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Oct 01, 2023

Just In Time Adoption

Just In Time Adoption

Passage: Galatians 4:4-7

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Freedom in Christ

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: truth, church, identity, worship, prayer, faith, jesus, god, sermon, freedom, christian, bible, christ, hope, grace, salvation, sermons, life, holy spirit, law, paul, galatians, jesus christ, the bible, lord, christianity, save, eternal life, bible study, my story, freedom in christ, love story, self improvement, study the bible, my life, bible teaching, trending, change your life, 2023, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, adoption story, god plan, how to change your life

We dive into Galatians Chapter 3 in today’s sermon and discover that salvation is not just a change of attitude or thinking, it’s a literal transformation of our core identity, our desires, our purpose, and our future. Paul is reiterating to the church of Galatia that our justification makes us right before God the Judge, but the gift of adoption into God’s family shows us that we are deeply and eternally love by God the Father. We know that we are adopted as sons and daughters because of our belief in Jesus and His finished work on the cross for our redemption, that’s what gives us the position in the family of God. And because God the Father sent His Son to the cross and gave us His Spirit, we might have the privileges of sonship in that family. Has God redeemed you and filled you with His Spirit? Are you a child of God who can approach Him in complete intimacy? Are you an heir who is guaranteed blessings from God? If not, we’d love to talk to you about Jesus, answer any questions you’ve got, and take the time to share the gospel with you. You can always take the next step in your faith journey by visiting burnthickory.com/next.

Well, hey, let's jump into the message and we're jumping back into Paul's little letter here to these Galatians churches. These churches in the Turkey area of today that Paul started, that Paul loved, and that Paul really wanted to see God move in the lives of the Gentiles. Well, after Paul started these churches, he loved some leaders there, and he went off onto his next missionary journey to start his new church. But one thing happened that is incredibly, incredibly bad, and that is that these Jewish Judaizers came in and started to preach a gospel that wasn't the gospel of Jesus. And over these last couple weeks, what we have done is we have pulled some of these major themes from this book that just shows us once again that our salvation is not by our works, it's not by our religiosity, but it is by Christ through Christ. In chapter one of Galatians Paul, define the Gospel, and that is the good news of Jesus, that he is calm and lived the life that I couldn't live, die, the death that I deserve to die, and is now given me a chance to have salvation. In week two in chapter two, we look at this idea of what it means to be justified. We looked at justification, which is nothing more than God proclaiming Jesus as righteousness over us. For that whole week, we keyed to this idea that as believers in Jesus, that we have been made right. That we've been made whole. We have been made all of who God wants us to be in front of God, God has proclaimed us right or righteous.

Well, last week, for the 12 of us that were here, we got to see chapter three last week. I'm not hating by any means. We got to see chapter three last week, which is probably the heaviest chapter in the whole book of Galatians. Paul comes out a little bit Sparky last week and he's a little bit upset at these Galatians because what Paul doesn't understand is he doesn't understand how the Galatians and how we can have such an incredible experience of Jesus saving us or saving them, but yet still think that God wants us to live this Christian life out on our own power. He's looking at him going, Why is it that you would trust God with your life on this side of the Gospel, but on this side over here think that God just saved you and left you to live out the Gospel on your own power. But what Paul says in the Chapter three is that if you do try to live on your own power, you're going to be frustrated. You're never going to be fulfilled in your life and you're always just going to feel tired. So what Paul does is he gives them a remedy to see how it is that they can live their lives under the power of the Holy Spirit. And he says one key thing in that whole confusing chapter. He says, listen, if you will point your faith in life back to the finished work of Jesus, Jesus's death on the cross, his resurrection from the grave, then you can connect yourself with the spirit of God in an incredibly powerful way. He said, Let's focus less on our performance and more on the powerful work of Jesus, and let's tap into the finished work of Jesus that delivers us and sets us free. All right, so if you haven't been in three weeks. There you go. You just got it right there in a couple of minutes. Well, today we're going to start a few verses back where we left off last week in chapter three.

