 Our sermon title this morning is To Those Who Receive Him. To Those Who Receive Him. And as is our process each week, we just preach verse by verse by verse through Scripture. We want to know what the Word of God has to say, not concerned with hearing or speaking my own opinions. We want to know what the Word of God has to say. We want to obey what the Word of God has to say to honor Him and live for Him. And so as we have been doing, we've been working verse by verse by verse through the Gospel of John, and we are in the prologue, what is called the prologue in John chapter 1, which runs from verses 1 through 18. And today we come to this paragraph, beginning in verse 10. John 1 chapter 10 where the Bible says, He Christ the light 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 did not receive Him. 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. And so today as we come to this paragraph and we begin to look at John chapter 1 verses 10 through 13, we see if you will the master artist, John the evangelist, who is adjusting his canvas, you know, setting up his pedestal, adjusting his canvas. He's selecting his palette and he begins to develop a shape and outline on the canvas. And at first in verses 1 through 5, we saw a portrait being painted, if you will, of Christ and of Christ in all His glory, in all His splendor. And we see also the forerunner then, the herald, the last and greatest of the prophets of the Old Testament, John the Baptist. And then now as we enter into verse 10, we see two more distinct portraits beginning to come into view. With each stroke of the author's brush, he paints his way through the Gospel of John and we see more clearly with every passing verse the glory of Christ. But in seeing the glory of Christ, we also begin to see the total depravity of man. We see the necessity of God's sovereign and unconditional election as the basis for our salvation. It is a necessity because man is totally depraved. And with that palette of colors at his disposal, the evangelist John now begins to paint a portrait of the children of wrath and the children of God. And with all people as children of wrath, apart from Christ, God doesn't come into the world to appeal to man's better nature, so to speak. Not come into the world to merely persuade men to see their own foolishness and to accept the light and turn to Christ. He, John the Evangelist, must paint man as they are as children of wrath, as totally depraved. In their radical lostness, he must paint the picture of man as dead and blind, dead in their sins and trespasses. In this condition, we then more clearly see man's complete need, total need for a complete change of heart. We see the necessity of a supernatural work of God to produce a new nature in man. We need to change so great, so radical, if you will, so complete, that the only words that really express fully what this is all about are the words, New Birth. We must be born again. We need to be made over, made a new being. We need to be given a new nature, new wants, new desires. And if this is going to be done, then God's going to have to take the initiative to do it. God is the only one who can, and God must therefore send his son. Outside of Christ, we are ignorant and unbelieving. Outside of Christ in our old natures, Christ is both unrecognized and unwelcome. We need a new nature. And all of this, these portraits that are being painted, will be filled in with with technicolor splendor as we work through the verses of this gospel. Be brought into high definition as we go verse by verse by verse through the gospel of John and see what John has to say here. But first today in verse 10, we're going to look point one on your notes at the children of wrath. We see in verse 10 and 11 a portrait of the children of wrath. Christ is unknown to them and unwelcome. The children of wrath are ignorant and unbelieving. This is a portrait of those who are spiritually blind. They're dead in their sins and trespasses. This is a bleak picture again of the total depravity of man. But secondly on your notes in verses 12 and 13, we're going to see a portrait of the children of God. These are said to receive Christ. We'll find that that is through faith in Christ and through believing in his name. And in receiving Christ through faith and believing in his name, God gives these the privilege of being his children. And all of that after having been born again of God. So let's begin in verse 10 with children of wrath. Verse 10 and 11 says this. He was in the world, that's Christ. And the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. Now verse 10 begins, he was in the world. This is the true light that's already been stated. The true light coming into the world that shines for every man to see. This is Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man. It's the only name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And it was that true light, that light and life of men that became flesh and came into the world that he made. So Jesus Christ then comes and he tabernacles with us. He pitches his tent so to speak and lives here and dwelling with men for the 33 years of his short earthly life. Now him coming into the world, this was not some secretive subversive infiltration of enemy territory. This world is his own, he made it. This is not an example of good versus evil with both powers being equal and nobody knows who wins. In other words, this is not an evil heresy called dualism. We know who wins. This is almighty sovereign God. And this is his world and he made it and he owns everything and everyone in it. You are