John chapter 1, which Terry read. I had some particular people in
mind concerning this message, and they're not here. It never
fails. But you are here, and I believe
it will be their loss and your gain. I had an enjoyable time
studying this message. I know of at least one person
in here who can readily relate to this message and has this
fairly fresh on her mind, this message. And I hope the Lord
will answer Brother Terry's prayer concerning this gathering. Let's look at two verses here
in John chapter 1, beginning with verse 12. He says, as many as received
him, that is, Christ, to them gave he power or the right or
the privilege to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name, which were born. Why do they believe on his name?
Because they were born, not of blood. nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but they were born of God. Born of God. That is our subject this evening.
Now, there's nothing more marvelous and mysterious in this life than
the birth of a human being. If any of you have watched the
birth process, you know what I'm speaking of. And the whole
process whereby a tiny little microscopic organism becomes
a living and breathing and beautiful creature called man is a marvelous
and mysterious act of God Almighty. It's a wonderful and a glorious
thing and it's still very much a mystery to us, to scientists
and doctors. Very much a mystery. It's a mystery
of life. I'll never forget the experience
of watching my little girl being born into this world. Never forget
it as long as I live. And the more she grows and the
more she matures and the more she becomes like an adult or
at least a young lady, the more I marvel in this whole thing. The more she looks like her mother
and takes on the characteristics of both of us, the more I marvel
in this whole thing of God creating life and bringing forth into
this world. But you know, there's something else that's very much
like the birth process, but is even more mysterious and more
glorious. And that's what we just read
about. That's spiritual birth. And it's very, very similar in
so many ways. The whole process whereby God
Almighty creates a living and breathing Son of God. is a marvelous
mystery of His grace. It's a glorious and a wonderful
thing and very much a mystery to us even though we study it
a great deal. Now, three basic things I want
us to look at and consider in this thing of spiritual birth
and the correlation between natural birth and spiritual birth. Very
simply, I want us to look first of all at conception, birth conception. And then we'll look at the birth
itself. And then we'll look at life and
growth after birth. Now, first of all, there's conception.
And in the birth of a human being, the conception of a human being
starts with two consenting adults. Two adults decide, humanly speaking,
decide to have a child. That's how People talk about,
we're going to decide, we've decided to have a child, to begin
starting our family. Now, human beings can't really
decide that, but yet it appears that way. But God alone is the
author of life and the finisher of life. But nevertheless, two
adults get together and they decide to have a child. And it's
the same thing in spiritual birth. God the Father first decided
to have children. We talked about that last Wednesday
night, planned parenthood. God Almighty decided, or he conceived
in his mind, in his heart, in his purpose, to have a children. He decided to have a family or
children. Now, God didn't need children
to make him any more complete. I've heard people even say that
about a natural. Marriage husband and wives have
a child make sure marriage more complete that's not necessarily
so but many people live a complete and full lives and have wonderful
marriages that don't have children it's up to God anyway God is
not pleased to give some people children and he gives other children
but God Almighty certainly didn't need to create men and women
to make himself more more complete. They couldn't add anything. People
cannot add anything to God Almighty. He is all-glorious in his own
person. Besides, he already had a son
from the beginning. He had one son. Christ was the
Son, the everlasting Son of God from the very beginning, who
dwelt with the Father from time in eternity. He dwelt with the
Father. He had a child, a well-beloved son. He didn't need any more
children. He already had one son, but for the honor and the
glory of his son, he decided to bring forth many sons and
daughters, Hebrews 6, many sons and daughters. Then, in this
thing of conception of a child, these two adults, after they
decide to have a child, they sit down, it's time for us to
have a family. We've gathered enough money,
or whatever reasons two adults come up with for waiting. They
finally sit down and decide to have a child. Then what do they
do? Well, they get together, and they join together in this
conjugal relationship, and the two of them become one, and out
of those two people comes one new creation, or a seed, the
seed of a human. A new thing is born into the
world, a new, a brand new thing. A brand new soul, a brand new
person is born into this world. And we cannot talk about man's
spiritual birth without first talking about what the Catholics
like to call the immaculate conception. The birth of that thing that
the angels talk about. God's seed. I want you to turn
with me over to Galatians chapter three. The seed of God becoming
a new thing. a new thing such as never been
seen before. And just like two adults get
together and they conjugate and this new person, altogether new
creation comes forth that nobody has ever seen before. In the
same way, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit joined together
and sent forth and created and brought into this world a new
creation, a new being. And look at this in Galatians
chapter 3, verse 16, a new seed. We're going to study this Sunday
morning. Now, it says to Abraham and his seed were the promises
made. But he saith not unto seeds,
that is, as of many, but as of one, to thy seed, which is Now,
throughout the Old Testament scriptures, Christ is spoken
of as being a seed, a seed, a strange new thing, a seed. He's called
the seed of woman in Genesis 3, 15. He's called the seed of
Abraham that we saw there. He's called the seed of Isaac.