And then we're going to transition pretty quickly into chapter four. Really and truly, because I couldn't come up with a way to really preach Chapter four without the foundation of chapter three this morning. So Paul is showing us in this argument once again of who Christ has made us, and he's made us free. So speaking of that, let me go back to Galatians three, verse 23, and we're going to launch from today, and then we're going to watch what God does for us. Here it is. Galatians 3:23 says this says, Before the coming of this faith, we were held under the law. We were locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed, in other words, before the coming of Jesus. All of life was about law. It was about only living in the law. We only gave God glory when we were in the law. He says this in verse 24. So the law, it was our guardian. That means it was our nanny, our tutor. It kept us on track. It didn't. It didn't curse us. But it pointed us to Jesus. The law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, watch this. We are no longer under a guardian. What does that mean? That means so now in Christ, we are His. The. We are redeemed. We're redeemed not by our works and not by the law. Not by ritual or not by ourselves. We are redeemed because of the finished work of Jesus. But keep going in verse 26, and here's where the transition starts to happen. It says this. It says so in Christ Jesus. You are all children of God through faith. Now, I love the way that sounds, and I'm using the NIV version. I preach from the NIV version almost every week because it gives us a great, great text and it helps us understand what's being said in chunks of scripture. But unfortunately, right here, the NIV uses the word children instead of sons instead of sons.

So it makes a little bit of a confusing move into the next chapter. I understand why it uses the word children in children is not a terrible word to use right here. I'm not trying to be chauvinistic by any means, but the fullest way to look at this is how most of the other translations have translated this word in verse 26, and that is to leave it as sons. You know, the NIV used children to help us all, whether we're sons or daughters or not sons and daughters, to help us all relate to being under God. But I want to show you a little bit more specifically what Paul is doing here. Let me read it to you from the ESV. It says this in verse 26. It says, For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. You see, Paul uses children in other places. But what Paul is getting at here is he is contrasting who we were with, who we are. And in this time period, here's why I think that sons is the better word. In this time period. It was only the sons that would inherit the family's estate. It was only the sons that would be able to be the business manager on behalf of the family. Even though a boy would have been a young child, he would have just been called a child. At that point, he was not being called a son of the king. He would have been looked at as basically until an appropriate time. He would have been looked at as a slave. Now, if we just lump all children in here, we don't get to see the transformation of where God takes us and where God puts us. In this time period in this culture, when a son was born, he basically was looked at as just about like a slave until a particular moment in time that the father determined.

And the father looked into the son's life and he would eventually proclaim that this is my heir. Okay. That's how the culture worked. I'm not saying it's a good thing. It's a bad thing. I'm not saying it's a great chauvinistic thing to throw the daughters out. I'm not saying any of that. But what I'm saying is, the son would have had to officially pass from being a child-like servant into a person who now has the privileges of the family. You see, that's exactly what Christ has done for all of us, isn't it? He has looked at us in our slavery. He has looked at us in our pain. He has looked at us in the shadow of death that we chose to walk into. And at the right time, God, the father justifies us and he makes us his. This is showing us exactly what happens in our salvation. That God the Father reached in at the right moment to give us a new identity not as a slave, but as an heir. Therefore, he declared us right. But keep going in verse 27 and it says this. For all of you who are baptized into Christ, you have clothed yourself with Christ. It is neither Jew nor Gentile nor slave, nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and you are heirs according to the promise. Now, as I said last week, baptism is a symbol of me dying to my old self, me being risen to the newness of life.

As I said last week, being closed with righteousness is a presentation that a father would have made to his son in this culture. When he gave him a new toga. He would have taken off the toga of childhood. He would have placed on to the toga of This is my heir, this is my son. It's a new day. It's kind of like Saturday in the south, right? When you wear the colors, you know who you belong to, right? It's exactly what it's saying right here. That's what God does in us. So what God has done for us in Jesus is that He has forgiven us. He has made us new in Him. And he placed the inheritance of this: my sons and my daughters. In fact, I want to describe this to you by giving you a principle this morning about salvation. Because I think this is where it fits. Write this down. Salvation is not just a change of attitude or thinking. It's a literal transformation of my core identity, my desires, my purpose and my future.

You see church, Here's the deal. Many of us view our salvation as just a button that we pushed, or a card that we filled out. But what Paul is saying in all of this is that God reached into our lives and literally transformed my core self into a new person. Followers of Jesus, listen to me. We are no longer the same. We're no longer the same. That's what chapters one through Chapter three of this book says. It says now that in Christ I now had been made right before God, the judge, that I've been justified. But it doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop there. You see, in chapter four, what it's about to say is, while justification is the most incredible gift ever given to us. What chapter four is about to show us. And the Galatians is that it gets even better. It gets even better than justification. Why? Because there is another blessing that God places on us when He redeems us. There's another blessing that he gives us when we are baptized into him, when we are clothed with him. What Paul is about to show us is that yes, my justification did make me right before him, but it's my adoption.