his possession. He has even Satan who is called the God of this age, facetiously I might add. He has Satan on a choke chain and he's going to come again one day, Christ is, to execute judgment on wicked rebels. Everything that has been created has been created to fulfill his purpose and for the purpose of displaying his glory. This world is his own. That's notable in John chapter one. When we were back in verse three that the creation we saw in verse three is described as all things that were created through him. Jesus Christ literally created all things. Time and space, matter, everything was created by Christ. But now in verse 10, we see that all things now restricted or narrowed and it's narrowed in verse 10 to just the world. If you will, there is a concentric circle beginning with all things that Christ created. Now that being narrowed to the world that he created. And we're going to see that there are various uses in the Greek that word cosmos or world in verse 10, various uses for that word. The world that he came to that he was in and the world made through him in verse 10 begins initially to be the physical earth that he created. He came to the earth. He came to this world. Now the world that did not know him in verse 10 refers to the rebellious people he created that live in this world and are hostile toward him and are blind and are dead in their sins and trespasses. And so even in verse 10 you see the double use of that word world. He came to this world. The world did not know him. They didn't recognize him. They were not, it was not welcome to them. He was in the world. It's interesting as Christ comes into the world. The true light that was the light in life of men came into this world not to be served but to serve. I'll let this sink in for a moment. He didn't come as a tyrant, but he came as a common man and very uncommon man. He came not to judge the world, he said, but to save that the world might be saved through him. And he came and he had no form or comeliness as the prophet says that when we saw him there was no beauty that we should desire him. He had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth. Christ came as the author of Hebrews says, holy, harmless and undefiled. He came to bear our griefs as prophet Isaiah said to carry our sorrows. Shouldn't that glorious coming have received a glorious welcome? He was in the world. Who was? The one who made it. And how was he received? Did men gather from the four corners of the earth to come and to fall on their face and worship him? Did wicked sinners, did you, did I? Did we bury our head in our hands and weep over the sins that we had committed against him? Over the many offenses that you've committed against him? Confronted with God's justice? Confronted with the necessity of Christ's humiliation? Confronted with the necessity of his condescension? Did wicked men feel the weight of their guilt and their shame against him for how they rebelled against him? Did people rejoice at his coming? Did all the world swept up in who Christ is and what Christ has done? Did they fall on their face and worship him? Rejoice at his coming and believe? No, from verse 10, he came unrecognized. He came unknown and unwelcome. The world he created did not know him. You know what the response of the world is to the goodness of God in Christ Jesus our Lord? The response of the fallen world is the cross that crucified him. The children of Israel had been looking for him and missed him, did not know him. He said himself one greater than Solomon was among them and they did not know him. Herod was looking for him, couldn't find him, had all the children under the age of two killed trying to seek him out. Paul went to Athens to preach and he has to preach to an unknown God. Christ came to Bethlehem and there wasn't even room made for him in an inn. You know what there's not room for him in Orlando either. The world doesn't know him here either. For some of you in here there's no room for him in your heart either. There's no room for him in your schedules. You call yourself a Christian. There's no room for him at the top of your priority list. No time left for prayer. No time left for Bible study. No time left for communion with God. No time left for evangelism. Grace and mercy of God. The light and life of men enters the world and there's no time in our schedule, no time in our heart. No time at the top of our priority list. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. It's amazing. The word for know is the Greek word genosco. That word know is more than just an intellectual knowing. It's a relational knowing. It's a relational knowing. It's rooted in the heart, rooted in the will, rooted in the resolve to know. And therefore this not knowing then is a willful rejection. A willful refusal to believe and receive the light. Romans 1 19 says that what may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it to them and they are without excuse. God has made his presence clear. God has sent his son of the world. The world should have known him. The world didn't know him. Apart from God knowing us, we didn't know him. The world failed to know him. And the world failed to know him not because he was a stranger. The world failed to know him because he was estranged. The world was estranged from him. He didn't come as a stranger. The world was estranged from him. The world is hostile toward him. Hebrews 12 says, Consider him. Consider Christ who endured such hostility from sinners against himself. This world is blind. It loves darkness rather than light because its deeds are evil. A good