Being Adopted as Children of God (09/21/2003)

we'll start with verse 4. We've been talking about great things that happen because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Let me kind of go over some of them with you before we start this new topic. We've talked about the fact that we're a part of the eternal plan of God.

We've talked about redemption. We've talked about reconciliation. Those are things that happen to us.

And then we talked about propitiation, which is something that happened for God the Father. And then the fact that we are forgiven because of what

Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross. And then we talked about being joined with Christ in a co -resurrection, a co -burial, and I'm sorry, a co -death, a co -burial, a co - resurrection, and a co -ascension.

And then we talked about being freed from the law in Christ. And then, time before last, we talked about being made children of God through regeneration.

And we talked about how the word regeneration means to be re -gened. And that will be important to remember that when we talk about today's topic because it's important to realize that we have the genes of God to understand this topic.

So this morning, we'll talk about being adopted, being adopted as children of God.

Let's pray together and we'll begin. Father, we thank you for bringing us all safely back together.

Today, we know that you do that with a purpose. Therefore, there must be a work that you would do in our hearts today.

And Father, we know that you do that for your own glory, for your own pleasure.

We thank you that we gained the benefit of that relationship with you, that you've quickened us and brought us alive and made us able to love you back as you have loved us first.

You've put within our hearts the ability to know you and to love you and to walk with you and to learn of you.

And we assume that that learning will be a process that will be ongoing for all eternity.

For you are our great master and teacher. So we ask you to teach us this morning.

For Jesus' sake, amen. Being adopted as sons.

Now this is a topic that perhaps you may not have spent a great deal of time studying.

And sometimes we study things through the light of commentaries we've read or sermons we've heard or even things we've just heard others say.

We pick up these ideas. I don't know where we do, but Brother Otis and I have talked several times about writing a book about things that that you hear at church that aren't true.

You know, little sayings that you pick up. And one of the things that I think we often think is that when the

Bible says that we're adopted, it means that the Jews are the true children of God and we

Gentiles are adopted into his family. And it does not have that meaning at all.

And I'll demonstrate that to you from the scriptures in a few moments. In fact, the word adopted as it's used here doesn't really parallel very well with what we mean in human terms when we say we've adopted a child.

Charlotte mentioned our friends in Mahia that are thinking about adopting this little baby.

There are some things that match this spiritual truth, but really if you think of it as adopting a human baby, you're probably going to miss the point on what adoption means in the

Bible. So let's take a look at it this morning and see what the biblical word for adoption means and the concept means.

Let me read to you what Lewis Barry Shaper says just about human adoption.

He says, according to human custom, adoption is a means whereby an outsider may become a member of a family.

It is a legal way to create father and son relationship as a substitute for father and son reality.

Do you hear that? Now, that's in the human realm. Adoption as we speak of it today in the

Bible terms doesn't fit that. It doesn't fit that at all.

In fact, if we think of the word adoption as we use it in common life, we will miss what it means in the scriptures.

It's kind of like the word baptized. When you see the word baptized in the Bible, you just think of the magistrate back here.

You think of water. You think of being immersed under the water. And really, the word baptized is not even an

English word. It's not even a translation into English. It's what we call a transliteration, which means they took the

Greek word baptizo and just made an English word baptized out of that word. So it doesn't really even tell us what it means when you hear the word baptized in English.

It doesn't mean anything to us. So it carries the connotation of being dunked in water and that's not what baptized means most of the time in the

Bible. It doesn't mean that. More often than that, it means the spirit baptism that occurs at the point of salvation where you are baptized into the body of Jesus Christ.

So there's an example of an English word that can carry the wrong direction in the meaning. Adoption is like that.

So as we study these verses this morning that have the word adoption, try to dismiss from your mind what it means in the physical realm because it does not mean the same thing in the spiritual realm.

I'll show you what it does mean and we'll get more understanding as we read the Greek definition of the word that's been translated into adoption.

So let's go to Romans chapter 9 verse 4 and I'll give you the first point. The first point

I've already kind of covered in the opening remarks, but it does not mean we are quote adopted whereas the

Jews are quote sons. It does not mean that. The best proof of that is found in Romans 9 4.

It says who are Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption.

Well that proves right there that it doesn't mean that the Jews are sons but we're adopted sons because it says it's to the

Jews that the adoption pertains. So if we're adopted so are they. So you can dismiss that idea.