Check this out. Into God's family that is the highest privilege that the gospel offers. You see, while all these past weeks we've been talking about justification being made right before God, what Paul does here is he begins to talk about being adopted into God's family. And that means that we're not just clean. It means that when we're adopted into God's family, that we now have not a stuffy, not a stiff and not a slave relationship with God, but God has now given us a rich, loving, fatherly relationship with the Father, God. In fact, write this principle down so it can kind of pull both of these into one. Justification makes us right before God the judge. Alright, you're going to get this before the end of this book. Alright. Justification makes us right before the judge. God, the judge, but the gift of adoption into God's family. What does it do? It shows us that we are deeply and eternally loved by God, the Father. Do you see the difference between these two? You see, many of us have grabbed hold of the justification piece of our relationship with Christ.

Now we know that God has made us right. But the question is, have we grabbed hold of the fact that God is our father and he has adopted us into his family? He's adopted us out of the carnage of this world and into his heavenly family. You see, justification is the picture of what is legal, right? What? What does that mean? It means that God, the judge, He stands in front of us and makes a pronouncement that we're not guilty. But in adoption, check this out. God. The judge takes off the judge robe, puts on the father robe, comes down off the bench, comes to where you are and where I am, takes the chains off of our ankles, puts his arms around us. He says, You're now mine and you're coming home with me, son. That's the difference. That's the adoption piece. In fact, J.I. Parker says it like this. To be right with God the judge is a great thing. Amen. It is, but to be loved and cared for by God the father, is greater, it's greater. He continues by saying this in respect to the question: what is a Christian? Parker says that's the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as father, as father. Now church. I know that in Jesus, the loving father has adopted us. But I know that when I say the word father, it brings so many things to mind. Why? Because some of us don't understand what our father relationship looks like.

Some of us had terrible relationships with our father. Some of us had great relationships with our father. But this morning, as I mentioned, “the father,” I don't want you to picture your earthly father. I want you to picture the Heavenly Father that is always on time. That is always right. That is always loving. And that has reached down into you when you were at your worst and pulled you into his family. But the question is this. What does it take to do that? What did it take from God to do that? You see, our offer is that God has redeemed us. The blessing is that God has made us his. But what did it take? Well, Paul in Chapter four is about to give us two distinct actions that it takes for God the Father, to adopt us. It starts in chapter four. All right. And this is what I want to do in my time left. I'm going to slow down in these next couple of verses, and I want to process this through the richness of what God says that God is, bringing together so much of who he wants to be in our lives in this one text. And he's showing us this gift that we have through him. All right. Let's jump in. Galatians for verse four says this It says, But when the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive, here it is, adoption to his Sonship.

Paul points out number one that God, the Father. Watch this. I'm going to give you the first action. Number one. God the Father sent his son Jesus, so that we might receive the position as sons and daughters. Of the position of sons and daughters. Now, notice this first action all revolves around God, the Father sending Jesus. And in chapter four, what Paul does is he starts by describing Jesus as coming at the perfect time. You see, in the adoption world, even the adoption world of the Earth today, if you talk to anyone that has ever adopted, they will tell you that timing is everything. It's everything, right? The right place, the right time. You have to be the right match. It has to be all in the right circumstances. Timing means so much, even in earthly adoption. But with God, listen, it means even more. That's why this whole text starts off in verse four by saying this. Let me read it to you again. But when the time had fully come. Now, don't skip over that is just a flippant point, because it's not. That's not an intro statement. It means so much more. It means that God, the father in his sovereignty, sent Jesus at the exact right time, at the exact time he needed to. It's not that God just sent Jesus. It meant that God and His sovereignty designed everything for all time around this one moment. Jesus didn't just pop on to the scene on a Christmas morning by accident. That's what it's saying. In fact, Jesus came at the exact right time. You say Matt, what does that mean? Well, let me give you a couple of examples of the right time.