He's called the seed of Jacob. He's called the seed of David,
the seed of David he will come forth. that the Scriptures might
be fulfilled, that you'll know that this Holy One, this Holy
Person, is truly the Son of God. So in the fullness of time, God
Almighty, like I said, communed with His Holy Spirit, and they
joined together in creating and finally sending forth God's first-begotten
Lord, only Son in this world, His only Son, His Holy Seed,
the Scriptures say, His only Son, a new creation. Do you remember
the story when the children of Israel were out in the wilderness
and they began to grow hungry and needed something to eat?
And one morning they woke up and out there on the ground,
the scripture says that they saw something out there on the
ground, a small white thing, and they likened it unto a coriander
seed, a small white thing like a coriander seed. And you know
what they said? They said, manna. That word manna means, what is
it? What is it? And that's exactly
what the angels said to Mary when they heralded his coming.
They said, that holy thing, holy manna, what is it? You can't
call it anything but a thing. There's never been, nothing like
this has ever been brought forth into this world. God in a man. God and man in one person. A
new seed. A holy thing. marvelous, marvelous
and miraculous creation and of the two came one new creation,
the Son of God himself. And he bore the express image
of the Father and yet he was full of the Holy Spirit too.
Brother John and I were talking about this the other day, how
marvelous it is that you have the three persons of the Godhead.
You have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit seems to take on somewhat of a feminine
role in this thing of the Son coming into the world. And the
Holy Spirit gives birth to a people through the incorruptible seed.
Christ, the son, bore the image of the Father, and he was full
of the Holy Spirit. So he looked like the Father,
and he had the characteristics of the Spirit, much like some
of our children look like one of us, like Brother Rick's daughter
always comes to mind, because she looks so much like him. And
he says she has her mother's personality. He doesn't always
mean that in a good way, but God the Son, Boy, the express
image of the Father and the characteristics of God's holy and pure and spotless
and lovely Holy Spirit. And all of God's spiritual children
come from Christ and they bear the image of Christ himself.
They bear his image. Now turn over to 1 Peter chapter
1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Now that's in brief. That is the conception. the conception,
the spiritual conception. I'll get into this a little bit
more. I'm going to start doing what
I set out to do in the very beginning, these Wednesday night services.
I'm going to cut this thing down a little bit and not go so long
so that we'll remain fresh. But here in 1 Peter 1, look at
verse 18 with me. He says, look at verse 23, let's
start there. He says, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible. That is, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever. And all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is a flower of grass. The grass withereth,
the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever." Now, that could apply to Christ, but it applies both
ways. It applies to Christ in written
word and Christ's incarnate word. The word of the Lord endures
forever, and we are born again of the incorruptible seed. We
are born of Christ, what he has done, and we are born of the
word of God, the written word. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Now, much like the physical implantation
of a father's seed brings forth human life, the Holy Spirit Like
I say, it takes the incorruptible seed of God's Word, that is,
the gospel, which liveth and abideth forever, like we just
read, and he plants it by preaching what I'm doing right now. He
plants that seed into the mind and into the heart, into the
understanding and into the affection of all of God's chosen or purposed
children, those people that God conceived The Holy Spirit plants
the Word of God into their minds and their understanding and into
their affection, showing them Christ, creating faith in Christ,
and a new creature is formed by the process of the Holy Spirit. A new creature
is formed, a new creation in Christ Jesus. He's called the
Son of God, and the world doesn't know anything like it. A Christian,
a Son of God. Now, just like conception, No
one really knows when it takes place. We cannot quite put our
finger upon it. When the conception of a child,
we really can't put, if we get right down to the exact moment
in time, we cannot really decide when that takes place. Sometimes
it has a delayed reaction. And it's the same way in spiritual
birth. Nobody really knows when the
Holy Spirit overshadows a human being and creates this new life. Nobody knows, but sometimes,
sometimes, you can witness a birth taking place. I've seen it, and
I think I'm seeing it now. You can witness this spiritual
birth taking place when somebody is brought forth from the womb
of this world, brought forth from darkness into light. Their
whole countenance, their whole being, Everything about it, you
see a drastic change take place and a new creature, a new personality
is being formed. Old things begin to pass away
and all things become new. You've seen it. It's happened
in your own life. You probably didn't see it as
clearly as somebody else did. I remember when I was a young
man and the Lord was dealing with me, that the people there
at 13th Street, they could very easily, very readily witness
that something was taking place in this young man's life. very
clearly could see that a new birth was taking place. You don't
know when the conception started. You don't know when the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit, the wind blows where it lifts, and you
cannot tell the sound there. You don't know where it's coming
from or where it's going. You cannot tell. And you can't tell
what God's going to use, what word. But in time, you can see
them being given birth by God's Holy Spirit. The gospel, that
incorruptible seed, begins to really take root, and they come
forth. And I'm going to deal with that
a little bit more here in a moment. But just as the most important
conception of all, talk about this thing of conception, the
most important conception of all is not our conception. And not here to talk about us,
like Terry prayed that God would show us something about Christ.
