The sermon by Scott Brown focuses on John 1:6-13, highlighting the mission of John the Baptist as one sent from God to bear witness to the light, which is Jesus Christ. John the Baptist's role is emphasized as pivotal in announcing the coming of Christ and urging people to believe in Him. The sermon underscores the importance of belief in Jesus as the Son of God for salvation, pointing out that this belief leads to becoming children of God. It outlines three key aspects of salvation: receiving, believing, and being born of God, not through human will but through God's will. The sermon also draws parallels between John the Baptist's mission and the Great Commission given to believers, encouraging Christians to be witnesses of Christ. It discusses the rejection of Jesus by the world He created and contrasts it with those who accept Him and become God's children. The message is a call to embrace a life focused on bearing witness to Christ, finding satisfaction in this divine purpose.

The sermon text is John 1, verses 6-13. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

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 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. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for this day.

Thank you for this good word. We know that these good words come directly from you, that they were breathed by your breath. We thank you for the testimony of John, but more so we thank you that the light came into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that we have received him, that you gave us the right to become children of God. Lord, not by our will, but by your will.

Lord, help us to really ponder these words as Pastor Brown comes and preaches the sermon. Lord, give us help by your Spirit to really understand these words. Lord, that you might strengthen us today. In Christ's name we pray, amen. It's hard to conceive of a more beautiful and powerful way to end a year than to end it in the prologue of the Gospel of John.

We have this privilege of being able to end the year with a roar, roaring into the great majestic vision of Jesus Christ that John communicates there in the prologue of the gospel of John. We're going to end up having spent the last three weeks of December in the prologue, and I think that's such a blessing that the Lord has allowed that. And so we're continuing our study here in the prologue. We're in the middle section of the prologue, which consists in the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John. And we've covered this matter, and we'll be covering this matter of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us here.

And these verses, these first 18 verses, take us into the depths of the glory of the coming of the Son of God and the various elements that God arranged to bring him into the world. And this explanation here in the prologue as well as the rest of the gospel of John, has been written for a very specific purpose. And that is stated in John chapter 20 verse 31, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that in believing you might have life in His name. So this is the purpose of all of this. And in the first part of the prologue, verses one through five, we covered in our last session, and we saw the Word of God in eternity, and who Jesus is, and where He came from.

And in that session, I wanted to communicate that there are many reasons to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and and we gave we gave six of those reasons I'm going to continue with number seven and number eight and number nine in this next section in the prologue. And so in the first section of the prologue, verses one through five, we have reason to believe, we ought to believe in Him because of His eternity. And Secondly, because of the communion that the Son has with the Father, the Son loves the Father and is inclined toward His Father. The third reason is because of the deity of His Son. The fourth reason is because of the creative power of the Son.

All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. And then fifthly, the life giving presence of the sun. In him was life, and the light, life, in him was light, and the light was the life of men. And then the constant shining of that light, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness the darkness can't comprehend it the darkness can't snuff it out and Then now as we come to the sixth verse I plan to just extend this list and John is giving us more and more reasons to believe, and he's explaining how God sent a man to announce the light that comes into the world. He's the forerunner.

And we also find the rejection and the reception of Jesus Christ in the world in this section. And, but we find as the central personality of this section, a man, the man sent from God whose name was John the Baptist. And God sends this man to bear witness. And we'll find that he always does that. And he's doing that today.

And by the way, he's doing that with his people now. He sends us to bear witness of the light, to point to the light. And so as you can see in your outline there are three more reasons to believe. You know what would it take for you to believe? What would you have to see to believe?

You know maybe you've heard it all but what what would it take for you to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and to have life in His name? Well these questions are being answered here in the gospel of John. So these next three reasons, reason number seven, the man sent from God to bear witness of the Son. The eighth reason, the world, which did not receive the Son. And ninth, the children who received the Son.

So as you can see, there's been an abrupt change in the focus in the prologue from verse five to six. And the change is from Jesus Christ to the forerunner to the witness, John the Baptist. So the focus has shifted in this introduction to the gospel of John. And so we find in verses 6 through 9, we find this disclosure of the man sent from God. There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. Now, notice there is very carefully crafted language here. He is a man sent from God. He is the man sent from God to break the 400 year silence since the last prophet. Malachi spoke in the Old Testament.

