Oh what a beautiful picture of what God has accomplished even in us and so
tonight we want to talk about that. My name is Josh Martin and I'm one of the
pastors here at Resonate and this summer we're going through a series where we
tell you a story in our life that was met by the scriptures and how we were
never the same after that so the right truth met with the right time has left
us in a place where we've been changed forever and so in order to do that
tonight I need to tell you a little bit of my story my mother had me when she
was 19 years old and was not married I do not know my biological father at all
we've we've hung out three times in 30 years I don't know his middle name my
mom married a man when when I was one years old a year old I don't know how
to say that appropriately when you're a year old or one year no S on that one
year old and they stayed married for one year and then they got divorced and
then my mom married another man when I was three years old and I don't remember
this but allegedly pictures say I was the ring bearer in that wedding and so
there's a little suit my mom still has underneath her bed that she pulls out
every now and again so that man that my mom married when I was three raised me
as his own son and fast forward now I'm 16 years old throughout throughout those
years 13 years I have a brother and a sister in my family and when I'm 16 I
still have a different last name than they do because I had my mom's maiden
name and we go to court because my dad is going to adopt me and they told me
that he wasn't my dad when I was probably 12 years old I remember seeing my
birth certificate when I was eight years old and there was a blank spot where the
dad's name was supposed to be and that created some confusion and and so they
had walked with me through all this but when I was 16 years old we went to court
and we filled out all the papers and we got into the courtroom and basically had
to stand before the judge and the judge looked at me as a 16 year old and said
son do you want to be adopted and I said yes sir I would like to be adopted and
then looked at my father and said do you bear the responsibility to protect and
provide for this young man as if he is your own and my father said yes and then
the big gavel I remember at 16 years old slams and from that moment on I am I'm
fundamentally legally inherently different so my last name has changed my
birth certificate changes my driver's license changes my inheritance changes as
a 16 year old so I have a different last name as a 17 year old I'm a senior in
high school and my dad comes to the high school and tells me that he and my mom
are getting a divorce and so at that time he was gonna move to a town a little
bit away from where we live so that he could be closer to his work but he was
still gonna come around and my adoption didn't change but that did something I
mean that shattered something in me if you will that it was very foundational to
who I was because just a year before I had an identity I had security I had some
foundation my parents weren't godly people but they were good people that
they were learning and still even now are learning about the Lord but didn't
really teach me things about the Lord but nonetheless they were my family and I
was connected to them so at 16 I'm adopted at 17 they divorce and then I go
into college with a very unstable foundation under my feet a very skeptical
heart my identity is a little weird now because my parents don't share things
are not together anymore and that was conflicting internally for me and I read
something in Galatians chapter 4 that that summer and something happened in
me I thought about God differently because of Galatians chapter 4 and and I
hadn't really thought about that before and hadn't heard about that much before
but going into that summer when I read that text that it kind of shifted me and
then my freshman year I'm in an intro to ministry class and we're going through
the doctrine of salvation so what does it mean to be saved is our intro to
ministry class and in this class we talk about all sorts of different doctrines
that that affected my head but none of them really landed in my heart so we
talked about propitiation expiation sanctification regeneration all the
Asians ransom and atonement and all these really powerful beautiful pictures of
what it means to be saved by God and then something happened in one of those
classes my professor turned to a chapter in a book by J.I. Packer called Knowing
God and turned to Galatians chapter 4 and said I want to talk to you today about
the doctrine of adoption I was like hey did you say doctrine of adoption because
I never heard that before Galatians 4 I'd read some stuff about Galatians 4 and
so he opens the scripture and starts to tell me about adoption and I remember he
said if you were to introduce God to your friends you could introduce God as the
one who is the father to the fatherless that this is who God is he is he is a
father to the fatherless and we went on to talk about what it means to walk in
adoption as God your father and we heard stories about people who'd adopted I
know there's people even in our church who who've adopted there's people in our
church who've been adopted and we started to see the picture of the Gospel in
adoption and so you would see parents that go get their kid overseas and the
