God incarnate, that's who he is. Who is this? He's the son of the living God. Said, who is this man? Who is this man? This man, who is he? Well, he's the brightness of God's glory, that's who he is. He's the promised Messiah. He's God's Christ. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He's the Redeemer of people who are enslaved by sin.

When the disciples asked Him to show them the Father, and that was Philip who asked that, he said, when you've seen me, You've seen the Father. Who is this man? This man, who is he? Well, he's wonderful, he's counselor, he's a mighty God, he's the everlasting Father, and he's the Prince of Peace. He's the one upon whose broad and gloriously strong almighty shoulders rests the government of all the universe. That's who He is. He's none other than God in the flesh. And He came to save sinners.

Is there a sinner in the house? Those of you who are watching, is there a sinner in your presence? Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? That which they found fault with Jesus of Nazareth over was this, this man received sinners. Is there a sinner here? Are you one? Has the Spirit of God convinced you you're a sinner? What about you who are watching? Are you a sinner? No good? No righteousness? No merits? Fallen in Adam? Unable to do anything good, are you a sinner? Well, the message is for you then. It's for you. I have good news from God. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. God saves sinners. Christ came down to redeem sinners. He lived for sinners. He died for sinners. He arose for sinners. He intercedes for sinners. There is in Christ Jesus redemption for the ruined, grace for the guilty, mercy for the lowest, forgiveness for the wicked. Righteousness for the wretched. Deliverance for the destitute. There is in him salvation for sinners.

This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. Well, my question then, based on this is, when did he receive sinners? And when does He receive sinners? Well, I want you to know, first of all, He received sinners in the covenant of grace as a gift. How many times did our Lord Jesus, especially in the Gospel of John, speak of those that the Father gave Him? And he received them as a gift. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He received sinners as a gift from the Father. This was a gift of divine election. The Trinity ordained a particular number of individuals to be the recipients of God's saving grace. And in order for them to be saved in a just way, in a righteous way, the Son of God would have to receive them and bear full responsibility for their salvation. And when God chose a people, He gave them to Christ and Christ received them as a gift.

He said in his high priestly prayer in John 17, I pray not for the world. I'm not praying for everybody, he said. I'm praying for those that thou gavest me. Thine they were and you gave them to me. I received them as a gift. It's a very humbling thing that before time ever began, way back in the eternity past, how humbling it is to think of and really to rejoice in the fact that God gave us to Christ and He received us. He took us as it were to His breast. He said, I love them. I'll bear their sins in my own body. I'll live for them. I'll die for them. I'll suffer the wrath of God for them. I receive them. Father, you can entrust them to me."

So entering into this subject of receiving Christ, we need to remember that He first received us. He first received us. And He receives us when the Spirit of God convinces us that we're sinners. That we have no goodness to claim. We don't have any righteousness. We don't have any merits. And the Holy Spirit brings us to the Lord Jesus and we, as it were, fall before Him. Empty handed mercy beggars, that's what we are. And when we come to God through Christ, Christ receives us. He has never turned a sinner away.

We just sang Christ receiveth sinful man. Paul said there in 1 Timothy, it's a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's why he came. You wanna know why he died that agonizing death upon the cross of Calvary? Why he bore the wrath of God in his own soul on the cross? It's because he loved sinners. And he took our sins and our sorrows, nailed them to the tree. And when the Holy Spirit convicts us, there's no goodness in us, and we just cast ourselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I'll receive you. I'll receive you.

Our Lord went in to eat with a fellow one time, And a woman who was a sinner came and washed his feet. Old Simon the Pharisee said, if he were really a prophet, he'd know what kind of woman this is that's come to him. She's a sinner. But here's what Simon the Pharisee didn't understand. For such people, Christ came into the world. You see, the religious do-gooders need not apply, and they won't apply. They won't come to Him. Who will come to the great physician? Those that are sick. That's what our Lord said. Look back here in Matthew. Let me show you Matthew chapter, what is it? 11, I believe. Matthew 9, Matthew chapter 9. He came for sinners. He didn't come for righteous people. Righteous people don't need any help. Don't want any help. Righteous people say, I can get there on my own. I'm obeying God's law. So you think.

Matthew 9. Verse nine says, as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom, and he saith unto him, follow me. There is the effectual voice of the Savior. And Matthew arose and followed him. And Matthew decided he'd have a big feast to honor the Savior, and he invited all of his friends. Verse 10, it came to pass as Jesus said it, meet in the house. Behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. He's never turned a sinner away. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, why does your master eat with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus, when he heard, because he hears everything, He said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

He came for sinners, not the righteous. That's why in this passage in Luke chapter 15, you have one parable in three parts. You have one lost sheep among a hundred. You have one lost coin among ten. And you have one lost son among two sons. Well, the ninety and nine sheep pictured the Pharisees who needed no repentance. All you had to do is ask him. And the nine coins that were, they were in the dust. They didn't need to be sought and found. And the elder son, he didn't need the father's mercy. Got two groups of people here. Those who are convinced that they're sinners and those who in their own minds and hearts are convinced they're righteous. And there's no mercy for them. If you don't need righteousness from Christ, there is no hope for you. That's the bottom line. If you're not a sinner, as God defines a sinner now, There's no hope for you.