Number one, it was the right time theologically. It was the right time theologically that Jesus came. You say, what do you mean by that? It means this. Everything in the Old Testament was pointing towards this moment that Jesus came. The whole book, all of history, had pointed towards it. The Old Testament canon of Scriptures had already been established. They were already recognized by the Jews. The promises of a Savior had already been given to Abraham. The law had already been given to Moses. All of the prophecies, over 300 of them have been given out already to the prophets. Most of them have already been fulfilled, except for the ones that Jesus did fulfill and will fulfill. All of this was pointing to the idea that no one would mistake this guy, this Savior, this Messiah Jesus. The law at this moment had already pushed people as far as they could go in the law without a Savior. Theologically, God had designed everything from all times for this exact moment when He sent Jesus. But not only was it theologically right, it was religiously right. You say Matt, what's the difference between those two? Well, if you think about it, the paganism of the ruling Roman Empire had taken the culture of this moment to even some lower lows, and it had ever been. Idolatry was so prevalent in fact, there was not even a prevalent God to worship. There were so many gods. In fact, the Apostle Paul tells us that one of them didn't even get a name; there were so many of them, right? There were so many gods. But there was a spiritual hunger among people that they were realizing that there has to be something else out there other than me.

The Romans wanted a God so bad. The Greeks wanted a God so bad. They wanted something to fulfill them so much that they were trying to create their own things. And all of culture was pointing towards this exact moment and this sensitivity to spiritual things. But thirdly, it was the right time culturally. Jesus came exactly on time culturally. You say Matt, What does that matter? It matters a ton. You see the Greek language in the time that Jesus came had become common, practically universal to the whole known world. So what big deal is that? It's a massive deal. Here's why. You see, from the first this is the first time since the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament Moon that when God confused all the languages from all the people, that when Jesus came, was the first time on this planet that there was a just universal language that everyone could understand. You think that was an accident? You think it wasn't an accident that when Jesus came, was the first moment that all cultures at all time could at least a little bit understand the koinonia or the common Greek of the day? This would allow the gospel to be spread and in unprecedented matter, its efficiency could be in a way that it can never be. And this is how God designed it all. But fourthly, he came at the right time politically. You say politically, what does that have to do with Jesus? It had everything to do with Jesus at this moment. Why? Because the Pax Romana. Remember that one from history? Roman peace. It was prevailing in the whole known world. Rome had captured all of its neighboring countries. It had subdued all the nations. And Rome had ensured peace. They built roads, they encouraged travel and encouraged commerce. With which in a language that could be understood with a spiritual hunger that could be had and a messiah that popped onto the scene. The gospel could advance and a time like it could never advance before this. Why? Because God had watched and made a way for Jesus.

You see, never let anybody tell you that Jesus just popped onto the scene. Never let anybody tell you that it was just a random occurrence. Never let anybody tell you that God was in heaven talking to the angels Michael And Gabriel, and was like, Hey, what do you think? Is this a good time? Yeah. Send the boy on down. No. All of history was designed in God's sovereign will for this moment, at this time, for just the right time for Jesus to come. And there is no mistake in it. He was the Messiah. You see, when the timing was right, God sent Jesus. Now God was designing all history for this time. And it's almost like it was an appointment, isn't it? It's almost like I was like, Here it is. Watch this. Do you know why it's almost like that? Because that's exactly what it was. And it's almost like, catch this, that there's going to be another appointment when God sends his son again. Do you know why? Because it is. But this time, Jesus is not going to come as a minuscule baby in a manger. The next time the appointment time comes will be God in His full glory, sending Jesus to receive what? His adopted sons and daughters. You see how Scripture works together. It's God appointing Jesus to give us life. So it was the right time. And then watch this. I told you, we're slowing down in the text. It was the right time.

But God also sent the right person with the right qualifications. If it was the right time, that would be great. If it was the right person, that would be okay. But now we got the right time with the right person, with the right qualifications. You say, Matt, what does it matter about qualifications? Well, read this verse to me. Galatians four four. Watch this. I said, When the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman born under the law, to redeem those under the law. Now, not just anyone, even in our world today on this earth can adopt a child, right? Not just anybody can do that. Praise be to God. That's not how it is. There's a lot of sickos out there. I'm thankful for that. Right. Ask anybody who's walked through this process. There are screenings, there are tests, there are background checks, there are interviews. There is a list of qualifications that one must meet to adopt a child. It takes the right qualified person, even on this earth, but even more so, it takes the right qualified person to be the savior of the world to adopt us.

