for their redemption. The Bible also teaches what's called the covenant of redemption.
And a lot of people think these two covenants are synonymous. And while they are very, very similar in a lot of ways, the covenant of redemption is made between the persons of the Trinity. The covenant of redemption is that pact between the Father and the Son, whereby He would give a lot, a guilty lot of sinners to the Son. And the Son would be the surety.
He would be the mediator. He would be the one who came to fulfill all the righteous requirement of God in order to save His people from their sins. From all eternity, this pact was transacted. And Gil goes on to say, in the counsel and covenant of peace, when the Son of God should assume human nature, which time was diligently searched into by the prophets, was revealed unto them, and predicted by them, as more generally than it should be before the civil government ceased from Judah, a reference to Genesis 49, and before the destruction of the second temple. and more particularly by Daniel in his prophecy of the 70 weeks, towards and about the close of which there was a general expectation among the Jews of the Messiah's coming, and was the fullness of the time here referred to. and what is sometimes called the dispensation of the fullness of time, the end of the Mosaic dispensation in Jewish church state, the last days of that state, and the end of the Jewish world as to their ecclesiastical and civil polity.
Everything was in place and God sent forth His Son. And something else with reference to this time specified, we need to understand the divine initiative involved. God sent forth His Son. We are very proud as creatures.
We like to think that we're where we're at based on our hard work, based on our determination, based on our commitment and our grit. Nothing could be further from the truth. We're where we're at because God took the initiative. As you look through the history of redemption, as you go from Genesis to the book of Revelation, you will see over and over again the record of God's initiative.
When Adam and Eve fell into sin, they didn't run to God. They ran from God. In fact, they hid themselves from God. It was God who sought them.
It was God who initiated. It was God who addressed them. We read from Genesis 1 to 11 and what do we see? The glory of God revealed in His creation and the depravity of man.
We see the earth so filled with violence and so exceedingly corrupt that God sends a flood to obliterate all living creatures except for Noah and his family. We see after that flood, we see the race of men then make a tower. They want to make a tower so high they can reach up into the heavens themselves. And then in Genesis chapter 12, we see God again, divine initiative in the call of Abraham.
God undertakes to redress the situation that man had done in Genesis 1-11. The call of Abraham is an exceedingly glorious promise of God to save His people from their sins. It was God who undertook. It was God who carved out a people.
It was God who protected the seed of David. Remember that lady Jehoshabah in 2 Kings chapter 11 who hid King Joash away from the slaughter being inflicted upon by Adariah. It was God who sovereignly protected that young boy so that the seed of David would continue on. It was God who preserved the faithful remnant.
Even in the days of Elijah, who when he was sitting under the broomstick, was ready to cash in his chips. God says, don't fret, I've got 7,000 that have not bent the knee to Baal. His God was preserved and His God was initiated. It is the Son of Man, as He says in Luke 19.10, who came to seek and to save that which was lost.
You see, when Paul says God sent forth His Son, I believe he wants to call attention to that fact, that we are saved not by our own doing, but by divine initiative. in that blessed text of Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. He is a son, a child, given unto us. We didn't earn Him. We didn't deserve Him.
We didn't merit Him. The Bible is all too clear that by our own law keeping there will be none of us justified in God's sight. Romans 3, 20. The Bible is very clear in Romans 3 that there is none who seeks after God.
It is not our law-keeping, it is not our merit, it is not our wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1.21, For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. It is God who is always undertook. So as you sit here this morning, or as you enter into 2009, you don't do so because you're better than the person you live next door to. You don't do so because you're better than that Muslim in the Middle East.
You do so by grace alone. You do so because of God. You do so because Jesus Christ was born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. We need to reflect on divine initiative in our salvation.
It's not what I've done. It's not my works. It's not what we've accomplished, but it's solely the grace and mercy of our God. It was God who so loved.
It was God, according to Romans 3, who set forth His Son as a propitiation. It is God who reconciles the universe to Himself through our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Colossians 1.20. In the breach between God and sinners, if it is to be repaired, it comes through the initiative of God Most High and not from the sinners themselves. What a blessed statement of the Apostle Paul.
