Adoption | The Whole Counsel

Hi, welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder, and with me is Chuck Baggett, and we're looking again at a book called

Salvation in Full Color, 20 Sermons by Great Awakening Preachers. We've mentioned this book before, but let me just give you kind of a refresher.

These 20 sermons are laid out in a theological order. They begin with sermons on the character of God and the law of God and the depravity of man, and they end with topics like the perseverance of the saints, sanctification, divine retribution, and the final warning.

So there's a very specific order here, and that really is one of the great values of the book.

If you get the book, or if you're listening to the podcast and you kind of jump in midstream, or if you pick one of the topics that you think is most interesting, so for instance, if you say, well,

I want to understand regeneration better, or I want to hear what this man said about repentance, and you just run right to your particular topic, then you do miss some of the benefit of the book.

We are looking this week at the doctrine of divine adoption, and the preacher is

John Tennant. So Chuck, can you give us an update on who John Tennant was?

Yeah. John Tennant was the third son of William Tennant, who founded the Log Cabin College in New Jersey.

He was born in Ireland, came to America at 12. Like his brothers, he trained for the ministry under his father, and he was called to a church in New Jersey in 1730.

It was a short pastorate, not because they got mad at him, but because he passed away. He died at the age of 26.

So, short for that reason. But even though it was a short pastorate, the people were very much affected by his preaching.

In fact, Mr. Roberts, in his little brief biography, says that his first sermon appears to have been the means of awakening several of his hearers.

This sermon that we're about to look at, as well as at least one other, maybe a few others, were put together after his death, and his brother

Gilbert wrote a preface, and in it he speaks about his brother

John, and says that he excelled in the polemical.

He was good at argumentation, which I think we can see a little bit in that line of his sermon.

Yeah, yeah. And so he was very good at that, but he was also, in salvation, marked with humility.

And so those two things came together very well in his ministry, so that he was able to take a topic and lay it out well, and yet it was marked with grace and not just an argument.

Before he came to Christ, he had evidently a problem with anger. John, pardon me, his brother

Gilbert says that it cost him many a deep sob, but when God did change him, he changed him remarkably, and this, even in this, he gained a measure of victory over that.

Gilbert says that when he was under conviction, that the conviction was some of the greatest and most violent that he had ever seen.

He says that for several days and nights, John would cry out over his sin, oh my poor soul, oh my bloody lost soul, what shall

I do? Have mercy upon me, oh God, for Christ's sake. And he would come to the edge of despair until finally

God did rescue him, and he says that his conversion was a most remarkable conversion.

When he preached, he spoke with tremendous boldness and power. Again, Gilbert says that when he preached, in his public discourses, he was very awakening and terrible in denouncing and describing with the most vehement pathos and awful solemnity the terrors of an offended deity, the threats of a broken law, the miseries of a sinful state.

So, Mr. Roberts says that there are indications that his 18 months or so at the little church in Freehold bore more fruit than many men see in a lifetime.

Yeah, so, member of a famous family in the Great Awakening, and it seems that they all had similar traits like that, you know, really known for penetrating sermons to the point that it offended quite a few leaders in the denominations in the early colonies.

Yeah. Well, the sermon on adoption really centers around the verse in 1

John 3, 1, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.

And he points out a number of things. And actually, the sermon is extremely precise. We were joking before the podcast that he never met a subpoint he didn't like, because some of the points have 10 subpoints, and the subpoints have subpoints.

And so, it's very Puritan -esque in that way, you know, kind of drawing together into a sermon from all of the

Scripture and life's experiences, anything that is, you know, can be included in this topic.

So, you know, good and bad in that, but certainly a lot of truth here for us. We'll put the outline in the show notes, so you can see that it's pretty extensive.

So we're actually, even in our overview of the sermon, we're not going to hit every single point, but I want to run through the major points, and then

Chuck and I will back up and just talk about a few things that we think are most important. So, he opens the sermon with kind of an introduction on what the basic parts of this doctrine are.

And so, he gives a number of points here. Number one, it is a great and honorable gift when

God adopts. And he talks about being a forensic gift that's legal, and it's a gift that's openly declared, not a secret gift.