question to ask yourself this morning is do you know the Lord? And better, more clearly, more appropriately phrased, is the Lord know you. One day he's going to come back in judgment. And those wicked rebels will stand before him as he says, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never what? I never knew you. I never knew you. Question to ask is does the Lord know you? Outside of Christ, men are children of wrath. Does the Lord know you this morning? How do you know? How do you know? Does the Lord know you? How do you know? If the Lord knows you and has done a work of grace in your heart, you'll produce the fruit that that grace is intended to produce. You'll produce fruits of faith. You'll live for him. You'll have new affections, new desires. You'll have a love in your heart that you can't fake, that desires Christ and hates your sin. Who delights in his word. In verse 11, as we move from verse 10 into verse 11, these concentric circles get smaller. All things that he created in verse 3. Now he comes to the world, the world didn't know him in verse 10. Now in verse 11, he came to his own and his own did not receive him. Not only was Jesus rejected by the world at large, made through him, he was now rejected by a people specially and specifically chosen by God as his very own. The apple of his eye, his treasured possession. The very ones that should have received him. Reminds me of Matthew chapter 4 verse 44, Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. In the very same way that the word cosmos or world in verse 10 is used first of the physical world and then of the people that inhabits it, that inhabit it, John does that with his own again in verse 11. The first his own there in verse 11 is neuter. Anytime it's used in the neuter case there in the New Testament, it's giving the sense of a place here, home. Giving the sense of home or a homeland. Jesus Christ came to his home. The second use of his own in verse 11 is masculine, meaning his people. Jesus Christ came to his own home, to his own people and they did not receive him. It's like saying I came to Florida and the Floridians didn't know me and so I came to Orlando to my own family and my own family didn't receive me. That's what it's like saying. He came as an illegal alien. He came home and to his own people and he came to Israel, the very people that should have welcomed him in with open arms and they didn't know him. Rather than welcome him, the children of Israel, his own people did not receive him. It points to the fact that there is no excuse, there is no exception to total depravity. The world at large doesn't know him. He was unrecognized and unwelcome. His own people didn't know him. He was unrecognized and unwelcome. All, even his own, are totally depraved. It doesn't matter if your husband is a Christian. It doesn't matter if your wife is a Christian. It doesn't matter if you grew up in a Christian home. It doesn't matter if your dad is a pastor. It doesn't matter if you think you grew up as a pretty good kid and didn't do anything that bad. You are totally depraved. Outside of Christ, your will is depraved. Your emotions are depraved. Your reasoning is depraved. You desperately need a savior. The Jewish people had the best possible pedigree. The most advantages, the most blessings, the most benefits, they were given the oracles of God. And yet they did not know him. Even the religious elite among them didn't know Christ when he came. They did not receive him. And their story is this. This is their story. Then what does that mean? What conclusions can you draw for the rest of the world? They were to be priests to the world, and they didn't know him. We see this repeated throughout the Bible. There's this constant pattern in Scripture of rejection of this recalcitrance against God, not knowing him, not recognizing him. And then the Lord, by necessity, having to take matters into his own hands to redeem fallen man. We see that pattern throughout Scripture. Turn with me to Isaiah 65. And let's look at a couple of examples of this. Isaiah 65. Now think about this as you read these passages that these are the children of God. God's own special people that God had elected from among all the other nations of the world, given them his law, spoke audibly at times to them, demonstrated great signs and wonders before their eyes, and the people of Israel didn't know him. Look at Isaiah 65 and look beginning at verse 1. Here the Bible says, God says, I was sought by those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, here I am, here I am to a nation that was not called by my name. Now the original reference of this verse are the children of Israel. This is a nation that he called to himself. He made them a nation, made them his treasured possession. We know from Romans chapter 10 that this also has reference to Gentiles. His own did not receive him, but to as many as did receive him, he gave them the right to become children of God. This is also opening up the Gentiles to be found by him, so to speak. Look at verse 2. I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good according to their own thoughts. Does that not describe children of wrath? Everyone outside of Christ, everyone outside of the divine intervention of God, changing the heart, changing the mind. He, God, in his infinite patience, stretches out his hands all day long to a rebellious people. It's said that to a lost person, one of the most glorious attributes of God is his patience. The fact that he hasn't taken you out yet, that you still have breath in your lungs, the patience of God, despite