I want you to turn this morning
for just a few moments to the third chapter of the Gospel of
John. John chapter three, and I want
us to read this 18th verse. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. I want to talk to you for just
a minute about the only begotten Son of God. And I do that realizing that
God has many children by grace. He has many children by what the Bible calls a spiritual
adoption. It says in this same gospel that,
though he came unto his own and his own received him not, it
says, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, authority to become the sons of God. And then Paul expresses it like
this, he says, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God. And then in Hebrews it says,
for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all
things. in bringing many sons to glory. And then I really like what John
says in 1 John 3 and verse 1 when he says, behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. And yet we know that not all
are the sons of God. Because Christ said to those
moral and religious Pharisees, if you remember, he said to them,
you are of your father, the devil. But though God has many sons,
that he will bring to glory, who are the children of his grace,
he has just one only begotten son. That's how he's described
in that 18th verse. And that's the way we find him
described in other places. the only begotten Son of God. And John, using this same language,
says in 1 John 4, he says, in this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only
begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. And Strong's gives as a definition
for the word that is given in the original as only begotten
monogenies. He gives as a definition of that
word only born. or soul, or single of its kind. He is the only begotten Son of
God. And these things, I believe,
are given us by God to show Christ's eternal relationship with the
Father. You want to read some of the
most precious words and informative words about God's Son in the
whole of Scripture, just go back and read Proverbs 8, where he
is said to be in the beginning and the one brought forth by
God. And they show his existence before
his incarnation. And not only that, but they show
his uniqueness and his distinctiveness. And I realize, and I wouldn't
want to diminish in any way the fact that his people are said
to be sons and daughters. They are described as being like
him. They are said to be in him. And they are told that as he
is, so are they in this world. And I remember reading a preacher
commenting on that statement. And he said, some people asked
me, how far can we take this? And he said, you just can take
it as far as you want to take it. But the truth is, we can
only take such statements in the Word of God as far as God
means them to be taken, as far as He has spoken in His Word,
because our ways are not His ways. And we cannot interpret
things by our flesh or by human logic or anything. And we certainly,
as those who would preach Christ, ought not to use sensationalism
in speaking of things such as this and say you can take it
as far as you want to because As this very name and description
should tell us, he is that one unique, distinctive person. He is the only begotten Son of
God. And if he is the Son of God,
he is also, and we ought to remember this, God the Son. He is, as we find him set forth
in this book, the God-man. He is not half God and half man. But he is at the same time and
in one and the same person, altogether God and altogether man in a perfect
humanity. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And he is the one that God speaks
of through the psalmist and says, I will declare the decree, the
Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. And this distinction ought always
to be made and maintained because I am sure of this, and that is
men will not worship an equal. We will not worship an equal. And if all the Lord Jesus Christ
is, by our interpretation of such verses and passages as that,
if all he is is our equal, then certainly he not only will not
be worshiped, but he's not worthy of our worship. And that's why
I fear The use of such passages as we find in 2 Peter 1 and verse
4, I fear the using of phrases out of that verse to try to set
forth our positions with regard to regeneration or anything like
that. Let me read you that verse in
2 Peter. chapter 1 and verse 4. Because it says, whereby are
given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by
these ye might be partakers of the divine nature. Having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. Now, I have heard so many
times men interpret things such as this verse. and apply them
to something that happens to a sinner when they are born of
God. They say, just clipping this
phrase out of this verse, that they are then made partakers
of the divine nature. And when I hear that, I wonder
what they must mean by that because if we are made partakers of the
divine nature, if we are as Christ is himself altogether, then that
would simply make us little gods or little Christ and we know
