We'll look at a few verses here,
particularly verse 12 and 13. But I'm gonna start reading in
verse one and we'll read down. As so often we encounter, many times we think about have
believed at one time or another, maybe have been taught growing
up, heard in different, some people have come from different
denominations and have come from different backgrounds of churches,
whether it be coming from a Catholic to the Baptist church, or whether
it's coming from a different type of Baptist church to what
we are, and whether it's that maybe another religion altogether,
New Ageism. Some folks have made their way
through that silly set of doctrines. A lot of times we get some of
these verses in scripture ingrained in our mind, particularly because
most generally when men preach, and I'm not against topical preaching
because I do a lot of it, not to be self-serving there, but
I do a lot of topical preaching as well as verse-by-verse exposition. But I think there's a good blend
in that that we can have. However, the problem comes a
lot of times in topical preaching that you can grab a verse and
then just pull it out of its context and then make that to
fit whatever it is that you're wanting to preach on or whatever. But we hear these verses a lot
of times in Scripture, and we hear them in their singularity
pulled out of the context in which they were written, whether
it be the letter to whom it was written to, the people to whom
the letter was written to, or the context of the content that
the apostle was writing about to those people, we tend to pull
that context away and we take that verse of scripture and we
apply it to whatever it is we think we want to apply it to.
And that has happened over and over and over and over again
to the point where it's ingrained to us that that's what that verse
is supposed to be like or be for. One of the verses that kind
of come to my mind that is often misused is, judge not lest ye
be judged. Another verse that comes to mind
is, you know, I can do all things that He has done exceedingly
abundantly above all that we could ask or think. You know,
a lot of people apply that, or I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. You know, I see that all the
time plastered on people's exercise videos. You know, there are little
reels of them in the gym doing their exercises and all that
kind of stuff. And they have, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. The context of that verse has nothing to
do with your exercising or your whatever that you're doing in
your everyday carnal life. It's, I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me. That whole passage of scripture
is about being held up under persecution and tribulation. But anyway, I digress on that. Today's verse is one of those
ones that I think we have heard so many times pulled out from
its context that we don't really have a good, clear understanding
of what that means. And I would like to maybe kind
of look at this verse within its context, see not only its
application to those who it's written to, but also see how
that applies to us today maybe, if the Lord be willing to guide
me in that. So, John chapter 1, let's start
reading in verse 1. It says, In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, that's talking about Jesus. We know that, I think, on the
onset, but in case you don't know, we're talking about Jesus
there. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life. And this is crucial here. In
Him, Christ, Jesus, was life. And the life was the light of
men. Okay? So, the life of Jesus Christ
is the light of men. You can't have light unless you
have Christ's life. So let's just kind of think about
that, let that kind of soak in a little bit, if the Spirit would
give us understanding, that in Him, and Him alone is life, and
if there is any light given to men, or light to be known, or
to be understood or to be received or to be appropriated. It has to come from His life
because there is no light apart from His life, Jesus Christ. And He had this life before the
foundation of the world whenever He was with God and being God. And it says, and the light shined
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Now, this
is where, brethren, I think it's, we skim over things a lot of
times so quickly that we don't think about what things are actually
saying. Okay? Let me give you an example. Turn out that light, and it becomes,
of course, it ain't completely dark, but it becomes dark in
here, right? How does that shadow in the corner of that thing understand
or comprehend? Have you ever thought that's
kind of weird? The Bible says that light has
come into the world and darkness comprehended it not. What is
he talking about there? Who is darkness? The under. The under? Yeah, I don't like saying that
name. Okay. Because neither does the Lord. He doesn't like that
name. Well, there's nothing wrong with
saying it. It's in the Bible. We can say it. Well, that's a good
thought though, Andrew. But the darkness comprehended
it not. I think that's talking about
the natural man. The natural man. Who we are in Adam is who
it's talking about here. Look if you would with me over
at Ephesians chapter five, something that I come across a few years
ago that I had never picked up on, and it struck me kind of
odd, but I kind of understand what it's talking about now.
Ephesians chapter five, look with me if you would, Verse 1, it says, Be ye therefore
followers of God. Ephesians 5, 1. Be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children. Be ye followers of God as dear
children. Not be ye followers of God, dear children. Be ye
followers of God as dear children. He's exhorting us to follow God
as a child, okay? And walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication and all
uncleanness or covetousness let it not be once named among you
as becometh saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting,
which are not convenient, but rather giving of things. For
this ye know that no poor monger, nor unclean person, nor covetous
man, with who is an idolater have any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain
words, for because of these things come up the wrath of God upon
the children of disobedience." Okay, so now we see here there's
a category of people called the children of disobedience. The
wrath of God is going to be upon the children of disobedience.
