All right, in 1 John chapter
5 and verse 1 through 5, notice that the emphasis is upon those
that are born of God. 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. for whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Now, while we readily admit that
the Apostle Paul is the most prolific writer in all of the
New Testament, having given us some 13 books, 14 if we count
the Hebrew epistle, And yet, John comes next, I guess, having
given us a glorious gospel in which he declares the deity and
the eternality of the Son of God, having given us three epistles,
1 John, 2 John, 3 John, though two of them are short, and also
the book of the Revelation. Now, in this study of the Word
of God, we will come at it in this manner. using a two-fold
approach or emphasis to the message today. Number one, we want to
have a short overview of the book of 1 John and of the author,
John himself, and of the epistle in 1 John as we have it in our
Bible. Secondly, we want to have a consideration
of the doctrines that are contained in the text that we read this
morning, which is the new birth and its importance and its effect
upon the person that John describes as born of God. We want to look
and see what the new birth is, how it comes to be, and the effect
that it has upon those that God quickens and regenerates. First
of all, a few thoughts about John and this epistle. John the man, the servant of
God and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Samuel E. Pierce, in
his commentary on 1 John wrote these words. He was a high favorite
with our Lord Jesus Christ, unquote, John, John the 11th. John refers to himself several
times in the epistle, not personally and not by his name, but when
he refers to himself in the epistle, he refers to himself as that
apostle that Jesus loved. I think I counted some five times
that you find that in the Gospel of John. Now of course we know
that our Lord Jesus Christ loves all of his elect. He loves all of his elect and
none but them. For in John chapter 13 and verse
1, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them
unto the end. Now note that if you would. He
loved his own. And don't forget what we read
in the gospel of John chapter 11 And in verse 3 and in verse
5, concerning Lazarus and his two sisters that our Lord often
accompanied with. In verse 3, when the sisters,
Mary and Martha, sent word to the Lord concerning the sickness
of their brother, the message was this. He whom thou lovest
is sick. And then when you drop down to
verse five of that chapter, the fact is stated. Now, Jesus loved
Martha and her sister and Lazarus. What can we say but that our
Lord has an everlasting love for his own, for those that the
Father gave him before the foundation of the world. And here are a
few examples of an especial love of God towards certain individual
as it is expressed in the scripture with whom he shared a very special
bond and a strong fellowship during his sojourn upon the earth. Now, be that as it may, when
we come to the man and the epistle, we know that John can make the
claim, and that he does, that he is giving us, or them, a first-hand
eyewitness account of the incarnate identity of the Lord Jesus Christ,
of the one that was from the beginning. Notice how he begins
the epistle in chapter 1 and verse 1. That which was from
the beginning, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. I believe that here the we is
expressive of the apostles and the companions, those that saw
and followed our Lord in the days of his flesh. But then look
at the second and the third verses of chapter one. For the life
was manifested, we have seen it, and bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with
us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So in verse 1, he was from the
beginning. He is not a created being. He
has always and eternally and everlastingly existed. The second verse, he was with
the Father and then he was manifested unto us by the incarnation in
the flesh. So it's no empty claim that John
is making when he says that he had handled and seen and touched
and been an eyewitness of the things of Christ. Let's run through
his resume as a fellow and an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was personally called, commissioned,
and taught by the incarnate Son of God. He was there on the mount
when our Lord was transfigured in his glory. He saw many miracles
done from the hand of our Lord. He was there when Lazarus was
called forth out of the tomb. He sat next to our Lord at the
last supper and leaned upon his bosom. He was there in the garden
and he witnessed the agony of our blessed Lord. He was there
on Golgotha when the God-man died and gave up the spirit. He saw him after his resurrection
from the dead. John actually stood in the empty
tomb where our Lord had been laid. And John's eyes watched
the Lord as he ascended back to the right hand of God as recorded
in Acts chapter 1. Indeed, John is a capable witness
of the incarnate identity of the God-man. And then let's let
our focus shift to the content of the epistle or the letter
that we know as 1 John in our Bible. What does John write about,
or as it is with his gospel? I believe that John begins with
the eternal deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Calvin wrote in his introduction
to the book that the letter is not systematic. That is, 1 John
is not systematic. And it runs the gamut between
hard doctrine and exhortation based upon that doctrine of the
