The title of my message this
morning is a man sent from God. Find a man sent from God and
you will find a man you would be wise to hear. Find a man sent
from God and you found a man just like any other man, weak,
sinful, depraved, subject to every temptation and every evil
you are subject to, and yet a man unlike any other man. Find a
man sent from God and you found a prophet, a prophet, a messenger
from God for your soul, a prophet. Ephesians 4 is given to us by
the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit and describes for us the
ascension gifts of our Lord Jesus Christ to his church. And he
lists those gifts like this, pastors, teachers, and evangelist. But at the head of the list,
prophets. He's given to his church prophets,
pastors, teachers. That is pastor, teachers, and
evangelist. He's given these ascension gifts
to his church that the Lord God might dwell among them. We're
told in Psalm 68, to which Ephesians chapter four refers. God gave
his church through the risen savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
these gifts, prophets, pastor, teachers, and evangelist for
the perfecting of the saints. and the work of the ministry.
Now, we are comfortable with the words pastor, teachers, and
evangelist. But we tend to think about these
as offices in the church. Do you know in this book, a pastor
is never referred to as an officeholder? A teacher is never referred to
as an officeholder? An evangelist is never referred
to as an officeholder? Those things all come from papacy. where there is a burning desire
and determination to separate between what's called clergy
and laity. I'm not a clergyman. I'm your
pastor. That means I'm just a man like
you, just a man like you, sent of God to be your teacher. A
pastor is that man who is set in a congregation, raised up
by God and gifted by God, to teach his people the word of
God, the will of God, and the way of God with knowledge and
understanding. An evangelist is what we commonly
call a missionary, is a man distinctly gifted of God to plant churches,
to plant churches and to assist local churches, establishing
them, guiding them, directing them in the truth of God. We're
comfortable with those things, pastors, evangelists, but prophets. I have often said there's no
office of a prophet in the New Testament church. That's accurate. But as I said, this is not talking
about an office. This is talking about a gift. God's given his
church prophets, pastors, teacher. But what is a prophet? Someone
said a prophet is a fourth teller. Not a foreteller. Well, that
doesn't say much. That doesn't say much. What is
a prophet? A prophet is a man sent from
God with a message to deliver. He may or may not be a pastor
or an evangelist. Pastor is to do the work of an
evangelist and certainly an evangelist do the work of a prophet But
a prophet may or may not be a pastor or evangelist But he is a man
raised up by God with a message for his church in his generation
if I am not mistaken a prophet is a preacher among preachers
a preacher's preacher a He's a preacher who guides, leads,
and inspires other preachers just as Elijah did Elisha. And they're not many. They're
not many. God seems to raise up in his
church in each generation a specific man who meets the bill. But a
prophet, oh, how we need prophets today. We've got plenty of scholars
and specialists and socializers and showmen. Men who never disturb
anybody or anything. What we need is someone to stand
in the gap and declare this is the way, walk in it. Someone
who will dare speak for God without consideration of what men do
in response to his message. Someone who will dare tell the
truth. the truth about God and man,
as it is revealed in this book. John the Baptist was a prophet. He was a prophet. Turn to John
chapter 1, verses 6 through 13, and I'll show you about a prophet,
a man sent from God. I want you to see six things
in these verses. John chapter 1, verse 6. There
was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came
for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through
him might believe. He was not that light but was
sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 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. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Now here's the first thing set
before us, a man sent from God. After beginning his gospel narrative
with the declaration of our Lord's glorious eternal deity as the
word of God and God the word, declaring him as our eternal
surety, the creator of all things, the source of all life and light
in this world, John proceeds to introduce us to this man,
John the Baptist, and his ministry. This prophet, John the Baptist,
is here held before us and held before us throughout the scripture
as an exemplary prophet, as a true preacher sent from God. Like John the Baptist, every
true gospel preacher is a man sent from God. Now, here is a
divine inspired description of every man sent from God. He is
sent for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through
him might believe. Preachers are not priests. They
are not mediators between God and men. I realize that multitudes
look at them as such and use them as such, and preachers by
and large want you to do so. The whole of this pastoral counseling
business, I do my counseling here. But there's a big business
in our day, pastoral counseling. There are offices set up all
over the country. They have own staff preachers who are counselors. Well, what's the business for?
