In his sermon, Scott Brown discusses the concept of adoption as presented in the 1689 Baptist Confession, illustrating it with a story that parallels the 23rd Psalm. The sermon explores the chapter on adoption, which is unique in its single-paragraph structure, and explains how it highlights God's fatherhood and the blessings of being adopted. Brown describes adoption as a legal transaction that follows justification and precedes sanctification, emphasizing the transition from an alien family to the family of God. He outlines 16 characteristics of adoption, including being vouchsafed, receiving a new name, and partaking in the grace of adoption. The sermon also addresses earthly perversions of adoption and the importance of understanding this doctrine in the context of salvation. Brown concludes by urging listeners to extol God's mercy and grace in adopting unworthy sinners.

Tonight we're going to focus on the chapter in our confession on adoption and so we're going to walk through it and when I when I consider this chapter and was particularly thinking about it today. It was reminding me of one of my favorite books that I'm reading to my grandchildren. It's a story that really illustrates the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil." Well in this book each phrase of that Psalm characterizes each chapter of the book but the book is is about two sheep And the storyline goes back and forth between these two sheep. There's a conversation that they have.

They live in two different pastures that are right next to each other, divided by a fence. And there are two shepherds of two pastures of these two sheep. And One of the sheep is obviously well fed, well cared for, the other sheep not at all. This conversation goes back and forth between these two sheep as they talk to each other across the fence. As the story line continues, it turns out that one shepherd doesn't really take very good care of his pastures, but the other shepherd takes very good care of his pastors.

One shepherd provides a way to get you know good water, the other does not. And so there's this conversation. One sheep is obviously well fed and has you know all the health of fatness or the fatness of health and the other one is emaciated and so they're talking back and forth about their shepherds that's really what the conversation is And the one sheep that's deprived just tells about the pastures and the experiences and the other sheep is saying, well my shepherd's not like that at all. And of course it's about the Good Shepherd. And at the end of the story, as they're talking back and forth, the Good Shepherd of the fat sheep comes and he buys that emaciated, really worthless sheep.

You learn that the sheep in the poor pastors of the poor shepherd doesn't even have a name. And so the good shepherd buys this really worthless skinny lamb and gives that lamb a new name. And it's really a very precious story. I love this story. It really is the story of conversion, how you move from an abusive shepherd like Pharaoh, and he's not very nice, and you move into the pasture of the good shepherd, and he is wonderful.

And so as we're in this section on adoption, I've just been reminded of that story. And if you have young children, I highly recommend the story. It's a great little book. And This entire chapter is about how good a father is to those he adopts. And so the structure of this chapter is really interesting.

There's only one paragraph, okay? It's only one paragraph in this entire thing. And it's also one sentence, one long sentence. So it's very interesting. It's like none of the other chapters that I can think of in the confession.

And one of the things that you find, the language that's used in the things that are brought up, you find yourself soaring back and forth from earth to heaven, earth to heaven, almost with every phrase. And so you're going from heaven to earth and back and forth. And the things that are said remind you of both and the blessings of having a good father, and what it means to be adopted. And how God the Father works with you on earth, but he really takes you to heavenly things. You'll see that when we get to it.

It's really very beautiful. And it details what it means to be a son or a daughter of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Just in terms of the structure of this chapter, it begins with one qualifying phrase, and then there are 16 characteristics. Sixteen characteristics are what it means to be adopted, And by the way, we're going to go over every one of them. Now in this paragraph, there's also a presupposition.

And that presupposition is that God uses earthly things to teach you about heavenly things. In the same way that he uses light on earth to teach you about the light of the world, he uses bread that you eat to remind you of the bread from heaven. He uses an earthly condition, adoption, to remind you of something that he's done in heaven. So he uses this earthly thing called adoption. And to speak of even greater things, the physical pictures speak of earthly realities.

Now, There are also three things that you'll notice in this chapter. And first of all, who you are as adopted. And second, what happened? What happened? What happened to you when you were adopted?

And thirdly, what you possess? Now the context of this chapter is also important and the context of course exists in a flow. What was the chapter that we just reviewed before? Justification. So the authors of the Confession are walking through the glory of salvation.

And so now, after one is justified, there is another thing that happens, and it is also a legal transaction. Just as justification is a legal transaction, so is adoption a legal transaction. Nobody gets adopted without a legal transaction on the earth. And nobody gets adopted without a legal transaction that takes place to become a child of God. And So this chapter speaks of this transaction that has taken place where you become part of the family of God.

