Justification and Adoption

We are going to first begin on the, what we usually call the back, the back page, if you'll flip over there.

I know this is a little repetitive, but if you'll look under, on the top left-hand corner, under Systematic Theology, down under Unit 8, Soteriology, okay?

Who can tell me what it says under Lesson 3?

Union with Christ. Union with Christ. Union with Christ. I know this is a repeat, but it's important. As we said last week, all of the spiritual blessings and all the spiritual privileges that are enjoyed under Section 3, or Lesson 3, Union with Christ, are completely wedded to that.

It is. It is the fountain of all spiritual blessings. And, you know, tonight, it's almost impossible to think that you could improve upon — it's probably the wrong word, but improve upon — the amazing gift of regeneration.

Right? Doesn't get any better than that. I mean, spiritually dead, made alive, right, in Christ Jesus. Or justification.

We're guilty, and yet Christ paid our penalty and provided our righteousness and we're declared not guilty before God. I mean, how can you just keep going on? Jim, you know that song, "If it keeps getting better and better, oh Lord, I don't know what I'm gonna do." I actually played that on the way up here. I think it was the Blackwood Brothers. And yet tonight, we're going to look at another privilege, and it's the privilege of adoption, where God makes us members of His very family.

All right? The privilege of adoption. So, if you have your outline, let's flip it over to the fill-in-the-blank side, I'll call it. All right? And we're going to look at this matter of the adoption of believers as His children. If I was going to say, or identify what our learning objectives would be tonight, from our study, I would say, number one, I would hope that when we leave here tonight, we would all be able to articulate what the spiritual privilege of adoption is, what it means, from the New Testament teaching. Secondly, we would be able to distinguish adoption from the amazing gifts of regeneration and the gift of justification, and speak directly to adoption. And then lastly, we will just kind of bask in the privileges that we enjoy as a result of our adoption as God's children in His family.

All right? So, let's go ahead now and begin with number one. We'll fill in the blanks, and then we'll talk briefly about what adoption is. Justification is that judicial act of God, in which He declares that the sinner is no longer under the penalty of law, but instead restored to His favor. All right? So, that's the first blank — favor. This restoration to favor is called adoption, as it reconciles the sinner to God as Father.

The next blank is adoption. Adoption is the judicial act of God that bestows a new status to undeserving sinners who are graciously united to Christ.

And now I want to read these last two sentences slowly. Just pay attention to these sentences and think about them as we read them. By adoption, the redeemed become the children of God. Believers are brought into God's family and are given all of His glorious privileges, all His glorious privileges.

Okay? Those last two sentences: by adoption, the redeemed become children of God. We are brought into God's family and are given all His glorious privileges. The concept of adoption is familiar to all of us, I'm sure. I'm sure that there are people in here who may have adopted children or may have been adopted. And that's usually a heartwarming thing — you have a child, an orphan, and through the love and care of a couple, sometimes parents can't have children, and they will adopt a child and provide protection and love and guidance and hope for a future. Right?

And so the New Testament takes this earthly idea of adoption that we understand and it uses it as an analogy to describe God's fatherly love for us. All right? It's the reality of adoption. I'm not saying it's an analogy, but it's not true. It is the reality of adoption that the New Testament speaks to, but it's to describe God's fatherly love for us.

If we are not united to Christ, we are spiritual orphans. The Bible says for those who are not united to Christ, we are children of wrath. We are sons of disobedience in some places, sons of the devil. In fact, by Jesus's own lips, remember what He said to the religious Pharisees? He says, "You are of your father, the devil." Okay? So, unconnected to Christ, if we're not in Christ, the Bible says we're sons of disobedience. So the only home that we have as spiritual orphans is this sin-cursed world that is fast fading away. The only guardian of our soul that we have is really our adversary, and our only destiny is judgment. This hell's judgment is pretty bleak, isn't it?

Makes me think of that verse, "But God, who is rich in mercy," right? "demonstrated his own love for us. God intervened, and eager to display His glory, He intervened on our behalf." Take a look at — I'm going to jump down to number four, just for a portion of Ephesians chapter one. Look at what it says in verse five: "In love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself," and we'll look at that fuller in a few minutes, "but in love He has predestined us to adoption as sons."