So the Lord Jesus, He received us as a gift from the Father. And when we come to Him as a mercy beggar, and we cast our lot upon Him as it were, we cast our souls upon Him, oh, this is the very Savior I need, somebody who will save me 100% because I can't contribute anything. He receives us. He will not turn you away.

You say, I'm too bad? Now hang on now. This is his specialty, saving sinners. We're all bad. Don't say you're too bad. Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners. And I just say, brother, I'm right there with you. Don't you? I'm right there with you. He receives all who come to Him and receive Him, and I'll show you in a little bit what that means.

And I'll tell you a third way He receives us. He received us back in old eternity. He receives us in conversion. And he receives a child of God when we die. He's the first one to greet us. And it's an everlasting, joyful greeting. We're all gonna take that final journey I'm fully convinced by the Word of God that when I breathe my last here on earth, I'll then breathe heavenly air, and I will immediately be in the presence of the Savior.

I've preached Him. I've studied about Him. By the grace of God, cast myself upon him for mercy. And when I close my eyes in this life and the angels of God gather around my soul to escort me into his presence, he will receive me in the glory. You see, the end of our life here on earth, physically, is the beginning of a life that will never end, a joyful life.

All right, with that being said as an introduction, go back to my text here in John 1. And in our attempt to understand this passage in John 1, verses 11, 12, 13, and 14, there are four things that I want you to see.

Number one, the first thing that the Spirit of God teaches us in verses 10 and 11 is that we can't come to Christ, we won't come to Christ. Look at verse 11, well, verse 10, He was in the world, There's a verse worth studying and preaching on right there. He was in the world. What an astounding thing. He was? You mean God was? He was in the world. The world that was made by Him. And the world didn't even know Him, didn't even recognize Him. Well, He came unto His own. and his own received him not.

So the first thing that the Spirit teaches us, and it's obvious from other passages of scripture as well, if we're left to ourselves, we won't come to Christ. We have no desire. We have no ability. There will be no reception of Christ apart from a work of amazing effectual grace.

The second thing that's very clear, the Spirit of God is equally clear in telling us that some do in fact receive Christ as he's set forth in the Word of God. But as many as received him, some do receive him. Some do. What about me? Maybe I can get in on this too. Maybe you can get in on this too. Some do receive Him.

And the third thing, the Spirit also teaches us this, that the reason that there are people who receive Him is because they are born of God. The birth, the new birth precedes the reception. In other words, the only reason we receive Christ Jesus is because the Lord Himself has done a great work of revelation and conversion and regeneration in our hearts. It's the only reason.

And the fourth thing the Spirit of God leads John to tell us is that those who do receive Christ have wonderful privileges. Wonderful privileges. Well, let me go through these real quick.

Number one, no natural reception of Christ. Verse 11 says, He came. For two reasons, or there are two, well, yeah, two reasons why he came. Number one, God sent him. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ. God himself sent him. We didn't ask for him. We didn't say, oh Lord, send us a savior. No. God sent him. What a mercy of mercies. God sent a savior for folks like us.

But not only was he sent by the Father, he came voluntarily. And that covenant of grace when the triune God gave to Christ a people and he received us. He not only pledged to come because the Father would send Him, but He pledged to come of His own voluntary willingness. He wanted to come. He wanted to die. He said to His disciples concerning that last Passover feast, He said, I've looked forward to this, I've longed for this day when I would eat this last Passover with you. It was a joy for him to go to the cross to redeem us. He came. He came.

The scripture says in verse 11, he came unto his own and his own received him not. So you have those two words repeated, his own, his own. A.T. Robertson. old Baptist who's dead now. He was a Greek scholar. He said that that first, he came unto his own, is in the neutered gender. He came to his own property. He came to his own creation. And then Robertson says the second his own has to do with people. People. The first had to do with property. He came into His own property. And when He came to His own property, the people that He made, the people He created, the people He sustained, the people to whom He gives daily mercies, the people received Him not.

There's no natural reception of Christ. Just can't be. If this is all dependent upon you, you might as well give up. Because I guarantee you, based on the word of God, you cannot and you will not receive Christ. You don't have the ability. You don't have the willingness. You don't have the power. You don't have the desire. It just isn't there. You have no spiritual power, no spiritual abilities. You have no spiritual nature. The things of God are really foreign to you. The natural mind receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. You can't discern them. We can't discern the gospel. We can't discern the things of God. We can't discern redemption by the bloody death of the Lord Jesus.