And everybody gets a family in the body of Christ, even if you didn't have a family even if you had a bad family even if you're like that little lamb on the other side of the of the fence line That doesn't have very good food It doesn't have very good water and you didn't have a good shepherd to really take care of you, expose you to all kinds of harmful things. When you go into the other pasture, everything changes and you have a good shepherd, you have a good father. And that's what adoption is meant to describe. And so there's this picture of how you become part of a family. And It begins with justification, which is a legal transaction, and then this transaction called adoption.

And this is the only way you can be part of the family of God. I really like the way John Murray defined adoption. Here's a definition. Are you ready? Adoption, as the term clearly implies, is an act of transfer from one alien family into the family of God Himself.

This is surely the apex of grace and of privilege. So it's about the redemptive fatherhood of God. You're taken from an alien family and put into a real and real, live, wonderful family. You get a new family. Galatians 3.26 speaks of it like this, For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, and you are Christ, and if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." And Embedded in this whole doctrine is the tenderhearted mercy of God. It's a perfect reflection of Ephesians 2, 4 that says, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us. He made us his sons. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

It's really about his love. So as we move into this confession here, we've recognized that there is a legal transaction, a legal transaction that has taken place here. But at the same time, adoption is distinct from justification. And so the confession begins with this kind of summary statement that connects us with justification. And because in order to be adopted, a legal process needs to be enacted.

And so adoption is a subset of justification, theologically. And so there's this logical progression in the confession. Justification, adoption, and what would you expect to be next in the confession? Sanctification. So there's a very logical flow.

You're justified, you're adopted, and you are sanctified. So that's the logical conclusion. So there are these 16 statements that explain God's part in justification. And each one of them shows a different aspect of God's fatherhood toward his children. You remember when we are in 1st John, those words, behold what manner of love.

That's what this is about. Behold what manner of love. You'll see it here in every phrase of this confession. And so we'll examine them. So the first element of this is God vouchsafed in and for the sake of his only Son, Jesus Christ.

So, what does vouchsafed mean? Vouchsafed means granted safety. It means to be safe. We were separated in our adoption from a harmful father and we were divided from the other wounded and hurt and corrupt children And we were divided from that bad father. That family was a family of killing, it was a family of neglect and stealing and destroying and slander.

And the wolves were allowed to prowl around and sheep are devoured in that pasture. And there is this new pasture being vouchsafed is to be protected through an engrafting into the life of this new family and so we're we're actually transported from one unsafe home into a safe home so vouchsafed means to be safe how about that to be vouchsafed When you when you come into God's family you you come into a place where God will protect you. This is the household of faith that we have been brought into. When you turn to the Lord, you get a new home and a new family, and you get a new inheritance that you never had before. And so the unlovable sinner, the emaciated, really worthless lamb, gets purchased by a good shepherd and is given a new name.

And so that's the first thing, you are vouchsafed. And the second is that it is for the sake of his only son, Jesus Christ. And In order to explain this, I just want to read Ephesians 1. 1-6. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful to Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted into the beloved. So for the sake of his only son Jesus Christ, why is it for his sake? It is because he adopted us according to the good pleasure of his will. It was his will. It was his pleasure.

It was because this is what he wanted to do. Jesus Christ wanted to adopt sons. And he did it for the praise of the glory of his grace. He did it for himself so that he would receive praise. Have you ever wondered why God rescues such messed up people?

He wants praise. That he'll rescue the unrescuable, he'll want the unwanted, he'll take the untaken. That's what he does, that's what he did with us. The most unlikely, he saves from the uttermost. But he did it for himself.

Because at the end of the age, he'll be praised for taking such unprofitable servants. People who have been so messed up, irretrievably messed up. Not so. They are not irretrievably messed up. And he proves it.

He proves the power of his love by taking sinners. So he did it for the sake of his own son, Jesus Christ. And the Third is so that he would make partakers of the grace of adoption. So he would take action to make partakers of the adoption. Partakers of the adoption.

You know there are there are there are five elements of adoption that Joel Beeke identifies in this partaking of the grace of adoption. It is a grace. It is a grace that you experience. And you actually, you actually are affected by it. It's like when you eat food, you're affected by that food.

You are a partaker of it. So There is grace in the adoption. Joe Beeke describes it like this. It is that the person first belongs to another family. That's part of the grace.

Number two, that there's a family to which he has no right to belong. Number three, that there is an authoritative legal transaction from one family to another. Number four, that the adopted person is freed from all the legal obligations of the family from which he came. And number five, that by virtue of this translation he is invested with all the rights, privileges, and advantages of the new family. That's the grace that you partake in.