first thing you do in adoption I remember hearing all these stories the
first thing you do if the baby's too young and can't speak for themselves or
or do anything for themselves the first thing you do is you take their clothes
off and you give it back to the orphanage and you put new clothes on them
what a picture of the Gospel that the first act of adoption is a change of
clothes and if the child is old enough to to coherently understand what's
happening and say eight nine ten years old you ask that child do you want to be
adopted and I remember like hey I was asked that when I was 16 and so we
started exploring what it means to look at God as your father and the
doctrine of adoption became more and more powerful to me and as I began to
study it I learned that this had just been left out of my upbringing but it
was actually the fundamental identity of what it means to be a Christian so here's
some quotes there's a guy named John Murray who says adoption is the apex of
a redemptive grace and privilege I'm gonna read you a quote by JR Packer we're
gonna put it on the screen about adoption it says this adoption is the
highest privilege that the Gospel offers even higher than justification
justification is that we are right with God because what Christ has accomplished
now we are no longer guilty but Christ has made a way for us to know God so even
higher than that adoption is higher because of the rich relationship with
God that it involves so what is a Christian the richest answer I know is
that a Christian is one who has God as his father if you want to know how well
a person understands Christianity find out how much he makes of the thought of
being God's child and having God as his father if this is not the thought that
prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life
it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all friends
there is no greater miracle or privilege than to be adopted into the family of
God and this stirred something in me the God had sent his son to make us
brothers that that should be something this this evening that we do not take
lightly that should be something that does not make us yawn and say okay Josh
I've heard that before this should overwhelm us but the truth is this has
been left out I bet few of you have heard a sermon on adoption I had not I
bet few of you had really thought much about adoption most theology books
leave adoption out you go you go through seminar you go through these these types
of books and you'll find that there's there's paragraphs there's sub chapters
but there's not chapters there's not massive works of of theology on the
doctrine of adoption but this is the central picture the J. I. Packer says
that it is even more fundamentally powerful and privileged than that of
justification because of what it means in the outworking of our lives and the
reason why I think this is so powerful is this this is identity 101 so the the
opposite of not recognizing you're adopted is recognizing I don't know who I
am and that's all I recognize I don't know who I am which could lead to works
based righteousness God's probably mad at me because I don't know who I am he
probably doesn't know who I am so let me work hard and get some identity from him
by my works instead of working from your identity which is you have been
adopted and brought in to a family and therefore you move forward out of that
identity this word adoption who a thesia in the Greek is only used five times in
the New Testament this picture of adoption so I want you guys to grab
your Bibles and turn to Galatians chapter 4 that was all introduction and we're
gonna read Galatians chapter 4 and I want to explain to you some things that
that will work itself out of this text and this might feel a little luxury but
I I need us to get this I'm gonna explain it as thoroughly as I possibly can so if
you have something to write with you want to pull that out we always have
place in the program where you can write notes but there's gonna be a lot of
stuff on the screen I want you guys to stay with me this whole time so
Galatians chapter 4 this evening we're gonna ponder the privilege of adoption
together we're gonna look and see Paul what did you mean by that what does that
mean for us as children who have been adopted Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 but
when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman
born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might
receive adoption as sons and because you are sons God sent the spirit of his
son into your heart crying Abba father so you are no longer a slave but a son
and if a son then you are an heir through God so as best we can we're gonna
look at four verses tonight and not go very wide but go as deep as possible so
we're gonna start with the definition of adoption so from Wayne Grudem's
systematic theology he defines adoption as this an act of God whereby he makes
us members of his family an act of God an act of God not an act of us an act of
God whereby he not us whereby he makes us members of his family so adoption is
an act of God whereby he makes us members of his family I have eight points
tonight and I hope you're excited about that I've never given you eight points
I'm not even sorry for this you ready point number one here we go usually it's
like two points so you guys should show me some grace tonight and this is good
