Good morning. I invite your attention to the
Gospel according to John, chapter 1. The Gospel according to John,
chapter 1. My text will be found in verses
12 and 13. My message is titled, Born of
God. I'm going to begin reading from
the first verse in this first gospel according to John, John
chapter 1, verse 1, and then we will get down to our text. In the beginning, the beginning
of all things, Genesis 1.1, in the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. In that beginning was already
in existence the Word. The Word is the divine logos,
God's communication from Himself to man. In the beginning was already in existence the
Word, and the Word was with God. Meaning that before there was
a beginning, there were two persons. There
was God and the Word, and the Word was God. John is not confused. He speaks
deliberately and he has spoken truth. Before this creation came
into existence, before it was brought into existence, there
were two persons, God, well of course, we know that, and the
Word was with God. In fact, the word that John uses,
the preposition means face-to-face. These two were face-to-face.
It was not like one was on one side of heaven and the other
was on the other. No, no, no, they were face-to-face. And the
Word was God, and the Word was God. God with God. The same is in the beginning
with God. Now all things were made by Him to the Word. He existed before the creation,
and the creation owes its existence to Him. All things were made
by Him, and without Him nothing was made. that was made. Everything that was made was
made by the Word, the Divine Logos. God the Father did not
create except through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the person of
the Holy Trinity who did the work of the creating. In Him
was life And the light was the light of men, and the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, does not
overcome it. Here is a light that never flickers,
never wavers, is never extinguished. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. We know him as the Baptist. The
same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all
men through him might believe." Now, he, John, was not that light,
but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true
light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Now,
he, the light, the logos, who was God, He was in the world,
and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He
came unto His own, and His own received Him not. Here's my text,
the next two verses. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believed on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born
of God." That's my text and that's my
subject. Born of God. Now in this introduction to our
text, beginning in verse 1 down through verse 11, I believe I
have just about explained everything that was in the text, but just
bear in mind that this one Jesus Christ, it speaks of him, he
was with God the Father before the foundation of the world,
and then he created the world, the heavens and the earth, and then he came unto his world
that he had made, and the world he had made did not even recognize
its creator. He came into his own people.
The Jewish nation came as their prophesied and promised Messiah
and they rejected him. They would not
receive him. They said, not wanted. and sent
him back to heaven. But some received him, mainly
Gentiles, a few Jews, some received him, and to those who received
him, notice the text says received,
it does not say accepted him, as many as received him, to them
and to them alone he gave the power, the authority, to become
children of God who were born, now notice, they were born before
they became the power to become God's children. They were born
before they believed in His name. Their birth preceded everything
they did in the spiritual realm. They were born of God. I say
all this to let you know that life precedes faith. You do not believe in order to
be born again and born of God. Rather, you are born of God and
then you believe. Grasp that truth. precedes faith. What God did for you preceded
anything you did for Him. What you did for Him was to believe
in His name. His name is whom and what He
is. But you did that because God gave you the life. In fact,
God gave to you the faith with which you believed in him. By
grace you have been saved through faith and that faith is not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. So God gives life and then
we believe. God gives faith and then we exercise
it. Now we're going to be looking
at this phrase, born of God. And I want you to notice that
in all the New Testament, John is the only writer in the New
Testament who uses this phrase. This phrase is strictly Johannine. No one but John uses this phrase,
born of God. And he does it repeatedly with
variants such as born of him and begotten of God. He does
it here in John chapter 1, and in the five short chapters of
his first epistle, he just uses it over and over and over and
over again. Born of God. It is a John statement,
one that he was fond of, and we're going to look at every
time that John used that term, born of God, And we're going
to find out today what it is to be born of God. We're going
to consider three points, its necessity, its manner, and its
results. The necessity of being born of
God is the first point. It is necessary because we, through
our first birth, are children of men, incapable of understanding
God. God looks down from heaven, the
psalmist says, twice. Once is enough. The psalmist
wanted to make sure that you graphed this point. God looks
