The Gospel of John. And before we begin, let's have
a word of prayer. Our Father, it's so good to be
able to be here. Lord, thank you. Thank you for
giving us another time to be able to come and to worship and
to hear the gospel of the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Help us today. We're struggling, and Lord, we
try. We try to worship. We try to
hear. We try to pray, and we realize
that we don't know what we should ask for. Lord, would You be pleased
to bless this word to our heart as we struggle to seek after
Your face for Christ's sake. Amen. John chapter 1. I'm going to look
at verses 10 to 13. And what I'd like to consider
today, Just to let you know, what are we talking about today? Well, we are talking about the
eternality of the Lord Jesus Christ. Eternality. Verse 10, this is where we left
off last week. The Scripture says, He was in
the world And the world was made by Him,
and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe 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." He was in the world. Now, the word that gives great
insight into that phrase right there, He was in the world, is
the word was. That means He existed. He was
present. He's always been present. He's always been in the world. Now, verse 14, of which we'll,
Lord willing, look at next week, says, And the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. There was a time that the Christ,
the Messiah, permanently took flesh. Never to change. Never. Once He permanently took
flesh. But this verse, verse 10, that
we're looking at precedes that. He was in the world. He's the eternal Messiah. He's always been. There was a time that he came
and he spoke to Abraham. Abraham was there in the desert
in his tent. And the Scripture says, and the
Lord appeared unto Abraham. He looked at him and the Scripture
says Abraham looked at him and it was three men. revealed himself to Abraham,
and Abraham knew that it was the Lord. He looked at him. There was a time when the Lord
appeared to Moses in a burning bush. God's always spoken in Christ.
He's always, always been the Word. Jacob one day was One night he
was sleeping and Scripture says, and a man wrestled with Jacob. And Jacob couldn't overpower him. And Jacob
said when the man, Christ Himself, said, Let me go. And Jacob said,
I won't unless you bless me. And he asked him his name. He said, My name is Jacob. He
said, Not anymore. Your name is Israel. You are
a prince with God. He was in the world. Set up from everlasting. Proverbs 8.22 says, wherever
the world was. He was from the beginning. Always in this world upholding
everything that was here. preserving and ordering when
the world was created. Well, the Scripture says in this
verse, He says He was in the world and the world was made
by Him. He made everything. You think
He made everything and He wasn't here? By Him all things, the Scripture
says, consist Verse 3 that we looked at a couple
of weeks ago, all things were made by Him and without Him was
not anything made that was made. He has always been the surety of
God's elect. God chose a people. Ephesians
1 says that God the Father chose a people and gave them to the
Lord Jesus Christ. They were in Christ, chosen in
Christ. from before the foundation of
the world. Do you think that He was here?
He was in the world. When this was all spoken into
existence, He was here. Everything that moves, everything
that grows, everything that has being, the trees, the sky, whatever
He made, the fish, Life within him, all life, natural life,
spiritual life, eternal life, life. I'm the way, I'm the truth,
I'm the life. We're not just getting up this
morning just by accident. That last breath of air that
you just took and I just took, that's God's air. He was in the
world. The world was made by him, but
here is the evidence of man's fallen state, and the world knew
him not. When Adam fell in the garden,
when he rebelled against God, he took of the fruit that the
Lord had forbid him to take, and man lost all capability. any apprehension of God whatsoever. And he became ignorant of God
and ignorant of himself. Man by nature does not realize
how he stands before God, dead in trespasses and sins. That's
just right over his head. He doesn't know that. Romans
121 says, They glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened. He was in the world. The world
was made by Him. The world knew Him not. Verse
11, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
Now this, the own right here, he came to his own, doesn't mean
the ones given him in electing grace. God the Father, according
to the Holy Scriptures, has given to the Lord Jesus Christ a people
that are going to be saved. John 6.37 says, All, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And he that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out." So here's what we know. All that
the Father has given him in electing grace, all that the Father has
chosen unto salvation, 2 Thessalonians 2.13. We're bound to give thanks
to you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Now, that's just so. God Almighty
has an elect people, and God's going to save those people, and
they're going to come to Christ. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. What's the probability that there's
going to be some that God has given Christ in electing grace
that's not going to come? What's the probability? Zero.
Zero. The probability is zero. All. All. How many mansions prepared for
His people will be vacant in heaven? None. None. How many people will not be in
heaven that God wished would have been in heaven? How many
people will not be in heaven that the Lord desired to have
with Him? How many will not be there? None.
