Thank you, Ryan. What a joy it is to be here with you this morning. Go ahead and be taking your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of John. John chapter 1. John chapter 1. And it has been such a joy to already hear about this blessing of adoption that we have experienced as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so far in our confession, and as Ryan has wonderfully brought out from Ephesians 1, we have seen that our Confession brings out who are the recipients of this adoption, who is the cause of this adoption. God is the one who caused it. We saw that all throughout Ephesians chapter 1. And so now, Once the confession sets out who it is that is adopted and why it's being done for the cause of Christ, it then now goes on and it turns the corner and it begins to talk about the benefits of adoption. And so there are several benefits. We can call them benefits. We can call them blessings of adoption. So I'm going to be dealing with basically I think what we could say is the first general blessing of adoption that we see listed here. And I think we could just group it under a general heading that we could call the blessing of being brought into the family of God. that first overall general blessing of just being brought into the family of God. So, look at that back page of your confession, that old time font, you gotta love it, right? It takes a little while to get over that learning curve of reading the Puritans in that way. But notice what the confession says by way of that first benefit, which is being brought into the family of God. The confession says, starting from the beginning, All those that are justified, God vouchsafed, or like Ron pointed out, that means He graciously granted, condescendingly granted, in and for the sake of His only Son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption. So, now it begins to describe the benefits of adoption, the blessings of adoption. So, here's the first one. by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, have his name put on them." So, that is the first blessing of adoption. You can take all of that and group it under the overall heading of being taken into the family of God. That is the first blessing of adoption that we have. So, now, That being the overall blessing being brought into the family of God, here in our confession we see that that overall blessing consists of four specific elements. And you can see them right there. Look at what it says. We're taken into the number. Number two, we enjoy the liberties. And number three, we enjoy the privileges. And number four, we have God's name put upon us. So those four things are the individual elements of the overall blessing of what it is to be brought into the family of God. So that's going to be my outline for this morning, OK? It just breaks down into those four things, OK? So I want you to see first of all with me taken into the number. And when you see that phrase there, I mean, what is clearly implied there? What is clearly implied when you see taken into the number? What is clearly implied is that there was a time when we were not in the number, right? if we have to be taken into the number. And so there is a specific action that God has to take. And that's why I asked you to go ahead and be turning to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. Look at verse 12 again. Ryan hit on this this morning already, but I want to show you this passage here in a different facet here to have a different nuance out of this. So John chapter 12, John chapter 1, excuse me, look at verse 12. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right, now notice, to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. So what we see here is that there was a specific act whereby when our status was we were not sons of God, we were given the legal right, we were given the authority, we were given the power to become that. Okay? And so, that's what it means to be taken into the number. Previously, we were outside of the family of God, but through the grace of adoption, we are now taken into the family of God. 1 John 3 verse 1 says this, See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God. That is that we should be not only just called children of God in name, but also that we would be called effectually. And Ron talked about this this morning, having been predestined. that because of that predestination there would then be the effectual call that would go out to us in time in a moment in our lives and we would be called effectually and we would be brought into the number of those who would then bear the title and bear the label of the family of God. So, when it says in the confession here that we are taken into the number, what the authors of the confession are doing here, very intentionally, is they are ruling out, they are excluding the idea that everyone is in this number. that everyone is already in this number. And listen, isn't that an idea that has gained so much traction in our day and age, right? That, hey, everyone is in this number. I mean, all of us are the children of God. I mean, this idea of just the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood and sisterhood of man. I mean, it's so prevalent. It's everywhere you go these days. But I want to tell you that that is just rank liberalism. You will search the Scriptures in vain if you try to look for that. It doesn't exist. The Word of God makes it crystal clear. that there are some who are in