Lord. He warns of Antichrist. who come
and pervert the doctrine of the person of our Lord, and the Apostle
goes back and forth between these things. He does not finish one
subject systematically and then move on to the next, for example,
as Paul sometimes does. And we find that the Apostle
John, in this great epistle, makes several contrasts which
we'll only notice in short and in passing. For example, some
of the contrasts are the distinction or the distinctive difference
between those that know God and those that do not know God. This is a main subject of discussion
in this book, and the apostle touches upon it several times
in this epistle. Knowing the Lord in a saving
and in a spiritual way which begets assurance then that we
have him as our Lord and Savior, that we have a saving bond with
him. This knowledge is both doctrinal
and it is experimental, and it produces the fruits of righteousness
in those that know God. We know that we know him, chapter
2 and verse 3. We know that he was manifested
to take away our sin, chapter 3 and verse 5. Now, other contrasts
in the book are light versus darkness, life versus death,
truth versus a lie, love versus hate, those who are of God, and
those who are of the world. If we turn to the end of the
book, 1 John chapter 5, verse 19 and verse 20, and we know
that we are of God and that the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the son of God
is come and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is
true. We are in him that is true, even in his son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and eternal life. Now I'd like to repeat
for emphasis, there is both a strong and frequent distinction between
those that are of God and those that are of the world. John says,
we are of God. Now, let's ask, how are we of
God? The we now is not limited to
the apostles and the disciples of Christ, but to the children
of God in common. He includes himself, the apostle
and all believers. all to whom he includes as beloved,
all genuine believer, sons of God, born again, such are of
God. They are ech of, from, out of
God, and not that we are from him or of him or out of him,
in the same sense, that is our Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, it
is what Lange's commentary called, and I quote, the believer's consciousness
of his divine sonship, unquote. We are of God. We're born of
him. We are in Christ, and you might
notice how often John uses a phrase, we know such are of, from, out
of God, how? By election, by adoption, redemption,
regeneration, and by calling. We are of God. And another thing we know as
a great contrast from we are of God, I read it, The whole
world lies in wickedness. 1 John 5, 18 and 19. The whole world is under the
influence of the wicked one. If you look at 1 John 2, 15 through
17. Love not the world. Friendship with the world is
enmity with God. The world is anti-God. Beside, it is passing away. It is under the judgment of God. And can we see the wickedness
of it everywhere we look and everything that we see and hear?
that the whole worldly, earthly system is corrupt. And that's the view of the scripture. And now coming to our text, which
tells how we come to enter into our spiritual life and how we
become believers. And we start with the first part.
verse 1 of chapter 5. Whosoever believes that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Now look at that. This is neither
the first or the only time that John mentions this spiritual
renewal in this grand epistle. Brother Mike mentioned John is
the only one that uses the name or the word Antichrist. So John
is the only one or the most distinct one that uses the expression
born of God. It is an important subject with
him and he lays great and heavy emphasis upon it. He gives it
a very prominent place. in the writings that he has given
us in the scripture. By the way, if we think about
it, John's, the gospel of John, is the only gospel out of the
four that includes an account of the Lord's discussion with
Nicodemus about the necessity of the new birth in order to
see and enter into the kingdom of God. John chapter 3, verse
1 through 11. And in 1 John, he mentions being
born again no less than seven times in this epistle that has
five chapters. If you're interested in taking
them down, I'll just give them. They're chapter 2 and verse 29. Chapter 3 and verse 9, but they
are twice. Chapter 4, verse 7. Chapter 5,
verse 1, our text. Chapter 5 and verse 4. Chapter
5 and verse 18. and then once it is begat. Each time that John does this,
it is the word geneo, or is it geneo, meaning to begat, or to
gender, or to bear, or to procreate, or to bring forth. This word
is translated various ways in the New Testament. For example,
it's the same word translated of natural begatting, as for
example, in Matthew chapter 1. Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat
Jacob, and so on. It is the same word. It is also
translated as born and bear, delivered, begotten, made, brought
forth, and even gender in the New Testament. And if we might
scan these texts in 1 John that speak of being born again, then
we begin to grasp the importance of the significance that John
attaches to this being born of God, as well as the impact that
it has upon those that are born again. John attaches the utmost
importance to this new birth. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 29. If you know that he is righteous,
that is God, then you know that those who do righteousness are