In fact, Jesus is the only person. You say why would Jesus be the only person that could do this? Let me give you Jesus's qualifications really quickly to maybe help you roll this into your mind. Number one, Jesus was fully divine. He was fully divine. What does that mean? That means that Jesus was fully God. When you think about Jesus, don't. Don't think about Jesus, kind of like, God's God. And Jesus is just kind of God. No. He was fully God. In fact, this is why we see in Galatians 4:4, it says God sent his son. It's what we see in the text right there, right? In Colossians 1:15, it says the son is the image of the invisible God. It means that Jesus was not just this divine alternative to God. Jesus was God. Never let anybody take that from you because Scripture is so clear in it. Philippians 2:6. Being in very nature God. So God didn't just create his son to send his son. No Jesus existed as God from the beginning in God, the Father saying God the Son, the preexisting fully divine, infinite Son of God that could alone bear the wrath of the world. He was fully divine. And number two, he was fully human. This is his qualifications. He was fully human. What does that mean? That means Galatians 4:4, right?

God sent his son. What was he? Born of a woman. Don't look at Jesus. Don't think about Jesus as kind of like God. Yeah, He was God. He was kind of a man. No, no, no. He was fully God and he was fully man. This is what Philippians six eight tells us. It says Jesus, who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality to God, something to be used to His own advantage. Rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in an appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient even to death, even on a cross. That doesn't mean that Jesus just looked human. It means that he was fully human. He had a human birth. This is why the virgin birth is so incredibly important. It shows that he's divine and it shows that he's fully human and he shows that he has the same struggles, the same mind, the same will, the same struggles of what sin looks like to us.

But yet on top of all that, number three, he was fully righteous. He was fully righteous. You see, the human birth of Jesus shows that he can relate to us with our feelings and our doubts. But it also shows that he was the perfect sacrifice. That he was fully righteous. He wasn't just born of a woman. Look at Galatians 4:4 again. God sent his son, born of a woman and born under the law. Born under the law. That means that he was not simply a man, he was a Jewish man with Jewish principles, Jewish laws, growing up in a Jewish synagogue. But yet he lived out the law of God absolutely perfectly. And he could only do that as a son of God. Why? Because we're all sinners. We're all sinners. You see, I love this because it's showing us in his humanity, he relates to us. In his divinity, he came in power. In his perfectness, he became the spotless lamb of God. They can take away the sins of the world. So Jesus came with a purpose. And that purpose was to make redemption possible by dying on the cross. To do what? To give us a right standing before God as sons and daughters of the King. Look at verse five again, it says, To redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to Sonship. So God, the Father sent his son Jesus, so that we might receive the amazing position. It's positional, right? As sons and daughters of the King. But here's the amazing point. It doesn't stop there. Now, it could stop there, and that will be enough for all of us to fall on our faces. And thank God that he has placed us in a position as his son. But God the father does something else. You see, God doesn't just declare it's justified or give us a new position as sons and daughters.

God, the Father blesses us in this. Write this down. Number two. God the Father sent his Spirit. See, the first one is about the son, right? God, the Father sent his Spirit that we might experience the privileges of sonship. Now, this is where many of us miss it. You see, many of us grew up in churches to where we would just. Man, we would fully, fully relate to the fact that God, the Father has made me right. But what we can relate to is that God the Father has now blessed us with the privilege of being able to crawl up into his arms no matter what is happening, no matter how we've struggled, no matter how bad life has been. And now we can crawl up into our adopted father's arms and he loves us and he's given us the Spirit to guide us. This means, yes, that our status in front of God is based on what God the judge declared. But our intimacy with God is based on a relationship with the Father through the Spirit. Here, let me read the verse and maybe help you kind of grab it. Verse six. It says because you are his sons. You can write to our daughters about that. It's okay, right? It works because you are his sons. God sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts. The spirit who calls out Abba Father. So listen. Listen closely. So you are no longer a slave, but you are God's child. And since you are His child, God has made you also an heir.

Remember how he started this whole thing up? When a son moves from slavery into Sonship, into being the heir of the family, he is no longer a slave. He is now an heir. Remember the context of these verses scripture as a whole says that we were lost, that we were in our slavery to our sin, that we deserved death. But now God has given us the ability to live. We were held captive, but now Christ has redeemed us. And now things have changed. Why? Because in Jesus we are now saved and we are now captivated by our adoptive father's love for us. And we miss this because we still approach God, some of us, with this fearful mentality that God is just about to smote on us at any moment. Some of us just grab hold so strongly of the sinners in the arms of the angry God rather than sinners in the arms of the loving father. That's the difference of just justification, sin or adoption. Adoption promises us that we have been made right and that we can now crawl up into the lap of God with an intimate life.

