Series: John
Title: How Are We Born?
Text: John 1: 4-13
Date: Sept 27, 2020
Place: SGBC, NJ
Subject: How are we born?
Speaking of the Word who was made flesh, the
Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, John says,
John 1: 4
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Note the words “in him”—“In him was life:
and the life was the light of men. All
life and light are in Christ.
Colossians 1: 19: For
it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
The fulness of everything dispensed to his
creatures is in Christ. In the Lord
Jesus Christ is Life and Light. In
Christ is both natural life and spiritual life, temporal life and eternal life. When we have his Life, we have Light
(understanding): in Christ is both natural light and spiritual light. In him is the fulness of life: natural
and spiritual, temporal and eternal—Christ is the Life of all the living. And the Life Christ is, is the Light: understanding,
both natural and spiritual.
Every person that ever lived from Adam to the
last, from Christ’s greatest enemy to his beloved apostle John, all were given life
and light from Christ.
John 1: 9: That was the true Light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
The non-elect, Christ never gives more than
natural life and natural light. Adam
passed on his corrupt nature so that we are born the first time spiritually
dead in our nature under the curse and condemnation of the law. But even natural life is from Christ. Even natural understanding is from the Light of
Christ. I am not suggesting the
non-elect are in any way saved or partake of God’s mercies or grace. They do not!
But every man is a debtor to God for even natural life and natural
understanding. As spiritually dead and
corrupt as we are by the sin of Adam we still get even natural life and light
from Christ. But for the elect, Christ not
only gives natural life and natural light, but Christ gives spiritual life and spiritual
light.
Believer, understand this, all life and light
that Christ gives in nature—to the unregenerate apostate—is subservient to, and
for the good of, his spiritual kingdom and glory. That is amazing to think
about! Right now, every spiritually dead,
God-hating sinner who opposes Christ and his church with everything that is in
them have their physical life and natural understanding from Christ himself. They cannot take their next breath to cuss
him or us unless Christ gives it to them; they cannot devise one thought for or
against us unless Christ gives them light to do it.
Jeremiah 10:23: O
LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps.
Proverbs 16:1: The
preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the
LORD.
Proverbs 20:24: Man’s
goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
But all fulness of spiritual Life and
spiritual Light is given to God’s elect who Christ redeemed from the curse of
the law by his own blood. It is “spiritual life freely given”. The Lord Jesus gives life to “as many as the
Father has given Him”. It is not earned
or merited by us but spiritual life is the gift of God. It is the “life” of reconciliation—peace with
God purchased by Christ for His people by “the blood of His cross”. Christ laid down his life for the sheep alone. Christ reconciled to God each person for whom
he died. They must and shall be brought
into reconciliation with God in their experience of his grace. God said he shall not fail. It is the “life” which has no end—eternal
life—"I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish”. When Christ give us Life, he is our spiritual
Light: the Life is the Light of those born of him
Proposition: Knowing Christ is
the Life and Light of all men, the greatness of our depravity is seen in that when
Christ sends his witness declaring who he is, we reject him until we are born
of God.
Having told us of the glorious light of
Christ, we then hear what we are and what we do while unregenerate—John 1: 5:
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
We must be born of Life and Light. We must be born-again. So how are dead, dark sinners born again so
as to have Life and Light and be the sons of God?
A MAN SENT FROM GOD
John 1: 6: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
Christ sent John the Baptist. He
was the forerunner of Christ. John was
sent from Christ our God to bear witness of Christ. Think of that! God himself sent his own
personal witness to bear witness that Christ is the Light.
God’s preacher is a man sent from God.
Every true preacher is a man sent from God. Not every preacher is a man sent from
God! But every true preacher is a man
sent from God. Christ promised to give
us pastors after his own heart which shall feed us with knowledge and
understanding (Jer 3: 15). How are we
born? It begins by God sending a man. The greatest blessing ever given me was a man
sent of God. Here is why.
A MESSAGE SENT FROM GOD
John 1: 7: The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light,
that all men through him might believe. 8: He was not that Light, but was
sent to bear witness of that Light.
God sent John to bear witness that Christ alone is the Light. That is what a true witness is. He is sent of God to bear witness of Christ
the Light. The man God sends will tell
you as John the Baptist said, “I am not the Light. But I am sent to bear witness that Christ is
the Light.” God sends his witness that
sinners, through him, might believe on Christ and be saved. He only saves through the preaching of Christ
the Light (1 Cor 1: 21). How are we
born? God sends his man with his message—the
declaration that Christ is the Light!
LIFE AND LIGHT SENT FROM GOD
John 1: 9: That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. 10: He was in the world, and the world was made by him,
and the world knew him not. 11: He came unto his own, and his own received him
not. 12: 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: 13: Which were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The only thing sinners have to do is believe on Christ. Spiritual life, eternal life is theirs
through merely believing God and resting in his Son. But here is where our depravity is magnified—"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.”