When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son. He goes on to highlight the person. He is the Son of God. I believe his pre-existence is asserted here.
He didn't come to be the Son of God. He always was the Son of God. Jesus Christ is from everlasting to everlasting. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He became flesh. He always was God the Son. And then it highlights here, The birth of Christ. God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.
Isn't that an amazing truth? Born of a woman. I mean, we would probably design the most pompous display of salvation we could ever do. We would probably have the heavens open and someone come riding in on a great big white stallion, swinging his sword.
We would never have designed a babe born of a woman in such humble and lowly circumstances as we find recorded in the Gospels. That's not our MO. That's not the way we roll. That's the way God rules.
It's the way God operates. It's the way God undertook. He was born of a woman. And then it goes on to say, born under the law.
I've got to tell you, I am amazed at the church's view of God's law today. Under what's called dispensationalism, there's been a real antithesis toward the law of God. As if it's a bad thing. The law of God is not a bad thing.
The law of God is most excellent. It's holy. It's good. It's just.
The law of God is simply a reflection of who God is. If we've got problems with God's law, then ultimately we've got problems with the law of the giver. You cannot separate those two. It wasn't as if Moses, this man, just one day thought, hey, I'm going to go up and tell people what I think.
No. God spake by Moses. When Jesus is highlighting the glory of God's law in the Sermon on the Mount, He is not saying, but I say to you, as if He's minimizing the role and place of Moses. No, He's speaking about the Pharisees and the misinterpretation of God's law that was so rampant in His day.
From the beginning it was not this way. Have you not read? He always pointed men to the law. And here He shows His respect.
Here He shows the dignity. Here He shows the beauty of God's law by being born under it. He identified with us in all points. In every single aspect of our humanity, so was Christ, except according to Hebrews, and according to the rest of the Scripture, without sin.
There's no antithesis to the law of God, there's no enmity toward the law of God. We as New Covenant believers aren't to say, well I'm in Jesus now, therefore I don't have to respect God's law. No, the idea more is this, I'm in Jesus now, I get to respect God's law. I get to see the beauty of it.
I get the privilege, which incidentally was true in Israel's case as well. Redemption had already occurred. That's why the introduction of the Ten Commandments is so important. Don't just run through that.
The very foundation for God's giving of the law was one of grace. I am the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Based on that redemptive act of God by grace, this then is how you ought to live. And thus follows the Ten Commandments.
It's the same for us today. The law in many respects, prior to our conversion, shows us for the vile sinners that we are. And it drives us, or it sends us to Christ. It's one of the roles of the law of God.
It's a schoolmaster, it's a tutor. takes the stick, as it were, and beats our rear ends and sends us over to the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus, then in His grace and His mercy, saves us, washes us, cleanses us, justifies us, sanctifies us, promises us glory ahead. And then He says, for your time on earth, there's the law. This, then, is how you ought to live.
That's why the whole New Testament is so pro-law. It's never pro-law with reference to a means of salvation. But as saved men and women, what are we supposed to do? We're to take up God's law. was say with thy blessed Redeemer, O how I love your law!
It is my meditation all of the day. It is the character of God revealed to me. Jesus didn't disdain it. Jesus was born under it.
Jesus fulfilled it. Jesus kept it. Jesus dotted every I of it and crossed every T concerning the law of God. That's the glory of this person.
He is perfect. He is sinless. He is holy, harmless, and undefiled. He so identified with us in our humanity that he willingly submitted himself to the law of God in order to render perfect obedience to that law in order to provide a perfect righteousness for us sinners.
We need a righteousness. See, God's not like us. It's always our problem, isn't it? We try to make God like us.
God created us in His own image, and ever since, we've been trying to recreate Him into our own image. See, sometimes as fathers, we're guilty. We turn a blind eye. We don't execute justice.
We don't execute righteousness. We pretend like there is no moral law of God whatsoever. Not so with God. He demands perfection.
He demands the execution of righteousness. He demands justice. He demands those things. So the thing He demands, He satisfies Himself.
