I invite you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of 1 John, 1 John chapter 5. And today I want to speak to
you on being born of God. I want to speak to you on the
new birth. I want to talk to you from this
text about what it is to be born again. I want to begin by reading
the passage, 1 John chapter 5. We're going to look at the first
four verses of this chapter. If you're taking notes, the title
at the top would just simply be, Born of God. And I think
you'll see this phrase mentioned twice in verse 1. And a third
time in verse 4, and it becomes really, I think, the key doctrine
in the book of 1 John. Beginning in verse 1, this is
God's inspired, inerrant and infallible Word. Whoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And whoever loves the
Father, loves the Child, born of Him. By this we know that
we love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God that
we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes
the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world. our faith. The greatest thing
that could ever happen to your life is for you to be born of
God. And the worst thing that could
ever happen to your life is for you not to be born of God. The new birth is that important.
Jesus said, except you be born again, you will not see the Kingdom
of heaven. And except you be born by the
Spirit, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. The new
birth is that essential to every one of us. And yet the tragedy
is in so many places that many profess Christ. who have never
been born again. And many attend church. Many
read the Bible. Many spend time with other Christians. And many are involved in Christian
activities and service. but have never been born again."
And that was a problem that many faced in the first century in
the early church. In that day, many professed Christ
but did not possess Christ. Many were in church but they
were not in Christ. And as a result, the Apostle
John wrote this letter known as 1 John to address this problem. Now the key verse in the entire
book of 1 John is found later in this chapter, verse 13. Now
1 John 5 verse 13 is the signature verse for this entire epistle
and it reads, these things I have written to you who believe in
the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have
eternal life. The gospel of John was written
that you might know how to be saved. 1 John has been written
to know if you are saved and that you are truly saved. And so it's a very important
book. And the key doctrine in this book is the doctrine of
regeneration. When we read the book of Romans,
the key doctrine is justification. When we read Galatians, the key
doctrine is justification, that the one who believes in Jesus
Christ is imputed the perfect righteousness of Christ and has
entered in to full acceptance with God in heaven. But 1 John
digs a little deeper. And it really answers the question
from whence did that faith come? If one is justified by faith
alone, where has this faith come from? And the doctrine of regeneration
is taught throughout this book. It is in verse 1 in these words,
born of God. It says again, born of Him. Verse 4, born of God. If you
would turn back to chapter 2 and verse 29, just so that your eye
can see this, in my Bible I've taken my pen and just underlined
this reoccurring phrase, born of God, or born of Him. In 1
John 2 verse 29, this says, if you know that He is righteous,
you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is, and
here's our phrase again, is born of God. In chapter 3 and verse
9, it's so important it is mentioned twice in this one verse. He writes in verse 9, no one
who is...here it is again...born of God practices sin. What this is saying, if you're
born of God, your life has been changed. You're headed in a new
direction. You're no longer living for sin
and practicing sin, you're now practicing righteousness. Yes,
you will still sin, you just will not live in sin and you
will not practice sin as a lifestyle. He goes on to say here in verse
9, no one who is born of God practices sin and He gives the
reason why, because His seed abides in Him. And he cannot
sin, and the idea there is still he cannot practice sin because
he is born of God. In chapter 4 and verse 7, we
see this same phrase again. In 1 John 4 verse 7, beloved,
let us love one another, for love is from God and everyone
who loves is...here it is again...born of God and knows God. That's how critically important
it is to be born of God. You become one who loves God.
