Spiritual Adoption into God's Family of Love: True Believers' Blessings

Jesus teaches us about the spiritual family kind of love.

Love is not primarily about obedience, but about the relationship and nature of God.

Agape love is an everlasting, free, sacrificial, and enduring kind of love.

God's love is the motivation for our obedience and the proof of true discipleship.

Music Music Today our message is called True Christian Believers Are Spiritually Adopted into the Family of Love. Jesus himself, in John 15 verse 10, gives us the example of the spiritual family kind of love when he said, If you keep my commandments, if you continue to obey my instructions, you will abide in my love and live on in it just as I have obeyed my father's commands and live on in his love. Continuing in verse 11 Jesus tells us I have told you these things that my joy and delight may be in you and that your joy and gladness may be full measure and complete and overflowing. Verse 12. This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love, no one has shown stronger affection than to lay down, give up his own life for his friends. You are my friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do. How many know that the word if is a conditional kind of word? It is predicated on the choices that a person makes. It is contingent and subject to the preference of a person's will or desires. Jesus again said in verse 10, If you keep my commandments, if you continue to obey my instruction, You will abide in my love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed my Father's commandments and live on in his love. The choice that our Savior examples for us, aside from if you keep my commandments, is found in the latter part of the verse when he says, Even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. This is a profound, revealing, and wonderful statement which our Savior unveils and makes known about himself. We see that Christ's love for his Father is the motivation of his obedience. As an earthly father does not primarily love his son for his obedience, but because of the filial or the family or parental kind of relationship which he holds dear to his child or children. So the love which our Savior's father holds dear and highly prized to himself is not primarily because of Christ's obedience, but rather by the fervent and devoted agape or godly love relationship which holds his son forever and tightly bound and precious to himself. There are many hundreds of references to love in the Bible, which is a sacred and uniquely inspired word of God. and we can say that it is certainly the most distinguished and outstanding book of love in the world. It journals the greatest love story ever written about God's unconditional love for mankind in that he sent his precious son to die on the cross for sinners and offer eternal life to those who choose him as their hope of glory. John 3.16 tells us that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. You see, love is not only one of God's attributes, but it is also necessary and vitally important and essential part of his nature, which is the personification of love. And let me say, the personification of perfect love. It couldn't get any better than this. The Bible tells us that God is love in John 4, verses 8 and 16. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. Verse 16, and we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Dear listener, such love surpasses our abilities of understanding. We are told in this Ephesians chapter 3 verse 19 book that tells us and declares that you may really come to know practically through experience for yourself the love of Christ which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience, that you may be filled through all your being unto the fullness of God, may have the richest measure of the divine presence and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God himself. You see, this is telling us that this love is not a natural kind of love. Love like this is an everlasting and free sacrificial and enduring to the end kind of love. And we know this love was very costly for our dear Savior when he gave up his life and spilled his blood for all who would choose him as their Savior. This, dear one, is known as agape love. And agape love indicates the nature of the love of God towards his dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and towards the human race, and towards those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter 14 verse 21 declares, The person who has my commands and keeps them is the one who really loves me, and whoever really loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and will show, reveal, and manifest myself to him. I will let myself be clearly seen by him and make myself real to him. Agape love communicates and makes known God's will to his children about the relationship and position towards one another. Love for one another was the proof to the world of true discipleship and genuine relationship with their Creator God. John chapter 13 verses 34 through 35 declares, I will give you a new commandment, that you should love one another, just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another, if you keep on showing love among yourselves. Love found its perfect expression, dear ones, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian love is the fruit of the spirit of Jesus in the believer. We must ask ourselves the question somewhere along this Christian journey of ours, how am I doing in exemplifying the nature and character of God, of his love, in my life? Is my love genuine and real? Or is it feigned and fake and phony and a big show? It is said that love is like an oil to the wheels of obedience. Love of God and for God empowers