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand
who seek God. They have all turned aside. They
have together become corrupt. There is none who does good,
no, not one. And then, lest you did not grasp
it the first two times it was spoken, Paul the Apostle did
it again in Romans chapter 3. But consider this. This is Jehovah,
and he's looking upon his creation. He looks across the entire earth,
the seven continents and the islands of the seven seas. Is there one anywhere who understands
me? Is there one anywhere looking
for me? Is there one anywhere among the
children of men who believe in me? All you angels come, do you
see one? No, nary a one. In all the entire world, among
all the children of men, Nariah 1 is there, who knows God, who understands
God, who believes in God. So God said, well, I'm going
to have some people believing in me. So some of these children
of men will become children of God through a work that I will
do. Jesus, in the third chapter of John's Gospel, tells us that
unless you were born again or born of God, you cannot see God's
kingdom, you cannot enter it. Do you realize the impotence
of whom and what we are by nature? We cannot know God. We cannot
understand God. We do not look for God. We're
running as far from God as we can. We cannot even see his kingdom,
much less enter into it. So God says, okay, it'll be necessary
for me to have my own children, those who are born of God. The
manner of being born of God is my second point. We'll look at
it both negatively and positively. Negatively, here John says, what
does he say? They were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Notice
that John speaks of both man's blood and his will. We are not
born of blood. You did not inherit it. It did
not come by some natural generation. I am the son of Ernest Parks by
my physical birth. But that had nothing to do with
me being born of God. Nothing at all to do with it. Nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man. Man's supposed free will had
nothing to do with it. In the first place, he does not
have free will. His will is in bondage to his
nature. His nature is dead and depraved.
But his will has nothing to do with it. Neither did the will of your
parents have anything to do with it. even if they took you to
the font and had a little bit of water sprinkled over your
head and said, you're born again. No, it is not of the will of
the flesh, not of the will of man. It is not by anything anybody
does. It is not by any decision that
you make, as in those who believe in decisional regeneration. Ask such a person, you born again? Yeah, yeah. How do you know? Well, I received the decision
card, and I was told that if I sign my name and say I decide
for Christ to be born again. And I signed it. No, it did not
come by your decision. Or ask someone else, were you
born again? Yes. When? When I got baptized. Oh, well, that was something
that was done by man. for a man, involving man's will,
and that is not the way that one is born of God. Negatively
speaking, being born of God has nothing
to do with you, nor anyone else, nothing at all. Positively, being
born of God is being regenerated by Him. Being born of God is
being born again after being born of the flesh. Go to John chapter 3. John chapter
3. And let me explain here what
we're talking about with being born again after being born the
first time and after being born of the flesh. John chapter 3. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrin,
a very high ranking, one of the highest ranking men in all Jewry. The same came to Jesus by night
and said unto him, Rabbi, treated Jesus with respect, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God. Well, that was evident.
For no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be
with him. Jesus, as though he's not flattered,
he just abruptly changes the subject and says, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Jesus just abruptly changed the
subject. and stressed a necessity. 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 a sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit." Folks, this is mysterious to the natural man. This is mysterious. But what
is it to be born of God? It is to be born again after
being born of the flesh. And being born of God involves
all three persons of the Holy Trinity. All three persons. You can read about being born
of God the Father in 1 Peter 1, verse 3. You can read of being
born of Jesus Christ in 1 John 2, 29, which is, by the way,
the only time in all the Holy Scriptures in which Jesus Christ
is said to be the author of regeneration. But God only has to say it once. Generally, the Scriptures speak
of the Holy Spirit as the author of regeneration, being born of
God. Furthermore, we must be born
of water and the Spirit, Jesus said, John chapter 3, verse 5. Now consider, born of water and
the Spirit. Consider the Spirit first, that's
the easy part. What is it to be born of the
Spirit? It is to be born of the Holy Spirit. When I preached,
I thought you said you had to be born of God. Yes. Well, now
you say you have to be born of the Holy Spirit. Yes. And the
Holy Spirit is God. Can you prove it? Yes. When Ananias and Sapphira came
in with money and laid it before Peter and lied about it, Peter said,
You have lied unto the Holy Spirit. You have not lied to men. You
lied to God. When you lie to the Holy Spirit,
you lie to God. The Holy Spirit is God. To be
born of the Spirit is to be born of God. It is He who regenerates
