John chapter one

BECOMING A CHILD OF GOD

John 1:10-13
"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him and the world did not know Him.
He came to His own, and His own received Him not.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Message:
The opening verses of John's Gospel have already introduced us to two very significant themes: the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the depravity of man.
These themes are foils to one another.
For in this magnificent prologue to the Gospel, the depravity of man is seen precisely in the fact that men failed to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ when he came come on them.

No sooner has this been said, however, than someone will ask, "But certainly there should be an exception to this blanket description of human depravity. Haven't you forgotten about the Jews, his own people? They had the prophecies of his coming; they had the law; they even had John the Baptist. He came to them especially. Surely they must have recognized him?"

But John answers that this is no exception; for "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him" (John 1:11). In fact, John would say, it is in the light of this inexplicable rejection of Jesus by the Jews that we see the depravity of man most clearly. When the Lord Jesus Christ came he was received with contempt and disdain. Thus, toward the end of his ministry but before his crucifixion he summed up their reaction in the parable of the landowner and his vineyard.

Matthew 21:33-43
"Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit.
And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.
Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.
Then last of all he sent his son to them a, saying, 'They will respect my son.
But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.
So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?
They said to Him, He will destroy those wicked men miserable, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.
Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?
Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.

Verse 45
NOW WHEN THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND PHARISEES HEARD HIS PARABLES, THEY PERCEIVED THAT HE WAS SPEAKING OF THEM.
In this parable God Himself is the householder, the earth is the vineyard, and the vinedressers are the people of Israel. They were to be God's evangelists to the world! The appointed to show forth the glory of God in this world! They rejected the Light of the world, and thus were rejected and replaced by the CHURCH.

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When the kingdom of God was taken from the nation of Israel, to whom was it given? This is one of the most important questions in theology!
Answer!
1 Peter 2:4-10
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.
Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
But you area chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."

In the Matthew parable, the murder of the Son was the crucifixion of Christ. The casting out of the wicked servants is the replacement of Israel as a special people by the Church in this age of Gentile blessing. Clearly this is picture in the Lord's own language of the truths preserved for us in John's prologue, "He [Jesus] was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:10-12).

In my opening statement, I suggested that the rejection of Jesus Christ is the result of the depravity of man. What do we mean when we talk about the depravity of man?

The phrase TOTAL DEPRAVITY is commonly used to make explicit the implications of original sin. Scripture diagnoses sin as a universal deformity of human nature, found at every point in every person. Both the Old and the New Testament have names for it that displays its ethical character as rebellion against God's rule, missing the mark God set us to aim at, transgressing God's law, disobeying God's directives, offending God's purity by defiling oneself, and incurring guilt before God the Judge.

This moral deformity is dynamic; sin stands revealed as an energy of irrational, negative, and rebellious reaction to God's call and command, a spirit of fighting God in order to play God. The root of sin is pride and enmity against God, the spirit seen in Adam's first transgression; and sinful acts always have behind them thoughts, motives, and desires that one way or another express the willful opposition of the fallen heart to God's claims on our lives.

Thus, TOTAL DEPRAVITY signifies a corruption of our moral and spiritual nature that is total not in degree (for no one is as bad as he or she might be) but in extent. It declares that no part of us is untouched by sin, and therefore no action of ours is as good as it should be, and consequently nothing in us or about us ever appears meritorious in God's eyes. We cannot earn God's favor, no matter what we do; unless grace saves us, we are lost!

Total depravity entails total inability, that is, the state of not having it in oneself to respond to God and His Word in a sincere and wholehearted way. The Westminster Confession says: "Man by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural

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man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto."

In verses 10 and 11, John has painted a picture of the Creator coming to His creation and unrecognized, a Messiah coming to His people but rejected. Israel should have followed John's testimony and received Jesus, but they didn't!

We might answer...."Well, the Jews are guilty, but thank God we are not like that!" Not at all!
In fact, if we really understand the Jews' reaction, we will understand the Gentile's reaction also. And we will learn that the reaction of Israel is only typical of the reaction of all mankind to Christ's coming.

