It's remarkable, isn't it, to
ponder that ever since Adam left the garden and bore children,
you are here as a remarkable product of a birth, and another
birth, and another birth, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
births for thousands of years. What miracles. What a miracle
it is in the midst of so much death for us to be here. On Anzac Day, my dad was only
here because my father was here during the war and one of the
things that he and one of his friends were doing, they were
flying airplanes off the point perpendicular out here. They
were experimenting or they were being trained or training themselves
to see how close to the waves they could get. My father got
too close to a wave and hit a wave and down went the plane and him. And the only reason my father
survived is that there was a fishing boat that happened to see them
doing this stuff and he rushed over to where my father was and
plucked him out of the water. And another fisherman about 20
years ago was fishing in that area and they found the propeller.
It was in a museum out at Albatross. My point simply is that you are
here because of the minute, microscopic, extraordinary activities of God
to preserve you when millions of others weren't, were you?
I like what Spurgeon said, the hinges of history are microscopic. God not only looks after the
big things, he looks after the little things. and all for the
purpose that he would get great praise and glory for his name. What an amazing sovereign God
we have. He does as he will, doesn't he? He does all things according
to the pleasure of his own will and none can stay his hand. That's
why this is such a glorious book of scripture, isn't it? Because
we have before us, as we have in the rest of scripture, we
have before us just this amazing picture of our glorious, glorious
God. And it is! In the beginning was
the Word, and so our God had a beginning before the beginning.
Our Saviour 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 the life
was the light of men. And the light shineth in the
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent
from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness,
to bear witness of the light that all men through him might
believe. He was not the light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 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. that shines from our Lord Jesus
and is reflected back to Him through Your Word might illuminate
us again, Heavenly Father, this morning that we might see with
eyes that You alone can give and hear with ears that You alone
can give. and receive with hearts that
you alone can give, Heavenly Father, that your dear and precious
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, would be seen as glorious, would be
received and believed on. and that we might, Heavenly Father,
simply rest, simply all of our eternity of our souls before
you on the perfect and finished work of your dear and precious
Son. Bless your word, Heavenly Father, and bless the preaching
of it to your people, for we pray in Jesus' name and for his
glory. Amen. I wanted to have a look with
you this morning briefly about what it is to be born of God. That's a glorious word, isn't
it? To be born of. Little words,
like little hinges, are big words in the scriptures. There are
no little words in the scriptures. They're all big words. The word
of, we skip over the word of. Do you know what the word of
means? It means out of. It means from. It refers mostly
to origin, where it's come from. So it's out of, or from, or by,
or the point from which action and motion proceed. Born of God. Our creation is here to show
us pictures of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and his great
glory in the salvation of his people by substitution, by redemption,
by satisfaction, by his perfect obedience unto death, by his
bearing the sins of his own, by the glorious union of him
with his people. And so, as we are here, our very
being here is evidence of the absolute sovereignty of God in
preserving us when multitudes aren't, and gathering us when
multitudes won't gather. We are here. because of the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name is more than just words,
isn't it? There are services all over the
world today and all over this land in special ways where they're
talking much about Christ and something about God, a lot about
God, something about Christ and talking about Jesus. But the
name, we believe on His name. The name is who He is. It's what
He is. It's what He does. And it's why
He did it. And it's where He is now. So as we saw last week, to receive
Christ is to rest. God's Word. I love that story
of the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew chapter 15 when she had
came to the Lord Jesus Christ with a demon-possessed daughter
and he called her a dog and he says I wasn't sent I'm only sent
for the lost children of the tribe of Israel and that woman That woman just says, truth,
Lord. When the Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed
himself to her, she just said truth, Lord. As they couldn't
receive him. spent their lives in enmity,
contriving ways to undo his words and to trap him in his words.