He says, but be not ye therefore partakers with them, for ye were
sometimes darkness. He didn't say, but ye were sometimes
in darkness, although we were sometimes, were at one time,
in darkness. But it says here, for ye were
sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light.
So I thought that was pretty odd whenever I read that, that
it said that ye were sometimes darkness. Because it's easy for
us to say, well yeah, I remember one time I was in darkness, you
know. I once was blind, but now I see. I was in darkness, but
now I've come to the light. Now I can see. Now I have been
given light to see. So I was in darkness and now
I am in the light. And whenever we say it that way,
and I don't know if everyone is saying it that way for this
exact purpose, but I think somewhere in our carnal man, that whole
desire to build oneself up in pride, to be as God, I'm my own
person, I can make my own choices, I can do what I want, my will
is my will and I can do whatever I want to do, that somewhere
in there we don't want to say that we are darkness. We want
to say we work in darkness because that removes us from being the
evil and corruptness that we actually are. It just says, it
just so happens that me as a person was residing under darkness,
but now I am in the light. So it makes us this kind of neutral
person, and that's what everybody wants to do. Matter of fact,
they wanted to make Adam a neutral person, giving him the choice
of either to eat or not to eat. And so there was a Shakespeare
joke that was about to come out, but I'll refrain from that. Adam was created with the earthly
nature so that he would bring forth sin and death into the
world. Adam wasn't created in this neutral
state that just, you know, he was innocent and hadn't committed
sin yet, absolutely, at that point, but yet to say that he
was a spiritual man and that he was holy and righteous and
perfect and all like this, the Bible doesn't say that. He was
created earthy, he was created natural, and the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God, and we've seen
that was proven in his actions. He did not receive the spiritual
application of all the things that was going on, and whenever
God gave him the commandment, the lust within Adam desired
what it desired, and Eve took that fruit, ate it, whenever
she handed it to Adam, Adam took it and ate it as well. So the sin that came into this
world came and man in his carnal nature, in his Adamic man nature,
how we are in Adam, is darkness. We are darkness. And so if we
go back here to John and maybe look at this verse again, it
may have a little bit of different understanding whenever we see
that the Bible says that the light shined in darkness. And it says, and the darkness
comprehended it not. He said, well, wait a minute,
wait a minute. I thought you just read back there in Ephesians
that we were sometimes darkness, but now we are light. So this
right here is saying that light shined in darkness and darkness
comprehended it not. So darkness didn't comprehend
it. So how in Ephesians are you saying
that Those who were in darkness came and are now light. What
happened? Is there a contradiction in the
Bible? Is the Bible saying something in one place and another in another
place? Well, there are some people that think that the Bible contradicts
itself, but that's not the case, especially if we see the context
of this verse. Again, the Bible is always going
to interpret itself, brethren. So always keep looking. If you
find a verse of scripture and it seems to contradict another
verse of scripture, in the Bible. Just keep on searching and praying
that the Lord will give you understanding because eventually it will be
revealed that it's truth. And there is no contradictions
here. And there is no contradiction in verse 5 of John 1 and Ephesians
5a. It says, The light shineth in
darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. That just means that
the darkness that darkness cannot comprehend it. In John chapter 3 and verse 19,
it says, And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil. So light has come into the world,
darkness loves darkness, because its deeds are evil. It doesn't
like the light. It doesn't want to come to the
light. It doesn't want to be revealed the truth about its
darkness. It doesn't want to see the truth
about the light. And we've learned that, number
one, that the light cannot happen unless life is given. So that
means there's nothing that I can do within myself to bring forth
understanding and knowledge of God. There's nothing that's in
myself that can bring forth anything that is presentable to God because
all I am in the carnal man is darkness. And all my deeds are evil. Everything
I do in this flesh is evil in the sight of a holy and righteous
God. His standard is the standard
that he goes by. He doesn't go by your standard.
One of the themes here around the house with the kids and even
the adults yesterday is this whole notion of fairness. There
is no such thing as fairness. Life is not fair. The world is
not fair. Salvation is not an issue of
fairness. God is not doing all things according to
what is fair and what is not fair. Because God is God and
because He is sovereign, there is no place for being fair because
there is nothing reciprocal on the carnal man's side to worthy
fairness. He can't present anything to
balance the fairness. God is holy. God is just. God
is righteous. God is sovereign, God controls
all things, and He is free from any coercion from the outside. He is who He is, and He takes
no counsel from anybody to make Him do anything that He does.