The Jews had prophecies of Christ's coming, but so does the world today. In fact, the Scriptures of the Old Testament are far more widely translated and circulated in our age than in any age previously. And as for us there is the added advantage that we are told in the New Testament how Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled them. What is more, we have evidence of the miraculous power of Jesus Christ in the lives of countless millions of Christians, many of whom have demonstrated Christ's ability to be victorious in them over the worst that life can offer.
And yet, in the face of all the facts...multitudes still reject Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

AH! PRAISE GOD.....NOT ALL REJECT!
Verse 12
"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

Here is the way the Amplified Bible translated this verse:
"But to as many as did receive and welcome Him He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name."

This is a glorious verse, especially since it comes, as it does, after the dismal picture of the preceding verses.
People are not, or do not become God's children naturally. The idea of the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man have been popular themes in the past, but this is not biblical teaching. It is true that Paul told the men of Athens: "We are his offspring (Acts 17:28), but that is not the same thing as saying that we are God's legitimate children. And what is more, in that verse Paul was actually only quoting a Greek poet, either Aratus or Cleanthes, obviously in order to establish a point of contact with his Greek hearers. In his own teaching, by contrast, he stresses that we become God's children only by means of the new birth.

Christians are called SONS OF GOD is because:
(1) They are adopted by God. Romans 8:14-17 "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are SONS OF GOD. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the SPIRIT OF SONSHIP (Spirit of adoption). When we cry "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are CHILDREN OF GOD, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him."

The New Testament connects adoption with saving faith, and says that in response to our trusting in Christ, God has adopted us into his family.

Paul says, "In Christ Jesus you are all SONS OF GOD, through faith (Galatians 3:23-26)."

Although adoption is a privilege that comes to us at the, time we become Christians, nevertheless it is a privilege that is distinct from justification and distinct from regeneration. One of the greatest privileges of our adoption is being able to speak to God and relate to him as a good and loving Father. In our prayers, we address Him as OUR HEAVENLY FATHER!

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(2) We are SONS OF GOD because of His love.
1 John 3:1-2
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the SONS OF GOD; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Beloved, now are we the SONS OF GOD, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall know him as he is."

There is a Scottish Paraphrase of these verses which reads:
Behold the amazing gift of love the Father hath bestowed, on us the sinful sons of men, to call us Sons of God!
Concealed as yet his honour lies, by this dark world unknown, A world that knew not when he came, even God's eternal Son.
High is rank we now possess, but higher we shall rise; Though what we shall hereafter be is hid from mortal eyes.
Our souls, we know, when he appears, shall bear his image bright; For all his glory, full disclosed shall open to our sight.
A hope so great, and so divine, may trials well endure; And purge the soul from sense and sin, as Christ himself is pure!
There is something here which we may well note! It is by the gift of God that a man becomes a child of God. By nature a man is the creature of God, but it is by grace that he becomes the child of God.

There are two English words which are closely connected but whose meanings are widely different, PATERNITY and FATHERHOOD.

PATERNITY describes a relationship in which a man is responsible for the physical existence of a child;
FATHERHOOD describes an intimate, loving relationship.

In the sense of PATERNITY all men are children of God; but in the sense of FATHERHOOD men are children of God only when he makes his gracious approach to them in the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ and they in faith respond!

While all men are children of God in the sense that they owe their lives to him, they become his children in the intimate and loving sense of the term only by an act of God's initiating grace and the response of their own hearts.

AS SONS OF GOD, WE ARE JOINT HEIRS WITH JESUS CHRIST!

What does this mean?
Romans 8:16-17
"The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God;
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."
Christians are fellow heirs with Christ because the glory which they are to inherit by grace is the glory which is his by right.

Jesus prayed in John 17:22-24
"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou has loved me.
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."

When a man becomes a Christian he enters into the family of God. He did nothing to deserve it; God, the great Father, in his amazing love and mercy, has taken the lost, helpless, poverty-stricken, debt-laden sinner and adopted him into his own family, so that the debts are cancelled and the glory of his kingdom inherited!

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(BECOMING A CHILD OF GOD) (Page 5)

Again we read verse 12 of our text:
"But as many as received Him, to then He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe on His name."