But the child of God just says, truth, Lord. To receive him is
to rest on God's word. To receive him is, in a sense,
to have all my eggs in one basket. To rely on him, to believe on
him, is to rely on him. I am resting the entirety of
my salvation upon the Lord Jesus Christ, as proclaimed in this
book that is before us, in His words, in His word. And to be assured, to receive
Him is to be assured that all I need will be found in Him,
that He is able, He's able to do what He has promised. To receive
Him is to receive Him willingly, not to be coerced into some reception
by men, not to have your arm twisted in some emotional meeting
so that you can put your hand up and go forward and pray a
sinner's prayer or kneel at some bench. Thy people shall be willing,
my people shall be willing in the day of my power. To receive
Him is to receive Him freely. Nothing adding to his finished
work. The warrant for coming is he says, come. He says, come
unto me. Look unto me. All the fitness
he requireth is to feel your need of him. It's a new birth,
a new creation, a new man. It has a new hope. It's a new
life. So I wanted to have a look at
birth and as I've spent these last few days looking at it I
was amazed how many aspects of birth, our particular birth,
our earthly birth, are remarkable reflections of what it is to
be born again. The reason we have human birth
is that we will know something of spiritual birth. Spiritual
things always precede and are above earthly things. So I wanted
to go through this list and I'll be doing it very briefly but
I just wanted us to trust that the Lord might cause us to see
heavenly things in this and some of it is just so extraordinary
isn't it? So your birth indicates Life,
doesn't it? A birth indicates life implanted
from other life. It's only life that begets life. Christ is the life, and He begets
life. And as we saw in 1 John and other
places, He begets life that's like Himself. It's a new man,
it's a new creation. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. A new creation. All things have passed away.
A birth requires a father and a mother. It's a glorious verse
in Galatians chapter three. What's the mother? What's the
mother of all believers? The Jerusalem above is the mother
of us all. The Jerusalem above. is the mother
of us all. So birth from above, to be born
of God requires a heavenly father and in a sense a heavenly mother.
A birth requires a seed to be planted
and to germinate as it were and to grow. The word of God The
Word of God is that seed, isn't it, that's sown by the Lord. That Word of God is the Word
which by the Gospel is preached unto you. It's a Word that comes
from God. It's a Word that has life. He
says, My Word's a spirit and no life. He gives them spiritual
force. He gives them that power to become,
that power to exist as, that power to be born again as the
children of God. See, it's Christ in you. See,
Paul's agony of the Galatians when they had heard the gospel
and responded positively to the gospel, and then some person
that comes along and speaks much of Christ and speaks much of
good doctrine and sound doctrine, they moved into Paul's pulpit
after he'd left. And all they said was, you have
to do something. I'll show you how. a life that's
honoring to God. Here are some things to do. Here's a little bit of circumcision
and a little bit of law-keeping. And all of these things will
be the way in which you express your appreciation for God, for
what He's done. They weren't denying Christ,
were they? They were saying that you can
do something. You can do something that is meritorious in the presence
of God by your own activities and your own volition. And Paul
was agonizing over them. And he's agonizing over them
like a mother, he says, I'm in agony over you until I see that
Christ is formed in you. He says to them, you've lost
the freedom, you've lost the joy. There's an article in our
bulletin, the gospel is good news, it's glad tidings. It's not a recommendation of
what you must do, it's a commendation and a declaration of what God
has already done. It's not doing, it's done is
the gospel. There's a seed planted. That
seed is to be planted and nurtured. See, birth is the revelation
and the manifestation of an existence that was very real before it
came into being, didn't it? No one knows the time of conception
with any accuracy, I don't believe. But there's a life there, isn't
there? There's a real creation there. The only possible way
we can establish when life began and a human being began in its
mother's womb is at the time of conception. So any abortion,
any abortion is always, always to be aboard the concept, the
concept should horrify us. There's a real existence, isn't
there? We existed, we really did exist in God's purposes and
And mind, we had a reality in that union with the Lord Jesus
Christ before the foundation of the world. All the spiritual
blessings we receive now are blessings that we received in
Christ before the foundation of the world. Just read Ephesians
chapter one. John wants us to go back, that's
why he begins his gospel, doesn't he? In the beginning, he wants
us to go back to the beginning. He wants us to go back beyond
the beginning. Because such is the glory of
our salvation that it has, in a sense, no beginning. It began
with God, and it was manifested. See, when people are born again,
when there is this new birth, when there is this light that
shines from heaven, when there is this salvation that's revealed,
it's revealing something that God did a long time ago. We were
saved, weren't we? We were saved. We read it often,
but we ought to read it just again. Turn with me to 2 Timothy
chapter one. Verse 9, be thou a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God. If God's power's
at work in you, you'll suffer afflictions because of the gospel.
Who hath saved us, hath saved us, completed perfect act, and
called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace. And this is birth,
isn't it? why this is such a beautiful picture of salvation. But not
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. And this is what birth's about,
isn't it? But is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Saviour abolished death and hath brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel. That's what
being born again is, isn't it? It's to have that manifest, that
life and immortality brought to life. Brought to life. So birth indicates life and requires
a mother and father. It's the implanting of a seed.
It's the revelation and manifestation of an existence, a real existence,
an unseen existence to this world. So what does the elect of God
look like in this world? We have no idea. We have no idea. We have the glorious gospel of
the sovereign grace of God to proclaim. And we know, we know
that in God's time, every single one of God's children will hear
and they'll be born again. And when the very last of them
is born again in this world by the preaching of the gospel,
this world has no reason to be any longer. And God must wrap
it all up. It's a revelation. It's a manifestation
of an existence. The birth is a coming from darkness
into light. I have no idea what babies see
in the womb. I don't know that they see very
clearly when they come out. But the reality is the new birth
is a transfer, isn't it? Paul says in Colossians it's
a transfer out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of light. It's the light. He who is the light has a kingdom. He's delivered us from the power
of darkness, has translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son. So a birth is coming from darkness
into light. See, a birth is coming to new
realities, isn't it? is to see things with new eyes. You might recall what it was
like when the Lord first opened your eyes to see the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything and everyone in this
world was new. Everything and everyone in this
world was new. It sparkled in a way that I'd
never seen it sparkle before. It had a meaning which I had
never seen before. It's coming to new realities.
It's a process that involves travail, wasn't it? Paul was
in travail until Christ is formed in you, he said to those Galatians
who'd gone back to a little bit of law-keeping alongside all
of their sound doctrine. It's a travail, we read of that
in John 16. It requires the exertion of power. It's a painful process that requires
the exertion of power, power from on high. Birthing is a process
which involves both blood and water. And out of the side of
the Lord Jesus Christ, when that Roman soldier thrust his spear
into him, out flowed that water, didn't it? The water of washing,
of regeneration, the blood of the cleansing, of the washing
away of all the sins of God's people. Gone they are forever. The birth brings joy to the mother,
joy to the parents, and in that joy, all the travail has dissipated. It's often just forgotten because
there's a child that's born into the world, as the Lord Jesus
said. See, a birth brings a new relationship and a new name. A husband and wife became a mother
and father. They become a family. The birthing
creates a family. It creates new responsibilities,
new relationships. It creates the most extraordinary
bond of love. What love there is between a
mother and a baby at birth. It's an extraordinary bond, isn't
it? And when that love is reciprocated
by smiles and all sorts of other things, it is a mutual love,
isn't it? We love him, he says. We love him because he first
loved us. Love. is one of the glorious
marks, isn't it, of being in the family of God. We love Him
who does the begetting, and we love Him, we love those that
He begets. We never love them as we ought
to love them. Now love is so pathetic that it doesn't ever
require us to say very much about it, but we have a promise from
God that we love Him. He makes the promise and what
he promises to do he fulfils in the lives of these people. A birth, in a new birth, creates
new desires. When a baby is born, it has a
whole new existence, doesn't it? A whole new existence no
longer in darkness, a whole new existence no longer in captivity,
a whole new existence in light, a whole new existence in relationship. But a whole new existence is
sustained by something else, isn't it, altogether? It was
fed in its mother's womb through the umbilical cord. When it comes
out, it has a desire for one thing. And it has one food, doesn't
it? It just has one food. It just has its mother's milk. As newborn babies, says Peter,
desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. You don't have to create the
desire in the baby. The desire is innate in the baby,
isn't it? The desire is innate in the child
of God. These are the green pastures,
aren't they? What's the essence? Remarkable
thing, isn't it? Out of the essence of green pasture
comes milk. It's the milk of the Word, isn't
it? God's newborn children have a new relationship with this
book and all of a sudden it becomes life, it becomes sustenance to
our souls. When we're in anguish, when we
are crying out like a baby, I trust it's your case that the number
of times I have gone to the word of God in despair and distress
and there's been a word there that was just as if God plucked
it out and said this is particularly for you at this particular time
when you pass through the waters I'll be with you. But when he's
with us he's with us by his word. He's with us by his word. So
that we can go back to it again and again and again and drink
and be nourished by it again and again and again. It's precious
to us. See, birth, obviously, is something
that happens to us. It's not something that we do.
We don't initiate it. In fact, the baby is very happy
where it is. The baby is actually expelled
by its mother because the mother can't cope with it any longer,
basically. It's not the baby knocking on the door to get out.
It's the mother saying, you must go. Isn't it? And so we're passive
in that birth as much as there's an extraordinary activity. The
birthing of God and his children into this world is an activity
that God is absolutely sovereign over in every tiny little activity. So it's not of your initiation. But in some way, you just find
yourself living. That's how God's children find
themselves. They just find themselves believing. And it's not a decision. It's not a decision. It's a new
life that creates new desires. The birth creates a belonging. It creates new relationships
and new responsibilities. And it creates a new access,
doesn't it? We have access to God. We come
to the throne of grace that we might find help in our time of
need. We might find mercy from God. we might find that we can just
come to a father and rest in his arms and come to a mother
and find nourishment and nurture and protection. You know what
it's like for little children, isn't it? It doesn't matter what
the danger out there is. It doesn't matter how big it
is and how scary it is. There's just one place, isn't
there? If it's in its dad's arms, it's safe. Let the world do what
it will. So it is with the child of God.
So it is with the child of God. We have access to God. What an
extraordinary privilege that God has given us as children
of God. We go to him as a father. I've
often told that story about us being in Hebron, but it's so
beautiful in its picture is that, you know, we lived in on a hallway
with 120 girls and about 40 staff and everyone walked past out
and we were across the hall from the dining hall, which is about
three or four times the size of this and as noisy as this
place is with lots of kids and other things. And on our door,
everyone knocked on our door all day long, whether it was
people cleaning, people delivering things, students asking for things,
the dorm girls upstairs, there were 25 of them upstairs, and
our living room was their living room, and our kitchen was their
kitchen, and often our bathroom was their bathroom. And so they
were continually knocking on our door for all sorts of things.
Then we had Kate's friends, and Jennifer's friends, and Hume's
friends, and teachers, and all sorts of others. So all the time
you're in there, and there was knocking on the door, knocking
on the door. Three people didn't knock on that door. They just
walked straight in, didn't they? Why? They were my family. When the door opened like that,
I knew it had to be one of the three of them. They had access,
didn't they? We have, as children of God,
we've got access into very courts of heaven all the time. New birth. New birth. Born of God. New birth. And birth reveals
a parent's characteristics. It's one of the most humbling
things about being a parent, is that your children reveal
who you are, and a lot of the time it's not very pretty. But
your children reveal you, don't they? They reflect you. And the
children of God reflect our Heavenly Father. We're made like unto
Him. The children born are dependent. Except you be born again, says
the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you cannot. cannot enter the kingdom except
you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as a little child. Children are
dependent. Children are trusting. Religion
encourages people in their independence because children have no confidence
in the flesh. And those that are led of the
spirit are not under law. A newborn baby has one source
of food. It has one type of food. It has
a new way of taking in that food. It has a new way of breathing
in this world. It has new eyes to see. The new birth. Nicodemus comes to the Lord Jesus
Christ at night and he says, Yes, that means teacher. I need
to be taught some more. I see that you're a great teacher.
I'm here as a learner. You're a teacher. Thomas doubted
the Lord Jesus Christ and doubted that resurrection
despite all the evidence he could have wished to have before you.
And what does Thomas say when he meets him? He says, my Lord
and my God. Born of God. Born of God. It's believing on
Him. It's receiving Him as the gift
of God. It is the activity of the power
of God. It's a food, the food that nourishes
the heaven-born child is that which gives glory, the greatest
glory to our God. God's word of promise. God's word made flesh. God's word crucified and risen
and reigning glorious. He nourishes his children. He
carries them. I love that verse in Isaiah 40
verse 11. He takes his little ones in his
arms. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm, that means the arm of his power and his authority and
his rule, and carry them in his bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with him. He shall gather. He shall carry
them. He leads his people gently. What a glorious, glorious privilege. What a glorious birth. What a glorious brother we have
in this family of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we do thank you again for the way you lead and guide and
teach your people. Oh, our Father, we pray that
your words to us will be spirit and life, that you would cause
us to both eat of the flesh of the
Lord Jesus Christ and to drink His blood, to have Him not just
living in us, Heavenly Father, but to have His life as our life
and the nourishment of our souls. Oh, our Father, we too pray that
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified would be all our life
in this world, that you would continually, Heavenly Father,
nourish and nurture those who are yours. Bless us, Heavenly
Father, and cause the blood of your Son to be precious to us,
and cause those words of promise that you've written in your Scriptures
that reflect the Word made flesh. May that, Heavenly Father, be
the desire of our souls and the nourishment of us, Heavenly Father,
while we walk through this world carried by you in your arms. Bless us, Heavenly Father, for
Jesus' sake. Amen.