And then jump back up to the verse under number one, Galatians 4:4–5. It says, "When fullness of time had come," in other words, at just the time of God's choosing, all right, 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, for what purpose? That we might receive the adoption as sons. And so the eternal Son, Jesus, was forsaken on the cross when He was bearing our sin that we might be welcomed as sons.

And so God did everything — we're talking sometimes in forensic terms, theologically, everything legally, right — to rescue us, to rescue us from sin and to make us family. And so a good definition of adoption: we've just read it up in paragraph one, but what does God do in adoption? He takes regenerated and justified sinners and He makes them a part of His family. And as a part of His family, we enjoy all of the privileges of being His children. And we're going to speak about those privileges in just a little bit.

You know, even in a secular tradition, there are two components to every adoption. You could go online and pull up a sample form of a final judgment of adoption. And if you go to the very end of it, there are two statements that are always included. Number one, there is a termination of the natural relationship that once existed between the natural parents and that child. And then there is a declaration of the new relationship between the adoptee and the parents who are adopting them. And then it goes on to say, and this adoptee has all the rights and privileges and benefits as if they had been born naturally to the adoptive parents, right? And spiritually, you see the application too. We are now in a new standing. We have a new standing. God is our Father, okay, and we are His adopted children. So that is adoption. Look at the application.

Are you glad you are a part of the family of God? There's a song, isn't there, Jimmy? Are you glad you are a part of the family of God? And that's interesting. That is what we are.

I don't want to jump ahead, but you know, one of the blessings of adoption is that we are brothers and sisters. The early church called one another brothers and sisters because they were united in Christ. And just as nothing can separate a believer from the loving union that that believer has with Christ, nothing can separate us from that bond, that corporate union that we have. We may not always get along. We may have tensions and difficulties, but we are family and we are bound by that deep bond that we have in Christ. This isn't a social club, right? This isn't a union because we're all in the same job. No, we are bound together because of our Father and we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And so we really ought to act like it too, right? All right. We're in the same family. You know what that also means? That means that we walk together. We're never alone when we're going through the valleys of life and the dark times and the illnesses and the sicknesses. We have family, brothers and sisters in Christ. We are a family. Are you glad you're part of the family of God?

All right. Let's move now to number two. Now in number two, we're going to distinguish between justification and adoption. Okay. We're going to kind of dig in a little bit to the unique privilege of adoption. The fill in the blanks: adoption is a familial change of status. We just think about that — a familial change of status. In justification, we marvel in the change of our legal verdict before the holy judge. In adoption, we marvel in the change of our legal status where we now boldly come to God, not only as judge, but as Father. All right. But as Father.

We usually think of, you know, when we think about being saved, we think of regeneration. That's what we think of. We think of being born again, right? Being born of God.

But regeneration, as I said before, in Scripture, regeneration is not a synonym for adoption. They are in the Scriptures identified as unique privileges and have unique aspects to them. Adoption is also, even though it's appropriate as it's put in our outline, we shouldn't think of it as just a subset of justification. All right. We just defined justification. What is justification? The legal declaration that one is righteous with respect to the demands of God's law.

But what is adoption? It is the legal declaration by the divine judge that the justified one has now been made a member of the divine judge's family. You see that? Becoming family. It's an amazing blessing. You know, if all we had was justification and regeneration — I just kind of joked around at the beginning and said, you know, it'd improve upon — if that's all we had, then we wouldn't question God's goodness, right? Or His grace wouldn't be seen as deficient. But in adoption, what it says is that we relate to God. We relate to God not only as the One who gave us life, not only as the One who provided righteousness, right, but as a compassionate, loving, heavenly Father. And that speaks of His disposition to us now when we're part of His children. And so it's a distinct privilege that the Bible speaks about. It is an extravagant expression of love that He adopts us into His family.