us to stay the course in keeping and doing what God commands and requires of us in his righteous decrees. King David said in Psalms chapter 119 verse 32 I will not merely walk but run the way of your commandments when you give me a heart that is willing the apostle Paul said that without God's love we are his nothing love inspired by the precious Holy Spirit in the genuine believer's heart never fails, but will always flourish. And just as God the Father's own dear Son is being developed in our nature and character, the Holy Father's love and affection went out to Christ as the Son of Man. And dear listener, just as a human father looks and beholds the strong and fervent love and constant obedience of his own child and feels his own warm affection and devotions going out to him. So every beauty of the son's incarnate nature and character and every act of his human obedience rendered him altogether lovely in the father's eyes. Love like this is perfect love because God is love. God said of his son in Matthew chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, When Jesus was baptized, he went up at once out of the water. And behold, the heavens were opened. And he, John, saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. Verse 17, And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my son, my beloved, in whom I delight. In the scripture where it tells that the heavens were opened or heaven was open prompts remembrances of people receiving visions from God In them they saw things unseen by others around them For instance, in the New Testament, in Acts chapter 7, verses 54 through 56, this is when he was being stoned to death, and we're told in verse 54, but he fully the Holy Spirit and controlled by him gazed into heaven and saw the glory the splendor and majesty of God and Jesus standing at God's right hand and he said look I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at God's right hand but moreover back to what Jesus saw descending upon himself was the precious Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. And we need to know that this is the first precise and absolute identification of the Holy Spirit with a dove-like appearance in scripture. It was a quite suitable and figurative symbol because when we observe the dove, apart from other birds, we see its streamlined beauty and heavenly origin according to biblical representation of freedom, sensitivity, purity, and a peaceful nature. In repeating the scripture where the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, we just read that and it's found Matthew 3 verses 16 and 17 and I believe that we should look at that again a little more clearly when Jesus was baptized he went up at once out of the water and behold the heavens were open and he John saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him and behold a voice from heaven said, this is my son, my beloved in whom I delight. Now the descending of the Spirit on Jesus is a figurative or a symbolic divine act by which God empowers him to accomplish the ministry he was shortly to begin. Jesus' empowerment, of course, is not to be construed with Jesus' initial endowment of the Holy Spirit, for he was conceived by the Spirit of God. Instead, it specifies that Jesus proves to be the one mightier than John the Baptist, just as John said he would be. It also serves as a reference point for understanding the authority which Jesus had in his ministry while he was on the earth. Jesus was empowered by God's Holy Spirit. And he speaks as a mouthpiece of God and acts as God, his father's instrument, stated in John chapter 7, verse 28, when Jesus spoke to the crowd and said, Do you know me? And do you know where I am from? I have not come on my own authority and of my own accord and as self-appointed, but the one who sent me is true, real, genuine, and steadfast. And him you do not know. In Isaiah chapter 42 verse 1, the prophet Isaiah declared that God would put his spirit on his servant. And that prophecy came to pass at Jesus' baptism. When the precious Holy Spirit came upon individuals in the Old Testament, He empowered them for divine service. And this was the same purpose and reason that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus. However, Christ's purpose and mission was the greatest of all others, since he is the only King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus didn't send salvation, dear ones. Jesus Christ did not bring salvation. Jesus Christ is salvation and eternal life is found in him. Jesus is salvation. He didn't send it to the earth. Salvation, I repeat, is found only in Jesus Christ. Eternal life is found only in Jesus Christ. Before Jesus was soon to depart from his disciples and give them comfort, He told them in John 14, verses 26 and 27, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring you to your remembrance all things that I have said to you. You see, Jesus was comforting them with the promise of future understanding. Our dear Lord knew that the eleven did not fully understand what he had just revealed before he told them of their departure. And consequently, he wanted to encourage them with a promise that they would fully understand his words later. Jesus made these revelations to his disciples while he was with them. But when the Spirit of God came to abide in them, the Spirit would enable them to understand. and the Father would send the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name as Jesus' representative or ambassador with exactly the same attitude towards God's will that Jesus had. The Son of God had come as a messenger the Father's messenger and soon the Holy Spirit would come as a Son's helper and would live within every true believer to teach them by bringing memories or remembrances of things that they had learned by the teaching of the Holy Spirit found in the book of life called the Bible. The Holy Spirit continues his teaching ministry today by enlightening believers as they study Jesus' teachings. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is quite vast as he carries many titles with his ministry. and one of the titles and the work of the Holy Spirit by which she is known is called the Spirit of Adoption. There's a true story of a young lady who has been adopted and went in search of her biological mother and the account starts off by saying when she turned 21, Tammy Harris from Roanoke, Virginia began searching for her biological mother. After a year, she had not succeeded. But what she didn't know was that her mother, Joyce Schultz, had been trying to locate her for 20 years. And according to a recent Associated Press story, there was one more thing Tammy didn't know. Her mother was one of her co-workers at the convenience stores where she worked. And one day, Joyce overheard Tammy talking with another co-worker about trying to find her mother. And soon they were comparing birth certificates. When Tammy realized that the co-worker she had known was, in fact, her mother, she fell in her arms. We held on for the longest time. Tammy said, it was the best day of my life. You see, dear listener, each week we rub shoulders with people whom we may barely notice. and if they share a birth in Jesus Christ, they are our dearest relatives. All we can say is how precious is the family of God. Have you ever met a fellow brother or sister in the Lord Jesus Christ in your passing of the day, whether it was while shopping, the doctor's office, or a casual get-together, or at work? And do you remember how encouraged you were and how easy it was to communicate with them. It wasn't like you just met a stranger with whom you had nothing in common. It's like meeting your long-lost brother or sister whom you hadn't seen for a long time. And when we look at the term adoption in the natural, we see that it is defined as an act whereby any person receives another into his family, legally claims him for a son and appoints him as an heir. But when we look at spiritual adoption, we learn that it is an act of God's free grace where we are received into his family and have a right to all privileges as the sons of God. Just think about it. How wonderful and glorious at the very thought that the children of God, who are being raised from the dead on the last day will solemnly and exclusively and individually enter into the full possession of that inheritance provided for them described by Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7 beginning in verse 18. For I know that nothing good dwells within me that is in my flesh. I can still will what is right, but I cannot perform it. I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out. For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am doing. Now, if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I. it is not myself that acts but the sin principle which dwells in me fixed and operating in my soul verse 21 so I find it to be a law a rule of action of my being that when I want to do what is right and good evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands verse 22 for I endorse and delight in the law of God in my inmost self with my new nature But I discern in my bodily members in the sensitive appetites and wills of my flesh a different law, a rule of action, at war against the law of my mind, my reason, making me a prisoner of the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs, in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh. Verse 24. O unhappy, impitible, and wretched man that I am, who will release me and deliver me from the shackles of the body of death? O thank God, he will, through Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, our Lord. So then, indeed, I of myself, with the mind and the heart, serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. May I tell you that what Paul is talking about here in these verses, is a spiritual change that is brought about in a person's life by an act of God. In this regeneration process, a person's sinful nature is changed and he is able to respond to God in faith. And dear listener, this does not happen overnight. What we are talking about here is that the soul begins and longs to earnestly obey God and his commands because their heart of love for him begins to open up and they now desire to please the one who died for them for the forgiveness of their sins. Jesus sets the example for us even though he had no sin. Christ's love for his father is the motivation for his obedience. Let us not forget, we are endeavoring to enter into the family of love and righteousness by faith. And Jesus Christ has paved the way as an example for each and every one who chooses him as the hope of glory. The Greek word is formed by combining the word meta, meaning beyond, and the word noia, meaning mind. The combination literally means beyond mind. It expresses the idea of gaining a new mindset and a new way of thinking and acting, a new orientation to life. To repent really means to start thinking and acting in a radically different way. The Hebrew word metanoia means a fundamental change in character or belief. It is associated with the words repentance, rebirth, conversion, and regeneration. The word regeneration occurs only in the New Testament, but the concept is constant and common throughout the Bible. the literal meaning of regeneration means born again there is a first birth and a second birth the first as Jesus said to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that birth is of the flesh the second birth is of the spirit