this is so good so you're not even gonna be mad at the end it's gonna be great
point number one out of out of Galatians chapter 4 adoption is planned but when
the fullness of time had come verse 4 says but when the fullness of time had
come this is intentional language this is perfect timing some of us think man I
wish Jesus was born now so I could follow him on Twitter and we could YouTube all
his sermons and get all these people behind him no no apparently many of us
would say it would be better if he was born now apparently not scripture says
that at the appointed time this is a powerful picture of a plan this is
intentional language that God sent the son at the appropriate time and the
father then sent the spirit at the appropriate time so if you if you know
your history there was some law that was coming in and needed to be fulfilled
there was a yearning for a savior so at just the right time God sent forth his
son marriage sorry adoption is a plan if you know my wife Amy and I you know
that we want to we wanted to have a baby and we tried for a while many of you
prayed for us and and honestly it took us 30 months to get pregnant and so when
it takes you 30 months to get pregnant you start to think okay well maybe this
isn't gonna happen should we look into adoption I want to say very very openly
with you adoption was never planned B for Amy and I like we always wanted to
adopt I remember was talking even before we got married and I was like I need to
bring this up because at some point I want to adopt I start talking about
adoption and she starts talking about adoption and I'm like hey this is kind
of a deal breaker for me and she's like no no hang on this is a deal breaker for
me you don't want to adopt you can't marry me and I'm like if I don't well if
you don't want to adopt that so we had like this deal breaker fight like both
of us want the same thing and we're fighting because we both want the same
thing but we both wanted to say it first so let's fight about it and so this was
never an issue of biology for us this was always an issue of theology like I
always understood this is what happened to me and the book of James says true
religion mature religion is looking after the orphan looking after the
powerless going and serving them so this was always in my heart and in my head
but after it takes a while to get pregnant you start thinking well maybe
this is gonna go for it so even if right now if you went to our house you would
you would open the drawer next to our desk and you would see four or five or
six I can't remember how many packets of like 40 pages of of adoption agency
information you have to plan this stuff like you need to be 30 years old and
have been married five years which for us landed this June so two months ago or
a month ago that that was now we're available to adopt now by God's grace
we are pregnant and that is so exciting for us so so we are going to have a
natural baby but that does not mean we're gonna stop the plan for adoption so
adoption is a plan and you are going to have to plan accordingly number two
adoption requires the right qualifications the second part of verse
four says when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son there is
only one who is qualified to adopt us into the family of God not just anyone
could adopt but God sent forth his son Jesus the preeminent son born of a
woman dual nature the fact that Jesus was fully God the fact that he was fully
man he was fully divine fully human one Jesus to nature mysteries of mysteries
which would make simple questions very complex for Jesus Jesus how old are you
man on my mother's side I'm 12 on my father's side I'm eternal on my mother's
side I get thirsty on my father's side I'm the living water on my mother's side
I get hungry on my father's side I'm the bread of life on my mother's side I have
nowhere to lay my head on my father's side the earth is mine and everything in
it so these are complex questions for Jesus there is only one who is qualified
there will never be another Jesus he is the only qualified one to lead us to
adoption Jesus is 12 years old in the temple and they get he is left behind his
family leaves him when they come back they say where were you and he said
didn't you know I would be at my father's house and everyone said whoa 12
year old Jesus you didn't mean that did you your father's house I don't know the
last time you hung out with 12 year olds but they misspeak sometimes so we're
gonna count that as a misspeak 12 year old and then he keeps going on through
his life and then when he's 30 at his baptism you see him going under by his
cousin John baptizing him and you hear a booming voice from heaven where God the
father says this is my son whom I love and I'm well pleased with him and the
Holy Spirit descends this powerful picture of the Trinity God affirms what
Christ said at 12 and then you fast forward a little bit longer the
disciples say teaches how to pray Jesus and Jesus says when you pray pray like
this our father whoa 32 year old Jesus did you just say our father do you just
call Yahweh the the God of the Covenant the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob did
you just say he's your father to which Jesus could have said yes and I'm
qualified to do that and I'm qualified to tell the disciples you pray like that
too because there's a day coming when this is actually gonna happen and it's