You become one who believes that Jesus is the Christ. You become
one who no longer practices sin but your life is now on the narrow
path that is headed to life. We've already noted it in chapter
5 verses 1 and 4, but look at verse 18 in chapter 5, it is
mentioned yet another time. We know that no one who is, here
it is again, born of God sins. And the verb tense here for sins
carries the idea once again of practice is sin. He does not
live in sin. He does not live for sin. And
then at the end of verse 18, a very interesting statement,
but he who was born of God, keeps Him and the evil one does not
touch Him. We'll talk about this verse a
little bit later. Well, I think you see the importance
of this phrase, this truth, born of God. Well as we look at these
verses today in chapter 5, 1 through 4, I have three main headings
that I want to set before you. It will be very easy to follow
this message. I want to talk about first the
meaning. of being born of God. I mean,
what does this mean to be born of God? And then second, the
miracle of being born of God, because I believe it's the greatest
work that God ever does. And then third and finally, the
marks of being born of God. How would you know that you're
born of God? Well we'll take a look at this. Let's begin first
with the meaning, being born of God. Note verse 1 again, whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. This is the doctrine, the teaching
of what we call regeneration. And regeneration is the new birth. It is being born from above. It is the second birth. It is the spiritually dead sinner
receiving the life of God. The great evangelist, George
Whitefield, years ago was a member of a small group Bible study
and he did not know the Lord. And the others in the small group
Bible study did not know the Lord. And yet they were involved
in Bible study and prayer during their college days at Oxford. And one day, Charles Wesley,
the great hymn writer, who was in this Bible study, he was lost
and unconverted as well, handed a book to George Whitefield.
The title of the book was, The Life of God in the Soul of a
Man. It was a book about the new birth.
And George Whitefield read this book and he came to understand
that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, it was not what he
did to merit acceptance with God, but the reality was God
must initiate something in his heart. God must do a work down
in his soul. And God must impart divine life
down into the soul of the sinner. And in that experience, George
Whitefield was born again. To be born of God means that
you receive a new life. A new life that did not previously
exist. It is a spiritual life. It is
a supernatural life that only God can give. And before one
is born again, you have a mere empty existence. You're just
going through the motions of life. You even just go through
the motions of church or religiosity. But when one is born again, there
is an entirely new life. that comes down from God above
and it is deposited down in the once empty soul and one receives
the life of God. It's not an improvement or an
upgrade on one's life. It is to receive an entirely
new life. Now the analogy is the birthing
analogy, being born of God, to be begotten. of God. And in a physical birth, God
creates an entirely new life down in the mother. And this
new life has a heart that's a new heart, has eyes that are new
eyes, has ears that are new ears, has hands, has feet, and where
there was no life previous, there is the beginning now by the work
of God down in the hidden place of an entirely new life. That
is exactly what it is to be born of God. It is to be birthed by
the Holy Spirit of God by which the life of God enters into the
empty vacuum of one's soul. You receive a new mind. And when you receive a new mind,
you now know God. You receive a new heart and you
now suddenly love God. You receive new eyes and now
you see and understand the truth. You receive new ears and you
now receive the truth and you hear what you did not previously
hear. You receive new hands and you
now begin to serve the Lord and you receive new feet and you
begin to follow Christ and you begin to pursue Christ. That
is what it is to be born of God. Let me give you five words under
this that will help describe what we're talking about regarding
this new birth. Number one, it is instantaneous. It's not a process over time. It occurs at a point in time. I have my driver's license and
when I look at my driver's license, I see my birth date. I was born
April the 13th, 1951. I was born at 1013 at night. I was born in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma. I was born at St. Anthony's Hospital. When I look at my driver's license
for my birth date, it doesn't say. April, May, June and July. That would be a very long delivery
process. No, there's a point in time at
which I entered into this world. There was a point in time at
which I was delivered and began to live on the outside of my
mother. And the same is true spiritually.
There is a point in time in which you enter into the Kingdom of
God. Now some people can point to
the exact time, the exact date, and they know where they were.
There are some other people who know it just took place in a
general period of time during the summer, but nevertheless,
there was a point in time when you passed out of darkness and
into light, when you passed out of death and into life. And so the first thing as we're
thinking about the meaning of being born again, it is an instantaneous
birth. Think of Saul of Tarsus on the
road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9. Saul of Tarsus had letters
in hand, headed to Damascus to apprehend the Christians and
to drag them back to Jerusalem to stand trial, possibly for
them to be stoned to death as Stephen was stoned to death.