that cannot be the case. And what I think that men fail
to do, while it seems to fit what they want to be expressing
with regard to regeneration, I don't think that what is being
said there has to do with regeneration at all. As a matter of fact,
that word or very close kin to that word is also found in 1
John and the first chapter. And it's there in 1 John, in
that first chapter, where he uses that same word as it is
elsewhere given us in scripture. The same word everywhere else
is translated with words like fellowship. Fellowship. In other words, what
Peter is saying, I believe, is that it is by these exceeding
great and precious promises. What is that? That is the gospel. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the gospel of promise,
all the promises being yes and amen in Christ. And by that word,
and by the one who his person and work is revealed and manifested
in that word, we through these great and exceeding great precious
promises have fellowship with God. That's what John is talking
about, is he not? In other words, God himself,
if we wanted to know something about what fellowship really
is, God himself says that he has singled out and laid help
on one who is his fellow. That one unique fellow. There's only one who in this
sense can be the fellow of God, and that's the son of God. So when John begins to talk to
us about fellowship with each other and fellowship with God,
he tells us that that fellowship and that fellowship with God
has to do with our centering around and being found in and
worshiping this one and the same person. He is God's fellow. Thank God by his grace, he's
my fellow. and the only basis upon which
we have any true fellowship. Now I know there are people who
meet in a place to eat and they call that fellowship or they
gather around this or they gather around that and they call that
fellowship. But biblically, there's only one kind of fellowship and
that is around this fella, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have fellowship
with the living God in and through and by him. In other words, here
is the Lord Jesus Christ, who as the only begotten Son of God,
and therefore God the Son, is that one who, as God, possesses
the divine nature, and there are essential attributes of God
which are incommunicable to me. Are there not? So in that sense, I don't believe
we'll ever be partakers of the divine nature in the sense that
men seem to want to try to use that. And it diminishes what
we really have in the Lord Jesus Christ because we have fellowship
with God. Can you imagine the great spance
and chasm and void and distance and all these things that separates
the infinite, almighty, holy God with such as we are? I bet you couldn't even get an
audience with the president this morning. You just stop and think
about all the high and mighty people in this world. You couldn't
even get a phone call through to this morning. And yet he says,
we have fellowship with God. And not only do we have fellowship
with God through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we're not
just saved by God. We're not just delivered from
our sins by God, we have fellowship with God. We found, or have been
given rather, a common ground upon which to meet with God and
agree with God and be blessed by God and enjoy God. You enjoy God. There's only one way that a sinner
like myself could ever open this book and read about God as he
is, read about what he says he's done and what he says he's gonna
do. The only way that we could ever
have fellowship with such a God is in this fella, this unique
fella, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm thankful to God for all that
conformity to Christ involves. I'm thankful that in mercy and
grace he has called all his people, his sons, his children, and every
other gracious description He's made of them. I'm thankful for
all that means in our standing before God and our acceptance
before God that as He is, so are we in this world. But if He isn't more than me,
then I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. If he is my equal, if this union with Christ is
such that it makes me something or actually it makes me feel
like that I'm something on a plane with the Son of God, there's just something isn't
right about that. He is the only begotten Son of God. And He has to be magnified as
such. He has to be glorified as such. And He was and always will be. He was in His incarnation. that virgin birth, which is so
essential to his being our savior? Why do you think that there has
always been such an assault on simply the virgin birth of Christ? And not only that, but on a zillion
other subtle ways wherein he's attacked, all of which are essentially
an assault on his deity. Because if he's not God, he can't save us. If he's not
God, if he's not something more than we are or are ever enabled
to become, he's not the only begotten son of God. I always have a kind of a rule
of thumb. Especially when people come up
to my doorstep and knock on my door and they want to give me
tracts or they want to give me booklets or they want to talk
to me about the Bible. I say, I've got one question.