gonna be sooner than you think when I give my life and raise from the dead so
there is one qualified point number three adoption is costly it says he was
born under the law to redeem those under the law in the last half of verse
four he was born under the law to redeem those under the law that is a very
fancy way of saying that adoption cost Christ his life that when he was born
he was born under the law that crushed us so that he could fulfill that law
stand up under that law hold that law to its fullness and then give his life away
so that you and I might not have to pay the cost the Christ paid a cost for us
he kept the law that would crush us so that we wouldn't be crushed and he took
a crushing so that we wouldn't be crushed I hope that tonight we realize
that our adoption cost Christ his blood it cost Christ his life and in a
physical adoption you know this forty thousand dollars for international
adoptions it cost things to adopt and there is an understanding even in the
scriptures of a spiritual cost that Jesus came down and would be our great
hero as a big brother I guess I'll say it like this there is no one naturally
born into the family of God we have a big brother who made us available made us
accessible made God available made God accessible so that we would know him and
that was an incredibly costly thing so much so that Christ should be our great
hero because adoption was costly point number four see we're almost halfway
there you guys excited you're like come on can we get ten points all right great
you can't I only have eight point number four some of the engineers are like man I
love this I'll just keep this can you draw me a diagram I cannot point number
four adoption saves children from terrible situations adoption saves
children from terrible situation in Galatians chapter 4 verse 8 it says
formally you did not know God and you were enslaved to a nature that made you
serve another guy so formally didn't know him and you were slave to another
nature adoption saves children from terrible terrible situations even if
you look at the picture of physical adoptions there's not a much sadder
place in all the earth than an orphanage is there there's not a much sadder place
than an orphanage that only houses three-year-olds and younger because a
lot of times those babies don't even cry anymore because no one ever responded
to when they cried so they're an eerie place the plight of an orphan is not a
pretty plight the script handed to orphans is not a pretty script there's
no birthday parties there's no daddy daughter dates there's no pictures on
the wall there's no identity in those kids there is nothing about them that
would be special because no one's calling them special no one's coming to
them and bringing out of them so adoption saves children from terrible
terrible situations and the main one who saves in this picture is the father so
let me give you a brief definition of what it means to be a father the
definition of a father is one who gladly bears the responsibility to protect
and provide for his family the definition of a father is one who gladly bears the
responsibility to protect and provide for his family so when I say adoption
saves kids from horrible situations what I mean is that God the father took the
responsibility on himself for the mess we've made to reconcile us to himself
he could not leave us on our own he could not leave us in the terrible
situation without intervening because he is responsible he gladly bears the
responsibility to protect and provide for the orphans to call us now sons on
November 10th Lord willing we will have a baby girl and when our baby girl is
here and she is getting older and able to make messes of her own and I hope for
that it's gonna be fun times for me but listen I'm already preparing to the best
of my ability I have no idea what this is gonna be like but the best I can I'm
preparing myself to gladly bear the responsibility to protect and provide so
in other words if I see my daughter in a terrible situation nothing inside of me
is gonna cross my arms and say good luck with that baby girl I hope that goes
well for you if she is being taken advantage of or being hurt or being a
bullied or abused or assaulted or anything like those horrible things that
could happen a father would never say you figure that out good luck with that no
any father in the world any man even just watching that would get involved in
intervene and give his life on behalf of the protection and provision of that kid
and I am a nobody father I'm a nobody father I'm just a guy trying to be a dad
and can you imagine that picture when it comes to our Heavenly Father listen that
he would not leave us on our own he would not sit back and cross his arms and
say good luck with that do you realize the identity inside of you that makes
you a son or daughter of God therefore you would be protected adoption saves
kids from terrible situations God has come to our aid point number five
adoption involves illegal change I really hope you're writing these down
because this is identity 101 you want to know who you are I have eight points
there's like a thousand of these a row down eight adoption involves illegal
change there's a transfer that takes place that no one can revoke you are
let me say like this at 314 you are not identified as a son in the adoption
process and at 315 you are identified as a son in the adoption process you were
