Well, I had planned to go back
to Isaiah, and that last week was just a brief interlude in
John 3, because we were looking at all the blessings in Isaiah
26, and all of them being to do with being born again, being
born of God. And we were looking at what that
means. And I had, as I said, planned
to go back there this week, but I've been led to stay a bit longer.
with the scriptural truth of the need for spiritual life,
for the new birth, of the divine origin of heavenly light. If
you have heavenly light, and it's genuine heavenly light and
not some human delusion, then it comes from God in heaven.
And it's not something that man can teach. You know, there are
Bible colleges and institutes that teach that claim to teach
the things of God and more often than not they teach the thoughts
of men and they lead more people away from the truth of God and
the gospel of grace than they do lead them into it in these
days. But it's something that you cannot
teach by human teaching in a college. Jesus said to Peter, Simon Bar-Jonah,
Peter the disciple, the apostle, He said to him, when he asked,
who do men say that I am? And they all said, well, some
say you're Elijah, and some say you're Jeremiah, and some say
this prophet or that prophet. And he said, who do you say that
I am? And Peter was the one that spoke for them. And Peter said,
you are the Christ, the son of the living God. You are the promised
Messiah, the one of whom all the Old Testament spoke. You
are that one. And Jesus said to him this, note
he didn't say, Well done, you've worked that out for yourself.
Where did you learn that? No, he said, Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to you,
but my Father which is in heaven. True spiritual truth from God
comes from God to the individual who learns it. Those born again,
those born of God, have faith from God to sense the things
of God. Not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God. Things that a natural man, without the rebirth, without
that new life from God, the natural man is incapable of sensing these
things. The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them. As Christ said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, when you come with all of your qualifications talking
to me about the kingdom of God, let me tell you straight off,
Nicodemus, except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom
of God, never mind talk about it. You cannot enter the kingdom
of God without the rebirth. And with that rebirth, with that
new life from God, come all the blessings promised by God in
his word. What blessings am I talking about?
Eternal life. Eternal life. It's appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment, but in Christ, in believing
in him, in having this new birth, we have eternal life. Not you will have, you have eternal
life. You have a life now that will
go on beyond death into eternity in the presence of God. Eternal
life. And you must have, therefore,
salvation from sin. because nothing that defiles,
no sin, not one, can enter into the bliss of the heaven of God. So we must be saved from our
sins, and in this new birth we have salvation from sin. And it must be that when you
get to the judgment seat of Christ there is no fear of condemnation,
for there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according
to the Spirit. And he gives his people, in this life now, in
this life now, he gives his people a lively hope. a hope of eternity,
a lively hope, it's a living hope. It's not some vague, airy-fairy
psychological thing, it's a real hope of heaven. I know when I
die. You know, as Paul said, I'm in
a straight between two. To stay for your needs, because
I need to minister to you, or to depart and be with Christ,
which is far better. We have a heavenly promise, and
we have the confidence of it. But you might still be asking,
that's the blessings of those who are born of God. You might
still be asking, who is born of God? And that's the title
of my message this morning. Who is born of God? Am I born of God? Are you born
of God? How can you know? How do I know? Where do we go for the answer?
Where do we go? We go to the scriptures. Scripture
provides the answer. We don't go to religious authorities,
we don't go to bishops in their robes, we don't go to theological
seminaries, we don't look up the tradition of what people
before us have believed. We don't go to human writings,
we go to the word of God, because to the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, like the noble Bereans,
search the scriptures daily whether these things be so. The things
you hear, search the scriptures daily. Does what you hear ring
true with this book? Because if it doesn't, you're
not listening to somebody who's speaking with the Good Shepherd's
voice, and you shouldn't follow him. No, this book is of miraculous
origin. This book is of miraculous preservation,
that we have it here in our day. In 2018, we still have this book,
which is the Word of God. Do you not find it utterly staggering,
absolutely amazing? Of all of the other archaeological
artifacts that have ever been found, this Word of God is by
far the most remarkable thing. It truly is. Because in this
book are the words of eternal life. And in this book are the
things that reveal the Christ of God. And in this book is the
explanation for how things are as they are. In this book we
read words that were written, I don't know, 4,000 years ago? The words of Job, written 4,000
years ago. You know, you go and see some
pretty old things in the British Museum, but here in our hands,
here and now, some of you on electronic devices like smartphones,
you have the Word of God. miraculously preserved. This
is where we come for our teaching. Who is born of God? Where am
I going to go? I come here to the Word of God. Because as Paul
wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3 16, all scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine. That's where we go
for our doctrine. It's profitable for reproof, for correcting us,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And I would
just say as an aside, if you agree with what I've just said
then make sure you get the best translation in your language,
in English. The best translation in English
is this good old King James Version. I know it was written in, was
it 1613 was when the translators did the job? It was revised in
the 1700s but nevertheless the vast bulk of it is what was translated
in 1613 and why do I say it's by far the best? You see, doesn't
it talk in ancient language, the language of 400 years ago,
well yes it does, but we can easily get by that, we can easily
cope with that, we can easily cope with the these and those
and the eths and the eths and all these different tense endings,
we can cope with that because here is the most accurate rendering
of the original Word of God to humanity. The caliber of that
committee of translators in those days has never been surpassed.
