Okay, turn with me back to John
chapter 1. John chapter 1. I'm going to give you the title of
tonight's message. It's Three Things That Cannot
Save a Person. Three Things That Cannot Save
a Person. John 1, verse 10. This is speaking of our Lord. It says, He was in the world. He was in the world. That's amazing. Don't you wish
He was here now? Don't you wish He was in the
world right now? How comforted would you be knowing
God is here? He's with us. It's almost hard
to believe, it almost seems unreal that He's going to come back
to get us. It's almost hard to imagine.
He was in this world. What if the Lord God walked right
through those doors right over there? He attended a wedding. He attended worship services.
He came in. He sat down. He stood up and
preached. Wouldn't that be amazing? He came to this world and He
stayed here with us for 33 years. That's a long time to be away
from glory. Why did He come? Why would He leave glory? Can you imagine how glorious
heaven is? I was thinking about us singing
right here. The acoustics in this building are wonderful.
And I think everybody does a great job of singing. And I don't know
how many people are here, but can you imagine in glory A number
that no man can number. All singing together. It's going
to be unbelievable. Why would He leave glory and
the comforts of paradise to come down here to this filthy, evil
world? Why would He do that? Why did
He come? Here's what He said. He said,
I am come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's why
I came. He said, the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's
lives, but to save them. He said, I am come that they
might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. He came to save dying sinners.
That's why He came. I'm so glad He was in the world. Aren't you? The whole reason
that we're meeting here tonight and worshiping is because He
was in the world. I'm so glad. Verse 10 says, He
was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world
knew Him not. Isn't that so sad? Isn't that
so sad? It's sad, but it's true. This world
knew Him not, and this world is going to be shocked on the
Day of Judgment to hear Him say, depart from Me. I never knew
Him. Isn't that sad? Verse 11 says, This great God
of mercy came unto His own, and His own received Him not. Wouldn't receive Him. They rejected
Him. Can you imagine rejecting God? Can you imagine that? It started
the moment he put himself in the womb of a virgin. Joseph was going to put Mary
away because of him. When it came time for her to
deliver, Mary had to lay him in a manger. That's a feeding
trough in a barn. Because there was no room for
him in the inn. He can't stay here. This is the God who created everything. Nobody had any need for it. Herod hated Him so much, he demanded
every child two years old and younger is going to die because of Him. In light of everything, I thought
about this fact. He died, all those children died for Christ's
sake. Because of Him. At the end of
His life, they all cried with one accord, crucify Him. We hate Him. Who said that? Was that the Satan
worshippers? You know who that was? That was
His church. 5,000 of the people that brought
Him to Pilate, demanding that He be crucified, God saved them
at Pentecost. And they made up the beginning
of the New Testament church. The very same ones that said, God loved them and had mercy
on them. He said, that's my church. That's in Acts chapters 1-4.
Our text in John 1 verse 11 says, He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. The fool says, I wouldn't reject
Him. They might have, but I never
have and I never will. Turn over to Isaiah 53 with me. Don't you love hearing that chapter? Isaiah 53, look at verse 3. Our Lord is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, And we
hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised, and we
esteemed Him not. Verse 6 says, All we, like sheep,
have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
That's the gospel. Peter said, they may leave you,
but not me. He said, I'll lay down my life
for you. And our Lord, oh, He was just
so patient. He could have just started laughing
at Peter. But He said, Peter, before the
rooster crows tomorrow morning, you're going to deny me three
times. Let not your heart be troubled. That's what it says in that order.
That's the end of the chapter, you're going to deny me thrice.
The beginning of the next chapter is, let not your heart be troubled. We'll turn back to our text,
John chapter 1. The problem for mankind is, we
all have rejected God. And we don't even know it. We
don't know it. Go out into religion, they have
no idea that they've rejected God. In what way? What way have we rejected God? Man by nature has no idea who
Jesus Christ really is, and they do not bow to Him for who He
really is. They acknowledge He exists, but
they will not accept Him for who He is. I will not have that
man rule over me. I will not bow my knee and say,
my Lord and my God." He was in the world, and the
world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. Well, I go to church. I'm religious. I'm a good person. I go to worship. Well, it does not matter if I
don't know who God is. I don't know what I'm worshipping.
I don't know what I'm going for. I'm going because that's what
everybody else does. I'm going because it seems like the good
thing to do and the moral thing to do, but I have no idea who
I'm worshipping. Can you believe He had mercy
on any of us? Any of us. That's why the Gospel is such
good news. It's because none of us deserve it. None of us.
Verse 12 in our text says, But in spite of this, as many as
received Him, and it says received, not accepted. It doesn't say
accepted. It says received. Do you know
that the phrase accept Jesus as your personal Savior is nowhere
in the Bible? Not one time. The word accept is in the Bible
25 times. The word accepted is in the Bible
29 times. And not one time is God asking
anybody to accept Him. Not one of those times. He says,
I have accepted you. Sadly, most of the time He's
saying, I will not accept you. I looked at it in the concordance.
Most of them were, I have not accepted you. But as many as
He has accepted, as many as He was good to, As many as He chose
to give Himself to, as many as received Him. Verse 12 says,
To them, not to all, but to them gave He power. Now that word power, I have a
margin in my Bible, and it says the privilege. It's not insinuating
at all that He put the ability in their hands. He gave them
the power. No. What it's saying in verse
12 is, "...as many as received Him, to them gave He the privilege
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."