dead sinners. Now, born of water. To be born
of water means to be born of God's Word. The Holy Scriptures
speak of God's Word as being water. Any man thirsty, come
to me. I'll bring some water out of
this heart, speaking of the Holy Spirit. Water, we read about being God's Word. The Holy Spirit
is the agent in our regeneration. And God's Word, especially the
Gospel, is the instrument in his hand. Paul the Apostle mentions this
when he says to those who were converted under his ministry
that, in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. 1 Corinthians 4.15. In Christ
Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. Paul was somewhat like a midwife. And people were converted, regenerated
under his preaching. Probably while he was preaching,
undoubtedly. He's preaching and people are
born again. How were they born again? Through
the gospel. Now I've heard people say, well,
you believe in gospel regeneration. Well, I'm not really sure what
that term means, but I will tell you this. Paul said, I have begotten
you through the gospel. I can't explain it. I do know
that God regenerates the dead through the preaching of the
gospel. He does not do it by magicians
behind a pulpit, entertainers. No, the preaching. It does not
have to be eloquent preaching. It just has to be the gospel
that is preached. Charles Spurgeon was scheduled
to preach one time. His train was late, and it was
some distance away from where he lived. He was late, and his
grandfather was called upon to begin the message. Or to begin a message. I suppose
he did not know what Charles Spurgeon was going to preach,
but he took a text and began preaching. And as he had gotten into his
message a little bit, Charles come walking through the door.
The train had finally arrived in that place and Charles Spurgeon,
the great preacher, the prince of preachers, had made it to
the meeting house and he walks in and his grandfather says,
well, here he is. And he said, Charles, I've taken
my text. And I made this point and this
point, and here, you come on up and finish. So Charles got
into the pulpit and finished the message. His grandfather
said, Charles Spurgeon may be a better
preacher than I am, but he does not preach a better gospel. That's
true. That is true. Some preachers
are eloquent and some are, like myself, lacking eloquence. Some are like Paul the Apostle
said, I stood before you with fear and trembling. Well, let's
hope so. Let's hope so. Beware of a man
who's cocky behind the pulpit. No, fear and trembling. It is
not the eloquence of the preacher that regenerates. It is the message
that is preached. It is the Christ that is exalted
in the message. And by the way, I probably am
not going to finish this message today, so let's just take our
time with these preliminary points. But that's the point that is
being made. I have begotten you through the gospel. This is a
mysterious thing. Some months ago, Maybe a couple of years ago,
I attended a worship service in Middle Tennessee. And it's the church that my daughter
attends. She's a member of. And Sandy and I had been living
in the West Indies for many years. And we only came home occasionally
to the US. We were staying with our daughter.
And she sits up toward the front, second pew back, on the preacher's
left. And so we were going to sit with
her. So we're seated or standing with
her before the service, and we're watching people come in. And
she points to a certain man, and she says, he says, You were preaching when the Lord
saved him. Really? I had no idea. I did not know. This matter of being born of
God, it is so mysterious. That man had walked into the
building that day, heard a gospel message, and walked out differently
than he did when he walked in, and he had nothing to do with
it, and neither did the man behind the pulpit, except preaching
the word. This is so marvelous. Folks,
if God saves sinners only through the preaching of the gospel,
then God forbid that I preach anything else. Can I get an amen?
Thank you. God saves sinners through the
preaching of the gospel and through nothing else. Nothing else. It is through the preaching of
the gospel. I have begotten you, Paul says, through the gospel. Then in James 1.18, we read of
God's own will. He brought us forth by the word
of truth. He begat us of His own will. How were we born again? What
did your will have to do with it? You just read nothing, nothing
of His will. He began to us through the word
of truth. The gospel is preached and all
of a sudden something happens. I was a five-point Calvinist
sovereign grace preacher when the Lord saved me. Lost as I
could be, did not know it. I was convinced I was just about
the best Christian there was. 16th of June 1975, I go to hear
a man preach. He preaches from John 6 45, they
shall all be taught of God. He preached on what God teaches
sinners about themselves, total depravity. I believe that. Amen, preacher, say it. You know,
I was talking with him when he preached. Went back the next
night, 17th of June, 1975. Same building, same preacher,
same text. They should be all taught of
God. I'm sitting, I think it was the second row back, second
or third row back on the preacher's right, on the edge of the pew
with my beloved. We'd just been married about
a month. And this sovereign, grace, Calvinistic
preacher is sitting there listening to the preacher who tonight preaches
on what sinners are taught about Jesus Christ. And the longer he preached, the
loster I became. I finally realized, I do not
know this Christ. I know the doctrines of grace.