They were exceptional men. and the text that they used,
it was the Textus Receptus, the text that God miraculously preserved. You know, the texts were copied.
And those smart alecks today who tell you that, well, John
8 isn't really in the Scriptures because it's not in the oldest
manuscripts. The oldest doesn't necessarily mean the most accurate.
What we have here is from the Textus Receptus, and its words
are accurate, and it's not tainted by human interpretation. So things
like a simple little word like in or of, faith in Jesus Christ
or faith of Jesus Christ. Do you know those two? I'm not
going to go into it in any detail now but they're vastly different
concepts and you will find in a Bible that purports to be nearly
the King James Version you will find faith in Jesus Christ when
it really says faith of Jesus Christ. One is the work you do
to get right with God, and that's a lie, and the other is the work
that God has done in Christ to put his people right with him.
Anyway, enough of that for now. But Scripture is our standard,
and this is where we look. So we look at what the Holy Spirit
inspired the Apostle John to write in his first epistle. The
Apostle John, he was probably an old man when he wrote it. Probably about the time he wrote
the Revelation when he was writing these epistles. I don't know,
nobody really knows, but I think it's fair to assume that he was
probably an old man. He was probably the only surviving
of the disciples, the apostles. Now think about this man. He
had spent three and a half intimate years with Jesus of Nazareth
in his ministry. Three and a half years. That's
a fair time, isn't it? You know, if you spend three
and a half years with someone, you get to know them pretty well.
And this man had examined the ministry of Jesus. I use Jesus,
not out of irreverence, I'm talking of the man Jesus of Nazareth. He'd examined his ministry and
his claims close up. And what was his testimony? He
said, we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the father, full of grace and truth. Anybody spends three
and a half years in close contact with me, like a certain lady
here has spent many three and a half years The one thing that
you will be aware of is my flaws, and my weakness, and the frailty
of my flesh, and the irrationality of my actions. But John spent
three and a half years with Christ, and he said, we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. No sin whatsoever. And In writing, John's aim in
writing, look in verse 13 of chapter 5 of his first epistle.
1 John 5, 13. These things, why have you written
this John? These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God. Okay, why?
That you may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may
believe on the name of the Son of God. That's why he wrote.
That you might know true God, as it says in verse 20. of the
same chapter. We know the Son of God is come,
and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is
true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus
Christ. This is true God and eternal
life. This is why he wrote that you
might know that you're in Christ, and believing in him you might
know you have eternal life, and this is to know the true God.