But our conception depends upon Christ being conceived and brought
forth into this world. Our conception depends on him,
so Christ is the center of the new birth. Now turn over to John
chapter 16 with me. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
center of our spiritual birth. If he had not come into this
world, there would be no world. There would be no sons of God.
So he had to be manifest in these latter times in order for God
to have a family like us. If God hadn't purposed to have
children, he wouldn't have sent Christ in the first place. He
would have ended it without them. But in Christ, God purposed to
have a people. Now look here at John chapter
16 with me. I know you've seen this verse,
and this will have—somebody can really relate to this. Verse
21, it says, Now a woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow. A woman, when she is in travail,
has sorrow. And this thing of the birth,
giving birth to a child, has great labor. I've never done
it, but I've held it. I've seen it take place. My wife
was in labor for nearly 24 hours, which is a long period of time. And there's great labor and travail
and pain and sorrow in this thing of giving birth to a child. Great
pain. Nothing I hear is as painful. or brings forth brings more anguish
and even sorrow. Even women go through periods
of depression afterwards and so forth sorrow. A woman goes
through a terrible ordeal in this thing of having a child.
Terrible ordeal. I think purposely so. I think
God does it to show us something and we're going to see it here
in a moment. Here's some things that a woman goes through in
this thing of childbirth. And Rebecca is the most, she's
the most recent here anyway, here present with us. The woman
first goes through this thing of morning sickness. That's how she first tells or
knows that something's wrong here. Something's taking place.
Something is within me. A morning sickness she goes through.
And then, all women, almost all of them, tell me of having insatiable
cravings along the way. Cravings for extraordinary things. And then they go through this
thing of weight gain. And for nine months, it's seemingly
endless. They go through these different
changes. Their bodies are taking on new
changes, and their bodies begin to grow in size and take on water
gain, and they carry a burden. And it seems like it's endless. That nine months seems like an
eternity, doesn't it? It seems like an eternity, and
you never think it's going to be over. Then, in due time, Scripture
says here, when a woman, when she's in travail, has sorrow,
because her hour has come. In due time, her hour has come. And she goes into that labor
room, and she writhes in anguish and in pain, and she's in unconsolable
agony. I know, I've tried to console
mine, but nobody, nobody can console that woman in this time
of anguish and pain until she gets rid of her burden. Right?
Nobody. all alone in this thing, all
alone, until finally, the Scripture says, as soon as she's delivered
of a child, until finally, in a burst of blood and water, this
child comes forth, doesn't it? This child comes forth, and it's
the most beautiful thing she's ever seen. The most beautiful
thing a woman has ever seen, the fruit of her womb, her child,
her offspring. And the Scripture says here in
that same verse, She remembers no more the anguish for joy that
a man is born into the world. No more. She forgets all about
it. And I tell you what, and I believe you women who have
had children would agree with this, you'd be willing to go
through it in a minute, go through it again, readily go through
it again for joy, the joy that that new child has brought you.
And the scriptures speaking of Christ, it's so similar. The
scriptures say, behold, and see if there's any sorrow like unto
my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me. And the Lord
Jesus Christ gave birth to a people. He gave birth to God's Son. He
went through excruciating pain and sorrow and agony from the
cradle to the grave. We talk about morning sickness.
