<\/p>\n
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>who\u00a0were born,\u00a0not of blood\u00a0nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:13<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As we narrow in on verse 13 this afternoon, I want us to consider how God\u2019s children are born. Now, on the one hand it is a bit of a spiritual mystery, and we will see more about the new birth when we get to chapter 3. But in regard to how God\u2019s children are born, verse 13 tells how by telling us 3 ways God\u2019s children are not born, and then simply stating the source of their birth. We will consider those today.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
God\u2019s Children are Born Not by Blood<\/b><\/p>\n
This I take the evangelist to mean that one is not made a child of God merely by being born an ethnic Jew. There is one way of salvation and it is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Many Jews rejected Christ thus proving their ethnicity not enough to make them born a child of God. Of course, there is no ethnic person who is a child of God by virtue of their ethnicity, whatever it may be.<\/p>\n
Nor by the Will of the Flesh<\/p>\n
The desire to be a Christian is not a natural desire within man, nor does man have the natural ability to make himself a child of God.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There is an insane obsession with free will among many today. The problem with most of the conversation surrounding this issue is that the term free will is not defined biblically and it is primarily concerned with man\u2019s free will over God\u2019s free will. No one seems to care about God\u2019s free will. Why is that? So often in seeking to preserve and elevate the perceived free will of man, we end up trampling over God\u2019s free will. We do not honor God when we limit His freedom by preserving man\u2019s freedom. Have we forgotten that He is the Creator, and we are but mere creatures? Have we forgotten that He is the Potter and we are the clay?<\/span><\/p>\n
Biblically, the human will is free to act according to its nature. The nature of man is dead in trespasses and sins. Therefore the will is free to sin – but it is powerless to be Spiritual or godly – we need new natures for that. Which is what we are made in Christ – new creatures (See\u00a0<\/span>Ephesians 2:1-3, 4-10 and<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>2 Corinthians 5:17-18).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
Being born of God is an act of sovereign grace according to God\u2019s free will to save. Man\u2019s free will will not will to save him – God\u2019s free will is the only will that wills to save. <\/span><\/p>\n
Consider the language of being \u201cborn of God.\u201d No one chooses or wills to be born – it just happens to them. Or a better way to put it: no one can will themselves to be born – it just happens to them. Now, being born of God doesn\u2019t just happen to us, it is willed by God, and we express repentance of sin and faith in Christ – but the point is that we can\u2019t and don\u2019t want to will that into existence according to our flesh. It takes God. This verse could not be more clear that we do not become Christians by our own will. Now, this is not to be viewed as a negative thing – but a wonderful thing. If it were up to my free will to be saved, I would never be saved. But since God wills my salvation, I know it will happen! Praise God! If we\u2019re honest with ourselves and we look at the blackness in the depths of our hearts apart from the sovereign grace of God, then these verses ought to leap off the pages with joy to our eyes – it\u2019s not dependent on me and my will but God\u2019s! Amen!<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nor by the Will of Man<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During the time of the middle ages, the practice of indulgences by the Roman Catholic church radically developed. In short, the practice of indulgences at that time was the practice of paying the Roman Catholic church for forgiveness of sins, if you showed true penitence. By the time of Martin Luther the practice had so developed that you could purchase indulgences for dead relatives who were said to may have been suffering in purgatory, purgatory of course being a staple of Roman Catholicism, especially at that time. So it was said you could purchase indulgences to free your relatives from purgatory. Before Martin Luther was converted, he actually did this for his dead grandfather who he feared was experiencing great sorrows in purgatory. Obviously, as you can see, this was a money machine for the Roman Catholic church, and it absolutely kept people in bondage. After Martin Luther\u2019s conversion, and when he began writing against Rome, this is one of the main topics that he confronted. In fact, there was a particular person, who sold indulgences that Luther confronted, named Johannes Tetzel. Tetzel is attributed as saying \u201cAs soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.\u201d He would go around saying this jingle, if you will, while selling indulgences. It likely wasn\u2019t original to him, many others probably said similar things – but it just shows the abusive practice of the day.<\/span><\/p>\n
But we are born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God! Another man can\u2019t do it for you – only the God-man. The price has been paid and the price was His blood and righteousness.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Only by being born of God is one made a child of God<\/b><\/p>\n
