I invite your attention to the
Gospel according to John chapter 1. My text is in verses 12 and 13. My message is titled, Born of
God. We commenced this message last
Lord's Day but did not finish it. We'll try to get it finished
today. I think we should be able to
do so. Let me say one word regarding
that hymn we sang a moment ago, Immortal, Invisible, God Only
Wise. Sandy and I taught our children
to sing some choruses and some scriptures. from the time they
were wee small, and even before they were school
age, that hymn, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, was the first
hymn we taught to them, the first complete hymn. And we did it
as a catechism, and we told them the meaning of immortal, invisible,
God only wise. And even when they were pre-school, I can recall our little girl,
she was 18 months, B's junior, but she would say, D-boy, as
we called him, D-boy, what does immortal mean? And he would tell
her. And then he would say, C.J.,
what does invisible mean? And she would tell him. And I'm
in pre-school, we're talking very young. It was the first
hymn we taught them and we get a little emotional when
we sing it, but it's a beautiful hymn and it is one that we all
should know what every word in that hymn means. Immortal, invisible,
God only wise, in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes. John's Gospel,
Chapter 1. The Gospel of John, Chapter 1. I'm going to read verses 12 and
13. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Now go to chapter 3, John's Gospel,
chapter 3. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, For no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and
testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things,
and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly
things? No man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is
in heaven." From those two passages in John chapters 1 and 3, we
commenced our message last Lord's Day looking at the first two
points, the necessity of being born of God. It is necessary. Because none of those who are
born of women, who are called the children of men, can know,
understand, or seek God. If anyone is to ever seek after
God, they must be born again. God himself says, I looked among
all those children of men, born of women, not a single solitary
one of them is looking for me. I'll just have to regenerate
some of them." And he did. That was the necessity. The manner
of being born of God we considered also. It is to be born of water
and of the Spirit. And in your synopsis or the tract
there before you, please note that We consider that the Holy Spirit
is the agent in regeneration and the water of life is his
instrument and he applies it or dispenses it through the preaching
of God's word and the gospel. But I have a quotation in, there
are I think about four of those quotations that were in your
tract And the one that says salvation is not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, that reference is actually Titus 3 verse 5 and
not James 1 verse 18 as it read in your tract last week. So before
you leave today, ascertain that you get one of the new tracts.
It is on the tract table. And then also John chapter 6
verse 63. How did I miss this one when
looking at this subject? where we are told, it is the
Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. It is the Spirit
who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. We've already been told that
you're not born of the will of the flesh, the will of man, Some say you are born again by
some decision that you make. We call that decisional regeneration. Make a decision. One of our brethren and I are
looking at the purchase of some Bibles for mass distribution
and looking for probably, you know, gift Bibles something that
doesn't cost too much and, you know, to give them away. And
since these are usually Bibles for distribution instead of for
personal use, they usually put a little plan of salvation in
there toward the back. And it may be a decision form
and, you know, repeat these words it may say. I believe this and
that, and I believe this and that, and now sign your name.
You sign your name, you're a child of God. Hogwash. Blasphemy. To think that you
can be born of God by signing on the dotted line and making
a decision? You may decide to be a Muslim. You may decide to be a Hindu. You may decide to be a Buddhist,
but you cannot decide to be a Christian. You cannot become a child of
God by merely making a decision. And neither can you become a
child of God by anything else you do, such as baptism. Baptismal regeneration, some
say. No, no, no. You are born of water,
but it is the water of life and the living water that flows from
God's throne. Jesus says, if you knew with
whom you were speaking, you would ask for that living water, the
water of life. And the Holy Spirit gives it
to us through the preaching of the gospel and the Word of God.
