It's a great, great joy to know
that God is love. Love is a great attribute of
our God without which he would not and could not be God. God
must love for God is love. But the love of God cannot be
known except it be revealed. God cannot be known, except he
make himself known. God is spirit. No man has seen
him. No man has heard him. No man
has spoken to him. No man has come to him, but by
Jesus Christ, his son, the Lord God came to the, our first parents,
Adam and Eve in the garden. They didn't come to him. And
when Cain and Abel worshipped at their altar, God came down
and made himself known both in judgment and in mercy. But God
must make himself known or he cannot be known. And the love
of God must be revealed or it cannot be known. Now, the scriptures
reveal the love of God to us in a number of ways. It's like
fire. It must break out. It cannot
be dormant. Love is active. Love is active. And there are numerous things
by which God makes his love known to his people. The first, of
course, is his sovereign free election of our souls in Christ
Jesus. Turn back to Deuteronomy chapter
7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. You know, of course, that the
nation of Israel was a typical nation. that physical nation,
that carnal nation was typical of God's church, his holy nation,
a spiritual nation, the Israel of God, typical of all God's
elect. Here in Deuteronomy chapter 7
and verse 7, the Lord God speaks to the children of Israel by
his servant Moses. He says, the Lord did not set
his love upon thee, nor choose you, Because ye were more in
number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people,
but because the Lord loved you. Because the Lord loved you, and
because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your
fathers, That the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and
redeemed you out of the house of bondman and from the hand
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God's love is that which caused
him to choose us as his own. Election is the first act of
God's love as it's revealed in the scriptures. In love, he predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. God had from the beginning chosen
you to salvation because of his great love for you, only because
of his love. We could never have come to know
and love Christ Jesus had he not first loved us. He said, you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. John says we love him because
he first loved us. And then the Lord Jesus in the
fullness of time took on himself our nature, became one of us,
lived in this world in obedience to God as our representative
and went up to Mount Calvary and hung himself upon the curse
tree and was made sin for us and died under the horrible wrath
of God to redeem us because God commended his love to us. and that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Christ in due time died for the
ungodly because God is love. The folks for whom Christ died,
the ungodly. The ungodly. Nobody else, just
the ungodly. Just the ungodly. commends his
love toward us. That is, God shows his love to
us in the most spectacular way possible. I recall as a young
man, when I had fairly good confidence that Shelby would say yes if
I asked her again to marry me, I went out and started shopping
for an engagement ring. And I went to the jewelry store. You better buy those things a
few times, you know, but I didn't pay much attention. And I went
in and started looking at some rings, the ones she's wearing
now. And the fellow behind the counter pulled out a piece of
black velvet. I mean, just black velvet, unfolded
it so neatly folded up, not a speck of anything on it. And I see
that ring down there. because it's what I could afford.
And he picked it up out of that case sitting in that little box. He took out a box and laid that
ring on that piece of black velvet. And man alive, it looked so much
bigger, sparkled, was pretty. He laid it in the best light
possible on the best background possible to show its splendor
and its beauty. Look under the Calvary on the
black background of our sin and depravity and corruption. And on the brilliant white light
of God's justice, behold the love of God as God makes his
son sin for us and punishes him to the full satisfaction of justice
on our behalf. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us. This was compassion like a God
that when the Savior knew the price of pardon was his blood,
his love he ne'er withdrew. The Son of God loved me. and gave himself for me. Here's a third great revelation
of God's love. God sends his spirit at the appointed
time of love, and his spirit calls each of his elect, every
chosen redeemed sinner, by effectual, omnipotent grace, giving them
life and faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. God sends his spirit
to every chosen redeemed sinner at the appointed time of love. I don't think I will ever forget
the first sermon I heard Brother Jesse Gestand preach. I don't
really remember much about the sermon, but I remember one specific
statement. He was preaching from that passage
in Ezekiel chapter 16, talking about the coming of God's spirit
and calling out of his people. He said, where the blood don't
flow, the spirit won't go. Would God this generation would
learn that God sends his spirit where the blood of Christ has
redeemed the people. He never sends his spirit for
nothing. He sends the spirit to call out
his elect and he calls them by effectual grace. So the psalmist
sings, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach
unto thee. The call of God. The drawing
of the spirit is not God nudging folks toward Christ. It is not
God inclining people somewhat to consider Christ. The call
of the Spirit is God causing sinners to come to Christ. By the irresistible force of
His grace. We sang a little bit ago, force