It does not mean that the Jews are true sons of God and the Gentiles are simply adopted into the family.

It does not carry that meaning at all anywhere in the Scriptures. Now also it doesn't mean that we were not true real sons of God but we're merely adopted and the way we prove that is merely to go back to the previous message, not last time but because I spoke on prayer last time but the time before that when we were on this series we talked about the fact that we are generated children of God, regenerated, re -gened.

We've been given the genes of God. In the physical world adoption does not accomplish that does it?

You can adopt a child but you can't give him your genes but God has given us his genes therefore we are the true real children of God.

So adoption cannot mean that we're adopted into his family because we're not real children of God.

Do you see the difference? So you have to kind of lay that aside. When it says we're adopted it does not mean the same as it does in the physical realm.

It doesn't mean that God is not really and truly our real father because he is.

When he regenerated us he gave us his genes, he gave us his nature and he became a part of us and we a part of him.

I in you and you in me Jesus said and we in the father Jesus said we are one.

Therefore it's not like human adoption at all because in human adoption you cannot really be a genetic part of the family.

You are a legal part but not genetic. In biblical terms you're both. You are a genetic part of God's family spiritually of course and you are also an adopted part which is a legal measure but it's more than that.

So let's go further with this. Let's go to the second point about adoption is this.

This adoption is the father's hand reaching from eternity past, we call it eternity past from our viewpoint, into the present and it is a placing as a son legally, positionally, personally and it's palpable.

In other words you can feel it. Go to Romans chapter 8 and verse 15. I won't say you can feel it but I will say you can sense it which really is the same thing.

You sense it with your being from inside. You can sense that you're a child of God.

It is a legal thing. It is a positional thing. Positional if you remember means it's something you can't change.

Did you know that even in the human realm that a natural parent can disown his child but he cannot disown an adopted child.

Did you know that? The law will not allow you to adopt a child and then disown that child.

You cannot do it in any country as far as I know in the world. Therefore the adoption here is legal in that sense but it's more than that because God really is our

Father. So it's legal, it's positional. You see when the human child is adopted by a human parent that position cannot be changed.

There is no way the child can be disowned. So positionally the child is a child of that parent and it's not based on whether he's good or bad.

Whether he does well or does not do well. Doesn't matter whether he pleases the parents or not.

Positionally he's always going to be a child of that family once he's adopted. So it is positional.

It is personal and it's palpable. We can feel it. Romans 8 15 for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry

Abba Father. Now let's look at some of these words. This word adoption like so many other

Greek words we say this many times but most Greek words are made up of two or three smaller Greek words.

So it becomes like math. You just add them together and you get the meaning of the word you're looking at.

But this word for adopt the spirit of adoption is we oath

EC ah that sounds like at least four words doesn't it. It comes from the little word we oath which means son.

We oath a son plus the Greek word tith a me tith a me which means to place.

Now you have to look at this word tith a me a little bit closer because it's very specific word.

There are other Greek words that mean to place but in a different way. This word means to place in a passive or horizontal position.

It is thus different from his stay me which means to place but it denotes an upright and active position.

So notice that even the word itself in the Greek language is a passive word. It shows that it is something that God does to us that we play no part in.

And so when we look at the fact that we are adopted children in the biblical language it doesn't mean that we're not real children but we were added legally at all.

In fact we are real children and that doctrine must be understood first. We have been regenerated.

We have been born from above. We have been born from the one who is the alpha.

We have been born from the first. All of that that we studied already and we have

God's very nature. All of that is true. It cannot take that away.

It adds to those truths and this word saying that we are adopted and we have the spirit of adoption means that we are a son.

The first part of the little word is wheels so it doesn't remove the sonship that we have.

It adds it there. It leaves it there but it adds to that the word to Amy which means to place but it also means to make, to ordain, to purpose, to put.

It's been translated in all these words in the Greek New Testament in English. To set forth, to settle once and for all, to sink down into.

It means all these things. These are just different little colors of the meaning of this word. So it means a son who has been placed as a son by someone greater than the son because it's passive.

It pictures a horizontal placing as if we're just laying there resting. We are resting in this sonship and all of those connotations are in the

Greek definition of this word. So we could add this as another one of the 1 ,000 reasons you cannot lose your salvation.