It is an act of Sovereign Grace. When a person is born of God, it is not merely a human event, it is not a human decision or a work of the flesh – it is a miraculous divine act. It is the activity of God! It is a thing that is brought about by God! Not only is it a divine act of God, it is a divine act of grace. When God makes us alive together with Christ it is not something that we earned, it is not something that is owed to us, it is not something that we were asking for, but it is a free gift of God\u2019s grace that He freely bestows upon undeserving sinners. Why in the world would we want to remove the sovereign grace of God from the equation, and make conversion a man-made event. I don\u2019t want to do that – I know my heart! It\u2019s a work of God alone – let\u2019s attribute praise, honor, and glory where it is due, and quit thieving the credit that is God\u2019s. It is such good news that it is God and God alone who saves. We are born of God, not of man. If I had to preach that man could be born again by the will of the flesh, I\u2019d have nothing to preach, I\u2019d go off and do something else. But I get to preach the work of God – and the work of His Sovereign Grace! Now that is something to preach! That is something to gather every Sunday around and celebrate! That is something bigger than us! I love the simple truth that God is God and we are not! He has condescended to sinners like us, and HE saves us.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The fact of the matter is that as sinners we need someone outside of ourselves to do what we cannot do ourselves – namely give us the new birth. And the good news of the gospel is that the only one who is able to do that for us, does! The Lord Jesus Christ – God in flesh – the only suitable Savior does for us what we could not do for ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n
In John 3 Jesus says that if we would enter the Kingdom of Heaven we must be born again. Well how do we do that? That\u2019s not something we can do to ourselves. That\u2019s where the good news of the gospel comes in – we are born of God! God does it! God demands the new birth? God gives the new birth! What a reason to celebrate! What a reason to sing! What a reason to preach the gospel!<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Being born of God is an act that glorifies God alone and removes human boasting<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Again, Ephesians 2:8-9, \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It gives confidence in evangelism and in the discipling of our children – we don\u2019t have to be the perfect parent and always say and do the perfect thing, or else it\u2019s our fault if our kids fall away – no, God will do it. Do you ever worry about saying and doing the right thing for your kids – does fear of making mistakes paralyze your discipling of your children? Let it be no more. The sovereign grace of God frees us to go forth and obey boldly, without fear of messing up. God can overcome our parental mess ups. Isn\u2019t that good news?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Martin Luther said that we ought to \u201csin boldly.\u201d Now, he wasn\u2019t saying that we ought to just go out headlong into sin and be abusers of the grace of God. He was saying that we ought to go forth and act for God and obey God with boldness, without fear of sinning, in fact knowing we are going to mess up and sin in our strivings toward obedience, but that the sovereign grace of God covers us.<\/span><\/p>\n
If our children\u2019s salvation depended upon our perfect gospel presentation, and perfect guidance and perfect parenting, then that would paralyze us. We wouldn\u2019t do it because we\u2019d be afraid to mess us – we know we would. But you see, it\u2019s not dependent on man, but it is dependent on God who gives mercy. Therefore, that actually frees us to boldly obey knowing full well we are going to mess up.<\/span><\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n
Being born of God is just that – an act of God. How do you know you are born of God? Verse 12 shows us the main way: You will receive the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in His name. That\u2019s why we say \u201cbelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.\u201d That\u2019s why we go out and preach the gospel and call sinners to repent and look to Christ for forgiveness – because God works through the means of the preaching of the gospel to give the new birth and convert sinners – and the sinner expresses that in repentance and faith in Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n
So I ask you today: have you been born of God? Do you believe in the name of Jesus Christ?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
13\u00a0who\u00a0were born,\u00a0not of blood\u00a0nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:13 Introduction As we narrow in on verse 13 this afternoon, I want us to consider how God\u2019s children are born. Now, on the one hand it is a bit of a spiritual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":685,"featured_media":3735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,25,27,30,32],"tags":[48,114,173,205,208,222,249,268,271,272,274,277,281,389,521,557,558,567,619,625,678,679,687,699,861,867,1031,1105,1114,1144,1167,1226,1305,1348],"class_list":{"0":"post-3734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"category-faith","9":"category-gospel","10":"category-preaching","11":"category-theology","12":"tag-48","13":"tag-again","14":"tag-baptist","15":"tag-bible","16":"tag-birth","17":"tag-born","18":"tag-calvinism","19":"tag-chapter","20":"tag-child","21":"tag-children","22":"tag-christ","23":"tag-christian","24":"tag-church","25":"tag-doctrines","26":"tag-free","27":"tag-god","28":"tag-gods","29":"tag-grace","30":"tag-hope","31":"tag-how","32":"tag-jenkins","33":"tag-jesus","34":"tag-john","35":"tag-joshua","36":"tag-nature","37":"tag-new","38":"tag-reformed","39":"tag-scripture","40":"tag-sermon","41":"tag-sin","42":"tag-sovereign","43":"tag-testament","44":"tag-verse","45":"tag-will","46":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/04\/lomo-wallpaper-7.