me Lord to do your will. He does or you won't. He forces his own to come to
him, or they would not come. He forces them to. You mean,
preacher, God makes sinners come to Christ whether they want to
or not? No, no, he makes them want to. He makes them want to
by the sweet force of his grace, irresistibly compelling them
to come, giving them life and faith in the redeemer. And then
God reveals his love to redeemed, regenerate believing men and
women. And the marvelous preservation of his grace, keeping us in his grip. Keeping us in his grip. I've known a lot of people. I've
preached in a lot of places. I've seen a lot of men and a
lot of women, young and old, profess faith in Christ. And
I'm thankful. I'm not cynical. I still get
excited. I get excited when there's a
young man, young woman, an old man or old woman, who professes
faith in the Savior, wants to confess Christ in baptism. I
get excited. But I'll tell you what I get
considerably more excited about, going back to the same place
20 or 30 years later and seeing that young one, now old, still
walking with God in faith because many went out from us. because
they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us to this day. But they
went out from us that it might be made manifest that they were
not all of us. God keeps his own. God preserves his own. If God
gives faith, God sustains faith. If God brings you to Christ,
he continually keeps bringing you to Christ. If he causes you
to come to Christ, he sees to it that you continue coming to
Christ. To whom? Coming. We are coming to our Redeemer,
and God graciously sees to it. To suggest, as some do, that
a person might be born of God's Spirit, and called by God's grace,
saved by Christ, and then perish after all is beyond absurd. It's blasphemy. You see, salvation
is God's work. It is God's work. He who saved me keeps me. We are kept by God, kept by grace,
but we've got to persevere. Okay. You've got to persevere,
but you won't and you can't except God persevere in His grace. We
continue to believe because He continues to give us faith. We
continue to come to Him because He continues to force us to come
to Him. He continues to make us know
our need of Him. And fifth, God's love for His
elect is seen in our Savior's tender providential care for
his own. Sometime I would like to preach
from the text, as I know it ought to be preached from, in John
chapter 11, where the Lord Jesus came to Lazarus' tomb, actually
just came to Lazarus' sister's, he hadn't gotten to the tomb
yet, and When he stood there with his dear friends whose hearts
were breaking, the scripture says Jesus wept. Bill, that wasn't just put on. He wept. He wept. He wept. because Martha and Mary
were hurting. He knew what he had done for
Lazarus. He knew where Lazarus was. He knew what he was about
to do for Lazarus. He knew that Mary and Martha
were in the state they were in much because of their weakness
in the flesh. And yet, as they hurt, he hurt. Imagine that. And the Jews said,
behold, how he loved him. The Son of God in our flesh, Larry Brown, tenderly
cares for his own. Tenderly cares for his own. With great affection, touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, He watches over his children,
guides our affairs, orders our steps, and keeps us constantly
as the apple of his eye. Now, all of those things are
revelations of God's love. But there is one greater than
all. One greater than all. Turn to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John
chapter 3. An act of love that goes beyond
election, redemption, effectual calling, preservation, and providential
care. Great and marvelous as those
things are, here's something greater. Behold what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed on us. that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth
us not because it knew him not. I was working this morning on
a message from this chapter, latter part of the chapter and
got a call from Brother Darwin Pruitt and he was asking a question
about this first verse and I just kind of got stuck here and I
hope it's helpful to you. My subject tonight is adoption. Adoption. Adoption. Adoption by God. Not human adoption, divine adoption. There are some parallels, but
there are some things about which God's adoption is altogether
incomparable to anything like human adoption. What manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. Now, that was particularly the
section Darwin was questioning. He said, he said, Brother Don,
is that word called? That's not the word we'd use
for the call of the Spirit, is it? No, that's not it. I've told
you before, if you haven't made a note of it, you ought to. The
word translated called here is named. Named. The mom and daddy getting ready
to have a baby, they start going over a list of names, they pick
out some names and they name them something. I'm named Donald
Stuart Fortner. I don't have a clue why I was
named Donald or Stuart. Fortner just happened to be my
daddy's name. 1950, every other boy born in
the South was named Donald or Ronald. But I guess that's it. But God, named us his sons from
eternity because of his great love for us in Christ Jesus the
Lord. Behold what manner of love the
Father has heaped upon us that we, you and me, should be named
the sons of God. Therefore, since God named us
from eternity as his sons, The world knoweth us not because
it knew him not. By birth, we're the sons of Adam,
fallen, depraved, and spiritually dead. By our deeds, we show ourselves
to be the children of the devil, sinful, deceitful, and wicked. This corrupt flesh is that which
is the product of Satan's influence. By nature, we're all children
of wrath, we're told in Ephesians 1, 3. That is a people who deserve
God's wrath, a people who live under a sense of God's wrath,
a people who live with a conscious awareness that we deserve God's
wrath. That's how men live in this world.
