1 John chapter 5. We're going to look at the first
five verses, but I'm going to have more of a topical message
this evening. There's some things here I think will do us some
good and do everyone some good with a better understanding of. 1 John 5 verse 1 says, Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone
that loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of
Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when
we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous." Why are they not grievous? Why are they so easy? Verse 4,
for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. This is
the victory that overcometh the world, our faith." What's our
faith? Christ is our faith. Who is he
that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Now twice there in our text,
in verse 1 and verse 4, it speaks to those that are born of God. Born of God. That's unfortunately
confused and misused in a few words, throughout our nation,
throughout this world. So my title tonight is Physical
Birth vs. Spiritual Birth. We're going
to look at, hopefully, several things those things have in common,
and then at the end we'll look at a couple of ways that they
contrast one another. But to overcome the world, to
believe that Jesus is the Son of God, to love Him, to love
our brethren, is all the result of being born of God. being born
again in the heart. I want us to look at this difference
between the physical and the spiritual birth. But so many times our old flesh,
that old nature in us, it confuses the two. We're just convinced
that because we breathe air, because I'm alive physically,
that I'm alive spiritually. Many people confuse those two
things. But this is a wonderful picture
of how Christ saves His people. Every illustration in these scriptures
is wonderful. It's glorious. How a seed must
go in the ground and die before it brings forth much fruit. How
the branch can't survive apart from the vine. Things you and
I can understand. We can look at these things.
We can touch these things. And the Lord uses that to show
us how simple that is, isn't it? He uses these wonderful things.
That's precious. But He uses physical birth as
an example, to show us our spiritual birth. We have physical eyes. We see this world around us. And as we mature, we have a better
understanding of the stuff around us. things of this world, what
it means in creation, things we see in people's body language,
and we know what to eat and what not to eat by using our senses
the Lord gave us, to smell it, to see it. But when the child
of God is given a new heart and new eyes to see Christ and His
infinite grace and mercy to His people and His love, We see our
sin for the first time with spiritual eyes. We see our need for a Redeemer
for the first time. And we see the Lord Jesus Christ
as that kinsman Redeemer for the first time. Throughout all
the Old Testament, these new eyes that we're given and our
new birth, we begin to see things we've never saw before. The pictures
and types in the Old Testament are no longer just a good moral
lesson. It's no longer a good bedtime
story for small children, something to entertain us. Now we begin
to see the Messiah is to come. He's coming. That lamb slain
to cover Adam is a picture of Christ dying for His people,
robing us in His righteousness. Abel's offering wasn't the work
of his hands, it was a blood sacrifice that the Lord provided
for himself. He's just and the justifier through
his son. We understand given in the new
birth, we no longer see Noah's Ark as something we make up for
nurseries, not some kind of wallpaper. We see sinners being shown mercy,
drawn into Christ the ark, and the Lord using His hand to seal
us in Him forever. And that all that wrath and punishment
and judgment falls on that ark, falls on Christ, and we're spared.
We're preserved forever in Him. We begin to see that. All through
the Scriptures, Jonah and the whale, and all through Ruth,
and all these books, we see that One that is coming, The promised
Savior of God, Christ the God-man is coming. And then in the Gospels,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, He's here. We see Him walk this
earth as He is as the God-man. In human flesh, He came. We see
the power of His words, the power of His action and His person,
what He accomplished here while He came to this earth. And with
these new eyes and this new heart we're given and this new birth,
now we read the epistles of the apostles, letters from the apostles. And that one promised to come,
we see that He came, and now we see He's going to return.
He's coming again. Christ is coming again. Now this
new birth that we have, this new spirit to put in us, that's
precious. Christ revealed in a man or woman
is the greatest blessing they could ever receive. Nothing is
greater. That's why physical life to us
is so precious. Earthly life is so precious.
If there's breath in the lungs of someone, the Lord may do a
work in them. There's still hope they could
hear of our Savior. As long as a person is alive,
the Lord may call him, may draw them to Christ. He may know them. So now, from this physical birth
and this spiritual birth, let's look at a few ways that they're
both alike. The first is, it's miraculous and it's mysterious. That's amazing, a physical birth,
isn't it? David told us there in Psalm
139, For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me
in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. We look at our physical bodies,
how it all works together. From a cellular level up to organs,
and arms and legs, and this hand feeds this mouth, It's amazing. Physically, it's miraculous.