He sends His Son to live and die, to rise again so that we might have a righteousness and so that we might have forgiveness. That's the glory of our God in undertaking on our behalf. And then
The Threefold Purpose Specified
notice the threefold purpose specified.
Redemption from the Curse
The first is the blessing of redemption. He says, born under the law, notice, to redeem those who were under the law. To redeem those. Go back to chapter 3 in verse 13.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us. Redemption is that rich word that speaks of buying out of the marketplace, to redeem, to ransom for slavery.
Some have taken the idea of redemption and just said, well, it's a deliverance. Well, it is a deliverance, but it's so much more. It is deliverance, but it's so much more. John Murray defines it this way.
The idea of redemption must not be reduced to the general notion of deliverance. The language of redemption is the language of purchase, and more specifically, of ransom. And ransom is the securing of a release by the payment of a price. God didn't just wave his magic wand and deliver us.
God took the sword of His justice and plunged it into His own Son. That's ransom. That's redemption. You see, sin is that bad, brethren.
Sin doesn't just magically go away. God doesn't just snap His fingers. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. And it took the blood of the Son of God Himself to redeem us from our sins.
That's redemption. With reference to the payment itself, some early church fathers, and I would bet it's rampant today, believed that Jesus paid this debt to the devil. No he didn't. It was to God.
Some in the 19th century didn't like that. It sounded pagan. Oh, the big angry God that had to have His wrath appeased. There ain't nothing pagan about that.
That's Bible. God is an angry God. God is a consuming fire. God is righteous and just.
God doesn't just wave His magic wand. God demands payment. And as the one church father Anselm said, as God owed nothing to the devil but punishment, so whatever was demanded of man, he owed to God and not to the devil. With reference to the law of God, He has redeemed us from the curse of the law.
Not from the blessed privilege of not killing people. Not from the blessed privilege of not destroying our marriages through adultery. You see, to hear some Christian speak what Jesus did at the cross means that we have no obligation to the law. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We have now been empowered and enabled and blessed to be able to glorify God and to love our fellow man. He didn't redeem us from the law. He redeemed us from the curse of the law. He redeemed us from any necessity of obtaining our own righteousness from law keeping.
That's the redemption that we have in terms of God's law, to redeem those under the law. He has done it through His own bloodshed. With reference to sin, how does the redemption of Christ relate to sin?
Redemption from Sin's Penalty and Power
He has redeemed us from sin's penalty. Isn't that great? You know what a penalty is, right? Penalty's bad.
Never is a penalty a good thing. I challenge you to figure out how a penalty is a good thing. I got penalized. Boy, am I happy.
That RCMP just stuck a penalty on me for $200. Yay! Never is it a good thing. You ask your child when they have broken the house law and they are being penalized with the rod.
Are you happy? Probably they're not dancing. Jesus has redeemed us from the penalty of God's law. That's a blessed statement.
On that day of judgment, it won't be that Sinai breathing down upon us is going to condemn us. Jesus has broken that penalty. Jesus has redeemed us from that penalty. And not only the penalty of sin, and this is the one I think Christians need to appreciate more so, not appreciate like it's better, but come to grips with, is the power of sin.
You meet people and say, well, I can't break that sin. I can't overcome that sin. All over the world, this week, people are going to be resolving. They're going to resolve to go lose weight.
They're going to resolve to stop smoking. They're going to resolve to eat better. There's going to be those who have people tell them, why don't you make a New Year's resolution? We're concerned for your health.
We want you to stop this. And they're going to say, I can't. Christians fall prey to that. I can't.
Do you understand the power of the gospel? Do you understand what Jesus did at Calvary? Oh yes, He's broken the penalty of sin. You're going to go to heaven.
That's how great God is and how glorious He is. But He's also broken the power of sin. He's broken sins back. We often go to that text in 1 Corinthians 10, and we find sad for our consciences there.
It says, no temptation has overtaken you, which is not common to other men. You say, well, the sin that I'm in and the temptation that I'm undergoing, you know, this is the typical lot of every man. And you know, there is a bit of comfort in that. We need to make sure that we don't go overboard on these particular things.