and there are some who are out. And so when someone says, well isn't humanity such a beautiful thing? We're all just beautiful children of God. Whenever you hear someone say that, Go straight to this verse. Straight to John 1, verse 12. Because look at it. If we have to become children of God, then clearly we were not that before, right? So apart from receiving Christ, apart from believing in Christ, those who believe in His name, it says here, no one can ever claim to be or have been brought into the family of God. So if one wishes to be in the family of God, if one desires to be in the family of God, well, there is a way that that can happen, but there's only one way. that that can happen, that that can take place. But apart from that one means, it does not happen. And so our Lord said, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me. And so if we ever hope to be one of the children of the Father, we have to go through the Father, to the Father, through the Son, or else we don't go to the Father at all. And we never become one of His children. Now, let me just say this as sort of a caveat to that. It is true that the Word of God does speak of all of humanity having a certain relationship with God by virtue of creation. Paul, Acts chapter 17, says we are all His offspring. But I want to tell you, offspring does not equal children. That does not equal, that is completely different from being considered a member of his family. The thing is this, we're all part of God's creation. God created us. Therefore, we have a relationship with God by virtue of creation. We're all under the authority of God, but we are not children of God. We are not sons of God by virtue of creation. Now, just like Ryan pointed out this morning, there only was one who was, and that was Adam. But he lost that status, right, in the fall. and the only way that status is regained is through the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is the first part of the first benefit, the first blessing of adoption. It is being brought into the family of God and first of all this consists in being taken into the number and that has to occur in regard to a specific act that God does. God brings us into the number and that has to happen in regard to a specific act which is faith, saving faith, believing in Christ, being justified. Those who are justified, those are the recipients of adoption. That's what our confession said right at the beginning that Ryan went over this morning. So, number two, the second thing that we see here, the second element of this overall blessing, the overall blessing, what is it? It is being taken into the family of God. The second element of that is this, we enjoy the liberties. So our confession states this, we enjoy the liberties and the privileges of the children of God. Take your Bibles if you would, turn to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I want us to look at verses 14 and following here because what the Apostle Paul is going to do as he writes this, he's writing to believers in Rome and he's going to outline what are these liberties we have in this adoption that's been given to us. So Romans chapter 8, look beginning in verse 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. So there he is. He's speaking to sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. Now, what we need to keep in mind, what we need to keep in the forefront of our understanding is this. In regard to justification, All right, the issue there in justification with men and with women, they are being viewed as lawbreakers. In justification, they're being viewed as criminals. And so they're in the courtroom of justification. They're in the criminal courtroom where justification is being granted. And so in that courtroom, they're being justified pardon is being granted to them. They're being declared righteous in that courtroom. Well, this is a different courtroom. This is a courtroom of adoption. And so in this courtroom, what do we see? We see men and we see women who are enslaved. They are enslaved. And so in the civil courtroom, as opposed to the criminal courtroom, they are brought into the family of God. They are brought out of slavery, out of this status. And in the civil courtroom, they are brought into the family of God. So in this courtroom, their family status is changed. So look at verse 15, because you can clearly see here that Paul is writing this. He says, for you have not received a spirit of slavery. And so adoption is about going from slavery or going from bondage to going to sonship. Sonship, which is the opposite of slavery. So sonship is liberty. Sonship is freedom. So now when our confession says then that we enjoy the liberties, I know, as soon as you hear the word liberties, you're thinking like, oh, I can do all this fun stuff. No, that's not what this is talking about here. It's not talking about those types of liberties. So when it says we enjoy the liberties and the privileges of the children of God, there are many liberties, but one of the liberties that we enjoy is this liberation from bondage, this liberation from slavery. And what were we slaves to? What were we in bondage to? Well, what does the Word of God have to say? We were slaves to sin, right? That's what the Word says. We were in bondage to sin, so we were servants of sin. If you go back just a few chapters, you'll read all about that. In Romans chapter 6, it talks elsewhere in the Word of God that we were slaves to