Interestingly enough, the Lord had our church ending with the last prophet in the Old Testament, with the last narrative, the last snapshot of the Old Testament narrative. And now we're in the first snapshot with John here in the days of the New Covenant. And John was sent from God for a very specific task appointed by God. Now, there's much that we could say about John. We're going to constrain ourselves to what is said here in this text because we're not done with John.

The Apostle John in the gospel is going to speak about John even more in two weeks We'll be speaking about John again, and then in chapter 3 we'll learn more about John I'm not planning to exhaust everything about the God about John the Baptist in this message going to try to focus here on him. But John was a bold man. He was very much like John Knox who did not fear the face of man. And He spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ, and there was a prophecy that he would turn many from sin. He was born about six months before the Lord Jesus Christ, and his father was named Zacharias, who had a wife named Elizabeth, as Zacharias was a priest in the temple.

And John began preaching at about the age of 30 in the wilderness. He was wearing camel's hair and a leather belt and he ate locusts and honey. What healthier food can you even think about? And he was baptized by Jesus. He called his generation a generation of vipers.

He rebukes Herod for marrying and stealing his brother's wife. He's sent to prison and during a birthday party for Herod, Herodias asked for John the Baptist's head and John the Baptist is beheaded in prison. And his earthly life has ended. Now, our text this morning bears witness to what how these things happened and I'd like to take us there and If you could open up your Bibles to Luke chapter 1, I'm going to just skim over Luke chapter 1, one of the most glorious and one of the longest chapters in the Bible. But we're going to hit some particular points because when we read these words, there was a man sent from God whose name was John there's much behind that that we learn in the gospel of Luke and an angel sent from God comes to tell Zacharias that he is that they are going to have a son who would herald the Messiah.

Now his coming was prophesied in Isaiah chapter 40. We'll get to that in a few weeks because that is quoted. John quotes it. We'll go into that in detail. You who are with us when we preach through the book of Isaiah will maybe remember some of those things.

In Malachi chapter 3 and 4 also prophesies the coming of Elijah, this man, John. But these words, whose name was John, now his name is meaningful and it possesses a significant place in the narrative of the opening of the gospel in Luke. John means Jehovah has been gracious. And John had a unique feature of his life. God chose his name and communicated his name by an angel.

And it's a remarkable thing that we find here in Luke chapter 1. The whole story is here. The angels are very active at the time of the birth of Jesus and the birth of John, and the angel Gabriel both appears to to John's father and to, of course, Mary and Joseph. And so in Luke 1 we read the story of a priest Zacharias who has a wife Elizabeth and she's barren they're older they're advanced in years as it says in verse seven and Zacharias is doing his job in the temple and he's burning incense and the Lord appears to him in the form of an angel while he's burning this incense and he and fear falls upon him and in verse 13, I'd like you to look at that, Luke 1 13, where John's name is announced and we read, but the angel said to him, do not be afraid Zacharias, for your prayer is heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John." So when the Apostle John writes, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. There's a big story behind that.

An angel appeared to this couple and gave them the name of their son John who would be John the Baptist and then in verse 14 the angel says and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall neither drink wine nor strong drink he will also be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." So this angel describes this son, John, who is going to be born and who will be named John because of the will of the Lord and then and then Zechariah asks the angel how is this gonna happen I'm an old man and my wife also is she also has gray hair and the angel answers and and says to him I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings but behold and this is the most remarkable part of the story you will be mute you will no longer be able to talk because because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in my own time.

Zacharias just didn't believe it. And so the angel announces that he will now become mute. And then Christ's birth is announced to Mary. The story shifts in verse 26, and the angel Gabriel goes to Mary and into Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name is Joseph of the house of David. So the story shifts in Luke 1 and then Mary visits Elizabeth and there's that amazing moment where Mary and Elizabeth meet and they both have babies in their womb And the baby, John the Baptist, leaps in the womb of Elizabeth when he is near Jesus in his mother's womb.

