Chapter 12 of your confession. Let's just read this paragraph together. All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth in and for his only Son, Jesus Christ. to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God. Have his name put upon them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry, Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by him as by a father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation. What we read together, Genesis chapter 48, and the first five verses, you will be no doubt familiar with that passage. We looked at it. Is that last year? Yeah, 2015. We looked at the life of Joseph. And these were some of the last chapters about Joseph. And let me just recap what's happening here. In Genesis 48, old Jacob is dying. From memory, he's well over his 100th year. And his life is drawing to a close. And he dies, I suppose, in the way that any father would wish to die, with his family, with his sons, around the bed, and they're all in good standing, and that's a blessing indeed. And so here's a father, but a few days before he dies, the governor, the prime minister of Egypt, being none other than Joseph, comes to visit him. And so verse one says, and it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, behold, thy father is sick. Okay, so Joseph goes to visit his sick and dying father, but he takes with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Now someone spoke to Jacob and told Jacob in verse two, behold, your son is coming. And we read here that Israel, the name that God gave him, Prince. He sat himself up upon the bed and prepared to welcome his son and his grandsons. In verse 3, Jacob begins to testify. He testifies to his son. He testifies to his grandchildren that, I am saved. That's what he's saying here. Verse 3, Is this not, men and women, what every believing child wants to hear their father or mother say in their deathbed? Verse three, and Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. I have met God. I have had an encounter with God. I am known of God. God knows me. I'm ready for home. I'm heading to glory. What a wonderful death bed sin. Jacob was in no doubt. He knew. He knew he belonged to God. Verse four, continues, a little bit of his testimony and prophecy as well. But we're looking tonight at verse 5. Because what you have in verse 5 is an adoption. Verse 5, Thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt, before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine." Did you get that? Thy sons are mine. And they're just like Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine, my possession. And so what you have here is maybe, it's a little bit unusual, because here you have, it's not a child that's been abandoned by their parents. Rather, it's a grandfather telling his son, I'm going to adopt your son. They're going to be my sons. It's a little bit strange, but then as I was thinking about this, it's not all that strange. In my time at Lorna, I've learned of several grandparents who have adopted their grandchildren, just circumstances. Sometimes parents aren't well, sometimes difficulties in families, and so parents can't look after their children, so the grandparents take their kids. In a way, that's a very natural thing, because if a parent, for whatever reason, isn't able to look after their child, sometimes it can just be they have no interest. That's wrong, that's selfishness, but nevertheless. They are not going to look after their child. Surely the grandparents should be concerned and they'll want to step in and take the grandchildren and adopt them. And that happens. I spoke to somebody recently and that's exactly what happened to them. So it's not that unusual at all. So here you have Ephraim and Manasseh. And their grandfather now adopts them to be their sons. And what that means is they're equal with Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and so on and so forth. You see, when you read the Bible, you never read of the tribe of Joseph. There is no tribe of Joseph. Because Jacob took Joseph's two sons and they replaced Joseph. Those two sons took the position of Joseph in that family. There straight away you have a little illustration. to some degree of the gospel, that we have entered into the adoption of the sons and we take the very position of Christ, and that we are the children of God. Now, that has its limitations, but certainly we are in the family of God. Now, here's the thing. You see in verse 5 here, Jacob closes by saying, they shall be mine. And what he goes on then to say later But if you read the rest of this chapter, Jacob goes on to give blessings to different people, different of his sons, but he includes, not Joseph, but he includes Manasseh and Ephraim. And so they become those who inherit with the sons of Joseph. They're equal to Simeon and Levi and so on and so forth and enjoy the inheritance of sons, not the inheritance of grandsons. There's a big difference there. If a man gives to his son, That father will then, at his own discretion, give to his own sons in whatever way. Let's say I gave to Micah. Well, that's a bad example, okay? Let's say my father gave, say, a thousand pounds to me. All right, that's deathbed, that was left to me. I then would disperse that to some degree between me, my wife, Micah, Abigail. It would be dispersed amongst four. So that 1,000 would be more like 