Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
9 for a little bit. Isaiah chapter 9. Now you who know me well know
that I try to use momentous events in our lives, both the joyful
and the painful ones, and seize them as opportunities to illustrate
and confirm to our minds and our hearts spiritual, eternal
gospel truth. So you won't be surprised if
I use the birth of our granddaughter, Audrey Grace, to talk to you
this morning about the grace of God, by which sinners are
born again, brought into the kingdom of our God. Isaiah chapter
nine and verse six. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Now, obviously, this is a prophecy
of the incarnation and birth of our Lord Jesus Christ as our
mediator, surety, and substitute. Notice carefully the words used
by divine First, the prophet says unto us, a child is born. Now that, Bobby, could not possibly
refer to our Lord in his deity. Can't possibly. As the Son of
God, he never was born. He is the eternally begotten
Son of the eternally begetting Father. There's no change with
him, no variableness, no shadow of turning. He is forever the
eternal, everlasting Son of God. But as a man, there came a time
when he came into existence. Though his incarnation and humanity
was formed in the covenant of grace in the purpose of God,
he did not actually exist as a man until he came into the
womb of the Virgin. And as he was conceived in the
womb of the Virgin, he said, Lo, I come in the volume of the
book to do thy will, O my God. And so that holy humanity of
his was prepared in the womb of the Virgin by the overshadowing
power of God the Holy Spirit. Now that's an absolutely essential
point of all gospel truth. There is absolutely no salvation
until you understand that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. He is not just a man, he is the
God-man. The Lord Jesus Christ is a man
born who is born of the seed of a woman, just as Genesis 3
15 prophesied he would be. It was not possible that a mere
man should save us, especially a sinful man. But our Lord Jesus
Christ is man without sin, man without a sinful nature, man
without a bias towards sin, a weakness towards sin, or the possibility
of sin. This man, you see, is God himself. Look at the next line. Unto us
a Son is given. Now as the Son of God, He's given.
As a man, He was born. But as God the Son, He is given
by the Father. And we say thanks be unto God
for His unspeakable gift. He was given into the world through
the womb of the Virgin. The scripture says when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. So that
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, God and man, man
and God, fully God and fully man, perfectly God and perfectly
man. And as such, he is able to render
unto God an infinite satisfaction unto all the demands of God's
holiness, law, and justice as the substitute for his people.
The Lord Jesus came into this world as a man made under the
law to fulfill the law. Because the law demands fulfillment. It demands that Bill Raleigh
be as holy as God himself. He said, Be ye holy as I am holy. You can't do that. Who's going
to do that? No mere man can do that, but
Jesus Christ the God-man can and did. And not only did he
do it, he didn't do it for himself, he did it as a public person,
as our representative, satisfying the demand of holiness before
which we stand before God himself. But our sin must be put away.
Otherwise God in his justice could never justify the ungodly. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
who never knew sin, when he hung upon the curse tree, was made
to be sin for us. Our sins were imputed to Him
by the marvelous transfer of grace and justice, so that God
in His grace, in perfect justice, laid on Him the iniquity of us
all. And now the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He cries, It is finished, having suffered all the fullness
of divine wrath, He took the cup of God's wrath, and with
one tremendous draft of love, he drank damnation dry. And he
said, it's finished. It's done. The sins of my people
are put away. Their debts have been paid. I
have brought in everlasting righteousness. I finished the transgression.
I've made an end of sin. And so the scripture declares
here that our Lord Jesus Christ is a child born and the son of
God given. Oh, it is my prayer now. that
the Lord God will be pleased to grant to you who are yet under
His wrath by the power of His Spirit, that this very hour you
may begin to walk in the Spirit, that you may be born again by
the power of His grace, so that you might come to know Jesus
Christ, trusting Him and thus being freed forever from all
condemnation. Listen to this. There is therefore
now Since Christ has come, since Christ has finished the work
of redemption, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus, to them who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. May God be pleased to reveal
his Son in you and cause you to see and understand and rejoice
in the fact that the government is upon his broad, omnipotent
shoulders. What government? All of it. All
of it. The rule of everybody and everything
is on the shoulders of the God man, Jesus Christ. His name,
oh, how can I describe it? His name is wonderful. Wonderful. His name is what he
is. He's wonderful. Beyond compare. He's counselor, counselor. The only counselor you need.
