Beloved, Now We Are Sons of God | 1 John 3:1-3

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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Before I begin the sermon, I was going to make a comment about the hymn we just sang,

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The Old Rugged Cross. You know it says, To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,

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Its shame and reproach gladly bear. You know, there's a sense in which

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I can see that's true, but the reality is that the one who bore the shame and reproach was gladly born by Christ on our behalf, on the cross, right?

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So that's the beauty of redemption, is that he bore our shame and reproach on that cursed tree.

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So, and yes, we are persecuted and reviled for his sake, which is, we count it all blessing.

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So it's something that we just need to bear in mind. There's a both and there, in a sense.

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Now, in 1st John chapter 3, I want to go ahead and reread that so that I can, as is my custom to add some drive -by commentary here.

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Let's begin with verse 1 in 1st John chapter 3. And God's word says,

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See how great a love the Father has given to us by grace alone, that we would be called children of God, and we are now already.

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For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God.

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And it has not been manifested as yet what we will be. We know that when he has manifested, and remember last week

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I explained that this is better translated as when it does become evident what we will be, we will be like him.

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We will reflect his glory as members of his family. Because we will see him just as he really is.

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Because we belong to his inner family circle, right? We are near to him.

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And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure.

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So last week I preached specifically on the end of verse 1.

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For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him. And this verse is sandwiched by some glorious gospel promises and assurances of our adoption as sons and daughters of God.

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And I'm really looking forward to this message. This is such exciting stuff to cover.

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And we understand that to see him as he truly is, is to know him, right?

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To understand him, to believe him doctrinally, intellectually, by faith.

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You know, don't let these pietists tell you that, you know, oh, the head is the head, and you're all head and no heart, and you're too intellectual and all this stuff.

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There's no such thing as being too intellectual, okay? There is such a thing as having balance, because faith without works is obviously dead.

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But sound doctrine is the foundation for everything. And it is the truth of God that saves us and sanctifies us, as we will continue to see.

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And this seeing him is the promise of eternal life. It's a promise.

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It's an objective, propositional promise that God will do these things for us, and he already has.

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It is to believe, to understand, and accept the words of spirit and life of our precious

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, by faith alone. And I mentioned, too, that the

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Apostle John is not introducing a completely new concept in these verses, regarding the

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Father's great love for us, right? Previously, the letter several times mentions

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God as Father, though always as the Father, the

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Father. So, the Father, that sounds a little more formal, more respectful, more honorary, and it's a little less personal, you might say.

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Like, you know, for example, in 1 John 1, 3, where the word says, our fellowship is with the

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Father, our fellowship, our koinonia. And when the

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Apostle addresses specific groups of people, you know, he says, fathers, young men, children, all those things, he also says,

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I have written to you children because you have known the

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Father, 1 John 2, 13. You have known him already. It denotes intimacy with God, right?

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This knowing him truly and fellowshipping with him. And also, the one who confesses the

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Son has the Father also, has the Father also.

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1 John 2, 23. And if what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the

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Son and in the Father, right?

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1 John 2, 24. So, this is painting a picture for us. These verses describe, they indicate something.

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They indicate various characteristics of our relationship to God, the

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Father, right? The Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost.

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And, but look at how this progresses. As the letter progresses, these crescendos keep compounding.

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They keep building up into something glorious in the passage that we are now in.

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Into a glorious reality or a glorious gospel indicative.

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Indicative is what the reality is, what it truly is.

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Who we really are and who God really is. Because this particular passage in 1

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John 3, verses 1 through 3, it now makes it even more direct, more personal, more assuring, more reassuring, and more applicable to us.

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Because it makes it more explicit, more emphatic that He is now our adoptive

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Father. Not just the Father, but our

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Father. Like, as in our Father who art in heaven.

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Amen? Like Jesus says, we should pray because He is now our

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Father, not just the Father. In fact, there is at the very least, at the very least, a fourfold, a fourfold emphasis on God's special, adoptive, fatherly love for us.

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And if you look carefully, I even went, found a sevenfold emphasis.

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Let's go back to the passage and look at that emphasis that God is making.

