Now I want to read several scriptures from the New Testament tonight. First of all, in Ephesians chapter one. Our subject tonight is adoption. So we read the scriptures in the New Testament that talk about this subject. Ephesians chapter one. Verse three. and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will." I believe the word there is this, having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons. Let me check there at a moment. Looking at the wrong place. In the meantime, find Galatians chapter four, please. Yes, having predestinated sons of the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ. Galatians four. And verse one. Galatians four, verse one. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements or rudiments of the world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. You get the word, the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. We'll read from verse eighteen. For I reckon. that the suffering of this present time, the sufferings of this present time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. 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 first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to which the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. May God bless the reading of his precious words. Shall we pray? Blessed God, we come to thee again in the precious name of thy beloved Son, again to thank thee for this wonderful book we have in our hands. O Lord, we thank thee for the Bible, the Word of God. unchangeable, unalterable, like thyself. We thank thee, Lord, this is the living word, without mistake. We thank thee for the wonderful truths that are hidden therein. We pray that tonight, thou, by the Holy Spirit, we'll take some of these wonders, things which thou hast prepared for us, written in this wonderful Bible, and reveal them to our waiting hearts. We seek thy blessing, and ask thee thou magnify and honor and glorify thy Son and thy word in our midst. We ask it in our Savior's precious name. Amen. Way, way back in the eighteen eighties, Dwight L. Moody went over to Great Britain and had some wonderful, wonderful gospel campaigns. Tremendous work was done in Cambridge, Cambridge University. They said they couldn't have Moodie there, he couldn't even speak King's English, but he went there and many, many, many students were saved. He went to Scotland, he went to Glasgow, and there was great blessing in the Moody Tent Mission in Glasgow. And after the Moody campaigns were over, they built in the city of Glasgow, a wooden building which they call Tent Hall. Called Tent Hall because Moody's meetings were in a big tent. So to carry on the spirit of the Moody campaign, they built Tent Hall. And still today, Tent Hall exists in Glasgow. And many a Saturday night, I've been there. They have a general evangelical meeting on Saturday night in Tent Hall in Glasgow. And I have been there. And I remember being there on one occasion. I think it would be in the year, And there was a group of young fellows from, I think in this case, they were from Canada. The only time in my life that I've ever shaken hands with Billy Graham was in Kent Hall. At that time, Billy Graham was just a young man in a group of other young men. I think he led the singing that night, or he was chairman that night. I think he didn't do the speaking anyhow. He was just coming out. That was probably in Because people are conservative over there. In the Scottish meetings, the Presbyterian meetings, they have a presenter to lead the singing. Now, in our meetings, we didn't have much like that. But when these Canadians came over there, I was amazed to see that the one who was leading the singing, he couldn't get it going fast enough, so he stood on one of the front seats, you know, and he began to throw his arms about it. I wonder what in the world was going to happen. But this is what they sang. I remember it. Something happened when he saved me. Something happened when he saved me. Happened in my heart. Happened in my heart. Something happened when he saved me. We must have sung it twenty, thirty times, but we learned it. Something happened when he saved me. Now that's what our series of talks are about here. Something happened when he saved me. Many things happened when he saved me. Many things happened. Oh, the joy that came into your life fulfilled when we accepted the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior and something did happen. He gave us eternal life. We were saved. But what we have been talking about in this series of meetings, I think this will be, I can remember this is the seventh or the ninth talk we've given, probably the seventh talk we've given in this series of things that happened when God saved us. We talked about justification. The fact that when God saved me, I was justified. I didn't know anything about it at the time. All I knew was I'd got salvation, but God justified me. And counted me just as our brother said last week, just as if I have never seen. As a guilty, as a condemned person, I need to be justified. And then he forgave me all my sins. As a guilty person, I needed forgiveness. He gave me that. That's another thing that happened. And then he reconciled me to himself. We talked about that one night. You see, I was estranged from God and I had to be reconciled to God. All that took place when he saved me. I didn't know it. I've learned it since by reading the book. And then I was sanctified. To be sanctified is to be set apart for holy use. To be made holy, sanctified, as we said when I was talking, it comes from the word, a Greek word which means holy, agios, agios. And really, if you break that word down in Greek, gi is earth and agi is not of the earth, you know. separated from the earth and from the world, Agios, holy, and he sanctified me, made me holy, and separated me to himself for holy purposes. And we're all sanctified. And we did find when we were talking about sanctification that there are kind of three points to it. That we were sanctified the moment God saved us, in God's sight. We were set apart to be holy for him. And yet... He says, Be ye holy, for I am holy. So we, by our walk and by studying the Word of God and by prayer, we are sanctified day by day. And yet there is a sense in which we shall be completely sanctified and separated when the Lord comes back and calls to be with himself. We talked about redemption one night, that God saved us out of the slave market of sin. And we said that the redemption... has got a future tense. We read of it just now in Romans eight, waiting for the adoption to with the redemption of our body, that future. Redemption won't be complete