And he really does a good job of calling attention to that, that that's so much sweeter for the

Christian to have God declare to your own conscience, but ultimately to all the universe, that you are his.

And it's a gift that's freely bestowed, or the purest form of grace. It is also a gift given by God, and he spends some time on the nature of the donor, the giver, the recipients.

He goes over those. Well, the believer alone, those who we could describe them from the human perspective, those who have embraced

Christ by faith, or from the divine perspective, those who have been called. And then he talks about the cause of this action,

God's love, a benevolent, beneficent love, a love of complacency. And there's so much there, we want to come back to a few of those.

But let me go to the main parts of the sermon now. After those points of introduction, he gives particulars, and he gives three particular kind of main points in the sermon, followed by a fourth point that he calls improvements.

And so, that's kind of the old world way of saying, here's some applications, or some further explanation.

And then he's going to have what he calls directives, and that's applications.

And so, let me just kind of run through those. The three main points of the sermon are, number one, he wants to show the nature and the kinds of adoption.

Now, he gives 10 specifics here, and I'm going to just read through some of those now.

And this is under the first point. So, adoption is a declaration. Adoption is a declaration, number two, of God.

Number three, adoption is a merciful and gracious declaration. Number four, the efficient cause of adoption is the

Holy Spirit. He's the one that actually causes it to occur. Number five, the instrumental cause, the tool that the

Spirit uses in adoption, is the Word of God. Number six, the final cause, what's the purpose of adoption?

That's the glory of God. Number seven, the object of this divine adopting declaration is poor, sinful man.

Number eight, the manner of our adoption, and he talks about union with Christ, and even includes their regeneration, and we're going to come back to that.

Number nine, the terms of our adoption. And number 10, there are two kinds of adoption, he says.

There are human, you know, there's the human adoption, and then there's divine adoption.

And he contrasts those and pulls out some helpful points there. Then he goes on to the second main point, the prerogatives or the privileges that the adopted children of God have.

And there are a number of those. Let me just list a few. We receive an honorable name.

We have a share in the ownership of all creation. All things are our

Father's, and so if we are in Christ, then all these things are ours. Number three, he says, there is conformity to the image of Christ, to the

Son of God. So we can think of a family likeness that is accomplished. Number four, there's a real freedom.

Unlike a servant in a home that receives many privileges, the adopted child is free.

And he gives the spiritual application there. Free from the guilt of sin, we're justified. Free from the dominion of sin, we're freed from its constant rule.

Romans chapter six, free from the condemnation of the moral law. That is, Christ has set us free from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us.

Free from the yoke of ceremonial law and human traditions. You know, legalism, being brought into the family of the king, we are no longer under any sense of obligation to try to earn his love by going through all these forms and religious traditions.

The third major point in the sermon, the exceeding display of God's love.

And he basically shows that in four ways. He contrasts the God that adopts and the people that are adopted.

But he also talks about the impulse or the cause of that. He says it's the pure and incomprehensible and eternal love of God.

And then the price we are bought with the death of the Son of God, the only begotten, the unique Son of God, gives his life that we might be adopted children of God.

Now, under the improvements, he gives a couple of things. First of all, he says we ought to admire

God because of this great gift. And I want to read just a quick quote from that.

He says this, from what to what has God brought believers? From what?

A deep degree of extreme misery. To what? A height of dignity and glory.

Oh, let us call to the admiration of our souls and to all that is within us, this blessed love, this free and undeserved love, this enriching and everlasting love.

Did the angels wonder when they brought the happy tidings of this love to our world?

Did they look with admiration into these things and will not our souls?

So, great reminder. First use of this, first way to improve this doctrine in our lives, admire

Him. Second, he says, it's a good use, it's a good thing, a tool in the hands for self -examination.

How do we know we're children of God? Third use, he says, these realities ought to comfort every true child of God when really lived on daily.

And fourth, they ought to strike terror into the heart of anyone who could hear of these things and still hold

Christ at arm's length. Well, he closes the sermon. And as we said, there are just so many points.

He closes the sermon with two main directions, two final applications. One, to the person who's a child of God, but often finds that they lack assurance or their assurance is weak.

And so, there's a lot of doubt. And he gives some very practical advice, avoid these things and do these things.

And finally, if you are assured of your adoption, he says, he gives certain things that just are appropriate for that life, like honoring

God as a father, submitting to His authority and our obedience, confiding in Him, going to Him as a trusting

Him and loving those who are His children. Well, that's a pretty full survey, but the sermon, like we said, has a lot of sub points.

So, that's the overview. So, maybe we can kind of pull up a few of the key points,

Chuck, and just go back over them. One of the points that he makes is the cause of this adoption is

God's love. He talks about it from three perspectives that, you know, there's the love that kind of plans salvation, the love that carries it out.

But now, where adoption really comes in is, he speaks of it as a love of complacency, which is kind of an unusual term for us.

But the idea that God is at rest in His love, which is a wonderful thought, that He's not up and down in His love toward us, but that it is settled and settled in Christ.

Yeah. Another word we could say, I mean, because complacency has a negative connotation. If I say,

Chuck is a complacent Christian, you would say, what is it about my life that makes you say that?

But if we say God loves us with a love of complacency, we don't mean kind of a shoulder shrugging, eh, you know, kind of indifferent, you know, lack of zeal.

So, complacency, as you said, means that the love of God is at rest, or it's satisfied.

It's not looking at the object of its love for any reason to continue to love it.

There is a determination in the heart of God. His love rests satisfied with us.

And He's not saying to us, John or Chuck, I would like for you to do certain things today if you want to maintain this kind of family love.

Well, we have a couple of great examples of that. Let me give you one, and then Chuck, you can throw in one. One is

Christ, and particularly what Christ says in John 15, and the other is human adoption.

I mean, that really does give us a pale but good picture of what God's saying. In John chapter 15, when

Christ is about to lead the disciples, you know, in these chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, and in the prayer of chapter 17, these are really, one writer called them the inner sanctuary.

These are the holy of holy chapters with Christ and His people saying things that only apply to His people.

And He says to them, in the same way that the Father has loved me, even so I have loved you.

And then He talks about how that would affect their life, obedience, abiding in that love. But let's just take that phrase.

Ask ourselves, how did the Father love the perfect Son of God? And one thing that immediately jumps out is

He never loved the Son with a love of mercy and forgiveness.

The Son never required that. We require that. We want pity and mercy and grace.

We want undeserved love, but not Christ. So, the love that the

Father had for the Son is the term that you just mentioned. The old writers gave it this description, complacency.

The Father looked on the Son with complete satisfaction, delight, joy.

And that's the kind of love that we understand comes in this great work of adoption.

Yeah. So, the other illustration that does pale in comparison, for sure, is the love of human adoption.

Or, back up. It is human adoption.

And we have adopted a couple of little boys, as well as having children by birth.

And in adoption, there is the legal declaration and it's settled. You know, these are your children now.

They have your name and you promised to take care of them and they are to inherit from you like your other children, etc.

All of that is kind of taken care of in the courtroom setting. But also, in that, you could do that,

I suppose, for reasons of just pity, but there's also, I would hope, there's reasons of love and that love is settled there.

I have determined to love this child and so, for those reasons, I've taken them into my home and given them my name, etc.

I don't know that a kid ever looks at adoption that way, especially when they're small and thinks, you know, okay, dad went to court and did these things and so his love is settled.

But as a parent, you would hope so. Yeah. And that brings us to another one of the points we wanted to mention. Is the term adoption referring primarily to a legal change or a moral change?

So, he actually throws in an element that I think, and when we discussed this earlier before the podcast, that really doesn't, strictly speaking, fit with adoption, but it's fine to throw it in there and I think the reason he throws it in there, he wants to guard us against an abuse and we'll talk about that.

But, so, when we talk about earthly adoption, we can see this reflected there.

When you adopted the boys, their legal status completely changed. They were yours and you're theirs, legally, and that's not going to shift.

But there was not a moral change. You didn't say to the boys, now, as we're walking into a courtroom, your moral character in the hallway was one way, but as soon as that judge says, okay, this is done, and we sign on the dotted line, we expect you to begin to act like us.

So, while as adoptive parents, and we have an adopted daughter, we do hope that our children pick up on the better parts of us, you know, not all of us, but, you know, the things we value, we want them to value.

