Welcome to the Hackberry House of Chosun. My name is Bob. I'm reading today from the Free Grace Broadcaster. It's the winter of 2018 edition, issue 246. You can actually have this in your hands from them, not from me. Just write to them, chapel at mountzion.org. Send them an email. Just ask. Say, I'd like to have the Free Grace broadcaster put in my mailbox every three months. And they'll do that for no charge whatever. And they might follow up with a letter now and then asking for an offering. I know these people. There's no pressure. Whatever. It's a good group. And you'll get to hear people like Spurgeon and John Murray, John Gill, a bunch of other guys. That's just this time. And every time, it's a new group. of the old guys, the guys who really could preach the truth, I think, anyway. That shows you that I'm a little old-fashioned, and I am, and not unhappy about that. I really do believe the Bible. I hope that I will not have the spirit, the small s, the attitude of many Bible believers that is very, what's the word, eccentric, very, pharisaical, and we know it all. I hope I never have that kind of fundamentalism in my heart, although I see it all around me. It's no fun to watch. It's no fun to be a part of. We're the ones and nobody else, us four, no more. It's just sad, but to believe the Bible, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Jesus Christ believed the Old Testament scriptures perfectly, but he gave us some new stuff, very new, and more than just new teachings, he gave us the spirit so that we could live God's laws. The Causes of Adoption is the name of this. It's John Gill, 1697-1771. If you're a Bible student and you've been studying a lot, you'll run across John Gill in the Bible commentaries that you'll look up things on. He was a Baptist minister, theologian, biblical scholar back in the 18th century. Born in England. All right, here we go. The efficient cause of adoption, and by the way, adoption is the topic of this quarter. Everything that you'll hear from me for the next few days when we're doing Free Grace Broadcaster will be about adoption. The efficient cause of adoption is God. None can adopt any into the family of God but God himself. None can put any among the children of God but he himself. None but He can do it, who says, I will be His God, and He shall be my Son, Revelation 21, 7. God, Father, Son, and Spirit are concerned in the affair of adoption. First God, the Father, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, the Father of Christ, the one God and Father of us all, that we should be called the sons of God, 1 John 3, 2. The God and Father of Christ, who blessed and chose His people in Him, predestinated them to the adoption of children by Him, both to the grace of adoption and to the inheritance that they are adopted to and that they obtain in Christ in virtue thereof, Ephesians 1.11. He also predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son, Romans 8.29. He set up Christ as the pattern of their sonship so that as he partook of their nature, they should be partakers of the divine nature, and that as he was a son and heir of all things, they should be likewise. This will more manifestly be seen when they shall appear to be what they are as sons and are like unto him, Romans 8, 29. Besides, God the Father has not only determined their adoption and all things relative to it, but he has provided this blessing in covenant for them and secured it there. This is one of the all things in which it is ordered and sure. It is one of the spiritual blessings of the covenant, which he has blessed his people with in Christ. This covenant runs like this, I will be a father unto you, you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty, 2 Corinthians 6.18. Yes, the act of adoption itself, Putting among the children is his act. For though he says, how shall I put thee among the children, Jeremiah 3.19, there being no difference between them and others by nature, they're as bad and as black as others, yet he did do it. Number two, the Son of God has a concern in adoption. There are several connections and relations he stands in to his people, which serve greatly to illustrate and confirm it. There's a union between them, a very near and mysterious one, John 17, 21. And from this union flow all the blessings of grace to the saints. They are first of God in Christ and then he is everything to them. They have everything through him to make them comfortable and happy. And particularly he and they being one, his God is their God. His father is their father. He is a son and they are sons. He is an heir, they are joint heirs with him. Romans 8, 17. There's a marriage relation between Christ and his people. He has betrothed them to himself in righteousness, and that forever. He is their husband. They are his spouse and bride. And as when a man marries a king's daughter, he is his son-in-law, like David was to Saul, so one that marries a king's son becomes his daughter. Thus the church, being married to Christ, the Son of God, becomes the king's daughter, Psalm 45, 13. Through the incarnation of Christ, he not only became the goel, that is, the near kinsman of Ruth, but even a brother to those whose flesh and blood he partook of. Because he and they are of one and the same nature, he's not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews 2.11, and if they are His brethren then, as He is the Son of God, they must be sons of God too. Through the redemption wrought out by Him, they come to receive the adoption of children, the blessing before prepared for them in the purpose and covenant of God. Yes, Christ bestows the actual donation of the blessing of adoption. As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God. It is the Son who makes free, that is, by making them children. For the children only are free, not servants, John 8, 36. Number three, the Spirit of God has also a concern in adoption. He is the author of regeneration, which, though it is not adoption, is the evidence of it. The sons of God are described as born of God, John 1, 13. And this spiritual birth which makes men appear to be the sons of God, is owing to the Spirit of God. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, that is, of the grace of the Spirit compared to water, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3, 5. It is by faith in Christ that men receive the adoption of children. Hence, believers are said to be the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3, 26. receives and claims the privilege and blessing which faith is of the operation of the Spirit of God. Moreover, it is the Spirit who witnesses the truth of adoption. He bears witness to the spirits of believers that they are the children of God, Romans 8, 15, 16. They receive Him as the Spirit of adoption, who is sent into their hearts for that purpose. For because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, Galatians 4, 6. All to which may be added that the several operations of the Spirit on the souls of men, such as His leadings and teachings, confirm unto them the truth of their sonship. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, Romans 8, 14. They are led out of themselves and off of themselves to Christ and His righteousness. They are led into all truth, as it is in Jesus, and to the fullness of Christ. They are led through Him, the Mediator, by the Spirit unto God as their Father. And this Spirit is given and abides as an earnest in their hearts, a down payment as it were, even the earnest of the inheritance they are adopted to. until the redemption of the purchased possession. The moving cause of adoption is the love, grace, free favor, and goodwill of God. There was nothing in the creature that could move him to it, the created being, the person. No agreeable disposition in them, no amiableness in their persons, nor anything engaging in their conduct and behavior, but all was the reverse as before observed. Wherefore, considering these things, the apostle breaks forth in this moving expression, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God, 1 John 3, 1, in which he points out the source and spirit of this blessing of grace, the amazing love of God. as to the objects of adoption. They are such who are the objects of the love of God. For since adoption flows from the love of God, such who are the children of God must be interested in it. They're dear children, strongly interested in His affections, like Ephraim. Dear sons and pleasant children whom God loves dearly and loves with a love of complacency and delight. Yes, my delight. is in them. They are the chosen of God, for such that are chosen of God in Christ are predestinated to the adoption of children by Him, hence, sons before calling. They are also redeemed from among men, but out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, being the children of God scattered abroad that Christ came to gather together, and who, through redemption by Him, receive the adoption of children previously provided for them, though in their natural state they are rebellious children, children that are corrupt and corruptors, children of wrath by nature as others. You know wise better than others, but they are only openly and manifestly the children of God when they become believers in Christ. Until then, they cannot be called the children of God by themselves or by others. Until then, they have no claim to the blessing, nor have they the power, the privilege, the dignity, the honor to become the sons of God. These are the characters of the adopted ones, both secretly and openly. Now that might give, if you know that not everybody is being called, this is Bob speaking, being called into the family, you might start treating some people bad that you think are not gonna, but no, you don't know who's gonna be called. We are to treat everybody with perfect love and respect and dignity as though every one of them were a child of God. Even though you have to come to Christ, you have to be born again to be really a child of His. But who do you know? How do you know who's going to come to Christ and who isn't? Well, that's it for this time. I'm making it short. The article is short. It's, by the way, what I just read is from A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity, Volume 2 of John Gill. Thank you so much for being here today. And I do hope you look around the website. We've got other great men of God that we read from and read about. We've got hundreds, 400 North Korea audios. 400 more North Korea audios in Korean, if you've got a Korean friend. We talk about Quran, and we explain the difference between that and the Bible. And we talk about Muhammad and Jesus. We talk about prophecy, end-time prophecy. We go through the whole Bible a couple times. And there's a whole lot more. I do hope you'll look around and be blessed, as that was the intention from the beginning. This is the Hackberry House of Chosun. Lord willing, we will talk very soon. Bye-bye.