This morning's sermon will be from the Gospel of Mark in chapter 8. And as you're turning there, a little prologue-ish, explanation of it, although we are scheduled to begin the last leg of our study in the book of Ephesians. This is placed in the middle, Mark 8, and we're going to read from verse 22 to the end of the chapter. Obviously, we're eating after today. There's lots going on. And then the kids are supposed to practice after. And so, I thought with everything going on, the Lord's Supper, I might be gracious and give a nine, one-hour sermon. And so, along with that impulse, I did have another truth, another thought, very pastoral, that was on my mind this week. And in a few conversations, it seemed like it was helpful, seemed like it was needed. So those things fit together. So that's why this topical message If I had to give a title to it, it would be, What Do You See? What Do You See? In the Gospel of Mark chapter 8, we're going to read verses 22 to the end of the chapter. This gospel begins in chapter 1 with the opening, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and then it begins right in as it is written, and he quotes the book of Isaiah. So the theme of this gospel is the person of Christ. with a focus, in the second half of it, on the last hours of his life, his death, his crucifixion, and resurrection. And it begins with quoting Isaiah and meshing that with other texts, Malachi. And as you read this gospel, it naturally divides into two volumes, two halves. The first half is full of miraculous power. You see this constant refraining word immediately. He heals this person, and immediately they go and they heal this person. There's healings of fever, and there's miracles of feeding, and walking on water. So Jesus refers to Himself as well in this first half as the Son of Man. which is an allusion to the prophet Daniel, where he describes a son of man in Daniel chapter 7 who does have all this power, who is given a kingdom over all men, and every nation and man serves him. But there's something that shifts at chapter 8. Jesus has alluded to this a few times, but now, as it will say in this text, He speaks to them plainly about it. That the Son of Man, the Daniel 7 Son of Man, is also the Isaiah 53 suffering servant. And that they could not comprehend. You can think of it as connect-the-dot drawing, and you're about halfway there, and you can't see how the rest of this is going to fit in. They did not have the categories for this. And so the second half of the Gospel is that. And that became the stumbling block for the Jewish people. The cross. It's a stumbling block to Muslims still today that the Messiah would hang a curse on the cross. It's a stumbling block. And it's a stumbling block to Western, easy, safe, don't want to take any risk Americans. The message of the cross. And they encourage you to see the stumbling block to the Apostle Peter himself. So let's read it. This is the high point of the Gospel where Peter confesses Christ. He agrees that Jesus is the Son of God. There's going to be another man at the end of the Gospel who's going to, the Romans and Turian at the side of the cross, truly this man was the Son of God. So the way this Gospel reads is, you see how it opens, it means to show you that he's the Son of God. It begins with proofs. He's the Son of God because the Scriptures say that. And He's the Son of God because God the Father says this. This is my Son. And He's the Son of God for this reason, and this reason, and this reason. And so Peter gets the message. And he confesses it here. And a centurion confesses it at the end. And of course the point is for the reader, this book says this. It's like on Home Alone 2 where Kevin is going along and you're watching and all of a sudden he turns and looks at you, the viewer. They call it breaking the fourth wall. And where the viewer realizes this thing has a message for me. And Mark is going to say that in the Olivet Discourse. He says, let the reader understand. And you're like, just a reminder, this book speaks to me. So the question you and I are going to be asking, or should be asking, as you read the Gospel of Mark is, and who do I say that he is? What is my view? Do I say that He is the Son of God? So Mark 8, 22, and they came to Bethsaida and they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him. Taking the blind man by the hand, he brought him out of the village, and after spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? This is where I get, what do you see from? And he looked up and said, I see men, for I see them like trees walking around. That means the picture was partially downloaded. Then again, he laid his hands on his eyes, and he looked intently, and was restored, and began to see everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, Do not enter the village." Now, then we have this. These books are masterfully woven together. There's a connection. Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the village of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way, He questioned the disciples, saying to them, Who do people say that I am? A.K.A. How well do people see? And they told Him, saying, John the Baptist. Others say Elijah. Others, one of the prophets. And he continued by questioning them, but who do you say that I am? And I ask every single one of you as directly and as pointedly as I can, not as a group, as individuals, who do you say that he is? In your heart, what do you think? Peter answered and said to him, you are the Christ, not I think you're the Christ, not I have reasoned it out and it seems I am filled with the persuasion and the conviction that you're the Christ. Is that true of you? And he warned them to tell no one about him. That's weird. You don't do that at a baptism, do you? Like, He is the Christ. I want to identify with Him in baptism. We're so happy. Now, before you go out, don't talk to anybody about this. We say the opposite, right? So why did He say this here? Verse 31. And He began to teach them that the Son of Man, so here it is, you have to understand, when you hear Son of Man, get in Daniel 7, the King, the Powerful One, the Glorious One, the Son of Man. Like where Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, they crucified the Lord of Glory. It's this clash of glory and cross. that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. And he was stating the matter plainly. So now he's speaking plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. That's why you don't want Peter preaching, because he won't preach the cross yet. He's not ready to preach. But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan. You say, that seems harsh. He's meaning well and you called him Satan. Well, that's not really what he's doing. The Gospel began, how? With Jesus being led out into the wilderness. He's the Son of God. God the Father says He's the Son of God. And then He's led out into the wilderness. And what does Satan say three times? If you are the Son of God. If you are the Son of God. If you are the Son of God. Meaning Satan is the source of doubtful sonship. He's the source of it. He's the voice in this universe of that. It's no different in the beginning. Did God really say, doubting the goodness? Are you really His child? Can He really take care of you? Can you really trust Him? Seems like you need to do this on your own if it will go well for you. So He says to Jesus, if you're the Son of God, do this. If you're the Son of God, prove you're the Son of God. And of course, what was the method of proof? Oh, you're the Daniel 7 son of man. Right? So a half-truth to tell a whole lie. Well, you're made in the image of God. So see, you can be like God in this way, take a half-truth, whole lie. You're the Daniel 7 son of man, a kingdom. Hey, I'll give you the kingdom. So it's like typing into your map app a destination and you have two routes to it. Satan just simply said, take this route to it. Same thing. It's a different route. Do a detour of suffering. And the way you get there that way is bowing down to me. So, Satan comes at Jesus with the threat of an easy life. Just take the easy way. Or you could say the threat of death. Same thing he used from the beginning with Abel. John tells us Cain was of the evil one, that's why he slew. That was Satan doing that. The book of Revelation tells us when the murder of the children happened, that was the dragon in front of the woman. He was instigating all that through Herod. He is constantly threatening with death, which is why it says also in Revelation, and they overcame him. Why? Third reason he lists there in that series, they did not love their life even when faced with death. They couldn't be blackmailed by Satan. All that a man has, Job, he will give in exchange for his life. Until he's converted? Yes. Then he will sell the field, right? And get the treasure and the pearl. And suffer the loss of what? All things that he may have him. But Peter's not there yet. So Peter thinks he sees, he thinks he knows, he gets out in front of the teacher to lead the teacher, and Jesus says, no, he's putting him back in his place. You get behind me. You are a puppet of Satan right now. I'm spiritually minded. I know what's going on. I see behind the scenes. Like in the book of Job, right? They didn't see behind the scenes what was really happening. Jesus sees behind the scenes. He knows who put this in Peter's mind. And in that sense, He speaks to Satan through him. He's not talking to Peter. He's talking to Satan. He didn't call Peter Satan. He spoke through Peter to Satan on the other side. And it's teaching Peter a lesson. But you see, you should get the theme now. Whoa, wait. It's like on that Batman movie, the one I remember, they keep on saying at the beginning, that's a lot of money and someone gets killed. That's a lot of money. You're supposed to get the rhythm. And so through this gospel, you have this rhythm of Satan comes, and he tempts him to avoid the cross. In other words, he puts out death as though that's going to detour him, and he overcomes. And then you get to the middle of the gospel, and you have a person saying, hey, no, no, no, don't go through the cross. That's Satan. What do you think's going on when Jesus is hanging on the cross? What do you think Mark wants us to think when