He was like a hunted animal from the beginning. As a little child,
he experienced sorrow. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief from the beginning. Christ knew something about this
from the womb of the morning. He was a man of sorrow. And talk
about insatiable cravings. Christ came forth from the Father.
He left the bosom of the Father, wherein he dwelt in perfect bliss
and happiness and glory, experiencing glorious things with the Father.
Don't you know that he wanted to be back with his Heavenly
Father? Don't you know that he craved to be back in fellowship
with his Heavenly Father? But he had something to go through.
He had this process to go through. And as he grew in age and stature,
so did his burden. His burden grew with him. And
for thirty-three years, talk about a woman with a weight gain,
the weight of the sins of the world began to be placed upon
his shoulders. As he grew in age and in stature
and wisdom and in favor with God and man, as this man God
placed the sins of the world upon his. You're talking about
a weight gain. You're talking about a burden.
And you're talking about a seemingly endless period of time. I know
he's the eternal God, and there's no time with him. But as a man,
Terry, he went through time like that. He experienced time. And
not knowing time before, this thirty-three years to him was
long and precious, and especially in pain and sorrow for so long
a period of time. And he went through this. for
such a long time, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Then, the scripture says, in due time, according to God's
good time, travail came. Travail. His hour. The scripture
says so many times that he went through this and that and the
other, but his hour was not yet come. But one day, he came to
the cross, and his hour was come, like that woman. giving birth,
travail to sorrow, and our hour was come. Christ came to the
cross, and the moment that all history had waited for was the
time of that cross, the time of that crucifixion. His hour
has come, and our hour had come. And Christ, like a woman in travail,
he writhed in anguish and pain upon that cross, and in sorrow
he was being made sin for us. That's the reason he cried out,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Seemingly unconsolable
anguish and pain, all alone. Even the Father forsook him.
He had a job to do. He had to give birth to a child,
until finally, in the end, when his hour had come, until finally
he said, it's finished. Then he bowed his head. Scripture
says he gave up to God. And then it says, a soldier came
by with a spear and pierced his side. And what came out? Blood and water. Well, a whole
lot more than that. A child was born. Many children
were born. A whole family. God's family.
God's people. Sons of God were born out of
that blood and that water, out of that riven side. Sons of God. Blood and water. And for the
joy, the scripture says, for the joy that was set before him,
he endured death. And you ladies, like I said,
you'd go through it again, wouldn't you? In a minute. In a minute. For the joy of having children
and for the joy that was set before him in giving birth to
a people, God's children, Christ endured the cross in spite of
shame. He did it. And we are his children. And
you know, as newborn babies, come into this world not looking
like much. I don't care what you mothers
say. I've never seen a brand new born baby that was cute now.
Forget it. I don't care what you say about
theirs. They look pretty ugly to me. Pretty ugly. All wrinkled
and bloody and just all, they look pretty ugly. Even mine now,
I have to admit. She had a pointed head. You'd
have to have to jerk her out of there. She didn't want to
come out. Had to pull her out. That's us by nature. We want
to come out of this world, but God has to forcibly bring us
out, doesn't He? And we don't look like much at
first, especially to this world. But as a parent thinks their
child is beautiful, God sees us in Christ, and He thinks we're
beautiful. Why? Because we're bloody. We're
covered in the blood of Christ. And He loves us. He loves us. Why? because of what his son
went through to have us. And you know, I love that little
daughter of mine even so much more now that I've seen what
my wife went through. And I love my wife even much
more, seeing what she went through for the sake of having that child.
And God the Father, for the sake of his son, for the glory of
his son, he loves the people. He loves the people. And you
know something about grandparents, too. I asked Joe Parks this one
time. I said, can you love a grandchild
like you love your own? You just kind of lit up and said,
you better believe it, buddy. And grandparents love their grandchildren
as much as their own because of the connection, the connection
with their own children. It's just an inseparable connection.
Well, God the Son, Christ prayed this about the Father in John
17. Look over there with me. We're right there. Look at what he said here. He
said, I am in them, and thou in me. You see, Joe Parks, I
know why he loves Joseph so much, because he looks just like John. You know, he does. And that's
the reason. We love our own. Yes, we do.