In fact, J.I. Packer — I don't know if you've heard of J.I. Packer — he called adoption — this is just a human Bible scholar commenter, but he's respected — he said that adoption is the apex of grace and privilege, meaning the highest pinnacle of grace and privilege to be called the child of God, to be adopted by God. I've got a better authority though than J.I. Packer. How about the Apostle John? All right. Look down on your outline. Let's see. In fact, flip over. Flip over on the second page. Under two. Look at 1 John on the reference verses subsection two there. 1 John 3:1–3. Listen how he exclaims this, and this is not him talking in a monotone voice. He sounds excited here based on the substance. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God!" You see that? "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God." We who were once alienated and enemies because of our sin are actually called the children of God. All right. What a privilege. What a privilege. He's your Father. All right.

Any thoughts before we move on to number three, application, right? Let's go back to the other side. Okay. Okay. The application — we're going to talk more about this in just a few minutes. It says, "Come boldly to the throne of grace." And why do we come boldly? Because we're not coming to our judge. We're coming to our Father. Right? It's a big difference. We're coming to our Father, our heavenly Father. That's how He taught us to pray. Heavenly Father. We're going to talk more about that in a few minutes. Let's go to number three.

All right. Now we're going to kind of start to tap into the privileges of adoption. Brian.

Okay. So adoption is a familial change of status. And the last two — verdict and status. So legal verdict, legal status. Legal verdict, legal status. And that's — I'm glad you brought that up because that kind of sums up the difference between justification. Right? We have the verdict of not guilty. We have the status as son, daughter, right, child. All right. So that was a providential miss on my part. We got to amplify it even more. Let's go to number three.

The moment of our union — fill in the blank — the moment of our union with Christ is also the moment we are regenerated, converted, justified, and adopted. I like this expression in the next sentence. I highlighted it: communion of benefits. The communion of benefits, which results from this union, involves a change of state or relation, which is called adoption.

Adoption is the full love, pleasure, and care of God toward the sinner because of the sinner's new relation to Christ. A sinner is adopted by God only because he is united to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. So this is talking about the riches that we share in because He is our heavenly Father. It speaks of His disposition toward us. Right?

You know, Jesus told — Luke chapter 11 — Jesus made the point that, you know what, even an evil man gives good gifts to his children. I believe He says if his son asks his father for a fish, his father is not going to give him a snake, even an evil man. If an evil man — if the son asks his father for an egg, he's not going to give him a scorpion. Even evil men give their children good gifts. And He says, how much more does your Father want to give good gifts to you? And I think in the context there is the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the chief privilege that we have as adopted children — the gift of the Holy Spirit. Right? He takes up permanent residence in our lives, who frees us from bondage or enslavement to sin, who fits us for fellowship with the Lord, right? The Holy Spirit, who persuades us in our hearts that we are the children of God, that we belong to Him.

And so we have the gift, of course, of the Holy Spirit. This speaks though of His disposition. In other words, God is not some distant, cosmic, disinterested, albeit generous benefactor. No, He is a personal, loving, heavenly Father. It's His good pleasure to bless His children. That's why we'll see at the end, He even makes us heirs and sharers in the kingdom of God, right, in Christ, because of being united to Christ. All right, so He is a good God and He gives good gifts to His children. Implied in that is the gift of prayer, which we'll, I think, talk about in just a few minutes. I don't want to jump ahead.

All right, so Galatians 3:26–29. For your — now here's the — how is adoption mediated? It's mediated through faith, just as justification is mediated through faith. "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." And then Matthew 3:17: "And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, 'This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'"

Application, and this is a fill-in-the-blank and a question you can answer: can one be in God's favor apart from faith in Christ? No, one cannot be in God's favor apart from faith in Christ. For faith is the means, the instrumental cause — remember that fancy word — by which we receive these gifts, all right, is our faith and our trust in the promises of God.