Jesus is hanging on the cross and the Pharisees are in front of the cross while He's hanging on the tree and say, if you are the Son of God, come down. Who's saying it? Satan is attacking Christ, the second Adam, with the full arsenal, with the tree again, except this time he's hanging on the tree. And this is the real Son. The real Son. Who trusts His Father no matter what. And He is demonstrating His love and trust for His Father. by being willing even to hang on the post if his father tells him to. It's like in the Desolation of Smaug section of The Hobbit where the father kills the dragon But through the sun, and they're up in this tower and flames are everywhere, the sun is freaked out and scared, and the father has one big arrow, one steel metal arrow, and he tells his son to stand right there, the tower there is about to fall, And he says, don't turn around, just face me. And the son is facing the father, and he uses his son's shoulder, and he pulls the arrow back, and tears are coming down the son's face. But he's trusting him, he's trusting him, and he's trusting him. Even though there's danger everywhere, he releases the arrow, slays the dragon. That's what God the Father did through his son. but because Jesus trusted him so much. He's the real Adam, the real son. That's what's being demonstrated. Right? See the flow of the whole Bible here. It's like, Adam is the son of God and he fails. Remember? That's what Israel was called. The son. Let my son go, Pharaoh. But then, no, they failed in the wilderness. Why is Jesus in the wilderness? He's demonstrating this is like a second paradise. He's obeying God in the wilderness. Or a second wilderness wandering. for 40 days, mimicking the 40 years. He's being presented as the true Son. And he's rejected. And so, he tells Peter here, you are not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's. This is the problem. God has a decree. God has a plan. God has a purpose. There's a book of life written before the foundation of the world. You know what the title of the book is? Of the Lamb who was slain. That's the plan. Now, if you're going to write a book, about the lamb who was slain, what do you got to have in your story? Sin. Death. That's got to be in the story. So you're living with a mindset, Peter, that life is about you and what you want to do and just having a job, having a career, having a marriage, having children, going to eat, Mexican restaurant, Watch the game. Do stuff. There's nothing else to take into account. There's just stuff happening and everybody atomized, living their little life and you just figure out what feels good to you and live your life. You're setting your mind on man's interest. God has a plan for the whole entire reality. From Him, through Him, to Him. To Him be the glory and His plan. He writes stories for His sons and daughters to suffer. So, verse 34, in case we thought this was just about Peter, because you remember Peter still didn't get this. At the end of the Gospel of John, he's like, I might decide for John to just live forever. What, Lord? Don't worry about what he's doing. Remember that talk? And he told Peter about what kind of death by which he would what? Glorify God. Verse 34, and he summoned the crowd with the disciples and said to them, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself absolute opposite of every single Disney movie, and I'll watch them because I love them. I'm able to pick the bad part off of the banana. The absolute opposite. Follow your heart. That's always the message. Your mom and your parents don't want you to follow your heart, and they're constraining you, and you break free. And they learn the lesson that they should have listened to the child in the end. That's the plot of every single Disney movie. The parents are idiots, the children are wise, and they all figure that out in the end. You can be who you are. You can identify. You can self-identify as anything. Y'all know what I'm referring to there in our culture. But let him, he must deny himself, Jesus is absolute opposite, absolute counter-cultural, and he says, take up his cross. You and I have no idea how offensive this was to a Roman. Cicero, about 50 years prior to the time of Christ, wrote a famous quote about a Roman's view of the cross. And it essentially says, like, let a man, you know, slap a Roman in the face, and that is horrible. Let a man slay a Roman, and that is unthinkable. But there is no possible term I can use to describe what it would be like for you to crucify a Roman. Crucifixion was the most horrid, humiliating thing they could imagine. I don't know any other way to say it than to say, if anyone follows Christ, he must deny himself and enter the port-a-potty. I mean that, it is vile to Roman ears what he is saying. And yet he says it. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? forever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation. The Son of Man will also be ashamed of Him when He comes in the glory of His Father and the holy angels." Here's what I want you to see. Jesus heals this man. Mark communicates in sandwiches. Like we're going to eat a sandwich maybe in a minute. And He communicates in sandwiches. So how did He do that here? Well, the top piece of bread is He just fed the 4,000. And the disciples are like, we only brought one loaf in the boat. We didn't have any bread. And He uses that to say, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod. And they thought he meant we should have got more bread from Kroger. And he goes into saying, how is it that having eyes you do not yet see, and ears you do not hear or understand? And in the middle of that incident with the disciples, and the Peter incident, there's a healing of the blind man. And so you begin to see the reason for the two stages is not that God was straining, and it was kind of difficult work, and so He had to do it in two parts. No, He did it that way on purpose. He halfway healed the blindness. So that the man is like seeing partially, and then he fully heals the blindness. What's the meaning of that, Peter? You currently only see me partially. That's why you can't go out and preach yet. But you will see me fully. And then you will see clearly. And the partial is seeing that He's the Daniel 7 son of man. The not seeing fully is seeing that He's also the Isaiah 53 suffering servant. That the crown comes after the cross. So what did I just share all of that with you, which I confess took way too long. The thought is this, that entered upon my mind this week, that the truth can be objectively there and you just not see it. It can be there on the page and you not see it. Your eyes are open as wide as you can and you still do not see a truth that is objectively there. Go further. there can be a significant truth that you don't see. I still remember preaching through the Book of Romans, and when Summer was converted, I can remember a look on her face One night we were staying there late talking. It was the next morning she was converted. But I was trying to go over the gospel again and again and doing my best. And there was one part where I began to try to explain the word work. It comes from Ergon. It means energy. So it means to not without energy. You trust in Christ. Without, you don't do anything. That was my effort to get into it. And she gets converted or whatever, and we go along as a church in the book of Romans. And you get to Romans 5, and Paul reaches for this analogy of Adam and Christ, and he puts them beside each other. And I remember grappling with like, why is he doing that? And he's making another attempt to help us to see something. And I remember thinking like, oh, well, here's what he's doing. Tried to communicate it to the kids. I was like, imagine you were going to stay at my house. I was going on a trip. Or I'm going to leave my dogs with you. And let's say I left Fresca with you, my black lab. I left her with you. And I said, I just want you to write down a piece of paper. You can keep her for a few days. Things you notice about Fresca. And you write your little list. And then the next time I take a trip, I say, oh, I'm going to leave Fresca and Daisy with you. Daisy is my yellow lab. And I want you to look at them together. And based on what they have in common, I want you to write down some truth about Fresca. Well, then you would begin to notice Well, I guess they both have four legs. They both have a head. They both have a tail. And what would you begin to realize? Those things were there the whole time. Your mind just wasn't drawing to them. And what Paul has been trying to say about Jesus in the book of Romans is there. It's been there. He's been saying it. But when he puts Him beside Adam, you can see it. that just as two men, just as Adam's actions determine the destinies of all men, even though we didn't do anything, that's the message. What Christ did on the cross determines your destiny, even though you didn't do anything. Just as you can be condemned based on something that happened thousands of years ago before you were born, So you can be saved based on something that happened thousands of years ago, before you were born. The work accomplished on the tree. But what that means is you can miss it. The very fact that that Romans chapter 5 is there means that the gospel is there and I can miss it. There's something I need to see and it's glorious and freeing and I also can miss it. I started thinking about this Thursday because I had an eye exam. And she's blurring it, clearing it, blurring it. And I'm thinking about this the whole time. It's there and I don't see it. It's there and I don't see it. It comes up so much in so many of our songs. Have you ever paid attention? Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see. What does it go on to say? Still, thou art holy. Behind a frowning providence. It may look like a total frown. Do you see how you can miss it? Do you see how you can be wrong? It's being taught to us. Some of you remember that story Paul Washer taught of staying with that man, working with him until he was converted up in the mountains. and reading John 3.16 until the man's like, have you ever read this before? You remember that story? He'd been reading it the whole time. He didn't see it. Jesus is telling us, having eyes, do you not see? What's the point? There's two sets of eyes. You have your physical eyes and you have the spiritual eyes of your heart. What does your heart see? Mental knowledge is the issue. I can remember one time, I was thinking about it this morning, running, I ran up some stairs to call another believer to talk to them about it when I was reading the book Desiring God by John Piper. And I discovered that God was happy. and that he was excited, that he was God. He was happy about being the best of all beings. He created the universe because he was so thrilled with himself. And the best thing he could ever do for me was to just show me himself. I felt like I went into Alice in Wonderland, like the whole entire reality changed and I entered a magical world. It was so revolutionary for me. I actually struggled for a while and thought, was that my conversion? Truth can be there the whole time and you not even see it. And when you see it, it's like, wow. It changes the way you look at everything. Jesus said in John chapter 5, I'll just go through these verses instead of turning there. You search the Scriptures, because in them you think you have eternal life, and these testify of Me. Do you realize the Pharisees memorized the first five books of the Old Testament? They were the first audio Bible. You could just sit with them. Genesis to Deuteronomy? Bam. Got it. Nurse mothers. They didn't have a clue what it meant. Jesus said. Because it's about Him. One of the Puritans said, it's a great Christmas quote, that the Scriptures are the swaddling clothes around the child Jesus. Isaiah 29 verse 9 and following says, The Lord will cause a deep sleep to come upon you, so that it will be like the one who is literate is handed the book and says, Here, read this. And he says, I cannot, for it is sealed. And you go to the one who is illiterate and say, Here, read this. And he says, I cannot, because I can't read. What's the point? This is not a normal book. are more to the point we so often assume that we are living in a normal universe where everything is just working the way it is, and in reality, it's a fallen universe. You are a fallen creature. Even as a believer, you are still fallen and affected by the fall. And the world is fallen. So I mean, imagine you have a smeared chalkboard, and then you have smeared dirt in your eyes, and that's like trying to properly interpret the pine tree. It's fallen. You're fallen. That's why Calvin said the Scriptures are the spectacles. You have to put on the spectacles to know anything correctly because of the doctrine of the fall. Reformed theology goes into talking about the noetic effects of sin. The Greek word nous for the mind. The idea that it's not just that you do bad things, your thinking is dark. You cannot even think rightly. Because of the fall. And you see, that's why you begin to get the doctrine of sin right, and the doctrine of grace follows right in behind it. Because how else could this guy ever come to Christ? Luke 24, you know, is that humorous account. The same message is communicated there. They're walking alongside Him. They're walking with Him. And they do not know who He is. And they start telling Him what happened. In Jerusalem, did you not know someone was crucified? No? Tell me about it. And they start telling him, and who he was, and we had hoped he was the Messiah, and all of this, and he's just walking along. And all of a sudden he says, you foolish, oh foolish men, slow of heart. To believe. Y'all are like the sloth on Zootopia. Like that's how slow we are to believe the promises. And he says, did you not know that it was written that the Christ would suffer and rise again? And he goes into this. And He says He told them about all that was written about Him, and the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, that it was about Him. And then what? He leaves and they're like, were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us about the Scriptures? Have you ever had that happen? Preachers talking about the Scripture, about Christ, And it's not this random burning in the bosom, but a full conviction is there. He literally says at the end, and he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. You see what I'm saying? You're fallen. It's not just a matter of learning the nouns and verbs and prepositional phrases, and that's how you get it. That's why anyone who knows God is in the book and on their knees. He's in the book and on his knees. It takes prayer and study to know God. The eye of sinful man, thy glory. Blessed are those that are pure in heart, they shall see God. It's not just pure in grammar. Paul brings this out in 2 Corinthians. He talks about a veil over the heart. He says, to this very day, when they read the Bible, veil is over the heart. They're like Kanye wearing the black thing except you can't see through it. A big head-faced hoodie that you can't see through. That's how people are reading the Bible. Pilate can stand right in front of Jesus and say, what is truth? How do you make sense of that without deadness and blindness? When you read your Bible, think, what do you see? What do you see? What is the book about when you read