It's so you don't have to do business with God. Come do business
with your priest and he'll take care of it. And that's exactly
the end of it and the use of it. Preachers are not priest. My business is to point you to
our priest, Christ Jesus, the Lord. to instruct you in the
greatness and glory of our priest, Christ Jesus the Lord, so that
you don't need to look to me, you look to him. What is a prophet? What is a preacher? He is a man
sent for a witness. Those men who are sent of God,
are not religious cheerleaders who just stand on the side and
conduct religious pep rallies and get people stirred up. And
they are not religious parrots who've been trained to repeat
what they've heard other men say. They're witnesses. They are sent to bear testimony
to God's truth and to bear testimony as firsthand witnesses telling
what they have personally seen and personally experienced. A
second-hand piece of information is never reliable. It's never
reliable. Only first-hand information is
reliable. Prophets, preachers are witnesses. Recently, a man I've known for
more than 30 years has begun to alter his doctrine. He sent
out what he called a clarification. Some of you received it. And
this is what he said about the message he once preached. His
words exactly. I went back and looked them up
yesterday. What I might have said or written
in the past was because I heard others say it. Larry, Chris,
that's all you got to say. Don't ever stand in this place
again. Ron, Lindsay, Darvin, that's all you got to say. Don't
ever mock God standing in this place again. What I might have
said or written in the past was because I heard others say it.
That man who is sent of God is not apparent of what others have
said. He bears witness. He's seen something. He's experienced something. And
what he's seen and experienced, he knows and declares to you. Now that's how John describes
the ministry of John the Baptist. In fact, if you'll turn over
to 1 John 1, you'll see that this is exactly how John the
Apostle describes his own ministry. 1 John 1, he says, that which
was from the beginning, watch this now, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which
our hands have handled. I'm interested in hearing a fellow
tell about that. I want to know what it is you've heard for yourself,
what you've seen with your own eyes, what you have gazed upon
with your own thoughts and heart, what your hands have handled
personally of the Word of Life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. What
is that? Jesus Christ His Son. Specifically
that man who is sent of God bears witness to this blessed revelation
of grace Jesus Christ the Lord the eternal Word God the Son
is the only Savior of men and the only light through whom lost
sinners believe This is what Peter did on the day of Pentecost
that you read that sermon Peter preached on the day of Pentecost
and while it is a Recorded for us in Acts chapter 2 at least
a portion of it is it's tremendous in his declarations It is so
simple and he doesn't attempt to prove anything He doesn't
have to explain anything. He just simply tells what he
knows. He tells what he knows as a first-hand eyewitness This
is what the scripture says about it with many other words Did
he testify and exhort saying save you from this underwood
generation the Apostle Paul when he summed up his ministry at
Ephesus, having declared to the Ephesians all the counsel of
God said. that he preached testifying both
to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Not he preached proving, not
he preached explaining, not he preached reasoning with folks
about repentance and faith. He preached testifying what God
had wrought in him, repentance toward God and faith in Jesus
Christ the Lord. Gospel preachers give testimony
to what they know. What they know by the Word of
God, by the teaching of God the Holy Spirit, and by the blessed
sweet experience of grace bearing faithful witness to Christ. Any
preacher, any preacher, I don't care who he is, it doesn't matter
how well you may like him as a person, Any preacher who does
not bear faithful witness to Christ in all the fullness of
His grace and glory as our Redeemer and Savior is not sent of God. He's just not. What do you mean,
all the fullness of His person and grace? God's servants have
seen the eternal Godhead of Jesus Christ. That's not something
I have to investigate. I've seen it. I've experienced
the power of God in my soul. This one who has redeemed me
is God, my savior. They declare his surety ship. That is that he and he alone
has in his hands all the responsibility and all the work of redemption,
grace and salvation. They declare the complete efficacy
of his accomplishments. He came to bring in righteousness,
and he did. He came to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself, and he did. He came to redeem his people
from their sins, and he did. They declare Christ, the risen,
exalted Lord, as that one who has sovereign dominion over all
the affairs of the universe. And his saving power and efficacy