But what does he say? He says, Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation is overtaken, you accept such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it.
Far from being a salve my conscience, I'm going to continue in sin text. That's a text that bespeaks great responsibility. You see, when you come to that crossroads and you're feeling the pull of your flesh to sin, and the devil is somewhere enticing you to sin, and this whole world system is enticing you to sin, God's made a way of escape. There is an exit gate.
There is a door number three. There is an option, according to the Bible. There is no way that you and I could ever say, well, I had to sin. Not when God's made a way of escape.
I challenge you to reread that passage sometime and see if it teaches that you've often thought, well, yeah, it's good, everybody else is tempted just like me. And then when we sin, well, everybody else does it too. That's it? That's okay?
If everybody else goes in and guns down people, does that make it okay for me? Why do we as Christians entertain such thinking? Why? And the Bible is so clear that God has redeemed us not only from the penalty of sin, but from the power of sin.
Adoption as Sons
What is the second blessing or privilege that we enjoy as Christian people? to redeem those who are under the law, that," end of verse 4, that we might, I'm sorry, at the end of verse 5, that we might receive the adoption as sons. What a wonderful statement, adoption. J.R. Packer's Knowing God, he has a chapter on adoption, and one of the things that he says in there is that there's not a lot written on adoption.
Outside of the Bible, the book of Ephesians, in a lot of ways, is very much a letter concerning adoption. What is adoption? Well, all of these rich doctrines in the Bible teach us something. Justification teaches us something about us and God as judge.
Right? Isn't that what justification is about? We are brought before the bench. We in all of our puniness and sinfulness are looking up, waiting to hear the condemnation of the law, waiting to hear, away with you.
And God pounds His hammer on the bench and He says, not guilty. Justification. And then, sanctification. Sanctification sort of relates to us and our Master.
You see, when we were unsaved, our master was the devil, and we did whatever he wanted us to. You are of your father, the devil, and the very desires of your heart, you're just like him. That adoption relates to a sinner and his father. Isn't that great?
That's what we have in redemption. That's what we have in the Incarnation. That's what Augustine meant when he said, the Son of God became the Son of Man so that the sons of men could become the sons of God. Son of God?
Some of us probably had horrible fathers. We probably don't know what it's like to have a good father. We don't know what it's like to have someone who has authority and who loves us all at the same time. We don't know what it's like to be chastened for our good.
We don't know what it's like to have a law put in place for our protection. So in many respects, this is a challenge for the redeemed mind in the 21st century today. Coming out of a context or a matrix where there isn't a whole lot of godly fatherhood, we come into this sphere where now we have the godliest of fathers. And it's sometimes very difficult to even believe just how good it is.
But the Bible teaches us that He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world. The Bible tells us that in love, that's another thing that really bothers me about the church today. Oh, predestination is this monstrous God who is just this machine. No, He predestines.
He's gracious. He's kind. He's benevolent. He's merciful.
He's good. All that He does, He does with a smile on His face for His glory and for the good of His people. For in love He has predestinated us unto adoption as sons. That's a blessed privilege that is ours.
That's what happened at Calvary. One of the things that happened at Calvary, we have been brought nigh through the blood of Christ. We who once were afar off, we who were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, have not only been brought into that commonwealth, which is the church, But we have been brought into the very family of God. And now not only do we just address Him as Your Majesty, but He has given us His Spirit so that we may actually cry, Abba, Father.
That's amazing. You don't reflect upon these things more than once a year. You've got big problems. These are glorious truths.
These are wondrous truths.
The Privileges of Adoption
What does adoption do according to the Bible? Well, in adoption we have received the Father's name. We are part of His family. We are members of His household.
Even those who don't always perform as well as they ought. See, we as fathers are ready to excommunicate any child that would ever cross the line. How long does God bear with us? How many times do we not toe the line?