born of God. Literally, they are begotten
of God in the spiritual sense. In 1 John chapter 3. And verse
9, we read, Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, or
his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is
born of God. That is, they that are born again
do not make sin the way, the habit of their life. It is not
that they attain perfection, but that sin no longer has dominion
over them, so that they are slaves and servants unto sin and the
wicked one. We come to chapter 4 and verse
7. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God and knows God. Chapter 5, verse 4. Whosoever is born of God overcometh
the world. And we read it in verse 18 of
chapter 5. We know that whosoever is born
of God Now to kind of sum up the depth and the breadth of
the new birth, God is righteous. Those born of God, therefore,
do righteousness. God is love. Those born of God
love God and also love those that are begotten of God. And they practice sanctification. And in John's words, they overcome
the world. Now this is the very opposite,
the exact opposite with those that do not know God and are
still dead in their trespasses and in their sin. Going back
to chapter five, verse one, and the subject of the new birth. I must tell you first that the
new birth, has been cheapened and degraded by and in Christendom
and has been prostituted before a vile world and a cheap substitute
and a worthless imitation has been brought in its place and
pawned off as the real thing. Everywhere we go, we hear people
talking about being born again, or people say they are born again. Religious leaders of our day
and preachers in the pulpit are as ignorant as Nicodemus was
on the subject of regeneration and the nature of the new birth. This new birth has even been
hijacked by the libertines and by the liberals and the secularists
in our particular day. So that what in some places is
passed off as the new birth is nothing more than a sorry brand
of religious humanism based upon the supposed free choice and
decision of the sinner himself. That the new birth, they say,
is the result of something done by the sinner. That it is a result
of something willed or done by the sinner, such as he or she,
as the case may be, decides or wills to be born again. that somebody comes to the point
in their life when they say, all right, I've heard enough
to convince me. I will now let God birth me into
the kingdom of God. That's a cheap imitation of the
real thing as it appears in the scripture. John says something. Let's look at this verse kind
of dissected a little bit. Let's look at the word whosoever. This is not a free will and not
a universal expression. nor does it mean all without
exception, nor does it refer at all to human ability, nor
does it imply any sort of universalism, only as it is taken in the context
of the scripture. rather the word whosoever and
whoso are restricted in every case by the very context and
the subject in that context. Here is an example, Revelation
20 and 15, and you ought to take this down. It is there, whosoever
there's that word, whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now can this mean
all without exception? No, the word means everyone,
who, all that, as many as, they, them, those. The idea being,
everyone, that is, all that believe, each one believing is or has
been born of God. Believers are born of God. And to turn it around, They that
are born of God become believers. Or this is, there could be general
agreement on this if we took it no further than this right
here. But then the question is raised,
what is cause and effect? Which is cause, which is effect
in this, whosoever is born of God believeth? Now as to faith
and regeneration, The question is this, does faith produce regeneration? Or does regeneration, that is
the new birth, give being unto faith? Or some claim, are they
inseparable and they all go together? Some claim they are inseparable,
but surely one must go first and the other must follow. For one time, We were in unbelief. We were unbelievers. We did not
believe because we were not born again. Once we were dead in trespassing
and in sin. So the question is this, did
we believe in order to be quickened or did we believe as a result
of God having quickened us by the sovereign power of the Spirit
of God? To take the case to an example,
Did Lazarus stir himself? Did he move first in order to
be resurrected and to come out of the grave? Or did he come
forth because Jesus Christ restored him to life and then called him
forth out of the tomb? And of course he came. So in
verse 1 of 1 John chapter 5, Samuel Pierce called this, quote,
a most solemn assertion in which all the articles of our most
holy faith are included," unquote. Right here are summed up the
article of our great salvation and of our faith. This believing,
so say some, is in the present tense. It's in the present tense,
that is, everyone believing. Believing, everyone believing
present tense. While the born of God is in the
perfect tense, so that being the result, that believing is
the result then of being born of God and not the cause of it. Or to put it another way, faith
is both the result and the evidence of the new birth or of regeneration. Whosoever believes is, that is,
has been born of God. But John leaves nothing to the
opinion of man as to the object and the exercise of this faith
that comes by the new birth. The essence of this faith, what
is it? It's right here in this verse.