your horrific rebellion against him. And God and his patience just stretches out his hands. Here in another sermon, he just stretches out his hands. Someone shares the gospel to you. He is stretching out his hands. Someone talks to you, tells you about the love of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ, the fact that Christ can grant forgiveness and grant repentance, and he stretches out his hands, and he stretches out his hands to a people that walk in their own way according to their own thoughts. A people, verse 3, who provoke me to anger continually to my face, God says. That was you and I outside of Christ offending God continuously to his face to sacrifice in gardens. They burn incense on altars of brick. Listen to this, who sit among the graves and spend the night in tombs. They were seeking mediums. They were practicing sorcery. This is witchcraft. They were consulting the dead. They eat swine's flesh and the broth of abominable things in their vessels. God graciously gives his law so that they might know him and they just completely disregarded altogether. No concern whatsoever for the dietary laws in the Old Testament that the Lord had commanded them to keep. Who say, verse 5, keep to yourself. Do not come near me, for I am holier than you. And God says, these are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. They're a stench to him. It's Isaiah 65. Turn a few chapters to the right to Jeremiah chapter 7. Jeremiah chapter 7. The patience of God. It's the forbearance of God that should lead you to repentance. Jeremiah chapter 7. And drop down and look at verse 23. Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 23. We see the same expressed here. But this, God says, is what I commanded them saying, obey my voice and I will be your God and you shall be my people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well with you. And here's their response, verse 24. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear but followed the councils and the dictates of their evil hearts. That's what men do apart from the grace and mercy of God. They follow the dictates of their own wicked hearts. They do what is right in their own eyes. They live life for themselves. Follow their own counsel. They don't incline their ear toward God. It says at the end of verse 24 that they went backward and not forward. Literally in the Hebrew there, it means that they turned their back to him. God says, in his mercy, in his grace, incline your ear to me. In his stretching out his hand to his stiff neck people, he says, come back to me. Follow me, obey my voice. Listen to me and hear God's own people. They give him their back. That's what rebels do outside of Christ. Verse 25, since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day. I have even sent to you all my servants the prophets. Daily, he says, rising up early and sending them. And yet they did not obey me or incline their ear but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. They didn't do just evil in a sight. They had to do farther than that, do more than that. They did worse than their fathers before them. Just a stiff neck people. Go over to the New Testament. Look at Luke, Luke chapter 20. Just a few pages to the left from our passage in John chapter 1. Luke chapter 20. And we have the same sentiment here expressed in a parable from Christ himself. Luke chapter 20. Look down beginning at verse 9. Here, chapter 20, verse 9, Christ tells a parable. He began to tell the people this parable. A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vine dressers and went into a far country for a long time. Now, just as the audience to this parable could, as you listen to the parable, you can tell who the characters are, right? You can listen and tell who is the vine dresser or who is the owner, who are the vine dressers. You can tell who the son refers to. Even in this verse, in verse 9, he went into a far country for a long time. It's describing now the church age. We are in a long period of time before Christ comes back. Listen to what he says, verse 10. Now, at vintage time, he sent a servant to the vine dressers that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vine dressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. That's how the wicked vine dressers treated the prophets that were sent to them. God stretching out his hand, rising early and sending them prophets. Verse 11, again, he sent another servant and they beat him also, treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And again, he sent a third and they wounded him also and cast him out. And then the owner of the vineyard. Who's the owner of the vineyard? God, patient and kind and gracious and merciful. His patience with these wicked vine dressers would have been scandalous to those listening to the parable. The owner of the vineyard said, What shall I do? I'll send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him. But when the vine dressers saw him, they reason amongst themselves saying, This is the air. Come, let us kill him. That the inheritance may be ours. And so they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? Verse 16, he will come and destroy those vine dressers. Isn't that justice? Isn't that just? He'll destroy those vine dressers and give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, certainly not. And then he looked at them and said, When that is this, when then, is this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Christ, most important to the Jewish nation, their Messiah. Christ, most important became that which was rejected. And that