Well, as I said, I intend to
start a series in the Gospel of John. I think it's some years,
I'm sure I did preach one some years ago, but it seems a long
time. I couldn't find it looking back through my notes. John's
Gospel, of course, starts in the same way as the book that
we've just spent about 17 weeks, the book of Genesis. They both
start with the words, in the beginning. In the beginning,
God said. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. In the beginning was the word
here in John's gospel. In the beginning, just like Genesis.
And you say, well, what is that? Well, in a way, it's an answer
to a question. The question being, what are
we? You know, what is this thing
that is thinking in here? What is this thing that is existing
and touching and feeling and experiencing? What is it? Where
did we come from? Where did we come from? Those
are fundamental questions, aren't they? What am I? Where did I
come from? Answer? God started it. God did. In the beginning, God. God created. God made things. God is life. and God gave life. The reason
you have life is because God is life, and God gave it. He
is the cause of life in the beginning, He is the cause of it, He is
the start of it, He is the alpha of it, and He is the objective
of it. He's the end of it. He is the
Alpha and the Omega, the end of it. If you would know true
meaning, if you would know true purpose in life, you must know
God, who made you, and to whom you are accountable. Isn't that
self-evident? If you would know purpose, if
you rise above the ignorance which is evolutionary thinking,
it's nothing new, you know, it's been around for millennia, nothing
new at all. Men think they're so clever,
professing themselves to be wise, they became fools because they
don't understand the fundamental things about what life is and
where we're from. But if you would know true meaning,
you must know God who made you. and to whom you are accountable.
Job, you know the book of Job is, we reckon, about the oldest
text in the scriptures, probably on a par with the time of Abraham,
4,000 years and more ago. And Job says this in Job 23 verse
3, he says, Oh that I knew where I might find him, where I might
find God. that I might even come to his seat, or to his presence,
that I might even come where he is. Oh that I knew, me, a
mortal person, so limited in experience and sense, and there
is God who is infinite and above all. Oh that I knew where I might
find him. How to find God, where to find
God, where to commune with God. Answer God's Word, the Scriptures. God's Word reveals where I might
find Him. Oh, that I knew? Yes, I do know.
It's in the Scriptures. It's there to read. Read it.
It reveals where I might find Him. It isn't by accumulated
human wisdom. You know, we don't shake up all
of the philosophies of mankind and put them in a big pot and
shake them up and see which are the best ones that rise to the
surface. No, no, no. It's by divine revelation. It's
by God himself condescending to reveal from heaven to human
beings who he is, what he is, what we are by nature, and how
we can relate. It isn't deduced by human reason. It's uncovered by God's Spirit. That's a A truth that the natural
man doesn't like, the natural man thinks he's in charge of
his own destiny and of his own deduction. But no, this truth
of God is not open for everybody by their human wisdom to deduce,
it's uncovered by God's Spirit choosing to reveal. Creation
all around us. You look now, we're in spring
here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the gardens bursting forth
with flowers, and creation and natural sense reveal that there
is a God. You know, I am fearfully and
wonderfully made. We can see this. We can see that we are from Him,
and to Him we must return. But only the inspired Word of
God is clear and definitive. Now, as I said, I want to start
a series of messages in John. And, you know, some have said,
and I wouldn't disagree, that the words in John's Gospel are
amongst the most profound revelation of God in Christ that you will
ever find. They're such deep, meaningful
words. And as we look at this book,
We're handling things that are unfathomable. Who can ever, you
know, what it is to fathom is to find out how deep something
is. You know, the mariner sends down a plumb line to find out
where the bottom is so the ship doesn't run aground. And they
fathom it, and if they can reach the bottom, well, they've found
it, they know how deep it is. But you know, you go to some
places that are so deep, it's practically unfathomable. It's
so deep. The things of God are so deep
that we cannot get to the bottom of them. and yet, readily accessible. These things are readily accessible.
I've called this message unfathomable, yet so accessible, so accessible. Look with me today at the mystery
of God, briefly, the simplicity of access to God, the transformation
of adoption into the family of God, and the cause of it all,
the glory of God. First of all, the mystery of
God. We know nothing about God other
than what He has revealed to us. He reveals Himself in creation,
as I said. He shows Himself there, but supremely
in His Word. How can we who are mortal, limited,
ignorant sinners, how can we understand the immensity of God? the vastness that is God. You
think the universe is big. Don't think of God sitting on
the sidelines of the universe. God is over the universe. He
permeates the universe. God is above everything. He's
infinite. Think of the power of God. You
see monumental cataclysmic forces in the universe. When you look
by astronomy into the deepest places in space, you see the
huge great forces unleashed. God is above. all those forces. God is the cause of all those
forces. God is the one who spoke and
all of those things came into being. God is immense above all
of these things. Think of the holiness of God.