And then Mary breaks out into a song that begins, my soul magnifies the Lord. And then in verse 57 in Luke 1, we read that Elizabeth finally gives birth to this son. And the neighbors and the relatives are rejoicing with her and then it comes time after eight days to circumcise John and everybody and at the time of circumcision that's when the name comes out but guess what Zacharias can't talk And so his mother gives the name and, and the, And then she gives the name and the people are saying, nobody in your family's ever been named John. Why are you naming them John? And so they're scratching around and find something to write on.

And Zacharias writes, his name is John. Okay. So it's sealed. And there, then at the moment that he writes his name is John then immediately his mouth was opened and he spoke and he started praising God and the people were astonished and they wondered what kind of a child will this be and it says that the hand of the Lord was upon him. Now finally Zacharias prophesies and he begins to prophesy in verse 67, if you're following with me, in your Bibles.

He was filled with the Holy Spirit and he was prophesying and he had much to say, but if we skip down into the prophecy, we read about John the Baptist specifically, verse 76, and you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God with which the day spring from on high has visited us to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. And then we skipped a verse 80. So the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel so that There was a man sent from God whose name was John. And now you know the rest of the story. But John's mission in life is stated in the very next verse, verse 7.

This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. So this is a declaration of John's mission. We have understood how he was born and how he was named and that he was prophesied in the Old Testament, but now we get a sense of his mission. Now, John, in many ways, had a simple life, and That should instruct us about the simplicity of life for those who are used of God. He had a very simple life.

He was a witness. This was the one thing that characterized his life. And this was the heart of his whole being. He desired that he desired to point to Jesus Christ so that people would believe and experience the freedom from sin. He was a witness.

You see that word witness. This is a legal term. Children, do you know what a witness is? Do you know what a witness is? Well a witness is someone who states a fact about somebody else.

That's what a witness is. And it's a word that comes out of the courtroom where, you know, in the courtroom you have someone who testifies, who says something about someone else or something else. A witness points to someone and says, this is what they're all about. That's what a witness is. A witness points to someone and and this this really is the summary of John's simple life you you can You can sum up John's life with this word witness, and you can also sum it up with another word that's like it.

Behold. Remember what he said when he saw Jesus? Behold. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John's life was simple.

It was, look, behold, observe Him, look at who He is. He is a pointer. John's whole life was so simple that he wanted to decrease and he wanted Jesus to increase. This was his life. It was a simple life of pointing to Jesus Christ.

And he wanted to point to the Lamb of God, the substitute by whose stripes we are healed. He wanted to point to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, who has borne all the punishment for the sins of sinners. The one who has taken the wrath of God that we deserved upon himself. John wanted to point to him. He had a simple life.

Don't ever be afraid of a simple life like that. If there's one thing that you can do in your life, that would be the most important thing to do. Everything else is shadows and glitter. But to be a witness of the light is what John was all about. And he had a purpose and it's clearly defined in this verse.

Do you see it? His objective that all through him might believe. This was God's objective through John's life, that all through him might believe. Now we encounter this word believe now in this verse. It's repeated 98 times in the gospel of John.

This word belief, believing, believe is central to John's message and it's different. In Mark this word appears 11 times, in Matthew it appears 14 times, in Luke it appears nine times, in John it appears 98 times because John is the gospel of belief and and so this word is very critical interestingly enough to in the prologue are are uttered some of the most significant words in all of the Gospel of John, just by way of a rabbit trail here. The word life, the word light, the word witness, the word world or cosmos, truth, glory, father, All these words are loaded into the first 14 verses of the gospel of John, and John will continue to elaborate and comment and do exposition on those words as he goes through. But here, John is doing what he does that all through him might believe. And then in verse 8, we are told, he was not that light, in other words, not that light, Jesus Christ, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

This was the focus of his life, was to speak of, to point to, to bear witness of light, the light of the world, which is Jesus Christ and Him alone. And you know, John was enormously gifted. People were flocking to him, but John wants us to understand that he's not that light. He's not the light. He's just bearing witness of the light.

And then in verse 9, it's stated that Jesus is the true light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. You have this term here, true, true light. Now this is also something else that the gospel writers use, this word true. In chapter four, John talks about true worshipers.