250 to each party. But what if my father adopted Micah and Abigail? I would get 1,000, Abigail would get 1,000, and Micah would get 1,000. Well, they probably wouldn't have that, but nevertheless, hypothetically speaking. You get the idea. When you're adopted from being a grandchild to a child, you become an inheritor with that generation. And so you enjoy the fullness of the inheritance. Men and women, we're not the grandchildren of God. We don't call him our grandfather. He is our father. Now, that's the example here given to us in Scripture. A beautiful demonstration of what it is to be adopted. They're brought into the family. They're inheritors with the family. Tremendous privilege and the joy. Now, let's go to your confession. I'm going to lean on a seat because I did something to my foot and it's in sheer agony here, so just ignore what I'm doing. But just to explain, all right, there we go. Now, our confession says, all those that are justified, God vouchsafeth. And that word vouchsafeth, I have to admit, I completely misunderstood that word. It means to give. or to grant. Now, maybe you know that, but I didn't, okay? So, let's read it that way. All those that are justified, God giveth or grunteth in and for his only Son, Jesus Christ. And what he's saying there is, whoever God has justified, he gives to his Son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption. Now, I want you to just highlight that wee phrase there, the grace of adoption. And that's a beautiful, it's a really, really, really good definition. I have to commend the men who did this. The grace of adoption. You see, grace and adoption go hand in hand. They go hand in hand. Let me explain this, right? It's a very commendable act to adopt someone. If you're a, family, a parent, husband, wife, and you take the responsibility to care for someone else who has no right to to request your care. If you care for someone, if you love them freely, if you adopt someone, you give them your time, you will give to them your finance, you will give to them your inheritance, you give them virtually everything. That person who has no right to your care, no right to your time, no right to your money, no right to your inheritance, as soon as you adopt them, they receive all of that. That's a very commendable thing. That's essentially what grace is. We're undeserving, yet we get that which we have no right to. Now, I want you to think about that for a little minute here. God adopts. God adopts. Yet, men and women, have you ever heard someone criticizing a man or a woman for adopting one child? Do you ever hear someone saying, how dare How could you be so cruel and so wicked to only adopt one child when this world is full of children with no parents? How grateful are you just to adopt one? We would never say that. Yet, how often is God criticized for adopting one, two, three, or several million, but didn't adopt every sinner in the world? you get what I'm saying there? We're quick to commend men and women who adopt one or two, yet we're also quick to criticize God when He hasn't adopted the entire world. Rather, men and women, we'd be wise to praise God for adopting us, and rather than criticizing God, we should be thanking Him for the highly commendable work of adopting you and me, your sinners. who have no right to anything that God would give to us. Now, this word, adoption, in the New Testament, actually, yeah, well, in the New Testament, to my surprise, it's only mentioned five times. So let's go to a few of these references right now. And I want to show you, because this is the best way to demonstrate what adoption really means. And we're going to go, first of all, to Ephesians chapter 1. There's an order here to the way I'm taking this. Ephesians chapter 1, and we'll look at the verse 5. Let's read verse 4 as well. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Galatians, Ephesians, Ephesians 1 verse 5. having predestinated us onto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. Now, if you go right back here, well, to verse 4. Verse 4, as we've read, It says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, before God on day one made the earth, and day two, three, four, five, and six, where he made everything else, God had planned to adopt you and me. That's how far our adoption goes back, men and women. And that's a good place when you start to testify. Where does our testimony begin? It doesn't begin when we were born. It doesn't begin when we made a profession of faith. Our testimony begins before the foundation of the world, where God chose to adopt the people in the sea of their never-dying souls. All right, that's what the verse is saying. So the next question then is, looking at verse 5, well, why did God choose to adopt you and me? Is it because of our good works? Well, obviously not. We weren't even born. In fact, the world wasn't even created. But verse 5 tells us, having predestinated us onto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. According to the good pleasure of His will. That's why God adopted you and me. He just chose to. If you can imagine, okay, two parents, a family, going into um a hospital ward and there's several children newborn and all of them have been for whatever reason perhaps a mother has died or they've been abandoned or whatever but there's no parent to adopt them now why would though that couple come in to