And now we have come to the third point in our message, and that
is going to be taking its text from the first epistle of John. The first epistle of John. Nine
times in John's first epistle, and
it's only five chapters, and they are not long chapters. Nine times John uses the expression,
born of God or born of Him. And in so doing, he has described
God's children, all who are born of God. I have put the text in
the tract that is there before you. You can follow either along
in the Scriptures going from page to page or just follow along
with me in the tract. Looking at point number three,
the results of being born of God. As we have already observed,
they who were born of God were given the ability to receive
Jesus Christ through believing in Him, and second, the privilege
of becoming God's children. But we here will observe the
results of being born of God as cited in John's first epistle. In 1 John 2, verse 29, we read
that God's children practice righteousness. Now, I want you
to locate this one because I need to show something to you that
John has brought to our attention. 1 John chapter 2, and you're
looking at verse number 29, but I need for you to see verse number
28. 1 John chapter 2. Verse 28, And now, little children, abiding
him, who is him, Jesus Christ, that when he shall appear, we
may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous,
now of whom does he speak? He speaks of Jesus Christ. He just referenced him in verse
28. If you know that Jesus Christ
is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness or practices
righteousness is born of him. He that doeth righteousness,
he that practices righteousness, what one does is his practice. A physician practices medicine. A lawyer practices the law. Children of God practice righteousness. It's what they do. It's what
they do. It is how you spot them and differentiate
them from the rest of the people of the world. They practice righteousness. And here is the only text in
all of God's Word where we read that regeneration comes through
Jesus Christ. John has said they were born
of God Jesus said, they're born of the Holy Spirit. Else will
we read, they are born of God the Father. And here we read,
they are born of Him who is righteous. All three persons in the Holy
Trinity are involved in this work of regeneration. Righteousness
is the practice of God's children. It is what they do. We are born of Him. Him is Jesus
Christ. He is our Father. And like Father,
like Son. We look like Him. We act like
Him. We behave like Him. He does righteousness. So do
we. Like Father, like Son. We were
born of Him. We know Him as our Father. And
everyone who is born of him will practice righteousness. Now the
second point, they do not sin. Chapter 3, verse 9. Whoever has
been born of God does not sin. Why? For God's seed remains in
him. He does not sin. This text does not speak of sinless
perfection. But it does stress this point. John had said in a positive declaration,
he practices righteousness. And here is the negative side
of the same coin, he does not sin. If you Practice righteousness,
and if you're born of God, you must, you must, you must. If
you positively practice righteousness, then you do not sin. Sin is not
your practice. Sin is not the character of your
life. When you are born of God, you
cease from sinning. He does not sin. Now, this text does not mean
that you never sin. You're in 1 John, go back to
chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1, verse 9. If we confess our sins,
well, You never confess sins unless you commit them, do you?
You do not confess sins you did not commit, do you? If we confess
our sins, now observe that John is talking to believers, little
children, alright? He's talking to believers. Well,
yeah, they're going to sin. But if we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Another point I want you to see
about cleansing us from all unrighteousness. We speak of the death of Jesus
Christ on Calvary and we say we were cleansed from our sin. That's true. But the blood of
Jesus Christ continues to cleanse us from our sins. Look in verse
7. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth, present tense continues to cleanse. Oh, I am so glad. I am so glad. Consider, He cleansed
me in that fountain filled with blood that's drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. He cleansed me in that blood
there at Calvary when I was born again. And that same blood continues
to cleanse me. The blood shall never lose its
power. Continues to cleanse me. Alright,
if we confess our sins. But here is one who says, I believe the text. The text
says he does not sin. I do not sin. Is there one so
foolish? I do not sin. There are some
who believe in their sinless perfection. I heard a preacher
say one time he was talking with someone who was of a certain
sect that believed in entire sanctification, perfect sanctification,
believed they had come to the place where they were above sin
and did not sin. And the preacher said to the
man, that is one of the biggest lies I ever, you ought to be
ashamed of yourself telling such lies as that. And the person
became highly offended at being called a liar and lost his temper. And when he was through with
his ranting, the preacher said, there went your sanctification.
No longer perfect now, are you? If we confess our sins. Notice
verse 9, verse 10. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So, if you're born of God, Have you stopped sinning? Yes. Does that mean you never sin?
No. But it does mean that sin is
no longer the tenor of your life. You're different now. You practice
righteousness. You hate sin. Someone told Bruce
Crabtree one time when he was talking about what Jesus Christ
has done for us and said, well, if I believe that, I just live
any way I want to. And Bruce said, I wish I could
live the way I want to. Do we sin? Oh, oh, of course. Far too often then. We even want
to discuss. But sin is not the character
of our lives. It is not what we do. It's not what we're known for.
Let others be known for the sins they commit. Let God's children
be known for the fact they have seized from sinning. And how
can that be? His seed remains in us. Did you read it? His seed remains
in us. Who is God's seed? It's Jesus
Christ. It's Jesus Christ. And if Christ
abides in you, we have become what Peter calls partakers of
the divine nature. Partakers of the divine nature. Jesus Christ from eternity is
God. He inherently has the divine
nature. In His incarnation, He became
a partaker of the human nature. We were born of woman. We have
inherently the human nature. But in regeneration, we are given
the divine nature. There are two natures within
every child of God. Two natures within every child
of God. The human nature with which we
were born and the divine nature that was given to us in regeneration. And these two, they're going at each other.