All right, and that's a good place to — when I was in college, if you go to almost any secular college and you go into the religion department, first of all, you're walking into a place of doom. You're walking into a place of dread. And I remember sitting in a religion department and I think Adolf Harnack was the guy's name, something like that, and he talked about the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of men, you know, and we basically thought that, you know, we're all God's children and we're all His and we belong to Him equally, and then the brotherhood of men — we're all family because we're all in the human race. Well, I guess that might sound good on some level, but it's not true, right? It's not true. There's no such thing as the universal fatherhood of God other than creatively — God has created all. All right, but He has a family and the members of His family have been adopted because of His good pleasure and because we responded in faith and put our trust in Christ. All right, and so the universal fatherhood of God is a myth. If you ever hear that, turn it off. All right, I had to listen to it for a couple of days. It was really bad.

All right, number four. In ancient times, young adult males of good character were adopted by childless couples to become heirs and carry on the family name. That's interesting, isn't it? Adult young males of good character — kind of got to go to the draft and pick who you want. Contrary to that, listen to this: the eternal Father who has always known perfect love and blessedness with the eternal Son and eternal Spirit graciously adopts men of bad character to be partakers of His perfect triune fellowship and glory through union with Christ. All right, this is obviously emphasizing the unmerited favor and the grace of God in adopting us. It wasn't because of our good looks or our intelligence — just look around. That wasn't planned. All right, it's because of His mercy and because of His grace.

Let's read Ephesians 1:3–6. This makes it clear. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the beloved." And the application, of course, is this — fill in the blank: "As with our justification, our adoption is unmerited."

Unmerited. God didn't look through the tunnel of time and see how good you were and decide to reward you. All right, it's only by His grace. A few years ago, Melissa and I were driving through Cleveland, Georgia. I don't even remember why, but we were driving through Cleveland, Georgia. And on the side of the road, we saw this huge building up on a hill. You know what it was? It was the Babyland General Hospital — Cabbage Patch headquarters or whatever. I don't want to spend much time on this, but the bottom line is we went in there, Melissa wanted to go in there, we went in there. And you know what they actually did a couple of times a day? They did births. They were doing births. They had a doctor come in and they were pretending to do a birth of a Cabbage Patch baby. And then you could adopt that baby — you could pay some handsome sum, I'm sure, and adopt that Cabbage Patch child.

And I was thinking, you know, we were as dead as that stuffed Cabbage Patch, spiritually speaking. Yeah, that's how dead we were. I'm going to stop right there because that analogy will break down if you take it much further. But we had no merit. We had no merit. Purely His grace that He accepted us. All right, let's move on now to — well, let's get our — yeah, let's move on to number five.

Okay, number five. In ancient times, a father would officially adopt his own natural son as his legal representative and heir. This was a rite of passage for Jewish, Greek, and Roman children, denoting that he legally passed from childhood into full adult standing.

And that obviously should have implications for the way we live our lives. Right? We don't walk around trembling in fear, walk around in a spirit of condemnation, but we walk around knowing we're bearing His name. And we don't walk around trembling in fear, we don't walk around in fear, walk around in a spirit of condemnation. But we walk around knowing we're bearing His name, that we're a member of His family, that we're a representative of Him.

When you were a kid, were you ever ashamed because you embarrassed your father? I was a preacher's kid. The eyes were always on you. And you know, even as a child, I knew when I did something that was bad. I knew inside — not because any guilt was imposed on me — but I knew I was kind of shaming the family name, you know, by doing something I shouldn't do. I forget whether I was paddled at school or got in-school suspension or something like that. We represent God as His children. And we ought to — in fact, later we'll talk about it — be imitators of God, right? Yes. Okay, here's the three blanks: representative, heir, and guardian.

Guardian. Okay. And then Galatians 4:1–3 and verse 7: "Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is a 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." That's before our union in Christ, of course. And then verse 7: "Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." And we'll talk more about that heirship in a few minutes. And then Romans 8:14–15: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father.'"

Abba, Father is found in this outline three or four times. And I think it's probably every time in the New Testament you see it, it's in this outline because it's only used a few times. It is an Aramaic word and it's an informal word for father that is very intimate. It's like an endearing term like "daddy." Okay. And it speaks of the intimacy that a child of God has with the Father. In fact, Jesus, when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane — I think it's in your outline, in the Gospel of Mark, Mark 14:36 — when He was in Gethsemane, He prayed, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will." And so in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus used that very intimate term, "Abba, Father." And it's amazing to think that you and I can use the same expression that Jesus used when we pray and when we go to our heavenly Father, "Abba, Father." It speaks of that tender, the tender mercy, the tender relationship there.