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It's amazing how emphatic and clear God is declaring to this, this glorious gospel indicative and promise.

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See how great a love the Father has given to who? To us, number one.

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God gives us, the Father gives us His love. That we would be called, therefore, children of God, number two.

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And we are already, number three.

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For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God.

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Now, we are. Gospel indicative, reality, we are, number four.

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And it has not been manifested as yet what we will be, number five.

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It's guaranteed. What we will be is guaranteed by virtue of what? His adoptive love for us.

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We know that when it becomes evident, we will be like Him, number six.

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We will be like Him by virtue of becoming members of His adopted family.

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Adoptive family. Because we will see Him just as He really is, number seven.

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We see Him as He truly is because we belong to His inner family circle.

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Wow, that's just an amazing, just an explosion of gospel revelations to us of who we really are.

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And we can't lose sight of this. This is such a sad state when

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Christians don't understand this properly. That God is our Father.

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God is our Father now. Now, not later, now. And. Because of the father's amazing love for us.

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His love for us. We are now called children of God, our father.

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Sons and daughters of God, the father. As his adopted, beloved children.

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We are his beloved children. And we really are as if almost like how you.

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You cannot doubt this because we really are. We are. Even now.

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Not later now. By His grace through faith. And not only that, we also have so much more to look forward to when it does become evident.

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That. What that we will be, what we will be in him in the future, we will be like him.

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We will be like him. Glory manifested and realized in us.

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Our hopes fully and finally fulfilled. His promises kept.

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To us. Our purification. Our sanctification complete.

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Finished. Perfected. The telestai.

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Right. The telestai glorified. So these are some of the many and great assurances that we have now.

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Right now. And what great expectations we have later.

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To look forward to. When it's all completed. By God's gracious means.

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And grace and spirit. Remember, though, until then.

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Until our glorification and our resurrection. Our hope remains fixed on who?

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On him. Right. And our hopeful. Our hopeful purification.

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Our sanctification is a lifelong daily necessity. We have confidence that our sanctification works because God is the one who works in us.

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Right. Through his means. But we have to. We need to continue to strive towards that.

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That end. Because it's not. We haven't achieved it yet. Received it yet. Now. As as as we always have to establish.

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What we mean by what we say. Right. We need to define our terms.

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So what exactly is adoption? What is adoption? And I love how the

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Baptist larger catechism puts it in question 67. Adoption is an act of the free grace of God.

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The father. In and for his only son, Jesus Christ.

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By which all those who are justified are received into the number of his children.

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Have his name put on them. We have his name put on us.

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We have his mark on us. Have the spirit of his son given to them.

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By virtue of his love. Are under his fatherly care.

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Forever. Forever. Are welcomed to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God.

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And are made heirs of all the promises and fellow heirs with Christ in glory.

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Amen to that. That is a beautiful summary of what

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Scripture teaches as a whole. The analogy of faith. This is the doctrine of adoption that the

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Bible teaches. It is amazing. And, you know, it's a shame how and it's sad how there's other, you know, other theologies that we don't agree with, like dispensationalism that says, well, some promises are only for Jewish believers.

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Some promises are only for Jewish believers and others are for Gentile believers. That's not how

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God works. The church is true

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Israel. The chosen of God is true Israel. The remnant has always been true Israel.

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It's not those who are of Israel who are true Israel. Those who are true

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Jews are Jews inwardly by faith. Right. And God's promises are for all of us who receive that by faith.

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And are therefore sons of Abraham. The father of the Jews. The true

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Jews as well. The son of promise through Isaac. Right.

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So now it is true that we should not neglect the glorious doctrine of adoption when sharing the gospel.

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We should try to clarify, correct and connect as many doctrinal dots as we can.

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Always, especially when sharing our faith with others, when evangelizing and things like that. But we must also learn to properly and logically deduce these doctrines from scripture as a whole, from the whole counsel of God and relate them to each other and ground them accordingly with the right foundations.

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Like when I covered a few weeks ago, justification by faith alone. Foundational.

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And in his video, Todd Friel had quoted another excellent Puritan called

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Richard Sibbes, known as the heavenly doctor. Excellent, excellent author.