is that which flows out of his sovereign dominion. So long as
any preacher bears faithful witness to Christ, so long as any preacher
bears faithful witness to Christ, so long as any preacher bears
faithful witness to Christ, He has honored God, he has done
his work, and God honors the work he's done, whether folks
believe or whether they believe not. Getting people to believe
Christ is not my job and it does not lie within the realm of possibility
for me to do it. I urge you, I persuade you, I
reason with you, I preach to you, I plead with you. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. But I cannot do anything to communicate
faith to you. I can't do it. And nobody else
can. Nobody else can. That's not our
responsibility. The preacher's responsibility
is to testify, to bear witness of the light. to point you to
the light. And if God gives you eyes to
see, the witness we bear is a sweet savor of God unto life everlasting. And if God leaves you to yourself,
and you refuse to believe, as you surely will if God leaves
you to yourself. If God leaves you to yourself
and you continue to live with your fist shoved in God's face
as a rebel against God, you'll go to hell. But the word preached
is still a sweet savor before God of death unto death, and
it will rise up in eternity to your everlasting condemnation.
The preacher's object in preaching, John tells us here, is that all
being through him, Through the preacher, well, maybe it has
reference to that as an instrument, but he's talking about the light.
We preach so that all men through him who is the light might believe. I'm preaching the gospel to you
so that through him, by his power and grace, by his mediation and
intercession, by his blood and righteousness, you might believe
the words all men as they're used here, and this is usually
the case in scripture, must be understood in a limited sense.
Commonly, even when we speak of all men, we're not talking
about all men without exception. We're talking about all men in
a given place, all men in a given situation, all men in given circumstances,
and so on. And certainly here, the words
all men are to be understood in that limited sense. They do
not refer to every person in the world. Obviously, the Spirit
of God does not intend for us to understand that there is some
possibility that every single person in the world might believe
the gospel. When John was sent, multitudes
were already in hell. They cannot believe. When John
was sent to preach the gospel, he was sent just to a specific
area, to a specific place to preach. He preached to all being
who stood before him, but there were multitudes around the world
who didn't stand before him. Multitudes even in Jerusalem
and Judea who didn't stand before him. And those who did not hear
him could not believe what he preached. Those to whom God the
Holy Spirit is not given cannot believe. That's just the way
it is. The words all men then simply refer to all classes of
men. We preach the gospel to all men
everywhere as God opens the door and gives opportunity. We preach
the gospel without discrimination. If I believe what you do, I just
preach to the elect. I wouldn't preach to anybody
else if only the elect are going to be safe. I would too if I
knew who they were. but I don't know who they are.
And God Almighty has sent me to proclaim the gospel to all
men because the gospel is the means by which God gives life
and faith to men in Jesus Christ the Lord. And we preach the gospel
to all men because His elect are found among all men. They're
found in all classes of men, rich and poor, black and white,
Jew and Gentile, male and female, learned and unlearned. They're
found everywhere in every nation kindred tribe in tongue So we
preach because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word
of God Hold your hands here in John 1 and turn to first Peter
first Peter chapter 1 I Told you I think last week
that there are two words translated word in New Testament One is
the word that's been spoken of in John chapter one, the word
Logos Christ Jesus. And it always refers to him always. The other is the word that's
found here in first Peter. And the word translated word
here refers specifically to that which is written or spoken. And commonly, most commonly,
it is used with reference to a volume that has been written
or spoken. Here it is used with reference
to God's inspired volume. Read it now. First Peter one
twenty three. We are born again, not a corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible. Watch this by the word of God. Lindsay Campbell, what you're
looking at right there is that incorruptible seed, the word
of God, the whole revelation of God, which abideth forever. The Word of God we read in Isaiah
4 is to stand forever. For all flesh is grass, and all
the glory of man is the flower of grass. All human beings are
worthless grass, and the very best of all human beings, and
the very best of their character, and the very best of their works,
and the very best of their accomplishments are like the flower of the grass.