We want them to love the Lord we love, if they don't already, you know, you got the boys very young, and so they've been watching you and they listen to you and to Elizabeth, and so you want to see that happen, but that moral change, that's really up to the

Lord, and that comes with time, you know, as they're molded into your image to some degree, but adoption is primarily a legal shift.

Yes, and while we desire that they take on certain qualities or that they grow to love the

Lord, the sad reality of human adoption is you cannot guarantee that or make them to do that.

You have hopes, but, you know, you parent to the best of your ability, you pray to the Lord, but you can't make them.

One of the wonderful things about God's adoption is that He does see to it that His children all grow up into the likeness of Christ, and there is a moral change, even though adoption is not strictly, as you're saying, a moral change, but a legal change,

God does see to it that that does occur. Go ahead. I was also going to mention in the idea of complacency, when we say that He's complacent in His love, it is that He is settled in His love for you because of Christ, but it does not mean that He now has no expectations, which is, back to the moral part,

He does have expectations. There's the expectation of obedience, and He's pleased with obedience.

He's grieved by disobedience, but the obedience or disobedience does not change the nature of the relationship, which is the complacency again, right?

Yeah, so the legal nature of this, I think, makes that very clear. Your sons are your sons now legally, and that's been declared a legal reality, and when they disobey you, it grieves you, and they may be disciplined, or they may really please you with their behavior as you see them trying to respond in childlike ways, showing love to others, and so you're pleased, but whether they're having bad days, and you're having a bad day, or whether they're having good days, they are your sons, and I think that great application of that for us is there is a solid foundation to our understanding of our relationship with God, much like the idea of covenant.

We have a relationship with God, but it is established in a covenant contract, so I think the benefit of that is though my faith goes up and down,

I know that there is a legal, in a sense, a legal construct here. There's a document here in God's mind that says,

I can't be removed. One thing that people might ask is, well, if you say that God delights in us and is satisfied with us as we are, you know, you think, just as I am without one plea, okay, because of Christ's finished work, would that remove the greatest motivator to holiness?

I have to be holy because I want God to keep loving me. What would you say to that? I would say no, because the

Father's love is the great motivator, and it's not the fact that He loves me that removes the motivation.

It adds the motivation. Yeah, if you love me, you will keep my commandments, Christ says, but we read in 1

John, we only love Him because He first loved us, so there is that wonderful dynamic and unbreakable connection between our awareness of God's love for us and our love stirred toward Him and our love being demonstrated in obedience and not just sentiment.

Um, when we think of the legal and moral changes that happen, so if you, if a person says,

I am a child of God, immediately we might think, well, do you mean like you are in the family of God, or do you mean like you are being molded into the image of that family?

You have a family likeness. I mean, because both of those are biblical, but there are different words the Bible uses for those, and that's why we feel that it's okay to discuss them separately.

When we think of the moral changes, your boys becoming more and more like their brothers and sister, more like you and Elizabeth, um, that change, you know, in the spiritual realm, that's described by regeneration.

That's accomplished by regeneration and sanctification. Those are the moral changes. I am being made differently within.

I am thinking and desiring differently. The legal change of adoption is more akin to justification.

God has done something on my behalf that I did not contribute to. Something for me,

Christ for me, resulted in a great declaration. They are right with me, justified, and they are my family.

Uh, as a friend of ours has said, uh, Andrew Davis in a sermon at Christ Church once said, in God dealing with us like this, we are brought out of the courtroom into the family room, and that's just a really simple way of seeing it.

Another point that Tennant makes that's worth taking some time to discuss is the differences in motives between God's adopting, a motive for God adopting, and the motives that humans often have for adopting.

In one, we often see a selfishness or self -serving reasons, but not so in God.

Yeah, so basic reasons for adoption. One often is that a couple is not able to conceive, and so they want to have children, so they take the route of adoption, which is a very good thing.

I mean, we're not saying that that's a bad motive, but is that a motive that is in some way a mirror of God's motives?

And the answer is certainly not. There is always the temptation when we think of love from our perspective, because our love is almost always motivated by something lovely.