And your soul is being tempted by the corrupt nature, the human
nature. Do that sinful thing. You'll
like it. And the divine nature says, no, you won't. No, you
won't. Now, who's going to win? You've got one nature that's
telling you to sin. You have another nature that
says you must not. The nature telling you to sin
is the human nature. The nature telling you not to
sin is the divine nature. Which one's going to win that
fight? The human or the divine? The divine nature wins. Therefore,
he who was born of God, she who was born of God, practices righteousness
and does not sin. Oh, but it goes further. It goes
further. Chapter 3, verse 9, and he cannot
sin because he has been born of God. He does not sin because
he cannot sin. He was born of God, meaning that He is of his human nature quite
capable of sinning, and sins more often than he would want
anyone to know, including himself. But on the other hand, he cannot
sin habitually. If a man is a believer in Jesus Christ, He no longer lives in drunkenness. He no longer lives abusing his
family members. He no longer lives cheating his
neighbors. He no longer lives in lying and
thievery and revelry. Does not do so. He cannot do
so. Why? He has been born of God. Do you see that you can spot
the difference? In children of God and children of the devil,
in this the children of God and the children of the devil are
manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness
is not of God. Now, they practice righteousness,
they do not sin, they cannot sin. The fourth point is God's
children love each other and know God. Chapter 4, verse 7.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone
who loves is born of God and knows God. God's children are just a bunch of lovers. They love God, they love Jesus
Christ, and they love one another. There is more than enough hatred
in this world, is there not? People hate each other because
their skin color is different, their gender is different, their
social caste or class is different. People can find all kinds of
reasons for hating one another. God's children have a good reason
to love one another. If you love your father, surely
you cannot hate his children, can you? Whoever is born of God will love
all of God's children and knows God. This is good news for us. I am so glad that God's children
love one another. Recipients of grace become gracious people. Recipients
of God's love become loving people. I recall coming up here to preach
and coming as a complete stranger, or more or less a stranger, and
walking in the door and being treated as though I'd been gone
maybe a week. That's the way God's children
are. They love one another. They're kind and considerate
to one another. And they love each other better
than they love themselves. Love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God. When we say love is of God, it
is one of His attributes. Now, God has two different kinds
of attributes. He has what we call incommunicable
attributes, and these are those that He cannot communicate to
others. God is eternal. You are not.
You were born. Some of God's attributes are
communicable. He can give them. Love is one
of God's attributes. God is love. He gives his love
and those who receive it are loving to one another. God is
gracious. He has grace. Grace characterizes
him. He gives his grace and the recipients
of it become gracious people. He who does not love does not
know God. Number five, God's children believe
Jesus is the Christ. Chapter 5, verse 1. Whoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Now consider, we're looking
at two aspects here. We're looking at Jesus and we're
looking at Christ. Whoever believes that Jesus is
the Christ Two different aspects, but they
apply to the same person. Jesus. Who is Jesus? Jesus of
Nazareth, born of Mary the Virgin, raised in Nazareth. We're talking
about this one that was born of a woman. And then there is
the Christ. Who is the Christ? The Christ,
if you'll look in Psalm number 2, is God's son. God's son. Psalm 2, he says,
to the Christ, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. So, Jesus is Mary's son with
regard to his humanity. The Christ is God's son with
regard to his deity. And here we find that Jesus is
the Christ. In no other person has this ever
happened, that Jesus is the Christ, that unto us a child is born
and unto us a son is given. The child that is born is Jesus
with regard to his humanity. The Son that is given is God's
Son, his only begotten, whom he gave to those whom he loves.
He is called the Christ. That word Christ, the Greek word,
translates the word Messiah into Hebrew. The word Messiah means
anointed one. Jesus is the one who was anointed
by his Father more than his companions with the oil of gladness. Anointed! Why was he anointed? Because
of his three mediatorial offices, prophet, priest, and king. When
a man was put into the prophetic office, the oil was poured over
his head. When he's put into the priesthood
office, the oil is poured over his head. When he's made a king,
the oil is poured over his head. God has made Jesus Christ to
be his prophet, priest, and king, and he has anointed him. This
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God. This means that we should trust
in Him, submit to His Lordship. In the first part of Psalm number
2, the second Psalm, we read those words that God says, Thou
art my begotten Son, begotten from eternity. But in the end
of that second psalm we read, kiss the son lest he be angry
and ye perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Kiss him, reverence him, worship him, adore
him, this Jesus who is the Christ of God. Now we consider the sixth
point, God's children overcome the world. For whoever is born
of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has
overcome the world, our faith. Now, in this world, there are
two sorts of people. Overcomers and the overcome. Overcomers and the overcome. Some are overcome by the world. It tempts them to drunkenness
and revelry, cheating and lying, thievery and whatever else, and
even worse, sins and crimes. And they're overcome. They succumb. But he that is born of God overcomes
the world. What is it to overcome the world?