Especially if they look just like us and act a whole lot like
us and love us. That little boy loves his granddaddy
very much so. And Christ said, I in them, and
thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that
the world may know that thou hast sent me, and you have loved
them as you have loved me." This is something that we can't even
comprehend. We can't even enter into it,
not for a moment, that God the Father loves us like he loves
like he loves Christ. It's just incomprehensible. That's
what the Spirit says. That's what it says. He put his
Son, he put his Son through such excruciating and horrible torture
and agony just to have us for our sakes, didn't he? He put
his Son through that. Greater love hath no man than
this. He laid down his life. Well, that's briefly the birth
process. Now look with me very briefly
at the life and growth. of a believer. There's some amazing
correlations here and the similarities between natural and spiritual
birth. And like I said before, I believe
that's the reason God gives us children. I believe that's the
sole purpose, except to bring about his purposes here in this
earth, to work out this end or that end through different people.
But he gives us children and holds us accountable for acknowledging
him and seeing what he teaches us. He gives us light. through
giving us children, and his children, his people, believers, they see
their heavenly Father. They see the relationship with
their heavenly Father and with Jesus Christ in nearly everything
that their children do. There's not a day that goes by
that I don't see something in my daughter that reminds me,
or our relationship that reminds me of my heavenly Father and
my relationship with him. That's the whole purpose of it
all. All things were created for him and by him and for him,
for his glory. They were created. And look at
these amazing similarities of the growing up and the maturity
of a young, of a child with spiritual birth. First of all, when a child
is born, it's born bloody, bloody. And the scripture says that we're
born on that riven side of Christ, that we're washed in Christ's
blood. And that's how we're born. We're covered in the blood of
Christ and born again. A child at birth will begin to
cry. Now, I've told you this before,
but when I saw that little girl being born, the first thing Donnie
talked about counting all the fingers and toes, I wasn't interested
in that right off the bat. Because when she was born, she
was kind of lifeless looking. She was kind of limp. You know,
until those lungs get to going in a little child, until they
begin to breathe this air, that's the life of a child. And she was born kind of limp
and kind of lifeless. And I was a little bit concerned.
Doctor pulled her out of there. There was no sign of life in
her. And he began to shake her. Come on. Come on now. Come on. I wasn't counting toes or fingers. I wasn't even concerned if she
was a boy or a girl. Come on now. Come on. And I was
going to come on now. You know what I was waiting for? And that's the most
beautiful noise in the ears of God the Father. When finally
one of his children, in the process of time, cries out, Lord save
me or I'll perish. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Birth has begun. A new life has
come forth. There's no cry. It's death. No sign of life. There's no cry.
And that little child, when it's born, one of the first things
it needs is cleaning up. It needs bathing. And it needs
some comfort. I've related these things to
you, but I'll rehearse them with you again. But when the doctor
first brought her out of her mother's womb, and he finally
clipped the umbilical cord, and they took her and put her in
a blanket and gave her to me. Now she was, like I said, she
was covered with blood and this and that and the other. But something
drew her to me. But anyway, I took her over.
And they had a basin of warm water over there. And I took
her over there and they dimmed the lights. And I took her over
there in that warm water. She had her eyes closed. And
she was screaming and crying. Her eyes were bloody looking.
And I took her over there in that warm basin of water. Took
that blanket off of her and laid her down in that water and began
to wash her up and clean her up. And then I began to talk
to her. It's okay. She was crying. I
said, all right. Daddy's here. Daddy's here. Her eyes opened, and she looked
up into my face, and I melted. I melted. But a child at birth needs bathing,
needs comforting, needs to be spoken to. And God Almighty,
the Scripture says, sanctifies us or cleanses us by the washing
of water. How? By His Word. By His Word. God's Spirit takes the Word,
the Gospel which we preach, And washes our polluted minds from
all the filthy notions that we have, washes us from self-righteous
vain notions and sin and corruption. And then God Almighty speaks
peace to our heart through the Word. It's OK. It's OK. Christ died for you. I know you're
a sinner, but I love you. It's OK. Through the Gospel,
the voice of the Father, He says, Peace, be still. And we, one
day, we quit our crying. And we rejoice through believing. At first, the child needs covering,
needs clothing. After I bathed that little girl
up and got her all cleaned up as much as possible, I was really
afraid to bathe her very hard. I didn't get it all off of her.
But you better believe every sin stain is removed from God's
children. But I was a little bit leery. I thought she might
break, you know. But then I gave her to one of
the nurses and they began clothing her, putting something, you know,
the nurses just take them and just treat them like dish rags.
But they covered her and clothed her, and finally she was warm. She was used to that womb for
nine months, you know, the safe haven of rest to her for nine
months. And she needed to be warmed up,
and God, and covered from her nakedness. They can't survive
in this world without covering. Their nakedness won't allow.