All right. Application: "Do you represent God in this world as His child? How?" All right. So the fill in the blank is, "Do you represent God in this world as His child? How?"

Anyone want to give an answer to that? That's kind of an application question. How do we represent God in this world?

Not conformed? That'd be transformed, right, by the renewing of our mind? We don't think the way the world thinks. We're separated. We live differently. There's a quality of our life that is different because we're not bound to this world and He's our heavenly Father. All right. 1 Peter, right? We go to His house a lot. We go to His house a lot. Yeah. I know kids come back to their house a lot. Yeah. We just want to spend time with them, right? We want to spend time with them. We want to be with His family. In fact, that's a sign of salvation. You know, we've passed from death to life — the love we have for fellow believers, for the fellowship. All right.

All right. So now this next section I really like, okay? So we're going to talk here a little bit about how we ought to pray knowing that we are God's children. Number six: in adoption, we have been given a perfect Father who perfectly loves us. We come to the Father through the Son like a small child. His Spirit comforts us that we're His dear children. Okay?

We ought to think of our — we usually don't want to think of ourselves as children, but in this context, that's how we come to our Father. Look at Romans 8:15–16: "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."

And this is one I want to focus on, Matthew 6:7–9: "When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven."

It says there, "When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do." Don't want to be heard for your many words. Think about how a child approaches his father with a need. I've got a seven-year-old grandson. The ice cream truck is in the neighborhood. Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. Does that seven-year-old walk up to his father and say, "Oh, patron headship, wouldst thou grant me some currency that I might traverse down the road to encounter the dairy vendor and exchange this currency that I may partake of a dairy delight?" (Laughter)

You know, if your son did that, you wouldn't think he was your son. Would you? You just wouldn't think that was your son. And yet, so many times, we feel like we have to have this formalistic approach, right, when we pray to God, that we have to use many words. We used to have a Christmas annual state attorney's office get-together, and the same person said the prayer, and it was one of those PC prayers, those politically correct prayers, you know, "Oh, great architect of the universe." And it was a prayer that wouldn't offend anyone with any beliefs, right? I think that was the intention. But He's our heavenly Father, right? The seven-year-old kid, you know, he says, "Hey, Dad, there's the ice cream truck. Can I have a couple bucks for an ice cream?" Right? Straightforward, honest, and we really can talk to our heavenly Father that way.

Are we going to impress Him with our vocabulary?

All right, and we shouldn't try to impress others, all right? Mark 14:36, and He said — and this is the passage in Gethsemane we already read — "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will." All right? And so the application is this: do you trust God as a little child trusts his father? Boy, that's a challenge, isn't it? We know our little children trust us. It's scary how much they trust us, isn't it? Because we know how flawed we are, and yet they do. They trust us with everything, at least the little, little ones, right? And we ought to have that trust in our heavenly Father because He is reliable, and He is trustworthy, and He is perfect, and He won't fail us. All right, did we get all the blanks?

Number seven. Number seven. In adoption, we have become joint heirs with Christ. Christ, the heir of all things, shares His inheritance with us. Christ imparts Himself to us through His Spirit so that we inherit God. God Himself is our portion and our lot. This is the present and eternal blessing that every believer participates in.

This is talking about being joint heirs with Christ. Look at Romans 8:17: "And if children, then heirs." Let's just stop there for a minute. We talked about human adoption. What happens with estates in secular life? A person dies. I mean, in the normal course of affairs, a person dies, and they bequeath all that they have to their children, right? They pass it on to their children. Look at Romans 8:17: "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." Boy, there's one of our inheritances. Here it consists of glorification, which we'll be talking about in a few weeks. Psalms 16:5–6: "Lord, You are my portion and my cup of blessing. You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance."