And as he was on that road to Damascus, suddenly a bright shining
light shined out of heaven and knocked him off of his horse.
And the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself and He said, Lord, what
would You have me to do? In that moment, Saul of Tarsus
was born of God. He was birthed into the kingdom
of heaven. And that is exactly what must
happen to every one of us in this room if we are to see the
kingdom of God or enter into the kingdom of God. There must
be an instantaneous birth spiritually in your soul. Second, not only
instantaneous, but radical. It is a radical birth. It brings about a dramatic change
in your life because it is a life that comes into your soul of
which you have never experienced in your entire existence. You
literally become a new person in Christ. You become a new creature
and it is a radical change that takes place in your life. Second
Corinthians 5 verse 17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation. The old things have passed away
and behold, new things have come. That is what it is to be born
again. It is a radical change. And what kind of life is it that
you receive? This is a part of the radical
nature of it. You receive eternal life. God puts within you as you live
in this temporal world, He puts eternal life into your eternal
soul. And eternal life literally means...it
doesn't refer to primarily to the duration of your life. We'll
talk about that in a moment. It refers to the quality of your
life, the kind of life that you receive. And literally, eternal
life means life of the ages to come. It refers to the life of
God. It is a life that comes down
out of heaven. It comes down from God. In fact,
it is the very life of God. God is life. And it is the life
of God that comes to indwell our very soul. It comes down
from above. God takes out your old heart
of stone. A stony heart is one that is
dead. It is insensitive to the things
of God. It's unresponsive to God. And
in the new birth, God takes out your heart of stone. And He gives
you a heart of flesh, and a heart of flesh is alive. There's a
spiritual pulse. There is a spiritual heartbeat
and it is responsive to the things of God and it is alive unto God. Well, this new birth is instantaneous. It is radical and there is no
way you can be born of God and for your life not to change because
God dramatically changes your life from the inside out. But
third, it is comprehensive. It affects the entirety of who
you are and what you are. You become a new person not just
in little segments of your being, but from the top of your head
to the bottom of your feet. All that you are, it is a comprehensive
birth. It's not just a part of your
life that is changed, but the totality of your being. As I've already said, you receive
a new heart, now you love God. You have a new mind, you now
know God. You have new eyes, new ears to
see and hear God in Christ. Everything about you is new and
so therefore every part of your life. is affected by the new
birth. It's not just church life, it's
your school life, it is your social life, it is your recreational
life, it is your family life, it is your work life. The entirety
of your life is changed because the new birth is so comprehensive. There's not one inch of your
being that is unaffected by the new birth. Fourth, it is internal. It is carried out in the depths
of your being. This is not a work of God that
just lays on the surface of your life. It's not something that
is superficial, that is on the external of your life. No, this
is an inside job. It is God at work in the very
depths of your being, down in the epicenter of your soul It
is a work at the deepest point of your innermost being. And
then fifth, it's irrevocable. Once God has worked in you in
the new birth, it can never be undone. It can never be reversed. I am a Lawson. My last name is
Lawson. And when I was brought into this
world, I was a Lawson forever. There would be times when I would
disappoint my father. There would be times when I would
disobey. But that did not change my relationship
with my father whatsoever. I was always a son to my father. And I was always a lawson in
the family. And so it is spiritually as well.
When you are birthed into the Kingdom of God and when you are
born of God, it is a lasting work that can never be reversed.
Philippians 1 verse 6 says, and he who began a good work in you
shall perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. That is wonderful. This is the greatest thing that
could ever happen to your life. It is for you to be born of God. And just because you come from
a Christian family doesn't mean necessarily that you're born
of God. Just because you come to the greatest church there
is on planet earth, to Grace Community Church, with Austin
Duncan, does not automatically mean that you are born of God. This is an individual work that
God does down in the depths of your souls. So before I go any
further, I just want to ask you, have you been born of God? Have you been born from above?