You did not place yourself there. You were placed there. You were placed there with the

Greek word that's different than the word histemi which means an active placing. This is the word tithemi which means to be placed there and just you're just laying there horizontally and passively doing nothing.

That's what this word adoption means. You could translate it this way where it says for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but you have received the spirit of adoption.

You have been placed. You have been made or ordained to be a son.

You have been purposed as a son. You have been put in the position of a son.

You have been set forth as a son. You have been settled down once and for all as a son. All of those meanings carry this and so it kind of carries the idea of being born again a step further and step deeper as we think about it because what it does is it takes us away from the moment of our salvation in time.

As we say when were you saved? Tell me when and where. You go around you get everybody to stand up and tell when and where you were when you got saved.

It takes you back far before that. It takes you back to the great time when the

Father and the Son and His Spirit met in the great council before anything was made.

Before time as we think of time even began although my theory now this is not biblical this is my theory is at the time of the council time really began because in order for three persons to meet and speak there requires time at least the way we think of it.

So I think time began at the time that the Son came forth out from the Father and sat across the table from Him if you will and they talked as separate persons for the first time and that happens in eternity past from our viewpoint.

At that point time began but earth time had not begun because the earth had not been created.

The angels had not been created. There was nothing but God. But God is everything and so at that time at that great council you were adopted.

You were set forth and placed as a son as a child of God.

It was with a purpose. It carries the idea in fact it's been translated in the New Testament as the word ordained in some places.

You were ordained as a son. You were purposed by God the Father by the

Son by the Spirit of God you were purposed as a son. You were set forth as a child of God.

It was settled once and for all that you were a child. That's what it means when it says you were adopted.

It's not like the physical meaning in the physical realm. It's far greater than that.

It does not take away from you the reality of your sonship. It adds to it the force of God's sovereignty and his will and the ordination that occurred at the great council where everything that was to be was set into place with no possibility of any other possibility.

At that point it was set and God said this is good and this is how it was going to be.

You were set forth as a child of God at that time. All of that is found in the definition of the word.

Isn't that amazing? You see the word adoption you've been given the spirit of adoption.

Now let's go on and look a little bit more. Notice that it says you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry

Abba Father. This is Romans 8 15. Whereby we cry.

This word whereby is an important word. It means this is how this happens.

This is how it happens that you in your heart know that you're saved and you cry out from the heart

Abba Father. Jesus called the father Abba every time he ever named him except for one.

Can anyone tell me where that was? The only time he didn't call him Abba. He was on the cross with all of our sins in his body cursed.

Separated from God and he said my God. He didn't say Abba. He said my

God my God why have you forsaken me? He was in he was suffering separation from God which is hell.

He didn't call him Abba because he couldn't at that point. We have been given the spirit that can cry out and call him

Abba. Not the God of wrath who will judge me to hell but Abba the father of my own.

My father Abba Father. We have been given that spirit and the wherefore is because we have been adopted.

So when you want to understand why it is that your heart cries out that I know

God is my father. He is my intimate father. It is because you have been adopted.

God has purposed that you would be given the spirit of adoption which is the Holy Spirit living in your heart but also it is your spirit as a man or a woman the spirit of man which also knows it.

Now let's go on and we'll see this in a moment. Well before we do that let me mention one other thing. Do you notice in the in the verse 15 where it says you have not received the spirit of bondage.

That's a little bit instructive in learning what adoption is because now it gives us an opposite.

We can learn by comparison but we can also learn by contrast.

So the opposite of whatever this means that God has adopted us. The opposite of that would mean that you would have a spirit of bondage.

Now this word bondage is Dulia which means slavery. So the adoption is the opposite of being a slave to the world the flesh and the devil.

It is the exact opposite of that. So you have been removed as a slave because you have been adopted by the father as his own.

Now let's go to verse 16. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Now that's a very amazing verse. You're dealing with two spirits here not one.

You're dealing with your own spirit the spirit of a man or a woman that you were born with.

Just because you're human you have a spirit. You are a spirit I should say you have a body.

We look at it the other way don't we? We look at ourselves in the mirror and we say there I am and I have a spirit.

It's not really that way. We are what we are is what we can't see and we live in this tabernacle or this tent.

And so we are a spiritual entity but God is as well.