None. That means the salvations of
the Lord. That means that God's going to save His people. But
this own right here, he came unto his own and his own received
him not. It's speaking of the national,
the Jews. National. The country of the
Jews. The one that the law and the
promises was all sent to. The tabernacle. There was a nation
of Jews. And they were that God was pleased
to send the law to those. Those were his chosen people
in the sense that he chose to give them the law. He sent the
law to them. But remember this, the scripture
sets forth, they're not all Jews who have Jews. And what he's
speaking of there is spiritual Jews. A spiritual Jew, a spiritual
Jew once circumcised in the heart. They're not just because a man
or a woman was born. In the national or natural, you
know, genealogy of Abraham, that that that doesn't mean that he
was. We'll deal with that in verse 13 in just a second here,
but it doesn't mean. That they're. Definitely going
to be converted just because they were born and could trace
their lineage back to Abraham at the Jews. Now, the own right
here is the nation of Israel. Acts 3, 26 says, unto you first. It was speaking to the nation
of Israel. Unto you first, God having raised
up His Son and sent Him to bless you in turning away every one
of you from His iniquity. So it means that the gospel came
to the Jews first. Before His incarnation, before
He was born in a manger, He came unto His own. He sent them those
types. They had those sacrifices. And that priest would go and
he would take a lamb or a goat, sheep, bullock. It's sacrifice. That was a picture. It was a
type. of the Lord Jesus Christ that
would be slain in the satisfying of God's justice before a broken
law. He sent the gospel first to the
Jews. He came unto his own. He gave Moses instruction. He gave him that law, those tablets. And he told Moses, you go and
you tell Pharaoh to let my people Go, my people, how many of his
people died in the wilderness? Most of them. How many of them
entered into Canaan? Very few. They were his own in
the sense being a type, a type of those that he would show mercy
to. But not every Jew, national Jew, was converted. He came unto His own, led them
through that Red Sea and guided them with a pillar of cloud during
the day and a fire at night. But they fulfilled the Scriptures.
Those that He came unto His own and His own received Him not. The Scripture says in Acts 13.27,
For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers those that had
the law and had the prophets and had the ceremonies, because
they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which
are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning
Him." Here's what they did. The Lord came unto His own, meaning
the national Jews. Gave them the law and the prophets.
Nobody else. Nobody else had it. Nobody else
had the Law and the Prophets. The Jews. They were the only
ones. And they had those scrolls and
they'd open up those scrolls and they would read. And there
was Moses. They were reading Moses. Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And they would read those scrolls. They'd read those scriptures.
And they'd read the story of the Ark. That was a boat to them. That
was a boat. That was a boat. And there was
a guy named Noah. And God put Noah and his wife
and their three sons and their wives and a bunch of animals
in there. They read that and God delivered
them. They didn't see Christ in that. They rejected that that was the
gospel of free grace. deliverance that they fulfilled. They received Him not, and they
fulfilled the Scriptures that they read every Sabbath day,
and they fulfilled them when they condemned Him. He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. But not all of them
were left in darkness. Not all the Jews. That's what
Paul was talking about. He says, Has God forsaken the
Jews? He said, I'm a Jew. He hadn't forsaken those that
he knew in everlasting electing grace. He hadn't forsaken the
remnant in electing love. Great. Verse 12 said, But as
many as received him, as many as those that by faith believed
by the power of the Holy Spirit, those that God gave a heart after
Christ, as many as received Him as He set forth in the gospel."
Now, this reception, the reception when it says, they that received
Him, that's not left. And I'm going to prove that in
just one second. I'm going to make this statement.
And then we're going to read 13, and it's going to prove what
I'm saying right here. The reception, as many as received
Him, as many as believed Him, as many as took Him at His word. That is not something receiving
Christ. Men will say, receive the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they'll say it in a way as
if to insinuate that this is an offer now. Here we're going
to give an offer. And any of you that are thinking
this through and would like to be saved, you know, the Lord
wants to save everybody. And everybody that is out there
that's thinking this thing through and would like to go ahead and
be saved, here's the offer. This is the offer that's being
made today. The gospel is not an offer. I'm
not offering you anything. This is not an offer in the sense
in which you have the ability to accept it or reject it at
your discretion. You say, can you make good on
that? Hang on one second. The next verse. As many as received
Him. Now some do. Some do accept,
believe, trust. Some do take Him to heart. But
as many as received Him. Received Him as God's Son, the
Messiah, the Redeemer. Receive him to them. Gave he
power to become the sons of God now another thing and I'll make
good on this Lord willing. Another thing that I want to
make sure we understand is this. This scripture is not setting
forth that if you decide. By your free will to accept him. that God will then give you the
power to become the sons of God. No, that's the cart before the
horse. This is the way it is, and this is what I'll, by God's
grace, make good on in closing. If Almighty God has given you
power to receive Him, it's evident because you do believe Him. If
God Almighty grants unto you in saving power, grace, and mercy. His power is extended first. Then you believe. Nobody believes
and is then called out of darkness. God calls men, women out of darkness
first. Then you believe. As many as
received Him, as many as received by faith, they evidenced the
fact that God in power called them out of spiritual darkness.