You cannot, we who are sinners, cannot fathom the holiness of
God. He is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity, cannot look upon sin. He is supremely, morally pure. Holiness, the majesty of God. Think of the majesty of God.
Think how the sinless angels veil their faces from the One
who is holy, holy, holy. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Think of the eternity of God. We who are creatures
of time and limited by time and space, think of the eternity
of God. Think of the justice of God. The justice of God. For God is
a God of justice, of holiness and of justice, who cannot tolerate
sin and must punish it. He is a God of absolutely strict
justice. Thoughts of God, to understand,
it's too high for us. As the scripture says, I cannot
attain to it. It's too high for me. His thoughts are not my thoughts. My thoughts are not his thoughts.
His ways, it's so high, I cannot attain to it. So he has spoken. God has spoken. Yes, he speaks
in creation, but he has spoken in his word. God, says Hebrews
1, Verse 1 to 3 says, God, who at sundry times and in diverse
manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these
last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has made heir of
all things, by whom He created the worlds. He created the worlds. He made all things. When He had
purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty
on high. God has spoken by His Son. And that's exactly what
the first verse of John's Gospel tells us. In the beginning was
the Word. He's speaking of the Son of God,
the second person of the Trinity. Who is the Word? Well, the Word
was with God, right? Okay, I get that. The Word was
with God, yeah. And the Word was God. I thought
you said He was with God. How can He be God as well? Well,
we're speaking of the triunity. of the Godhead, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, one God, one God, but manifest in three persons. He is three persons in one God. In the beginning was the Word,
the second person of the Trinity, the one by whom God expresses
his being to us, to his people. Christ, it says in Hebrews 1,
is the express image of the person of God. Oh, you know, they say,
oh, look at that child, he's the image of his mother, or the
image of his father. Christ is the express image.
Show us the Father, said Philip, and that will suffice. Philip,
have I been so long with you and you have not seen me? He
who has seen me has seen the Father. He's the express image
of the Godhead. In him dwells the fullness of
the Godhead, bodily. When he came to earth, in him
dwelt the fullness of the Godhead, in bodily form. He is the outshining,
the express image, the outshining of God, who is hidden. God is
hidden to our senses. You cannot see me and live, said
God to Moses, but here is a cleft in the rock, and I will cause
my glory to pass by you. He is hidden, but Christ is the
manifestation. No man has seen God, as it says
later in this very chapter. At any time, the only begotten
Son, the Word, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared
Him. He is the communication of the
essence of God to His sentient creatures. Do you know what sentient
is, boys? Yes, do you know? Thinking. People
who think. He is the communication of the
essence of God to His creatures who have Brains to think because
they're made in the image of God. As speech is, you can tell
the thoughts that are in my mind at the moment because you can
hear my speech. My speech is the expression of
the thoughts in my mind. Speech is the outflowing of the
thoughts of a person, so the Word, God the Word. God the Son,
who is God the Word, in the beginning with God and God Himself. The
Word is to the infinite being of God, He's the expression of
God to us. He's the one who expresses God,
look, in creation. Verse 3, the same was in the
beginning with God, then verse 3, all things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. You know
this Word, He's not a created being, He cannot be. For He made
everything, it tells us here. By Him all things were made.
Without Him, without Him was not anything made. If a thing
was made, it was made by Him, the Word. Without Him was nothing
made that was made. He is the only source of life.
Look at verse 4. In Him was life. and the life
was the light of men. In other words, the life of God
gives life to the people, all people. Look at verse 9, just
jump down to verse 9. That was the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. You say, in what
way? Well, in the sense that every man and woman that lives
on this earth and has ever lived has life for one reason only,
and that is that God gives them that life. The life we have comes
from the life of God. He is that light. Christ, the
Creator, is that light that gives life to every living person,
and has done down the ages. But by the fall, by the fall
in Eden, by the surrender of the creation of God to Satan,
by Adam in Eden, by the fall by nature, we are all naturally
darkness when it comes to spiritual things. We cannot understand
God. Chapter 3 of John, verse 19. Just look over there for a moment.