I know everybody tries to suppress it. But everybody outside Christ,
every human being outside Christ whose mind is not gone, every
human being outside Christ who doesn't belong in bedlam, every
human being outside Christ lives with a conscious awareness that
is going to meet God in judgment and God's judgment against him
is just. Children of wrath, even as others.
But by grace, We who believe have been made the sons of God.
William Gadsby wrote this hymn. Let me give just a portion of
it. Sons we are through God's election
who in Jesus Christ believe by eternal destination sovereign
grace we have received. Every fallen soul by sinning
merits everlasting pain. But thy love without beginning
has restored thy sons again. Calls my soul, adore and wonder. Ask, oh, why such love to me? Grace has put me in the number
of my savior's family. John Gill says concerning our
adoption. Listen carefully. This is a little
more lengthy than any quotes I like to give, but Gil wrote
this back in the 1700s. He said this is a privilege,
this adoption, a privilege that exceeds all other. It is more
to be a son than a saint. Angels are saints, but not sons. They are servants. It's more
to be a child of God than to be redeemed, pardoned and justified. It's a great grace to redeem
from slavery, to pardon criminals and to justify the ungodly. But
it is another higher act of grace to make them sons, which makes
them infinitely more honorable than to be the sons and daughters
of the greatest potentate upon the earth. Yea, gives them a
great honor, which Adam had not in innocence, nor the angels
in heaven, who though sons by creation, yet not by adoption. God found me in the hole of a pit of human
corruption, vile, black, filthy. hating God, hating light, hating
righteousness, loving iniquity, loving darkness, loving my chains,
loving my bondage. And he took this rebel. And didn't
just pardon my sin, didn't just forgive my iniquity, didn't didn't
just cancel my debt, he he didn't just set me free out of the pit. He took me Into his family and
made me his child That's adoption That's adoption
now Why let me answer four or five questions and then Lord
willing next week. I'll I'll try to finish This
portion of first John getting in chapter three verse two But
for now, let's just look at this first verse with regard to adoption
Why has God adopted us into his family? No reason can be found
and none can be given except this. It pleased God to make
you his people. It pleased the Lord to make you
his people. Why me? Because he would. That's all. Because he would. Adoption is
experienced and known in time, but it began in eternity. We were not adopted into the
family of God when he gave us his spirit, but when he chose
us and accepted us into beloved. He gives us his Spirit in time
that we may know ourselves to be the sons of God. But the adoption
was done before ever we were born. The adoption was done in
eternity. Turn over to Galatians chapter
4 for a second. Galatians 4, let me show you this. We don't get into the Savior's
family when we make a decision for Jesus. We don't become the
sons of God when we believe on the Lord Jesus We don't put ourselves
in God's family by faith in Christ We believe on Christ because
God gives us his spirit creating faith in us Because we are his
sons from eternity. Let's see. That's not what it
says Galatians chapter 5 chapter 4 verse 1 Now I say that the
heir as long as he is child Differeth nothing from a servant though
he'd be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the
time appointed of the Father. Even so, we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the world, in bondage under
the law. 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. Now watch this, that we might
receive that we might receive the adoption
of sons. The adoption was already done.
We received the adoption in the experience of grace. Now watch
verse 6. And because ye are sons, not to make you sons, because
ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father, wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ Jesus. We we are made the sons of God
in eternal election by God's free adoption in everlasting
love. And we come to experience this
blessed adoption when we're given faith in Jesus Christ so that
we who who spent our days. Tormented with a guilty conscience.
terrified of God, terrified of God. I can't begin to describe
for you. How utterly terrified I was of
God. When God began to make me somewhat
aware of my guilt and sin, I mean, terrified, terrified. Until God, the Holy Spirit, spoke
peace in my soul, sprinkling my heart, my conscience with
the blood of Christ, declaring me to be the son of God. And now this man who once quaked
at the thought of God. Lives in the prospect of meeting
God in all his glorious holiness, and I lift my eyes to heaven
Say my father My father God's our father and the Spirit of
God comes giving faith in Christ So that the sinner who dared
not speak God's name now calls God his father with confidence
through faith in the Son of God By what power do sinners become
the sons of God turn over to John chapter 1 John chapter 1 were it not for the perversions
of religious nonsense and tradition, that question would be redundant.