He does according to the counsel of His own will, and only His
own will. Nobody is His counselor. And
so because God is who He is, everything He does is righteous. Everything He does is holy. Everything He does is correct
and is lawful and is perfect. But there is no place for fairness
because God can do whatever He wants to do. in men's eyes, not
fair that God hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let
the people of Israel go from Egypt and then turn around and
punish and judge Pharaoh by having him die as the Red Sea collapsed
on him and all of his army. Some people say, well, that's
not fair. God hardened his heart. Why did God? There we see the
argument in Romans 9. Why hast thou found fault? Who
can resist Thy will? And God says, Hath not the potter
power over the clay? See, God can do whatever He wants
to do and He doesn't have to be fair because everything He
does is righteous and holy because it's according to His will. We are His creation. We are subservient
to God. We don't tell God what to do.
We don't tell God how he should do what he does. And we don't
say, God, you're unfair if you don't do it the way I think you
ought to do it. No matter how evil something
may be, no matter how corrupt something may be, listen, the
last four years of this country has been corrupt, has been evil,
has been horrible, has been, in my estimation, completely
unfair. to a lot of people, but yet who
are we to say to God, why did you raise up that government
for four years to rule over our country? Because the Bible clearly
says that it is God who raises up kings and sets up nations,
and He's the one who puts people in control, and He's the one
who governs all these things. And who are we to tell Him that
He shouldn't have done that? But yet as corrupt as it was,
as horrible as it was, as evil as it was and the evil that came
from that happened, God is the one who controlled all things
and by his predestinated decree, he decreed what all would happen.
Nothing happened that wasn't apart from him. So going back
to this, we see that man, who is darkness and who is light, That comes because God is sovereign
to give light to whomever He chooses to give light to. And
if He doesn't give light to somebody, they remain in darkness. There's
nothing that they can do to get out of that darkness because
it's not because they're in darkness, it's they are darkness. See, that's why I wanted to draw
that particular point out a while ago in Ephesians 5a. Some people
think that we can get out of darkness by studying this Bible
more. We can get out of darkness by
coming to church. We can get out of darkness by
following the law of God. We can get out of darkness by
just being a good person. Some people think that you can
come into light by joining the Masonic Lodge and getting up
to that 33rd degree and become true light up there. You know, there's a lot of things
that people do to come to the light. Brother Larry can probably
tell you, in the New Age movement and all the esoteric religions
that are out there, you can become light by getting into your inner
self, your chakra, or whatever it's called. You know, all this
meditative junk. And listen, brother, just a side
note, I'm going to get on a little soapbox here, that includes yoga,
that includes all these little meditative things that everybody,
that are getting into these transcendental meditations and things like that.
Listen, all that comes from satanic, heathen practices. It comes from
satanic, heathen religions that has been adopted into quote-unquote
Christian churches nowadays. And everybody just thinks, hey,
oh, it's just all right. I'm just getting into shape.
I'm getting into my form. I'm blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
All this stuff comes from heathen worship. Now I've lost track of where
I was at. But anyway, getting back to where I was at. Coming
out of darkness is not an ability because you yourself are darkness. And he says here, the light shines
in darkness and the darkness comprehends it not. So if the
darkness cannot comprehend the light, something has to be sovereignly,
objectively, outside of them, done to them as darkness for
them to be light. Would you not agree? Would that
not be, so far from what we've looked at, the context of what
is being here? Because it says here that the
light of men is in the light of Christ. So the light only
comes when the life of Christ is given. And all men, from Adam,
are only darkness. And the darkness cannot, that's
an ability, they cannot comprehend light. Therefore, something has
to be done for them, to them, outside of them, for them to
be able to be light. Now let's keep on reading. John
makes a little interlude here. and begins to talk about John
the Baptist. Now, this is John the Apostle
who is writing. He is fixing to talk about John
the Baptist who came as a precursor to Christ, who came as a forerunner
for Christ to prepare a people for Christ, so that whenever
Christ came on the scene, these people were already believing
and baptized, and Christ took those people, gathered them together
into a church, and he began to instruct them and teach them
in all of his doctrine. That's who John the Baptist was.
That was the purpose that John the Baptist came. That's one
of the reasons why we call ourselves Baptists. We preach the message
of God, those who God makes believers, We baptize them and we bring
them into the fellowship and we fellowship together and rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ who is our head. He said, there was
a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a
witness to bear witness of the light. Notice there it's capitalized,
it's talking about Jesus. He came to bear witness of Christ
that all men through him might believe. Okay, so we see here
within the context of talking about light, John is writing
that Jesus, who is the light, came and through Christ, who
is the light, all men might believe. Now, don't get wound up about
the all men, meaning all men everywhere, okay, head for head. Again, we're keeping in context,
everything is being written, right? It says, he was not that
light, speaking of John the Baptist, he was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light
which lighted every man that cometh into the world. Now again,
the every man is within the context of what all the scripture teaches.