In fact, write this down. As God's redeemed and spiritual children, we can now approach the Father with complete intimacy. With complete intimacy. Listen, Church If Christ is your King, you now have every right to call out to your father and you are not bothering him. You are not a burden on him. He is not losing power because he is speaking something into you. He wants you to call out. In fact, verse six tells us really clearly, because you are his sons. God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts. The spirit that calls out Abba Father. Here's what that means. After God clears out the sin debt through Jesus, He puts the Spirit in us so that we can live in the light and the joy and in the full trust of God with the same intimacy that Jesus had. Here it is, with the Father God. Do you realize Jesus's favorite word for God was Father? Have you recognized that when you read the New Testament, when you read the Gospels that when God is called upon by His son, Jesus, Jesus most often calls him Father? Why? Because it's a sign of intimacy. It's a sign of my desire to be with you. And Listen church, That is the exact same thing that God has promised all of us. This is way more than I gave my heart to Jesus. I got baptized and I went back to my regular life and I'm living however I want to. This is me and this is you as God's kids crawling up into the lap of the loving father and just saying Abba. Abba. Which just means this, Daddy. Daddy. It used to kind of hurt me when people started their prayers with Daddy. I was like, Come on, be a little better than that. But now I get it. I get it. Because until we see God through the lens of Yes, the judge that proclaims is righteous, but yes, the God, the father who's made us his, we don't get the intimacy that he's offering us.

Church, Do you realize that we have now offered to us the same level of intimacy that Jesus had with the Father when Jesus was walking on this earth? We have the privilege of approaching God as Abba Father, as a kid. This privilege was once in the Old Testament, only given to the priest and only given to Abraham and Isaac, only given to Moses, only given to the special anointing of God. But now, because of Christ and how He's justified as God has adopted us into His kingdom and we have full access every time we call the name God to say Dad, I need you. I trust you. I'm crawling up into your arms and I don't even know what to say right now other than Daddy. Daddy. Those of you that are parents know what this feels like when your kid finally reaches that stage when you get home and he runs and leaps off of some coffee table into your arms with full trust. And all he's saying is Dad, or Mom. That's the point. It's so good to be his son. He's so good to be his daughter. It's so good to know, listen, that every time I call out Dad's name, he hears me. He wants to walk with me. He's fully justified, fully made me right now, fully adopted me into his kingdom.

And what this means is, now that the spirit is in us, we are his. Verse seven says it again. So you're no longer a slave. Somebody needs to hear that in this room. You're no longer who you used to be but God's child. And since you are a child, God has made you also an heir. What does that mean? Write this last principle down. It means this. As God's heirs, we now have the guaranteed blessing of an eternal father, an eternal family, and an eternal home. Let me process through that. We now have an eternal father that will never leave you, that will never forsake, that will never turn his back on you, that always wants what's best for you. Will he discipline you? Oh, yeah, he will discipline you, but he will do it out of his love and for his glory. But you have a father regardless of your earthly father that loves you and that died for you. But you also have a family, an eternal family. What does that mean? It means that what we just read in verse 28 of Galatians three, it says, For you are all one in Christ.

Romans 8:17 says that we are co-heirs with Christ. That means everything that belonged to Jesus now belongs to us and we're no longer on our own. We were made for community. We were made to walk together. We were made to lean into the family of God that we had been made right to be a part of. We're built for this family. This is why we say so much that church is not an event to attend. It's a body to belong to. And the problem is, if we don't want to walk with them now, then why in the world do we want to spend eternity with them? For goodness sake. We have an eternal family that wants what's best for us, that they're our brothers and our sisters in Christ. They want to pick us up. They want to hold our hands. They want to lift us up into the arms of the father. That's what church is. But lastly, we have an eternal home. We have an eternal home. This is where all of this comes to a head. Do you know the beauty of adoption? The beauty of adoption is this. It's complete. It's complete. Did it take a lot to get there? Oh, yeah. It takes a lot to get there in an earthly perspective and in a spiritual perspective. But listen, adoption is not temporary, and our adoption in Christ is sealed. It is signed. It is delivered. Not in my power as the son and daughter of him, but in God's power through Jesus, secured by the Spirit.