How often has our Lord forborn our inadequacies and our falling short? We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, which we'll look at in just a moment, even more so. We are, according to the scripture, Christ's brothers and a co-heir with Him. In Hebrews 2 we read, He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
The resurrection account, go and tell my brothers that I am risen. Romans 8, 17 doesn't just call us heirs, but co-heirs with Jesus. Everything Jesus is entitled to, the co-heir stands right there with them. Again, not because of anything we've done that's good, but by virtue of our union with Christ.
We have an inheritance laid up for us in heaven. We saw that in Colossians 1, 5. We see it in Ephesians 1. We see it in 1 Peter 1.
We have an inheritance laid up for us in heaven. Have you ever heard about anybody getting a big inheritance? Or someone's uncle died and left them, you know, thousands of dollars. You hear that, and you're benevolent, and you're good, and you're gracious, so you always say, I'm so glad that happened.
Or, you might have a shortcoming and go, man, why don't I have a rich uncle? Not that I wish him dead or anything like that, but, you know, should it happen? How do other people get inheritances? They're talking about raising the inheritance tax.
Who cares? I don't even get an inheritance. We have an inheritance. We have the best of inheritances.
The Bible is about inheritance. The Jews would inherit a land. The meek shall inherit the earth. The church, according to Paul in Corinthians, inherits all things.
Why? Because Jesus has secured it. We have an inheritance. We have an elder brother who lived for us, who died for us, and who rose again to secure for us a place in heaven.
And you know, it's a particularized and individual place. Because he told his disciples in the Upper Room, I go to prepare a place for you in my Father's house on many mansions. He went there to prepare it. Did you get in the readings today from Matthew 25?
Hell is a prepared place, isn't it? Some of the most scary things about hell. It's not a willy-nilly afterthought. It's a prepared place into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
That's ominous. That is threatening. That is a looming threat upon the unconverted. You are going to a place prepared by God for suffering.
You say, well, how could God do that? Because He's just and He's righteous. You know, we see the news today, and we see crimes perpetrated against little children, and it rises up in us for the judge to execute justice on that person. And yet, when it comes to cosmic justice, we take a vacation.
How could God ever do such a thing? How could He not be righteous, just, and whole? But we have a prepared place in heaven. A place where moth and rust do not destroy.
A place that doesn't depreciate, but he's affected by depreciation in the market today. I know a man in Southern California. He bought his house for a certain price at one time. It was up here.
Now, if he could get what he paid for, it'd be amazing. More than likely, he'll get less than what he paid for. It depreciated. They say when you drive a new car off the lot, what does it do?
It depreciates. And you just exit the lot and come back. I can't take that from you. That thing's an old junker.
What do you mean? I just drove down the road. Ah, depreciation. People today are probably afraid to buy anything because it's going to depreciate.
What we have doesn't depreciate. What we have isn't under threat. What we have does not depend upon Dow Industrial Reports. It doesn't depend upon Ottawa or Wall Street.
It doesn't depend upon any of the talking heads, and thankfully so. It depends on the stability and rule of Christ's Kingdom. That is where you want your dependents. And we are kept by the power of God as adopted sons and daughters.
Isn't that great? We can't undo it. Paul says, no creative thing can undo it. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
You're in. You ain't going anywhere. When you believe the gospel, you are safe and secure. When you are in Christ, He doesn't throw you out.
When you are in Christ, He doesn't dispossess you. In fact, according to 1 Peter 1.5, we are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That is security. That is eternal security.
That is blessed eternal security. You are not going anywhere. Jesus is not like us. He doesn't wake up one morning in a bad mood and say, well, I'm going to dispossess everybody whose last name begins with M.
You're not going to stand before Him on the day of judgment and have the terms changed. You will not stand before Him on the day of judgment, casting yourself solely upon His mercy and having Him say, well, you know, you should have tried a bit harder. He doesn't change. He's kept us.
He will keep us. He is relentless in keeping us. Any doctrine which teaches of none or insecurity impinges upon the glory and power of Christ. And some people say, well, you know, how could it be that He keeps us?
Because He's powerful. Is there a sinner for whom Jesus died that won't go to heaven? No. There's no such animal out there.