Not every man head for head, but every man for whom Christ
has predestinated to be light, because we have already seen.
The darkness comprehends it not. The only ones who believe are
the only ones who have light are the ones who receive light
from Christ. I think we'll see that here in
a minute. Therefore, if they are ones who believe and He has
lighted every man, then every man will be believing. Every
man will be light. There will be no more darkness. Now, brethren, there is going
to come a time whenever all will be cast into the lake of fire
and there will be no more darkness. there will only be the light,
Christ and his people. But here he says, this is the
true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Now that, again, that every man can't mean every man head for
head because he says he lighteth every man and every man who is
lit, so to speak. Let me use that phrase and not
take that with another connotation. That word there, it means to
believe. And why is not everybody believing?
There comes the question. Well, how come it is that some
believe and some don't believe? Well, because they choose to
believe. That's what some people will say. It's because they choose
to believe. Then there will be some that
will say, well, they believe because, you know, they studied
the Word of God and was convinced of the truth. So they changed their mind. Let's
continue on here. It says, He was in the world
and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not. Now
here it is, verse 11. He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. Now this word received here isn't necessarily just saying
they ushered Him in, This morning, whenever the Phillips came and
they knocked on the door, we open up the door and we receive
them into the house. You know, welcome, welcome, good
morning. And when Daniel comes in, we pat him on the back and
how are you doing, brother? We receive them into our house,
okay? That's not what we're talking
about. This receive is an acknowledgement and an understanding and receiving
the testimony of who He is. We have been given to receive
the report, as Isaiah calls it, the testimony, as the epistle
of John talks about it, of Jesus Christ. We are receiving what
God has said about Jesus Christ. We receive Him. Now, modern evangelicalism,
they say we receive Jesus into our hearts, meaning that we accept
Him as our Lord and our Savior. We accept Him into our heart.
Okay? Now, He's not a little bitty
man that we open the door and place Him in the heart, and there
He is. He's running around in all of
our ventricles. Okay? We're talking about receiving
the report that God has put out in His Word about Jesus Christ. We receive His testimony, the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are
receiving that. And He said He came unto His
own and His own received Him not. Now, brethren, this own
that it's talking about right here in the context here is talking
about the Jews. I'm not talking about everyone
everywhere, although that does apply later on in the scriptures. But here, John is talking about
He has come unto His own, and His own received Him not. He
came to His people, the Jews, who He was coming as their Messiah,
and they received Him not. They didn't receive the testimony
of God about who this man was. They didn't receive the testimony.
that what he was there to do. And then after the fact, after
his death and resurrection and ascension back into heaven, they
did not receive the fact that Gentiles were being included
into this people of God. They didn't receive the testimony
of Jesus Christ. And I think that's very clear.
We can go to Romans, if you would. Look over at Romans chapter 9.
I think that bears out the context here again. Paul begins Romans chapter 9,
very familiar verses too, it says, I say the truth, I lie
not, my conscience also bear me witness in the Holy Ghost,
that I have a great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart,
for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for
my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Now he's talking
about the Jews there. Talking about Israel as a nation there. Who are Israelites? to whom pertaineth
the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving
of the law, and the service of God, and the promises." We talked
about that a few weeks ago. I won't go into detail on that
again. "...whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the
flesh, Christ came, who is overall God-blessed forever." So Christ
came concerning the flesh. Christ came from the Israelites
as His genealogy. Now, not actually, but He came
legally. because he was born from heaven.
He was the man from heaven. He didn't get any of his manhood
from Mary. He got his manhood from above.
Now Mary birthed him, and because she came from her, he legally
was of Israel. So it might be fulfilled, all
that had been prophesied in the past. But he goes on to say this,
he says verse 6, Not as though the word of God hath taken none
effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither
because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children,
but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are
the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God,
but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. So
here we see Paul is saying that there are some Israelites who
believe and there are some Israelites that are not believing. So why
are some Israelites being saved and not all Israel are being
saved? So we see that that's the context
that Paul is writing about election and about who is being brought
out of darkness. These Jews are being brought
out of darkness and into light. John is saying that he came unto
his own, his own received him not. And then we're fixing to
see something that seems once again to be contrary, but we
find out That's why it's not contrary. But bear with me just
a few minutes more before we get there. Look at Romans chapter
11. Because in Romans chapter 11
we read this. I say then, hath God cast away
his people, speaking again about Israel? God forbid, for I also
am an Israelite, the seed of Abraham, child of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. So God has not cast away his
people that he foreknew. So again, we see that out of
his people, there was a people who would be delivered or brought
out of darkness. He says, verse 7, What then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and
the rest were blinded. According as it is written, God
hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should
not see, ears that they should not hear unto this day. And so
we see here that out of those who are dark in
God's people back in John chapter 1, he said, he came unto his
own and his own received him not. So those of Israel did receive
Him. Now, we're looking now past that
as the Gospel is spread into all the world, we find out that
what was true of Israel is true of the Gentiles as well. God
has now brought the testimony or the message of Christ or the
report of Christ Jesus to the Gentile world and we see that
They're not receiving it either. They're not receiving Him either. But, verse 12, but as many as
received Him. Well, wait a minute. You're saying
that He came and no one received Him, but now as many as received
Him, so somebody received Him. Who is it that received Him?