Man, by nature, is enmity against God. He cannot become one of
the sons of God because he chooses to do so. A preacher can't make
you the son of God. Getting up out of your seat racks
and walking from down there to up here and kneeling down here
at some kind of a bench or an altar or whatever folks put there
can't make you a son of God. Repeating after me and saying
a sinner's prayer cannot make you the son of God. So preach
you mean God doesn't use those things? Let me see if I can say this
clear never Never God doesn't save sinners by such tomfoolery
and idolatry never Well, that's how God saved me. You're mistaken
You're mistaken That's just not so Something you do does not
make you the Son of God. Look here first in John chapter
1. John chapter 1 and verse 12. I ain't got there myself yet. John chapter 1 verse 12. As many as received him, to them
gave he power, Authority the right to become the sons of God
Even to them that believe on his name now watch this Which
were born? not of blood nor the will of
the flesh nor the will of man, but of God We pray for One another
we pray for one another sons and daughters our children our
grandchildren we pray for Folks who come hear the gospel. We
pray for them and beg God to have mercy on them. We pray that
God will speak by his word and give life and faith to dead sinners.
But there's nothing you can do to contribute the life or the
faith. Can't be done. It's not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. How much clearer can scripture
be? But brother Don, if that's the way things are, that shuts
us up altogether to God. If that's the way things are.
Everything depends on God. If that's the way things are.
We shut up to God having mercy. to God being gracious, to God
showing compassion, to God working. That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. People have the idea that somehow,
and this is becoming more and more common among people who
profess to believe the gospel of God's free grace. Somehow,
in other words, it's not doing things that ought to be done,
need to be done. Somebody asked me, well, do you
think we ought to witness to folks, ought to pass out tracts,
ought to do this, that? Do everything you possibly can
to get folks to hear the gospel. Do everything you can. Do everything
you can. I wish everybody here, every
time you come to services, find out some way to get somebody
to come with you. Do everything you can to get folks to hear
the gospel. But don't ever imagine you can
make them believe it. Don't ever imagine that you can
give them faith. We must and delightfully do preach
the gospel everywhere God gives opportunity. But faith is God's
gift. It comes by the hearing of the
word and those who receive him. To them, he gives the power to
become the sons of God, even to those who believe on his name. Now, how is this done? What is
God's method of grace in this work of adoption? First, the
Lord God drops the life of grace into the soul. We're born of God. At the appointed time of love.
God comes to chosen, redeemed centers. The Lord Jesus. Spreads the skirt of his righteousness
and his omnipotent mercy over you and says to the dead sinner
live God opens heaven And drops life
into your soul And that's the only way you can get it That's
the only way you can get it god almighty Opens heaven and drops
mercy into your soul. That's the only way you can get
it. Don't wake me up Here's the second thing As soon as he drops
life into the soul the regenerate sinner receives Christ Believes
on his name I Was talking to brother Matt
Johnson one day I Last week, he came by the office and chatted
a little bit. And I told what I've often said
to you. As a general rule, as a general
rule. It's real hard for any child
of God to put his finger on a time and place and say, no, that's
that's when God saved me. Real hard. I'll tell you what
you do, you read through the book of Genesis right now. You
try to find out when it was God gave Jacob faith. You try to find out. Try to find out when it was God
gave Joseph faith. Try to find out when it was God
gave David faith. In fact, there are very, very
few people in the scriptures of whom there is given a specific
time and place when God gave them faith, calling them by his
grace. Very few. Most were just found believing. And that's the way it has been
with most of you who've been baptized in this place. You find
yourself one day believing God. Just because you can't help it. Just because you can't do otherwise. just because God's dropped his
grace in your soul. Faith doesn't give life. Faith is the fruit of life. I
believing on Christ is not the cause of our having life. I believing
on Christ is the evidence of life. That's the third thing. As soon as the center trust Christ,
God gives him the right, the power, the authority under heaven. the privilege of being his child. So. I don't want to make this mechanical.
Anything but that. Oh, God, don't let that happen.
Oh, please don't let that happen. But Merle. God came to you and
dropped grace in your soul, dropped life in your soul. You found
yourself believing him. You found yourself believing
him, said, God, my father. I have the right, the authority,
because God now speaks by His Spirit. He shed abroad the love
of God in my heart, sprinkling it with the blood of His Son.