I mean, you ever get like in those down moods? I just watched an interview recently, John Piper and John MacArthur. The fellow was asking them about how they deal with depression or do they get depressed or anything like that. And MacArthur, and I believe him, I think that's just the way he's made, says, I just don't.
I don't. I don't struggle like that. And I wasn't saying it proudly or haughtily or anything like that. In my makeup I just do what God's called me to do and I try to be faithful and just do it.
And then Piper says, I am so not like that. I just get down and depressed and it's really hard. And I'm in my heart relating more to Piper there. I'm glad that's not the common report of all God's servants.
Because if it is, I'm in the wrong place. But you know, there's some basic Bible truth that you need to keep close to your heart. Basic Bible truth. God never sends someone believing in Jesus to hell.
That's a good basic Bible truth. You hold that. You don't let that one go. And Jesus actually taught that the faith of a mustard seed is good faith.
Because you see, the strength of that faith isn't in its power, but in its object. You see, we can be guilty of making faith an idol. Faith is an instrument that attaches me to the rock. It puts me, by God's grace, where I need to be.
I encourage you this year, grab some basic Bible truth and keep them close to your heart. Because I tend to think more of us are like Piper than MacArthur in that particular instance. More of us are given to difficulty, and to depression, and to discouragement, and what they used to call melancholy. And you know what's going to help us through those seasons?
Basic Bible proof. That's what helps God's servants. That's what helps the people of Christ.
The Sealing of the Holy Spirit
And then the third benefit, or the third privilege, or the third blessing that we have here, with reference to the threefold purpose, is the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Notice in verse 6, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Notice, God, in his initiative, not only sends the son, but he sends the Holy Spirit. You see that?
God, the fountainhead, sends the son for the work of redemption. The son lives, he dies, he rises again, he ascends back into heaven. God, by the power of His Spirit, causes men to believe the Gospel, and then the Father sends again. He sends the Spirit to reside in them, to take up His dwelling in them.
One commentator said this, and I think it's powerful, the purpose of the son's mission was to give the rights of sonship. The purpose of the son's mission was to give the rights of sonship. The purpose of the Spirit's mission, to give the power of using them. It's glorious.
The triune God working in perfect unity for the salvation of our souls. The Son secures those rights, the Spirit gives the power of using them. We have intimate communion with the Father now. We get to cry, Abba Father.
You've probably heard it before, Abba is the equivalent to our Daddy. It really isn't. But it's still a term of endearment. It is a term of intimacy, a term of deep communion.
Sinners should call the Creator, the Governor, the Father? It's glorious. That's what Christ did on our behalf. And we have been liberated from slavery to sonship.
So we see in this passage the time identified, the person described, and the threefold purpose specified in terms of our salvation. Tonight we'll take up the responsibilities associated with our adoption. There's not only blessings, not only privileges, not only consequences, But as New Testament believers, we need to walk the way God calls us to. And again, the book of Ephesians highlights in many ways how that walk is to be conducted.
Application
I simply want to conclude now by encouraging you for this coming year to learn more about God. Okay, sure. Yeah, I'll go learn more about God. Learn about God.
When all is said and done, those are the truths that are going to help us. I love what our Baptist Confession of Faith says, and it's differing from the Westminster. Same doctrine on the Holy Trinity. Same doctrine.
But the Baptists added one particular sentence that always encourages me. Which doctrine is the foundation of all of our comfortable dependence upon God? Do we know the Trinity? We're living in an increasingly pluralistic society.
That means there's all kinds of religions, all kinds of competitors. What makes us different? Well, for sure, our subscription to the Bible's doctrine of the triune God. We see all three persons in the passage before us.
God sends forth His Son. God sends forth His Spirit. Can you give me one place where the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is God? You need to be able to do that.
Not because I'm going to give you a test, but because your comfortable dependence upon God, in large part, is connected with that answer. Can you indicate where the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is God? That Jesus Christ did not have a beginning like we do. That Jesus Christ made all things.