All of those things. And of course this list, this long list. And then the fourth is that they are taken into the number. I really like that part, they're taken into the number. Look at that.

We talked about that this morning, the number. Oh Lord, I want to be in that number. And your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life and you are brought into the family of God according to the good pleasure of his will. You know, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and you are numbered among the saints that will be gathered together before the throne of God. And what will happen there?

You'll be taken to paradise. That's the number. And then the next is that you enjoy the liberties and the privileges of the children of God. So there are many privileges and liberties. So these two things, liberties and privileges, are things that you enjoy.

You might think of what are your liberties in Christ? Well for one thing, you've been set free from the law of sin and death. The power of sin has been broken. That's one of the liberties And there's real enjoyment of that because there are things that you used to do that you don't want to do anymore. They are hurting you.

They are messing with your mind and wrecking your relationships. And you have you have liberty like you never had before because the power of sin has been broken. Well, there are many liberties in Christ. We could list lots of them. And there are privileges of the children of God.

And there are many, many privileges that God gives His children that are listed in scripture to have the riches of the glory of his inheritance, of the inheritance that he's given us, to have privileges of fellowship, to have privileges of sonship. There are many, many things that are here. But when you think about the blessings of the people of God, they're innumerable. I've thought many times recently of just the blessing of singing, of being able to sing out the words, it's one of the privileges. There's a spiritual work that takes place and to hear the voices of the others who are singing.

To me it's one of the sweetest things in my life is to hear the church singing. I often want to stop and just listen. It's like angels voices to me and our church, I love the way our church sings. I really do. It is the sweetest thing to my ears.

It's incredibly comforting. But there are so many privileges and liberties. And then, number six, and I really like this And I really like this one. You have his name, his name put upon them. So He claims you, he puts his name on you.

He identifies with you. And he gives you a new name. In Revelation chapter three, verse 12, John writes, he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God and I will write on him my new name." He puts his name on you. He claims you as his own. It doesn't matter what anyone else calls you.

It doesn't. What matters is what he calls you. If he puts his name on you, it doesn't matter what anyone says about you and how they name you. Doesn't matter at all. Hebrews 2, 10 says, "'For it was fitting for him, "'for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings and all all through that trajectory of life of being brought to glory as God is bringing many sons to glory through all the sufferings and the difficulties you have a name you know who you are you identify with him and then number seven you receive the spirit of adoption so there there's this spirit of adoption that he talks about and it's really describing Romans eight verse 15.

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father so what God does is when you become adopted He puts his spirit in you and his spirit inside of you cries out. There's something inside of you that cries out. It cries out for your father. You know what that's like. You know, you lay down in bed, and maybe you spend a really hard day, and you cry out to your father, and you say, oh Lord, have mercy on me.

Thank you for sustaining me. And you might even review some of the failures of your day, but the reality is, that's happening because you have the spirit of adoption. And that spirit cries out to God. Every time you cry out to God, you know that you have the spirit of adoption. And he puts that spirit in you and it's crying out in your heart.

It's talking, it's crying. And it's such a blessing of adoption you get something that you never had before And then number eight we have access To the throne of grace So, you know you have to really notice this whole idea of access. There's availability, there is favor, there is this relationship, but it's to a particular thing. It's to the throne of grace. There's this throne of grace And Hebrews 4, 14 speaks of it, seeing then that we have this great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

You know when that when that emaciated sickly lamb was purchased and put in that new pasture. This is what happened. There was a throne of grace. His old shepherd didn't have grace, but his new shepherd had grace, lots of it. And so you enter this grace in a particular way.

In other words, there's this confidence. Of course, we've been singing this song out of 1 John. Now, this is the confidence that we have in him. Maybe we should sing that at the end of this. But we have this boldness that comes from our confidence.

And we find ourselves before the God of grace, who has grace to help in time of need. When do you need grace? All the time. And it's always there. And because of that, number nine, you are enabled, in other words, God does it.

God does it. You are enabled by him to cry out Abba Father. In other words to speak of God as a father, as a tender father, like a daddy, like a tender hearted father. And of course this is this is taken from Galatians 4 6 and because you are sons because your sons you get the logic here God sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out Abba father the spirit of adoption is say is crying out something very specific it's crying out for your father Because in in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 18 it says that through him we have access by one spirit to the father and as we cry out we actually have access by His Spirit. And then, and then 10th, we are pitied, which is proven by Psalm 103, verse 13, as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him.