adopt one of those child children is because those children earned it no Is it because they're cute and cuddly? Well, not initially, anyway. I know you might pick the nicest one. But nevertheless, they come in out of their own good pleasure. They had a desire. They had a desire to come and to help a child that has no parent. And that's the idea of the word there. It was just God's good pleasure. God's good pleasure. And to be honest, it may have been God's good pleasure to come and pick me. But when he saw me, you would think, well, he had to pick somebody else. For I would doubt we were the cutest of the bunch. But nevertheless, we rejoice that God has been pleased. Merely, sheerly, it was good pleasure to adopt us. So that's where adoption begins. Let's go a little further now, go back to the book of Galatians. Just preceding Ephesians is the book of Galatians, and chapter 4. And here's the last hymn that we sang. It's based upon these words. Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. God, out of his good pleasure, decided to adopt you and me. But adoption is not an easy thing. Even just in regards to our own day and age, adopting a child is really, really difficult to do. You have all the paperwork, you have all the criteria to meet, and I can assure you there are some very strange criteria in my opinion, but there's criteria that must be met before you can adopt a child. There's a process. It's difficult, all right? And it was no different for the process that God had to go through to adopt you and me. Look at verse 4. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son. So firstly, it required the Son to be sent forth. This wasn't something that God would sit in heaven and do. He wouldn't just declare it and it would happen. Remember when God made the Son, what did He say? Well, when God made light, all He said was, let there be light, and there was light. When God called the mountains forth, He simply spoke and they came forth. But when it came to our adoption, men and women, God didn't just sit in heaven and say, you are adopted. No, there was a process, there was a work, there was a cost. And here was the cost. It required the son to come. He had to be, verse four says, made of a woman. And I want you just to see that little phrase there. because God was sent from heaven made of a woman. I want you to get those two words, sent and made, there. He was sent because he was the eternal son. He was made because he was, well, formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary. So he had to be made in the womb. And there's his humiliation, men and women. This is how much it cost God. Listen, for you and I to go into an adoption agency and adopt a son or a daughter, you might have some degree of people appraising you and commending you and so on and so forth. Very nice of you to do that and whatever else. Yet when it required Christ to perform our adoption, there was no commending. There was absolute humiliation to do it for us. in verse 5 he had to redeem them that were under the law so to adopt us we had to be redeemed we had to be bought it wasn't the matter of just signing some papers and you're free job done no there was a cost a huge cost because when the bible says that he was going to redeem us that means that he would die a bloody agonizing death by the hands of men, enduring the wrath of God, sharing his blood that he might pay for our redemption. A huge cost. So let's read the verses again then, Galatians 4.4. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth a son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of some." So it was a process before we were adopted. Let's go a little further then, Romans chapter 8. If you turn there with me, Romans chapter 8, and there's two verses here which deal with adoption. Three times adoption is mentioned in Romans. We'll just look at two of them, the most relevant for tonight. Romans 8. So we're adopted before the foundation of the world, we've seen the process that Christ had to go through to adopt us, now here's what we enjoy currently as adopted children, Romans 8.23. It might just work out better to go to Romans 8.15 first of all, just to get the process here. Romans 8.15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." You see, men and women, we are adopted, and so we can cry, Abba, Father. And what you have there is essentially the name Father, Father. We can pray now, Because we are adopted, we now are in a position, and indeed we even have a right now to pray. We have a right to go to the Father and ask of Him for things. Remember when the little child was lying, perhaps in the incubator, and this couple comes in to pick a child. None of those child had a right to anything. They couldn't ask those potential adoptive parents for anything. They weren't legally theirs. But now we are legally adopted. Now we have a right to pray. And look at the verse again. It says, verse 15, For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. but he hath received the spirit of adoption." Now, what that means is we don't have to fear God. Now, let's think on that thoroughly. It doesn't mean we should not reverence God, but we shouldn't fear his eternal condemnation. We shouldn't wake up in the morning and fear that God will cast us into hell. That bondage of fear is gone now because we are his sons. No need, therefore, to fear. But rather we