And when you are saved and you have been adopted and you become to the point in time where you're born again the spirit of God indwells your body and he dwells with your spirit in one.

And you become one with his spirit. So this verse with regard to adoption says the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

It is because we've been adopted that we have this going on in our hearts and lives.

It is the spirit of man spirit of God connection which is the proof of or the earnest of our inheritance the proof of our salvation.

It's interesting when it says the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit.

In the Greek language it is a word that means to testify jointly to corroborate.

I'm about to sneeze. Excuse me. To corroborate by concurrent evidence.

Now let me read that without the potential sneeze. It means to testify jointly to corroborate by concurrent evidence.

In other words it is a joint testimony that we are the children of God.

I have evidence me as a spirit I have evidence that I am saved and the

Father has evidence because his spirit dwells within us and corroborates this.

So my spirit cries out Abba Father and the Holy Spirit within me cries out he is legally an adopted child of God.

He has been legally bound as a child who can never be disowned. Here goes another one out of our 1 ,000 reasons and this is a great one.

If it were true that our Church of Christ brothers and sisters and our Pentecostal brothers and sisters

Methodist and on and on Catholics all of them. If it were true that they could say well you were born again but you can lose that.

If that were true the fact is when God puts adoption on top of the born -again experience you cannot lose that.

It is impossible to disown an adopted child even in this realm. And so we are adopted as children of God therefore there is now a joint testimony.

Not only does my heart cry out that I'm a child of God but the Holy Spirit from within concurs as a witness on a stand in a court of law.

The Holy Spirit can you think of a better witness that you could call on your behalf in court?

Your honor I'm going to call the Spirit. But he's not just a

Spirit he's the Spirit and he's not just the Spirit he is the Holy Spirit which means he cannot lie.

And he's going to testify on my behalf and the Holy Spirit then comes forth and says yes this is a child of God.

Can you get it any better than that? When the Bible says the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit it is a joint testimony that you and I are saved.

I testify of it because I feel it in my own spirit. But that can only be carried so far because I can feel wrong things too.

I can be moved in incorrect directions through false information from within as well.

But when the Holy Spirit stands up and says but I testify the same thing nothing can change that.

Nothing can take away from that. So it is a joint testimony the Spirit himself bearing witness together with jointly with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Doesn't say we shall be doesn't say we might be it says we are. Now if the Holy Spirit testifies that you in the present tense are already a child of God how could you lose that without making the

Holy Spirit become a liar? Could you? You could not. Is it possible for him to lie?

So there you have another proof of eternal security as if you needed another proof.

But God apparently thought we needed this one because he did not leave it in the scriptures to say merely that we are children of God.

It says we have been given the spirit of adoption. We've been given the spirit to understand that God before he created anything purpose in his heart in a legal way to make you be his child.

But not just to make you be an adopted as we speak of it in human terms but also a regened child.

He has purposed in his heart before he made anything that you would be adopted as his regenerated child.

And then he gives you the spirit that bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God.

So let me ask a question. Does a true child of God know that he's a child of God? Yes he does.

Yes he does. A joint testimony that we are the children of God.

Our spirit and God's spirit both testifying of the fact. But the emphasis here is on the adoption.

His spirit bears witness with our spirit that we have been placed, made, ordained, purposed, put, set forth, and settled and sunk down as a child of God.

Verse 17. And if children, I think God can put if children here because he's already proven the case hasn't he?

See I conclude therefore that you are a child. Now let's move on he says. Now if this is true we've proven that you're a child now.

You're not only born again but you're adopted. So legally you cannot be disowned. We've now proven you're a child.

If children then heirs. Heirs of God.

Not only heirs but joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together with him.

Now this is interesting because in verse 17 it says if children. And the word children in the

Greek is ticto in this particular word. Ticto that's a cute word. Sounds like tic -tac -toe doesn't it

Ben? Ticto. But you know what the word means to produce from a seed.

So you see we have proof again that adoption does not mean that we are not the gene children of God like it does in the physical realm.

Does not mean that. Because it comes right back in the very next. You have the word adoption in verse 15.

Verse 16 talks about the result of adoption. And then verse 17 says then if we are children who come from God's seed is the meaning of it.

So adoption does not take away from the born -again experience. It adds force behind it.

It adds the sovereign ordination preordination of God.