You know, I love what Thomas Watson says about this. He says, we have enough in us to move God to correct us, but nothing to move him to adopt us. Therefore, exalt free grace, begin the work of angels here, Bless him with your praises, who hath blessed you in making you his sons and his daughters." He has pitied us. There is enough in us to move God to correct us and actually destroy us. And nothing to move him to a pity us, but he does.

There's nothing good in us that drew him. It was the good in him that drew him to then we're protected. We are protected. We're pitied and protected. I love this statement in 2 Corinthians 6, 18, which speaks of this protection.

I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty. Emphasis on Almighty. He will protect you. First Peter 1, verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again To a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you." And verse 5 speaks of this very matter of protection. "...who are kept by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Who are kept. Kept. You are kept. You are protected. Whatever happens to you, you are kept.

You're kept by Him. It's very much like what Moses said in Psalm 91, verse one. He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I will trust." And then in verse 15, in that same Psalm 91, Moses says, He shall call upon me, and I will answer him, and I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

Ever been in trouble? Are you in trouble now? Well, here, if you have been adopted, He says that you are protected in time of trouble. I don't know why I haven't been able to get Psalm 41 out of my mind. I will strengthen thee, I will help thee, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

I don't know why I can't quit saying it in so many places in my heart and when I'm just talking or praying, I don't know. It's because as an adopted son, I've experienced this. So, pitied, protected, and then 12, provided for. Provided for. You Remember when the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking to his disciples and that big crowd on the Sermon on the Mount?

And he said, therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear. For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and and what? All these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. You're provided for. Don't worry. Don't worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Worry about today's trouble. Don't worry about tomorrow's trouble. You don't know what will happen tomorrow. But you know this is that you will be provided for tomorrow that's what you know so you don't need to worry about tomorrow he'll always provide at the right time. Number 13, not only are we pitied, protected, and provided for, we are also chastened.

Now this is a really interesting one because Isn't it interesting that it's right next to provided for? Look at that connection. You would think that to be provided for would mean that everything would be just so smooth. Well, that's not what the Bible really teaches. Even though you're provided for, there are difficult things that come into your life, and you are chastened.

There is an outside force working upon your life, and it is from God. And there is chastening that comes. This is part of adoption. If you are a son or a daughter, you're going to experience chastening. You ought to experience chastening, you need to experience chastening, and you are guaranteed to experience chastening according to the word of God.

So don't be surprised when you receive the chastisement of the Lord. Don't worry about it. Don't act like something strange is happening to you. Nothing strange is happening at all. This is what God does with those whom he has adopted.

Hebrews 12.6 says, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives. If you're not being chastened, if you're not being scourged, that should worry you. It shouldn't worry you that you're being chastened. It should worry you if everything's just going fine, thank you. Because God proves that you're his son by chastening you.

He might withhold something from you. He might take something away from you. But he does it because you're his son, because he cares about you. God wants to separate us from our sins. He wants to diminish the pride because it hurts us so much.

He wants to separate us from our self-sufficiency because it's so unprofitable to be self-sufficient. And so God takes us through this life and progressively he identifies sin in your life. You know when you're first saved he kind of deals with the big picture sins like you know you're a crack addict And God rescues you from that. You think, oh, everything is perfect. And then time passes and God keeps going deeper and deeper into your soul.

He starts with sort of the big difficult things, and then he continues to refine you, and he goes into the secret places of your heart, and he brings things to you that brings sin to the surface. But he does it because sin is so bad for you and he wants to deliver you from it. You know, one of the things that this lamb, this poor sickly lamb in the poor pasture with the poor shepherd asks the lamb on the other side of the fence, is does your shepherd lead you through dangerous places? And the lamb with the good shepherd said, yes, he does. But he never leaves me, and he never forsakes me.

In other words, the good shepherd does lead in the high places where there's danger. Deborah's been reading Heinz Viet in high places to our family and you know this you know fearful fearful you know fearful is being taken to the high places. But to get to the high places, you have to go through sorrow and you have to go through trouble and you have to go through slander. These, you have to cross these mountains. And there's, at one point in the story, there's this rainbow.

And at the beginning and the end of the rainbow, one side is sorrow, and the other side of the rainbow is suffering. And you don't get to the rainbow without going through sorrow and suffering. But this is the chastening of the Lord. So the Lord teaches us not to be too discouraged about our sufferings. He doesn't chasten us to hurt us.

He chastens us in order to keep us from being condemned and to separate us from our sins. And then number 14. Number 14. Never, I love that, never cast off, never cast off. Never cast off, how about that?