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Highly commend him to you. But he said something that, you know, let's examine it. He says justification brings us near, but adoption brings us into his household.

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It's like, OK, OK, wait a minute. Is that right?

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Is that right? Justification brings us near, but adoption brings us into his household.

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I said, ah, I was like, what? That didn't really sit well with me. We have to be careful there.

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We have to be very careful here not to lose our balance, but to stand fast on the right foundation, right?

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Because saying things like this can be misleading and easily misconstrued because the plain and simple reality is that our justification is what grants us eternal life with our heavenly father.

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He who believes shall have everlasting life and grants us, therefore, peace and acceptance with God.

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God accepts us into his family by faith alone.

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How we are justified. And this is all part of a seamless, unbreakable golden chain of redemption, of doctrine, systematic theology, in which one follows and connects and is related to the other.

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All a chain. You can't separate the chain. It's all a chain. It's a whole. You can't compartmentalize them that way.

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To say, oh, well, justification brings us near, but adoption brings us into his household. No, you've got to be careful.

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Be careful with that. Because those whom he foreknew, which means foreloved, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that we would be the firstborn among many brothers adopted into his family.

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He's talking about us. And those whom he predestined, he also called.

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And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

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That's the golden chain of redemption from Romans 8, 29 through 30. And I'm reading here using the

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LSB. So yes.

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Now, let's carefully look at this. Because we have to see here, justification wasn't listed first.

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Right? God first foreknows us, foreloved us from eternity past.

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It's God's election. That's really first. God's choice.

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But justification is the beginning of the how. How he loves us.

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How he accepts us. How he accomplishes and applies our redemption in Christ to us.

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Because it is by faith alone. Right? These doctrines are, once again, parts.

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They're all parts of a larger whole, of the entire scheme of salvation.

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And all the blessings that flow from our union with Christ by faith alone.

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Sola Fide. They cannot be isolated, disconnected, or pitted against each other.

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They cannot be. And one of the many important reasons why we need to know logic.

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And why we need the analogies of scripture and of faith. Right? We need these things to make sense out of the whole.

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The parts and the whole. So that we don't disconnect things or unplug things where we shouldn't.

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Because not just these doctrines specifically about salvation, but all doctrine must be properly, logically understood.

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Related, linked, grounded, consistently harmonized, according to their proper logical order and priority.

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Okay? These, all doctrine must be properly, logically understood, related, linked, and grounded.

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According to their proper and logical order and priority.

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Because there are foundational doctrines, and then there are primary doctrines, and there are secondary and tertiary doctrines as well.

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Right? We have to make sense of all of those things. We have to rightly divide God's word properly.

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Make sense of it. Cut it rightly. Never forget, beloved, that our adoption is the eternal blessing that it is because of the justification that it rests on, that it relies on, and that it is based on.

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Our adoption is the eternal blessing that it is because of the justification that it rests on, relies on, is based on, by faith alone.

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It begins with justification. And the judicial aspect of the gospel, the legal aspect of the gospel, of justification by faith alone, is the gospel.

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That is the gospel. It is the foundation, the hinge upon which all religion turns.

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The article by which the church stands or falls, like Calvin and Luther said, respectively, is this glorious reality, this doctrine of justification by faith alone.

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Nevertheless, and this is somewhat similar to what Todd Friel had said in that video, there is a relational and judicial legal blessing that comes from the gospel.

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It stems from the gospel, a tremendous privilege, benefit, and blessing that flows from believing the gospel by faith alone.

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Because when God justifies us by his grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, he no longer sees us as guilty criminals.

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And we no longer face him as guilty criminals before a just and holy judge.

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Because he is now our father. He's our father now. We are his sons and daughters.

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Even though he still is the just judge and will forever continue to be.

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He never stopped being the just judge. The holy, holy, holy righteous judge that will punish all evildoers, reprobates.

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So keep in mind that while God loves us so very much, he who indeed did not spare his own son, his only begotten son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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This is the effusive, overwhelming love that God has for us.

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Yet this same love, this same love that God has for us also prunes us.