I know the five points of Calvinism. I faithfully preached them. I know the doctrines of grace,
but I do not know the Christ of grace. And much to my surprise, I realized
I was lost. And I said it out loud, I'm lost!
And people looked at me and the preacher said, ignore him, leave
him alone, the Lord will deal with him, I'm preaching. He kept
preaching. Paid me no mind. And I got loster
and loster. Finally ran out of the building.
Lost! Folks, it took me completely
by surprise. But for the first time in my
life, I believed in Jesus Christ. I trusted in Jesus Christ and
it was by God's will. And I had nothing to do with
it. It took me completely by surprise. I'm lost! I was not
lost when I walked into the building, but I was lost just a few minutes
afterward. Of his own will he begat us. How did he do it? By the word
of truth. Leave him alone. The Lord will
deal with him. I'm preaching, and he kept preaching.
I'm so glad he did. I'm so glad. It was the gospel
that did it. Peter tells us that the regenerated
have been born again, not a corruptible seed, but incorruptible through
the Word of God. How were you born? Through the
Word of God as it was preached. James tells us that salvation is not by works of righteousness
which we have done, But according to God's mercy, His unmerited
favor, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Spirit. Now consider that. Consider that. Through the washing
of regeneration, a washing occurs when you are
regenerated. What is the washing? I told you
a moment ago, did I not, that when you're born of water, that's
the gospel, right? What does the water do? It cleanses
you by the washing of regeneration and renewing. Renewing, regenerating
by the Holy Spirit, not by works of righteousness. Nothing you did had anything
to do with your regeneration. It was totally beyond you. Being
born in water is not born in baptism. Now, this is the common
view, and you read the commentaries, and most of them, you know, baptism's
got something to do with it. No, baptism has nothing at all
to do with it. Water does not regenerate you. Being born of God is not in the
labor or in the water of baptism. If that is true, then no person
in the Old Testament was ever regenerated because not a one
of them was baptized. Not a one of them. Furthermore, being born of God
is incomprehensible to the natural man. Now here comes Nicodemus
to Jesus. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He's a member of the Sanhedrin,
the Council of Seventy that governed Israel. He's a Pharisee. He knows the law. He knows the
scriptures. Jesus called him a teacher in
Israel. This man was one of the highest-ranking
intellectuals of his day. He came to Jesus. And Jesus says you must be born
again in Nicodemus, and I suppose logically speaking. Okay, so
you are saying I have to get back up into my mother's womb
and come back out. No, that's not the way it is.
Jesus has to explain to him that this is a mysterious thing and
until you're born again you cannot even understand it. Nicodemus had to be told this.
Jesus said, the wind blows where it will. And you hear the sound of it,
but you cannot tell where it came from and where it's going.
Now someone may say, now preacher, that's not right. We live in
Montana, we get two winds. We get a clipper out of Alberta
and we get a Chinook from the southwest. We know where the
wind came from. No, you do not. That wind did
not start in Alberta. It went into Alberta from some
place to the west of Alberta and then dipped down to us and
then went back up into Canada. Where did it go then? I have
no idea. You cannot pinpoint the place where that clipper
began. You cannot! In fact, I believe
if you'll check, you'll find that it just goes around the
earth completely all the time. The Chinook, a preacher that
came from the southwest. Whereabouts in the southwest?