which was rejected, which in reality is most important, becomes the chief cornerstone. Verse 18, whoever falls on that stone will be broken. But on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Christ will be the means of judging these wicked rebels. He'll be the means of judging the children of wrath that rebel against him today. The chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him because they, but they feared the people for they knew that he had spoken this parable against them. The wicked hypocrites. The point here that Christians would have had to press home continuously evangelizing in the first century is that the Bible, God's plan, because of the wickedness of man required that the Lord and Savior they proclaimed had to be largely rejected by his own people and then crucified. They are children of wrath as are all apart from Christ. In the parable, God sends them multiple opportunities to repent and they stopped their ears. They just didn't want to listen. The longer they heard, the harder their hearts became and the more diligently they tried to stop their ears. And as they became harder and harder, the greater became their eternal danger. This is also true of you. The longer that you sit at Cornerstone Baptist Church and hear and yet stop your ears to the command of God in Christ to repent and believe the gospel, the harder and harder and harder your heart becomes and the more dangerous, the more dangerous, the more dangerous your position is. This is an eternal danger. If you're still alive, the judgment of God hasn't fallen yet. That is the amazing patience, the glorious patience and forbearance of God, the kindness of God in Christ that should lead you to repentance. God's kindness is revealed in his patience to you. God's kindness is revealed in the preaching of God's word to you. God's kindness is certainly revealed to you in him sending his son. It's the kindness of God that should lead you to repentance. But in contrast to that, these wicked sinners, the children of wrath, look at the amazing, blessed sacrifice of Christ. The amazing, blessed submission to the Father on the part of Christ. The mercy and grace and goodness of Christ in enduring hostility against himself, enduring the shame, suffering hostility from wicked sinners that he came to redeem. The condescension, the love. It is amazing. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. Did God's plan here fail? Did God's plan fail? Was it undermined in some way? No. It's exactly according to plan. It's exactly according to God's plan that all these things should come to pass. Look with me quickly at Romans chapter 11. Can't resist turning there to go through this with you. Romans chapter 11. This is all according to the predetermined plan of God. This is glorious. His redemptive plan. Romans chapter 11. You might ask yourself, when he came to his own, his own treated him that shamefully. Certainly God was going to cast off the people of Israel. Is that what God did? God, despite the wickedness of men, despite the fact that we were all born into this world as children of wrath, as sons of disobedience, God is gloriously merciful. God is gloriously kind. He keeps his promises. He keeps his covenant. And he's going to keep his covenant with the children of Israel. Our God is a mighty, almighty covenant keeping God who keeps his promises. His promises are irrevocable. Look at chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. Look at verse 1. This may be a question that we would have. I say then, Paul asks, has God cast away his people? Certainly not. For I also, Paul says, am in Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. The Lord's promises are based in his foreknowledge of them, his foreloving them, his choosing them. It's according to his own good pleasure that he does these things. He's not going to cast them away. Or do you not know, Paul says, what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets, torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what does the divine response say to Elijah in that circumstance? Listen, I have reserved for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then, at this present time, it is a remnant according to the election of grace. It is the necessity of God's unconditional election that we can rest on for our salvation, is the basis for our salvation. It must be that way. It's God's unconditional election. Election has to be unconditional. Look at the rejection and rebellion of men. Drop down to verse 11. Paul says again, have they stumbled, these children of Israel, these children of wrath, that they should fall? Certainly not. But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. The wisdom of God, the brilliance, the magnificence of this plan, to provoke the children, these children of wrath, to provoke his own people, the children of Israel to jealousy. God opens the Gospel and just the floodgates come pouring and Gentiles coming to faith in Christ, Gentiles being saved. God, in his wisdom, in his plan, provoking the children of Israel to jealousy by saving the Gentiles. Drop down to verse 25. For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Has God done that yet? This is still future. There's a future for Israel because our God is a covenant keeping God. Our God will, as he says, save Israel. He'll turn away iniquity from Jacob. Concerning this Gospel, verse 28, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet now have obtained mercy through their disobedience. Even so, these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all. And Paul just coming to grips with this plan being laid out before him, this glorious redemption, this great salvation that God has provided for, just worships, right? Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. This is not a religion created by man. This is not a religion fabricated in the imagination of men. This is Almighty God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. He goes on to ask, back in John chapter one, verse 11, or back in Romans chapter 11, sorry, they stumbled they should fall, certainly not. You know, despite this sweeping rejection from his own people, there was a remnant of the children of wrath that would receive him. To those who receive him, to them, he gave the right to become children of God. Point two on your notes, we see a portrait then in verses 12 and 13 of the children of God, the children of God. 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. Now, this is a glorious verse, because this is written to you and I. This describes those that by grace, through faith, break against the current of this world and follow Christ. And they're defined here in four ways. They receive him, they are given a right, they believe in his name, and they are born of God. Now in this, in these four points, again, is displayed the perfect balance between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. The first is they receive him. That's man's responsibility. No one goes to heaven who doesn't receive Christ. Right? A man's responsibility to receive him for who he is, for all that he's done. But they're also given the right to become children of God. Given the right by whom? God's sovereignty. God gives them, grants them the right, the authority to become children of God. And then they believe, they believe in his name. That's man's responsibility. No one goes to heaven that doesn't believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and call on him to be saved. They believe, and then lastly, they are born of God. And again, that is God's sovereignty. They are born of God. So let's look at those individually quickly. Verse 12, but as many as received him. That word, Lombano for received there in verse 12, isn't simply acceptance. It is a laying hold of. It's a taking hold of. It's a seize upon. And again, it's emphasizing man's responsibility. It's equivalent to believing in his name. Basically means the same thing. It's not mere intellectual believing. It's a grasping. It's a trusting. And then it's a committing of yourself, a reliance in Christ. The word received there implies both a gift and a giver. The gift is eternal life in our Lord Jesus Christ. The giver is God. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift, as James says. And this gift is a beautiful, free offer. Listen, all the work has already been done. All the work has been complete. When Christ said it is finished on the cross, he meant it. All the work is done. All that is left for you and I is to simply receive that which has been done. By faith, just to receive it by trusting in Christ alone. And you've been saved by grace. Through the vehicle of faith, this receiving of Christ of all that he is, for all that he's done, trusting in him, trusting in him alone to save you. And this receiving, although it points to man's responsibility, listen, is also a gift of God. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14, the Bible says that the natural man, these children of wrath, they don't receive the things of the Spirit of God, they don't receive them for they are foolishness to them nor can they know them because they are spiritually discerned. In order to receive the things of the Spirit of God, the natural man must be given a new nature by God. It points forward to the truth that we'll find in verse 13 that all men, in order to exercise faith, in order to receive him, in order to repent, they must be born again. Secondly, in verse 12, as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. Thank God for the butts in the Bible, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. This word for right would better be translated a privilege or blessing. Luther translates it dignity. It's an honor that God bestows. In verse 12, an honor is bestowed on those that receive him. To receive him is to receive authority or privilege from him. And to receive him is to receive the spirit of adoption by whom we become sons in the household of God by which we cry out Abba Father. To become means a change in status. You become a child of God because you were once sons of disobedience. You were once children of wrath. You were once of your father the devil and now you become children of God. As Ephesians says, you were predestined to be that. Adopted as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. In this granting of privilege, again we see the sovereignty of God in salvation toward dead and blind sinners. It's those that God appoints to eternal life that receive this blessing of privilege. James Montgomery Boyce told a story of Napoleon after a battle once. Napoleon is on his horse in the midst of his men and his horse gets a little out of control. Rears up, almost unseats Napoleon from the horse. So there's a corporal, a corporal standing nearby. The corporal sees this happening, sees Napoleon almost fall off his horse. The corporal jumps up, grabs the bridle of the horse and brings the horse under submission, brings the horse under control. Saves Napoleon from an embarrassing moment falling off his horse. So Napoleon looks down at the corporal and says, thank you captain. Think about it for a moment. What would you do? The corporal doesn't