This is why he wrote He says, throughout his epistle, he says
a lot about the new birth. If you read the whole epistle,
he says a lot about the new birth. He says a lot about being born
of God. And he says a lot about the fruit,
especially the fruit of love that it produces. The fruit of
the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, all of
these things. But I want to turn your attention to the first verse
of chapter 5 this morning. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loveth him
that loveth him also that is begotten of him. You see, we're
asking the question, who is born of God? And there we have the
answer. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God. So I want to break it down and
answer three questions. What is this believing? that
is spoken of here. Whosoever believeth. What do
you mean, believeth? That Jesus is the Christ, is
born of God. And then secondly, how is it
the proof of rebirth? How does that believing prove
that you are born of God? And thirdly, how does it manifest
itself in the one who believes? So first of all then, what is
this believing? What is it? Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. You could go round many,
many churches, many churches of many different labels and
types, and you could ask the question, put your hands up if
you believe that Jesus is the Christ, and the whole congregation
would put their hand up. And you would then conclude,
would you, that they're all born of God? But patently they're
not. Patently they're not. They're
not born of God. All they're doing is giving mental
assent to the idea of the historical effect. A fact that there was
a man called Jesus who was called Jesus Christ. And so they say,
well, yeah, Jesus is the one that was called Christ. Yes,
I'll vote for that. And they put their hands up. But that's
not what this is talking about. It's not simply mental assent. You see, if you read James chapter
two, verse 19, James is talking there about belief. and about
believing. He says, thou believest that
there is one God. You know, you say you believe
that there's one God, you do well, well done, you believe
that there's one God. And he says, oh, by the way,
the devils also believe that, and they tremble. The devils
are not born again. The devils believe that there
is one God, you do well, but the devils believe that, and
they tremble at the prospect because they know that there's
judgment coming. It isn't agreeing that Jesus, the man born at Bethlehem
of Mary, 2000 and a bit years ago, is the promised Messiah
of the Old Testament. The word is the same, Messiah,
Christ, it's the same, one in the Hebrew, one in Greek. The
Messiah, the Christ of the Old Testament. You see, God had promised
a Messiah right from the very beginning. God had promised that
he would come as a man, a God-man. You read these scriptures, you
analyze these scriptures, the God-man, God himself would come
and would take upon him human flesh. that he might redeem sinners,
he might buy back sinners from the fall from the just condemnation
that was due to them. And this man is the one that
fits the bill. That's right, that's what it
says, you mentally assent to that, you agree that that's the
case, but that is not the same as believing and being born of
God. It is all of that, but if you
merely affirm the truth of that fact, it doesn't mean that you
are born of God, for the devils know it's true, and they tremble. Many people know it's true, and
they tremble. So what is it to believe? What
is it to believe? Think about it. What is it to
believe? It is personally to have confidence in Christ. That's what it is to believe.
It's not just to say, yes, I agree that he came. No. Not just like
historical facts, you know, I can believe that 2000, well, I forget exactly the date
of it, but I can believe that Julius Caesar was a Roman emperor
who invaded this country and the Romans lived here. I can
believe that. I can believe that. It's not the same as that. It's
not just believing historical facts. I can believe that in
1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue, as the little rhyme goes.
I can believe that, but it's not the same as this. This is
having confidence in something that affects me. It's having
reliance. This is what it is to believe
Christ. It's having reliance on Christ's ability. When we
read, He, Christ, is able to save to the uttermost those who
come to God by Him. I rely on that. I have confidence
in it. I rely on it. And know that what
it means is that I am saved from my sins. That when it comes to
that judgment seat of Christ, the words I will hear are, come
ye blessed of my Father and enter into the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world. That's what it is. It's
reliance on Christ's ability to save my immortal soul from
its just condemnation for sin. God is just in condemning sin. and those who commit sin. God
promised Christ, the Messiah, to answer the need of his elect
for the righteousness he demands. You know the well-quoted question
of Job, how should a man be just with God? How can I be just with
God? How is it? It's by Christ coming
as the second Adam. Adam, the first Adam in the Garden
of Eden, who fell. who disobeyed, who fell, who
took all of his race and everyone that came from him into sin and
into condemnation. But Christ came as the second
Adam, the second man, the second representative man, the second
federal head, to reverse the fall. The fall when Adam sinned
in Eden, the second Adam came to reverse that fall for God's
elect. The elect? The multitude that
no man can number. The multitude of every tongue
and tribe and kindred of every race. And you know, I was thinking
about it the other day. Everything, everything that we
see and observe is ultimately traceable back to just two events. Everything. Firstly, the fall
in Eden. Everything we see, you can trace
back to the fall in Eden. And secondly, back to the redemption
that Christ accomplished at the cross of Calvary. Those two things,
those two things, great momentous events, the fall and redemption. And it's all going to come to
a conclusion and to a head when God brings all these things to
an end. The fact that Jesus of Nazareth, the man born in Bethlehem,
raised in Nazareth, the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was the
promised Christ was central to the preaching of the apostles.