Salvation is such a great privilege. Such a great, great privilege. We are chosen to be saved. Chosen to be saved. Go to 1 John
chapter 3 with me. 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3 verse 1 says, Behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth
us not, because it knew Him not." He was in the world. The world
was made by Him, and it knew Him not. Therefore the world knoweth us
not." Does not understand us. It really doesn't. Because it knew Him not. The
world, the way of the world, this way that everybody's going,
the way of the world, the way everybody thinks. Somebody
says something, everybody thinks that way. Mainstream religion, the broad
way, church circle. Our Lord said broad is the way
that leads to destruction. Our text says in John 1, back
in John 1, nobody knew Him, nobody received Him, but He saved some
in spite of themselves. He's a good Lord. Verse 12 says,
"...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." Born again. Go with me to John chapter 3. Verse 3, "...Jesus answered and
said unto Nicodemus, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born again, you
must be born again. But you can't see the kingdom
of God. Cannot see the kingdom of God. Verse 6, that which is born of
the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Ye must be born again. All men and women are lost. All men and women are lost. Actually,
they're more than just lost. They're dead. They're dead. They're dead. What do you mean
I'm dead? I walk around. They're dead. They're dead. They're spiritually dead. dead. And unless a person is
given life, spiritual life, saved, born again by the Lord Jesus
Christ, he or she cannot see the kingdom of heaven. Cannot see heaven and cannot
see Jesus Christ as being heaven. being God, being everything.
A person must be saved. Now, that's our intro. It's short
after that. Okay? Here's our point. A person must be saved. A person must be saved. We cannot go through this life
without being saved by the Lord Jesus Christ and have any hope
of eternity. Now let me show you three things
that cannot save a person. Our text verse 13 says, which
were born, that means born again, saved, not of blood. That's the first thing. That is not talking about the
blood of Jesus Christ. It's not. I looked the word up
in the Greek and it means two things. It means the blood of
a man or an animal. And it means kindred. Relatives. Hebrews 10 verse 4 says, It is
not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sins. You can sacrifice all you want
to and it will not take away sin. We've been sacrificing since
the beginning of time. We've been throwing virgins off
of cliffs. We've been burning people. We've
been sacrificing animals, sheep, goats. Now, today, we sacrifice things
that we think the Lord would be proud of us for giving up. We touch not, we taste not, we
handle not. We sacrifice. That will not save a person. It will not save a person. Even though a man dies for his
cause, for his religion, it will not save his soul. It won't. It does not matter if my mother
and my grandmother were saved. It does not matter. It has no bearing on my soul.
My status does not matter. My race does not matter. It is
not of blood. It's just not. It's not of blood. Alright, now verse 13 says, Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. It does not matter how badly
my flesh wants to inherit the kingdom of God. It does not matter
how badly I want to go to heaven. That makes no difference. I don't
care how badly I want to go. It does not matter how hard I
try to do good things. It doesn't make a bit of difference.
If I do, that's great, but it doesn't make a bit of difference
for eternity. It does not matter the things that I do, the things
that I don't do. It does not matter. All of the
works of my flesh are filthy rags in the eyes of God. He said
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. It will always be flesh. Now go with me to 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians 15. Look at verse 50. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption. It cannot happen. It just cannot
happen. Now go to Matthew 16. Matthew
chapter 16. And look at verse 15. Our Lord said unto them, But
whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ. He said, I believe that you are
the Christ. I believe Jesus is the Christ. I believe He's the Messiah. I
believe He is God manifest in the flesh. That's who I believe
you are, the highest God. Verse 17, And Jesus answered
and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, For flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto you." There's no way that
you could think about this and logically make sense of this
and figure it out and realize this. There's no way that you
could dive into books and dive into anything, dive into the
Word on your own and figure this out. Flesh and blood did not
reveal it to you. He said, but my Father which
is in heaven. A saving knowledge of Christ
cannot come by flesh or blood. Flesh or blood. Back to our text. Verse 13 says,
which were born, not of blood, my status in the world can't
save me, my bloodline can't save me, nor of the will of the flesh,
my works can't save me." It says, "...nor of the will
of man." Now, let's see if we can get
a hold of this. Even if I understand that I cannot
save myself, even if I understand that the
Lord Jesus Christ has to do it. I cannot decide to give my heart
to Jesus. It's not of the will of man. I cannot make Him my personal
Savior. It's not of the will of man. I cannot choose Him. He must choose me. The choice is His. It's His choice. I cannot do anything except cry out for mercy. Cry out for
mercy. Blind Bartimaeus couldn't do
anything but cry, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. So that makes salvation dependent
on something I do, right? I just said I could cry. I said
accept. I said I can't do anything except
cry out for mercy. So that means that it really
is of me. A dead man cannot cry out for
mercy. A dead man cannot cry out for
mercy. Walk up to the casket and say,
if you cry out for mercy, I'll raise you up. A dead man cannot
cry out for mercy. But if I cry, if something in
my heart tells me and compels me, cry out for mercy! then it's an evidence that I'm
alive. When that baby is born, that
doctor exhorts that child to cry. Why? It's proof of life. Did that baby cry in order to
become alive? No. It cried because it is alive. It's proof of life. So the exhortation
is cry out for mercy. Cry out for mercy. It's proof
of life. Salvation is not by status, it's
not by work, and it's not by decision. Verse 13 says, the
end of it, it's of God. It's of God. Now where is the
good news of this Gospel? As though we haven't already
heard it. Let's read verses 1 and 14 together, okay? Back to back,
they go together. Verse 1 says, "...In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
and the Word was made flesh, and came down here, and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory." The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Moses asked the Lord,
would you show me your glory? And he said, yes, I will. I will
have mercy. I will have mercy. Verse 13 tells us three things
it cannot save, and it tells us of the one and only thing
that can. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. Totally of the Lord. Cry out
for mercy. Salvation is of the Lord. Alright,
I hope the Lord will bless that. Let's stand together and be dismissed.