Now, when we talk about grass and the flower of the grass,
we're not talking about flowers that you plant out of your garden,
take care of, look so pretty. We're talking about the fuzz
on a dandelion. You want to gather this up? You
want to collect your bunch? You want to save up a bunch of
it? Why, Brother Don, it's worthless.
It's noxious. If I could, I'd get rid of all
of it. That's your best and mine too. The grass withers, the flower
thereof falleth away, just blown away. But the Word, this book
right here, this incorruptible seed, the Word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the Word. This is
the Word. This is the Word. Genesis through
Revelation. which by the gospel is preached
unto you. The preacher comes declaring
the witness of Jesus Christ the Lord and by doing so declares
to you all the word of God. I want you to hear this. I want
so much for you to hear this. No man can preach the gospel
effectually. No man can preach the gospel
to the heart of other men. No man can preach the gospel
and it bring forth fruit in the hearts and souls and lives of
men. No man can preach the gospel
and calls it to be to you that word by which you were born again,
except he be sent. Is that what Paul told us in
Romans chapter 10? How can they preach except they
be sent? I urge you. I plead with you. Oh, I plead with you. I ask of God that you will hear
me. Pray for your brethren who labor
in the cause of Christ as God's servants. Pray for them that
they may be sent of God. Having been sent, that they may
be sent. every time they stand to preach
the gospel and pray for the pastor who preaches to you, having been
sent of God, that I may stand here before you as one sent of
God, sent of God specifically to you with a message specifically
for you. This is what Paul said, praying
that utterance may be given to me. that I may open my mouth
boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, that God would
open to us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ. As you send me out to do the
work of an evangelist, pray that God will send me with his word. Verse 8, back here in our text,
might seem to be redundant. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. But the fact is, it's
not redundant. As I've already stated, many
treat preachers as though they were Christ himself. There was
an ancient heretical sect in the early church, or claimed
to be in the early church, who taught that John the Baptist
was the Messiah. There were some in his day. who thought that
he was the Messiah. He was the one that the prophet
spoke of. And therefore, John plainly tells
us in verse 20, I am not the Christ. I am not the Christ. And you might think, well, brother
Don, nobody would do that today. Don't be so foolish. Almost everybody
thinks the preacher is the Christ. Those folks go travel to Rome
and bow down before some old man. and kiss his finger, kiss
his ring, kiss his feet as though he's the Christ. And he likes
it. That's the reason he does what
he does. And all of his underlings, their priests, they go and confess
their sins to them as though he's the Christ. As though he,
when he says your sins are absolved, that means they're absolved. What foolishness. But it's still
the same. If you walk down here in front
of this church building, into the service, and confess your
sins to me or to this congregation, and think by doing so your sins
are absolved. We make men to be the Christ.
Oh no, no, I'm not the Christ, John said. What is a preacher? Ask any true prophet, look at
verse 23, he'll tell you the same thing John did. I'm the
voice. That's all. Just a voice. A voice. The voice of one crying
in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. Brother
Scott Richardson stood here in this pulpit many years ago and
asked that question, what is a preacher? And I like the answer
he gave. He said, a preacher is a nobody
sent to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody. That's the preacher, a nobody
sent to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody,
even you, even you. Now, move on to verse 9. That
was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. Now, the Holy Spirit here declares the same thing He did
in verse 4. Christ is the light. He is to
the souls of men what the sun is to the world, the light. Twice
in this book, our Savior declares, I am the light of the world.