I think that's a lovely thing, that's a lovely person, so I love it. I value it for a certain reason. But with the unconditional love of God, it is just so hard for us to believe that this immense lavishness, that this extraordinary redemptive plan that spans from eternity past to eternity future, that that is solely to give, and give, and give, that we might see what kind of a

God He is. He is not adopting because He's lonely. He did not create because He was lonely.

So, what Tenet says basically is this. None of these choices, take adoption for example, this was not chosen by God because He lacked.

It was chosen because of the overflow of this infinite perfection in God, and He delighted to express it in this way.

So, it's not that He doesn't have children and He wants children. Another possibility, sometimes a grandparent ends up raising a child because their child is not able to raise the grandchild.

And so, it's not that they wanted more children as much as responsibility thrust upon them. And no one is forcing

God's hand either. He has freely chosen to adopt. Yeah. If you view the work of God in salvation as in any measure, somewhat thrust upon Him, like, well, you're obligate.

You created us and look at the mess we're in. So, don't you owe us a little help? Well, no. As we're going to talk about later, when we look at what the

Bible says about those that are adopted, one of the things the Bible says is that we were all in the camp of His enemy.

And this is an infinitely pure God. It's not an emotional thing. It's that there is no claim that we could place upon God having rejected

Him and our representative, Adam. Another way that human adoption is often, not always, but often very different than divine adoption, is that sometimes we might have kind of...

So, we have a desire to adopt, and we do it maybe for mercy or maybe because we can't have children.

So, we would like to have children in our family. But sometimes, even with our most noble motives, there may be kind of an unspoken list of preferences where we say, there are certain things in children that I like and I appreciate, and there's some things

I don't want. I mean, oftentimes, adoption agencies have a hard time getting older children adopted because people say, well,

I would really prefer an infant. Well, so your preferences, you know, why? And so, there are these unspoken reasons.

And so, this is more attractive to me. But when we speak of God choosing to adopt

His enemies through the wonderful work of Christ, every one of them were ugly children, broken, diseased, you know, children that didn't even want to be adopted, that were obnoxious.

And, you know, we must not think that God chose to be merciful and to adopt me because there was something about me that was a little more attractive than Joe over here.

Yeah. One of the reasons I think sometimes people want a smaller child, perhaps, rather than an older child is they think they're avoiding some problems.

You know, you inherit whatever problems that child has if they're older. But while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. God demonstrates His love this way. So, He didn't avoid any of the problems.

Yeah, really, just quite an opposite there. Yeah. Another point we wanted to emphasize was the display of God's love is particularly seen here.

He calls it the exceeding display. And He gives a number of points, but let's just use two of them to contrast the adopter and the adopted.

Now, I didn't run through all those when we introduced it, so let me just kind of run through those, and then we can talk about it.

He talks about the adopter God, the person who adopts. He is the King of majesty.

And He says, now think about that, no one can approach Him. No angel, no man, no woman, and yet He is the adopter.

He is sovereign. He could have created a completely new unstained race, but instead

He desires to adopt from a family, from Adam's fallen race. He is self -sufficient, infinitely self -sufficient, satisfied, and happy in Himself, and no child

He adopts is ever adding to Him. God is not being benefited by us.

He is just and holy. How can a God that cannot look on sin with pleasure seek out with infinite love the sinner to make that person

His family? So that was God's love, a description of it, but then think about the persons that He loves, the character of the persons

He loves. We are a people that Tenet describes as being frail, incapable of doing anything to earn a spot in this family.

You know, we've already talked about parents, you know, kind of choosing this child rather than that child because of what we see in that child, but God doesn't do that, and we can't put ourselves forward and say, oh

God, look at me, you know? And kind of like Little Orphan Annie, you know, song and dance to try to save me.

We're poor. We have, you know, we don't bring riches with us or anything else to contribute.

We are deformed. There's no outward beauty.