In John chapter six, He talks about the true bread, the true bread from heaven. In chapter 15 he talks about the true vine and in chapter 17 he talks about the only true God. But here, he's talking about the true light. There are things that are true, and then there are shadows in this world. And this is the true light communicating that the light of Jesus Christ is is the genuine and ultimate light of the world.

It doesn't mean necessarily a real light, but it means something that is so far different than real light. We have lights here in this room. They are not the true light. They really are the shadows that point to the true light. Every light is a lesser light, but Jesus is the true light to every man coming in to the world.

Now what does that mean? That he is the true light to every man coming into the world. Now it can be a confusing statement. It certainly can't mean that every man is converted and comes to the light. That can't be true because there's so much in Scripture that contradicts that.

But there are two ways that it could be understood. First, for those who have been renewed, it could mean that. And second, those who in every place where God has shined his light in every place. And while both of these are true, I think John is referring to the universal impact of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the light of the world. When he came into the world, something was brought into the world that never existed in that very same way.

In the Old Testament, we had the shadows of Jesus Christ. We had the types of Jesus Christ. But when Jesus Christ was born and began to minister, we saw his light in a completely different and better way. And his coming affected everything in this world. We know that we have the light of the image of God upon us and so we have a conscience.

We have a sense of right and wrong. This also is part of the light of Jesus Christ, but I'm not sure that's the extent of it here. I think what John is saying is that his light is inescapable in the world, that God has revealed his light in ways that we are without excuse. But particularly when Jesus Christ came into the world the light was shining in the darkness when Jesus came and After that everything changed in the world all laws were seen differently all Governments were seen differently all human institutions were seen differently Jesus Christ has had a profound effect of everything in this world by different degrees in different places, but he is inescapable. The light shines in the darkness.

The darkness does not overcome it. The darkness, the darkness cannot comprehend it in that sense. And this is the blessing of Jesus in the world, is that he came into the world and everything has changed since then. And no one has been able to get, The world has not been able to get over the gracious words that fell from the lips of Jesus. They haven't been able to get over the manifestations of his grace and his truth that are communicated and when he spoke they said no man ever spoke like this everything changed when Jesus Christ came and and that's why Jesus himself said I am the light of the world.

He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Jesus Christ came. And so here we find ourselves dealing with John the Baptist. Now the importance of John the Baptist I think comes from one summary statement in Matthew 11. Before we leave John the Baptist And what is said here and begin to apply this in Matthew 11 the Lord Jesus Christ said of John the Baptist Verily I say unto you among them that are born of women there had not risen a greater than John the Baptist There is none greater than he So John was a remarkable and a significant person.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. Now we're not finished with John. We're going to continue with him. But let's apply this. How do we think about ourselves and our ways in this world in light of John the Baptist?

And the first thing I'd like to say is that the Bible makes it very clear that we are witnesses of Jesus Christ, very much in the same way that John was. In Acts chapter 1 verse 8, the Lord says to his disciples, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in by his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." Jesus Christ himself gave the very same ministry of John the Baptist to his disciples. And he said, you, now you will be my witnesses. And this is the essence of the Great Commission, where the Lord Jesus Christ says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." All this to say, we are commissioned as witnesses in a very similar way that John the Baptist was commissioned by God as a witness.

So when you read There was a man sent from God whose name was John. You can also say There was a boy sent from God. There was a girl. There was a woman There was a man sent from God and you can put your own name in there and you can know why you are alive you can know what is the most significant thing you can do with your life and that is to point to Jesus Christ and you know we're all so worried about why we're on this earth and do we have significance? You know, what's the meaning of my life?

And you look at your family and you look at your community and you wonder, you know, what's the significance of my life? Who am I? What is my passion? Why am I on this world? Why was I born?

You know, what is my greatest concern? And what we find here in John, chapter one, verses six through nine, is we have what is meant to be the heart of every believer. What is at the heart of the passion of every person that God makes in his image, and that is to be a witness. And you know, while we don't have the exact same ministry of John, We have the same commission that John was given. And here's the question.