It means to be victorious. over everything that is in the
world, including being victorious over the evil one, the wicked
one. They overcome the wicked one
in chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. They overcome the wicked one. Satan! They have the armor of
God. But let me tell you another way
to overcome Satan. Cooper. William Cooper, who wrote
the hymn, Come Ye Sinners Poor and Wretched, also wrote a hymn
on prayer. If I can recite it. Prayer makes the Christian's
armor bright, and Satan trembles when he sees
the weakest saint upon his knees. Consider that! Satan trembles when he sees the
weakest saint upon his knees. Resist the devil and you'll flee.
How's the best way to resist him? On your knees. On your knees
in prayer. Satan fears more than anything
the one to whom you're praying. We overcome false prophets. False prophets. I have met children of God, babes in Christ, or young Christians,
have not been in the faith very long. perhaps not well grounded
in the faith and still growing in the faith, and someone would try to get
them to succumb to some false doctrine, and this new child
of God says, you know, something to the effect, that does not
sound like my shepherd talking. There's something wrong with
that. We can spot that. You know, somebody's speaking
something wrong, we should be able to spot it. We may not know
exactly what is wrong with what is said, but that cannot be right. That is contrary to Christ. No one can do that except they
who are born of God, overcome the wicked one and overcome false
prophets and false teachers. How is it that we overcome our
faith? And it is not so much our faith
as it is the object of our faith. You can have a whole lot of faith,
but if you have that faith in the wrong thing, it's worthless. Our faith makes us overcome because
of the one who is the object of our faith. Number seven, God's children
do not sin. Chapter 5, 18, whoever is born
of God does not sin. Wait a minute, John, you've already
said that. Yeah. Are you repeating yourself? Yeah. Must be a reason. Must be a reason. I mean, within
a very short time, John has said, whoever is born of God does not
sin, and then as though to say, in case you didn't catch it the
first time, I'm going to repeat it, does not sin. Do you get
the impression that maybe we need to be told that quite often?
Do not sin. Do not sin. John has made this
statement twice. Do not sin. There's a good reason
for him to do so. And then number eight and last,
God's children keep themselves. Chapter 5, 18b. He who has been
born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch
him. I may have told you before, but
I'll tell you again. It goes with this. One of the greatest theologians
to ever live, One of the greatest expositors to ever live was Arthur
W. Pink. And that is my humble opinion,
okay? A.W. Pink. I have read his expositions. He did not expound every book
in the Bible, but I'm going to tell you what he did expound,
you know, the epistle of John, the voluminous book on the Hebrews,
and others as well, the life of Elijah, the life of Elisha,
and, I mean, he just, he takes difficult passages and puts them
into plain words I can understand. However, A. W. Pink was somewhat an eccentric
man. And he probably was not the best
pastor. He probably was not the easiest
person to get along with. But he was best when he was in
his study, and he spent hours and hours there every day. Anyway, he had left the U.S. and had
gone to the British Isles. He was living in the British
Isles and one of the common British greetings is, how are you keeping? When Sandy and I lived in the
Caribbean where we were under British influence, that was one
of the greetings, you know, how are you keeping? Someone asked
A.W. Pink one time, said, How are
you keeping? To which he is reported to have
said, I do not keep, I'm kept. Okay. That's true. We are kept, are we not? We are. But here you're told, keep yourself.
Keep yourself. He who is born of God keeps himself. keeps himself. He watches where he goes. He thinks before he speaks. He keeps himself in the love
of God. He is glad He is kept in God's
love, but he's careful and diligent to keep himself there also. And
then immediately after John says, keeps himself, he says, little
children, keep yourselves from idols. Now, what is an idol? What is an idol? We usually think of an idol as
when we restricted, something many people do, to some graven
image. Now look, just take a look all
the way around. No statues, no crosses, no relics,
just a plain wall. Why? There are no idols here. No idols. But more than that,
An idol is not merely something that is made, some kind of a
graven image, but it's false doctrine. And an idol is anything
that comes between you and God. Anything that comes between you
and God. Keep yourself away from anything
that would come between you and God. Keep yourself from idols,
keep yourselves in the love of God, keep yourself close to Jesus
Christ and be assured that the wicked one will not touch you.
Okay, that's the message for today. Your new birth, you had absolutely nothing to
do with it. It was of God, not of your will,
not of your flesh. It was of God. It was through the Holy Spirit who took the washing of regeneration
in the water of the Word, through the preaching of the gospel of
God's Word, and brought a dead sinner to life. And now that you have been born
of God, God requires you live your life as his children do. And I pray that we will. And,
O God, our Father, be pleased, we pray, to bless this word.
To your glory in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.