But some do receive. We receive him, number one, as he's set forth in the Scriptures. We don't receive him biblically according to what we've always heard or our own estimations of who Jesus is. We receive him as he's set forth in the Word of God. We receive him as our prophet. And in doing so, we confess and admit our ignorance. When you come to the Word of God to study it, if you want to learn anything, approach the Word of God this way, I don't know anything. God's got to be my teacher. To receive Christ is to bow to His teachings. What he has to say about God? What he has to say about us? What he has to say about himself? It's to receive him as prophet.

And thirdly, it's to receive him as our high priest. The high priest and the priesthood of the Old Testament had basically two jobs. Offer sacrifices and intercede to God for the people. That's who Christ is. He offered the sacrifice of Himself, and He prays for us. It's to receive Him as prophet and priest. It's to receive Him as King, our Lord. The believing thief said, Lord, remember me. I don't know how much he understood, but he recognized the fact that that one bleeding and dying on the middle cross was the Lord of glory. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. I believe you're the king. He didn't look like a king. But even upon the cross of Calvary, he spoke like a king.

Saul of Tarsus was met by the sovereign Christ on the road to Damascus. And old Saul said, Who art thou, Lord? Lord? It's to bow to it. Bend the knee. And we don't want to bend the knee to anybody. That's why people, they choke over the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty. I don't believe God's in control of everything. That's what they say. Can't be. I'll do what I want to do, and if I want to let Him save me, I'll let Him. If I don't, He can't save me. You think you're the boss. You're not the boss. In the Spirit of God, in humbling us, He brings us down low to show us there's one Lord. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul said, there's one Lord. One faith, one baptism.

What is it to receive Christ? It's to receive Him as my righteousness. I don't have any. I don't have any goodness. He has all of my acceptance before God. To receive Him is to believe on His name. So some do receive Christ. I have. I hope you have.

Well, that leads me to my third point, the reason that some people do receive Christ. Look at verse 13. These people who receive Him, who believe on His name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, These people who believe Him were born, not of blood. You don't get it through the bloodline. Just because people in your family were converted and saved, maybe your grandparents or your parents, whoever, just because they were children of God, that doesn't mean you're going to be. It doesn't run. in the family line. I know sometimes in the Bible that whole families were converted. But they were converted not because they were family. They were converted because they were sinners saved by grace, which were born.

But they weren't born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. That's free willism. It's not due to your will. I know there are a lot of people who think that the Lord can only act if we let him. That's just foreign to the word of God. Your will's not free. It's bound. That's why Christ said in John 5, 40, and you will not come to me that you might have life. You won't come, and John 6 said you can't come. You tell me a man can come, a man will come, and Christ said he can't come and he won't come. I think I believe him, I'm not gonna believe you. I'm not gonna believe these false preachers on television and on the radio.

Not on the will of the flesh. If your will has If God leaves you to your own will, you'll perish. There is no question about that. If he doesn't intervene, it's a hopeless case. And not of the will of man. Just because we want somebody to be saved and that we pray and ask God to save our family members, our friends, our neighbors, our loved ones, etc. But just because we want them to be saved, that don't mean it's going to happen. You remember what Paul said in Romans 10? He said, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Well, were they saved? Not natural, Israel. Most of them remained in blindness and in darkness. Well, then why does anybody receive Christ? Well, the reason is solely due to being born of God. Doesn't hardly need any explanation there. Born of God. The new birth. He gives life. And when he gives spiritual life, there's repentance. He grants us repentance. When he gives us life, there's the gift of faith. So we can't even lay hold of them and say, now that's what I did right there. You wouldn't have repentance or faith apart from the giving grace of our Lord.

Paul said, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. He said in Philippians 2, for it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. And brother James says over in James chapter one, of his own will, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creation.

Let me say this in the last place, the great privilege privileges of receiving Christ. Well, it means we can call God our Father. It sure means that. It means we're the beloved of the Lord. It means that we have the honor of referring to ourselves as the children of God. And we will be wisely taught John 6. They shall all be taught of God. We have perpetual access to God. It means we have a relationship with God that will never end. It means we have an eternal inheritance reserved for us in the heavens.

I'll give you one more thing, verse 14. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. This one that we receive by the gift of grace. He tabernacled among us one time. And John said we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace. and truth. And I'll tell you when you'll receive him, when you see his glory, that's when you'll receive him. When God does something for your blinded eyes, and you see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, His glory as of God, the glory as of the Son of Man. See His glory. That's when you'll receive Him as He's revealed in the Scriptures.

Do you need this Savior? This is the one I need. I come to Him every day, just a helpless sinner. Christ receiveth sinful men.

Well, let's sing a close