And how in the world did they receive Him whenever the Bible
says that they were darkness and can't comprehend and they
have no light? Here's why context is important,
brethren. Now, this is not a condition that you have to do to get it. This is not what this means. He came unto His own, His own
received Him not, but as many as received Him, He said, oh,
wait a minute, then there are people that are receiving Him.
Yes, there are people that received Him, but how did they receive
Him? They received Him because He gave them power to become
the sons of God. Now, brethren, I want you to
remember the Scriptures clearly declare that because ye are sons
of God, God has sent His Spirit into us. See, we were sons of
God before God sent His Spirit into us. But because we were
already sons of God, God sent His Spirit into us. Now here
it's saying, to them gave He the power, and the word power
there doesn't mean a power within themselves to declare it, to
receive it, to ask for it, to do anything for it. It's a power,
that word power there, originally it means authority. He gave them
the right or the authority to be sons of God. Well, when did
He do that? When did God give us the power or the authority
or the right to be sons of God? again in Romans chapter 9. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth it was said unto her, the younger shall serve
the older. We find in Ephesians Chapter
1 Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, 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, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, through the praise and glory
of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved,
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure,
which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation, the
fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him, in whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ. So the purpose, who
worketh all things after the counsel of his will, for what?
Obtaining inheritance. Who obtains an inheritance? Sons. Sons inherit an inheritance. So we go back to John and we
see, as many as received him, to them gave he the authority
or the right, the place to become the sons of God. But when did
he do that? Before the foundation of the world. He called out his
sons, and we could say daughters, called out his people, his children,
before the foundation of the world. And before the foundation
of the world, he gave them the right to be those sons. And in being those sons, they
would receive the inheritance. And part of that inheritance
is the down payment of that inheritance, which is the Spirit of God. the
earnest. He has given us the earnest of
that inheritance, which is the Spirit of God in us. And by putting
the Spirit of God in us, it goes on to say, to them gave He power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on His
name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Brethren, how did
they receive Him. As many as received Him. How
did they receive Him? They received Him by God sending
the Spirit into them. And whenever the Spirit came
into them, that Spirit is His life. That life seed came into
us who were darkness. And now, because His seed is
in us, We have become light, and it says here that that light
is the light of all men. Which all men? Well, all men
that God has called the sons of God. Which all men? All men that believe. There you
go. Well, you have to believe to
get it. No, no, no, no. The reason that they believe,
that all men through Him, through Him, that all men through Him
might believe. See, the belief has to come through
Him. And so you're only going to believe when His life causes
you to believe. You have to have His life in
you to believe. You have to be born from above.
That's why Jesus told Nicodemus. No man can understand or to see
the Kingdom of Heaven unless he is born again. If you are
not born again, You cannot see and you cannot enter the Kingdom
of Heaven. Only those who have been born
from above can enter the Kingdom of Heaven and see the Kingdom
of Heaven. That's why the Bible says the
natural man cannot perceive the things of the Spirit of God because
they are foolishness to him because he's darkness. He comprehends
it not. He must be born again because
that which is the Spirit is Spirit and the Spirit will then give
you spiritual understanding, and that's whenever he says,
the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him, but it said, because they are
spiritually discerned. How do we spiritually discern
who our Savior is, and how He saved us, and who we are in Him? It's through the Spirit of God.
That's light. We've been given light to see
the truth and the testimony about Christ. It's not about you making
a decision, about you walking an aisle, about you bending your
knee and submitting yourself to God. God will cause that to
happen to us, no doubt about it. But the only ones who can
do that are those who already have the life of God in them.
And today, in all those people out there, not everybody out
there, there are two churches around, In general, Christianity
out there has just the opposite. If you will come and bow your
knee, and if you will commit yourself to Him, if you will
repent of your sin and turn away and never go back to Him, if
you'll pray this prayer and ask Jesus into your heart, if you
will believe, then He will give you life and you will be saved. And at that point, you become
saved. However, salvation was already accomplished before the
foundation of the world. Salvation was accomplished before
the foundation of the world. Now, it surely was ratified at
the cross, but it was done at the foundation of the world.