Chapter 3, verse 19. And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light. Why? Because their deeds were
evil. They're sinners. By nature, they're sinners. Their
deeds were evil. That light came into the world,
but men loved darkness rather than light. They love darkness,
rather. You know the criminal fraternity. You know what they love best?
They love darkness, because they can get away with their evil
deeds more easily under the cover of darkness. But the light makes
manifest what evil things they're doing. So, by nature, we are
enmity against God. We are alienated from God, and
we're alienated from the God who must judge us and condemn
us when we face Him after death, for as you know, it is appointed
to man to die once, and then the judgment. That's it. One
appointment. It is appointed to man to die
once. What's going to happen? All sorts
of things I have no idea about, but I know this for sure. Everybody
listening to me is going to die one day. It's appointed to man
to die once and then the judgment of God. We must face God. We
must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and receive the
just reward for the things done in the body. And so the question,
that draws from us is this, how to be justified by Him. How should
a man be just with God? How can I be right with God?
How can I be in a right relationship with the God who has made me?
and yet is so much bigger and vaster than anything I can comprehend
and who must judge me one day when I die. How can I find the
way to peace with Him? You know the answer. We repeat
it often. Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. He was the way to the tree of
life when Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden of Eden at the
end of Genesis 3. He was the way to the tree of life. through
a sacrifice which pointed to how justice would be satisfied
by the death of a substitute. Christ is the way, the truth
and the life. Christ who has redeemed a multitude
of sinners from the curse of the law. The curse of the law
is the law that says the soul that sins it shall die. And we
have sinned and that's the law's curse that we should die but
for his people Christ has come. The Word, the Son of God has
come, God in flesh, the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Him
has come and taken our nature and borne our sin on the cross
of Calvary, that the justice of God might be satisfied and
say there is nothing more penalty, no more penalty to exact, for
He has borne it all. Free grace is what I'm talking
about and you know what that hymn says, and if free grace
Why not for me? Yes, it's limited to those whom
God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, but
that's a multitude that no man can number. And if he is putting
in your heart a desire to be right with him, and if free grace,
why not for me? So how do I approach him? How
do I get to this God who is so mysterious? Great is the mystery
of godliness, says Paul to Timothy, great is the, it is, who can
plumb the depths of it? It is truly unfathomable, yet
so accessible. If we believe what the Word of
God says, it's so accessible. Look at the simplicity of access
with me. How to get to God. How to get
to God through Christ. How do I get to God through Christ? Do I have to go? Religious folks
will tell you. Some religious folks will tell
you, ah, you have to go on a great pilgrimage to a special place
on earth where if you go there, God will, what your idea of God
is will greatly bless you. Oh no, others say, no, the way
to get to God is you must, you know, this world is bad. You
must shut yourself off from everything to do with it. You must go and
live in a monastery or a nunnery. You must shut yourself off from
everything else in this world that makes you a human being,
and thereby you might find the way to God. We read in Deuteronomy
earlier, didn't we? Where do we find it? Look, in
Deuteronomy chapter 30, This commandment, this word of God,
this way to God, which I command thee this day, it is not hidden
from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that
thou should say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring
it to us, that we may hear it and do it, neither is it beyond
the sea. You don't have to go on a great big journey. You don't
have to go on a pilgrimage. You don't have to go to anywhere
special. Who shall go over the sea for us, you might say, and
bring it unto us? No, no, you don't need to do
that. The word the truth of God, the thing that will show you
the way to God, to peace with God, to a right relationship
with God, it's very near to you. In fact, if you read this word,
it's in your mouth, and it's in your heart that you may do
it. That's quoted in Romans chapter 10. Paul quotes it in Romans
chapter 10 and verse 6. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise, and then he quotes the passage
we've just read. Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven,
that is, to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend
into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead,
but what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart, which is the word of faith which we
preach. The word of faith is the gospel which we preach, that
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. Hear that? What does the word say? Where
should I go? Should I go up into heaven? Should
I go across the sea? No, it just says this, that if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed, shall not be condemned
in the judgment, is what that means. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Do you see how simple
is the access to the eternal God? We seek access to God in
Christ. He is God. He is the way to God. He is his people's qualification
for access to God. Look in this chapter at verse
10. John the Baptist, the one who's
called John, who is mentioned in verse 6, the man who sent
from God whose name was John, that's John the Baptist, preparing
the way of the Lord, of Christ to come into the world, make
straight the way of the Lord, as the prophecies said. And John
the Baptist came and did that. Now, he, John, was not the light
of life. but was sent to bear witness
of Christ, who was the light of life. Christ is the true light,
