See, Grandpa has Harper in tow. That's good. Remember those who
requested prayer. Dewey Cochran died yesterday,
right? Was it yesterday? Yes, he died in his recliner. Life is good when you die in
your recliner. Remember the Cochran family and
your prayers. Seek the Lord's help for them.
Happy birthday this week to Fred and also Stan. I'm not even gonna
ask you all to do it because it makes me feel so old. Next Sunday is the 29th, the
last Sunday of the month, so we'll be observing the Lord's
table next Sunday, and there'll be no afternoon Bible study next
Sunday, but we'll have dinner after the Lord's table. Okay,
let's begin our worship service this morning. Hymn number 62,
crown him with many crowns. ? Crown Him with many crowns ?
? The Lamb upon His throne ? ? Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
? ? All music but its own ? ? Awake my soul and sing ? ? Of Him who
died for thee ? ? And hail him as thy matchless king ? ? Through
all eternity ? ? Crown him the Lord of love ? ? Behold his hands
and side ? ? Rich wounds yet visible above ? ? In beauty glorified
? No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight. Lord, downward bends his wandering
eye at mysteries so bright. Crown him the Lord of life, who
triumphs ? Those victorious to the strife
? ? For those he came to save ? ? His glory's now we see ?
? Who died and rose on high ? ? Who died eternal life to bring ?
? And lives that death may die ? Crown Him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit, through Him
given from yonder glorious throne. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing this hymn we got in your pews. here of sovereign grace, sung
to the tune of the doxology, or praise God from whom all blessings
flow. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to John, the Gospel according to John. I'm going to read the
first 15 verses. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, And the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. There was
a man sent from God whose name was John, the same came to bear
witness of the light that all men through him might believe.
He was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that
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 to his own, and his own
received him not. But as many as received him,
to them he gave power, or authority, 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. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. the glory as of the
only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. John
bare witness of him and cried saying, this is he of whom I
spake. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me, for he was before me. Let us pray. Our father in
heaven, we bless you and thank you for your word so clearly
set forth, so wondrously, beautifully, gloriously manifested for your
children. And those who have been made
alive, those who have been born from above, born of God, can
look at this book and rejoice in the teaching thereof. We are
thankful, Father, that you have given your children faith to
believe it is a gift of God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. We are thankful that you have
done so. We are thankful for the shed
blood of Jesus Christ for that perfect sacrifice that he offered
to you that satisfied your laws, demands, and justices demands and made it possible for you
to be just and yet justify those who believe on Jesus Christ. We are thankful that you have
made him to be unto your people wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We praise you and thank you for
it. You're God. There is none like unto you.
There is none beside you. You declare the end from the
beginning. You speak and it shall come to pass. You set it in order
and none can stop it. We thank you that you are our
God, sovereign, glorious, majestic, high, holy, lifted up. far above
the ability of even the imagination of man to think on. Father, we ask today
that you would be pleased to meet with us in your spirit to
take the things of Christ and show them unto us. We pray for
those who are sick, those who are going through trials and
troubles and tribulation. We ask Lord your help for them
and strength for them. Pray for the Cochran family at
the loss of Dewey. Pray you'll be with them and
comfort them in Jesus Christ. We pray for ourselves this hour,
that you might be pleased to give us worship. Bow us down
into the dust where we belong and lift our eyes to see the
glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray
these things. Amen. A piece of paper here of sovereign
grace. you With thanks we gather in this
place To hear of free and sovereign grace O may our God this very
hour Send forth his grace in mighty power Tis true we are
but worms of clay Yet for God's presence we will pray And we
will praise Him for His grace Which sent Christ down to take
our place ? Now listen as these men proclaim ? The glories of
the Savior's name ? Oh, worship Him, the sinner's friend ? And
let His praises now ascend ? Time shall come to part ? Then
let us be of kindred heart ? And wheresoever be our place ? Still
love to him of sovereign grace That's Steve and Sam to receive
the offer this morning, please. Let's pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, our majestic and glorious
Savior, who died in the room instead of his people, came to
this earth to die, set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem,
to that lonely hill called Gatha, to give his life a ransom for
many. Father, we pray as we receive
this offering, we do so with joy in our hearts, in the full
knowledge that we have nothing this side of eternity, save for
what you have given us. We thank you in Christ's name.