Counselor. He's the everlasting father. The father of a new race. The
father of the new creation. It all springs from him. He's
the mighty God. He who is our savior is the prince
of peace. And he is the only one who can
bring peace to you. The only one. Find him and you
find peace. Oh, may God plant his son in
you this hour. For Christ's sake, I pray. But
there are three words in this text that have been just echoing
in my heart and mind since Tuesday morning when we got the call
that faith had gone into labor. Driving over, I got this subject
on my mind. A child is born. A child is born. And that's what I want to talk
to you about this morning. Never did a father or a mother, a grandfather
or a grandmother who has the slightest understanding of spiritual
things, pick up a newborn baby and hold it in his arms, who
did not immediately understand the words of the psalmist. Low
children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb
is his reward. told Merle and Rex both this
morning as they came in, I can now join the ranks of you older
fellas and speak with the wisdom of Solomon and say what Solomon
did. Children's children are the crown
of old men. The crown of old men. But I'm
not here to talk to you about the birth of our grandchild.
I simply want to use her birth to tell you how sinners are born
again by the grace of God and the power of his grace. Again,
following the example of our Lord Jesus, I want to use the
birth of a child to show you what's involved in the new birth.
I want you to understand that you must be born again. Religion
won't do you any good. I can't stress that enough. Saying
prayers won't do you one bit of good. Reading your Bible won't
do you one bit of good. Doing good works won't do you
one bit of good. Being baptized won't do you one
bit of good. But preach your army commanded, all those things
done in order to gain God's favor are an abomination to Him. An
abomination to Him. Those things follow our standing
before God in faith. You must be born again. You say,
well, You know, I've been in church, I've been involved in
religion for years, and frankly, Pastor, there's no change, nothing
any different. That's because you've never been
born again. That's the problem. You've had some religious notions
and religious feelings and religious experience, but you've never
been born again. Our Lord Jesus said, marvel not that I said
unto thee, you must be born again. You can't save the things of
God. You cannot enter into the kingdom of God except by the
new birth. Now, there's a distinct parallel
between physical birth of a child into a family and the spiritual
birth of God's children into his family. Let me show you some
of the parallels. Number one, the birth of a child ideally. Now, When I'm talking now about
the birth of a child, I'm not talking about siring a son. Any
beast can do that all right. That doesn't require a great
deal of anything. I'm talking about a family. I'm talking about responsibility.
I'm talking about a man and a woman assuming a position of responsibility
for themselves and for their progeny. And in the birth of
a child, There is a necessity of father's planning. That's
the first thing involved. I know that in a well-ordered
house, children don't just happen. They're carefully planned. That
may sound a little contradictory to some, you know, starry-eyed
religious youngsters who say, well, you know, we just leave
that in the hands of the Lord. Have a kind of smug piousness
about them. Why don't you leave walking across
the highway in the hands of the Lord there? It takes a little
bit of forethought to do something with responsibility. And those
folks who suggest, well, we'll just have as many children as
the Lord provides. I wouldn't lay my irresponsibility on God's
shoulders, Valjus. It's our responsibility to walk
before God with responsibility in our actions. Now, the best
example of fatherhood to be found is God himself. You agree? The best example to be found.