Satan, We were in bondage to do His will. 2 Timothy 2.26 speaks of escaping from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. And so the liberation, the liberty that we enjoy is this liberation, this liberty from slavery to sin, this liberation from slavery to Satan, and also another one, this liberation from slavery to the world, right? Because it says we dipped into Ephesians 2 this morning in our first session. Ephesians 2 verse 1, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, listen, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. That's the way we formally walked. We walked according to the course. In other words, we fit into that mold. I mean, we were in fear of what people thought of us. We were, as it were, pressurized to walk in that way, to be that way. And the group thought of all the believers in the culture and the world. I mean, they formed the context in which we operated and for which we were in fear. The Bible says in Proverbs 29, verse 25, the fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. And our Lord even says this, Matthew 10, 28, do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And so the clear inference here is that we were in fear. I mean, we had a deep abiding fear and have been in slavery to the world, to the world as well as to sin, as well as to the devil. Slavery, bondage. So then in this passage here in Romans chapter 8 verse 15, look at what it says again. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. Now, when we were in slavery to the world, the flesh, and the devil, that was a slavery that produced a bondage of fear. We were in fear. We were afraid. We were afraid of not carrying out what the world and the flesh, the sinful flesh, and what the devil would have us to carry out. And there was that pressure to do that. And so that was fear on that front, but yet on the other front there was fear because as we did those things, we understood in our conscience that we were under the condemnation of God as we did those things. So there was fear before the face of God as well. So it's just fear, fear, fear all over the place. So what we're seeing here is that We have been liberated from that. We've been liberated from slavery and bondage, and we have been liberated from fear that was attached to that slavery, that was attached to that bondage, and we have been liberated from these evil, cruel slave masters. Sin. Satan. The world. Listen. You, believer, through adoption, have been liberated from those things. You've been given the spirit of adoption. Now, John chapter 14 verse 1. One of the things that the Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples was this. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. And in that, what is he saying there? He's saying be free from fear. There's no reason for you to be fearful any longer. And he goes on to say in that same chapter, verse 27, John 14 verse 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Now listen to what he says here. Not as the world gives do I give to you. You see the world doesn't give peace. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. So, one of the great blessings, one of the great privileges we have as those who are brought into the family of God is that we enjoy liberties. And again, these liberties, they're not liberties just to go out and sin, and sin, and sin, and just sin some more, because now we don't have to worry about that. I mean, after all, we're saved, I mean, hey, just go sin and just get used to your justification, right? Because you're perfect in Christ, right? No, that is a hyper-grace theology that is an error, okay? And we have people in our day who espouse that. But that is not what this is saying here. No, that's not the liberty we're talking about here. No, the liberty we're talking about here actually is a liberty where we're free. We're free from having to commit sin. We're free from being enslaved to what our unsaved peers think. We're free from having the flesh just to dog us and to sort of form us into its mold because we have the Spirit. We've been made free. And Galatians 5.16 says, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out, you will not carry out, you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. And then of course we're free from the devil. James 4.7 resists the devil and guess what? He will flee from you. He will flee from you. And so it's not like it used to be with us. Because we're no longer having to fear Him, or His attacks upon us, or His influence upon us. No, we have been liberated. We are free. And not only are we liberated from slavery to the world, and slavery to the devil, and slavery to fear, but we're liberated from judgment. What a wonderful blessing that is. Romans 8 chapter 1, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so God has come and through adoption He has carried us away from fearing God's judgment anymore of Him ever casting us into hell. I love how Ryan brought that out. He will never unadopt us. He will never cast us out. He will never cast us away. Ryan said he would have to find displeasure in his own son for him to find displeasure in all of us sons. How amazing that is. So, take your Bibles. Let me show you this. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 2. Because Hebrews chapter 2 speaks to this delightful liberation we have as the children of God. Hebrews chapter 2. Look beginning in verse 9 of Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews 2 verse 9. But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory." So there's the idea of adoption, right? Bringing these sons to glory. to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them, next word, brethren. And so here's the idea of adoption once again as Jesus is redeeming here a people so that that He might call them brethren. Look at v. 12. Saying, I will proclaim Your name to My brethren in the midst of the congregation. I will sing Your praise. And again, I will put My trust in Him. And again, behold, I and the children whom God has given Me. So, are you ready to strap in this morning and hear a blessed shocker? I mean, Jesus... Jesus now has siblings. I mean, can you imagine that? Fellow children, if you will. Brethren that God has given to Him. And He has come into this world and He has redeemed them. I mean, this is amazing. Now, what kind of liberation? What kind of liberty? has He fashioned now for those who have become His brethren, His own joint heirs. We'll look at verse 14. Therefore, since the children, that is, those adopted children who have been brought into his family, therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, now watch this, verse 15, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. So again, here's this theme again. We keep seeing it over and over and over, right? Slavery, liberation, slavery, liberation, slavery, liberation. And that's what adoption is all about. It is taking us out of the world of slavery and into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And so in this passage, here's Jesus. And He is the one who makes our adoption possible by redeeming us. And here He is specifically providing us with the liberties, the liberation from judgment and from the fear of death and from the power of the devil. So, that is the second aspect of what it is to be brought into the family of God. We are enabled to enjoy the liberties. I mean, think about that. The liberties of a family. There are always liberties that are involved, right? And just being part of a family, right? I mean, I think about my family. I mean, my family has certain liberties. that y'all don't have, right? I mean, they have certain liberties on my property, certain liberties in my home, certain liberties with my stuff. I mean, it'd just be kind of weird if we're just sitting in our home on a Saturday afternoon watching some college football, and just one of you came in the front door and went up to the fridge and just pulled out a snack, right? I mean, that would be a little abnormal, you know? But now, for someone in my family to do that, Well, that just happens too often, really. But again, those are those liberties we have. And so, they as my family have certain liberties that you do not have and it works the same way in your home and with your family in regard to the rest of us. Your family has certain liberties in your home that we do not have. And so, here's the point. When we're taken into the family of God, we have liberties with God that we never had before. And we have liberties from the oppressiveness and cruelty that we were previously in. And so some of the liberties that we enjoy are liberation from slavery to the world and the flesh and the devil, liberation from fear, and liberation from judgment. So we have been set free. I want you to know we've been set free from so much. I mean so much and I tell you we need to value this. We need to give great glory to God for this. Great praise to God for this. What He has done for us in so many different areas and especially in this area that often times just gets overlooked. This area of adoption. Not only are we taken into the number, and not only do we enjoy the liberties of the children of God, but the third thing I want you to see this morning is that we enjoy the privileges. Look at what it says. It says we enjoy the privileges of the children of God. When we talk about our liberties, our liberties in adoption have to do with what we are delivered from. Our privileges in adoption have to do with the astonishing blessings that we enjoy. So take your Bibles and turn back to Romans chapter 8 if you're not there already. Because it is there that we can see again in that really premier passage on this subject, we see that privilege summarized in Romans 8. Romans 8, we'll be looking at verses 16 and 17, but let's just go back a little bit. Let's pick up in verse 14. Let's try to get a little bit of the lay of the land, a little bit of the context here. Picking up in verse 14, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. And now, here are the privileges. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, now here's the privilege, heirs also. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Our minds should have just exploded right then when we heard that. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Now, to be joint heirs with Christ. That includes an immense number of things. And I want to tell you, I mean, we could just go session after session after session just going all throughout the Word of God and looking at all those blessings. But suffice it to say this, that in whatever blessing that God the Father is going to bring upon His Son as He is in reference to His humanity, as He is as the God-man. In whatever blessing God is going to bring upon His Son, we are going to share, listen, equally in all those blessings. Is that not an amazing thing to even contemplate? Now, let's not get off kilter theologically here, right? The Lord Jesus Christ, he has two natures, right? He has a human nature and he has a divine nature. So we need to understand this distinction here. We are never going to be joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ in relationship to his deity. Okay? Let me just repeat that. We are never going to be joint heirs in relationship to Christ, in relationship to His deity. Alright? I mean, we can't be. It's impossible for us to be. For us to be able to do that, I mean, you would have to be God yourself. And so it's impossible to do that. But, The Lord Jesus Christ is not only God, the Lord Jesus Christ is also man. And so as a man, He is our brother. And in that sense, we have been adopted into the family of God, and we are now sons of God, just like Jesus is a man, and Jesus is a son of God. That is Jesus viewed from the perspective of His humanity, okay? We need to make that distinction. I love what R.C. Sproul always said. He said, theology is all about distinctions. And it is. It really is. So therefore, what happened? Jesus, in His incarnation, He took to Himself a human body. and he still presently has a human body and he will forever in heaven have a human body as a man and he will receive from his father privileges. So God the Father will grant to him all his possessions and so that's what it means to be an heir. I mean that's how it works out in a family. My children are my heirs. And so if a tragedy happened and me and my wife were to die, they would get whatever we've got. They are our heirs. And the sad thing about it is that It takes the death of a loved one for there to be an heir. However, the wonderful thing about this being an heir in heaven is it does not take the death of the one who distributes the inheritance. here because God of course cannot die, right? And of course we see that sort of pictured in the story of the prodigal son, don't we? Where the prodigal son went to his father and he said, Father give me half of the goods that belong to me and he gave it. And the father hadn't yet died. And so we do have an illustration of that. Well, when we get to heaven God's going to take all of His things, whatever all those things might be, and He is going to distribute it among His children equally. Now, since God has an infinite number of things, everyone is going to get an infinite share. And so it's not like, well, You know, here's a million dollars and if you have two kids, each one is going to get 500,000. Is that what that is? People in my church know my math is awful. Would that be 500,000? Is that right? Okay, it is, AJ. Alright, alright. So, okay. They get 500,000 and so if you have a million and here's 10 kids, that's 10,000. 100,000, okay, all right. You guys get what I'm saying, right? Okay. So, but basically when it comes to heaven and our inheritance, there is no diminishment, there is no lessening. That's not the way it is in heaven. The more people that are there, it's not a lessening in whatever God would have us to give by way of inheritance, by way of being joint heirs, whether those are spiritual blessings or physical blessings, okay? Whatever we need in heaven, and again, we're going to have needs in heaven. We're not going to be just bodiless spirits. I mean, we're going to have bodies. We're going to have bodies that have needs that require certain things, okay? So whatever we need, we're going to have it. And we will have it to the degree in which it is given to Christ. Because we are not just heirs, we are joint heirs with Christ. As far as being heirs, we are standing on, I mean, get this, we're standing on equal footing with our brother, our elder brother Christ. He is our elder brother. He is the first son. He is the first fruits. But yet, he is still our brother. And so, now, do you think God loves to give his son gifts? Absolutely. We love to give our children gifts, right? We love to delight our children with that. Since we love to do it, surely that is a reflection of God above. And so I imagine that the delight God would have in giving to His precious Son, that same delight He will have in giving to us as well. So look at verse 17. When it says here in verse 17 that we will be fellow heirs with Christ. And again, that is a reference to his humanity. He's not going to have better possessions than we do. I mean, think about it. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 3 amazingly even says this. Do you not know that we will judge angels? So, I mean, we're even going to be in judgment together with Christ. And so when you think about it, I mean, there's going to be a great deal that we're going to have in accompanying Christ and doing things with Christ, again with reference to his humanity, really on an equal basis. And these blessings come through adoption, because we're adopted into the family of God. And so what are we doing? We're standing with our elder brother, Christ. So what a blessing adoption is. And the Lord Jesus Christ even asserted this in the Gospel of John. Turn over to John 15 real quick. Let me just show you this. John chapter 15. Look at verse 15. He says, No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends for all things, all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. And so there's this elevation of us to friends. He uses the word friends here But what he's communicating here, he's communicating the idea of equality. I mean, think about it. Your friends. How do you view your