We're diseased, and we have an active animosity toward God. We're described as His enemies, and these are the people that He sets

His love upon and adopts. Yeah, it's easy to read through a list like this, and I think of like in our present situation, okay, so we're doing a podcast on the theological topic of adoption, and we have certain biblical things that are clear, and then we have some applications we can give, but you know,

I mean, this is a nice topic, and we're well -behaved, and we can run through this list and say them, and everything that we say might be accurate, but it's a very different thing when, you know, there are those times even in the

Christian's life where God seems to pull back the curtain and allow you to see the depths of sin that you are still capable of and how ugly it is, and it seems much worse now that you're a

Christian than before, you know, because you think, but I've thought those things and said those things and harbored those things against Him, my

Father, not against this foreign king. So I think it really is wonderful to take these things and say, well, these are true, but then there are those times in the life where these are not just true.

These are life and death, you know, and it's almost as if you want to bring this list back to God and say, is it really true, you know?

Is it true for me? I would say the one that jumps out at me as showing the most exceeding display of God's love is when

He describes the deformity of humanity, that I am spiritually without anything that would attract

God. But that's too bland a way of saying it. It's not just that I don't... John Snyder didn't have anything particularly special.

It's that everything about me, if we think of a child, he says, you know, their life, there's a disease, a leprosy running throughout their body.

You know, imagine, you know, every undesirable thing packed into one child, and your heart might go out to them, but you think, but I just don't want that.

And God seems to love to show

His superior worth by seeking out the worst, you know?

And Paul talks about that, you know, that God might be demonstrated to be so gracious and glorious, but He saves the worst of sinners.

And we are not just people that aren't perfect. We are thoroughly deformed apart from Christ.

Yeah, I think the one of those that... I don't know if the word is grips.

The one that I've noticed here in this list is animosity. We are deformed and ugly and all of that, but we also are actively hostile to God.

Colossians, you know, our minds are hostile to Him. We're enemies to Him. So I think of, you know, a little kid, and you go maybe to the adoption agency, and you're looking at the kids, and there's the, you know, the one that's really cute and everything, but then you've got the one that's screaming and hitting and kicking and biting and spitting at you.

And, you know, there's this active self -determination to destroy and hurt, and everything that God finds lovely, we hate.

And everything that He hates, that's what we want. And He loves us then.

Yeah, with the illustrations of the, you know, of deformity and animosity, you can still pity deformity.

You can say this... I don't know if we can... I don't know if we're up to helping this child.

Like, you know, are we adequate for that task? There's so many needs, physical needs. But like you said, that does pale in comparison to the moral ugliness that we actually rage against Him as He brings

His kindness to us, you know, and He has to conquer us, not just our enemies.

But it's a wonderful thing that He's able to do that, you know. There are children...

you adopted maybe a baby, and you love that child, and for whatever reason, they grew up with the distrust of you.

They know they're adopted, and, you know, they're sure that their birth parent wanted them, and you somehow stole them away, and their whole life is kind of raging against you.

Maybe it's under the surface, but they're distrustful. But God is able to actually change us, and as you say, conquer us, and all of His children are willing, and He is changing us to love

Him more and more. Yeah, wonderful picture. Well, let's come down to the last couple of applications.

What if you are a child of God, but you lack assurance? That's a common theme for pastors.

Well, I think I'm a Christian, but sometimes I just look at my life, and could a Christian think that thought?

Could a Christian have had that response? So, maybe I'm not a Christian at all. And Tennant gives a number of very practical suggestions.

So, let me just read through these. First, he says, as to the things that you should avoid during these kinds of times of doubt, number one, beware of gross sins against the light in your minds, for God is engaged to correct

His wandering children. Those sins grieve the Spirit, and hinder His sealing work. Those sins bring spiritual desertions, and cause us to mourn with David, like we see in Psalm 51.

So, that's an old -style way of saying, if you're struggling with doubt, do not allow that period of doubt to attempt you to go into willful sin, where you sin against your conscience.

You sin against the light that God has given you. That will just make things worse. It clouds the issue of your relationship with God.

It grieves the Spirit. There's that loss of the sense that you might have had even then of God's pleasure, and in a sense, it just drives you further from the source of assurance.

Yeah. Second one, beware of the neglect of secret prayer.

Now, I think the reason that this is a helpful list, because these are the exact things that we feel tempted to do.

If I'm not sure that God loves me, as a father would love a child if he's a perfect father, do

I really want to risk getting close to Him, and just laying my heart open to Him in prayer?

What if He doesn't even hear me? I find doubt to be a very prayer -killing disease.