Christ is every man’s natural life and natural light. He came into the world that he himself made. But what is our reception of Christ? “We
knew him not.”
Even worse, Christ “came unto his own and his own received him not.” He came to Israel. They were the one nation he had formed and given
his oracles. Their fathers had told them
how he called Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
They had heard the truth of how Christ delivered them out of Egypt. They saw him on Mt Sinai and in the cloud and
fire by night. He carried them through the
wilderness to Canaan. The prophets bore
witness of him for thousands of years.
The very children of Israel who lived when Christ came claimed to be
looking for him.
Yet, here is the depth of our sin and darkness—"He came unto his
own, and his own received him not.” No
sinner can blame God for our own unbelief.
Christ has given us natural life and natural understanding. Christ sent witness after witness declaring
that Christ is the Life and the Light.
He has preached to us that men might simply believe on him and be saved
by him. But left to us “we know him
not and receive him not.” Does that
not make us see how depraved we are!
John 3: 19: And this
is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20: For every one that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved.
So how are we born? We must be
born of God—"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.”
In verse 12 the word “power” carries the meaning privilege. Indeed, it is the greatest privilege that
exists to be a “son of God.” The “privilege”
can only be given by God. No one but God
can give this authority and privilege.
But the translators correctly translated the word “power”—God alone
gives ability to live! Spiritual life
is by Christ the Life entering into a dead sinner. His Life is our Light. When he gives Life you live. When he gives Light you discern the truth. By Christ’s power we can do nothing else but
believe on Christ. In order to see the
use of this word “power”, notice how it is used elsewhere. Christ said,
Matthew 28:18: And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Matthew 10: 1: And when he had called unto him his twelve
disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out,
and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
It is not an ability to choose or reject Christ as this world’s false
preachers claim. When you were born the
first time you were given power to live so you breathed. You had no choice. The power to become the sons of God is the
power to live when Christ becomes your life.
It is the power to discern spiritual things when Christ becomes your
Light. It is the power of a new will to
believe on Christ when Christ makes you willing in the day of his power. This is the power to cry Abba, Father when
the Spirit of his Son enters in and you are born a son of God. It is the power God the Father spoke of when
he said to the Son,
Psalm 110:3: Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the
beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning…
When God gives this power then you do what every new born son of God does,
you receive Christ. That is what the
verse means. The power came first from
God. "As many as received Christ”—the
reason they received him is because “to them gave he the power to become the
sons of God.”
But how are sons of God born? That should be a rhetorical question! After all, how did you become the natural
child of your natural father? Only your biological
father made you be born his biological child.
The only way we can be a spiritual son of God is to be born spiritually
of God our Father—
He declares three ways we are not born of God.
“Which were born, not of blood.” Sinners do not become sons of God because their
parents are sons of God. God does not make
our children be born of him simply because you and I are believers. Abraham was a son born of God. He was the father of two sons—Isaac and Ishmael. But Ishmael was not born-again of God merely
because God had made Abraham be born of God.
Isaac was a son of God. From Isaac
twins were conceived in the same womb. But
God did not make Esau be born of God merely because his father Jacob was born
of God. Sinners are not born of God
simply because they have a parent that is a son of God. Sons of God are born not of blood.
“Nor of the will of the flesh.”
Sinners do not become sons of God because it is the will of those
around you. It is every believing
parents will that their child be born of God.
But none can put spiritual, incorruptible Seed—the Living Word—within his
child and give them spiritual life. It
is the will of this congregation that every spiritually dead child here be born
of God. We can pray. But we have to say, “Not our will, God, but
thine be done!” Sinners are not born of
God by the will of the flesh.
“Nor of the will of man.”
A sinner cannot even make himself be born of God by his own will. Truth is, until we are born OF GOD, no sinner
has a will to be born OF GOD. The sinner’s
will is to boast that he gave himself life so he can glory that he did it rather
than give that glory to God!
Then John declares how we are born?—"But of God.” Think of the redundancy of this statement. This is how depraved we are! We will not and cannot bow to this truth. In order to be a son OF GOD we must be born OF
GOD. God purposed it from eternity. God elected who he would save by his free
grace. Christ redeemed each of his elect
from the curse of the law by his own blood.
At the hour appointed, God sends a man with the gospel of Christ the
Light and through the preaching of the gospel, God sends forth the Spirit of
his Son into our hearts. The Living
Word, the Life, the Light enters into a dead sinner. Right then a son of God is born. Immediately, we do what living sons of God do,
we believe on Christ, crying, Father, Father!
Galatians 4: 4 But when the
fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, 5 To redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7: Wherefore thou art
no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Amen!