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It prunes us, disciplines us, sanctifies us, cleanses and purifies us.

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And sometimes through trials, sometimes through persecutions, he is still the righteous, just, holy, holy, holy judge.

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The thrice holy God of the Old and New Testaments. The I Am. And he does not indulge sin.

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He does not indulge sin. He disciplines us when we sin. And you know, this reminds me of a time when

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I was more recently converted and I was attending a church where we were having a

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Bible study. And one of the ladies there said, you know,

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I used to think that God was this like sky cop. He was this cop in the sky that was looking for what we were doing wrong and everything.

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And then I realized that, oh, he's actually my father.

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I realized that he's my father. He's not some sky cop looking at what we're doing wrong.

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He's my father. Now, and then I was like, wait a minute. And I was kind of talking to her a little bit.

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I said, well, but he still is a sky cop to those who don't believe in him, right?

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He still is a judge. He's still going to go after the wicked and judge them.

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He never stopped being the judge. So we have to see this is where like people just lose their balance and like, oh, well,

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I used to think God was this harsh condemning judge. And now he's my father.

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It's like, wait, what? Yes, he is our father if we believe in him. But don't ever forget that he is still the just judge.

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He is both and. And again, it's how the scriptures plainly teach

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Romans 9. What if God purpose to endure the vessels of wrath to demonstrate his glorious justice and his wrath, make his wrath known to showcase his attributes, just as on the other hand, he showcases and blesses and redeems the vessels of grace and of mercy, whom we all are if we believe in him.

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Right. Turn with me now to Hebrews 12, verse 5. This is what we must understand by virtue of the whole counsel of God.

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The whole counsel of God, like the word says,

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God, the goodness and severity of God. He has both.

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He has both. He will by no means pardon clear the wicked.

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And to pardon the wicked is an abomination in his eyes. That's why Christ had to be given to us through his perfect, vicarious life and death.

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Hebrews 12, verse 5. And have you forgotten the exhortation, which is addressed to you to us as what?

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As sons. My son, God says to us, do not regard lightly the discipline of the

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Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him, rebuked by him.

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For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he flogs every son whom he receives.

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So sometimes God has to give us tough love because we can be stubborn.

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Stubborn sheep that stray, right? It is for discipline that you endure.

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God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

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But if you are without discipline, of which you all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

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Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much rather then be subject to the father of spirits and live?

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For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them. But he disciplines us for our benefit, for our good, so that we may share his holiness.

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His holiness, his consuming fire of holiness. And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful even.

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Love hurts sometimes. It may even be sorrowful.

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But to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness and holiness, sanctification, right?

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I have so many funny stories about this. You know, I was in a local cowboy church one time.

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Cowboy church. This church looked more like a bar than a church. Posters of cowboy paraphernalia everywhere.

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And this cowboy pastor said, hey, you don't need to be scared anymore.

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God isn't mad anymore. He's not mad anymore at anyone.

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It's like, what? I mean, what Bible are you not reading? You're not reading the

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Bible. What does the Psalms 5 -5 say?

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God is a just judge who will punish the wicked, evildoers. He hates the wicked.

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Psalm 7 -11. That God hasn't changed. And it's actually a heresy to say that the

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God of the Old Testament was cruel and he was cruel and harsh and just, but the

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New Testament God, you know, Jesus, he's more loving and warm and kind. It's like, no. Jesus was even more hardcore in the

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New Testament. You so much as look with lust, you're an adulterer and you will be in danger of hellfire if you call somebody raka, empty headed.

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You so much as you have any stain of sin on you and God will not accept you because God demands perfection.

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And by his grace, he gives it to us through his son. But we must receive it by faith alone.

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Now, even our trials and hardships and afflictions, instead of thinking that God is angry at us, are for our ultimate good and benefit.

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Why? Because God loves us. He loves us. We must understand the fullness of God's love.

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And even when he deals with our sin, because even when we sin, God disciplines us because of his love, his adoptive love for us.

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He restores us unto repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, and restoration.

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That's the full process of church discipline. Through the Holy Spirit who was given to us and convicts us of sin as well.