They've used the analogy of a baby. It would be just as ridiculous
to say, if I can get that baby to cry, If I can get that baby
to cry out to its mama, that baby will then be alive. Let me share something with you.
Life's got to be there first. That baby can't cry. You see, we make it out to be
that faith is something, a reaction toward God is something that
we do first. And then God gives us life. My friend, if there's not spiritual
life there, there's no cry. There's no belief. There's no
trust. There's no nothing. Why? Because
we're dead in trespasses and sins. Dead. Dead. Speak to a dead man in a casket
and tell him, why don't you cry out? And then you'll become alive. Life's going to have to be there.
Do you understand what I'm saying? Sure you do. Yeah, you know that.
You know that. That's just as real in the natural
realm and it's real in the spiritual realm. We just don't believe
it by nature. God has got to give men life. First, salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is not of man. You say, can you make good on
that? OK, here I go. I've said that a few times. As
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which, look at verse
13, were born, which were born, which were regenerated, which
were made alive spiritually, which were the ones that had
life imparted to them, which were born, not of blood. Now, this is what it means. It
means not of the blood of heredity, just because if God calls me
out of darkness, that does not mean that he's necessarily going
to call my kids out of darkness. Or my grandkids. That doesn't
mean that. It's not of blood. Salvation
does not run in the bloodline. Well, I had a son and I'm a preacher,
so that means he's going to be converted and he's going to be
a preacher. God may call him. God may save him, but it doesn't
mean just because he saved me that he's going to save him.
It's not of blood, not by the blood of bulls and goats, not
by the blood of circumcision. It's not by blood, nor of the
will of the flesh. Do you know what that means?
Everybody's talking about man has a free will. nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of the flesh." Now, somebody's not telling the
truth. It's either God's not telling
the truth and God can't lie, or man's not telling the truth,
and man's a liar. Let God be true and every man
a liar, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, not according to man's free will." That man's will is
corrupt, and it's enmity against God. It's impotent to do anything,
not of the will of the flesh. So when somebody says, well,
you know, everybody's got a free will, say, would you show me
that in Scriptures? Would you show me where man has
a free will? I hear it, but show me in the
scriptures where man has a free will because God says he doesn't. Which were born, not of blood.
Nor the will of the flesh or the will of man. Now let me tell
you what that means. You say, well, I thought that
was the same thing as the will of the flesh. No. Will of the flesh is talking
about me personally having my own ability, nor of the will
of man means this. Though I would desire. I would
pray that God would call all of my family, my friends, my
neighbors, the thought of someone leaving this world without a
substitute, without a Savior. The little bit that I know, I
can't enter into the depth of what the Scripture when The Lord
says there's going to be many in that day that's going to stand
before him and say, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name. We
cast out devils in your name. We've done many wonderful works
in your name. And he'll say, I never knew you. Depart from
me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. And he said
there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. I can't
enter into the depth of that, Mitch, but I'm going to tell
you something. I know just enough to know this. I would desire
I would desire that those that I know, that my... I got brothers and sisters. I
don't want to see them perish. I don't. I don't. I got kids
and I got grandkids. I don't want to see them perish.
I don't. I don't. But I can tell you this. I can
pray for them. I can ask the Lord to show mercy to them. I
can ask Him to If it be your will, I'm like the leper that
came to the Lord, and he said, Lord, if you will, you can make
me whole. I know that Almighty God can help me. I know just a little bit. I know
a little bit about having a little bit of sickness, just a little. But I can tell you this, I know
something about that Scripture right there. How many times have
I prayed that, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole? But how
about spiritually? Lord, if you will, you'd save
my brother. I got a brother that doesn't
know God. I love him. I love him. I don't want to see him perish.
But I can tell you this. I can encourage and I can pray,
but I know this. They're not born of blood, they're
not born of the will of the flesh, and they're not born of the will
of man, but of God. There's one, there's one, there's
one that I can appeal to. If it was according to the will
of the flesh, if it was all left to the flesh, free will of man,
then why pray to the Lord? Why don't I just appeal to the
one that's got the free will? That's the ones I need to be
talking to. The Lord, they say, the Lord They say He is wanting
to save them. Well, why talk to Him? He's already
wanting to save them. Why don't I go to that one? Why
don't I go to the one that won't come? But that's not the way
men are born. They're born of God. Sovereign,
saving grace. God the Father who chose a people
in electing grace. The Son who redeemed His own
in redeeming grace. And the Spirit of God who quickens
His own in electing power and grace. May God have mercy on our souls. I pray the Lord calls somebody
out of darkness today. I pray He does. I know this. The power of God unto salvation
is the gospel. The declaration of what God Almighty
has done according to His honor and His glory and His purpose
and His grace I pray that God show mercy today for Christ's
sake. Amen.