which lights every man which comes into the world. Christ
is the true light of life, which gives life to everybody born,
physical life to everybody born. And this one came. God, who is
above and beyond everything we can imagine, he was in the world. Just let that sink in just for
a moment. God, who is infinitely above
and beyond everything, was in the world. The fullness of the
Godhead, the infinity of God, the holiness of God, the omniscience
of God, the omnipotence of God, everything, the fullness of God
was in him when he was in the world. He thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but laid that glory of God aside that
He might come to redeem His people from the curse of the law, and
thereby to qualify a multitude for citizenship of the kingdom
of God. He came preaching the kingdom
of God. The kingdom of God is that which
is the inheritance of all who were chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world, and He came to make it certain. He was in the world, And the
world was made by Him, for without Him was not anything made that
was made. And look at this, the world knew
Him not. Is that not exactly what we see
when we look around today? Those that we rub shoulders with
each day, the neighbours that we have, the people we come across
at school, the politicians that govern us, everything around
us, the world knew Him not. He was in the world, and the
world was made by Him, but the world knew Him not. And He came
unto His own, to His own creation. He came into His own creation. He came down in amongst us and
dwelt among us. And his own? The two words own
in verse 11, in the original there's a difference in terms
of the gender of the words, and one must be applying to the creation,
and the other to his own people, the Jews. He came to the Jews,
he was born a Jew amongst Jews, and the Jews received him not. He came to them as the promised
Messiah, exactly as their scriptures said, but they received him not. 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. Look, how to come to God? How to find the way of God? He's
so accessible, it says, to those that believe on his name, and
yet he's so rejected. His own received him not. The
darkness of the human heart is shown here, that the one who
is God, who intends only good, is the one who is rejected. You
know, the heart of man, says Jeremiah 17 verse 9, it says,
the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord.
Try the rains, is the very next verse. The Lord knows it. The
Lord is able to plumb the depths of the wickedness and the deceit
of the human heart. Desperately wicked. deceitful
above all things. What's wicked about the natural
man? What's wicked about the nice
people we come across every day? What's wicked about the well-intentioned
politicians that rule our lives in the current way that they're
doing? What's wicked about them? I'll tell you, I'll tell you,
I'll tell you in one phrase. They call God a liar because
they refuse to believe the testimony of God. Most refuse to believe. He's so accessible. The unknown,
infinite God is so accessible in Christ, but they refuse to
believe Him. That's desperate wickedness.
That's when the Scripture says wicked. Don't think about people
that do things that are wicked in your mind. The wickedness
the Scripture speaks about is the wickedness of not believing
God, of calling God a liar. But there were some that didn't
reject Him. The majority received Him not,
but as many as received Him, there were some that received
Him. Most received Him not, but some did receive Him. You know,
this is exactly what Jesus Himself said. He said broad is the way
that leads to destruction. Broad is the way that the world
happily goes along, the way it thinks towards some sort of utopian,
happy, united world situation, but it leads to destruction.
And many there be, said Christ, that go that way. Broad is the
way that leads to destruction, but narrow is the way that leads
to life, and few there be that find it. But there are some.
Those that received Him, as many as received Him, to them gave
He power to become the sons of God. Some did receive Him. A few did receive Him. But what
is it to receive Him? What is it to receive Him? How
do you receive Him? Listen to me. First of all, you
have to sense something, don't you, to receive it. if you're
given a gift, your senses have to apprehend the nature of the
gift, the fact of the gift, the dimensions of the gift, the value
of the gift, the what it is. Your senses are made aware. Well,
how do we receive Him who is Christ, who is God to our souls? How do we receive Him? Our senses
are made aware by preaching. It's the preaching, it might
be preaching that you read in a written sermon, but nevertheless
it was preached by a man that God sent. You know when the Ethiopian
eunuch was going back from Jerusalem in the time of the Acts of the
Apostles, and he bought a copy of the scroll, because they knew
that if you went to Jerusalem. If you went to Israel, to Judah
in those days, that was the only place you would find the way
to God, and quite right they were too. What advantage is there
in being a Jew? Much every way, for to them was
committed the oracles of God. And this Ethiopian civil servant,
a senior person in the court of the Queen of Ethiopia, he's
on his way home with a copy of the scroll of Isaiah, the book
of Isaiah that he'd bought there, and he's reading it, and he doesn't
understand it, and by God's Spirit, Philip the evangelist is brought
near to the chariot that he's riding in, and he hears him reading
from Isaiah about Christ being sent as a lamb to the slaughter,
and Philip says to him, do you understand what you're reading? And the Ethiopian eunuch said
to him, how can I understand except a man explain it to me? That's God's way. By the foolishness
of preaching, it pleased God. to reveal his truth to those
who believe. And so a preacher comes and makes
us aware. And our understanding, secondly,
our understanding is enlightened. You know, when Jesus asked the
disciples, who do men say that I am? And they said, well, some
say you're John the Baptist and others say that you're Elijah
and da-da-da-da-da-da. But who do you say that I am?