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And when we confess our sin, like the beloved apostle says, he is faithful and righteous and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us, to purify us from all unrighteousness, all our blemishes.

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His sanctifying grace in 1 John 1 .9. Now that we are

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God's adopted children, our sin is no longer a criminal charge that we must pay the ultimate price for in eternal damnation.

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Why? Because he gave his only begotten son and Jesus paid it all.

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At the place where loving kindness and truth have met together, where righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

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Psalm 85 .10. At the old rugged cross.

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Amen. John 1 .17. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth, the gospel came through Jesus Christ.

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That is the glorious distinction of the law and the gospel. Law and gospel.

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Both are good, but we are saved by the latter alone, by the gospel.

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Condemned by the law, saved by the gospel. And now the law is our friend, it's our benefit.

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Now we love the law because the law sanctifies us rather than condemns us. Now because we are children of God, now already our sin is handled now as a domestic family affair with loving, corrective, restorative discipline rather than with retributive justice.

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Punishment. Legal punishment. Because Jesus satisfied it already.

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Don't ever forget that, beloved. He adopts us into his family now and calls us his children so that we would be called children of God and we are, really, truly are.

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Now, forever. We will never lose that title of sonship because it's

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God's promise to us. No matter what other folks may tell you that, oh, you can fall away, you can lose your faith, you can stray.

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No. No. That's God's promise to us. And he who began a good work in you will tetelestai it.

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Finish it. He is the author and perfecter of the faith and our faith.

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And so it's God's promise and guarantee with his adoptive love by sending his son to live and suffer, bleed and die for us.

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Because when the fullness of time came, God, the father, sent forth his son born of a woman, born under the law, under the curse of the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

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And because you are sons, God, you are. You are sons now.

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God, our father, sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying,

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Abba, father. Our father. He is now your father and my father.

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Our heavenly father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God.

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My oh my, what great expectations we have in this beautiful gospel promise and indicative.

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It's a reality. So live like that reality, beloved, live as children of God.

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We don't need to wait to know this truth to find out after we die and have anxious doubts about whether we're where we're going after we die.

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Because as surely as I see with my eyes, the bread of the

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Lord broken for me and the cup given to me of the Lord's Supper.

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So surely his body was offered and broken for me and his blood poured out on the cross.

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And as surely as I receive from the hand of the one who serves and tastes with my mouth, the bread and cup of the

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Lord given me as sure signs of Christ's body and blood.

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So surely he nourishes and refreshes my soul for eternal life with his crucified body and poured out blood.

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That is from the Orthodox catechism that we recite every Lord's Day.

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Question 80. That's a beautiful, beautiful reality. God's adoptive love for us continues to abide in and continually assures us by his precious, steadfast means of grace and by working in us to perfect us.

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God's adoptive love for us continues to abide in us and continually assures us by his precious, steadfast means of grace and by working in us to perfect us.

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Amen. Because he is now our indulgent father and we will now look upon Christ his son as our defender and advocate instead of our judge like that beloved scholastic reformer, reform theologian

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Francis Turretin said. That's a powerful amen.

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That is an amen truth that we can rejoice in now.

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And Christ, our older brother, our paraclete, our defense attorney, our advocate it is what he is now to us because this changes everything.

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This changes everything. God's love changes everything. His adoptive love. He so loved the world, us, his people that he gave his only begotten son so that all the believing ones may not perish but have eternal life.

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Justification. How deep the father's love for us, like the hymn says.

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How vast beyond all measure that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure.

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Amen. So deep and so true and yet it's such a darn shame that the next part of this hymn practically ruins the whole thing.

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We have to have balance because it says how great the pain of searing loss the father turns his face away as wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory.

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That beloved is heresy. God did not turn his face away in pain.

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God the father did not suffer with the son on the cross with Christ on the cross.

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This is when we fail, like I said to harmonize all of Scripture with Scripture, the totality of Scripture.

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We must have balance, right? Because doesn't

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God's word say that it pleased the Lord to crush him? Isaiah 53 10.

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Did it not please the father to crush him the substitute so that we could be loved and pardoned.