And now when God takes you home, there is nobody that can take you away. That's the gospel. You see, Jesus gives us the position. The Spirit leads us into the privilege. Here's how I want to finish. Our job, though, is to live as a family member. To live as an adopted person into the kingdom. It is to live as one that has been reached down into the darkness, has been risen up, placed into the bosom of who God is with His arms around us, and for us to live out the joy and the glorious life as sons and daughters of the king that have been adopted. You know, one of the saddest, saddest things that comes around in my life every now and then in counseling is dealing with an adoptive family that has pretty much placed everything on the line to reach down into a kid's life, to bring them out of a situation that was an absolute despair, to place them into a loving relationship, gifting them with just about everything they want to. One of the saddest things I hear so often out of their lives is this. But Matt, when they got to a certain age, they put their nose in the air and they just kept walking away from our family. Do you know why they do that? Because they don't recognize what has been given to them. They don't recognize the love that is around them. They don't recognize the power that has been given to them.

But listen, before we get to judging, isn't that exactly what it looks like in many of our lives as adopted sons and daughters of the King? That there may have been a time where we were full in, where we were up in daddy's arms. But then we got a little older, then we got a little wiser, then we got a little more selfish and before you knew it, we crawled out of his arms. He crawled back into my life because I want to be the lord. You know what God's telling you today? Come back home. Come back home, Come back to me. Come back into my house. Come back into my arms. Because here's the thing about God. He's not giving up on you. He's not walking away from you. But let me ask you this. Are you living like the family of God? Where do you stand? Have you given your life to Jesus? Have you allowed God to proclaim over you His love and his mercy? Have you allowed Jesus to save you? Have you allowed Jesus to wipe away your sins? To give you new life and to adopt you into the family of God? Or have you just always thought that I'm good enough? I'll do it on my own, and I'll walk this thing out on my own. Maybe today, hearing this text has shone a light into your soul that you need Jesus. That you need to give him your life. Or maybe today you know that you're a family member. But it's about a long time since you've been up in the arms of Father God.

Verse nine. Paul looks at these Galatians and he says, Hey, are you turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved to them all over again? Man, that's such a message to us as his children. But that always happens when we crawl on the lap of the father. Here's the invitation today. Do you need to jump back into his arms?

Lord, walk with us in these next couple of minutes. Lord, use this time, Lord Jesus, to shine a spotlight into our souls and God show us where we stand as being the redeemed, as being the glorified, and as being the adopted sons and daughters of yours. God, thank you for our justification. Thank you for our adoption in you, Lord Jesus. It's in your name.

Amen. Amen.

Let's stand and sing together. And listen, I'm just going to make this deal with you. You need to give your life to Christ. I'm standing right over here. If you need somebody to pray over you today, if you need somebody to walk beside you today, man, we have people available. Use this time.

Follow Along with the Message

Just In Time Adoption

October 1, 2023

Galatians 3:23–25
23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
Galatians 3:26
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith…
Galatians 3:26 (ESV)
…for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Galatians 3:27–29
27 …for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

PRINCIPLE: Salvation is not just a change of attitude or thinking, it is a literal of my core identity, my desires, my purpose, and my future.

PRINCIPLE: Justification makes us right before God the Judge, but the gift of into God’s family shows us that we are deeply and eternally loved by God the Father.

“To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is a greater.”
— J. I. Packer

“The richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father.”
— J. I. Packer

Galatians 4:4–5
4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
2 Actions that “Father God” Takes to Adopt Us

1. God the Father sent His Son Jesus, so that we might receive the of sons and daughters.

Galatians 4:4
But when the set time had fully come…
Jesus Was Right on Time

1.

2.

3.

4.

Galatians 4:4–5
4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law…
Jesus’s Qualifications

1. Jesus was fully .

2. Jesus was fully .

Philippians 2:6–8
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!

3. Jesus was fully .

Galatians 4:5
…to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

2. God the Father sent His Spirit so that we might experience the of sonship.

Galatians 4:6–7
6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

PRINCIPLE: As God’s redeemed and Spirit-filled children, we can approach Father God with complete .

Galatians 4:6
Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
Galatians 4:7
So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

PRINCIPLE: As heirs, we now have the guaranteed of an eternal Father, eternal family, and eternal home.

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