Question! What does the phrase...."To them He gave the right"....mean?

The Greek word translated "right" means an honor, and it would be better to translate it so. To the sinner who is condemned to perpetual disgrace in his sin, lost from the family of God....through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are conferred the honor of being called His child!

Our position before God as God's children depends upon the highest authority of the universe, the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ!

WE ARE NO LONGER SLAVES OF SIN BUT SONS OF GOD!

Galatians 4:4-7
"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." SO YOU ARE NO LONGER A SLAVE, BUT A SON, AND SINCE YOU ARE A SON, GOD HAS MADE YOU ALSO AN HEIR."

Chrysostom, in a sermon on how to bring up children, advises parents to give their boy some great scriptural name, to teach him repeatedly the story of the original bearer of the name, and so to give him a standard to live up to when he grows to manhood. So the Christian has the privilege of being called the child of God. Just as to belong to a great and famous family, or to have attended a great world-famous university, or to belong to a great church....these give great inspiration to fine living. So, even more, to bear the name of the family of God is something to keep a man's feet on the right way and to set him climbing to new heights of character and purpose!

May we bear the name of CHRISTIAN with great honor and dignity... bringing glory and honor to our wonderful God!

1 John 2:6 says: "Whoever claims to live in Him (that is, whoever says he is a Christian) mist walk as Jesus did."

The Amplified Bible translates this verse this way:
"Whoever says He abides in Him ought [as a personal debt] to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He (Jesus) walked and conducted Himself." WITH THE RIGHT, THE PRIVILEGE AND THE HONOR TO CALL OURSELVES CHRISTIAN COMES ALSO THE SACRED RESPONSIBILITY TO LIVE LIKE JESUS LIVED.

There is also another phrase in this verse which needs some examination...TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE ON HIS NAME.
Hebrew thought and language had a way of using THE NAME which is strange to us. By that expression [THE NAME] Jewish thought did not so much mean the name by which a person was called as his nature in so far as it was revealed and known. For instance, in Psalm 9:10 the psalmist says: "Those who know THY NAME put their trust in thee." Clearly that does not mean that those who know that God is called Jehovah will trust him; it means that those who know God's character, God's nature, who know what God is like, will be ready and willing to trust him for everything.

Psalm 20:7 says, "Some boast of chariots and some of horses; but we boast of THE NAME of the Lord our God." It means that some people will put their trust in human aids, but we will put our trust in God because we know what he is like.

TO TRUST IN THE NAME OF JESUS THEREFORE MEANS TO PUT OUR TRUST IN WHAT HE IS. He was the embodiment of kindness and love and gentleness and service. He is the Saviour of the world, the Lord of glory, the King of kings, the Lord of lords.

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One more time we return to verse 12. Let's consider the phrase....BUT AS MANY AS RECEIVED HIM.

Throughout the Gospel of John, we have the record of person after person placing a personal trust in Jesus.

John 1:40-51 tells us that, Andrew, Simon Peter, Nathanael, Philip all became followers of Jesus.

John, chapter three, we have the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night. We know that he placed his trust in Jesus because when Jesus died on the cross, it was Nicodemus who brought myrrh and aloes to anoint his body for burial.

John 19:39-41
"And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.
Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid."

John, chapter four, we have the story of Jesus talking to the woman of Samaria. She had journeyed to the well to get water, a journey she made every day in order to meet her physical need for water. But Jesus wants to discuss a different kind of water.

Verse 13. "Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing into everlasting life."
The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."

We know that this woman received Jesus because she immediately returned to her village and began inviting people to come meet Jesus!

Verse 39-42
"And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did."
So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.
And many more believed because of His own word.
Then they said to the women, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world."

ONE OF THE CRIMINALS HANGING THE CROSS NEXT TO JESUS RECEIVED HIM.

Luke 23:39-43
"Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us."
But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?
And we indeed justly for we receive the due rewarded of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.
Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."

In John, chapter nine, Jesus healed a man who was born blind. And because he acknowledged that Jesus had done the miracle, he was cast out of the synagogue.