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It pleased him. This is not something. It's such a it's really a bad.

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It's a heresy. And it's an ancient heresy called patcher passionism. No, it pleased him to crush him because of his love for us.

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Theology matters. This is why theology matters. It can be the difference between eternal life and death.

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You know, there's another him too, like the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.

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It soars beyond the highest star. But then what does it say? And descends to the lowest hell.

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It's what? It's like the it's like that that lady that said, oh, well, he's he's.

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Oh, I thought he was a sky cop. But now that I realize he's my parent, he's my father, my loving father. No. Hell is

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God's wrath. God's love doesn't descend to the lowest hell. That's God's wrath.

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We have to be careful. It has to make sense. That doesn't make any sense. It's both.

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And remember, beloved, sound doctrine, sound theology is the purifying power of God, our father, unto our salvation and sanctification.

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Because all that we need for life and eternal life and godliness is through, comes through the full knowledge of him.

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Second Peter one. That is one of the most fundamental truths that we have to internalize and digest and meditate on.

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It is by virtue of his sound doctrine that we are saved and sanctified and continue to be so.

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And by which we become sons by the right gospel, not a false gospel.

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There's only one true gospel and only that one true gospel of grace alone through faith alone.

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In Christ alone gives that to us. Now this is something it obviously we've been seeing how what amazing manner of love is this like the older translations render first john three one.

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What manner of love is this that the father has given to us? And I just want to say you would almost

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I you almost think that pastor David talked to me and asked me what

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I was going to preach on. But he had no idea that I was going to preach on this passage in Matthew seven.

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And yet he just so happened to read Luke 11 9 through 13 from our catechism question, which was the very passage, the parallel passage that I was planning to preach on today.

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It's just God's providence is such a beautiful thing. Again, just one of his many small assurances that he is with us.

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Turn with me to Matthew chapter seven gospel of Matthew chapter seven verse seven.

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So we can see and taste that the Lord is the is love.

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What manner of love the Lord has for us. Gospel of Matthew chapter seven verse seven.

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Ask and it will be given to you. It will be promise.

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Seek. And you will find you will find knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks in faith receives receives.

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And he who seeks finds and to him who knocks, it will be open.

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Notice again, the double emphasis. He emphatically restates this in the active voice in the passive voice or what man is there among you who when his son asked for a loaf will give him a stone or if he asked for a fish, he will not give him a snake.

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Will he? If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, good gifts, how much more will your father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him.

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Therefore, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them. For this is the law and the prophets.

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Amen. Believe this beloved. Believe, trust and rest in God's promises.

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God's promises for us and to us. These are

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God's promises. Our father, God is faithful, steadfast and true and his love never, not ever fails us.

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And I want to give you some something to meditate on for homework.

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When you go home, I encourage you all to read and meditate on Psalm 136.

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Psalm 136 is a beautiful song. That will give you the privilege and blessing of soaking up God's loving kindness.

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Adoptive loving kindness, which endures forever, for ever. Ever. Nothing will keep us from his love, not even our sin.

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And I would like to close with our beloved friend, the

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French reformer of Geneva, John Calvin. I read this quote before, but I think it's a beautiful way to capstone this glorious doctrine of adoption that we can all rejoice in now.

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For it is impossible to think of the dreadful majesty of God without being filled with alarm.

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See, and this is what I appreciate about Calvin. He gets this balance. He understands that God is a dreadful, majestic judge upon which we will burn.

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He will consume us if we stand before him, unless we have the holiness and redemption of Christ.

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And hence, the sense of our own unworthiness must keep us far away. It must keep us far away.

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Cause us to shrink away from him and shame at his coming. Like the first John says in that previous chapter 2.

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That is, of course, until Christ interposed, intervenes, advocates, mediates for us and converts a throne of dreadful glory and judgment into a throne of grace.

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As the apostle teaches us that thus we can come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace.

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He who seeks and asks, what does Christ promise us? Finds it.

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Finds grace to help us in time of need. Hebrews 4 .16

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Blessed promise. Blessed assurance. Jesus is mine and so is the

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Father. Christ given to us by the kindness of God the Father is apprehended and possessed by faith alone.