The works were finished before the foundation of the world.
But brethren, listen, you doing anything has nothing to do with
what happened in eternity. What you do has nothing to do
with what Christ did on the cross. What He did is He walked this
earth. But the report of that, the understanding of that, that
I can do nothing and I have been given everything, that's called
grace. That's called grace. Not grace,
but God's grace. Grace is something being given
to somebody who has done nothing for it and does not even deserve
it. That's what grace is. Do what? Sovereign grace is what it is.
Sovereign grace, absolutely. It's sovereign because God can
give grace to whoever He wants to. He doesn't have to give grace
to anybody. He can give grace to whoever He chooses. And whenever
He gives us grace, then we can see, we can understand. And we no longer begin to pursue
religion as far as I have to do this, I have to do this, I
have to do this, to be acceptable before God. We now look and we
rejoice in the fact that our acceptation is in the Beloved,
it's in Him. Us being accepted before God
is Him that the light has come in and shown that our deeds are
evil, but His are pure. The light comes in and shows
you have no ability to make yourself worthy before God, but Christ
has come on your behalf and has obeyed the law and made you worthy
before God by imputation, not by impartation. And so whenever
we come to this passage and we see, as many as received Him,
to them gave He power. This isn't some sort of a condition
that we are to go out and say, if you will believe on Him, He'll
give you the power to become the Son of God. No. The reason
that you receive Him as who He is and receive the testimony
of what He has done is because He has already made you a son
and given you His life, which is the light of all men. He has
given you that and that life creates in you faith. Faith only
looks to what Christ has done. It doesn't look at what you do.
It doesn't look to what I can accomplish. It doesn't even look
at what Christ is doing in me to fulfill outward things out
of me. Faith looks to Christ alone and
His accomplishment alone. Now, that doesn't mean that Christ
isn't working in me those works that He has promised from the
foundation of the world and ordained that I should walk in, which
is belief, which is faith, which is trust, which is hope, which
is love, which is longsuffering, which is gentleness, which is
goodness, which is meekness. Those are the things that God
works in us. Those are the works of the Spirit. Those are the fruits of the Spirit.
Those are the things that God is working out in us, and it's
Him working it. We can't muster it up. We can't
check it off a list. You know, I used to believe,
other people might say the same thing, I used to believe the
fruits of the Spirit, you know, love, joy, be well, I got that
one, you know, now I gotta work on this one. You know, listen,
no, it's the fruit, it didn't say fruits, plural, it's the
fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. The
things that the Spirit works out in us. See, these are the
works of God. And God is not looking at the
works of the flesh that we do outward things for Him, because
all of those outward things that we do for Him can be considered,
Lord, Lord, did we not? I posted a little thing this
week. There is no place in the Gospel for Lord, Lord, have we
not? There's no place in the Gospel
for that. When we come before the Lord, it's not going to be,
have we not? Because everyone who comes to
the Lord and says, have we not? He's going to say, depart from
me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you. Those who come
before God, who have been given the Spirit of God, are going
to come and say, nothing in my hands I bring, only to the cross
I'll claim. They're going to come saying,
it's Him and Him alone. I stand upon Him and Him alone. Christ is my advocate. It's only
because of Christ I am who I am. We're not going to come holding
anything in our hands. It says, but as many as received
Him, to Him gave ye the power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name, which were born... Now here it
is again, and to me this is very clear. I don't know why so many
years, well I do know why because God never did reveal it and give
me the truth until later on in life, but how clear this is,
which were born, not of blood, so this means that you can't
be a Christian, you can't be born from above because you were
born from one who is. Zach is not going to be a Christian
just because I am, or my wife is. My kids, anybody else. Your parents doesn't make you
a Christian just because you might have Christian parents
doesn't mean that. So it's not by blood. It says
not by the will of the flesh. Nothing that I can do can make
me born again. I can't will myself to be born
from above. And it says nor of the will of
man. I can't will anybody else. I
know parents want to think that they can will their children
into the kingdom of God and so what do they do? They get out
this old rule book here and they just drill it into their kids
and they think that if they keep their kids from everything evil
and everything like that. Now I'm not saying that there's
anything wrong with that. We did that with our kids. We did
put our kids in public schools because we didn't want them to
be influenced by all the junk that was going on in the world
and being taught. So we taught our kids at home
and sheltered them from that. I nowhere thought that would
ever make them Christians, though. I did that because the Bible
said that we are to raise and to teach and to nurture our kid
in the admonition of the Lord. The Lord admonishes us to do
that, and so we did that. And so in doing that, that shields
them from a lot of things, but that don't make them a Christian.
