Hello. Good morning. My wife wasn't able to come with me, but she's been watching the services from home. And yesterday, after Marvin said what he said about Gabe and Clay and myself, she said, well, I hope he knows that you've been that same to him. And he has. I remember my dad telling me not long before he died, and he wasn't a believer, so it's not true for believers, but he said, if you can count your real friends on one hand, you've accomplished something. The Lord's blessed you. That's the case with Marvin.

I don't want to say too much about it. I'll get emotional and it's hard enough to preach without crying. I want to thank this church for having me. It's an honor to be here. I thought we've heard some good gospel preaching. And I will tell you this about those two young men that preached for us Friday and Saturday. They're better preachers than they are salesmen. They weren't bad salesmen, but they're better preachers. And I have been so blessed from the messages that we've heard. And I hope that I told Gabe on more than one occasion, Clay too, I said, you're a better preacher than me, but you don't have a better message. You've got the same message.

Would you turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1? I want to just talk to you a few minutes here in this first hour. And this is as good a text as I could come up with for the subject. Ephesians 1. We'll just begin reading in verse 3. I'll give you a moment to get there. Ephesians 1 verse 3. Probably most of your Bible like mine, it just automatically opens up to Ephesians 1. I don't have to do a lot of searching for it.

But here the Apostle Paul in verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. Aren't those two words precious? In Christ. That's where all our blessings flow. Being in Him. Verse four, 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. My, to be holy and without blame? It's only in Christ. Now verse five, having predestinated us unto the adoption, the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Back in 1955, there was a young married couple who had for 14 years tried to have a child, but they were unable. They desperately wanted a baby.

Without going into great detail, they were made aware of a young woman who had out of wedlock was with child. And almost immediately they made contact with the expectant mother and arrangements were made for an adoption. All the details were worked out. They agreed to pay for the young lady's medical bills and living arrangements until the child was born. The adoption arrangements were made final.

And you know, adoption, is a choosing. The English dictionary defines adoption as the act or process of giving official acceptance. Isn't that good? It's the same with our spiritual adoption. In adoption, the child doesn't initiate the process. The parent does. The parent chooses, the parent pursues, The parent sets their love on that child, and that's exactly how spiritual adoption works. We didn't go looking for God. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. God came looking for us. Salvation starts with God's will, not ours.

I suppose This would be a good time to tell you that I was that illegitimate adopted child. Adoption has a special meaning for me. I now have two adopted granddaughters. It means something special to me. Maggie and Leo Edmondson purposed in their mind and heart to adopt a child before I the child was ever born.

I certainly didn't have any say in the matter. I hadn't even been born. I was oblivious to all that they had purposed and planned. And it's the same with the adoption of God's children. The redeemed child of God has no say in the matter. None. I've often thought, what makes sinners think that they can in any way participate in their salvation?

We're dead in trespasses and sin. Never known a dead man or woman to make any kind of decision or exercise any kind of will of their own. Dead. Dead. The Lord Jesus plainly said, you have not chosen me. That's so plain and simple and direct. You haven't chosen me. But I've chosen you. And I've thought about this so often. I'm sure you have too. The message of the gospel is not hard to understand. It's not a complicated message. It's a simple, plain message. It's easy to understand. Salvation is of the Lord. And you know what follows that in the Scriptures? I love to say this. I say it all the time anymore. You know what follows that in the Scriptures?

A period. A dot. Salvation is of the Lord, period. And a period at the end of a sentence means there's nothing more to say. No further discussion is required. The matter's settled. And man's problem is not that the gospel message is hard to understand. Man's problem is that the gospel is impossible to believe apart from the divine intervention of God. That's why folks get upset. They understand the message. God does the saving. We do the sinning, God does the saving. That's just the fact of the matter. There's no life apart from God's choosing.

Now my earthly adoption was most certainly for my good. Man, I had the most wonderful parents in all the world. I'm telling you, and God handpicked them for me. My parents dedicated their life to do good for me. They wanted only good things for me. Friends, my adoption in years into God's kingdom and family was certainly something that God did for our good. Our eternal good. How glorious were those words found in the 8th chapter of the book of Romans. that we all know so well. And we know, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called, to them that are adopted, to them that are chosen according to His purpose. My parents made me their own before I was ever born. They willed to do so. And they determined to do me good all the days of my life. But how much more?