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Alone. By means of which we obtain in particular a twofold benefit.

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First, being reconciled by the righteousness of Christ alone.

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God becomes, instead of a judge, an indulgent father.

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That's a beautiful, that's seriously one of my favorite phrases. God, our indulgent father.

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And secondly, being sanctified by his spirit, his anointing, like verse

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John teaches us, right? We therefore aspire, we strive to integrity and purity of life.

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Because the hope of him purifies us. He who has this hope purifies himself.

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And we strive towards integrity and purity of life. Amen. This is what

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I love about the reformers, the historic Protestant faithful men and women, and the

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Puritans. These brothers and sisters, they really had the proper balance that we need to internalize ourselves.

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Notice how Calvin rightly explains it. By virtue of being reconciled by the righteousness of Christ.

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By virtue of being justified, in other words, by faith alone. God becomes, instead of a judge, an indulgent father.

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It is because of our justification. That our adoption flows from that.

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And that dreadful throne of judgment, which it still will be, beloved.

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It's still happening. Don't forget at the end of the millennium, Revelation 20, there will be a great white throne judgment.

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And God will punish all who obey not the gospel, who did not believe the gospel.

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All evildoers, all reprobates. But we, beloved, as his adopted sons and daughters, will not only not be judged anymore, we will be co -judges and judge alongside

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Christ, with him. Know ye not, beloved, that we will judge angels, the world, men.

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That is God's amazing love. How can it be that thou, my

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God, shouldst die for me? And I really appreciated from that. I think it was that same hymn, the old rugged cross and that old rugged cross stained with blood so divine, blood so divine.

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Now, obviously, God doesn't have blood, but the word tells us that God purchased the bride with his blood because Jesus is both

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God and man. He's both God and man. He is the

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God -man, our divine God -man mediator. That's what it took.

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It took a perfect God -man substitute, but that's

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God's love for us. It's all by union with Christ. It is such an amazing privilege.

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Beloved, I hope you come away with this refreshed, excited, overjoyed with this beautiful gospel promise of adoption, beloved.

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And I hope it gives fuller meaning to what God's love is. I mean, there's so much more to this.

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We've barely scratched the surface, in a sense. There's so much more to this, but this is such a precious reality that there is nothing that can separate us from his great love for us.

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That's what this passage is fundamentally about. I encourage you to go back and meditate on this passage as well.

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That seven -fold emphasis, really meditate it and memorize the verses, the doctrines, that analogy of faith, that doctrine that it teaches us of that glorious doctrine of adoption.

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And with that, beloved, I'll close out with Psalm 37, which says,

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To delight yourself in Yahweh, and He will give you the desires of your heart, because of His great adoptive love for us.

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Amen? Commit your way to Yahweh, trust in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as a light and your judgment as a noon day.

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Be still in Yahweh, and wait patiently for Him, because the lowly will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant peace.

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Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth, and they shall be called sons of God.

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Amen? Let's close out with a word of prayer. Our gracious Lord, our precious

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Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your great, amazing adoptive love for us,

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Lord. It is such a beautiful, glorious reality. Help us, Lord, to internalize, to meditate, to grasp and understand, to accept and receive as wholeheartedly this glorious promise and assurance, these many assurances that You've given us as our adoptive

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Father, Lord. Thank You, Father, that You've given us the privilege of now calling You, Abba, Father, our

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Father, my Father, in Heaven, and that You redeem us from the world, the flesh, and the devil, and You give us far beyond everything and anything we can ever imagine,

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Lord, so that not only are we assured of this now, but even then, even in the future, even later, we have so much more to look forward to by virtue of what

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You have given us through Your Son, that we will be like You, Lord. We will be like You, glorious, perfect, spotless, blameless, sinless, pure, cleansed, fully, finally, forever.

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We thank You, Lord, and we ask these things in Your glorious, precious Son's name.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorne Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

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Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be

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Biblical, Reformed, Historic, Confessional, Loving, Discerning Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the

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Christian faith. If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries, such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorne Crown Network Podcasts, please contact us at thornecrownministries .com