not legally able to access all of this goodness that a father can provide and at
316 you are now legally able to access all that is yours the gavel has slammed
over your life hope you get that that no one can come against you no accuser
could come against you Romans chapter 8 says nothing can separate you from the
love of God that's in Christ Jesus because there's been a legal change in
the highest of courts given by the highest of authorities so much so that it
could never be reversed there's been a legal change point number six adoption
grants us the spirit of sonship adoption grants us the spirit of sonship
truth is most of you could care less about point number five because it's
paperwork point number five is you have a legal status change and you go cool do
you have any more points Josh I thought you were gonna give me eight good ones
I don't really like five that much I didn't write it down okay but point
number six is so much more significant because you go legal okay I kind of get
it but that doesn't feel like anything point number six is you have been granted
the spirit of sonship in other words you belong you feel that you're part of a
family you are in and there's nothing that you've done that made you earn being
in and there's nothing you could do to give you pushed out of being in you
belong so much so that the spirit of Christ is in you crying out for you
Abba father that's the that's the dearest nearest possible way that you could say
father some would even say it translates as dad or daddy it's this intimate
language it's only other use if you used a few other times in all the scripture
one of them is in the garden against somebody when Jesus cries out Abba
father friends you and I belong you and I are in a family I don't know what you're
going through but this should affect the way you go through that because you
belong should affect the way you pray they should affect the way you look in
the mirror and the way you view yourself and your life you are covered by a God
who loves you and wants to protect and provide for you you are in so much so
this is what it means to be in when you are called a son you have the covering
of God the father the big brother Jesus walking alongside of you and the Holy
Spirit of God internally and dwelling in you to lead you you are a son and that
should mean something to us we are in point number seven adoption transforms us
in every way adoption transforms us in every way I don't know how to say this
without using feeling language but I'll be honest with you a lot of the
Christian life is is whether or not I feel like God loves me or whether or
not I feel like I'm doing enough so if I sin last night I'm gonna come to church
today and I'm gonna worship and I'm gonna take notes during the sermon so that
God will love me again so there's this problem and the story of Christianity
the seesaw battle of works-based righteousness if I try hard God will
love me if I work harder God will love me when you realize this truth when you
realize that adoption transforms you in every way what I mean is this you can
you're in therefore you can repent without feeling the fear of being kicked
out of the house some of you parents might understand this illustration a
little better you want to teach your children when you break something when
you hurt something when you do something wrong come to me without fear that I'm
gonna kick you out of the house because I'm not gonna kick you out of the house
you're in the house therefore that security that feeling of safety that
feeling of home this should feel like in the church when you feel that you can
be transformed by that adoption is forever language the nothing you could
do would push you out this is the story of the prodigal son who runs away and
while he's still far off the father pursues him the father's not in the
house cooking dinner and when the son bangs on the door he goes I don't have a
son anymore no no no you're in there's permanence it transforms you there's a
forever security in the identity given in adoption last point adoption gives the
child the right to be an heir adoption gives the child the right to be an
heir when it says in verse 6 because you are sons God has sent the spirit of his
son and you to cry a father verse 7 so you are no longer a slave but a son and
if a son then you are an heir through God so we have an inheritance coming to
us I do not know what this looks like I do not know how this is gonna work itself
out the best is still to come that's all I know but there's an inheritance coming
that one day in the end because we are a part of the family we will be with God
forever so I spent eight points trying to tell you your identity so that I could
say this to you the good news of the gospel the gospel is the good news that
brought us to Christ so the good news of the good news you ready for this the
good news of the good news as the end the end we get to be with God forever as a
father as a protector as a provider we get to be with God forever in a place
that has no cancer there's no train wrecks car wrecks plane crashes hurt fear
trouble any of these things we get to be with God now I know this is so this is
hard for some of you because maybe some of you have great dads and so you hear
this sermon you go I have a great dad so that whole father language yeah I get