Christ said there in John 3, 7, Marvel not that I said unto
thee, Thou must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst tell whence it comest,
and whether it goest. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. I looked at this verse last Saturday
and was only going to make a spiritual reference from it, but as this
week's went on, physically I can see the Lord control the wind. That wind was coming over the
hill, the fire was coming right towards our home. And right about
half a mile from it, a spot fire about 500 meters from it, the
Lord turned the wind. and moved it away from us. Now,
we know that. We know that He did that. And
many people would say, oh, the Lord moved the wind for you.
But spiritually, He moves His Word. It goes where He wants
it. We don't see it coming. We don't
know it's going to happen. And there's times He takes His
Word from a place or from a person. He only touches them briefly.
But that's His work. He does it. But we were estranged
from God, and now we're called friends. We were children of
wrath, and now we're called heirs of promise. We've become opposite
of what we were in that spiritual birth. The things we once hated,
used to we couldn't stand to hear the gospel. We couldn't
stand to see Christ get all the glory. Now that's what we love.
I want to hear that. I want Him to get all the glory.
And the things we once loved, My own glory, my own righteousness,
my own will and way. Now we hate that. With Paul,
we agree with him. I don't want nothing to do with
that old man. The Lord showed me different. There's been a
birth. First, it's marvelous and mysterious.
Second, life is created. That's how the physical and spiritual
birth are the same. Physically, life is created where
it never existed before. A new life begins and there's
a new citizen in our nation. And we rejoice. Somebody has
a baby. Oh, that's wonderful. Oh, I'm so happy for you. Mike's
going to have a grandbaby. You caring? Oh, we're so happy
for you. Can't wait for that thing to get here. This country
has a new citizen in it, don't it? Spiritually, life's created
where there was no life before. We were dead in sin. And though
we were physically alive, a believer's true life begins when that work's
done in them. When Christ is revealed in them.
And then there's a new citizen. But this time it's the Kingdom
of God. In His Kingdom. And the heavens rejoice whenever
a man or woman's soul's been turned to Him. When Christ has
been revealed in them, it's as the heavens sang. We rejoice
too. Both are miraculous, and in both
cases, a new life is created. But thirdly, there's a likeness
in form. In likeness. In build. Physically, young people
know why you plant a bean seed, and when that grows up, beans
come out of it. Because you put a bean seed in the ground, right?
Same form. The reason that is, is because
God said, let the earth bring forth a living creature after
his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beasts of the field
after his kind, and so it was. The Lord said that's the pattern
that's going to happen. That's why we don't plant a corn
seed and beans come out. The Lord said so. But vegetables,
animals, trees, people, everything. Everything that has an offspring,
it's the same form as what it came from, after it's the same
kind, it's like this. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. Spiritually, a father's seed
lives in its child. It's made like them in the appearance
of it. In Adam's seed, we died. We're all born spiritually dead
in trespasses and sin. Sin was counted to us in Adam's
fall. It was imputed to us. We were
physically born looking like Adam, after Him, and in that
physical nature that was imparted to us. It's our traits that we
have. And then we acted on that nature. We committed that sin
too. But Christ THE seed, singular,
we are made in His likeness spiritually. In Adam we die, but in Christ
we live. And that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit. If you think a church denomination
is what gave you life, then all you have is its religion. If
you think a physical work or ceremony is what gave you life,
then all you have is that work of religion. But if you're born
again in that heart work of Christ, that He performs, then you have
eternal life. You don't have a religion, you
have a Savior. That's the difference in it.
A dead father brings forth spiritually dead children, but Christ, the
living God, brings forth living souls. Children that have eternal
life. God's a spirit, and those that
are born of Christ, anew in the heart, are spirit like He is,
or in the same form. Physically and spiritually, that's
both marvelous. A new life's made after its own
kind, and fourthly, we see its likeness and character. Character
is the same. Physically, we come forth speaking
lies. We inherited that pride in ourselves, our working, our
birth, what we think is a birthright, our entitlement. And all of our
thoughts are only evil continually. So David said, Behold, I was
shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. The
wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon
as they are born, speaking lies. That's the character we had physically.
And in our garden this year, we grew some cucumbers, and they
were beautiful. Oh, it was the biggest cucumber
plants I ever grew. And we got that first one, that
first fruit, and we cut it open, and it was so bitter, you couldn't
even stand to eat it. Do you think I saved those seeds?
No, because if I took those seeds, kept them, and planted them,
they're probably going to be just as bad as those first ones, wouldn't
they? Don't want nothing to do with it. Cast it away, burn it.
By the character of our nature, we are the corruptible seed. That's what we were born with.