He is the light of whom all gospel preachers bear witness. He's
the light, the fountain of all light to his creatures, the source
of all light. He's the true light in distinction
from all the typical lights, the Urim in the Old Testament,
the candlestick and its lamps and the pillar of fire that guided
the children of Israel. Christ is the true light. They
were just pictures. Christ is the light that gave
light to this dark earth in the beginning when he said, let there
be light and darkness was dispelled. Christ, the light is the light
of all men, which light of every man that cometh into the world. Both the light of reason and
the light of conscience come from Christ. All natural light
and understanding comes from him. All of it. If you have any
light, any understanding, any reason, any wits about you, Christ
gave it to you. And whatever measure you have
of any kind of light, any kind of intelligence, any kind of
knowledge, Christ gave it to you and continues to supply you
with it. We don't too often boast about
our own brilliance. You know, we most of us got better
sense than that. But we want everybody to think
we're brilliant. One time I did have a fellow sitting in my room.
He said, well, he was describing somebody. He said, he's not as
brilliant as I am. But we all like the folks who
think we're brilliant. So we brag on the brilliance of our children
and grandchildren. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. You too. Fact is,
Larry, Chris, if you've got any reason about you, any reason,
the only thing that distinguishes you from a wild, rabid brute
beast is Christ gives you light. That's all. That's all. And whatever
measure you have in any field, Christ gives it to you and sustains
you with it. Certainly, Christ in that sense
lights every man that comes into the world. But don't imagine
that he gives all men spiritual light. That's not what this is
talking about. The light that he gives to men
by nature, we're told in Romans chapter one, is sufficient to
condemn them. so that they are without excuse
before God. He gives them the light of the
knowledge of God by His power and His holiness in their conscience,
and it is sufficient to condemn them so that their consciences
continually either excuse or condemn them for this, that,
or the other. But that light is never sufficient to give them
salvation and eternal life in Christ, never sufficient to produce
faith in Christ. That's the reason we go everywhere
preaching the gospel. Folks have the idea that somehow
folks who've never heard the name of Jesus Christ, if they're
just sincere and they're nice, that God will save them. That's
enough. They'll walk in that light and everything will be
all right. For one thing, they won't walk in that light. But
the scriptures teach otherwise. Man, if men are saved without
ever hearing of Christ, why tell them about it? So that they can
be condemned. What absurdity. No, no. He lights
every man that comes into the world in a natural sense, but
not in a spiritual. And our Lord warns us plainly
and warns us solemnly that the light that is in men by nature
as it relates to spiritual things is utter darkness. Men love darkness rather than
light. That's their nature. When John
says Christ lighteth every man that cometh into the world, he
is simply declaring to us that he gives men natural light, not
spiritual. But I've got to say this. If
you have any spiritual light, he gave it to you. And if that
light increases, he's increased it. Years ago, I was preaching
in Charleston, West Virginia, to Sovereign Grace Bible Conference.
And I was just a young man. 22, 23 years old. And a fellow got up before me
and was preaching, if you can call it that, lecturing on Calvinism. And he said, now, in order to
believe these things, you've got to have a little gray matter
here, and you've got to do some thinking. That was almost the only thing
I heard him say. It lodged. And I had to get up behind that
fellow, skip and preach. And the first thing I said, in order
to believe the gospel, I've got to preach to you. You've got
to be a poor, Ignorant helpless sinner in need of mercy That's
all That's all That's all Look at verses 10 and 11 Here's the
third thing John tells us that Christ who is the light of the
world Is completely unknown by the world He was in the world
and the world was made by him And the world knew him not he
came into his own And his own received him not Now let's look
at those five statements just exactly as they stand in this
text. And I believe I can help you. He was in the world. When? This is not talking about our
Lord's incarnation. It's not talking about his earthly ministry.