You know I have a friend of mine, we used to talk about firing employees, and just some of the funny, well, they were funny in some ways. But the joke that we had was, you know, getting before an employee and saying, you have one more chance, one more opportunity. And of course, that doesn't work really. But Because if you give somebody one more chance, quite likely that chance isn't gonna come. So, but with God you're never cast off.

He says, I will never leave you or forsake you, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. Never cast off. Number 15, sealed. Sealed to the day of redemption.

So you're sealed, something happens to you, but it is for a purpose, it's to the day of redemption. And to be sealed is to be secured. There is a security. There, a seal is an authentication of ownership. And It's a down payment that secures something for the future.

That's what it means to be sealed to the day of redemption. Ephesians 4.30 says, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. So when you become a son you're sealed by the Holy Spirit but you're sealed for a purpose for that day. You're going to protect be protected until that day unto him against that day. And then number 16, the last one, you inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.

So there are promises, and those promises come because you are heirs. So you're promised something that a wealthy person has, a wealthy king. He has all the wealth in the world and he promises to give you an inheritance that is his. And it has to do with time because it's everlasting. So, here are 16 ways that you can understand adoption.

It's wonderful, isn't it? It's really a study in the love of God. Now this doctrine is being attacked in many, many ways in our world today. There are, first of all, there are earthly perversions of adoption that continue to erode the biblical understanding of adoption. For example, feminism.

Feminism basically says you don't need a father. Sodomy is a movement for gay and lesbian adoption. It completely subverts the doctrine of adoption where you have a father, a father who adopts you. You know, sodomy says that it doesn't really matter what you are. Narcissism, You know, there's so many ways that adoption is perverted.

There's another way that this whole doctrine is attacked. And we attack it in our own heart. We don't really need the outside world to do this because We tend to do it in our flesh. But it's the rejection of the chastening of the Lord as an act of fatherhood. We don't think that chastening is an act of love.

And we reject this idea in our hearts. And we think that it's possible to come to Christ without trouble and it's it's it's deceiving. Another perversion is the perversion where everybody thinks that they're adopted. You know, the church is full of people who do not live like they belong in the house of God and they act like everyone is going to heaven and they've lost the sense of the significance of adoption. They've lost the whole idea of how adoption happens.

There's also this perversion where there's no fear of God because God is your buddy and it really neglects the consciousness that God is also a judge. And God does chastise his children. He is a father and he is a judge. He's not simply your daddy. And it tends to remove sobriety before the Lord and keeps us from really doing what Peter said, to pass the time in fear in our sanctification.

Now, I want to show you something that's really interesting, because there are lots of connections that go through here. But notice that all those who are justified inherit the promises as heirs of salvation. And everything that you see in between these two great categories is the essence of adoption. But all of it has this great purpose. You have many of these blessings that take place on the earth, they take place on the earth, but they are really designed for everlasting salvation.

God makes you a son because of eternity and he desires to take you with him into eternity. And so at the beginning I said that, you know, this is, you get this idea that you're going back and forth from heaven and earth. And you see that everywhere. Here, God from heaven, he makes you a partaker of grace in adoption, and that you are taken into the number on earth so that you'll be in that number in heaven. You'll enjoy the liberties and the privileges of the children of God, but those privileges all come from heaven.

You'll have his name. It's an everlasting name. It's a heavenly name. So he's going back and forth, heaven and earth, heaven and earth, in this whole proposition. Okay, I'd like to just close with a statement from Thomas Watson.

He says, Extol and magnify God's mercy, who has adopted you into his family, who of slaves has made you sons. Of heirs of hell to heirs of the promise, he gave them power and dignity to become the sons of God. As a thread of silver runs through a whole piece of work, so free grace runs through the whole privilege of adoption. Adoption is a greater mercy than Adam had in paradise. He was a son by creation, but Here is a further sonship by adoption.

To make us thankful, consider in civil adoption there is some worth and excellence in the person to be adopted, but there is no worth in us. Neither beauty, nor parentage, nor virtue, nothing in us to move God to bestow the prerogative of sonship upon us. We have enough in us to move God to correct us, but nothing to move him to adopt us. Therefore, let us exalt free grace." That really is the essence of adoption. Would you pray with me?

Father, we thank you for your adopting sinners, unprofitable, unworthy, so that you would be praised for how good you are and good you are. And we praise you tonight, pray, as we sing the lines of these next songs that our hearts would Soar in gratitude for what great things you have done Amen.