Is that enough for you? Is that enough for me? Is that enough for this church that we would bear witness of the light? Is that enough? Like if you were, if you were, say, just a boy, but you were a witness of the light is that enough or if you're a mom and your whole life is caught up in raising your children and and preparing your household and making it a making it a wonderful place with all the cleaning and cooking Is it enough to be a witness?

Would that be enough for you? Or if you're a man in this world and you have all these great and mighty dreams about how what your life might come to, is it enough? Is it enough for you? Is that, is it possible that you would be satisfied with one irreducible principle in your life that you were witness that you pointed to Jesus Christ that all your life all you really cared about was he must increase but I must decrease on your lips every day was behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world would you be satisfied with a life that like that or do you want something more do you want something more significant do you want something greater something that would exalt you even more. Well that's usually our problem, is that we want to be exalted so much that we find ourselves possessed, not by becoming a witness, but by caring for our own selves.

But if you're a worker or a mother or a child, is it enough? Is it big enough for you? And so we shift from John to verses 10 and 11 where we find the world. The world did not receive the light. John was bearing witness of the light and now we learn that the world was rejecting the light.

And so in verse 10 we read, 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 did not receive him. So we find this marvelous vision, mission of John to be a witness, to say, behold, the Lamb of God. And then he goes into a world that doesn't behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And it's interesting it says that he made the world but the world did not receive him.

And it's The language here is very interesting. It says, He came into His own, and His own did not receive Him. But if you read it in the Greek language, you'll notice that the word own is different in these two places. When we read, He came into His own, the first instance of His own, it's in the neuter, meaning that He came into His own things. He came into his own things that he made.

He made the world, he made all the people, he made everything in the world. He came to the things in the world, the rocks and the trees and and the animals. He came into his own things, the stuff that he made. This is in the neuter. But then, then he says, but his own did not receive him.

And here in the second instance, he uses the masculine form, meaning people. He came into his own people. So not only did he come into his own world, the things that he made, he came among the people that he made, and his own people did not know him. And he, I think, primarily is speaking to his own people, the Jewish people, the people of Israel who had had the prophets, who had everything that they needed really to know Jesus Christ. But they didn't welcome him, and they were dead to him.

So when John was pointing to the Lamb of God, people were dead to him. And this just shows the depth of the fall. The light was shining, but it wasn't received. Now, when you think about the life of Jesus, only three years long, and he was constantly healing the sick, he was raising the dead, he was casting out demons, He was saying the most unforgettable, remarkable, disturbing, fantastic, beautiful things that have ever been said. And yet people were dead to him.

And the light was not received. And that's why the Lord Jesus in chapter three of John, we read these words, and this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed but he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. And here you find the reason, the secret for why the light comes into the world but people do not flock to the light. It's because of the love of darkness.

This is why. This is why the gospel is rejected. You might get five different reasons why the gospel is rejected by somebody, but this is the reason. This is the reason. Men love the darkness rather than the light.

That is the bottom line of it all. It cuts through all the subterfuge, all the excuses, all the self congratulating intellectual arguments, and it takes you right to the exact reason why people reject the light is because their deeds are evil and they they don't want to be relieved of their evil deeds, they want to continue with them. But with John the Baptist, they came and they repented and they confessed their sins. They wanted relief and they got it. And you know, the people in this world are averse to bad news.

They melt with bad news. And the gospel does bring the bad news of our fallen nature and the deeds that need to be turned away from he this is what the gospel brings that bad news I think it was Reinhold Niebuhr he summer summarized liberalism with these words a God without wrath brought men without sin to a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross. This is the heart of the problem. Men love the darkness and they cannot tolerate the bad news of their nature and their need for Jesus Christ. It says here very specifically, they did not know him, and secondly, they did not receive him.

They did not know him, and they did not receive him. And this should just cause everyone to ask the question, do I know him and have I received him? Do I know him and have I received him? And so here we find the world which did not receive the sun. What would it take?

What would it take for you to believe? Here the Bible tells you that the world will not, did not receive the sun. Does that describe the world as it really is? Absolutely, it does. The Bible tells the truth about everything.

And then the ninth reason to believe here is the children who received the light, verses 12 and 13. 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 these golden verses explain how you become a Christian. It makes it very clear how and who. And who is it? God.