Give me the latitude and the longitude. Where did that Chinook
begin? Well, it came from the southwest,
but it went into the southwest from someplace else. True, meaning that you do not
know where that wind began, and you do not know where it stopped,
if it stopped, and if it began. You can't even explain that,
so you're not going to understand the new birth. The wind blows
where it will and you hear the sound of it, but you know nothing else. So
is everyone who was born of the Spirit. You cannot comprehend
it. Now if that be true, why are there people printing
tracts, preaching messages, and writing books about how to be
born again. Billy Graham did it. Wrote a
book, How to be Born Again. Jesus said, it's beyond your
comprehension. It's beyond your ability to understand. And yet, people go around telling,
here's how to be, would you like to be born again? I can tell
you how. You don't even understand the subject if you think you
can tell others how to do it. It's beyond our comprehension. Being born again is something in which we are passive. In fact, we are as passive in
our second birth as we were in our first. Passive. Think about it. All right, everybody
here today, you're here and you're very much alive. So I assume that if you are here and
you're alive, there was a time some years ago when you were
born, right? You had a birthday. Am I correct? You were born, OK. On the day
you were born, that was not the beginning of your existence because
on the day you were born you had already lived about nine
months in your mother's womb. Am I right? Alright. During those nine months in your
mother's womb and nine months is a rather long time. Nine months
in your mother's womb Did you decide in what moment
you would be born or in what place you would be born? No. Did you decide whom your mother
would be? No. Well, you had nine months
to think about it. You were alive in your mother's
womb, and yet on the day you were born, you had nothing to
do with it. it happened to you and it wasn't even until a few
months later you learned it had happened you had nothing to do
with it nothing and so it was with your second birth when you
were born again you were very much alive physically and mature
you had understanding, education, you had acquired some wisdom.
On the day you were born again, did you decide when you would
be born again and where you would be born again? No. It happened to you. You had nothing
to do with it. Nicodemus had to learn this lesson.
We are as passive in our second birth as we were in our first
birth. We had nothing to do with being
born the first time. We had nothing to do with being
born the second time. It took us by surprise. Saul of Tarsus is on his way
to Damascus. He's breathing threatenings and
slaughter. He hates Jesus Christ and he
hates anybody who follows him. And he's riding on his high horse
on his way to Damascus. He's got authority from the priests
in Jerusalem to bring them back, Christians. He's got soldiers
with him. He's got chains. He's going to
be dragging them back. And all of a sudden, he's regenerated. He's born again. Took him completely by surprise. Now, you may say, preacher, you
said a moment ago that one cannot be born again unless he hears
the gospel. Yeah, that's what I said. That's
what I meant. Who preached the gospel to Saul
of Tarsus on the road to Damascus? No one. Well then, how could
Saul of Tarsus have been regenerated through the gospel and there
was no gospel preacher on that road? I'm glad you asked. Just a few days before, Saul
of Tarsus, young man, like Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, the Sanhedrin
is met and there's a disciple of Jesus Christ by the name of
Stephen. He's on trial for believing in
Jesus Christ. If you read Acts chapters 6 and
7, you're going to find Stephen preaching the gospel so clearly. And there's Saul of Tarsus hearing
every word of it. Saul of Tarsus hearing every
word of the gospel preached by Stephen. It did not take hold on that
day. It took hold a few days later,
but undoubtedly it had been gnawing in his heart the whole time,
having hurt Stephen. And God is working against the
will of the strongest willed man against him. God won. God won. And they're on the road
to Damascus. The gospel that Saul of Tarsus
had heard a few days earlier from the mouth of Stephen, that
gospel takes root, becomes effective. And Saul of Tarsus says, Who
are you, Lord? I am Jesus, whom you're persecuting. What would you have me to do?
He's changed. What do you have to do with being
born again? Nothing. It happened to him,
took him completely by surprise. That's what it is to be born
again. I'm so glad the Lord called me
to preach the gospel. This is the only means by which
he will regenerate sinners. I would be delighted and blessed
if he would do so today. I am so glad you parents are
bringing the children under the sound of the gospel. It's the
only means by which God will save them through the preaching
of the gospel. Now, O God, our Father, be pleased,
we pray, to bless this Word. O may your Holy Spirit take the
Word of God this day and quicken some dead sinner. Give to that sinner faith to
believe in Christ and the ability and the power to become a child
of God. To your glory in Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.