No, he talks about that in verse 14. When was he in the world? This word in the world is written
in the imperfect tense of continuous existence in the universe. before the incarnation. John
Gill said it denotes past existence in the world, past existence
even from old eternity. When was he in the world? He
was in the world when before the world was. He stood forth
as our mediator and our surety our Redeemer as the wisdom of
God and delighting in the in the habitable part of the earth
Rejoicing in the sons of men as our covenant surety not in
his humanity His human nature had not yet been created and
certainly he's not saying he's in the world in his divinity
That was sure enough be redundant. He was in the world as our mediator
before ever the world was made Now look at the next word Then,
then, he was in the world and this is the next thing, the world
was made by him. It was made by him in order to
be a stage upon which he would perform all the work agreed upon
in the covenant of grace. That's exactly what John tells
us in verse three, through faith we understand That the worlds
were framed by the Word of God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. Now, look
at the third statement. And the world knew Him not. The
world knew Him not. He was in the world. The world
was made by Him. But then something happened.
The world knew Him not. Adam knew Him. He created Him. Do you know who brought Adam,
his wife, and introduced her to him. It was this great Savior,
our God, Jesus Christ the Lord. Do you know who it was who said
to Adam, said, you can have all this? You can have it all just
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Don't cheat that. That's
mine. But everything else is yours. You want to name the animals? Here, I'll bring them to you.
That was Christ who did it. Adam knew him. Adam knew him.
And then suddenly, the world knew him not. By the sin and
fall of our father Adam, the whole world was plunged at one
time into utter darkness, utter darkness. Read the 14th chapter
of Psalms. By one man's transgression, by
the disobedience of one, the whole world plunged into darkness.
Our Lord Jesus came into his own being. This world of darkness,
this world that knew him not. He came to his own, not his own
elect who shall be willing in the day of his power and shall
believe on him by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. But he
came to his own people, his own family. He came to the Jewish
nation. He did so for all the hundreds
of years of the Old Testament history. He came to them with
his prophets. He came to them giving them light.
He came to them giving them his word, his oracles, his tabernacle,
his temple, his priest. He came to them giving them the
word of God generation after generation. He came to them in
types and ceremonies. He even came to them personally.
He came down personally and visited Abraham. He came down personally
and visited Moses in the bush. He came down personally and visited
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. He came
down personally and visited Daniel in the lion's den. He came personally
and showed himself to Manoah and his wife. Over and over again,
he came unto his own. And yet, that people, the Jews,
did not receive him. But instead, they fulfilled their
own scriptures, Acts 13, 27, nailing him to the tree. Then, when he did come, that's
exactly what happened. When he came in the flesh, when
he was born at Bethlehem, he was despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and they crucified
him. Go to the next line. His own
received Him not. This is exactly according to
God's purpose. This is what the prophet said
in Hosea 9. My God will cast them away because
they did not hearken to Him. Oh, how desperately wicked is
the human heart. How utterly blind the Lord Jesus
revealed himself in the Old Testament scriptures and types and promises
and prophecies again and again and again. Nobody believed him. When he came into this world,
the Jews who professed to be looking for him, who read his
law every Sabbath day in their synagogues, who read about him
and talked about him every single Saturday, whenever they got together
in the temple and synagogue, they read about him and talked
about him. We're looking for the Messiah, looking for the
Messiah. When He came to them, they received Him not. But there's
a greater proof of the wickedness and depravity of the human heart
than all that. How often the Christ of God has
come to you in the preaching of the gospel in this place,
evidently set forth crucified among you, and you receive Him
not. Behold and see all ye that pass
by, is there any sorrow? Like unto my sorrow, is it nothing
to you? Is it nothing to you? All right,
look at verse 12 again. 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. Blessed God, there is another
people who shall receive him. Now, this is a great passage. I can't spend much time on it.
I've got to hurry. The word receive here, very distinct word. It means to reach out and take
for yourself. To reach out and take. Oh, I
don't dare do that. Come on, dare. Reach out and take the son of
God for yourself. To receive him is to believe
him. To receive Him is to receive Him as your Lord and Savior,
your Redeemer and King. To receive Him in all His accomplishments,
to receive all grace from His fullness, to receive Him is to
receive everything from Him, life by His death, to receive
pardon and righteousness and eternal life through Him. As
many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons
of God. Oh, about a year ago, about a
year ago, brother Darwin Pruitt asked me about this word. To
them, gave he power to become the sons of God. What, what's
that talking about? He said, is that word power mean
authority or ability? That's the word again, wouldn't
it? Yes. Power, authority, and ability. The two words used in the new
Testament for power, translated power. Romans chapter 1, the
gospel is called the power of God into salvation. Another word.