hesitate. He says, of what unit, sire? And Napoleon says, of my guards, captain. So the corporal immediately dropped everything he had, went right over to the officer's barracks and sat with the officers. An officer comes up to him, what are you doing here? I'm here because I'm a captain of the emperor's guard. And so the guy asked him, on whose authority? On the authority of the emperor. We have blessed privilege, blessed honor, blessed dignity in being children of God, and yet oftentimes, don't we Christians, forget their place and live like beggars. Will you, on the testimony of God's word, on the testimony of God's promises to you, turn from your sin, put your faith and trust in Christ, and then assume the glorious blessing that has been laid on you by God Almighty to be children of God. When the Lord says you'll not have sin that will have dominion over you? Do you trust in the promises of God? I'm a child of the kingdom. I'm not going to let this sin have dominion over me. I'm not a slave to my sin any longer. I'm a slave of righteousness. I'm a slave of Christ. When the Lord promises you eternal life, do you take him in his word and believe? And so, believing, purify yourself such that you're not caught up in the trappings of this wicked world? We have blessed privilege. 1 John chapter 3 verse 1, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Don't you just hear in that verse, listen, I was a child of wrath. I didn't know him. I was a child against him. I was a wicked rebel. An enemy of his by my wicked works. And he bestowed on me the blessing of being called a child of God. The glorious, glorious salvation that God has given us. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? Will you lay hold on that? Take it, receive it. Grab the horse by the bridle. And trust Christ. Those privileges, those blessings are yours. Thirdly, they are to those, those gifts of God, to those who believe in his name. John 2031, the purpose for which John is writing. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. The word believing there, present tense participle is referring to a continual believing. A Christian will not cease from believing. A backslider in Scripture is referring to a lost person in apostate. Believing is referring here to saving faith. And although man must exercise saving faith to be saved, it is a gift from God. Saving faith is believing that there is such a person as Christ. And that's not nearly all. Saving faith is believing in all that he said, all that he's done, and that that's true. But that's not nearly all. Saving faith is believing that which leads to trusting him in all things. That's not all. Saving faith is also relying on him in all things. Committing yourself to him in all things. It bears the fruit of following him in all things, obeying him in all things. The demons believe in Christ. So what makes your faith any different than the demons? His name, believing in his name, that name there is more than merely a label. It's representative of the character of Christ. Everything that he is, all that he's done, all that he has revealed himself to be. And lastly, all this is possible because the children of God are born of God. Their children of God are those who receive him. Those who believe in his name. All of those are those who have been born of God. They were born of God and became children of God. They were born of God and they received Christ, they received him. They were born of God and then they believed in his name. They were born of God and then they repented and believed in the gospel. You must be born again. These are not born of blood. Grace doesn't pass from the parents to the children. It's not given based on ethnicity as the Jews thought. Physical descent from Abraham means nothing. You must reproduce Abraham's faith. Heritage, race, family are all irrelevant when it comes to being born again. They're not born of the will of the flesh. The spiritual new birth, salvation does not come as a result of man's decision. It comes as a result of God's decision. It doesn't come by natural processes. Salvation comes by supernatural processes. So for all the intensive children of wrath to take out the miracle power, the life transforming power of the gospel, it stands. It's not a natural process. It is a supernatural process. The Bible says that which is born of flesh is flesh. Flesh cannot change itself. You cannot change your own nature. All of your efforts, your exertions, your strivings to this end are meaningless. You must cry out to God for him to change you. They're not born of the will of man. The will of the natural man is opposed to God. God has, or man has, no Godward will whatsoever apart from being born again. It's not by his own exertion. It's not by the exertion of well-intentioned friends. It's not by the exertion of a sermon of pastor preachers. It's not by someone coming along and zapping you into being saved. It's entirely of God's grace. Man cannot regenerate hearts. When man fell in the garden, he fell all the way to the bottom. He lies there, hopeless, destitute, lost, blind, dead in his sins. Donald Gray Barnhouse talks about those that believe that men are dead, they're lying in the coffin, but they somehow have one arm sticking out of the coffin that's working for it. That's not how it works. That's not what this is talking about. It's not what the Bible teaches. The remedy to this tragedy is the new creation. We must be born again. Jesus told Nicodemus, we're going to get there in John chapter 3, that unless he is born of spirit, of water in the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. It's