friends? You don't view your friends as superiors, right? You don't view your friends as inferiors, do you? You just view your friends as sort of equals, right? And so, in the same way, you don't see your brethren as superiors. You don't see your brethren as inferiors. You just see them as equals. And so, And so I don't know what all God has laid up in store for His Son, but whatever it is, through the blessing of adoption, He has that same inheritance laid up for us as well. And so that is just extraordinary. That is astonishing. What an extraordinary blessing it is to be an adopted child. of God. Well, the fourth thing I want you to see here about being brought into the family of God, these different parts of this overall blessing, the first part taken into the number, the second, we enjoy the liberties of the sons of God, the third, we enjoy the privileges of the sons of God, now fourth, what about this one? We have God's name put on us. Our confession explicitly says that we have His name put on us. In the human realm, one of the things that happens when you adopt a child into your family out of some other family is that not only is he or she taken into your family, and not only does he or she enjoy all the privileges and blessings that happen when they come into your family, but another thing that happens is they get your name. They get your name. So when a child is adopted into a new family, their last name changes. And as they come into your family, their name changes from whatever it was to now whatever yours is. For example, when my 10-year-old son came into this world, When he was born into this world the name that was given to him was Christian Michael Ange. He came into our home at 14 months as a foster child. His name remained Christian Michael Ange. But at three years we adopted him and when we adopted him he was given a new name. Christian Michael Loomis. And so when he was given a new name, he was issued a new birth certificate that had his new name. He was issued a new social security card. I think it still had the same number, but his name changed on the card to reflect his new name. And so basically in all of that, my name was given to him. And so he received a new name. And so now Christian does not bear the family name he used to bear. Now Christian Michael bears our family name. And he has our name. And so Whenever a child is taken from one family through adoption and brought into another family, their name changes to whatever that new family's name is and now they bear the family name. So when we become a saved people, we obtain a new name. Again, a stranger taken into the family of another takes the family name, and so those whom God adopts, what does He do? He calls them by His name. And by putting His name upon them, what He is doing is He is basically saying, I take responsibility for them. I call them by my name. Now, if someone doesn't have the name of Loomis, I'm not responsible for them. I mean, they might have the name of Clevenger or Davidson or Riddle, you know, and hey, I might have an opportunity to try to help, you know, some of those children or be an encouragement to them, but I'm not responsible for those children. You know why? Because they don't have the name Loomis. That's the one I'm responsible for. And so those parents who have children who have their names, those are the ones that they are responsible for, those children. And so when God puts His name on us and says, this is the Son of God, by doing that, He is saying, I am responsible for this child. And so therefore, when He takes us into His care, and when He takes us under His discipline, and into, not only into His discipline, but taking us into His family, He's taking us into any difficulties that might be related with that family. Because sometimes it's difficult to be a Christian, right? It's the same thing that happens when Christian was taken into my family. He was taken into the blessings of our family. But I tell you, there are some difficulties that come with being a Luminous, you know. And he got the whole shebang, right? And so, again, they just share in all those things. And so I'm responsible for him. I'm responsible for his health, his well-being, his safety, his maturity, his wisdom, his growth. I mean, in short, I'm just responsible for everything that takes place in his life. Well, God does that as well. Now again, we've looked at this one other time, but 1 John 3, verse 1. It says this, see how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called, now here's our name, children of God. That's the name He's given to us. That's the name He has bestowed upon us. He then takes responsibility for us. 