I'm not asking you, are you in church? I'm not asking you, do
you have a Bible in your hand? I'm not asking you, do you know
some Bible verses? I'm not asking you, do you have
some participation in this ministry? The question on the table is,
have you been born of God? Has God done an instantaneous,
comprehensive, radical, internal, irrevocable, individual work
of His grace down within your soul. This is the meaning of
the new birth. It is for the new life to begin. It is for the old life to die. It is for the life of God to
dwell in your soul and you become alive unto God. And you now live for God because
you have the life of God within you. Oh now, second, let's think
about the miracle. of the new birth because this
is an extraordinary miracle that God performs. And I want you
to look at verse 1 another time. This reads, whoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born, note the next two words, of God,
of God alone, of God only, exclusively of God. entirely of God. Please note what this does not
say. This does not say whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God and you, where it's a joint venture. God does
His part, I do my part, and we come together in the new birth.
There's no mention of you or me or anyone in this statement. It says, whoever believes that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. You and I are not born of
God and the church. We're not born of God and the
pastor and your parents and your friends. No, there is only one
active agent. in the new birth, there is only
one who is at work in the new birth and that is God alone. Let me ask you this question.
When you were born physically, what part did you play in that?
I'm waiting. You had nothing to do with your
physical birth, did you? You just showed up. And when
you came out of your mother's womb, There was the gas for air
and you began to cry and your lungs filled with air and you
opened your eyes and you began to move your hands but there
was nothing that you did to bring about your birth physically. It was a work of God. Only God
can create life. God is life and God is the sole
creator of life and no human can create life, only God can
create life. And so it is spiritually in your
soul. There is nothing that you can
do to create life within you. It is a work of God's grace.
It is a work of God's mercy by which God by His Holy Spirit
acts upon your soul. and speaks life into your soul. It's much like when God created
the first man, Adam, and God took the dirt and He formed the
first man and then God breathed into the first man, into his
soul, God breathed life into his soul. And what God did physically
is what God must do spiritually in your soul. God must breathe
His eternal life into your soul. If you would, turn back to the
gospel of John just for a moment, back to John chapter 1. John
chapter 1, and what I want to show you is that The new birth
is entirely and exclusively a work of God's grace in our lives. In John chapter 1, I want us
to look at verses 12 and 13, these two verses, and these are
really the heads and tails of the same coin. In verse 12 is
what we call conversion. And verse 13 is what we call
regeneration. And conversion and regeneration
are really the heads and tails of the same coin. Conversion
is man's work. Regeneration is God's work. And what we'll see in a moment
is that it is regeneration that produces conversion. Now as this
is laid out for us in verse 12, conversion comes first and then
in verse 13 we see regeneration. In reality, theologically, the
order is reversed. But I want us to look at this,
verse 12, but as many as received Him, the Him refers to the Lord
Jesus Christ. To receive Him is to...is to
by faith receive Christ into your life. But as many as received
Him, to them, those who received Christ, He... Jesus gave the
right to become children of God even to those who believe in
His name. Can you think of when you were
converted to Christ? Maybe you were at camp. Maybe
you were in your bedroom as a child. Maybe you were in church. Maybe
you were in a Bible study. Maybe you were by yourself somewhere. Can you in your mind Remember
and think about when you received Christ into your life and you
became a child of God. And that's what verse 12 talks
about. But verse 13 goes behind the
veil, if you will. It's the back story. It's the
story behind the story. Verse 13 tells us how it is that
you received Christ into your life. It says in verse 13, who
were born. The who refers back to those
who receive Christ and become children of God. Born here refers
not to physical birth, it refers to spiritual birth. The whole
context is a context of spiritual reality. Who were born, and now
please note, three negatives and a positive. First negative,
not of blood, second negative, not of the will of the flesh,
third negative, nor of the will of man, now positive but of God."