Amen. I invite your attention back
to the Gospel according to John. The four Gospels were the last
books written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They were
not the first written. The first epistle written was
1 Corinthians around 50 AD, 52 AD. These were penned around
100 AD, somewhere in there. The Gospel of Matthew is the
Gospel of the king. It presents Christ as the king,
the king of kings, the one who rightfully will sit upon David's
throne. The Gospel according to Mark
presents Christ as the servant. Mark was the servant, learned
to be one. Finally, he was a little iffy
about it for a while, but in the end he was a good and faithful
servant and he wrote of Jesus Christ as the servant of God.
Luke was a doctor, a physician, and he wrote of Jesus Christ
as the Son of Man. And John, the beloved apostle,
the one who had put his head on the breast of Jesus Christ,
the one who spoke more of love than any other of the apostles,
wrote of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. The Gospel of John, if I'm not
mistaken, if I remember my history right, was the first epistle
or first gospel that actually spoke of the four, of the grace
of God. And here we find that this grace
is solely and squarely in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
John begins as the Bible begins in Genesis, in the beginning
God Here it says, In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, the
divine communication of God to His people. That is what the
Word means, and the Word we know is the WRITTEN Word as well as
the LIVING Word because this speaks of the Word as being God
Himself. Part of the subject addressed
in this first 15 verses is the NEW BIRTH. or being born from
above. Now, we KNOW that our Lord said
to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, because Nicodemus THOUGHT
that he was a spiritual man and understood spiritual things.
He said we know that thou art a man come from God because no
man could do these things save he was God had sent him. Now
we use the word oida, we know what he was saying. God told
me this and our Lord answered him with the word edo. He said
you can't know this. He said this to a very religious
upstanding individual. You can't know this unless you
are born again, born anew, born actually language from above. Now, we know that Nicodemus wasn't
a spiritual man at the time. I believe he may have come to
know the Lord Jesus Christ, but at the time he wasn't, because
when the Lord said, You can't know these unless you are born
from above, from heaven, He said, what shall I do, enter back in
my mother's womb and be born over again? He was talking about
natural things because he understood natural things. Because the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, they're foolishness
to them. Neither can he know them nor discern them because
they're spiritually discerned. So he didn't know. And our Lord
even said to him, you're a master in Israel and you know not these
things. It is also important that he came to him by night.
Nicodemus came to him by night under the cover of darkness.
And our Lord ends this conversation with Nicodemus by saying, Men
do not come to Christ because they love darkness more than
light. This is all part of the conversation
with Nicodemus. But the emphasis was this. You
must be born again. I remember many years ago the
monarch of Montreat wrote a book on how to be born again. The
Bible doesn't tell you how to be born again. There is no indication
anywhere in Scripture by ANYBODY, the Lord Jesus Christ or any
of the apostles or any of the prophets, all of them, NONE of
them! ever told anybody how to be born
again because the Bible doesn't say that, it just simply says
you must. So suddenly that takes it out of your hands and puts
it in the hands of someone outside yourself that is the Lord Jesus
Christ. The new birth is an absolute
necessity. This truth has been reduced to
feeling and experience and nowadays any reformation Whether it is
in sports or from addiction or a new leaf turned over, men call
it being born again or the new birth. What is it to be born
again? How does it take place? The new
birth is not about you. It is about Jesus Christ. Our text declares not only the
elements of the new birth but the means of its accomplishment
and the reason and the result of the new birth. Verse 1, the
new birth has its source in the eternal purpose of God in election
and predestination, in the beginning, in the beginning. What does that
mean? That before anything was, prior
to the foundation of the world, prior one passage is to the CONCEPTION
of the world. God chose His people whom He
did predestine, that they may conform to His image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. God has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ, according
as He has 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 to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto
Himself, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He
has made us accepted in the Beloved. Verse 1 says, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God
has its earthly origin in the eternal Word of God, Jesus Christ
and the preaching of Jesus Christ. I have said many times and I
still view it and count it as a great mystery and thing I don't
fully understand but appreciate and believe because it's written
in God's Word that God uses the preaching of the Gospel to save
men's souls. He uses the worst kind of people
to preach the Gospel to do it. If you understand anything about
humanity, it's not the best of men that stand behind this desk.