pray, Father, Father. And can I just highlight there, it doesn't say, dare, dare. The Bible just doesn't teach that. That's a reverent term. The word Father here is a reverent approach to one who is superior to. I don't like the language of, it's often been said, here's the evidence you can call God your daddy. That's nonsense. I find that highly bizarre and disrespectful. I recall, I have friends that I grew up with in Ballymena. They go to the church there. They have a business. And a few years ago, I called with them first thing in the morning when all the employees were coming. And all these employees referred to, David was the father of the home. They all referred to him as da. Nobody called him boss. Nobody called him David. They all called him da. It's a bit strange, but that's just the way it was. And that was a term that they were using. There was familiarity. They were equals. They're all men. And there's a degree of mockery and fun there, and it was fine. There's no place with that when we're addressing God who sent His Son to die for us. The most reverent terms are the most appropriate terms to use here. But I just want to encourage you, before the foundation of the world, God chose to do this. In time, God sent his son to redeem us, that he might be adopted. Now we enjoy this loving relationship of father and son, or father and daughter, and we can address him as our father. Not fearfully, but pleading before the throne of grace. You see, men and women, can I say as well, you can't choose your children. It's often said you can't choose your relatives, but you can't choose your children. You take what you get, and you thank God for them. They're a blessing. But you do choose who you adopt. And let me tell you, God knew everything about you before he adopted you. There's nothing you will ever do that will surprise him. He knew you before he chose to adopt you. And then let's go, still in Romans 8, to the last reference that we're looking at tonight in regards to adoption. That's the verse, let's read verse 22 and 23. Verse 22, for we know, Romans 8, 22, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit." That means those of us who are saved. Even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. Verse 25, but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. What my verse is saying is the whole of creation groans. Verse 22, the whole of creation is groaning and travailing under all the burdens and sin and effects of the fall. I mentioned that to you a few weeks ago. Verse 23, even we who have the Spirit, the firstfruits of the Spirit, even those who are saved by the grace of God, even we groan, waiting for something. Do you ever look in the mirror in the morning? Do you ever look in the mirror and groan? And you think, boy, life's hard, and life's tough on me. And you can groan, and we can mourn and lament over what our bodies are like now, but we can rejoice they are not what like they were going to be. Our bodies aren't like they used to be, strong and healthy and good feet and all the rest of it. We're breaking down. We're broken. but we're heading to greater ground. That's what this verse is saying. Read verse 23 again. Verse 22 said, we groan. Verse 23, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first foot of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. You see, there's still a part of the adoptive process that we are looking forward to. There's more to come. More to come. Adopted before the foundation of the world. In time, Christ came to pay the price for our adoption. Our adoption is applied. Now we can cry, Abba, Father, but there's more to look forward to when the body is transformed and glorified. And that's why verse 24 says we are saved by hope. We can grow under our broken bodies or sin or misery, but we can hope. For there's a better day coming, we're saved by hope, there's a better day coming when things will improve for the people of God and we'll have a glorified body to enjoy the Lord. If you can go back to your confession then, I really took you to those verses just to deal with that phrase, the grace of adoption. We haven't looked at the rest of the paragraph. Let me just scan it very quickly with you. We'll read from the beginning. All those that are justified, God giveth, or granted, in and for His only Son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption. And we saw that whole process. By which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties, freedom, and privileges of the children of God. Have as Liam. put upon them. And so we have the name of God. We are the sons of God. That's like your surname. When you're adopted, you take the family name. But there's a young woman, and I always meant to get her to testify, and I will eventually get her to testify here. She's from our Bushmills congregation. And I won't say too much through her testimony, but she was in and out of, I think it was ridiculous number, it was like 22 foster homes. And eventually, she came into a home. It was the couple who go to our Bushmills congregation, and she settled there. Her and her twin sister settled there, and they grew up there. And sometimes they had to go back to their parents. And I have to tell you this, but I found it very funny. It's probably not, but it is funny in a sense. Sometimes, because of the law, they had to keep contact with their birth parents. And so they'd be