By the way, that's great teaching. Negative denial, positive assertion. There's no wiggle room. There's
no way anyone can misunderstand what verse 13 is saying. If you
want to be clearly understood, you teach this way. This is what
I'm not saying, this is what I am saying. And that is what
John does as he now talks about being born of God. So note the
three negatives. This is not how any one of us
here today was regenerated by the Spirit of God. who were born
not of blood." Now the blood here refers to your bloodlines.
It refers to your lineage. It refers to who your parents
were. It refers to your family. And what he is saying is, no
one is born of blood. born into the Kingdom of God
simply because of who your parents were. It's not of blood. It has nothing to do with your
DNA. It has nothing to do with who your mother or your father
were. Now they may have been used mightily
by God to bring the gospel to you and they may have been a
wonderful support to you, to nurture you spiritually, praise
God for that. But they...all they could do
was just bring the gospel to you It was God who had to take
it from there. Your parents could bring the
Word of God to your ears, but they could go no further. God
must take it from the ears to the heart. And what He is saying
here, the way you have been born of God is not because of blood. Second, and that's good news
because some of you here today did not grow up in a Christian
home. Some of you here today do not have Christian parents.
And what a praise for you it is that is not dependent upon
who your parents were because your parents were lost and did
not know Christ. If it was of physical blood that
you enter the kingdom of heaven, you'd have no hope to be saved.
Now note the second negative, who were born not of blood, second,
nor of the will of the flesh. The will of the flesh refers
to your own striving, your own efforts, your own trying to keep
the Law of God, your own self-righteous efforts to pull yourself up to
a place of acceptability to God, no matter how hard you try in
your flesh The will of the flesh cannot produce the new birth. It's just totally impossible.
Just like physically there was nothing you could do to create
your own physical birth, so there's nothing that you can do. You
can't go to church enough, you can't read your Bible enough,
you can't hang out with enough Christians enough in order to
birth yourself into the Kingdom of God. Then the third negative
is, nor of the will of man. And the reason it says... You
cannot believe and enter the kingdom of heaven without the
new birth. is because you were spiritually
dead in trespasses and sin. Your will was dead. Your will
was held captive by a personal devil and was holding back your
will from being able to believe in Jesus Christ. Further, your
will was enslaved to sin and sin was your master. And sin
would not allow your will to be exercised towards Jesus Christ. So it's very clear that to be
born of God into His kingdom, it's not on the basis of your
physical lineage, and it's not on the basis of your own self-efforts,
and it's not even on the basis of your supposed free will. He now gives the positive assertion,
but of God. That's very good news because
left to ourselves, we would never be born again. Left to ourselves,
we would remain in Satan's family. Left to ourselves, we would continue
to be a part of the world and the evil world system. It is
God who must act upon our heart and upon our soul. It is God
by His Holy Spirit who must begin to convict of sin. It is God
by His Spirit who must begin to draw and to call the sinner. And it is God by His Spirit who
must then regenerate and create new life down within the soul. That's the miracle of the new
birth. It is something that you and I could never bring about.
It is something that you and I could never initiate. It's
something that you and I could never accomplish. It's something
that you and I and God could never work out together. It is
a work exclusively of God's grace. Now theologians discuss this.
And there is what is called, there is a word, monergism. It's
two Greek words that come together, mono, you can hear mono, it means
one. Monopoly is one owner. A monarchy is one ruler. A monorail is one rail. Monergism, erg, e-r-g, means
a unit of work. You can hear the word energy,
which is a powerful working. Monergism means there is one
agent at work in the new birth. It is a solo job. It is a work
that is done by God alone. The other option is what's called
synergism. Sin, S-Y-N, means to work together. Or it means together, synergistic
means there is two agents. There is God and there is man.