God is responsible for it. That's really the bottom line of it. But they explain how a person becomes a child of God. How to be saved is described in three ways, and I'll take them one by one. There are three ways to understand salvation, three ways to be saved.

First, you receive, and you believe, and you are born. Those three things. Those three things, they're not placed in any order. They're just, they are the stuff of salvation. And so the first way you understand how to be saved is that you receive as many as received him.

What does it mean to receive? It means to join with. It means to bond with. It means to acknowledge the truthfulness, to accept it, to receive it with your whole heart, to acknowledge it and to embrace it and bond with it and join with it. You have received him when you have embraced him.

You have received him when you have embraced him you have received him when you desire him you've received him when you affirm the truth of what he has said That's receiving. How do you know? How do you know If you are a child of God, well you you receive But then he speaks of a second way you believe You believe who believe in his name. What does it mean to believe? It doesn't mean believing in facts about Jesus.

It doesn't mean believing facts about God. It doesn't mean embracing facts about the Bible. There are many people who embrace basic facts, but who are not truly children of God. So he's not speaking of facts. It does require the belief in the facts, but the facts aren't the primary basis of salvation.

So he's not speaking of intellectual assent like, yes I believe Jesus came, he came, you know Joseph, Mary, I believe all that stuff, the wise men, I believe all that stuff. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about yielding to him, allegiance to him, trusting in him, loving him. James says that even the demons believe the facts and they shudder. So this is different.

This is an entering in to him. It's believing to such a degree that you trust what he says and you want to do what he says because you actually believe that it's true. Now you will struggle with doing what he says, you'll think yourself so poor at it. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the person who's in his heart of hearts, desires to rest his entire weight on what Jesus said and upon his person.

And then there is the third way to understand how you are saved. You are born. Who were, to them, he gave the right to become children of God. To become a child is to be born. And so he speaks of this matter, those who were born, literally, in this verse.

Those who were given a life. And he's, this is the first time that John speaks of the matter of being born again, because he's going to talk about it in detail when he has a conversation with Nicodemus in John chapter 3. But birth is really the perfect analogy, because in birth there are several things that happen first of all you don't choose your parents birth happens to you because of someone else's actions and the believer, the believer is different in terms of birth compared to the unbeliever. The believer is born twice and dies twice. The unbeliever is born once and dies once.

The believer is born and then he is born again. The believer dies to sin and then his body dies. And that's the difference between a believer and an unbeliever. And then John explains even more that we're born not of blood. In other words, a person is not a child of God because of their family or their parents or their heritage.

In the kingdom of Jesus Christ, your bloodline doesn't mean anything. It's the blood of Jesus Christ that means everything. And, this is the opposite of the caste system and your background does not determine your future in the kingdom of God. Your blood that runs in your veins doesn't determine anything about your future. There is only one thing that determines your future, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ.

So we are not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man. I think the will of the flesh and the will of man, it sounds like the same thing to me. But I think he's talking about, I think, the impulse that we have to want to change and you know does trying hard to change doesn't save the soul desiring to be saved doesn't save it's not something that's accomplished because because you've just cranked up a big desire. And this, I think, bears witness to the whole doctrine of election. And what James says in chapter 1 verse 18 of his own will He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures There's this idea that you can be saved if you just desire it enough, if you just cry out for it enough.

Well, how much is enough? It will never be enough because you're born of God, not of the will of the flesh and not even by your own will. And this is the doctrine, not of self-improvement. It's not the doctrine of resolving and turning over a new leaf. He says, but of God.

Born not of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God. Salvation comes as a result of the power of God that causes a person to receive him, that causes a person to believe in him, which causes a person to be born again, to be born twice and to die twice. So these are three reasons to believe. The man sent from God to bear witness of the Son, that's a reason to believe. And then the world which did not receive the Son, that's another reason to believe.

You know the Bible is true because this is the way it is in the world. And the third reason to believe is that the children who received the Son. So I want to just end with some applications, some final thoughts. And the first is this, are you satisfied with just being a witness? Just being a witness, No matter where you are, whether you're up or you're down in your job, whether your boss is pushing you up or pushing you down, whether you're a mom, wherever you are, are you satisfied with this irreducible calling to be a witness, to point to Jesus Christ.