How much more so is our adoption and election of God in the Lord Jesus Christ? Adoption is not a work done by us. It's not a choice that we make. It's a choice that God made before the foundation of the world. And that's what I love about election because it just removes all doubt about who did the saving. God chose me before I was ever born. Before we were born, before we had ever done any good or evil. That takes us out of the equation, doesn't it? That makes the choosing and choice all of God.

Adoption is an act of grace done for us And without us, we have no say in the matter. If there's something that I can do to be saved, now hear me on this. This will bless you if the Lord reveals it to your heart. If there's nothing that I can do to be saved and there's not, then there's nothing I can do to be lost. If my salvation is 100% dependent on what Christ has done for me, and it is, It's by his finished work, not by works that I've done, none. Then I can't do anything to be lost.

And some people say, well, you're giving folks an excuse to sin. Listen, we are licensed to sin, I think. Say, well, we don't need a license to sin. We're pretty good at doing it without a license, are we? Christ paid my sin debt. He paid it in full. Nothing for me to do. Nothing I can do to be lost if He paid that debt for me.

And that's what makes our adoption, children of God, so beautiful, so precious, so wondrous to us. God chose us according to the good pleasure of His will. It pleased the Lord to make you His people. Isn't that amazing? When you see who and what you are, it is. When God reveals to you what you deserve, that'll bless your heart.

God says, I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and I'll show mercy on whom I'll show mercy. And men hear this glorious proclamation, and they want to charge God with unrighteousness. Men want to charge God with being unfair. How many times you heard that? because of his sovereign right to choose. But the child of God rejoices, rejoices in the fact that God wills to have mercy on anyone. All are undeserving, and how amazing is the thought that God would have mercy on any. And to take that even further, that he would have mercy on me.

I remember after I was grown, after my parents were deceased, one of my aunts told me that when my mother and father brought me home from the hospital, just a newborn baby, five days old, that my mother told her that I was just perfect. The affections of a loving parent are often blind.

But child of God, when your heavenly Father saw you, you were polluted in your own blood. You and I were discarded out into a field, left to die. It was then that He spread the skirt of Christ's righteousness, perfect righteousness, over us and covered our nakedness. And the God of heaven and earth entered into a covenant with you. and looked upon you and what did he say?

Thou art mine. You're mine. You're mine. My mom reminded me of that often. You're mine. And I'll take you out of this world if I need to. Oh, what an adoption. What a redemption the believer has in Christ. It was an act. It was a choosing a free Pure grace. Sovereign mercy. Grace found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been chosen in Him. In Him. Oh, don't miss those two blessed words seen there in verse 4. And again, verse 5 says that God predestinated according to the good pleasure of His will. to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted."

Remember what I told you the definition of adoption was? Made accepted. Accepted in the Beloved. Who's that? Christ. He's the Beloved. Thou art my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And God's pleased with me and Him. It's not of Him that willeth nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

How ridiculous would it be for me to say that my parents adopted me because they foresaw that I would be a good son? And yet, that's what men preach today. Well, God looked ahead of time and he saw that you were going to be a good boy, good girl, or that you were going to make a decision to follow him. No. No. That don't even make good worldly sense. Yet that's exactly what ignorant men and women say about our sovereign and amazing God.

And friends, now some 70 years later, I think back on the sacrifices that my parents made for me, and I'm just so grateful. I wish I could tell them. I wish I could tell them much more than I ever did. They would have done without to see that I had. When I was sick, they pitied me. When I was in need, they provided for me. When I needed correction, they chastened me.

But when I was dead in trespasses and sin, my Heavenly Father gave me life. In love, He chastens me. And the scripture says, if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? Hebrews 12. Friends, my parents would have died for me, but hear me when I tell you that my God did. Turn back a page or two to the fourth chapter of Galatians. Galatians 4 verse 4. You know these passages well. Verse 4 says, But when the fullness of 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 what? The adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

I forget who I heard that said it, Abba, Father, what's such an endearing term? Daddy. Listen, I had three hairy-legged boys before I ever had a girl, and then I had two girls. But when those girls looked at me and batted their eyes and said, Daddy, they got my attention. What blessed benefits come from adoption. We have a continual access to our Heavenly Father.