And the two come together, almost like hot and cold water and you
have to dial both of them in just right, and either one has
the power of veto. And God could work, but if man
doesn't work, then there is no new birth. Man could work, but
if God doesn't work, there's no new birth. The two must work
in partnership together. That's synergism. Well, you'll
never get that out of the Bible. If you're born of God, it's monergistic. There is only one agent. and
that one is God. All right, come back to 1 John
and I want to show you an illustration of this. Come back to 1 John
chapter 5 and verse 18, you're going to want to see this. It
is perhaps the best illustration of a monergistic birth that you'll
find in the Bible. It is the example of the virgin
birth of Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary. And please note,
in 1 John 5 verse 18, born of God is mentioned twice in this
one verse. John writes, we know...and so
let's just stop right there. That means this is not up for
debate. This is not up for negotiation or discussion. We know this.
So this is a certainty. We know that no one who is born
of God A couple of things to point out on this, please note
the verb is, that no one who is, present tense, right now,
this generation, at this time as this is read, presently, right
now, no one who is. born of God sins. And the sins here is a present
progressive and the idea is a lifestyle of sin, lives habitually for
sin. We commit individual acts of
sin, but we do not live in sin. Now, continue in this verse,
but He who was born of God keeps Him. Now who is the he? I hope your
translation has a capital H for he. Some translations don't capitalize
any divine pronouns, and that's unfortunate. But in this translation
that I have, he is a capital H. And if you don't have a capital
H, you ought to write it in because that is the proper translation
of this interpretation. But he who was, please note was. Earlier in the verse it says,
he who is born of God, now it says, he who was born of God,
that refers to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was born of God. And Jesus Christ is the one who
keeps Him and the Him refers to the one who is born of God,
that refers to you and me. This one who was born of God
is the one who keeps us who are born of God. This refers to Jesus
Christ and He is the eternal Son of the living God. There
is no beginning for Christ, yet this says He was born of God.
It is a clear reference to the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. He is the one who was born of
God. Luke 1 verse 35 says that in
Mary the Holy Spirit conceived in her and there was the holy
offspring. That was a sovereign birth of
the...that brought about the human body and the perfect sinless
humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ in the virgin Mary that was exclusively
a work of the Holy Spirit within Mary. Therefore, in just the
same way, as Jesus was sired, as Mary was sired and there was
conceived within her by the Holy Spirit, the holy offspring, the
Lord Jesus Christ, Mary had nothing to do with it. And even Jesus
Himself did not birth Him or conceive Himself, it was a work
of God the Father by His Spirit in Mary. in just that same way
so God the Holy Spirit must work within your soul and in my soul
for you to be born of God. And it is an inside job and it
is something that only God and God alone can do. So let me ask
you this question. Have you been born of God? Have you? Has God the Holy Spirit
conceived within your soul new life? Has God the Holy Spirit
created sovereignly eternal life within you and birthed you into
the kingdom of heaven? Except you be born again, you
will not see the kingdom of heaven. Except you be born by the Spirit,
you will not enter into the kingdom. That which is born of flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel
that I say unto you, you must be born again." Well third, I
want you to see the marks of the new birth and we'll look
at just a couple. If we had time, we would look
at the entire book of 1 John and we would note some nine or
ten distinguishing marks of the new birth and they become the
ultimate basis of assurance of our salvation, that we see the
evidences of the new birth. You can know that you're born
of God as you see the evidences of the new birth in your soul.
You say, well, I prayed and committed my life to Christ. Well, we all
must pray and commit our life to Christ. But Jesus did say,
not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
How easy it is to profess and to say there is a greater evidence
of the new birth and it is a changed life. It is a radically changed
life and there is fruit that is being produced in you that
only the new birth can begin to produce. You know, in verse
1, we may just limit ourselves to verse 1. There's three evidences
of the new birth in just verse 1. So let's just lock in on these
three in the time that we have that remains. What's the first
mark of the one who's been born of God? It's at the beginning
of verse 1, it is to believe in Christ. Notice he says, whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. If you're born
of God, you believe that Jesus is the Christ. Now let me ask
you this question. I want you to think with me.