it? You get up in the morning and you read it. How does it hit you? What does your heart say? Hebrews says what at the beginning of it? God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in many portions, and the prophets in many portions, in many ways, in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, the radiance of His glory and all of this. What is He saying? Think of a construction site. You got like the brick guy coming in and the electrical guy coming in and there's a crane over here and some carpet dude and the paint guy and you're just going by to get your coffee and you don't know what they're making because you don't have the blueprint. You don't have the common theme. It all alike appears confusion to you. But if you're the contractor, how does it look? And this goes here, and this goes here, and this goes here. And it all contributes to the final theme. There's a unity, there's a cohesion, there's a coherence to it. I so dislike to read the Bible and not know the theme of the Bible. It's at the very beginning. In Genesis 3.15, right after the fall, He shall bruise, He shall crush your head. And John the Baptist is like, are you the one who's to come? Or do we look for someone else? Paul says, Adam was a type of him who was to come. We were just singing, Come O Emmanuel. From the very beginning, there's someone coming. So Paul says, all the promises of God are yes in him. He's the theme of the Bible. Israel's not the theme of the Bible. Jesus is the theme of the Bible. You see that? That's how to put the veil over your heart. God's Son is not Israel. God's Son is the Eternal Son, Jesus. So what does this have to do? Actually, what I want to talk about had nothing to do with anything I've said so far. except as to specify it down and talk about a particular doctrine that we seem to get maybe 1%, the doctrine of adoption. We've been seeing it in Ephesians. Remember, chapter 1, Paul prays that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know, so that you're not the woman cooking your pancakes in front of a Rembrandt all these years and you don't even know what you have. so that you're not Elisha's servant. Remember the story? Comes outside. We're surrounded. Alas, Master, we're going to perish. And what did he say? Lord, open his eyes. And he sees that they're surrounded by another army on fire. It's always the answer. It's not to deny reality and go get drunk and go get a pint of Ben and Jerry's and forget your troubles. The answer is, you believe in God, believe also in Me. It's to see more truth, so that your heart is not troubled. Think about how Paul says it, I consider that the sufferings of this present time, you see he's not denying it, but he says it's not worth comparing to this. So he's considering reality, he's not cutting off his mind, he's thinking, So how do I want to apply this to adoption? I just want you to think how often in your Christian life thus far, the whole timeline, how much of it has consisted of you knowing deeply and viewing yourself as God's son or God's daughter? I thought even today how often we use the term converted. That's how we describe it. So-and-so is converted. They're not converted. They're unconverted. Are they converted? Do you know the term adoption is used in the Bible more than the term converted? The term converted can be used in any religion. He converted to Islam. He converted to whatever. But the term adoption can't. What if we start saying, He's been adopted? Has she been adopted? Do you see? The truth begins to work itself into your mind. So here's what I want you to do. To have something in Reformed theology called the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation, since we're on Latin today. And it's just you lay this thing out, you know, justification, sanctification, glorification. Justification, I have been saved. Sanctification, I am being saved. Glorification, I shall be saved. And we think of it this way. Is there a hole there? Anything missing? It seems there is, because we read verses in Ephesians, like 1 verse 5, He predestined us to adoption, and we get real, oh, that's amazing, and by next week, thought's out of our mind. And then we come to Ephesians 5.1, has beloved children. Oh no, that's a great thought for a week, and then it's out of our mind. It was like we're at the zoo. That is not bothering me, by the way. I meant that totally sweetly. Let me fast forward to here's what I really, where the rubber meets the road I want to If you primarily conceive of justification, sanctification, glorification, that is all biblical and correct, but incomplete. The real order of salutis is not justification, sanctification, glorification. It's justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification. Meaning, you are never, ever, ever, according to the Bible, to think of living a holy life apart from being His child. Every single act of holiness is to be done in that manner, as a child of God, and that being the motivating factor. But here's what happens. We jump right into sanctification from justification, and we view ourselves as performing before a judge, like Johnny on scene two, tippy-toes, tippy-toes, trying