For example, Paul. We read of him in Acts chapter
18 and verse 28. He mightily convinced the Jews,
and that publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was
Christ. What are you preaching about,
Paul, this week? That Jesus is Christ. What are you preaching
about next week, Paul? That Jesus is Christ. He determined, as
he said to the Corinthians, I determined to know nothing else among you
except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's my message. That's the
message you need to hear. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
as Jesus himself said. The scriptures, the Old Testament
scriptures, you search them, for in them you think that you
have eternal life, and that is true. These are they that speak
of me. The scriptures testify of Christ,
with the disciples on the Emmaus road after the crucifixion, when
he'd risen from the dead, but they didn't know it yet. And
he walked with them, and talked with them, and they told him
how upset they were, and they didn't realise it was him. And
then he went in with them, for food, and he expounded to them,
we read, in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Well did he expound? I don't
know, we don't have a record of it, but it would be along
these lines. You read Genesis chapter 3, and you read the promise
of the seed of the woman. After the fall, the seed of the
woman who would come to crush the serpent's head. The seed
of the woman? The promised Christ. There, right
there, Genesis 3, third chapter of the Bible, is the promise
of the Messiah to come and to undo the work of the devil in
the fall. We then see, just a page later,
the offspring of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and we see Abel's
lamb. And Abel's lamb, what's that
speaking about? Christ, who would come. as a fitting sacrifice,
as an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of his people, to undo
the fall. We read of the faith which pleased
God that Enoch had. Enoch pleased God and he walked
with God. He had faith, that faith which
pleased God of Enoch. What was his faith in? I have
faith. You hear people say, I have faith
and it begs the question, well, what's your faith in? It's pointless
if it's just faith. What is it in? It's in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's in the one who would come.
It's in the seed that God had promised who would come, who
where I am a sinner and I can do no right and my sin condemns
me before God, that a Messiah is coming who will bear my sins
in his own body and pay the penalty for them that I might be made
the righteousness of God in him. I look on a few pages and I see
Noah's Ark and the account of Noah's Ark and the great wickedness
in the world and how God must judge sin. and condemn sin, and
how he sent the flood to take them all away. But he didn't
take them all away, for he saved eight in the ark, the ark which
is such a picture of the Messiah who would come, the Christ who
would come. And if you're in Christ, if you're in Christ,
you're safe from judgment to come. And if you were in this
ark, you were safe from the flood that came. The ark is a picture
of Christ. Abraham's offering Isaac. You
know Abraham was promised a son and he had a son by the flesh,
by the bondwoman. The name of that son was Ishmael.
But he was promised that he would have a son. And it says, take
your son, and you'll find even in the King James Version it
says, his only son Isaac. But the word son is not there.
It's his only Isaac. Take your only Isaac. Because
Abraham had been told by God that in Isaac shall be the promise. What promise? The promise of
redemption. The promise of the payment for sin would be in Isaac. And why do you think Abraham
so willingly went to Mount Moriah with the son of his love? his
only Isaac to sacrifice him because he believed God that there God
in this one he thought was the seed rather than it being the
seed would come from him he thought Isaac was the seed and he was
prepared to take him and sacrifice him there because he thought
that there was God going to take away the sins of the world And
of course God showed him, no, God will provide himself a sacrifice. But you see how it all pictured
the Christ of God coming. Jacob's ladder. Here we are in
sin on this earth. And there is the glory of heaven.
And Jacob, in his dream, he saw a ladder with the angels of God
going up and down it. And that ladder was Christ. It
was a picture of Christ. How is that which is sinful going
to attain to the glory and sinlessness of heaven? By Christ and him
alone. Joseph, redeeming his brethren
from starvation, when he was sold into slavery, when he was
sold by his brothers falsely. Oh, what glorious pictures of
the Messiah, the seed of the woman, the Christ who would come.