So my willingness to do that, me keeping them and prohibiting
them from doing things that might be considered evil, That's not
going to make them a Christian either. And no matter how much
influence I put upon my child, no matter how much godly instruction
I give them, I cannot will them to be born again. I cannot will
them to be a Christian. I cannot change that because
it has to be life from above. See, flesh begets flesh. Flesh begets flesh. Spirit begets
spirit. The seed of flesh will only produce
flesh. That was something that the Bible
put down way in the beginning. Everything produces after its
kind. And after its kind, the flesh
will only produce those who are of the flesh. Therefore, nobody
can ever get out of the flesh unless something supernatural
from above happens to them. That's what we see here in verse
12. This isn't an admonition for you to start believing so
that you can be a son of God or that you have done something
that, oh God, give me this because I received Him. No. The reason
you received Him is just because of what is said here. Because
Him and His light, which is the light of men, has been put into
your heart and that light has shone into your heart and has
revealed the wickedness and the evil of your heart and you have
seen the destitute nature of who you are and you have been
given faith to believe on the one who has taken you and removed
every bit of that transgression before God and has removed it
away and has given you His righteousness so that as God looks upon you,
He looks upon you as righteous as Christ is. That doesn't mean
we are in this flesh in this lifetime. But our standing before
God is as righteous as Christ is because His righteousness
is what God has looked at and seen and counts for us. The only way we can believe that
and receive that and know that and bring forth praise and joy
to Christ in that is because we have been given life. We receive
the testimony because we have been given life. And listen,
that doesn't come Because of genealogy, that doesn't come
because I've decided it, and it doesn't come because someone
else willed it for me. But look what it says there,
verse 13. Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of... Before I get to that last phrase,
let me just make one more point on this. We know this is talking
about spiritual birth, because fleshly birth does come by blood,
Fleshly birth in some aspect does come by the will of the
flesh and the will of man. Now I'll say that is also directed
and governed by a sovereign God. Me and my wife wanted to have
kids when we very first got married and we tried to have kids for
eight years and the will of man was there, strongly. The will of woman was there,
strongly. But we couldn't make it happen.
no matter what we did. Eight years later, five kids, here they all come. I want to say maybe not well. No, they were very, very gracious. But the fact is, is that we know
this is talking about spiritual birth here, brethren, because
naturally speaking, The earthly birth is by flesh, is by blood,
is by the will of man, is by the will of the flesh. But look what it says here, talking
about the spiritual birth. Which were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. How are
they born? But of God. The only way you
can be born of God are born from above is to be born of God. God has to give you that new
birth. God has to give you that life.
He has to give you the new birth. If He doesn't do that, there
is nothing that you can do to get out of the flesh. We are
just flesh. We can't get out of it. That's
why Paul used the illustration. That's why we see in the Old
Testament where it talks about Can the leopard change its spots?
Can the Ethiopian change the color of its skin? Can a good
tree bring forth bad fruit? Can a bad tree bring forth good
fruit? No. Why? Because ingrained in its
nature is who it is. And we in Adam, in our earthly
nature, is darkness. We are darkness. God looked upon
the face of the earth and He saw that their heart was continually
evil. That's who we are. That's who
you are, whether you think you are or not. That's who you are.
That's what God says you are, no matter how many good deeds
or how sweet of a person you might be. Sister Rosette is one
of the sweetest ladies that I've met. But, frankly speaking, apart
from Christ Jesus, Rosette is darkness and evil. As sweet as
she is to us, humanly speaking. Okay? You look at your little
baby there in the basket, and you think that thing's the sweetest,
innocent little thing on earth. The Bible says that I was conceived
in wickedness. And in sin did my mother conceive
me. That we come forth from the womb liars. That's who we are. That's who you are. And unless
God brings light into you, You will never know that or understand
that, believe that. You will think it's foolishness.
Everything is going to be foolishness to you. And you're going to think
you're going to be able to make your way towards God by living
a right life, by following good moral values, by following the
commandments and all this stuff. You think you're going to work
out a salvation that's going to be acceptable for God. And
we'll find out at the end that God will say, depart from me,
workers of iniquity. I never knew you. So, brethren,
context is very important whenever we look at these scriptures.
Whenever we look at the context of all the scripture, we're going
to find out over and over and over on every page that it is
grace, grace, God's grace. It's not any other thing. Sovereign
grace. Unless God intervenes and saves
you, there's nothing that you can do before God to be acceptable.