It's the worst of men to show that if anything happens in the
matter of the salvation of a man's soul, it cannot have anything
to do with this guy. It has to be this word, this
majestic and wondrous Word of God. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Peter said
we are not born of corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed,
even the Word of God, which liveth and bideth for ever. And this
is the Word of God, which by the gospel is preached unto you.
First Peter 1, 23-25. In James Chapter 1 it says, Of
his own will, of whose will? Of God's own will begat he us,
birthed he us with the Word of truth. This new birth has to
do with the Word of God. This Word also is an act of creation. The new birth is an act of creation.
Paul said that circumcision or non-circumcision availed nothing
but a new creature, but a new creature, a new creation. Now,
people talk about being creative. And artists are creative. Jim's
creative on the guitar. Debbie's creative on the piano.
I have friends who are very creative in carving and paints and beadwork
and things like that, but they're not creators. They're working
with stuff that's already been made. Stan does beautiful carvings
of masks and bears and things, but he's not creating anything.
He's working with what's already been created. You don't create
nothing. You don't create nothing anew. This is an act of creation,
and if it is an act of creation, we have to go to the Creator
to see how it takes place, to see the source of the creation. None but the Creator may take
credit or glory for creation, only God. In 1 Corinthians 5.17
it talks about this new creature, or 2 Corinthians, I'm sorry,
2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. It says, Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new. And look at the next phrase,
and all things are of God. That's how it happens. That's
where all these new things happen. He is the Creator, and that is
how He is described back in John. It says, All things, in verse
3, were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. So if you are a new creature
in Christ, it is God who made you a new creature. You did not
have anything to do with it, just as you had nothing to do
with the initial creation. In verses 4 and 5, back in our
text, it takes place when light and knowledge and understanding
is given in and by Jesus Christ, it says this in verse 4 and 5,
and in him was life, and the life was the light, the understanding,
this life that he gives is the understanding, spiritual understanding
and discernment. Life is the light of men, and
the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth
it not. How is it that a man can't comprehend that there is
light? He is abiding in darkness. He
is blind, unable to see the light. And this is the condition we
find men in. But this new birth takes place
when light comes. When God cuts on the light and
knowledge and understanding is given in and by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. This is how it happens. It does
not happen any other way. A man can read this Bible all
his life and never see anything of what it means. It always says
what it says, it means what it means, and it always means more
than you think it means. It's always greater and deeper.
The beauty of a book, when this book was written, the beauty
of owning a book was an amazing thing. Only rich people could
own a book, and they usually owned one. Just one book, because
they were very expensive to make, they were hand-scribed, and people
who had them were considered intellects, and they kept that
book. And the writers of these books were very wise. The ones
who wrote the books wrote them in a way that no matter how many
times you read them, you'd always get something else out of them.