That Jesus Christ governs all things. That Jesus Christ does redeem His people. rather than the time to rise up in our understanding of who God is, is when we are discouraged, depressed, troubled, all those things, but when we have a society increasingly hostile toward Trinitarian religion. And we live amongst a church society which in many respects is not really glowing in its biblical literacy. You're not saved because you can answer those questions.
Please don't get that from this. You're going to probably be happier. You're going to probably be more prayerful. You're going to be able to worship more.
See, when we know more about God, what does it do but open up more avenues for worship? When we love our spouse, or we love our friend, or we love our child, or our father, or whoever, the more we know about them fuels that love. Oh, you love that? So do I.
That's great. Oh, you hate that? I'm going to avoid it. If it bothers you, I'm not going to do that.
See, Israel was indicted. In fact, God said, My people perish for lack of knowledge. The Bible always puts together knowledge and practice. It always puts together theology and activity.
The Bible always and everywhere does that. So we as God's people need to grow in our understanding of who God is. The blessings that are ours because of Christ and His Gospel. We just outlined three this morning.
We are redeemed, we are adopted, and we have the Spirit. Those are three great things. Take those home and meditate upon them. Talk to your children about them.
Talk to a friend or a brother. Man, adoption, what a great passage. Find another passage that speaks about adoption. Memorize some of these scriptures, so that when you are down or depressed or discouraged, you can pull them out of the treasure chest and find some comfort and some encouragement.
You know, when you get cold, you put on a jacket. When you get hot, you get water and you drink it or you put it on you. We always do something to alleviate the distress that we're in. And yet as Christians, we'll accept the discouragement, we'll accept the depression, we'll accept being downcast, and we won't do a thing about it.
It's got to stop, man. We've got to start taking an active role in our Christianity. You know by my calculations you get a lot of sermons each year. You have access to a lot of sermons on sermonaudio.com.
I mean some of the best preaching in the world is on sermonaudio.com. It's not that the data isn't there. It's, are we applying it? Are we using it?
Are we appropriating it? Are we getting the blanket out of the closet and putting it over our shoulders? I had to laugh this morning on the way out to church. Lindsay didn't have a jacket.
I said, put a jacket on. Well, mine's too big, or mine's too whatever. Okay, so we get in the prayer meeting, we sit down, and what do I notice out of the corner of my eye? And thankfully Rebecca was sitting next to her and handed her her jacket.
I would have said, you should have brought your jacket! Now hopefully I will never be that cold and vicious to you if you say, I'm downcast, I'm discouraged. I should have put on a jacket! You know, we should put on our jacket.
We should read our Bibles. We should pray. We should seek the Lord who sought us. We should love the Lord who loves us.
We should grow in the Lord who calls us to grow. We should want these things because they're good. And they will provide protection in the coming trials in our lives. Well, if you don't know this, Jesus, this morning, there's one way of knowing Him.
And that is by faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, and you will be saved. It doesn't say if you're 15. It doesn't say if you're 20.
It doesn't say if you're 50. The Bible doesn't give an age. The Bible says, believe. If you'd have got bit in that wilderness on that day, and you were holding your leg, and it was bleeding, and someone said, look at that bronze serpent, if you looked, you lived.
The same is true today. You've been dead, but it isn't by a serpent. It's a whole lot worse. Oh, snakes, serpents, rats, gross.
No, they're not. Nothing like sin. Sin is gross. Sin is disgusting.
Sin is horrible. The call of the scripture is look to Jesus and live. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we give you thanks for the Holy Scriptures and we give you thanks for what we have in Jesus Christ. Truly, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ has been given to us. We thank you for redemption. We thank you for adoption.
We thank you for the power and the presence of your Holy Spirit in our lives. And we do pray, God, that you would gird us up and strengthen us as Christian men and women. as Christian young people, and help us to take your word, to live by it. For we know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And in our increasingly pluralistic society, in a world that is so at odds with our God, help us to be strong, and help us to be bold, and help us to be faithful to you and to your Holy Scripture.
I pray for all of my brothers and sisters that we'd enjoy this Sabbath day, that you would grant us great rest, God, and that we would find our sufficiency and our blessed position in Jesus Christ as that thing which is most refreshing in this world. And I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.