And we're going to look at it. What is the essence, the nature
of this faith of they who are born again and who believe? What is the essence of it? It's this, that Jesus is the
Christ. Everyone that is born of God
believes. And what he believes is that
Jesus is the Christ. This faith is exercised towards
him. And like Noah's dove that he
released on the flood, it found no place to rest the sole of
its feet but in the ark, Genesis chapter 8. So the faith of God's
elect finds no resting place but in and upon Christ and Him
alone. So hear it again from verse one. The essence of saving faith is
this, that Jesus is the Christ. Let's look at that. Now, Jesus
is what we might call the human name of our Lord of the Son of
Man. Jesus means Savior, the one who
saves. Now call his name Jesus, Matthew
121, or he shall save his people from their sin. But secondly,
look at the word Christ. Jesus is its human name, but
believeth that Jesus is the Christ. Christ means the Anointed One,
the Messiah. They believe that Jesus is the
anointed one is the Messiah. Might be the word Christos or
Christo. The anointed, the anointed one
of God. From a root word, Creole perhaps
it is, that means that one who has been smeared or one who has
been rubbed or anointed with oil in order to consecrate them
under some religious service to which they are appointed by
God. In the Old Testament, under the
old economy, it was common for the high priest and for the kings
to be anointed with oil and initiated into their office. It is interesting
in Acts chapter 4 and verse 27, it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ
this way. Thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
hast anointed. Thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
hast anointed. If you look at Isaiah chapter
61 verse 1 and Luke chapter 4, Verse 18 and 19, you put the
prophecy and the fulfillment are brought together. Hear the
confession of the Apostle Peter. It's in Matthew 16, 16. It's
again in John 6 and verse 69, when Jesus asked, who do men
say that I am? And the Lord asked them, Who
do you say that I am? Peter answered this, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. There's that faith. There's
that confession. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is born of God, believeth that Jesus is the Christ. Hear the
Samaritan woman. That would be in John's Gospel,
chapter 4, verse 29. Come see a man who told me all
things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Again, hear the eunuch in Acts
8 in verse 37. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. I know that verse is not in some
old text and not in some versions of the scripture, but let's look
now back at our verse, 1 John 5 verse 1, and the little word
is, the little word is, which is present tense again, and speaks
of a present and a continuing existence as the anointed one
of God. Believeth that Jesus is the Christ. Now, not that he was, not that
he will be, but that he is. Constantly and presently, he
is the Christ. He's the anointed one of God. He's the Messiah. And John makes
this doctrine of Christ the great divide between the people of
God and the people of the world. Those that confess that Jesus
is the Christ do so because they have been regenerated. They believe
in the deity of Christ, in his saviorhood of the Lord Jesus. They believe in his blood atonement. And they have an ear and they
have a heart for the sound of the gospel. And they accept the
word of God and what it says and teaches about our Lord Jesus
Christ. On the other hand, While those
who deny this, John calls Antichrist. Flip back with me, Brother Mike
read this last Sunday, but to the second chapter and verse
22 and 23, and let's enter it into the record again. 1 John 2, 22, and 23. Who is a liar but he that denies
that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth
the Father and the Son. Whosoever denies the Son, the
same has not the Father. And that is very clear. Look, if you would, again, at
chapter 4 and verses 1 through 3. Here the apostle gives us
the means, where am I? We may discern him that is of
God and him that is not of God. Verse 2, here's how you know
the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God Every spirit that confesses
not or denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not
of God and this is that of Antichrist wherever you have heard that
it should come and even now is in the world they deny his deity
and They deny particular atonement. Some of them, many of them, even
say that Christ might have sinned while he were wearing our flesh
in this world. Because it is through the eyes
and under the spell of Antichrist that they view the God-man. They're
not of God. They haven't been born again.
They don't know him. And they are liars. who deny
that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, that He
is the Messiah, that He is the Anointed One, and they are antichrists
who deny the oneness of the Father and the Son. John is very clear
about that. Calvin wrote, as Christ is the
object of true faith, so the stumbling block over which heretics
stumble, unquote. He is both. He is the object
of true faith, but he is also that rock of offense over which
they stumble who are ignorant and know not Him." So let's close
our study today again by asking, this new birth, is it of man
or is it of God? Which is first, which is cause,
and which is effect? Which comes first, faith in Christ
or the new birth? Or, as some say, it's a joint
effort, a part for man, a part for God, a part for Christ, and
a part for the preacher. But John states the fact, but
not the process. Though he does say they are born
of God. Not just born again, but born
of God. God is the one who has birthed
them. The new birth is from God. The Lord told Nicodemus this
in John chapter 3. This new birth is again, a second
time. You must be born again. The margin
has it from above. In verse 5, born of water and
of the spirit. In verse 6, he said that it is
spiritual. Whatsoever, whosoever is born
of spirit is spirit. Or I think it is Whosoever is
born of Spirit, Spirit is. And then in verse 8, almighty,
important verse in John chapter 3, that it is a mysterious, inscrutable,
sovereign work of the Spirit of God. That it is the Spirit
moves where it pleases. and does as it would and therefore
it is a sovereign work. Well in John chapter 6 the Lord
in hearing Peter's confession says this, it is the spirit that
quickens The flesh profits nothing. The flesh hath nothing to add.
The flesh hath nothing to offer. The flesh hath nothing to bring.
The flesh hath nothing to affect this great new birth. We had
no part in our natural birth, no choice, no part at all. So the spiritual birth is an
act of God. It is a work of God. It is a
sovereign work of God. And whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ, does so both as an effect and an evidence
that they are born again. And their belief is this. Jesus
is the Christ. Jesus is the Son of God. Don't make him just a human Jesus. He is the God-man. He is the
God-man. And as such was ever in the beginning
with the Father.