There was a depth to the writing. there was a depth to it. And
that's this book. That's this light. That's this
knowledge. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. How are you going to know Christ? Our Lord said to
those who despised his preaching and despised the preaching of
John in Matthew chapter 11. They despised them both. He said,
he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, I thank thee, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, for thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. No man knoweth
the Father, but the Son. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." That's
how it happens. Barnard used to say, Salvation
is by revelation. God must open your eyes and open
your ears to hear the Gospel. Also, this new birth arrives
upon the wings of the preaching of the Gospel. Verses 6-9, it
says, 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 that light. That was the true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. How do men get
this light? Does a bluebird land on their
shoulder and tell them of God? Does God write it in the skies
and the clouds? No, there's only one way you're
going to ever know about God, that is somehow in God's great
and wondrous providence, he sends some fella to stand on his hind
legs, some blood-bought sinner, some beggar, to tell you where
the bread is. That's what it is, a beggar telling
another beggar where the bread is. You're going to find it out
through the preaching of the gospel. That's what our Lord
said. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein, in that gospel,
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. For it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Our Lord said this
through Paul writing to the Roman church about calling upon the
name of the Lord to be saved. He says, whosoever calls on the
name of the Lord shall be saved. And that's a fact. But he qualifies
that. Paul often does that being a
lawyer. He would set forth a principle and then give the disclaimer
or the caveat to what was spoken. He said, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they
call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe on him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent as it is written? Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. Those things must take place
and for a person to call upon the name of the Lord before he
calls he must believe. Before he believes he must hear. Before he hears God must send
him a preacher. And before he preaches, he must
be sent to preach. That has to take place. This
is the caveat that Paul adds to that fact. Verse 10, it's
not a universal or common knowledge here. It says, As he was in the
world, the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He walked among his creatures, the ones he created, the ones
he made, because he's made everything that was made. And he walked
among them, and they knew him not. they knew him not. The only ones that knew him was
those to whom he revealed himself and they didn't know him fully
because he said to them in another place, there's things you've
got to learn yet you don't know before he left this earth. It
cannot be universal knowledge and it is not universal knowledge.
The Spirit of Christ must take these things. Verse 11, the new
birth is not for the religious world He said He came to His
own. Who was His own? The Jewish people.
And His own received Him not. He came to His own people. Now Jesus Christ was not a Caucasian. He didn't have red hair and a
nice clear complexion and blue eyes. He was a Jewish man. So probably He was short in stature,
brown in the color of His skin. He probably had a good size,
maybe a nice proboscis here in the middle of His face. He probably
had curly black hair. and we know that he wasn't handsome.
Now these guys that play him on TV, they're good looking.
But it says of our Lord, there was no comeliness in him that
men should desire. He wasn't pretty at all. But
it wasn't his looks that got the job done. It was his words
that got the job done. But he came to his own people.
He looked just like them, talked just like them, spoke their language.
And they said, we're not going to have anything to do with this
fellow. He was despised and rejected of me in a manner of sorrows
and acquainted with grief, scripture says. So the religious world
has nothing to do with the new birth. Oh, they talk about it,
but they say being born again is walking down an aisle. That's
just the dumbest thing you've ever seen. Sylvester made that
clear to me. He said, they're walking down
to the front of the church. The front of the church is out there at
the front door. This is the back of the church, but that's neither
here nor there, but nonetheless, that's new birth. You must have
been born that you could walk. That don't wash. Making a decision,
did you decide to be born? Did you consult with your mom
and dad to be born into this world? So you think that's a new birth,
you're going to consult with the father to be born into this
world? No, you don't know nothing. You don't know anything. The religious world talks about
works, personal marriage. They're not born of God. Our
Lord said to them who were religious, we have different fathers. My father's in heaven. He had
done whatsoever he pleased. Your father's the devil. That's
what he said to them, John chapter 8. and you'll do the devil's
works. You'll do the devil's works.
And man can only see what's natural, not spiritual. We saw that with
Nicodemus. Verse 12, Receiving Christ is
equated with believing. 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. Receiving Christ is equated with
believing. It happens It's the same thing.
Well, it's not the same thing, but it happens at the same time.
Now, logic declares that life precedes all actions. So, in
order to believe, you've got to have life, don't you? In order to have faith, you've
got to have life, I mean, you know, for you to believe. So,
life precedes everything. It precedes everything. That
is absolute. God, however, by inserting the
word even here, sets the two things, receiving and faith,
as simultaneous. It is like cutting on a light
switch. We know that the electricity must go through them wires to
get to that light bulb and light that filament. We know that.