sent to where their birth parents live, and they would have to stay there for the weekend. And Chantelle's her name. Chantelle said going to her biological parents was awful. They didn't like going, okay? It was an ungodly atmosphere, and this, that, and the other thing. And one day, they didn't tell anybody, but two sisters packed skateboards into their bags. and their plan was to skateboard the whole way from Ballymena back to Bushmills to get back to their adoptive parents. And I think they got the skateboards out, and they might have went a few yards, but when they came to the first road junction, they had no idea where to go, so they had to turn back. I think they might have made maybe 20 yards or so, and that plan fell through. But when that young woman came to the age of 18, Nobody asked her to, but she chose to go in through the legal process to have her surname changed because she wanted the name of her adoptive parents. And what you have there is then the full authority, the full benefit, the full orb of adoption. They appreciate being in the adopted family. They take upon themselves the name of that family, and they're not ashamed to call themselves by the name of that adoptive family. Like us, we are the sons of God. Let's not be ashamed of that. Let's read on quickly here. So we're halfway through this paragraph. We'll pick up at those words. Have his name put upon them. Receive the spirit of adoption. We just read that in Romans 8 there. We don't have the spirit of fear, but of adoption. Have access to the throne of grace with boldness and are unable to cry, Abba, Father. And are pitied. I want you to maybe turn to one verse here. That says we are adopted and therefore we're pitied. What does that mean? Well, if you go with me to Psalm, Psalm 103. Here's a beautiful Psalm. And you see, if you're ever in hospital and you're on well, I will most likely read this verse with you at some time to encourage you. So rather than you going to the hospital to get the verse, I'll give it to you tonight. All right, that'll make it easier and it's all. So Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Well, we'll just read from verse 1. Well, no, that would actually take too long if it's too far down. We'll read verse 12. Psalm 103, verse 12. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. That's a beautiful verse. Let me explain what that means. If a son falls and cuts his knee, a father will pity his son. There'll be a degree of, you know, I wish that didn't happen to you or I feel that with you. You might not physically feel the cut. but you pity your child. Yet the idea of this verse is a little bit more, because God doesn't just associate with your pain, but feels and knows your pain. For Christ died. He knows what it's like to suffer. So like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth, feels for them that fear him. That's a beautiful verse. That's what our adoption has brought about, men and women. The confession goes on to say that we are protected. Proverbs 14, 26, and the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge. The confession goes on to say we're pitied, protected, provided for. Matthew 6, 30, wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Because all they say, and are chastened by him as a father. Hebrews 12, 6, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Let's just finish the confession, because I want to say at the end, the last sentence there, yet never cast off, never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation. One illustration to close with here, I read of a man and a woman For 15 years, they made preparation to adopt. And eventually, a child, a newborn child was offered to them. And they were very happy to adopt that newborn child. And they went to the court just to complete the adoption process. And when they were at the court, the judge said this to the couple, is anyone coercing you? to adopt this little boy. Is anyone coercing you to adopt this little boy?" And the adoptive parents assured the judge that they were only doing it out of love for the boy. That's the only motive they had. They loved the boy and they wanted to adopt him. And so the judge made this following statement then, from today on, they get the gravity of this, from today on, He is your Son. He may disappoint you. He may even grieve you, but He is your Son. Everything you own one day will be His, and He will bear your name. And then he looked to the clerk and said, order a change in this child's birth certificate that it may reflect that these are the parents of the children. And it said that that father, who was in the process of adopting that little boy, said for the first time he realized genuinely that his heavenly father, not being coerced but out of free choice and desire chose to adopt him, simply because he loved him. And the moment that man was adopted, he would enjoy everything that God was pleased to give to him. His name was changed, and men and women, we should bear gladly the name of God. and this wicked and ungodly world. So that's what it is to be adopted. We are adopted, men and women. And think to yourself of some child that's in need of being adopted. How appreciative it would be if they had adoptive parents who only had their good intentions, wanted to do them well. That child would delight. That's like you and me. We're adopted by a good and a heavenly Father.