Why even try? Third, beware of sloth, of laziness.

This is not a time for despair to paralyze your activity as a Christian, so press on.

Number four, beware of pride. I wonder why he puts that in the list, and I wonder if it's because there is a sense of entitlement that we have as sinful people.

If God doesn't seem to be giving me what I feel I deserve, I should have assurance.

I shouldn't have to even ask this question. Why do I have the kind of personality that tends toward this melancholy?

Why is this my problem? Other people don't have it. And it is easy then, in a false sense of entitlement, to kind of, in arrogance, become embittered, and feel like God isn't treating you right.

Self -despair is a kind of pride. Yeah, it really is. It's pride turned on its head, you know.

Well, the things he says next, these are things that you should do. The exercise of faith in Christ, that being united to him, by the help of union with him, we may obtain sonship, and to this end, we must use all the means that increased faith, such as the word, prayer, sacraments, and spiritual fellowship.

In other words, if a living connection with Jesus, the only begotten, is the source of our spiritual adoption, then when you are weak in your awareness of your spiritual adoption, make use of every tool

God has put in your hands to cling all the more closer to Christ, you know, to get those facts into your head, to get the heart melted again.

Next, he says, make sure that you exercise repentance for sins of infirmity.

What do you think that means, Chuck? Exercise repentance for sins of infirmity.

Well, by infirmity, I would think weakness. So, sins that you're particularly susceptible to and become habitual, maybe?

Yeah, maybe not sins that you've, like, you say, okay, fine, and you willingly go and do, but sins that, you know, yeah, like, because of...

So, let's say a person has a lack of assurance might accompany that.

So, bring that to the Lord and repent that I allow a temperament to produce this kind of response in me, you know?

So, God, even though this isn't a sin where I'm saying, I want all that sin offers, you know, but a lack of trust, that's a sin.

A coldness, a willingness to doubt him so quickly, you know, those are all sinful responses.

And don't forget that those need to be turned away from. And finally, do nothing to lessen the work of the

Spirit within you, but be thankful for the smallest discoveries of your Father's face.

Keep your heart responsive and tender toward God and be grateful for even the smallest, you know, in a sense, expressions of God's familial love.

Well, the last application is he says, this is a good tool to examine yourself if to tell, am

I really a Christian or not? So, Chuck, my question would be, why do you think he says that all this stuff about adoption can be used to examine our spiritual state before the

Lord? Because the things that he's saying should be true of those who are adopted.

If they're not true of you, then you would have reason to question if you're adopted or not.

You know, is there a growing family resemblance? Do you own

God as your Father? Is he making you a willing child? Yeah, I think that is exactly what he's saying.

When the Bible gives us a list of privileges that we can expect through divine adoption, we want to ask ourselves, which of these privileges do we see in our life?

Am I living on these privileges? Are these life to me or are these just like nice theological concepts that I hear about in church?

So, let's take your boys again. All right. So, if we see them in at church or, you know, at, you know, on the soccer field and they don't have anything that I would expect that Chuck Baggett's children would have, that your other children that, you know, we grew up as friends and, you know, we knew each other before we were married to our wives and had children.

So, I see these things that, okay, Chuck's other kids had this, and then

I see these two boys. What if they don't have anything? I would ask myself, are these really Chuck's kids or are they just kids that he's been nice to occasionally?

But when I look and I see, okay, so they have all the physical things they need. They also have the comfort they need.

They have the occasional, you know, rebuke they need. They have your involvement in their life.

And when I see these evidences in them, I think these are Chuck's kids, you know. But if we claim to be children of a living

God by glorious adoption, as well as by a new birth, we ought to be able to point out, not because we're such great kids, but because he's such a great father.

Here are some of the ways that you can see, I really am who I say I am. See the father's work in me.

So, great test for us. And really, quite a sweet test to give, you know. It's definitely not a bitter test.

Sure. Well, thanks for joining us again for the Whole Council podcast, Salvation in Full Color, a really good book.

Not an easy book at times. Sometimes it takes some determination to study these great truths, but it will prove well worth your time.

And you can find this book in the show notes. Well, next week, we will look at the doctrine of conversion, being turned to God by a man named