But we cut on the light the minute we are here to click the lights
on. They are simultaneous. And when God gives a man life,
the life He gives him is faith, is believing. Faith is the evidence
of having received Jesus Christ. No man can claim to have received
Christ who does not trust Him, and no man shall trust Christ
whom God has not received Him. Verse 13 really clears up the
whole matter of the new birth. If there was no other verse in
all of Scripture that explains how a person is born again, this
is the one. This is it. You can underline
it in your Bible and write beside it if you've got a margin. This
tells how it's done! This is how it's done! Verse 12 says, Those who receive
Christ and believe on Him do so because they were born. Now, he's talking about being
born from above. They were born, not of blood,
not of blood. Receiving Christ and believing
Christ are the result, not the cause of the new birth. They're
the result of it. These were born. Those who receive
and believe Christ do so because they were born of God. They are
sired by their Maker. And that life and light in them
is none other than the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the light of the world. And just in case you might lose
all rational thought and begin to think that you are somehow
involved in the process of the new birth, our God makes it absolutely
clear and plain that just as you had nothing to do with your
natural birth, you have nothing to do with your spiritual birth,
which were born not of bloods, what's that talking about? Ancestry. Ancestry. What does that mean?
Just because your mom and dad are believers doesn't mean you're
a believer. God doesn't have any grandchildren. He just doesn't
have any. He has children. He doesn't have
anything to do with your lineage. Well, we've been baptized all
our lives, so what? being a Baptist and 50 cents
or 75 cents will get you a cup of senior coffee at McDonald's,
that's what it's worth. Baptists ain't nothing, Presbyterians
ain't nothing, Catholics ain't nothing, those are just denominations
that men come up with to make them feel like they know more
than anybody else. Believer believes in Christ,
not in ecclesiastical terms. but it's not ancestry. You're
not a child of God because your parents might have been or because
some notion of family covenant. You're a child of God because
you're born of God. Not of bloods. You're born of
God. And it says also that you're
not born of the will of the flesh. The will of the flesh. That is to say, you're not born
of your will. That is what that means. You
did not will to be born naturally. Your mother discarded your carcass
because her body could no longer stand to support you after nine
months. You were plunged into a world
by birth. You did not pull yourself up
by your baby booty bootstraps and march into life. Likewise,
you were not born again by your will. There is no such thing as free
will in the universe. Certainly not among men. The
will is not free. Our will follows our inclinations.
Our will follows our desires. The will follows whatever the
mind and heart wants. Listen to me. You will never
will to do something you will not do. You'll never choose to
do something that you refuse to choose to do. That's just
not going to happen. But men equate free will, and
what they're talking about with free will, they're talking about
power to do something. And that's where it really is
absent in humanity. Now God's will is not free, God
does what He wants to do. So that comes from wherever God
is inside of Himself. He does what He wants to do,
He does it when He wants to do it, He does it how He wants to
do it, and He does it to whoever He wants to do it to. That's
His will. Whatever He wills, He will do.
He will not go against His will. He's not a man that He should
lie. God will never will to lie. We
will to lie all the time, but God doesn't. Man's will, his
affinity, his inclinations, all those things have to do with
what He wants. God's will is what He wants. Man's will is what He wants.
That's all it is. But His will will never will
to be with God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit, they are foolishness to him, neither
can he know them, nor discern them, because they are spiritually
discerned. Paul said, when he said, Jacob
have I loved, God said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I
hated. The response to man is, well that makes God unrighteous. makes God, God. He said, when it comes to salvation,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Not of him that willeth. Man's
will is nothing. God's will is what he wants. Man's will is what he wants.
But here's what man think. They think that because they
will to do something, that they have power to perform it. Now only God has that. The devil
thought he could. Isaiah 14, he said, I will be
like God. I will. I will ascend to the
throne of heaven. I'll be like the Most High. I will, I will, I will. God said,
no you won't. I'm going to put you down in
hell. But I've got a will. Have fun. Enjoy your will down
yonder in the flames of perdition. Paul said, the Apostle, under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a man saved by the blood of Christ,
taught on the backside of the desert for three and a half years
by Jesus Christ himself, the Apostle of Apostles. He said, I will to will is present
with me. but the power to perform. I find
not. Now here's the child of God.
His will ain't doing nothing either. But you see what God
wills, He not only is able to perform,
He does perform. He always does as He pleases
in heaven and earth and all the deep places, even in the bottom
of the sea. Our Lord does all His will. He has the power to
perform. It says when He wills something,
it comes to pass. Over in Isaiah chapter 14, here's how God describes His
will. He says, This is the purpose
that I have purposed upon the whole earth. This is Isaiah 14,
26. And this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the
nations, for the Lord of hosts has purposed it, and who shall
disannul it? and his hand has stretched out,
and who shall turn it back? That's God. Old Nebuchadnezzar
found out that, didn't he? Nebuchadnezzar stood one day
on the balconies of Babylon and looked out at, oh, great Babylon.