not a question of only life to him, it's an inability. He is unable, powerless to do anything to save himself. He must be born again. Born of God means a spiritual transformation from top to bottom. Exclusively from above. You were born physically. You had nothing to do with your physical birth. I didn't say to myself, you know what? I want to be born now. I've been in here long enough. I'm ready to be born. I want my name to be Mark. I want my parents to be Mike and Becky. It doesn't happen that way. You don't have anything to do with your physical birth. You're not going to have anything to do with your spiritual birth. It is entirely God's work. God came seeking us. We love him because what? He first loved us. He first loved us. When Adam fell into sin in the garden and hit himself, God came seeking Adam. Adam, where are you? And he's been seeking wicked sinners ever since. To those that receive him. To those that believe in his name. To those that are given the privilege of being a child of God. It's all possible because God, by his spirit, causes them to be born again. Not by their own effort, not by their own decision, but entirely by the sovereign grace of God according to his plan, his good pleasure, his will. Listen. This is so, so important, right? Let's talk about man's responsibility for just a moment. How are you to respond to these biblical truths? How are you to receive him? How do you receive him? Do you pray to receive Christ? The Bible never says that that's how you receive him. Never. Never. No one goes to heaven that doesn't pray. But is that how we're to respond to the gospel? Do we pray to receive him? You know that although that is nowhere in the Bible, that is the most common way that getting saved is described in churches today. You're to pray to receive Christ. Ask Jesus in your heart. It's nowhere in the Bible. Did you know that? Do you believe that? Don't rest your eternity on some prayer that isn't even in the Bible. Don't go back and trust in the sincerity of the prayer that you made to get you saved. You can trust in Christ alone. How does the Bible tell you to respond to this glorious free offer? It's a free offer of salvation in Christ. Does the Bible tell you to clean up your act so that you can be saved? No. Does the Bible say that you have to work to be a good person to be saved? No. Does the Bible simply say to admit that you're a sinner and ask for forgiveness? No. No one goes to heaven that doesn't admit they're a sinner. No one goes to heaven that doesn't ask for forgiveness. But is that clearly the way that we're to respond to these truths? No. The Bible tells you. Christ tells you. Paul tells you. Peter tells you. All the apostles tell you. There may be many in this room who have told you. You are to repent and to believe in the gospel. Sometimes you hear repent alone. It means turn away from your sin. For sake, your sin. Abandon that wicked life you were living. And that means to turn from sin. Sometimes you hear believe in Scripture. Trust in Christ. Rely upon Him alone. Commit to Him. Trust in Him alone. And often in Scripture you hear them both together. There are two sides of the same coin. When you savingly believe in Christ it is a repenting belief. When you repent with that repentance that leads to life like Paul says in 2 Corinthians. It is a believing repentance. You're to repent and believe the gospel. One thing for sure. When the Lord causes you to be born again and grants you, gifts you repentance and faith your life will never be the same. It is a radical transformation of God, of man's heart. A radical transformation of man's nature. Your life will radically change and you will never be the same again. Cry out to God for mercy now. He says now is the time. Today is the day. Turn from your sin. Don't stop crying out until you are certain that you have grace. Keep crying out to God. The patience of God is salvation the Bible says. If you are genuinely saved you are going to see the radical work of grace in your heart. You will see the radical work of grace in your life. You will bear fruits and the Lord will confirm it. Allow the Lord to confirm it. You don't want to believe that you are saved because you picked up some worldly wise method of being saved. You want to have assurance of your salvation because the Lord has granted it to you because of the evidence that the Lord by His grace, by His Spirit has produced in your life. Don't you want that? God will make you a new creation in Christ. It is an awesome thought. We want to be in Christ worshiping with Him in heaven forever. Amen. Let's take a few moments. I want you to bow your heads and let's pray silently for just a second for God to apply the truths that He's taught us in this passage to our hearts. Just ask that He would do that, okay? Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you Lord for Christ. Thank you for the miracle of new birth. God, thank you for changing our heart, changing our nature, giving us new wants, new desires, new appetites. We're thank you for granting us a hungry and a thirsting for righteousness. Thank you Lord for opening our eyes to see the preciousness of Christ. We might believe on Him and Him alone to save us from sin, from the wrath of God. Thank you Lord for the great salvation that you've provided for. It is amazing in our eyes. Lord, I pray save lost sinners for your glory. Lord, grant them repentance and faith and cause them, Lord by your spirit to worship you for all eternity. Thank you Lord for this time together. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.