Do you believe and then you're born of God? Or are you born
of God and then you believe? The verb tenses here will give
us the answer. The verb tenses tell us here that you are born
of God and the first evidence that you are born of God is that
you believe in Jesus Christ. Notice when he says, whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ, that means that He is the Son
of God who has come into this world, the Son of God, the Son
of Man to do the work of God to accomplish salvation on our
behalf, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ. This word believes is in the
present tense. But the verb is, is born of God,
is in the perfect tense, refers to a past action. It's the one who in the past
has been born of God, now continually believes in Jesus Christ throughout
one's life. You see, saving faith is the
gift of God that God must give. Hebrews 12 verse 2 says that
Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith. Where did the faith
come from by which you believe in Jesus Christ? There is only
one who can create saving faith within you and that is God the
Holy Spirit. So the first evidence, the first
mark of the new birth is to believe in Jesus Christ. And this all
happens in one moment. There are not people who are
born of God but who have not believed in Jesus Christ. It
all happens in a split second, all at one moment. You're birthed
by the Spirit of God and immediately you call upon His name and you
are saved. You will continue to believe
in Jesus Christ throughout the rest of your life and you will
never stop believing in Jesus Christ. A believer will never
become an unbeliever. You may say, well, I know someone
who prayed and committed their life to Christ and gave every
appearance that they began to walk with the Lord and now they
are so far away from the Lord and they're just living in sin
and practicing sin, that believer became an unbeliever and I want
to say to you, no, that person was never a true believer to
begin with. The faith that fizzles before the finish had a flaw
from the first. It was a sham faith. It was a
bogus conversion. It was a Judas faith. The one who is truly born of
God is given a faith by God that will never perish, it may waver,
it may weaken. But it will never disintegrate,
it is a faith that will keep on believing in Jesus Christ. That's the first mark of the
new birth. So I want to ask you, do you
believe in Jesus Christ? Have you committed your life
to Christ? Are you trusting Christ and Christ alone for your salvation? And there is salvation in no
other name. There's no other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? If you do, you do because you
have been birthed by God into His Kingdom. The second mark
of the new birth is to love God. Notice what verse 1 says, whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and It's a packaged
deal. This is not a multiple choice.
You get to pick one of the three in verse 1 as the evidence. All
three of these will be present in your life. And whoever loves
the Father loves the one or loves the child born of Him. To love the Father is also an
evidence or a mark of the new birth. Before you were born again? You loved yourself. You loved
your sin. You loved your life. You loved
doing your own thing and going your own way and calling your
own shots. But when you're born of God,
that love of self dies. And there is a new love. It is
a greater love. It is love for the Father. And
it is a love that causes you to live for Him and to please
Him and to honor Him. You so love Him that you want
to worship Him. He is your greatest joy. He is
your greatest affection. You desire to do all things for
the glory of His name and who He is. This is the second mark
of the new birth, so I want to ask you, the question is not,
church, the question is, do you love the one who is the head
of the church? Do you love God the Father? And
as you love God, that becomes an evidence of the new birth.
And there's a third that I want you to see and we'll wrap it
up at this point. He also says in verse 1 that
if you're born of God, you will love the child or the one born
of Him. If you're in the family, you'll
love others who are in the family. If you've been born of God, you
will love others who have been born of God because you have
so much in common with them. Because you have the same life
in you that is in them. It's a common denominator. You
just...there's an immediate connection. And there are people that you've
known for all of your life and they don't know God and you have
a relationship but it's kind of superficial. And then you
come to church one day and you meet a new friend who knows God.