Now I can lift my heart to heaven and say, God's my Father. I have
the right to be called the sons of God. Here's the fourth question. Why are God's sons and daughters
so misunderstood misrepresented, so utterly unknown by the people
of this world. The world knoweth us not, because
it knew him not. Now, I want to tell you something. Please listen to me now. Live right. Live right. Do right by your neighbor. Live
uprightly among men. Seek to avoid saying or doing
anything that might bring reproach on the name of Christ. But don't
ever imagine that you're going to preach the gospel to anybody
by your life. It ain't going to happen. It ain't going to happen. It
ain't going to happen. Well, I want people to see Jesus
in me. They didn't see Jesus in Jesus. They ain't going to
see me in Claus Peterson. Well, what's the point in living
right? What kind of absurd question is that? Our interest is not in impressing
men, I hope. Our interest is not in getting
men to look at us and say, oh boy, I know Lindsey Campbell,
boy, he's a godly man. If that's what you want, it won't
take much to get it. It won't take much to get it.
Our hope is to honor our God. Our hope is to live in this world
for his glory. But the world doesn't know us.
The world doesn't understand the doctrine of this book. And
you're not going to make them understand it. The world doesn't
know that which motivates God's people. And you're not going
to make them understand it. The world doesn't understand
the constraint of love. The world's got to be constrained
by law and rules and regulations and creeds and confessions. I
mean, for church history for 2,000 years now, Folks have been
writing creeds and confessions of faiths and catechisms and
all those things. I participated. And you. Well, this now we've finally
got a now we've finally got a set of rules and we've got doctorate
that folks just can't possibly go against that now. Give five
minutes, give five minutes. No, no, no. The world doesn't
understand. And you're going to make them
understand. It didn't know God our Savior when he walked here
in the flesh, and it doesn't know you. And nothing's going
to change tomorrow. Nothing's going to change tomorrow. Don't expect to be understood,
not by your nearest kin outside of Christ, not by your nearest
neighbor outside Christ, not by your closest friend outside
Christ. The world knows us not because
it knew him not. Now, one last thing, and I'll
finish this up. What are the privilege, the great
privileges of our adoption? First, we have an assured interest
of God's everlasting love. The love of God that's shed abroad
in my heart. I'm a man loved of God. Loved of God. I can't tell you, oh, I can't
tell you what that means, except you experience it. We have the Spirit of God. Eighth chapter Romans, Paul makes
an unusual statement. About everybody you read on it,
tries to explain it away. Paul says, to be carnally minded
is death. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace. He says the carnal mind is enmity
against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. And then he says something They
just knocked you over. You're not in the flesh, but
in the spirit. You're not in the flesh, but
in the spirit. Well, wait a minute. I'm reading
that with eyes in this body of flesh. I just recited that with
a tongue in this body of flesh. You heard it with ears in this
body of flesh. Any fool knows we're living in
these bodies of flesh. Yeah, but you're not in the flesh.
Not if you're born of God. That's not where we live. We
live in the spirit. Led by the spirit. Walk in the
spirit. Live in the spirit. And if any
man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. We're given
life in the spirit. Being the sons of God, we're
assured of ultimate, perfect conformity to our Lord Jesus
Christ. Look here, verse two, first John
three. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear, We shall be like him. We should be like him. Conformed to his image perfectly. Committed to God perfectly. one heart with God perfectly. We shall be like him for we shall
see him as he is. And our adoption into the family
of God means that we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus
Christ, heirs of God. Heirs of heavenly glory. Heirs of eternal life. And that, Rex, we don't have a clue. We
just don't have a clue. Don't have a clue. I have not
seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of
man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.
He's revealed them to us by His Spirit. We have a record in the
word about a city four square, coming down from God out of heaven,
adorned as a bride, adorned for her husband. Why don't you try
to paint a picture of that? Whoever saw a bride with streets
of gold, whoever saw a bride with foundation
stones, whoever saw a bride with gates, Brother John, what's that given
for? All those pictures of heavenly glory. God wipe away all tears
from their eyes. No more sin, no more sorrow,
no more death. Be no day there, no night there. Just eternal God there. What's
all that mean? That means you don't yet have
a faint foggy notion what glory awaits us. Infinite, beyond imagination. Paul said, the things I saw,
all the things I saw when I was translated to the third heaven,
it's not possible to put in words. It's not possible to describe
in human language. But whatever that glory is, which
our Redeemer possesses, for his obedience unto death is our substitute
that glory shall be ours with him forever behold what manner
of love the father hath bestowed on us that we should be named the sons
of God amen