Is that enough for you? I hope that somehow God would help us as a people to find ourselves in a place where that really is enough. Like when a mother gets up in the morning, it's enough. When a father gets up in the morning, it's enough. When a man gets up and goes to work, it's enough that he is a pointer to Jesus Christ.

And that if he did that, he would live and die not in vain. How do you die in vain? You die in vain when this is not enough. You know, if you died at a young age, like John, at age 30, would it have been enough to just be a person who said behold, the Lamb of God? And then the second question is, have you received him?

Have you believed? Are you born again? That's probably the most important question in the text here in the midst of all the amazing things that are here. You know, this week as I was studying this, I discovered that John Bunyan preached his very last sermon on John 1-13, the text we just went through. He, and it was, the year was 1688, and he preached the sermon just before he fell ill with the sickness that would finally kill him just a few days later he preached this last sermon and then he died what happened is that he He went on a three-day journey to go meet with a father and son who were disowning one another, and he wanted to be an instrument in the hand of God to bring them back together.

And he did that, and it was after a successful meeting, he started driving, riding home, but the rain was driving and cold and and and it in the the energy reduction and everything of that experience through him into a sickness And he didn't make it all the way home. He stopped at a friend's house still two days away from his home. And there he lay ill after he had preached that sermon. And so he died in that house, two days journey from his wife and his family. And in this sermon, he speaks of what it means to be born again.

And I was struck by that sermon. And what he said in the sermon is that you can't be born of blood because of your godly parents or of the will of the flesh. And he talks about The fact that even the wicked often really cry out to God to be saved and they they do they're like Esau They're like they're like many in the Bible like like Judas But the will of the flesh does not save and he quoted John 9 16 it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy so one should cry out to God Oh Oh Lord Jesus Christ save my soul cry out to him It's appropriate to do that because only God Can save the soul And he compared in his sermon being born again to being born in natural birth with a mother. And what he said was when a baby comes out, what's the first thing a baby does? A baby cries and he says That's what a believer does.

A baby cries out, a baby cries out. He says that Christians are the crying ones. We cry out like the Philippian jailer who said, men and brethren, What must I do to be saved? So in order to be saved, one must cry out. One does cry out to be saved.

And then he speaks of how a baby longs for its mother's milk and how a baby can't live without its mother's milk. And he says the unbeliever doesn't want the pure milk of the Word, any more than a horse wants the milk of a mother. But a true Christian wants the milk. They want the Word of God. And he says you can test yourself by that.

And then he says that that a true child of God is warmed by the promises of God and delights to sit at the feet of Jesus. And he says that the person who delights to sit at the feet of Jesus is like a child in a family who becomes like his father and mother. It happens, doesn't it? You know, children tend to walk and talk like their parents. And they begin to walk like Jesus, and they begin to talk like Jesus, and they learn the customs of their father's house, and they want the customs of their father's house to regulate their lives.

That's what a child does, and that's what a child of God does. A child of God wants the customs of his father's house to be his customs and to be regulated by that. And then he says finally children depend on their parents for what they need and want and they ask them and Bunyan says there in his very last sermon he says if a child wants shoes he asks his father for shoes and they if they want bread they go and they tell him and that's what they should do and he ends his sermon by saying do you want spiritual bread go to your father and ask him do you want grace ask it of god Do you want strength from Satan's temptations? Ask it of God. And so Bunyan ends the very last sermon on this matter of those who are born not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God.

And I think that's the heart of the message of John the Baptist. We'll get more about John the Baptist later on. But in this section we learn that there was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. And so here we are on a Sabbath day, a day really dedicated to doing that.

God has assigned a day to delight in everything that belongs to him and to speak of it, to speak of it all day long. And so I pray that God would give us a great day of bearing witness to the light in all that we do and say today Would you pray with me? Lord I pray that you would you would come and and Give such a turn in our hearts so that it would be enough if all we ever were in this world was a witness, regardless of our station, regardless of our hardships or difficulties or our reputations, but that we would really care about the one thing that John cared about, to be a witness that all might believe through Jesus Christ. Amen.