Of God's will. Of God's desire. You're his child because he desired you.

He ordained you. He set you forth as his child. This is what the word adoption means.

Children here then are not quote adopted as we think of it in human terms but purposed to be delivered as the children of God.

This word ticto has been translated delivered in the Greek New Testament as well. Delivered as to deliver a child a baby.

Now it says if children then we are heirs. The word heir carries the idea of a heritage or an inheritance.

But it also has the word nomos. It comes from two little Greek words. The first one kleros which means the heritage or the inheritance.

But the second word nomos comes from the Greek word nemo which gives the idea of regulation or law.

So therefore you are heirs because of God's law. God has placed down as a law of the universe that you as a child as a regened adopted child are legally an heir with Christ.

That's the idea of this word. But notice how this verse ends. It says and if children then heirs.

Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. It means we are together with him as heirs of the

Father. If so be that we suffer with him. Now look at this phrase that we may be also glorified together.

Glorified together with whom? With Jesus Christ. How can we be glorified together with him?

Are we his equal? Actually we are in him. We are one with him.

And so we shall in fact as born again, regenerated, born from above, adopted and placed into God children.

We shall be joint heirs with Christ and in fact glorified together with him.

This word glorified is soon doxodso. The word soon means together and doxodso means to render glorious.

Notice it doesn't say we are glorious. It says we are rendered to be glorious.

We are made to be glorious because of our oneness with Jesus Christ.

Our union with him because of the Holy Spirit. Because of the one who lives within us who is connected with our spirit.

His spirit and our spirit together testifying that we are the sons of God and that he is our

Abba Father. Because of this we shall be glorified together.

Verse 18, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Us meaning us together with Christ. Now I want you to hang on to verse 18 because you will need this verse in the future.

There will come a day in your life when you don't think you can live another day. A day when you may lose a loved one that you don't think you can live without in this life.

A day when you suffer something worse than you thought could ever happen to you and your family.

And when that day comes, I believe that's the same day that Ephesians talks about when it speaks of spiritual warfare and it says keep on the whole armor of God so that in the evil day you shall be able to stand.

It's that same day. When that day comes remember this verse, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time.

Why do I reckon this? Because I've been adopted. I can go back to before anything was that is.

I can go back to that place in God the Father and God the Son have ordained and set me forth and set you forth as a child of God and placed his spirit within your heart as one giving one testimony the same testimony that yes

I am a child of God and the creator of the universe is my father for I reckon therefore

I can reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to even be placed in the same thought with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Our oneness with Jesus Christ, the glory that shall be revealed.

You can't compare it with any suffering that you will come to in this life. You can think up the worst thing you can think of.

If that happened, which usually it doesn't, usually if you can think of it and worry about it, it won't happen. But when that evil day comes you can't compare it with this glory.

So we see that the adoption that the Bible speaks of is not meaning that we're adopted but the

Jews are not because we and the Jews are all have to be adopted. Why do you think that is?

Because Jesus is the only begotten son. The Jews are not begotten sons any more than we are.

So Jesus is the only begotten son and the Jews and the Gentiles who are part of God's family are adopted but not in the sense that we were outsiders who were brought in legally.

It's not that at all. We are already regenerated. It's just it reinforces it.

It adds strength to it. It puts behind it the purpose and the will of God.

Well another aspect of adoption in the Bible is found down in this passage.

Drop down to verse 21 and it speaks of the ultimate adoption of the body, the physical body, as a future event at the rapture.

But in the same passage that it uses the word adoption to mean the adoption of the body or in other words the redemption of the body, which has not happened yet, in the same passage that it speaks of that as a an event of fact that will take place in our future, it also comes right back and speaks of adoption as a present possession even before that event.

Now follow carefully and see if you don't see these two truths intertwined together throughout this passage.

It says now there is an adoption we speak of where we speak of the body being remade or renewed at the rapture, changed in the air so to speak.

There is that event but we don't have to just look forward at that time as the fact or the place where we receive the benefit of the adoption.

We also have that benefit now and it's intertwined throughout this passage. Start with verse 21. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now and not only they but ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the

Spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body.

So there is an adoption that we wait for but there's also an adoption that we already have because it happened before time began and the scriptures speak of both of them together in this same passage.

Now what's interesting if you understand it this way that we have really been adopted to be with God as a whole even with our bodies.