It's not a condition. Salvation is not a conditional
thing. Whether it's on the legal side
or whether it's on the experiential side, salvation is of the Lord. All of the Lord. From beginning
to end. And everything in between. It's
all of Him. No matter what chapter, no matter
what verse, no matter where you go, the contents of Scripture
is that God has chosen a people and that He has provided a perfect
salvation for those people. He has also chosen a people that
will not receive this salvation, and they have been created and
sustained and upheld by God's hand. Just as much as He has
His own people, He has upheld and sustained the reprobate for
the purpose that He and He alone is worthy of. He has created
them for His purposes. I remember Jerry Meyers saying
that they are like scaffolding for the people of God. God has maintained them and held
them. But listen, brethren, they are
heaping coals upon their heads to the day of judgment. Just
because God brings rain upon the unjust doesn't mean that
He has a love and a desire for the reprobate. That is because
of the elect's sake that that happens. They are there for the
purpose of God in bringing forth all of what He has intended to
do. Listen, God had to have the evil reprobates of the Jews to
bring forth the crucifixion of His Son. Without that, there
would be no crucifixion of Christ. And that was the purpose of God
before the foundation of the world, that there would be a
Lamb slain. God's purpose before all eternity was that sin would
come into the world, and sin by one man, and that was Adam,
and Adam was darkness. So are we, unless God gives us
life. Alright, anybody got any questions?
Um, wasn't the thing you were talking about, isn't it kind
of like, you can't see until God gives you the eyes to see?
That's right, you can't. You can't see spiritual things
until God gives you the ability to do that. Until then, all we
do is think with our own wisdom. It's like you're blind until
God gives you the ability to see with your eyes. Yeah. Actually,
if you look at 1 Corinthians, and 1 Corinthians, Paul even
writes about that. He says in chapter 1, He says,
for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but to us, which are saved, it is the power of God. He goes
on in chapter 2 to say, whenever I came unto you, I came not with
excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony
of God, for I determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. He goes on to say that Verse
5, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but
in the power of God. See, our faith and what we believe
doesn't come from our own wisdom. It comes from the power of God
in us, giving us that belief. Verse 7, he says, we speak the
wisdom of God in the mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of
the princes of this world knew. For had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,
I have not seen, hear, and not heard, neither have it entered
into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. But God, here it is, hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. See, it's the spiritual
thing. God has to give us his Spirit.
That's where the life comes. It says, now we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things freely given to us of God. That's
what, that goes again with exactly what we were talking about. Yeah,
I was like thinking that way. That reminds me of saying something.
Here you go. Cause I always, cause I watch
all these videos like Mr. Beast and stuff, and I see a
bunch of people up live and I'm like, I feel bad, like, I'm,
God hasn't given them the ability to see, and they have had patience. God was teaching them patience
until someone gave them the ability to see with their own eyes. You
can't see until God gives you the light and ability to see. That's right. That's right. Andrew,
that's good. So he gave Mr. Beast the ability Anybody else got anything? For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. That's actually where
I started this morning, is right there. And I somehow worked back
in the other direction. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Grace comes by Him, truth comes
by Him. It doesn't come by our own intellect,
our own wisdom, our own searching out. Everyone says if we rightly
divide the Word of God, we'll get to the truth of the matter.
But we're to rightly divide the Word of God, meaning to rightly
deliver what it says, make it say what it says, That's kind
of my point, the context, a lot of times we take it out of context.
Rather than dividing the word of truth, but it has to come
by him. All right, anybody else have
a thing? All right, that's great. Father, we thank you once again
for your word and thank you for Christ Jesus. We thank you for
the life and the light that we have because of him. We thank
you for your mercy and your grace We thank you, Father, for the
time that we've had of fellowship this morning. We thank you for
all the good things that you've given us in this world. And Father,
even the bad things that you've given to us, because we know
that they work in us, patience, that they are ordained for us,
for our learning, that you've given us those things and work
all things after the counsel of your will and for the good
of your people. And so Lord, we just are thankful
that you sustain us and that you keep us and that you give
us grace that your grace is sufficient for every need that we might
have. Lord, often our flesh rises up and lies to us, tries to get
us to look away from you. But whenever you, by your grace
and your spirit, draw us back to yourself, bring our minds
back upon Christ, we find peace and contentment. So thank you,
Father, for the work of that spirit in our life. May those
that are here that have heard and those who may be watching,
Lord, we pray that they might find comfort and peace through
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, if there are
any that are here that are yours, Lord, we pray that you might
call them out of darkness into light and that you might give
them faith. They might trust upon you and that in believing
upon you, that they might also submit in baptism and we might
Rejoice in fellowship together. And you, Father, Lord, we thank
you for all these things that you've given us. Weighty words,
weighty messages of grace that apart from your spirit, Lord,
would just be foolishness to us. So we thank you for that
inner work of the spirit in our minds and our hearts. Of course,
in Christ's name, we pray all these things.