Verse 35, chapter 9 "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"
He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?"
And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you."
Then he said, "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped Him"

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Verse 13 in our text reads:
"Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, BUT OF GOD."

The subject now before us is THE NEW BIRTH, or the great change that takes place in the mind and heart and life of a person who trusts in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

John is telling us that God's true children do not owe their origin to physical descent; for example, from Abraham, nor to the will of the flesh (carnal desire, the sexual impulse of man or woman), nor to the will of man (the procreative urge of the male) but to God alone.

All three expressions emphasize that in no sense whatever do believers derive their birth or standing with God from physical or biological causes.

What does John mean when he says that we are not born into the family of God by BLOOD?
We would not refer to human birth in this way in English idiom, of course, but the reference is a natural one in the thought patterns of Judaism. For instance, in Leviticus 17:11, we read, "For the life of a creature is in the blood." This means that in Jewish thought, to refer to blood was nearly the equivalent of referring to human life. Thus, to deny that spiritual birth comes by blood is to deny that it can come about by any process of human regeneration. Kings as well as paupers need to confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believe on him with their hearts.

A great example of people believing they are right with God because their birth is the Jews. In Christ's time they boasted to him of their physical ancestry, saying, "We are children of Abraham." How proud they were of that!

When John the Baptist was preaching, he addressed that attitude.

Luke 3:7-9
"Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, 0 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children Abraham.
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

John 1:13 was written to teach us that, among other things, we must not make the mistake of trusting in the fact that our parents were Christians, or that we were born in a so-called Christian country.

The Bible teaches that nothing that relates to our physical birth will save us.
John tells us that our new birth is not the result of the "WILL OF THE FLESH. What did he mean by that? The clue to the true meaning of this phrase is to be found in all that is signified by the word FLESH in the New Testament. The New Testament uses the word FLESH to signify all that we are in terms of our natural appetites. This involves our emotions. Thus John is saying that a person cannot become a child of God by exercising his emotions any more than he can become God's child by being born of privileged parents

It is very clear from the verse that our NEW BIRTH is a gift from Almighty God through Christ and the initiative and outcome is the result of God's electing grace.
John 15:16
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."

And Paul writes to the Ephesians these wonderful words:
Ephesians 1:3-10
"Blessed by 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

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blame before Him in love:
Having predestined 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 in the beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace: Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself;
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him."

In our evangelical circles, we hear much about the subject of THE FREE WILL OF MAN, implying that we have within ourselves the ability to make spiritual choices when we are sinners and enemies of God. It is suggested that we can make the decision in our unregenerate hearts to receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, and that our salvation is the result of our personal decision.
THIS IS NOT WHAT OUR BIBLE TEACHES!

Listen to the Word of God:
2 Corinthians 2:14-15 (Amplified Bible)
"But the natural, non-spiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.

OUR FREE WILL AS A SINNER IS A WILL TOTALLY EFFECTED BY OUR SINFUL HEART AND WE WILL ONLY MAKE DECISIONS THAT ON-SPIRITUAL, ENEMIES OF GOD MAKE! And the Bible tells us that, as sinners, we are at enmity against God!

Romans 8:5-8 (The Amplified Bible)
"For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the Holy Spirit.
Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].
[That is] became the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot. So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites, and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him."

YES, WE MAY HAVE A FREE WILL...but our decisions are made from a heart that is hostile to God...therefore, in ourselves, we are unable to receive Jesus Christ as Lord apart from the work of the Holy Spirit which has taken the initiative to touch our hearts in grace and mercy and prepare us to be open to spiritual things.

THIS IS WHY JOHN SAYS THAT OUR NEW BIRTH IS OF GOD!
"See what [an incredible] quality of love the Father has given (shown, bestowed on) us, that we should [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! The reason that the world does not know (recognize, acknowledge) us is that it does not know (recognize, acknowledge) Him. Beloved, we are [even here and] now God's children; it is not yet disclosed (made clear) what we shall be [hereafter], but we know that when He comes and is manifested, we shall [as God's children] resemble and be like Him, for we shall see Him just as he is."