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3693,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/the-second-birth-and-its-purposes-1-john-51-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":3734,"position":0},"title":"The Second Birth and its Purposes: 1 John 5:1-5","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"January 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Everyone who believes that\u00a0Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and\u00a0everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.2\u00a0By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.\u00a03\u00a0For\u00a0this is the love of God, that we\u00a0keep his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/commentary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/01\/01-science-has-figured-out-why-you-love-the-smell-of-old-books-1024x683-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/01\/01-science-has-figured-out-why-you-love-the-smell-of-old-books-1024x683-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/01\/01-science-has-figured-out-why-you-love-the-smell-of-old-books-1024x683-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/01\/01-science-has-figured-out-why-you-love-the-smell-of-old-books-1024x683-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3794,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/how-god-loved-the-world-john-316\/","url_meta":{"origin":3734,"position":1},"title":"How God Loved the World; John 3:16","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"July 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Introduction \u00a0 If you have a red-letter bible you will see that John 3:16-21 is in red, meaning these are the words of Jesus. However\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/commentary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/07\/t08008_10.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/07\/t08008_10.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/07\/t08008_10.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/07\/t08008_10.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/07\/t08008_10.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/07\/t08008_10.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5351,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/the-lords-passover\/","url_meta":{"origin":3734,"position":2},"title":"The LORD’s PASSOVER","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"November 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Click HERE for sermon audio Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, \u201cGo and select lambs for yourselves\u00a0according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb.\u00a022\u00a0Take a bunch of\u00a0hyssop and\u00a0dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch\u00a0the lintel and the two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/webRNS-First-Passover1-040820-807x520-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/webRNS-First-Passover1-040820-807x520-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/webRNS-First-Passover1-040820-807x520-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/webRNS-First-Passover1-040820-807x520-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3640,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/children-of-the-devil-and-children-of-god-commentary-on-1-john-34-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":3734,"position":3},"title":"Children of the Devil and Children of God: Commentary on 1 John 3:4-10","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"October 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 Last week as we were in the first three verses of chapter 3, I briefly mentioned the fact that not all people are God's children; as the text of course talked about how Christians are God's children. This week as we move in to verse 4-10 we see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/commentary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3669,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/god-is-love-1-john-47-9\/","url_meta":{"origin":3734,"position":4},"title":"God is Love: 1 John 4:7-9","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"December 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \"7\u00a0Beloved,\u00a0let us love one another, for love is from God, and\u00a0whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.\u00a08\u00a0Anyone who does not love does not know God, because\u00a0God is love.\u00a09\u00a0In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that\u00a0God sent his only Son into the world,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/commentary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/12\/featured-5-680x450-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/12\/featured-5-680x450-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/12\/featured-5-680x450-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2603,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/is-anything-too-hard-for-the-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":3734,"position":5},"title":"Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"July 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Genesis chapter 18 tells the story of the Lord visiting Abraham and Sarah and telling them that in a year's time Sarah will have a son. This is the son that the Lord had previously promised Abraham of which He would make into a great nation. Abraham was 99 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2017\/07\/palatina_3angels_710.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2017\/07\/palatina_3angels_710.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2017\/07\/palatina_3angels_710.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2017\/07\/palatina_3angels_710.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}