And Peter, the spokesman, stood and he said, you are the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to him, blessed
are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, Simon Peter, blessed are you. Flesh
and blood hasn't shown you this. It isn't a man that's taught
you this, but my Father which is in heaven. You've seen, your
understanding has been enlightened to see Christ for who He is.
And then that understanding goes down into the heart, and into
the conscience, and into the affections, the things that we
desire. In other words, you believe,
you rest, you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you possess
Him as your own. You possess Him. I am His and
He is mine, says the scripture. You hear, who this man is, you
hear who he is. You know what the apostles, in
the Acts of the Apostles, they preached? That this Jesus is
the very Christ. That's what they preach. This
man who had no comeliness that we should desire him, he is the
Christ of God. What he did, how he satisfied
justice, making peace, how he did it for you, and you willingly
commit your immortal soul into his safekeeping. I know whom
I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed. What have I committed to him?
My immortal soul. I've committed it to Him. He's
the one who's justified me from the curse of the law. You commit
to something that you truly trust in. You get a new job. and you
need to support your family, and you need to be in the place
where that job is, and you get a new job, and you learn all
about the company, and you start to believe in what the company
does, and the product that it sells, and the things that it
makes, and you trust in it. This is similar. I know it's
a weak illustration, but it's similar. You hear the truth of
Christ, and you trust Him. You know, the Philippian jailer,
understanding his eternal dilemma, cried out to Paul and Silas,
what must I do to be saved? For I know I'm under judgment.
What must I do? And the answer came back, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what must I do? It's
the work of God that you believe. He is the one that gives that
faith to believe. And as we read in Romans 10,
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. What
did it say? Who shall call and be saved?
It said, whosoever. Whosoever. Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever. You say,
surely not me. You say, I'm too big a sinner.
I'm too big a sinner to be saved. I'm too far out of kilter with
the justice and holiness of God. Hear what the Word of God says,
because where do we go for truth? To the Word of God. Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, said Paul.
Ah, you can't be too big a sinner. The chief of sinners is saved
by Jesus Christ. Oh, you're too weak spiritually
to walk with God. I'll never keep it up. I just
don't have the fortitude of character to keep up a walk with God. What
does the scripture say? When we were without strength,
Christ died for us. Oh, you say, oh yeah, but you
don't know me inside. My thoughts are so ungodly. I'm
such an ungodly person. How can I ever have a relationship
with God? You know, that same verse also
says Christ died for the ungodly. You say, but I'm lost and beyond
finding, I'm too far from God, you better just leave me alone
and go on your way. Jesus said, I came to seek and
to save that which is lost. People who are lost. No, whosoever
shall call, whosoever. The gospel call is not do this
and live, the gospel call is Christ has done this, therefore
live. It's done, not do. What fitness
do I need? As that hymn says, that all the
fitness he requireth is that you feel your need of him. We
don't earn the right to approach God by heavy labor, but we come
freely because it's all of grace. And as I said before, and if
free grace, why not for me? So then there's a transformation
of adoption. As many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name. The gift of power, you know the
gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of it, it's the power of God. It's the only way that
sinners are saved. He gives the power to become
sons of God. Not just to believe mentally,
but to become members of his family, to be adopted as sons
of God. We receive Christ first. That
precedes becoming sons, becoming aware that we're sons. God gives
the gift of faith. You know, you are saved by grace
through faith. Faith is the medium through which
you become aware of it. But that's not of yourselves.