Spiritually, those born of God are from Christ, the incorruptible
seed. In our spiritual nature, our
new man, we have the character of Christ. Now, we don't think
so. I don't feel so. I'm sure most
of you don't, but a holy nature, that's what our new man is, just
like His, just like Christ the seed. And in that new man we
believe Christ, we love Him for who He is and what He accomplished
on Calvary. We trust His Word in our resurrection,
in all things. And in that, in that believing,
in that hoping, loving, trusting, in that new heart, all these
things it does, there is no sin in that. Just like our Master,
there is no God. Our new hearts have overcome
the world. We love those that are begotten
of the Father and we love the One that begat us. Our new man
looks to Him. And fifthly, life is complete
with everything it needs and everything it will ever have
when we're born, physically. We're born with all the organs
we're ever going to have. We've got all the limbs, eyes,
ears. We ain't never going to grow an extra arm. If we lose
an appendix, it don't grow back. Whatever we have when we're born,
that's what we have. Now it's all in its infant stage. It's
all little. So small, I'm surprised they
work. Always amazed me looking at a
baby. Their hands are so, how does
blood go through there? Fingers are so tiny. But everything they
have, it's what they have. They're complete. Now they'll
grow. They'll become an adult physically. Spiritually, when
a sinner is born of God, at that moment, when He's revealed in
us, everything you need is there. You're complete in Him. All things
required are present. We have joy, hope, kindness,
meekness, tenderness. We have life, the fruit to the
Spirit, and you have perfection in that new heart, in that new
birth in Him. And it's miraculous. It is the
same form as our Father. It's a spirit. And it's the same
character as the Father. It's holy. And it's totally complete
in Christ, the One who bought it, the One who purchased it.
But though it's complete, it grows, it matures, it strengthens. That's why we see there in the
Scriptures, babes in Christ, young men in Christ, and elders
in Christ. When Christ is revealed in us
at that new birth, we are meat. We are sufficient to enter into
His kingdom, enter into His presence. And those fruits, they'll increase.
But the only thing that won't change, those others will get
stronger, and our love will get stronger, but the love's the
same. Love hasn't changed from the beginning. It may be because
of it's of the same kind and of the same form, and it does
not change because He doesn't change. His love for us doesn't
change. So many things are similar in
that physical birth and spiritual birth, and it's a magnificent
picture of Christ giving one of His sheep life. But we wouldn't
be here today if we weren't physically born. That's a silly statement
to most people, but we have to be alive to come here, don't
we? You will not be in the Kingdom of Heaven in the presence of
Christ forever if you're not spiritually born. It said in
John 3, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You couldn't see, hear,
or think on these things if you weren't given physical birth.
And you could not see the need of Christ's blood on the cross
for our souls if you weren't given spiritual eyes to see it.
You could not hear His voice speak to your new heart in power
saying, fear not. You cannot consider His person
and His work or think on His glory if you are not spiritually
born. You cannot enjoy the things of
this world physically if we weren't physically born. There's a lot
of nice things, the Grand Canyon and beaches and sunsets and a
lot of beautiful things to see and enjoy. But you can't enjoy
the things of God's kingdom if you're not born again of the
Spirit. Sixth, spiritual life and physical life are locked
because we have nothing to do with either one of them. We didn't
initiate it. Physically, I didn't decide that
my parents could give me life. I know there's some children
nowadays that are suing their parents because they did have
them, and that's a judge ought to laugh at it, but simply put,
They made us. We didn't have a hand in it.
And one day I became aware I was alive. I was alive for a long
time, didn't know it. And then I started kind of remembering
some stuff, you know. Started becoming aware. Spiritually,
I did not decide to let Christ give me life. I was made and
then simply made aware that He dwelt in me one day. Come to
know Him. started being aware of Him. That's why these things are a
picture. We can understand something physical. We understand physical
birth. It's plain, simple. We're all here because it happened.
And the Lord uses that to show us our spiritual birth. But there's
a few ways that these two things are opposite. I'll try to go
over them quickly for you. The seed we receive from our
earthly Father is not like that seed we receive from our heavenly
Father. Let's look over in 1 Peter 1.
1 Peter 1. There in verse 23. being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as of grass,
and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. The seed we were born of from
Adam was corrupted. It was no good. That holy seed
from the Lord is incorruptible. It's perfection. Physically,
we were born through a woman by the works of man. But spiritually,
we're born through that bride of Christ, through His church,
through the preaching of the Gospel. Not by our work, but
by His Word, by His command, we're born of the Spirit. Let's
look over in Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, we'll begin in
verse 26. This is a picture of the story of Mary when the angel
came and spoke to her. And this is a beautiful picture
of how you and I are born of the Spirit. Luke 1, 26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth
to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the
house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. The
Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying. and cast
in her mind what manner of salutation this could be. She was shocked,
took a back bite. Verse 30, And the angel said
unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.