And there never been a child born in his family wasn't planned
for. Not one. He planned for them all. Made
all plans for them before they were born. The scripture tells
us plainly that the names of God's elect were recorded in
the family register before the world began, all of them. The
Lamb's Book of Life. And those who enter into the
kingdom of God at last, we're told in Revelation 13, 8 and
again in chapter 17 and verse 8, they are those whose names
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, slain from the foundation
of the world. More than that, a heritage was
prepared and secured for us before the world began in the family
covenant. Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter
23. 2 Samuel 23. Now if you want to read the details
of this covenant, and I encourage you to if you haven't read them
in a while, read Jeremiah 31, Romans, I'm sorry, Hebrews chapter
8, and Hebrews chapter 10, and read carefully the 12th chapter
of Hebrews, and understand the details of this covenant. But
here's what David says on his dying bed as he looks out over
his family. He says, although my house, verse
5, 2 Samuel 23, 5, although my house be not so with God. He
looked out over his household and God had promised him a son
to sit on his throne. God had promised him a seed that
would be as the stars of heaven and sand by the seashore. God
had promised him a kingdom that would last forever, ordered well
and established well by God's hand. David looked out over his
household and he says it sure don't look that way to me I've
got a mess for a family. I've got a mess for a family
But this is what it says I'm not going to live on what I say
and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna find my comfort in what I say
I'm gonna live on and find my comfort in what God said. Look
at this. Although my house be not so with God I Yet he hath
made with me an everlasting covenant. I love these next words. Ordered
in all things. And sure. Now look at this. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. David, what
are you saying? I'm saying I'm God's child. Being
God's child, he made for me a covenant. in which he established everything
for my benefit and for my good and the glory of his name and
the good of his kingdom forever and forever and that's all I
ask. That's it. I'll commit everything
to him. He does all things well. The
Apostle Paul describes that covenant in these words in Ephesians 1.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him. in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted and to be loved.
All things then in the covenant were planned purposed and predestined
by God our Father, long before we were born, for the everlasting
salvation of all his children. Now let me tell you how much
detail there was in his plan. The Lord God from eternity chose
exactly who he would save. He chose every one of them. He determined when he would save
them, under what circumstances he would call them. He determined
every trial through which they would go, every heartache they
would endure, every burden they would bear, every affliction
they would be brought through, every river of woe, every fiery
furnace they would pass through. He determined it all for their
good and His glory. The Lord God in His plan and
purpose for His family was so minute that before the world
began, he counted the hairs on your head and determined it.
That's what Matthew 10, 30 says. All right, secondly, wise parents
make preparations for their children also by a sacrifice purpose. I put this in here for a number
of reasons. One is that you young people need to understand something. Now you listen carefully. I want
everyone of you to listen to me, listen to me. You have no
idea, absolutely no idea how much sacrifice your mom and dad
have deliberately made for you. If they're fit parents, it's
so. And I know most of you got fit parents. You got no idea
the sacrifices. For some of you before you were
born, Your mom and dad started putting aside a little money,
what they could, to plan and prepare for you to have it a
little easier than they've had it. A good many of us didn't
have any put aside. But even then, mom and dad purposed,
resolved, and determined that whatever sacrifice is necessary
of time, of energy, of sleep, of rest, of money, whatever sacrifice
is necessary for the good of this child, I want to pay it.
It's done. It's done. I've watched my wife
and some of you do without a great deal. I see to it her daughter
had clothes and was comfortable growing up, you know, come a
choice between buying something for her that she needed and buying
something faith that she wanted. You know what got precedence?
Something faith she wanted. Always did and still does. Still
does. That's called parenting. It's
called parenting. Now, I could spend a little while
talking about that. This generation needs to learn
something about parenting. Parenting is making the sacrifice
necessary to rear and care for and educate and train and discipline
children. That's what parenting is. For
the Lord our God, before the world began, from eternity, resolved
and purposed and determined to make an infinite sacrifice for
his children. You see, the only way we could
ever, as fallen, depraved, sinful human beings, the only way we
could ever be accepted with God is on the basis of justice satisfied
and righteousness established. And the Lord God Almighty arose
in eternity before time was, and he went with his son to Mount
Calvary and sacrificed him as our substitute. And then in the
fullness of time gave him that we might live forever. Listen
to what the scripture says. Turn there if you want to, 1
Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 18, you know, you know, Peter is
not, he doesn't say you ought to know. He just presumes if
you know God, you know, and I do too. You know that you were not
redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your
vain conversation. That's the kind of life we all
had, a vain life. And Peter's talking here about
the best life there is outside Christ. He's talking about a
life of morality and religious tradition. But he says it's a
vain life. Vain conversation received by
tradition from your fathers. But you were redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ. Oh, precious fountain filled
with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. As of a lamb, That lamb
portrayed in the Old Testament scriptures, a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who barely, look at it now, was forbade before
the foundation of the world, but is now made manifest in these
last times for you, who by him do believe in God. Now then,
what's the most natural response to that imagination? Number one, John Wood, you're
not your own. You've been bought with a price. Here's the second one. Thanks be unto
God for his unspeakable love. Now let me give you another one.