The faith is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. He gives
the gift of faith that with it you might apprehend truth. Faith
is the key that unlocks God's treasury. It may be for you a
rusty little key, but if it's the right pattern of a key, it
unlocks the treasury of God. That little tiny key, that little
worthless piece of metal, opens the treasury to all the jewels
that are in. God's treasury is immense. That
key of faith unlocks divine treasure. It unlocks to us all spiritual
blessings. It unlocks to us the riches of
grace. We receive Christ by faith. We apprehend, we grasp, we get
hold of the truth of him. We believe him. We trust our
soul to his keeping, confident that he'll keep us through that
day of judgment. And then God empowers us, experimentally,
in our experience, to feel sonship. What is it to be a son? It's
to know certain privileges, isn't it? Of course it is. The adoption
of sinners into the family of God, takes those who have no
right to the things of God, and assures them that they have the
inheritance of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
the blessings of the family of God, the responsibilities of
family membership within the family of God. The privilege
of adoption. You have the same legal status
as natural born sons and daughters. You have the same inheritance
as they do. Joint heirs with Christ. You
belong to the family of God. There's the child-like love for
the Father which cries out as the Scripture tells us, Abba,
Abba, Father. We're qualified and sealed by
belief. The prodigal son in the parable
believed in his heart that life was in his father's house, even
if he would only have to be as a hired servant. But his father
had the power to forgive and to welcome him, not as a hired
servant, but as a son and heir. And so the prodigal approached
with fear, but love casts out all fear and torment. So with
the believer who comes into God's family by Christ, he gives the
power to become the sons of God. Finally, and I've just about
run out of time, but I'll be very quick with this. Look at
verse 13. We are in the family of God by
that power which he gives for us to become the sons of God.
Now, sons are born into a family, and by sons, of course you know
it means daughters as well, but sons are born into families which
were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God. Whatever we think of natural
families, our own natural families, we are members of them by birth.
And many of you, some of you will be delighted with the family
that you were born into, and others of you will wish that
you had not been born into that family because you don't have
much good to think or to say about them. But we had no choice
in it. We had no active part in it,
did we? You didn't know about your birth until two or three
years after you were born was the first time you started to
really be aware of the fact that you were born into that family.
Those who believe on Christ's name are given the power to become
the sons of God. But how are they born? Look what
it says. How are they born into the family
of God? How is this power to make us
the sons of God? How is it exercised? Number one,
it is not exercised in bloodlines. It's not of blood. You know,
our natural inheritance is in bloodlines, by which it means
in the genetics that we inherit from our parents. Not by bloodlines. The Jews thought they were the
sons of God by blood descent from Abraham. In fact, many still
do think that today. No. Abraham isn't the father
of those who are just genetically descended from him by blood.
Romans 4.11, that Abraham might be the father of all them that
believe, whether they're Jews or Gentiles, though they be not
circumcised, Gentiles, that righteousness might be imputed to them also,
as it was to Abraham. We're the children of Abraham,
if we have the same faith as Abraham, according to the Word
of God. God often blesses families, but don't presume. Whosoever
calls means just that, whosoever, whosoever, each one. You're not
in the family of God because you're born to believing parents.
You're in the family of God because you called upon the name of the
Lord. Number two, it isn't of the will
of the flesh. The will of the flesh. Your flesh,
my flesh, is incapable. Natural man receives not the
things of the Spirit of God. We're incapable of spiritual
deduction in our flesh, in our intellect. Religion makes free
will, false religion, makes free will sovereign in salvation.
Not according to scripture. It isn't the will of the flesh.
Number three, it's not man's will. It's not the will of a
man, not the will of a pastor, not the will of a priest, not
the will of a teacher. However intense the training,
you know the Jesuits in the Catholic Church say, give me a child by
seven and, you know, I'll make him potentially the Pope for
the future because the training will be so, so strong. No. Theological
seminaries don't make preachers, God does. It is God that gives
his light and life to people. And there we have the answer
for, not of the will of the flesh, but of God, not of blood. Not
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Why is it? What is it that makes the difference?
It is God. He wills it. He willed it before
time. He chose a multitude in Christ,
his elect, before the foundation of the world. He redeemed that
very multitude, which no man can number, by Christ when he
came. He makes alive, He quickens,
makes alive by the Spirit's irresistible grace every single one. He comes
and makes them willing in the day of His power. He gives life.
You must be born again, born of the Spirit of God. Into these
ones, each one, at the right time of His choosing, He shines
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He deliberately gives life. to
some, a multitude, and he deliberately passes by others. Because the
glory of God is this. His supreme glory is this. I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will be compassionate
to whom I will be compassionate. Why? I'll just close with these
couple of verses. Romans 11, verse 33. Oh, the
depth. of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God,
how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.
For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his
counsellor? Or who has first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through
him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.