We will stand before Jesus Christ someday with a perfect body, a flesh that doesn't pull away from God in the negative sense like it does now.

And that is the purpose of the adoption is that we would stand before him that way.

Now what's interesting if you understand that and you understand that it's a future event verse 26, 27, 28 begin to speak of prayer and you see that in the context of this prayer is a temporary mechanism.

Prayer is a temporary mechanism that will last only until we have the adoption of the body as this speaks of at the rapture where we're one and our body is made right and it is saved just like our spirit and soul are saved and we stand before God whole.

Until that time prayer is a temporary mechanism that enables us to have that relationship now.

You understand? We cannot really stand before God because if we did we would be destroyed in this body because we live in a body of sin do we not?

Prayer is a mechanism that allows us to stand before God before we stand before God.

It allows us to be in his presence now. Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities.

Now notice this is in the context of the adoption of which is to wit the redemption of the body found in verse 23.

It's in that context. Likewise the spirit also helps our infirmity. We do not stand before God in a perfect body yet.

So that's an infirmity. We know not what we should pray for as we ought right now.

When we're in his presence we will know we there will be no doubt there obviously the word doubt doesn't apply there but there won't be any question in your mind what you're supposed to do next when you're with him.

You do have that question now however you don't even know what you're supposed to pray for today.

That is a real infirmity caused by the fact that our body has not been redeemed yet.

So the spirit is here to help us with this infirmity. This same spirit, this spirit of adoption, the

Holy Spirit, the one who lives within you and cries out with your spirit that yes I'm a child of God even though my body says no

I'm not. My heart everything that I am truly says yes I am. I am a child of God and he is my

Abba Father. That same spirit is here also to help us with this great infirmity of not knowing how to know

God's will. You don't know what step you're supposed to take when you move from this building.

You don't know whether you're supposed to walk out the pew from the left side of the right side. You don't really know.

That's a great infirmity but God has given us his spirit. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that doesn't mean groanings it means with sighs which cannot be uttered.

And he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit because he makes intercession for the

Saints, listen to this, according to the will of God. He will not pray from within you in any other way than according to God's will.

So the only way you can pray and have a prayer not answered is to play in the rank flesh which is not real prayer anyway.

Out of the desires of a lustful heart that's the only way you can have a prayer of that does not answer.

Isn't that amazing? If you pray in connection with the Holy Spirit you will be praying according to the will of God.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. You see does that not tie in with the verse that says for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

We know that all things, even when the evil day happens, all things work together for good to them that love

God and to them who are called according to his purpose for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

You see conformed to the image is what happens at the time of the changing at the rapture.

And that is spoken of as an adoption that we're waiting for. Waiting for the adoption to wit.

In other words that is the redemption of the body. That is the ultimate purpose behind this.

We are foreknown, we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son.

Moreover whom he did predestinate them also he called. Whom he called now we find ourselves in time.

He calls us in time and he justifies us. And whom he justified them he also glorified past tense.

Now you find yourself here on this earth before the redemption of the body yet seen as God as if you are already glorified.

Isn't that amazing? God's viewpoint is you're already glorified. You're already adopted.

You have been adopted from eternity past. You are adopted and you shall be adopted at the rapture when the physical body is changed in the air.

God sees you as if that has already happened therefore we live that life now. We don't wait until it happens.

We reckon these things to be true and we live accordingly. What shall we then say to these things?

If God before us who can be against us? Well that's all we have time for this morning.

That's not all the points of adoption. I'll keep one for next time. Let's stand and have prayer together.

Father we thank you for this glimpse of eternity. We thank you that as far back as we can look we see ourselves as adopted into your family.

We see ourselves as ordained to be a child of God. We see ourselves as settled as children of God.

We thank you that not only our spirit cries out Abba Father but your Holy Spirit from within cries out in conjunction together with our spirit in unity.

Yes this is a child of God. Father we thank you for that assurance, for that security that you give us.

Now Father let us not rest in our security to the point that we do not do our best but help us to go forth and to do our best and to reckon these things to be so and therefore to live accordingly.

Let us live as children of the King. Let us go forth as children of the

King for that is who we are. Father we ask you to bless our fellowship together.

We thank you so much for it especially as we've missed it for a week. We enjoy it even more today and Lord thank you for bringing us back safely to our church family.