And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth
a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall
be no end. Then Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be,
seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said
unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore, also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. Mary is a picture of how every
believer is born of God. How we're saved. That Word comes
to us and it shakes us up. We don't know what kind of salutation
that is. We're surprised by it or taken
aback. Sometimes offended. Our pride
gets hurt. And He speaks to us in power. Fear not. Fear not. And it won't be a work of your
hand. The Holy Spirit is coming into you. And there's going to
be a work done. And the Holy Spirit performs
that seed of the Word of God. As James told us, he said, of
God of His own will begat He us. Because of His work in us,
He performs. And them were called the sons
of God. There in Romans 10, Paul told
us, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. How then shall they call upon
Him of whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe on
Him whom they've not heard? He must speak through His Word
to them. The Word of God reveals our sin.
His Word reveals our Savior. His blood make an atonement for
our souls. His Word reveals His promise
of eternal life. It's provided for and kept only
in Christ. And we're born of the Spirit
and the Word. It's a double work they do in
us. How He performs it. Life in the
image of Christ is put in a believer by the Spirit through the Word
of God, through His command. Then our new heart believes Christ,
loves Him, loves our brethren, and it condemns our old fleshly
nature. Once this happens, all of a sudden,
we've turned away from everything we once were. That's why Job
said, let the day perish wherein I was born and the night in which
it was said, there is a man child conceived. Outside a cross, there'll
be a day when men and women will curse that physical birth that
they've had. They'll cry for the mountains
to fall on when that judgment comes. But there will never be
a time believers regret or that we curse the day that we were
spiritually born. Physically, we may go through
enough trials, we hurt enough, so Lord just take me home. In
this, that spiritual man rejoices forever. Some parents have regretted
the day that their children were born. We see that in our society
just clearly through murder that's illegal and murder that's legal
throughout our culture. But our Heavenly Father has never
regretted making a nation just like His Son. We will be a trophy
of His grace forever. But someday we'll leave. Someday
this physical life will be over. So the Hebrew writer told us,
and it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this,
the judgment. Physically, we will die no matter
what. It's coming to everybody. We
know that we can subdue it, push it away, try to ignore it. Everyone
knows we don't live forever in this earth. And then the judgment. And then spiritually though,
those born of God, we will never die. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ, but for me to die is gain. We look forward to that. Kimberly told me today, she wants
to go home. We miss our house. And but she
also said that's how we ought to be for glory. Every day we
all want to go home. I'm homesick. And the closer,
that's what I said too, we drive out that road to get to go home
someday soon. The closer we get to the house,
the more homesick you get in this life spiritually. The closer
we get to our home in glory, the more homesick we get. Boy,
I want to be there. But someday, every believer will
leave this land of death and enter into the land of the living.
Our flesh is continually dying. It's decaying every day. The
new man is only growing. And eventually, when we finally
meet our Master, we'll be exactly like our Savior and we'll never
perish. We'll be in His image forever. Spiritually, we can
never die because we are one with Christ. As He lives, we
live. And He can never die. were made
one with Him. Christ said, and they shall never
perish. And He cannot lie. He's God. Finally, physical and spiritual
birth are opposite in what they glory in. The glory of the physical
birth is proud in its beauty. It's proud in its wealth. It
glories in its intelligence and its strength and its wisdom.
But the glory in the flesh is only in the flesh. These things
die with the body. They die with the using. The
grass of the field fades and it withers. The glory in those
born of the Spirit that's in Christ. We glory in His beauty. His beauty before the Father.
We glory in His wealth of mercy and grace to His people. We glory
in His infinite knowledge. We glory in His almighty power.
And we glory in His wisdom in all things. And that will never
fade. That will never wither. It will
only grow greater and greater. Wax greater and greater. With
all that said, to those of you that hear Him, those of you that
know Him, those of you that have been born again of the Spirit,
let's turn over Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4. Look at verse 21. If so be that ye have heard Him,
and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus. If
you've heard Him, if He's given you ears to hear Him, if you've
been given a mind It's been put in you that He's taught, verse
22, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the
old man, which is corrupt according to its deceitful lust, and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Those of you that heard this
word Christ has spoken to, come to Him confessing Lean on Him. Believe Him. And you will not
be ashamed. You'll be given life. He's done
a work in you. If you come to Him, He's already
grown you. Rejoice in Him. Glory in Him alone. You'll be
happy right then. Complete right then. And then
someday you'll be homesick. And you'll want to go home and
be with Him. Amen. I hope that's a blessing to you.