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18. This is a text where we're told the main punch of this text is, look, don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, okay? But listen to what it says, verse 14 in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. So on the basis of this exhortation contained here, 2 Corinthians 6 verses 14-16, what he's saying here is clear. We're not supposed to be tangled up closely with unsaved people here. That's the main thing of what he's saying. And then, And then God says to us, verse 17, Therefore come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean. And I will welcome you. Now listen to verse 18. And I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. So when God says he will be a father to us, he also says that we will be his sons and daughters. So that's our name. That's what we're called. We're called sons and daughters of God. And God specifically says here that when we turn away from the unsaved world, we turn to God, we turn in faith, we turn in repentance, He says that He will receive us as what? He won't receive us just as residents. He won't receive us just as subjects of his kingdom, though we are, and that's a great blessing, right? But he will receive us as sons and daughters. I mean, think about the blessing that is. That's like our governor pardoning a criminal then what a blessing it would be to that criminal, to be free, to be out in society again, right? But let's say in that very act of pardon, the governor then goes and they go from the criminal courtroom and then he escorts that criminal over to the civil courtroom and then he makes him his son and says, now come with me to the governor's mansion and now come and be an inheritor of all that I have. What a blessing that would be, right? What an extreme blessing. Take your Bibles and turn over to the Old Testament. I want to try and bring this to a close here. Isaiah chapter 62. Isaiah chapter 62. Just a very interesting passage here. Isaiah 62, look beginning at verse 1. God is speaking here with reference to His people. And he's looking forward to the day of gospel redemption when Gentiles will be brought into the church. So look beginning in verse 1 of Isaiah 62. For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not keep quiet until her righteousness goes forth like brightness and her salvation like a torch that is burning. So he's saying look, I'm not going to stop. I'm not going to take a breath until Messiah comes. That's what he's saying here. Verse 2. The nations, that's all of us, right? The nations will see your righteousness and all kings your glory and you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will designate. And so the point is that when the Gentiles see Christ, that's God's righteousness spoken in verse 1. It says then they're going to be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Verse 3. You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. That's us. That's the Gentiles. We're going to be these things to God. So verse 4. It will no longer be said to you, forsaken. See, that used to be our name. nor to your land will it any longer be said desolate. That was another name we used to have, right? But you will be called, My delight is in her, and your land married. For the Lord delights in you, and to Him your land will be married. In other words, what is He saying here? He's saying you will be taken into the family. You'll be in the family. And so what God is saying here is that He's going to put a new name on us and the name that He's going to put upon us is that now you are the object of my delight. Now I am married to you. And is this not what the church is to the Lord Jesus Christ? We are the bride of Christ. the very bride of Christ. He is a husband to us. And so, what is the big idea here? The big idea goes back to the big idea of adoption, and the overall big idea of it all is this. We are brought into the family of God. Now here, I mean in this specific Old Testament passage, here the imagery is marriage. You go over into the New Testament, oftentimes the imagery is adoption, right? And sometimes it's spoken of being brought into the family through even the new birth. And so, here's the point. There's all these different images about how we're brought into the family of God. But the wonderful thing is that we are. We are. Whether it's by birth, the new birth, or whether it's by adoption, or whether it's by marriage, God is communicating to us, you are in the family. You are family. You're family. My name is on you. And so no more are you to be called rejected, or desolate, or a curse. But now you have My name upon you. You are family. So as we look at our confession, this is the first overall blessing that we see. And what a blessing it is, right? Just to think that we who are the enemies of God, We have been forgiven. That would be enough. That would be enough just to be acquitted. To be an acquitted, forgiven sinner. To be justified. Thank You, Lord, that I'm justified. Thank You that I have peace with You. That is more than enough. More than I could ever ask for. But wait, Lord, what are You going to do now? Wait, You're going to take me and we're going to even go past justification? And you're going to make me a son and an inheritor of all that you have? It's too much. I cannot take in all of this. And it is just like Ron said, what can we do except bow the knee and give great praise to our great God? Let's pray. Oh, Father, we thank You so much for what You have done for us in this great gift of adoption. Lord, we thank You for the privilege of being adopted into Your family, to be freed from bondage, to be given the privileges, to be given the name, to be given all these things, to be taken into the number. Father, these are honors, these are blessings that are beyond comprehension. So we thank You for them. May we rejoice in them. May we give You glory and praise for them. And Father, I pray that You help us, help us to adorn the name that has been given to us. And Father, help us In our sanctification, help us to never bring disgrace upon the family name. May we wear it well, may we represent you well, and may we walk in obedience to the name that you have given to us. And we ask this in Christ's name, amen.