being born of the spirit is an absolute requirement before a person can enter into this kingdom of God. Every biblical command to man is to undergo a radical change of character from the me, myself, and I, which is self-centeredness, to God-centeredness. And it's, in effect, an appeal to be born again. An appeal, dear ones, to be born again. therefore generation involves an enlightening of the mind my precious Holy Spirit and a change of the will and a renewed nature it extends to the total nature of man changing a person's desires and restoring him or her to a right relationship with God in Christ it's in Christ It can only happen in Christ. It is brought about and through Christ's dunamis power and love. God works in the willing and cooperative human heart, and the individual responds to God through faith and obedience, and their motivation for this love to and for God and his wonderful mercies and faithfulness are promised to those who love him. regeneration is an act of God through the Holy Spirit resulting in resurrection from sin to new life in Jesus Christ and we see this stated in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 which declares therefore if any person is engrafted in Christ the Messiah he is a new creation a new creature altogether the old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come. You see, a state of spiritual adoption is never without a separation from defilement. Defilement represents sin here. And how many of you know that this process does not happen overnight? God is so merciful to his children when they first come to him he doesn't show them the whole load of their sin hallelujah praise God he gives the command though to come out from amongst them and he has given us answers and the power through the Holy Spirit and he has given us faith in his promises to continue on until we truly understand the word metanoia, which again means a change to one's senses and is knowledge of one's own evil. It's a radical change in character and belief, dear ones. It is a rebirth, a conversion, a regeneration. And the word regeneration is only in the New Testament. But as I mentioned before, the concept of it flows throughout the whole Bible. The literal meaning again of regeneration means born again. 2 Corinthians 6, verses 17 and 18 declares, So come out from among unbelievers and separate, sever yourselves from them, says the Lord, and touch not any unclean thing, and I will receive you kindly and treat you with favor. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Almighty. Can you see that as a beginning of the adoption process? Regeneration is a physical act and it gives us a likeness to God in our nature and character. And adoption is a legal act that gives us a right to an inheritance. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. John in chapter 1 verse 12 declares But to as many as did receive and welcome him he gave the authority, the power and privilege and right to become children of God. That is, to those who believe in, adhere to, trust in and rely on his name. So to become children of God It is a divine and supernatural act of God. And we must understand that the privileges of adoption are in every way a great, powerful, and all-inclusive privilege. Spiritual adoption implies great honor. Just think about it, dear one. This means that those who have become the children of God have God's name put upon them. These are described as his people, and they are called by his name. Ephesians chapter 3, beginning in verse 14, tells us, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Holy Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, the length, the depth, the height, and to know that the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all fullness of God. These are no longer slaves to sin in the world, but released and freed from its dreadful bondage and are raised to dignity and honor. Galatians chapter 4, verses 6 and 8 tells us, because you are really his sons, God has sent the Holy Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And therefore you're no longer slave, bond servants, but a son. And if a son, then it follows that you are an heir by the aid of God through Christ. Those who are sons or children of God are promised inexhaustible provision and riches. they inherit all things and all blessings of a temporal kind that are for their good and shall be given them as declared in Psalms chapter 84 verses 11 and 12 which declares for the Lord God is a sun and shield the Lord bestows present grace and favor and future glory honor and splendor and heavenly bliss no good thing will he withhold from those who walk up rightly O Lord of hosts, happy, blessed and fortunate to be envied is the man who trusts in you leaning and believing on you and committing all and confidently looking to you and that without fear or misgiving. Hallelujah. All the blessings of God's precious grace are treasured up in Jesus Christ. And as well, these people are promised divine protection and unspeakable joy and peace. Dear ones, are you experiencing these for-a-mentioned blessings of God in part at this time in your life? These are all promised to the spiritually adopted children of God. As the father of a family is always on the lookout to defend and secure all of the children under his roof and those who are committed to his care, so it is with Jesus Christ, who betrothed promises to protect and defend his people. in Isaiah chapter 32 verse 18 the word declares my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation in safe dwellings and in quiet resting places you see as adopted children of God these have unspeakable joy they enjoy the most intimate communion with the father and with his son Jesus Christ they have access to his