That word means violent, explosive strength. It's the word from
which we get our word dynamite. This is a different word. This
word is translated in John chapter 5, where it speaks of our Lord
Jesus being given government of the universe, judgment, power
to judge all men. It's translated authority, this
very same word that's used here in John 1 12. In John 17 2, Thou has given him power over
all flesh. That's the word that's used here. This word has the
idea of exercise, not exercise in the sense of going to the
gym and working out, but to exercise or put into operation with skill
and ability to as many as received him He
gave the right and the skill and the ability to become the
sons of God. That's how come they believed
him because he gave them that. We were adopted in eternity in
election. Behold, what manner of love the
father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons
of God. God named us his sons in eternity
and then we were adopted. There came a time when it can
be said now of us and beloved. Now, are we the sons of God? God sent forth his spirit into
your hearts. Why? Because you are sons, not
to make you sons because you are sons. He sent forth his spirit
into your hearts, crying Abba father, Abba father, my father. 41 years ago. I came and sat down just about
where Jim Grant's sitting this morning. I'd been listening to
fellows teach the gospel of God's grace. And I came in, and I couldn't
have lifted my heart to heaven and called God my father for
the world. Not for the world. Oh, I could
say the words, our father which art in heaven. That's a different
thing. I could not lift my heart to heaven, look God in the face,
and say, my father. But before the hour was over,
I lifted my heart to heaven and said, my father. How come? Because the Son of God had given
me power, the authority, and the ability to become healed,
to call God One last thing, verse 13, how'd all that happen? Which
were born, not of blood. The new birth doesn't have anything
to do with who your daddy is. If Abraham's your father, that
won't do you any good. Won't give you one step up toward
God. That's the only reason folks sprinkle water on babies and
call it baptism. There's no place for it in scripture,
has no reference to it in scripture. It can't be found in scripture.
But they slosh a little water on the baby's face and call it
baptism, because they dare presume, since this child is mine, and
I'm such a faithful man, since this child is mine, I'm a child
of God, that I'll perform this right. And this child now has
a step up toward God. He has a better chance than me,
same your child does, because he's related to me. Abraham cried
concerning his son Ishmael. Oh, that Ishmael might live before
them. just like we do concerning our
sons and daughters. And Abraham was the friend of
God, and Lindsay Ishmael went to hell. Because no man can will
his own into the kingdom of God. Can't be done. But you can pray
on men to it. Talk to Abraham about that. Not
of blood. Which were born not of the will
of the flesh. Oh, we don't believe men are
saved by Because they're related to somebody, we believe men are
saved because they will to be saved, because they choose to
be saved. Paul calls it will worship. Will worship. No, your
will has got nothing to do with it. If God Almighty leads you
to your will, you're going to hell just as sure as you're breathing
your next breath. Your will is bound by your nature and your
will is enmity against God and your will will never come to
God. No. Not of the will of the flesh,
nor the will of man. No man can persuade you to be
born again. No man can persuade you to believe
on Christ. No man can persuade you to receive
him. No man can persuade you to come
to him. That doesn't lie within the realm of possibility. I can't. I can't. But of God. If today
you find yourself believing Jesus Christ, If today, for the first
time in your life, you can reach out and take Him. If today, for
the first time in your life, you can lift your heart to heaven
and say, My Father. It's because God Almighty, before
the world was, willed it. And now God the Spirit, who willed
it, has come and worked faith in you, giving you life. by His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ Jesus when He raised
Him from the dead. So then, it's not of Him that
runneth, not of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. O Spirit of God, send Your Word
as the Word of God of life and power to the hearts of these
immortal souls for Christ's sake. Amen.