And there's this immediate connection because you have so much in common
with and you now love them and know them better than someone
you grew up with and have spent years with because there is a
commonality of the life of God in you and the life of God in
them. That is a third mark of the new
birth, that you have love for the others who are born of God. And I'm just going to tell you
the fourth one just very quickly in verses 2 and 3, it's that
you keep His commandments. If you're born of God, you're
no longer just going to do your own thing. You're now gladly
under the authority of the Word of God. And notice what verses
2 and 3 says, by this we know that we love the children of
God, when we love God and observe His commandments. This word,
observe, carries the idea of do. We do His commandments. We live His commandments. They're
not burdensome. They're a joy to us, are they
not? That's what he goes on to say in verse 3, 4, this is the
love of God that we keep His commandments. And His commandments
are not burdensome. We keep the commandments of God
because we love the One who gave us these commandments. We keep
the commandments because they're not a burden, they're a blessing
to us. They're pointing us in the right direction. They are
pointing us to abundant life in Christ. They are pointing
us to the greatest life that any of us could ever live. And
so there is this inward desire. to obey the commandments of God
because there is a new heart on the inside of us, and because
there is a new life on the inside of us. And God, it says in the
book of Ezekiel chapter 36, He has written His Law upon our
hearts and put His Spirit within us and He causes us. to keep these commandments. It's
an inside job. It's not us forcing ourselves
to keep His commandments. It is God at work within us and
we love to keep His commandments. We delight in keeping His commandments
because God has written His commandments on our heart and they are the
delight and the desire. of our soul. Oh, I would encourage
you to read the book of 1 John because there are many other
marks or evidences of the new birth. The new birth is the root
and these things we just looked at, these marks are the fruit.
The new birth is the cause. These marks are the consequences. These...the new birth is what
is driving the life. These things that we just looked
at are the effects that we see and that we experience. So as we bring this wonderful
study to conclusion, what a joy it is to be born of God. What
a privilege it is for God to put His life down within us. And no matter what we do, we
can never cause ourselves to be born of God. It is a work
of His sovereign grace. It is a work initiated by God. And so, as I bring this study
to conclusion, I want to ask you the question that I've already
asked you, but are you born of God? Have you been born again? Are you born from above? Do you
see how dependent you are upon God for your salvation? Do you see how totally dependent
upon God you are to enter into His Kingdom? If you have never
been born of God, I would encourage you to humble yourself before
God and say, God, birth me into Your kingdom. God, I desire to
be Your Son. I want to be Your daughter. God,
move by Your Spirit in my life. God, by Your Spirit bring new
life into my empty soul. Bring me a new life. Give me
a new beginning." And that is one of the glorious things about
becoming a Christian. It's a whole new start in life.
It's a whole new beginning. And maybe you have brought much
tragedy to your life. Maybe you've ruined your life
in some ways. And what a glorious thing it
is to have a brand new beginning and a brand new start in life.
And it begins with the new birth. Except you be born again, you
shall not see the kingdom of heaven. But if you are born again,
the life of God right now comes to indwell you. It's the greatest
thing that could ever happen to your life. And to miss it
is the worst thing that could ever happen to your life. So
I pray that you have been born of God. And if you've not, that
you'll turn to the Lord today and say, O God, birth me into
Your Kingdom. I want to be Your Son. I want
to be Your daughter. And the Bible says, him who comes
unto Me, I will in no wise cast out. But it must be God who does
this. It must be God who gives you
repentance and faith. It must be God who gives you
the eyes to see and the ears to hear. It must be God who gives
you the heart to believe. May God have mercy by His grace
upon so many here today. Let us pray. Father in heaven,
thank You for the privilege of being brought into Your family.
Thank You, God, for access into Your spiritual family by this
new birth. Thank You that You do not leave
us as we are. but that You create a brand new
life and You make us a brand new person on the inside and
You put us on a new path and we're now headed in a new direction.
Lord, thank You that You now become the Father to all those
who are birthed from above. Lord, bless these here today
and I pray that so many who yet need to be born again would find
this to be a day of grace in their life. In Jesus' name we
pray. Amen.