Moses choosing affliction with God's people, rather than the
pleasures of sin for a season. The Passover blood, when they
came out of Egypt, when finally, at the end of all those plagues,
Pharaoh bade them to go, go, get out of here, because that
night they'd sacrificed the Passover lamb, a lamb without blemish
and without spot, and they'd saved of the blood and they painted
it on the doorpost, because that night the angel of death was
coming through the land of Egypt and The angel of death would
see the blood on the doorposts and on the lintel, and he would
pass over where he saw. When I see the blood, I shall
pass by. I shall not go in and slay the
firstborn. Every firstborn in the land of
people and of animals was slain, except those where the angel
of death saw the pass over blood. Now those that painted that blood
on their doorposts, why do you think they did it? Why did they
do it? I'll tell you why. they had confidence. From what Moses had preached
to them, because God had told him, they had confidence and
they relied on the fact that their firstborn would be safe
from the angel of death, whereas those that didn't would not be
safe. When it came to the Old Testament
sacrifices in the temple, in the law that was given to Moses,
and The priest, on behalf of the people, had to lay his hands
on the head of the goat that was the sacrifice. He's believing
that in the reckoning of God those sins are transferred to
that symbol to be taken away. This is belief. It's relying
on it. It's confidence in it. And when
we trust Christ, it's that same confidence. The only one in whom
and by whom God would reverse the fall and its effects for
his elect Note, nowhere in Scripture does it suggest that he came
to reverse the fall for all without exception. No, it doesn't say
that. That's the error of false Christianity. It says he did
it for his elect, the multitude which no man can number from
every tongue and tribe and kindred. So then, this is the substance
of what is believed by those born of God. They believe it,
but then how does it prove that you have the new birth. Whosoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. How does that
belief in Jesus as the one who is the promised Messiah of God
to come to save his people from their sins, how does it prove
that you have the new life of God within your soul? You might
be still wondering that. What is it that proves to me
that I am born of God and therefore safe for eternity? And the answer
is faith. Faith. The just, we read in Habakkuk,
the just shall live by faith, and that's quoted three or four
times in the New Testament. The just, the justified ones,
those who are made just in the reckoning of God's justice, shall
live by their faith. If I have the faith of God's
elect, I confess that my confidence My reliance for acceptance with
God rests in Jesus Christ. I believe it. I rest on it. My
confidence, my reliance for acceptance with God, when it comes to the
day of my death, when I know I have to face that judgment
seat of Christ, when I die, my confidence and my reliance with
God rests entirely with Jesus Christ. For example, let me give
you an example. Let's say you're going on a long-haul
flight, and you're booking your ticket, and you're doing all
those sorts of things. Well, you know, when you do that,
you believe that the airline will get you to your destination.
you believe that the crew will safely fly the plane according
to all the regulations, you believe that they'll look after you,
you believe that the piece of machinery, and I still get staggered
when I go down to London and I see those enormous great passenger
planes taking off and coming into Heathrow, it just, you know,
I know how it works, I understand aerodynamics, I can work out
the forces and all that sort of thing, but nevertheless, when
I see about 300 tonnes up there in the sky, flying along with
500 people, and it still absolutely staggers me that it does it,
but nevertheless I believe it. I trust it. And you go to the
airport, with your ticket, and you check in, and you get on
the plane, and you sit down in your seat, and do you know what?
You are entirely passive from then on. Are you not? They feed
you, Oh yes, you get up and use the toilet or whatever else you
might need to do, you stretch your legs, but you are entirely
passive. You don't flap your arms to make
the plane fly, do you? You don't flap your arms to make
it fly. You don't pedal your legs to give it a bit of an extra
push. You sit back and it takes you. And you believe it. You have confidence in it. You
rely upon it. I remember when I first started
flying many, many years ago in a little company plane. And at
first I used to think, oh dear, what do I do? What if it crashes?
What if the engine stops? And after a little while you
just think, I can do absolutely nothing. I just have to sit here
and go with it. and go where it goes and where
it takes me and where we land is where I am. I'm entirely passive
in it. I have complete confidence and
reliance upon it, commitment and trust. Just like I said last
week to Timothy 1.12, Paul said, I know whom I have believed.
I've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and I am persuaded, I
am convinced that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. What have you committed, Paul?
My eternal soul, my immortal soul, my sinful soul. I've put
it in his hands. Sinful? You, Paul? You're not
a sinner, sure. Chief of sinners. Chief of sinners. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief, and I've committed that
soul of mine into his hands against that day of judgment, because
I know I utterly, passively know He has actively done everything
I need. Do you believe? Do you have confidence? Do you have reliance that Jesus
is the Christ? Because it is the Christ who
will get you to glory. You, sinner, it's the Christ
and Him alone who will get you to glory. It's the Christ and
Him alone who has satisfied the justice of God in his death on
Calvary. He has satisfied the justice
of God and being made the sin of his people for them in the
determinate purpose of God, his people are made the righteousness
of God in him. What does God require for entrance
to heaven? The righteousness of God. He's made his people
the righteousness of God in him? Are your soul's eternal needs
met in him? Are you, whosoever you are, have
you put full responsibility for your sinful soul in the day of
judgment into his hands for safekeeping? Some might say, well, surely
there's more to it than just faith. Doesn't repentance go
with it? Didn't Jesus himself say, repent
ye and believe the gospel, Mark 1 15. Didn't he say you must
repent Yes, but they go hand in hand. Repentance and faith
go hand in hand. True faith, true sight of the
soul from God, sees sin as God sees it. A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
A sinner sees this. One given the faith of God, the
faith of God's elect, sees sin as God sees it, and repents of
it, and hates it, and desires to be free from it. And though
we're still in this flesh and we sin all the time, we yearn
for the righteousness of God, and the eternal sinless bliss
of heaven. Yes, we're in this flesh. Yes, we sin. If we say we have
no sin, says John right at the start of this epistle, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. But in chapter 3 and verse
9 he says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for
his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he's born
of God. What's he talking about? He's
talking about that new man. Yes, the old flesh is still there
that sins every day, but the new man from heaven planted by
the Spirit of God does not sin. We have two natures, the believer
has two natures, the flesh and the spirit, that war with one
another as long as we're in this flesh. Only the one born of God,
experimentally, in their experience, knows these things. It's a belief
that is lived out. That's what it is, a belief that
is lived out. Not just an academic thing once
a week, it's a belief that is lived out. So we say, those of
us who believe the truth, we say with Paul, I am crucified
with Christ. My old man, the Lord demands
the soul that sins it shall die. I am crucified with Christ. When
Christ died, I died there with him. Nevertheless, I live. Yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Note that word, that's why I
said King James Version, the faith of the Son of God. It's
his work that saves me. He loved me, he gave himself
for me. That's the proof of the new birth.
I believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that's the proof that I'm
born of God. As Paul said to the Thessalonians, we're bound
to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of
God, for God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. The
fact that they believed these things was proof that God had
chosen them in eternity to eternal life. And it has an outflowing,
and I'm going to be very brief. The outflowing of it is love.
Look, everyone that loveth him that begat, that's God, loveth
him also that is begotten of God, that is those who are believers
also. Love is of God, for God is love. We love God. Why do we love God?
Look back at verse 19 of chapter 4. Because He first loved us. If you say, I love God, aren't
I good? No, it's only because He first loved you, if you have
a love for God. And we also love those who are
born of God. Verse 21 of chapter 4. This commandment
have we from Him, that he who loveth God Love his brother also. You can't say that you love God
if you hate your brother, who is also a believer. You can't
say you love God if you seek to do harm to the one who is
your brother. You have concern for the affairs
of your brethren, those who believe the same gospel. You have a spirit
of self-sacrifice. That's what love is, a spirit
of self-sacrifice for others. And other things flow from it.
Look, verse 3, this is the love of God. Show us you have the
love of God that we keep his commandments. What, you mean
a strict obedience to the law of Moses? No, it doesn't mean
that. It doesn't mean that. He says his commandments are
not grievous. It's not a legalistic, oppressive
thing. This is that which is from the
Spirit of God, to keep his commandments, to keep gospel precepts, to bear
the fruit of his Spirit, that we He says, love is the fulfillment
of the law. Love fulfills the spirit of the
law. Love does it all. And his commandments
are not grievous. Verse 4, we have liberty from
the world's ensnarement. Whosoever is born of God overcometh
the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. We have liberty from the
world's ensnarement by the faith that he has given us. in Christ. Liberty from it. Yes, we live
in this world, but believers are not of this world. We have
another aspiration. We have another driving force. We have another thing that motivates
us. It's the kingdom of God, and
the righteousness of God, and the principles of the gospel,
and the precepts of the gospel. And whilst we live in this world
and brush shoulders with it every day, and sometimes we're ensnared
by it. It's not an ensnarement that
is to permanent destruction. No, we have liberty from that.
Verse 10, we have this conscious inner witness. He that believes
on the Son of God hath this witness in himself. As Paul writes to
the Romans, In chapter 8, he talks about the spirit witnessing
with our spirit that we are the children of God. You know in
yourself, you know in your heart. He's given us this witness. He's
given us this inner confidence in verse 13 of eternal life,
that you may know that you have eternal life. That's how the
hymn writer could write, it is well with my soul. That's how,
because he knew. that his confidence and all those
who trust in Christ, their faith, their confidence, their hope,
their reliance is in the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he
is and all that he's done. Do you believe this? Do you?
Do you believe this? So you can say, I'm born of God. Do you believe this? Yes, you
might say, but like that man who came to Jesus in Mark chapter
nine and he had a child that was very sick with demon possession
and he came seeking help. And Jesus said to him, If you
can believe, all things are possible to him that believes. And straightway
the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord,
I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Is that
not the honest cry of all of us? Lord, I believe. Help thou
mine unbelief. Surely his plea was answered. Surely his prayer was answered.
John 6, 37, Jesus said, All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Come to Christ, come believing,
come in faith, come trusting, come seeking, and you will find
peace for your souls in Jesus, the Christ of God. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.