One you might not think of as often. He that spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, How shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Wouldn't to God I could just
halfway believe that. He sacrificed his son for me.
I ought to be the most carefree human being in the world. Absolutely careless. That is
without care, without concern. He gave his son for me. Now,
what do you reckon he's going to withhold from me? Thirdly,
before a child can be born, there must be a seed planted. Now,
that's what I try to do, hope to do in preaching the gospel. That child cannot be born until
the seed from the father is planted in the mother's womb. And then
you find out conception is taking place and you just wait. And
trials. Heartaches. Troubles. Everything
in peril. Such a fragile thing. So many
dangers. So many difficulties. With regard to earthly families
and earthly birth Miscarriage is always an imminent possibility. Not in the family of God. There's no possibility. When
God has planted his seed in the heart of a chosen redeemed sinner,
there's no possibility that it will not bring forth life at
the appointed time the child is born. And so it is with the
new birth, the seed planted, the word of God, can be planted
only by God himself. But once it's planted, it is
planted and brings forth life by God's power. And that's another
thing involved in this thing of birth, both natural and physical,
or spiritual, a mysterious power. Turn to John chapter 3 again. John chapter 3. Even with all the wizardry of
modern science and medicine and technology, the birth of a child
is a phenomenal thing. Just phenomenal. But the new
birth, now that's something else. That's something else. Listen
to what the scripture says. John 3, verse 8. The wind. That's talking about the spirit
of God, Paul. Wind. Jeremiah, or Ezekiel 37, uses
exactly that phrase to talk about God the Holy Spirit. In the illustration
of the dry bones, the Lord said, prophesy to the wind. Come, O
wind, and breathe upon these bones, that these bones may be
there. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Not where you list, where it
listeth. Not where you purpose, where God purpose. Not where
you will, where God wills. The wind bloweth where it listed. And you hear the sound of it.
But you can't tell where it's coming, where it's going. Look
at this. So is everyone that's born of
the Spirit. How many women born again? It
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. I'll show you something else. In the birth of a child, there is an experienced pain
as well. The mother who gives birth has
to experience pain. As soon as Zion prevailed, she
brought forth her children. Isaiah 66, verse 8. Listen to this word from Micah,
be in pain. And labor to bring forth, O daughter
of Zion, like a woman in travail. That's our responsibility. Maybe the reason we see so few
born in God's is that there's so little for them. So little
deliberate pain, effort, and concern for the souls in there. But there's pain for the child
as well. And I called Paul last night to verify this, because
I know I don't know anything about medicine. But when a baby
is born, its chest is kind of squeezed tightly. And as it expands,
it takes in fluids. Some of them very unhealthy.
And when the child is born, one of the first things that happens
often is the doctor will cup his head and slap the child a
little on the back. Or sometimes if the child's a
little sluggish and groggy, slap it on the bottom. Might get sued
for it these days, but he'll slap it on the bottom so he gets
first air, first breath, and spit out that filth. Just spit
it out. Now, that's very much what happens
when a child is born again in God's kingdom. God, the Holy
Spirit, brings conviction, pain, conviction of sin. And it is
that conviction of sin that crushes your heart and causes you to
be compelled to cry out, God, be merciful to me. It's that
compelling conviction to say, you'd think the doctor was a
little abusive to slap a child like that if you didn't know
why. And sometimes you see a sinner
under conviction, you think, well, what on earth's going on?
The father slapping his child, that's what's going on. It's
going to force you to draw the first breath of life called faith. Look to God in Christ and believe. Believe on me. And you have everlasting
life. I'll show you one more thing. Look in 2 Corinthians 5, verse
17. Wherever a child is born, either
physically or spiritually, there is a creation produced. That child Born by natural processes,
yes. Born by human instrumentality,
yes. Born by the use of a man and
woman, yes. Born by the use of modern technology
and medicine, indeed, indeed. But a creature of God also. And
listen to this. Oh, if God gives you life and
faith in Christ this hour, if any man be in Christ, he's a
new creature. Old things have passed away,
and behold, all things are become new. Amen.