Growing up, I never thought to ask my parents for permission to come into their house. I lived there. It was my mom and dad's house. And I lived there. And I just boldly went in. I didn't knock on the front door. I had my own key. I never had to ask for permission. I never had to knock on the door. I had free access. And even when I was grown and married and had children and a place of my own, my parents gave me a key to their home. And they gave me access to all that they had.

Child of God, do you have need of something from your father? Scripture says, let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace. that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You see, your adoption has blessed benefits. You're no more a servant to your sons and daughters. Heirs of God through Christ. Join heirs with Jesus Christ himself.

And when my parents left this world, all that was theirs became mine. I'll just add that I was an only child, and I think after they had me, one was enough. They said, no more. No, they didn't have much, but all they had was mine. They left a last will and testament. They left a covenant.

And all was mine as a benefit of my adoption. Adoption legally made me their child. You know, I love to think about the God who spoke this, the heavens and the earth into existence. God said, let there be and there was. Is my daddy, my father, I say that with the utmost respect. God, my father, he's out to do me good. Eternal good.

I don't know all the legal reasons, but I discovered later in life that my natural birth mother had to carry me out of the hospital, I don't know why that was, and physically hand me to my adopted mother and father. And back in 2013, Teresa and I went to Mexico to visit the Groovers, and I had to get a passport, and I had to have a birth certificate, and I couldn't find mine. So I went through some of my mother's things, and I found a makeshift certificate that the hospital gave to my mother, to my birth mother, because all that paperwork hadn't been done yet. And the name on that makeshift birth certificate, the first name was Baby, and the last name was Wells, because that was her birth That was my birth mother's last name. So when I left that hospital, I got to thinking about that. When I left that hospital, I had no first name, and I was just a baby, and I had a last name that didn't belong to me.

But when I received my official Legal birth certificate from the state it boldly said right there on that birth certificate name David Edmondson I Left that hospital without a name, but my adoption gave me my father's name My adoption officially made me Made my father's last name mine and our adoption Into God's family gives us his name You say, well, how so, Brother Dave? We're called the children of the living God. We're called the elect of God. We're called the redeemed of the Lord. My earthly parents gave me their name, but my heavenly Father gave me His nature. Isn't that something? What a last will and testament covenant that is.

My earthly parents endeavored to teach me to be self-sufficient, but my Heavenly Father is teaching me to be totally dependent. I depended on my parents when I couldn't depend on anyone else. I trusted them when no one else could be trusted. I loved them greatly because they first loved me.

Sound familiar? These things are a definite result of the believer's adoption. How much more should we depend and trust and love our Lord who loved us and gave himself for us? My folks have been gone for years now. This year, 30 years for my dad, 25 for my mom. Seemed like only yesterday.

But be encouraged, dear child of God, for your surety says unto you, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Dear adopted child, rejoice! Thou art no more a servant, but a son, a daughter. And if a son and a daughter, then an heir of God through Christ. And everything that belongs to God is given to you. All that's God's is now yours. That's the best news I ever heard. That's why we call it the Gospel. Good news. Best news.

Now, if you're yet without God as your Father, if you're yet without Christ and without hope, and if you're without Christ, you are without hope. If you're outside of Christ, hear me plainly. God is not offering you a second chance. God is giving you a new family. God giving you a new family in this adoption. But it only comes one way. Trusting in Christ, His beloved Son. Receiving what you cannot earn. And when you do, you'll not just be forgiven, you'll be adopted into His dear family and kingdom. And listen, you'll never ever be cast out.

Isn't it amazing to think about, you know, when someone leaves an inheritance and there's several children, you know, it's divided between the children. But all God's children get all God's. There's no dividing it up. We all get it all. And that can only be done when God is our Father. May God enable you, child of God, to rejoice in your adoption. Bye.