to get everything right. before someone who's scowling at us. Am I saved today? Am I not saved today? I don't know. How does the judge feel about me today? You tell me this is not true. Here's how it goes. God is holy. You're not. So Jesus has come and He did what it takes to make you right with the Father's wrath And now God declares you righteous because of His death. And now because He loves Christ, He wants to conform you to His image. And you're going to be conformed to the image of Christ because He loves Christ. And that's how this thing is going to go. And then you'll be glorified in the end. That is so not it. All of that is correct. but incomplete. The message of this book actually includes saying, not only is God a just judge, and He justifies you, and He declares you innocent by the work of Christ, even though you didn't deserve it. But if that's all that happens, and He drops the gavel, I have no inheritance. I just have innocence. But if in addition to that, It is also said in addition to the decree of justification that you're going to be declared innocent, there is a decree of adoption and now the judge, I am going to become your father and I have adopted you and paid for you as an adoption and you are now as much as one of my children, as my own children. You have a portion in everything that they have and you are the light to my heart and you are a pleasure to me. With pleasure I look upon you and wish good for you and root for you to succeed, not fail. And I look at every one of your failures the way a father would, and it is not the case that I simply love Christ and therefore I want you to look like Him, but it is I love you. You are my beloved Son. And my heart is set upon you as it is set upon Christ Himself. And the Christian life is to be lived the exact same way Jesus' life was lived. He was the Son. How did it begin? You are my beloved Son. And You I am well pleased. And He pours out the Holy Spirit upon Him. And then He goes into the wilderness and endures the cross. That's how it's to work with you. And that's how it happens. We just don't realize that's what happened. Why did the Holy Spirit come upon you? It was the Spirit of adoption. As sons that caused you to even call on the name of the Lord. So the Christian life is to begin with who am I? God telling me I have received you. You're my son. You're my daughter. And I'm going to pour out my Spirit and make you know it. And now, because you're my child, act like the rest of the people in my family. Do you see? Sanctification is not viewed as performing, still viewing God as only a judge and who doesn't really like me. He just puts up with me. He only likes one person, Christ. And now I've got to make sure I'm like Him. I've got to put the makeup of Christ on. I've got to figure Him out because He does not like me. It's the same satanic lie. And it kills the Christian life. But if you were to think of adoption, what happens in adoption? You're now part of the family. Now because you're part of the family, you're gonna assimilate into the family. Meaning you're gonna pick up on all the little sayings we have. that just we know about, little idiosyncrasies of how we talk and our little sarcasms and all of this, you're going to become one of us. But you see, the whole different flavor to it is you're becoming this because you are one of us. But still, We say we know this 95% of the time. We're trying to do something in sanctification in order to be adopted. When you don't have this right, you either view God through appeasement or through manipulation. You've got to somehow suffer, and mourn, and hurt, and make some sacrifices. Or you've got to do something, and give, and pray, and read, till at some point, this mean God, who is not a Father, He just has a list, and that's it. That's all He cares about. He doesn't really like you. finally says, oh, I see you. You did good. I see you. You did good today. What can I do for you? Instead, just like I said before, when Liam brought Casey a flower, And then Truett, he was little at the time, he looked and he went and just grabbed a big wad of grass and walked over there and gave it to her. You know how she looked at that. You know what Isaiah says? Even Casey may forget, but I will not forget. You be honest. How many times in your Christian life you are under the influence of pagan thought? How many times in your Christian life have you looked at your prayers as that grass being given to God and Him looking at it that way? How many times have you thought when you're walking into the meeting when you don't feel like it, and you're discouraged, and you're just down, but you're just, Lord, by faith, I'm going to the church, we're going to go. How many times, just simply walking in here, do you think God looks at that like you're offering Him that grass? It's there. Though you do not see it, it's there. It can be there and you not see it. This is why we mistreat each other so easily too. I just got to add this in here. There's a good old George Herbert poem he wrote, a little quick poetry that I like. He says, he that wipes the child's nose kisses the mother's cheeks. Great