until we're saved, until we're taken to be with the Lord in glory. Now the last time I spoke, we spoke on salvation, which was a big word which took in all these subjects really, and we said that salvation as a past, a present and a future tense. I was saved, in my case it was over sixty years ago. God saved me. And yet God saves us every day. And yet He will save us. We wait for the redemption of our body. Now is our salvation nearer than when we first believe. We shall be holy, completely saved when we're taken out of this scene to be with the Lord Jesus. Now adoption is something like this. You'll find it's got a future tense presently when we come to it. You know, I thought of, for some years I've been thinking of a series of talks like this, and I've been asking myself, all the wonderful things that happened to me when God saved me, which I knew nothing about. And I suppose we could go on a long time speaking on these subjects. But tonight I want to talk about adoption. Now, what is adoption? Let's try and look at it in our ordinary accepted sense of the word. Adoption places one outside of blood ties or blood relationships into a legal position as a child. An adopted child has no blood relationship with the parent. An adopted child is brought into the family and by a legal arrangement, legally is made one of the family and called a child in the family. but he hasn't got the father's blood, the mother's blood. He's not by blood tie. He's a child. He's a legal child by adoption. It seems there's very little about adoption in the Bible. It's mentioned in the New Testament in connection with the Christians. But there are a couple of references. I'll give them to you in the Old Testament. It seems as if the Egyptians practiced adoption. Exodus chapter two. Look at verse, this is how Pharaoh's daughter found Moses. Verse nine, Exodus chapter two. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages, and the woman took the child and nursed it. and the child, that's Moses, grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. Now, he wasn't her son by natural birth, but he became her son by adoption. It looks as if the Egyptians practiced adoption. And I Kings chapter eleven is another mention in connection with the Egyptians. I Kings chapter eleven. It's rather complicated seeing here, verse twenty. Let's read nineteen. And Hedad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tapanid, the queen. And the sister of Tapanid bear him Genubad, his son, whom Tapanid weaned in Pharaoh's house. And Genubad was in Pharaoh's household. among the sons of Pharaoh. He wasn't Pharaoh's son, but by adoption he became a son legally. And then again there's a mention of adoption in the book of Esther. Remember Esther just before Job and chapter two and verse seven. It says verse seven, he brought up Hadassah. That was Mordecai. He brought up this girl. He brought up Adasha that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. And the maid was fair and beautiful, whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. Now this was in the Babylonian captivity, but Mordecai adopted Esther. and took her for his own daughter. Verse fifteen of the same chapter it says that, now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihel, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, who had taken her for his daughter, so evidently practiced this adoption in the Old Testament. Iel says here, it's being placed into a son's place, placing as a son. Placing as a son. Iel says here, placing as a son is not so much a word of relationship as of position. We must get this clear. In the New Testament, it's not so much a word of relationship as of position. There's a dignity about this word adoption. That's why I said when I mentioned it Friday night, was it Thursday night, that the word adoption in the New Testament means a lot, lot more than what our normal thoughts of adoption are. There's a dignity about it. It's to do with sonship. You'll pursue being placed in the Son's place. The believer's relation to God as a child results from the new birth. John one verse twelve, whereas adoption is the act of God whereby one already, a child, is, through redemption from the law, placed in the position of an adult son. This is very good. This is a good description of the meaning of adoption in the New Testament. It's the act of God whereby one already a child is through redemption of the law, from the law, placed in the position of an adult son. The indwelling spirit gives the realization of this in the believer's present experience. But the full manifestation of the believer's sonship awaits the resurrection, change, and translation of saints, which is called the redemption of the body. We'll talk about all this as we come to it. So we have the word yas, which is son. Now, there are two words in the New Testament used for a child. There's the word technion, which means child. And John always uses the word technion. Even when Let me see, in John one verse twelve, as many as received him to them gave he power to become sons of God. But John didn't write that. John wrote, as many as received him to them gave he power to become Tecna Feu, children of God. Children of God. He used the Tecna and the pluralist Tecna. Children of God. And John always used this word technios, which is children. He never uses the word son except in one case. And that one case is in Revelation, verse twenty-one, where it says, He that overcometh shall inherit all things. and I will be his father and he shall be my son." And that's the only time that John uses that word. Whereas Paul, he always uses, practically always uses, the word yeos, which is son, and not the word techniom, which is child. Now, by new birth we became children of God. I was born into his family. Perhaps one night we ought to talk about new birth as one of the great things that happened when I was saved. I was born again, that's what we understood by being saved anyhow. But by being born again, I was born into God's family as one of God's children. As one of God's children. Adoption is something different. Adoption doesn't look upon me as one of God's children in that sense. But it looks upon me as... God's son, as one of God's sons, there's more dignity about this word. As the school field says, it's a word not of relationship, that would be a child, but it's a word of position, a son. Now this is a son in the full dignity of sonship, not a baby, but a grown-up son. When God saved me, he adopted me, brought me into his family as a full-grown, full-pledged son. That's the meaning of adoption. Indeed. There is a reference where Christians are called babes. Let me read it to you. It's one Corinthians chapter three. And I, brethren, chapter three, verse one, first Corinthians chapter three, verse one. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. A babing Christ is a carnal person. A person has never made any progress. I have fed you with milk, not with meat, for here too ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envy and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and mockers men? A baby in Christ is a Christian that doesn't make progress. But when God adopts us and uses the word adoption, he's looking upon us as fully fed Christians, not babes. Now I know it says, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that he may grow thereby. One Peter two, verse two. That's true. When we are first saved, we have to get the word of God and grow as children in God's family. But I'm not talking about children. I'm talking about sons. with the dignity of Son of He. This is the position, not the relationship, the position into which God calls us when He adopts us. I become a full-grown Son and not obeyed. Now, let's go back a moment then to Ephesians chapter one that we read. It says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, verse four, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. This takes us back into a past eternity, and God in his plans, God in his eternal counsels, God in His great wisdom for you and me. He predestinated us. He who knew us and knew that we would accept His Son as Savior. He predestinated us unto the adoption of children. What God said away in past eternal ages was, those people that accept my Son as Savior, I will bring them into the full dignity of sons of God. And that's what He's done. So that we are now not exactly children of God, but we are sons, with all that goes with sonship. And this was in God's eternal plan for you and me. How wonderful then is the meaning of this great word adoption. Let's turn over to Galatians, back rather, to Galatians chapter four. Paul is here talking to these Galatians. who were, although they had been saved, and although they'd been freed from the bondage of the law and so on, they were slipping back and trying to keep the law again, observing days and observing law and so on. And Paul says, I'm grieved about you, and I want to try and make this clear to you. He says, Verse chapter four, the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant. You see, in a rich family in those days, in a rich family, there were tutors. It says in verse two, he's under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. A boy, a child then, in a family, a rich family in those days, came under tutors and governors who trained him and made him what he was. But that was when he was a child. But there came a time when the tutors were taken away and becomes a full, fully grown son. And then he doesn't need tutors anymore. So Paul says to them, the law, the law that God gave, that wonderful Ten Commandments and all the rest that goes with the law, the moral law of God, He says that was like a schoolmaster. We were under a schoolmaster and the law was the schoolmaster. In fact, he says so in the previous chapter, verse twenty-four, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. We were under the law, but now in the New Testament we're no longer under the law and we have been redeemed from the law. We said the other day that redemption is the buying us out of the slave market, buying us out of bondage. Now let's go on reading. It says, Even so, verse three, when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. The Jews were in bondage under the law, but the Gentile was in bondage under the elements of the world. Now, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem, that's to buy out of the slave market. to redeem them that were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons. So we're no longer under a pedagogus, a schoolmaster. We're no longer under tutors, but now we have received the adoption of sons and we stand upright in the full dignity of sonship with no schoolmasters over us, but we are now fully grown, twenty-one years of age, if you like. We have full sonship. And that's what adoption is. God adopted us into his family as his full-grown sons, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. You see what's involved in this? I was a servant under the law, but now I am not. I am now a son. And if I'm a son, then I'm an heir of God. And we're joined as with Jesus Christ. I think some night we'd have to talk about the things that God gave us when we were saved. I think we'd have to talk about that inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that He gave us the moment we were saved. We become joint heirs with Christ. Oh, don't you think Christians ought to go about with their chins high? I don't think we should go about looking miserable and as if the world's coming to an end or something. We've got all the glories that belong to Christ. They belong to us and all the dignity of sonship, of being sons in God's family and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. and we are heirs of God through Christ because he's adopted us as sons into his family. We have been redeemed from bondage. No more servants. This was God's eternal choice for us. Now let's go back to Romans eight. Romans eight. Here again he talks about being the sons of God. Verse fourteen. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For we have not received the Spirit of bondage, you see. He keeps on about bondage in connection with this adoption. We are called out of bondage. We are redeemed out of bondage. We have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the Spirit of adoption. whereby we cry, Abba Father. We have received the Spirit of adoption. Now in Galatians it said, let me read it again in Galatians, it said that, Because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father. And in Romans he says, We have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, the same language. The spirit of Christ in us now we are God's sons, and the spirit of Christ in us allows us to look up to God and call him Father, in the full dignity of the position of sons of God. So he says, Then as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 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. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are sons of God. Here the word should be sons, that we are sons of God. And if sons then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, used to be that we suffer with him, that we might be glorified together. You see, the Lord Jesus went to glory by the way of suffering. He said, ought not Christ have suffered these things into entering his glory. And as we said in our last talk on Thursday night from First Peter, the prophets wrote about the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. And these heirs of God, these sons of God, these joint heirs with Christ, there may be quite a lot of suffering for us. In the early days of the church's history, when Paul was writing this, there was a lot of suffering. It says, if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we might be also glorified together, or not Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory. for I reckon verse eighteen that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. You see, I keep spraying on this term, the sons of God. And all creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Let's read down a little further. For the creature, or verse nineteen, for the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. There's a glorious day coming. Not too far ahead, I don't think. When God is going to display to all creation what He's done for the men and women that have trusted in His Son. Creation, the whole creation, is waiting for a day. What day? The manifestation of the sons of God. The day when He's going to display us with his son. God will display us with his son. And he'll say to a wandering universe, this is what I have done with the men and women that have trusted my son. And to all these professors and all these people in the world today that tell us God is dead and scoff at this old book and these people that don't believe God, he's going to display before all the universe what God has done for those that trust his son. and those that rejected the Son of God and nailed him to a cross of shame and cast him out and said, we'll not have this man to reign over us. They're all going to gaze on in that day and he's going to show the universe what he's done for us that believe that those of us that have been adopted and have become sons of God. The earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity. not willingly by reason of him who subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, the sons of God. Paul always uses the word sons of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and fraveeth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which are the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves before, waiting for the adoption. But I said, God adopted us when he saved us. Yes, that's right. That's the past tense. But there's a future tense through adoption, say there is a redemption and salvation, waiting for the adoption, what? Even to which the redemption of our body. The adoption will be complete when He redeems our bodies. And He takes us out of this world, whether we have fallen asleep in Jesus and He raises us from the graves, or whether we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, the living ones. We'll be redeemed from this body and from all this corrupt scene around us. And that's what we're waiting for. And He said the whole creation is groaning and traveling in pain together until now. And not only they, but we ourselves. We groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption. Dear old brother, it's quite weird how they had to carry him on a plane, you know. As I said, what was that him I was quoting, our earthen vessels break. The world itself grows old. But he goes on to say, Christ, the precious dust, shall take and fleshly mold. He'll give these bodies vile a fashion like you. He'll bid the whole creation smile and hush its groan in that great day when he calls us to be with himself. And that'll be adoption in the fullest and most complete sense of the word, when our sons of God, in all the dignity of sonship, will be caught up and will be once. conformed to the image of his son. Let's read on in Roman date. It says, verse twenty eight, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. To them who are called according to his purpose. Now we go back to this word predestination we mentioned in Ephesians one. For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. It says he predestinated us to the adoption. What? To which sons of God. And then it says, if we're sons, then we're raised, joined here, as we've Christ, and here he puts the same thing in other language. He says, we know, 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 present. Beloved, this is our future. The adoption to wit, the redemption of our body when we'll be caught up. And he had changed these vile bodies and fashioned them like unto his own glorious body and will be conformed to the image of his Son. We're so far from it now. We have received the adoption. We are sons of God. But, oh, we're so unlike him. But there's a day when we'll do away with this old creation and these groaning bodies and these sinning hearts of ours and leave all that behind and cut up into the blue of heaven and we'll see the Savior face to face and we'll be like him. How we long to be like him now. How we fail. But in that day it'll be easy to be like him. We shall be like him. And we should gaze upon him and see him as he is, and glorify and magnify his name for all eternity, for what he wrought at the place called Calvary when he died for our sins according to the Scripture. Shall we pray? Blessed God our Father, we thank you for the dignity into which thou hast brought us. We thank you, Lord, that by new birth thou hast made us thy children. As many have received him, to them gave he power, authority to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name. We thank you for this. But we thank you, as we've gone on to study thy word, there's something even more than this. Yes, Lord, we came into thy family by new birth, but we have discovered that thou hast given us dignity, and thou hast adopted us into thy family. We thank thee for it, Lord. We bow before thee in worship and praise, and we wait, Blessed Master, for that glorious, glorious day when we'll hear thy voice, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and we'll be caught up to meet thee in the air. And then we'll be likely, Lord, we long to be likely now. We fail so much. Keep this bright hope before us, we pray thee. And may we walk through this pilgrim journey with our chins high in the full dignity of the fact that we're sons of God. We seek thy parting blessing now. We pray for those who are traveling. We pray for our brother and sister Blackmun, who leave us tomorrow. We pray for Mr. and Mrs. Weir and all the others, Lord, we commend to thee and pray for thy blessing on them in the precious and worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ.