John chapter 1, we'll be looking
at two verses in this chapter, and by the Lord's grace, we could
stay pretty close here. The title of the message is simply,
Receiving Christ. Receiving Christ. Let's look
at verse 11 as well. 11 through 13. The Scripture
says, "...and he came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he the power," now that word means right or privilege,
"...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." Now, here in
this text, we have two distinct groups of people. two distinct
groups of people mentioned in our text. Those who received
not the Lord Jesus Christ and those who did. Now in these two
groups truly is summed up all men. All men. In this very congregation, there
are some of you who receive Christ, and there are some of you who
have not. So we are all in this text. We are all mentioned here. Just as in the great day of judgment,
the Lord will divide all men into two distinct groups. He will take his sheep and put
them on his right hand, and the goats he will put on his left.
The sheep he will say, come you blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you. from before the foundation of
the world. And to the goats he will cast them out into outer
darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
And what makes the distinction? What is the distinction between
the two? The difference is, one received
Christ and one didn't. One believed Christ and the other
did not. So then the question is, which
are you? Scripture is very applicable
to every generation, especially this one. Which one are you? Which one will you be standing
before God when He judges all men? Will you be either the goat
or the sheep? Will you be the one who has believed,
or will you be the one who has not? That is, only as many as
received Him did God give the right to become the sons of God. But all who receive Him not,
who believe not on Him, these have no right to be called the
sons of God. That's a common theme in false
religion. Everybody's a child of God. It's
not a common theme in Scripture. It's not something mentioned
in Scripture. Not everyone is a child of God. Not everyone
is a son of God. Everyone's created of God, but
not all men are sons of God. Who then has the right to be
called the sons of God? The Scripture is clear. As many
as received Him. As many as received Christ to
them, they have the right to be called the sons of God. This morning, my heart's desire
is to present the gospel of Christ to you. By this gospel, I simply determined
to display Christ and set Him before you. This is my purpose. I will not and cannot make anyone
receive Christ. That is a foolish and vain effort
of men. I don't do that. Preachers don't
do that. All we do is like Paul. He said, I have evidently set
Christ before you. This is what we're here to do.
Display I am to put on display the glory and the person and
the work of Jesus Christ. That's it. It's my heart's desire
to do that. I seek to show you His person,
who He is, His work, and what He's done, that you might receive
Him in hope. I pray. I hope. Matter of fact, I have confidence
that everyone of God's sons will receive him. Remember what Paul
said? He said, you believe because
you are sons. You are the sons of God. It's my hope and prayer that
he will make this effectual that you might receive. That's why
this whole book of John was written in it. He said, I wrote these
things that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. And behold then the importance
of receiving Christ, that failure and neglect to receive Christ,
to reject Christ and His gospel, is to reject God Himself. to not receive Christ is to take
your fist and shove it into the face of God and say, I will not
have this man to rule over me. That's what you're saying. Now
you may say it outwardly kindly. No thank you. But inwardly, you
are in defiance against God. Make no mistake, you're in rebellion. You're spitting in the face of
God, and you are mocking His only sacrifice for sin, when
you reject the Son of God. He that receiveth the Son, Jesus
said, receiveth the Father. Today, if you will not receive
Christ, you will go on in your rebellion against God. You are
in rebellion against the commandment of God to the peril of your own
soul. Today you hear the Word of God. Listen, this is not a request. Receiving Christ... God's not
begging you to receive Christ. He's demanding you receive Christ.
He's not asking. God commandeth everyone everywhere
to what? Repent. Repentance and faith
go together. You're going to turn from something,
you're going to turn to something, aren't you? If you're repenting
from one thing, you're turning to another. You must repent from
your sin, your works, your religion, your family, your friends, everything,
and turn in faith to Christ. That is to receive Christ. Absolute,
complete surrender to Christ is what God demands of you. He is the only hope for salvation,
is by this man Jesus Christ. And if you die in your rebellion,
you have no one to blame but you. But as we shall see, all who
receive Christ, they love the Father. and are made the sons
of God, and all who are sons of God do not boast in themselves,
but rather in their God. In their God, seeing that God
is the author and finisher of their salvation. He is the cause
of their salvation, therefore we praise Him. Now, I have four
questions. Four questions this morning concerning
receiving Christ. First of all, since it's important,
since God commands you to receive Christ, that you should receive
Christ. If you do not receive Christ, it is at the peril of
your own soul. So then we must ask, what is
it to receive Christ? It's an important question. What
does it mean to receive Christ? second of all what are the marks
of one who received how do i know if i've received christ since
it's so important i want to know and so there are marks there
are evidences of one who has received christ thirdly i want
us to see then the cause of our receiving christ what is the
cause And fourthly, the benefit. What is the benefit of receiving
Christ? Okay, so first of all, what is
it to receive Christ? What is it to receive Christ?
Well, look at your text. God doesn't leave us to... I'm
so thankful we're ignorant. So God doesn't leave us to question
anything. He gives us the answer even in
our text. Look at this. It says, "...but
as many as received Him, to them gave He the power, the right
to become the sons of God." Listen, What is it to receive it? Even
to them that believe on His name. So what is it to receive Christ?
It is to believe on His name. Name. To receive Christ is nothing
less than faith in Christ. Now the phrase His name refers
to His person. His person. When you think of
a name, what do you think of when someone mentions a name?
You begin to think of his character, don't you? You think, if I were
to mention a wicked man, people say Hitler. You think of their
character. You think of the evil character
of that man. When you think of a good man,
when I say Christ, when I say our Lord Jesus, what do you start
to think of? His character. His person. His person. So to receive Christ is to believe
on His person. His person. This is what the Apostle has
first set forth in the beginning. The person of Christ. Isn't that
what verse 1 down through our text has been declaring? He is
declaring, first of all, that Jesus Christ is God. In order
to receive Him, you must know Him. How can you believe on somebody
that you don't know? And so what the Apostle begins
to do is saying, look, I am displaying His person before you. This man,
Jesus Christ, is none other than God manifest in the flesh. I've told you this story before
because it's worth repeating. I like it. You had two brothers,
one was a Baptist pastor and another was a Unitarian, they
didn't believe in the deity of Christ. And so he became sick,
the Unitarian became sick, and he asked his brother to preach
for him. And he said, but you can't, you being a Trinitarian,
I don't want you to preach anything controversial. And so the man
took his text from Timothy, without controversy. Great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. This is the first thing that
you should understand about the person of Christ. He is no mere
mortal alone. He is God manifest in the flesh. John says, 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 life, and the life was the light of man. I'm here to declare that Jesus is
the eternal Son of the Living God. You see, this One we worship,
we serve, we receive. He has made all things. He is
the Almighty, the Sovereign, Omnipotent God who controls.
Do you not realize that this morning your very breath is in
His hands, that you breathe in and out at His command? This
is the One I'm talking about. I'm not talking about somebody
that just lived 2,000 years ago. I'm talking about somebody that
has lived beyond eternity, from eternity. He has existed as God. creating all things, sustaining
all things by the Word of His power. He made it. This One whom we are to receive
is God, Creator. But not only this, He is God
incarnate. He is God in the flesh. Look at verse 14. And the Word
was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Dwelt among us. He became flesh. You see, this was necessary. In order for God to save His
people, He Himself must have become man. You see, man rebelled
against his maker, and Adam The father and representative of
all his race defied God's commandment, swift justice fell on our father,
and he died. He died. Wherefore, as by one
man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men, for all have sinned." Do you realize the condition
that we are all brought into this world is death? We are born
dead in sins as a result of a representative man, Adam. Therefore man, like the fallen
angels before him, fell into sin, and immediate justice fell.
He died. And man, who was created of God,
instead of running to God, ran from God. But see the grace of God. See
the grace of God as He came to man. Do you realize He never
went to the fallen angels like this? He went to man. He came
down to Adam, knowing what Adam had done, and yet called him
in gentleness, in kindness, Adam, where art thou? And Adam running
and hiding, he was found out of God. God came and sought his
lost creature, God. He came and found Adam in his
rebellion. He found him naked and fearful. He was confronted of God. And
you know what he did? He still tried to justify himself. He said, the woman, it's a woman's
fault. And the woman said, it's a serpent's
fault. And so it is still among us all,
we are all sons of Adam, still trying to cover our sins. This
morning, I know this by nature, if you are lost, you are trying
to cover your sins. You're trying to put on a good
show for everyone else. My, that's our nature. Our nature
is try to cover our sins. To use the fig leaves of our
works and our religion, the fig leaves of our blood relation, trying to cover ourselves before
God. But when God visits you, like
Adam, you'll have no place to hide. It's my hope and prayer
that God visit every one of us in such a way we have no place
to hide. Nowhere to run. He sees through our pretend religion. He sees down to the very core
of our souls. He knows our sin. He sees it. That which we've done in the
darkness is as though it were done in the open. See, God is holy and just, and
this is the just reward of sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. But I'm here to tell you of some
hope. Some hope. I'm here to tell you that God
came down, and as He presented the Gospel to Adam, He gave Adam
a hope. of someone else, another representative. He said, the seed of the woman
shall crush the head of the serpent. This seed of the woman is Christ. This seed of the woman is Him
who came down from heaven, who is God. God came down and was
manifest in the flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Why should God be made flesh? Why? In order to receive Christ, first
of all, you must see His person. You must see that He is the only
God-man mediator. In John chapter 8 and verse 24,
you listen to this, pay attention. Jesus said, if you believe not
that I am, you shall die in your sins. There are many Christ's being
preached in this nation today. Any Christ who is not God and
man is not God, is not Christ, is a false Christ. Jesus said
there will be many Christ's. There are many Christ's. John
said there are many anti-Christ's. already in this world. This is
the first thing. In order to receive Christ, you
must know who He is. He is God and He is man. He condescended to take upon
Himself our nature, but why? Why would God do such a thing?
This is why. That God might be just and justify
the ungodly. that God might be just and justify
the sinner. In order to do this, there must
be a substitute. A substitute. You see, as Adam
was a representative man, even so Christ is a representative
man. God gave Adam all of the human
race, in which when he died, all of the race died with him.
So Christ, before Adam, was given a people. A people that He should
die for. A people that He should save
and represent. And so Christ came into the world
for those people. You see, our absolute ruin. We
were absolutely ruined in the fall, that we were born dead.
By nature, we could not restore ourselves to God. Now, if God
had left Adam in the garden and left him alone for a million
years, could Adam ever restore himself? Never. And neither can we. So then,
for God, in order for God to show mercy, He sent His Son to
be a representative. This morning, some of you, if
you are lost, I know this, you are groping in the dark as to
how to please God. You're scrambling. You don't
know anything about what it is to please God. People try religion. They try
pleasures and things to fulfill that void inside of their souls. And we know this to be vanity. And yet, why do men still refuse
Christ? Why do men still refuse? Because
they are dead. They're dead and they cannot
receive Christ. But look down and see what the
Son of God manifest in the flesh, what He came to do. He came to
do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Now this is summed up in His
title, Christ. Christ. I remember when I was
a little kid, I always thought that was His last name. Jesus
Christ. That's His title. That's who
He is. He is the anointed of God. He was sent of God to perform
a work. And what work was that? That
work was to provide righteousness and redemption for His people. This is what He came to do. You see, God would not and could
not accept our sacrifices, even because all we could offer is
mixed with sin. All the blood of bulls and goats
could never remove sin. Therefore Jesus, God manifest
in the flesh, came to do the perfect will of God. Go over
to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Look at this
in verse 5. Wherefore, when he, God manifest
in the flesh, came into the world, saith, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure, Then
said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of
me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice
and offering, and burnt offering, and offering for sin thou wouldest
not, neither had pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Christ once for all." You
see, God the Son came into the world to obey the law of God
that we could not. The Scripture says He shall magnify
the law and make it honorable. You see, our Lord was tried of
Satan, of men, and what did they say of Him?
I find no fault in this man. Pilate said that. Satan must
have fled because he could find. Jesus said, the prince of this
world hath found nothing in me. You see, he's obtained something.
Righteousness by his own hands. He has merited the righteousness
of God for his people. And not only so, but God determined
that he should be made a offering for sin. an offering for sin. It was not sufficient enough
for Christ just to merit our righteousness and then return
to glory, but He must also offer Himself. This is why He had to
be made a man, because blood was required. God could not offer
blood, only a man could. Therefore, God in the flesh came
to offer Himself a sacrifice for sin. The Lord Jesus Christ
was made a man so that he should die. He said, when Peter tried
to stop those men, he said, look this is why I came in this world.
I came for this hour. And in that hour, God imputed
our sins to Christ. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we should be made the righteousness of
God in Him. You see, the whole Gospel is
substitution. Substitution. Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered
and died in our stead. It says in Romans chapter 8,
"...there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made
us free from the law of sin and death." Here's why, "...for what
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin..." Listen, condemn sin in the flesh. You see, To believe
on the name of the Son of God is to believe in His person,
the God-man. To believe in His work, to believe
that He came and He provided a righteousness for the people
of God, that He offered Himself a sacrifice for sin, and God
was satisfied with that offering. God was completely satisfied
so that He raised Him from the dead. Now, to receive Christ is to
believe that with all your heart, with all your soul, that if I
am ever to find salvation, it is only in this man. That's it. All my hope and soul
rests on His person and His work, on His promises, on His word. God said, I'm satisfied. How
do I know? God told me in the book. Here
it is. He shall see of the travail of his soul and what? Be satisfied. Well, see to receive Christ is
to believe God's Word. I believe God is satisfied with
him. I believe God's satisfied. Have you received him? Have you
received him? Have you believed on him? You
say, well, I believe on the Son of God. But I'm plagued with
doubt. Do I really believe on the Son
of God? There's some pretenders, aren't
there? Scripture speaks of many people who pretend to believe,
who are deceived, aren't they? Judas went along for the three
years and he ended up being apostate. Scripture speaks of apostasy,
doesn't it? Men who seemingly have some marks of being a believer,
but you know, they go away. You know, I really want to know,
have I received Christ? Only those who receive Christ
have the privilege of being called the sons of God. I want to know,
do you? In this world of Easy believism,
people come up, make a decision, turn around, go away, and they
say, oh yeah, like it's something you check off. Like, oh yeah,
I've done that. No. Remember, I told you faith
is always in the present tense. Because I don't care what you
believed five minutes ago, do you believe now? Do you receive
Christ now? Do you trust in Christ now? And if you do, there are marks
that you are a true believer. So what are these marks? Here
it is. First of all, you confess that you're a sinner. To receive Christ, you must confess
you're a sinner. If you're not a sinner, you don't
need Christ. And I don't mean a sinner as in you've done bad
things. I mean a sinner in that sin is
what you are, not so much as what you do. You are a sinner. A man who receives Christ, he
first comes to understand this, his need of Christ. Do you understand
your ruined nature? Do you understand your depravity? Do you understand that you could
never in a billion years come or receive Christ of your own
will? Do you know that you and all you do is sin? Wicked, vile, corrupt. Everything you do is mixed with
sin. Therefore, you could never by religious deeds or sacrifices
come to God. Because everything you touch
is defiled. You're like that leper. Everything
a leper touched became unclean. That's with us. If you're a sinner,
you recognize this. This is what God tells us before
we ever receive Christ. This is something that reveals
our need of Him. Do you know your need? You see,
I don't need help. I need somebody to do it for
me. I don't need assistance. I need
Christ to do it all because I am a sinner. That's the first mark
of one who receives Christ. He knows his need. The second
mark is this. He believes Christ completely. I rest my soul on his perfect offering for my
sin. If I'm ever going to be received
of God, I must have his blood to wash me. I must have his righteousness
to clothe me. That's what it is to receive
Christ. Faith is the evidence of our salvation. If you're receiving
Christ, faith is the evidence of it. Do you believe in Christ?
And I'm not saying once believed in Christ. Do you always believe
on Christ? Continually, perpetually believe
on Christ? The third thing is, someone who
received Christ, he loves Christ. He loves Christ. Why? Because
Christ is my Savior. Christ is my God. Christ is my
King. Christ is my Brother. I love
Christ. I love His Gospel. It is my heart's
desire that this Word be preached to me constantly. I need it daily. I need His Word more than I need
breath. I need to be reminded again of
my sin and His holiness. I need to be reminded again of
His sacrifice and His offering and His love. His gospel means
everything to me. Does His gospel mean that to
you? Do you love Him? I know you love Him. You don't
love Him like you want to. You'll never get there until
you get to glory. But you do love him now what Peter said
he Lord said do you love me? He said or do you know I love
you Do you love him Next mark is this he those that
love Christ love the brethren John says, don't tell me you
love God you hadn't seen if you hadn't loved a brethren you see.
You're a liar. John's pretty open about that,
isn't he? He makes no bones about it. You're a liar! Now tell me
somebody that don't like to assemble with God's people and tell me
they love Christ. You'll find a liar. You'll find
a liar. Someone who hadn't received Christ.
You receive Christ, I know this, you'll love the brethren. John
says this, if you love him, if you believe on him that is, if
you love him that begot you, you'll love those that are begotten.
There's 1 John 1, 1 John 5, 1 through 3. Do you love the brethren? Now listen, if you're a sinner,
and you trust in Christ with all your soul, and you love Christ,
and you love his brethren, you listen, you've received Christ. You've received Christ. Those
are the marks of a true believer in Christ. And so then, what
is the cause? You who have received Christ,
have you contemplated that? Why you? Why you? Why have you
received Christ? Were you smarter? Did you pick
up on the gospel faster than someone else? No. God doesn't
leave us to guess who received Christ. As many as received Christ,
they have the right to be called the sons of God, which were born
Verse 13, which were born, speaking of spiritual birth, not of blood,
not of blood relation. I got two children. You realize
they'll never be, they'll never receive Christ based on their
relationship to me. Ever. I have no hope of that.
I want them to believe on Christ. I want them to receive Christ.
I do. But they won't do it because
they're my children. Matter of fact, they'll probably go the
opposite way because they're my children. Never be born again by blood.
Listen. Nor by the will of the flesh. You know what? They won't even
receive Christ by their own will. They won't even be born again
by their own will. Nor will they be born by the
will of some other man. I can will for them to receive
Christ all I want to. That doesn't make them receive
Christ. That doesn't give them spiritual life. But of God. You see, the root cause for you
receiving Christ is this. God loved you. God chose you. Christ redeemed
you. And the Spirit called you. Now who gets the glory for you
receiving Christ? God. You see, I'm willing to
receive Christ Where'd that come from? Only because I was born
again of the Spirit of God. So who gets the glory for receiving
Christ? God does. God does. And so then
what's the benefit? The benefit is you are a son
of God. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right That's good. I have the right by God, it is
my God-given right that I am a son of God. So I
have all the rights and privileges of sonship. Everything my representative
earned for me is mine. Righteousness is mine. You want
to know what I am? In Christ, I am righteous as
God. Where's my sin? Though I see
it every day, God says it's gone. It's gone. The sins of Judah
shall be sought for and there shall be none. Who's searching? God. Was He fine? No sin. Why? Christ's perfect. His offering
is perfect. removed all my sins. I am a son
of God. What does that mean? I have all
the benefits of being a son, forgiveness of sins, pardon,
peace with God. And so then, as one who has received
Christ, how then are we to walk in this world? receive Christ. Constantly, perpetually believing
on the Son of God. That's how we walk in this world. I'll tell you this, in my experience
as a believer in Christ, everything seems to oppose that I'm a son
of God. Everything around me. Satan accuses
me constantly. My flesh is constantly... I'm having constant struggles
with this old man of sin. How can I be a son of God? That's
the question that pops into my head daily, perpetually. How
can I? Well, you can't. You are because
of what He has done for you. Now believe Him. Trust Him. Don't trust feelings come and
feelings go. Feelings are deceptive. Trust Christ. You are who trust
Christ. Who? As many as. That's plain,
isn't it? Who? As many as. Trust Christ. You are the sons of God. Born
of God. Kept of God. May God now By His
grace, in your heart, answer that question. Have you received
Christ? Do you receive Christ? I pray you will. I pray you do. Now stand and be dismissed in
prayer.