line. Think of a little kid with a little smud or something on the nose and you wipe it off. How does the mother feel? See, if I'm going to mistreat Ms. Rhonda and talk bad about Ms. Rhonda, I can't do that while thinking she's God's daughter. Do you see? So, I'll leave you with this question today. When you read your Bible, what do you see? What do you see? Do you immediately fall into like, do all you see in the Proverbs, do all you see in the Psalms is just, here's another thing I need to work on, here's another... That is so dead! You're supposed to be seeing again, you are my son. And you, Mom, will please, here's what I want you to do. And you go out with assurance to do it. Do you only see a judge and see yourself during the day performing in front of a judge with a gavel? Or do you see a Father who delights in you as He delights in His own Son? And how do we act? You see it shows up when people fall into sin. Like, oh, Josh. I've known Josh all these years. Pretty clear he's a child of God. Very clear. And there you are going along and, oh, he fell into something. Yeah, brother, I don't know. Maybe you're in the faith. Is that how a father responds to the child? Do you just come in and out of being a child? But we instantly Do you know what kind of death that is? To put upon a true Christian at that moment? Yeah, I don't know. Like now you have to perform your way out of this? That's not how recovery works. You go in there like Paul in Ephesians, you're like, look, even though you did this, let me remind you, this is not who you are. You know this is not who you are. Yeah, this is bad. But there is forgiveness for this. You're God's child. God's children sadly sometimes fall into these things. But because you're His child and that does not change, you can come out of this. And I'm going to walk with you out of this. Now, if you're telling someone that all the time, And they just stay in their sin. Okay. Clear. The point is, that's not the initial reaction. Why? How? Because you're thinking of adoption. Obey as beloved children. That's not obeying as a beloved child. I don't have to work hard to transition to the Lord's Supper. I ask you this time, what do you see? How many times have you taken the Lord's Supper as a believer and asked yourself this? How many times have you thought the body and blood of Christ as a payment for your adoption? Adoptions are not free. They cost money. You, don't tell anybody, you and the Lord, how many times has it crossed your mind? Not just He paid for your sins in general, I'm not talking about that. Specifically, you have concentrated upon and been reminded of, because of taking the Lord's silver, of adoption. This is the payment of my adoption. That's one way to think about it. Galatians chapter 4. God sent forth His Son in the fullness of time, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who are under the law so that they would receive the adoption. The body and the blood in the mind of Christ was so that you would receive the adoption. We need to be constantly praying, Lord, open my eyes. Overcome the effects of sin in my life. Remove the frowning providence so that I can see Your smiling face. Open my eyes. Open the Scriptures. You need to be praying that, Lord, as I read the Bible, please let me see You rightly. And help me with all the saints to know You. Because the truth might be right there in front of you. And it's not a matter of grammar keeping you from it. It's just a matter of grace. And that's what we need. The Word and prayer. for Him to open our eyes so that we can see it. Well, I hope it's been a blessing to you. I'm afraid I did give an hour sermon. But it happens, like every time. If you are, I'm not going to say the word, Christian, It also only appears three times in the Bible, and only one time positively. If you're a son of God, or a daughter of God, meaning, if I were to ask you today, who do you say that He is, and you know who He is, flesh and blood, didn't reveal it to you? And I do not care. As a minister of the Gospel, I do not care what you feel like. I do not care what you did before you walked right into here. Be reminded again that you're a child of God. You're a son of God. You're a daughter of God. And may you take the Lord's Supper, and may He remind you of that. And when you think, why am I reading my Bible? Why am I going to church? Why am I being kind to people? Do not give the answer. Because it's the right thing to do. Because it's good. Because it's kind to give the answer. Because I'm His son. And this has taken on a family likeness in ways. Amen. You come as you're led and we'll take the Lord's Supper. And then Ron and then we'll lead us after we take it in a song. We'll be dismissed. He'll dismiss us. So you come. in light of this sermon and the illusion, the truth being hidden from us and behind a frowning providence there being a smiling face, I thought I would just read the benediction that God commanded to be read to His people. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you. and give you peace. So they shall invoke my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them. Take the Lord's Supper.