All right? And so just like that earthly example I gave you, in a similar way spiritually, we have no natural claim in ourselves to the kingdom of God. Would you agree? We have no natural claim, right? But by grace, having become God's adopted children, we thus become legal heirs. And 1 Peter calls it an inheritance that is imperishable, that is unfading, that is undefiled, and it is kept in store for us. All right? That's pretty staggering. What it's saying there — those verses — "Everything that Christ receives by divine right because He's the eternal Son of God, we receive by divine grace because we are the adoptive children of God." Right? You get that? That's what that passage is saying, right? Because Christ is God's Son, all that the Father has belongs to Christ, and because we are in Christ, everything that is Christ's is ours. And so it's talking about our full inheritance here.

It talks about the future — a glorified body. How many of you want a glorified body? As I look at my profile back there in that TV, I want a glorified body. It has been painful to stand up here and see that over there. You know? Put something up. Put a curtain up. That's vanity. There's no vanity like that vanity. This body is — you know, it just fails. We get sick, you know that. We have sickness in our own church family. The Bible says we've groaned in this body of sin, right? And yet we are promised — the consummation of our adoption is when we receive our glorified bodies. There'll be no infirmity and there'll be no sin. And that's part of our inheritance. That's the consummation of our inheritance. And it is what we have because we're united to Christ. All right? And we're going to be talking about glorification in a few weeks because that's also a blessing wedded to our unity in Christ.

How are we doing on time? I lost my watch. I got a new battery and I can't find it. Okay?

Okay. Let's go to the application. How do you presently enjoy your great inheritance? And by the way, the inheritance begins now, right? How do you enjoy your inheritance?

Spending time with your heavenly Father, spending time with your brothers and sisters. All right. Fellowshipping. Anything else? How do you enjoy your inheritance? Being at peace. Okay.

All right. Let's go to number eight. As Father, God will train us in righteousness, care for us all of our days, and bring us home to be with Him forever in glory. All right? In Ephesians 5:1, we just finished a study in Ephesians. Ephesians 5:1 says this: "Therefore be imitators of God as dear children." All right? As dear children, be imitators of God. We used to have some folks in a church I was at one time and you could have been a day-one visitor at that church having never attended, and you could have seen these three boys and you would have known they belonged to that dad because they looked identical. You know, they look just like him, right? We ought to — I'm talking about the Langer boys, right? And so we ought to be imitators of God. We ought to, when others look at us, hopefully they see Christ. They don't see fallen flesh and an enslaved carnal man, but someone who has been changed.

Look at Matthew 6:25–26: "Therefore I say to you" — this is one of my favorites, this is a great passage — "do not worry about your life." Someone needs to hear this tonight, I think. "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about" — and by the way, I'm not saying I got a word from the Lord, right? I didn't get a word, it was just a thought I had. I want to make that clear for the record, all right? "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns." You know, the birds are not on a branch having an ulcer or worrying about their retirement, all right? "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they?"

This next verse I've probably heard a thousand times because I worked at a funeral home for seven summers and it was probably said there more than any other verse. It says, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and I prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."

So adoption is a call to holiness. It's a call to be imitators of God. It says in 1 Peter, "Be holy, for I am holy." Right? And so the application is this: "Follow Christ, live for Him, and look for His coming." Look for His coming. That's something I don't think we do enough of. I confess I don't do enough of it. I told Melissa this morning as I was looking over this outline, I probably shouldn't end it on such a banal note — do you say banal or banal? — but when I outlined this, I thought of our little Boston Terrier.

It says, "Look for His coming." When Melissa leaves the house, she could be gone for ten hours. Our Boston Terrier is in the window and every car that goes by — is that her? Is that her? Is that her? And as long as she's gone, he doesn't care about me. I mean, you know, if I got some food or something, maybe. But he's waiting to see Melissa pulling into that driveway. And when he does — glorious moment for Shamrock. All right? Yeah, that's the way we ought to be in terms of looking for His return, right? Looking for His return, longing for His return, like Shamrock longs for Melissa. All right? Well, that wasn't a glorious, sublime note to end on, but I hope it was a decent application.

And we just scratched the surface, folks. There's a whole bunch of verses there that I would encourage you to take a look at and read, but the blessings just keep going. And we're going to close with a song that tracks the message: "I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God."