that great I took notes because you told me to some of you are in this middle
ground where you're like I actually have a horrible dad I have I have nothing as
a dad I don't even know what that means therefore when God calls himself a
father I think that's terrible marketing on God's behalf because I know a lot of
horrible fathers so God why in the world did you choose the word father to
explain yourself to a world that is that is generally growing more and more
fatherless and so it's hard for you to understand God as a father because you
never had a father and over here it's hard for you to understand God as a
father because you already had a great father and there's some of you over here
they go I I don't even know how to think of God as my father because I've I've
never allowed Christ to be the one that brings me in to the family and so
similarly to me as a 16 year old some of you might think man well how do I get
this and again again me as a 16 year old you have to you have to respond to the
question do you want to be adopted and if you can respond to that question with
yeah yeah I would like that then know that you have a yes from the father
coming back your way I don't say this in a way that would make you think man I
need to earn that somehow or or am I being too bad I could never be adopted
because I'm too bad or am I I'm good enough now I'm already in listen can it
be see for adoption is is the more broken the better in some ways the more
broken we are the more God has found us and drawn us in to his family so I want
to close by reading one last text to you and this may have felt luxury and I
know it's like man there's a lot of information but if we get that and if we
talk about that in Village and that starts to make its way into the way we
view the world and that will affect us and this doctrine has not been talked
about enough so I hope you get that tonight I want to read this to you just
so you know that God has been adopting since the beginning it was always in
motion even in the book of Hosea Hosea chapter 11 says this when Israel was a
child I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son but the more I called
after Israel the further they ran away from me God has been pursuing us and
Hosea chapter 11 he says but we've always run away and so tonight here's
what I hope that you do I hope that you if you're a follower of Christ you listen
to this and you go man that that helps me recognize my identity and if you're
not a follower of Christ tonight you say man that sounds like a really good
situation that I would like to know more about and so in light of this sermon
that the band's gonna come out and we're gonna pray and my hope is that if you are
a follower of Christ that you would you would revel in this grace you would
recognize your identity in Christ and that it would affect you and if you're
not a follower of Christ you would say could I get some more information I
talked to someone about what it means to be adopted into the family of God so
tonight as we respond we have communion available and so as the band sings what
they're gonna do is they're gonna sing over us and then if you're if you're
here tonight you think man I would like to talk to someone about what it means
to be adopted Matthew's gonna be in the back and he would love to talk to you
and if you are already a follower of Christ and you you get this and you've
heard this I want you to celebrate the fact that you are in the family of God
that you are a son or a daughter of God and at what great news that is and as
you come forward to take communion as you break off the bread and dip it into
the juice recognize that your adoption was costly and then in light of that
cost we should worship as people who are in and who are worshiping a father not a
far off God not a distant deity but a father who loves us and is for us so
father I pray tonight that you would be evidently among us God that your love
would make sense to us
God I pray that we would recognize that adoption is the highest privilege that
you offer us God that you could not imagine leaving us as orphans so much
so that Christ gave his life in a costly way God he gave everything he had so
that we would be reconciled to you God we're so thankful that you have saved us
from terrible situations so thankful that you fight for us you protect us you
provide for us you bear responsibility for us God we're so thankful that we
have been granted the spirit of sonship we're so thankful that we are heirs of
your kingdom gotta pray that tonight this would stir up inside of us an
affection for you as our father God that we would cry out to you as our father I
pray this feels really near tonight I pray that as we speak to you we would
speak to you as our father not as some far-off distant uninterested deity but
rather we would speak to you as our rescuer as our father God may we get
this tonight may we not be the people in the book of Hosea that the more you
pursue us the more we run God may we get this and father there are people in the
room tonight have never experienced your adoption as into the part of the
family as a part of their life God I pray they would be willing to talk to us
about that tonight and for everyone else God I pray that we would just be so
thankful and so stirred up by the fact that you love us and that your love for
us is merciful and good so we pray all this we sing all this in Jesus' name
amen