What's that? Is Jesus Christ God? Just try it sometime. Is Jesus
Christ God? Well, we believe he's a special
person. We believe he's a great prophet
of God. That's not what I ask you. But we believe that he's
one of the sons of God. That's not what I ask you. Is
Jesus Christ God? Most of the time they don't spend
many minutes on my doorstep. Because based on everything that
I have hope in, everything that I have confidence in with regard
to my soul in Jesus Christ, is that this one who came in human
flesh, he is none less than altogether the only begotten Son of God. When the angel spoke to Mary,
He said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the high shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. He's the Son of God. Now I'm
going to tell you this. It's like an old preacher said
one time, you think about this, that that man, Jesus of Nazareth,
born in Bethlehem, walked on this world, walked on this earth,
worked in that carpenter shop, was nailed to a cross. He's the only begotten son of
God. He said ain't nobody but a fool or a Christian will believe
that. And such a revelation of this
is that even that centurion, you remember the centurion who
was the head of that group of Roman soldiers that were instructed
and did carry out the very crucifixion of Christ, when everything was
said and done, he said, He really is, or he
actually said he really was the Son of God. He missed it by part
because he really is the Son of God. And not only in his incarnation
but also in his work and office as the Redeemer. He looked at
his enemies and he said, say ye of him whom the Father hath
sanctified. Now, if you really want to get
a better understanding of what sanctification is all about,
you just think about that one a little bit. It says, whom the
Father hath sanctified. Did he make him better? Did he
make him more holy? No, he's of the same essence.
But what he's talking about, the Father has set him apart
to this work and to these offices of the Redeemer and to accomplish
this work that he's given him, which is the Father's will to
be done in this world. He said, say ye of him whom the
Father sanctified and sent into the world, you blaspheme? Because I said, I am the son
of God? You know, it's strange to me,
I hear people and I read writers sometimes, not long, but I read
sometimes and I find them saying, well, Christ never said he was
God. I can tell you this, his enemies
in that hour, they knew what he was saying. And they accused
him of blasphemy because he said, I am the son of God. And then in his resurrection,
you look at his resurrection and in Acts 13, It says, But
God raised him from the dead, and we declare unto you glad
tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he
raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second psalm,
thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And then in his ascension and
in his exaltation, He says, turn over to Hebrews
chapter one a minute. Hebrews chapter one and look down at verse four. The apostle says, speaking of
Christ being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they, for unto which
of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a
father and he shall be to me a son. Now, you know that even
the angels are referred to in a sense as the sons of God. Is that not right? But God makes sure that we understand
that there's a distinction here. He didn't say to any of the angels
what he said to his only begotten son. And again, when he bringeth in
the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels
of God worship him. Let all the angels, all those
holy angels, all those angels that have been so misrepresented
by religion, so misrepresented by its idolatry, these who are
ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation, he said, let all
the angels. bow down before Him and worship
Him. He is the only begotten Son of
God. The Jews, John records, the Jews
sought even the more to kill Him not simply because he had
broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father,
making him equal to God. He's God the Son. He's the only begotten Son of
God. He's the one in whom and through
whom we have fellowship with God. And he is to be worshiped and
honored and glorified because without the only begotten son
of God, there are no sons of God. no sons of God. That word fellowship is translated
as comrade. It's translated by the word associate
and companion. Strong speaks of it as being
brought into fellowship with one. I'm not God, and I'm not ever
going to be God. And I'm never going to be close
to God in the sense of being a possessor of those attributes
and that nature which belongs to him alone. But through and
by the grace and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, a wretched
sinner like myself can have fellowship with God. He is God's fellow, and he's
my fellow, and we have fellowship in him. And not only that, you
know, I've heard this verse quoted where Amos the prophet expresses
it and says, can two walk together except there be a greed? And it's oftentimes quoted and
used to say, well, if you and me are not in total agreement,
there's no way we could walk together. There's no way we could
have fellowship. Stop and think about that for
a minute. I'm not even in total agreement with my wife. Don't
tell her I said that, and I'm glad I'm a good ways from home. We still have fellowship in that
sense. You see, you might not agree
with my political position. And up to this point, it really
hasn't proved too good anyway. Or you might not agree with my
choice of football teams or something like that. And you might come
from the south, and somebody might come from the far north.
So what ground could we ever walk together on and be agreed? The Lord Jesus Christ. We agree
on Christ crucified. As a matter of fact, you know,
the divisions that come about among people, some people are
really, really you know, stirred up about certain issues and all
these kind of things, and they let these things divide them. But they wouldn't if we talked
more about Christ and less about these things. Because all of
God's people, they agree on He. We agree He's everything. We
agree that by grace he makes us his children, but he alone
is the only begotten Son of God.