And God wraps us in the robe of Christ's righteousness, because
we cannot survive in God's presence. We cannot live. We need to be
made meat. for the inheritances of the same.
We need to be covered. Our naked souls must be covered
with the robe of Christ's righteousness, and we need to have our hearts
warmed by the preaching of the gospel to feel like we're accepted
in the beloved. And then, when a child comes
forth, one of the first things that it wants is it craves the
mother's breast. It wants something to eat. It
wants some meal. Now, I don't know I'm not trying to be facetious
here, but I don't know what modern doctors think that breasts are
for. But God made them for children
to eat from, right? And I wonder about the foolish
notions of this religious generation. Don't you? The doctors of this
world. The scripture says, as newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow
thereby. That you may grow thereby. Now, if you don't have any appetite,
something is wrong. Something is wrong. But this
is one of the first signs of true spiritual life in a newborn
spiritual baby. They desire that sincere milk
of the gospel. They have to have it. And they're
under the sound of it at every opportunity. And water won't
suffice. I've tried that before and babysitting
her at first, tried to give her a bottle of water, and it might
do for a while, but after a while she wants milk, mama's milk. And let me say this too, wouldn't
offend anybody here, but only mother's milk would suffice,
not a formula, not water, but mama's milk. And what we've got
today are a bunch of formula-fed religionists. That's what we've
got. been fed on church creeds, Roman
roads, Sunday school literature, this and that and the other.
And what people really need is the milk of God's word, just
what we're going through tonight. God's word. It has all the nutrients
that people could need. We don't need some Sunday school
quarter late. We need God's word. People need
to be fed a steady diet of God's word. That's the whole problem. Everything, there's everything
that a child needs in a mother's milk. All of the things that
give them their immune system, it's immunity. All these things. And everything that we need as
children of God is to be found right here in God's Word. That's
the reason he said desire. Desire. And the little child
can really live for extended periods of time. I know mothers
who have nursed their children for four and five and six years.
And those children seem to be very healthy to this day, very
healthy, because all the fullness that that child needs, they receive
from their mother. And we've received from Christ
and from his word all the fullness that we need, grace for grace.
And another thing, at first, the child begins to grow and
begins to learn in this life and begins to grow. Its eyes
develop, and us spiritually speaking, Our discernment, our spiritual
discernment, our spiritual eyes begin to grow. Our vision increases. We see things more clearly. As
we see Christ, we see things much more clearly. And a little
child, his ears become sensitive. You know when a little child
gets to be, I don't know how old, two, three, four, five,
six months, you know, all these senses begin to heighten and
become enlivened. Their ears become more sensitive.
And spiritually speaking, We become more sensitive to the
gospel. We listen a little more keenly to messages. We listen
for that bell to be rung when our ears grow. And then our bodies
grow. As little children, our bodies
begin to grow and take on strength. And God's people begin to become
stronger, spiritually speaking, become strong members of the
church. And then our minds, little children's minds and their intellects
begin to increase. And we, as Scripture says in
Ephesians, Three, it is. We grow up in Him in all things,
in all things. And then, very briefly, a child
begins to look like its parents. It doesn't at first. Nobody,
nobody really own up to looking like, you know, that bloody mess.
But in time, that child begins to look, begins to look like
its parents. And they take on the image of
their parent. And we become conformed to the
image of Christ and take on His characteristics. Christ in many
of you. I see the characteristics of
my Savior in many of you. And then the child lives under
the care and the protection of the Father. And we live, and
Terry quoted, and in Him we live and move and have our being.
We live in our Heavenly Father's house. His Spirit is our habitation. His Son is our shelter. And He
cares for us. He feeds us. He protects us.
He provides for us. And He's not going to let anything
happen to us. just like we want with our children. We protect
them and lead them and guide them in all truth. In Him we
live and move and have our being. Why? Because we've been born
of God Almighty. We've been born, not of blood,
not talking about a natural thing here, but a spiritual thing,
not of the will of man, not of the will of flesh, but of God
Almighty, a supernatural thing. God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit get together and send forth the Son. And he's conceived,
and then the Son comes down, and the Son gives birth to a
people upon that cross. And out of that agony and that
pain, prevailing in sorrow, comes sons of God, people of God, because
we've been born of God's Son. The Son of God prevailed in birth. And Paul said it, too, that,
I prevail, I prevail until Christ be formed in you, until he be
formed in you. Number 255, Blessed Assurance,
Jesus is Mine. He talks about being born.