He put his head behind his back, maybe pulled on his suspenders
a little bit and looked out and said, oh, great Babylon that
I have built, that I have built. and as it says,
as the words were coming out of his mouth, God struck him
down and sent him out into the field like a beast. And for years
he was out there in that field. This is the king. This is Nebuchadnezzar. Out like a beast. His fingernails
grew like claws. Hair grew down all over. beer
grew and he walked all like a beast. People walked by and perhaps
said, who's that? That's King Nebuchadnezzar. And after a season God gave him
his mind back. And he said, my mind came to
me and then I knew something. I wasn't going to stand on the
balcony and brag about what I'd done anymore, for sure. I found
this, that God's dominion is everywhere, His dominion is everlasting,
and He doeth according to His will among the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
His hand, and none can say to Him, none can even ask, What
are you doing? You can't ask it! It's none of
your business. This is God. This is God. Not of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, it says. You're not born of the will of
man. What does that mean? Somebody else can't give you birth. The
preacher can't do it. The priest can't do it. The council
of holy men can't do it. The church can't do it. Men cannot
give you the new birth. I can't do it. No man may birth
you into God's family. Men have neither power nor ability
to put you in God's family, nor do men have knowledge, right,
or warrant to tell you whether you are in God's family or not.
People say, you think I'm saving? I say, I have no idea whatsoever.
You know, don't you? If you are, you do it. If you
ain't, you don't. And that's all I can say. God's will is
the will by which you are born. Not of the will of man, not of
blood, not of the will of flesh, but of God. That's how it happens. You're
born of God. And the miracle of the new birth
is that the word that is preached, the gospel you hear by faith
appears in your heart as a person. This is the voice of Christ,
these words are. My voice is not. these words
are his voice, and his sheep hear his voice, and may follow
him. The gospel you hear by faith appears in the heart as a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is beautiful poetic language.
Verse 14, And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Word made flesh. and dwelt among
us, and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace, full of truth. It's a beautiful poetic language.
Somehow in the sovereign majesty and power and providence, God,
he hangs flesh on the word that you hear. The words reveal the
person. You hear the gospel, and by faith
you see Jesus Christ. Go figure. I don't get that,
but how wonderful it is. When you hear of him, you embrace
him. When you hear of him through
this word, you embrace him. There is no explaining this but
to declare it. And there is no way to get it except to believe
it. That's it. And the result of the New Testament
is to declare it. It is that Christ dwells among us. Tabernacles
with us. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And we beheld his glory. He is the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. reason for the universe is declared
in this text why you were born again what possible advantage
could you could god get by having you as a son or a daughter none
did god need you no could he somehow not exist without you
perish the thought will you somehow help his cause no the best man
or woman can do is sin spectacularly you if you are born again you
were born again so you could see christ and his glory and
behold it. That's why you're born again.
Ain't no other reason for it. Substitution, where he stood
in our place and our room on Calvary. Imputation, where our
sin was imputed to him and his righteousness imputed to us.
Satisfaction, propitiation, where he satisfied God's law for us.
Redemption, where he brought us back. Exaltation where He
glorified us. His glory as a uniquely born
only begotten of the Father. You were born of God to see that
your birth was by the grace of God. You were born of God to
know the truth of God. That is why you were born of
God. No other reason. You are not going to change the
world. You are not going to change anybody. You are not even going
to change yourself. You know what you and I are? We're greasy
spots, small greasy spots on the pages of human history. In
just a few years, I will be forgotten. My grandchildren will forget
me after a while. Maybe my children will remember
me and talk about me for a while. But then I'll be gone and my
memory will be gone and where is he? Who knows? Who you talking
about? Old Tim James, who's that? nobody nothing but I've been
born again so I can see Christ and embrace Him and behold Him
the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth that's
how you're born again of God Father bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name