throne at all times and under all circumstances the evidence of adoption are simply put in several identifications and the first one is that the spiritual children of God have renounced all their former sins and dependencies on the old way of life and Jesus gives us the example in the parable found in Matthew 13 verses 45 and 46 which tells us again the kingdom of heaven is like a man who is a dealer in search of fine and precious pearls who on finding the single pearl of great price went and sold all he had and bought it And Apostle Paul, who had found his pearl of great price, as he describes this figuratively in Philippians chapter 3, verse 8, says, yes furthermore I count everything as a loss compared to the possession the priceless privilege the overwhelming preciousness the surpassing word and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord of progressively see going I'm going to stop here and say he went from knowing Christ his Lord to progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with him and perceiving and recognizing and understanding him more fully and clearly. For his sake, I've lost everything. In other words, he's given it up willfully and consider it all to be mere rubbish, refuge, drags, in order that I may win and gain Christ the Anointed One. And the second one is love and affection. And this always applies to spiritual adoption. The children of God feel a deep love for him above all other objects, people, or anything. Our Lord's own excellency is his unspeakable love and goodness to his own children. and his promises of future blessings are all grounds of the strongest love and described by David when he said, Lord, whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none on the earth that I desire besides thee. And the third evidence of spiritual adoption is that God's children have access to his throne with holy boldness told to us in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 6, which declares, Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace, the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners, that we may receive mercy for our failures and find grace to help in good time for every need, appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it. And the fourth, evidence of spiritual adoption, is called obedience. Those who are adopted into a family in civil adoption must obey the laws of that family, and so it is with believers. They must prove themselves adopted by their obedience to the word and ordinances of God. Jesus said in John chapter 15 verse 14, you are my friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do Jesus exclaimed in John chapter 14 verse 15 if you really love me you will keep you will obey my commands you see dear listener as was stated before Jesus' great love for his father is the motivation of his obedience. And beloved John the Apostle, in 1 John 2, verses 4 and 5, exclaimed, Whoever says, I know him, I perceive and recognize and understand and acquainted with him, but fails to keep and obey his commandments, his teachings, is a liar, and the truth of the gospel is not in him. But he who keeps, treasures his word, who bears in mind his precepts, observes his messages in its entirety. Truly in him has the love of and for God been perfected, completed, reached maturity. And by this time we may perceive, know and recognize to be sure that we are in him. And the last one, the fifth one, is the evidence of spiritual adoption is called patience. And this, dear ones, is the joyful expectation of our inheritance. Paul said in Romans chapter 2, verses 7 and 9, To those who by patient persistence in well-doing, springing from piety, springing from humbleness, unseen but sure, glory and honor and the eternal blessedness of immortality. He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and self-willed and disobedient to the truth, but responsive to wickedness, there will be indignation and wrath. And there will be tribulation and anguish and calamity and constraint for every soul, every man who habitually does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. And the Greek there means Gentile. Dear one, have you and are you awaiting this final day? We never know when our full adoption into the family of love will be finalized in that last day when we stand before our maker and give account of what we did with our lives, our time, our resources, and throughout this whole teaching today, which I say is only a snippet or a piece of a huge whole part of a subject of spiritual adoption. But from all we have covered today, it is my prayer that you might truly understand and learn that spiritual adoption is an act of free grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. A reminder of what Paul taught us in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 5 when he said, For he foreordained us, destined us, planned in love for us to be adopted, revealed as his own children through Jesus Christ in accordance with the purpose of his will, because it pleased him and was his kind intent. Love for Jesus Christ is a magnet that draws the believer to their Savior. And finally, let us never forget, never, never forget, that love and faith are main ingredients in the spiritual adoption process to be called the children of God. love for Jesus Christ takes us to the place where the Hebrew word metanoia says that it's beyond the mind and this love for our Savior is a supernatural love and lives above the natural realm as I like to call it it is a real and genuine love and desires above all things to please our master who gave up his all to have each one of us let us all sincerely press in to give up our all and reach for the higher place in our precious Savior, Jesus Christ. .

Playlist coming soon.