(Taken down by a hearer.)
“He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”—John i., 10-13.
WE have in the beginning of this chapter the Apostle John in the Spirit bringing before us who Christ was and is. He begins here by showing that He was from eternity—“In the beginning was the Word.” That is the name he gives over and over again to the Second Person of the ever adorable Trinity. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That is, that Christ was from eternity, according to the Scriptures, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and that He Himself was God equal with the Father and the Spirit. Then he goes on to show that it was He who made all things, and without Him was not anything made that was made. The Saviour was the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is. He states this knowing well how men would deal with it.
Then he goes on to show that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. “He brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” We brought death upon ourselves as sinners. The Son of God came to the world as a Saviour. He brought everlasting life to light for the lost children of Adam. They brought death upon themselves through sin, and God gave eternal life to them in Christ, and this is revealed in no other way than through Christ. He is the light of men. Men in our day are walking in darkness. This is the true light which shows who will be saved and who will be lost for ever. There is no dubiety in God’s Word. He brought this to light in the Gospel. This light “shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” He is shining in the Word of God in Croy and men are not seeing it. Men are going according to the light of their own hearts in the world to-day, and also right down through the ages, but that does not mean that the light is not shining. There is plenty light in God’s Word but men do not comprehend it. The blind cannot see it. We are spiritually blind and we cannot see this light. We may see some of it intellectually. We cannot see this spiritual life that is in Christ on account of the death which men brought upon themselves. We have here the witness of John the Baptist. This is John the Baptist, who speaks in the Spirit, and he came, we are told, as a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through Him might believe. You will notice that the book of Malachi ends with a declaration that God was to send His messenger before the face of Christ to bring before men that this was He who was promised in the Garden of Eden, and we find that John did this. It is in this witness that we have the words from which we intend to say a few things just now. “He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
I. There are several things here we can only touch just now. The first is the awful condition into which men fell—fell lower, according to the Scriptures, than the most stupid animals we know, such as the ox and the ass. We are told by the Prophet Isaiah that the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib, and in that they are ahead of their owners—”Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider,” and that refers not only to the heathen who never had the Gospel but to those who have got the Gospel and who were brought up in a Bible land. It remains true of them that they know not the Lord Jesus Christ. When He came into the world, we are told by Himself that the world did not receive Him. He was despised and rejected of men, and that is the way still. Men despise Christ and the Gospel and reject Him as He is set forth in the Word of God. Men know Him not. Not only was this true of the world, that they knew Him not, but “He came unto His own and His own received Him not,” i.e., the Jews. The Jews had the knowledge of God set forth in the Scriptures of the Old Testament for 1500 years before He came to the world. He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the great promise: “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” To the fulfilment of this promise the Jews looked for generations and yet when He came to them they received Him not. As regards the world, we are told—”He was in the world and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not,” and when He came unto His own in the world His own received Him not, and they themselves are witnesses to this day of the fact that they did not receive Him. It is impossible for any man to perform, say even one of the miracles, that were never done before by any man and that shall never be done again by any man, and though these were demonstrated before their eyes they did not receive Him. Even the man that was born blind challenged the Jews with them. “It was not known since the beginning of the world that any man opened the eyes of a man that was born blind,” and that only a man sent of God could do this. When He came to His own people, the Jews, and offered Himself to them as the Saviour from sin and from its consequences, because He was not what they expected, they rejected Him. They expected a mighty king to conquer all other kings, and that is what they are looking for until this day. He came into the world to save sinners, to save the lost. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He came to save the guilty sinner from hell and from the wrath of God forever. One of the reasons why Christ is not received in every generation is because He is poor and despised and rejected of men, but notwithstanding this, we are told here that there were some who received Him, although the vast majority of the Jews would not receive Him as their Saviour because they were in their own eyes saviours to themselves by their own prayers and works. They had no sense of their need of a Saviour to save them from the wrath of God. He says there were some that received Him, and that is true in every generation down from the day that man fell. We find, as the Scriptures show us, He left Himself not without a witness. They were sometimes few and sometimes many that received Him. A few of the Jews followed Him as well as His disciples. We read that five hundred brethren met Him after His resurrection. There is no account of women being there, but we believe godly women are more numerous in every generation than men. There were many that received Him, and He says here that to those who received Him, He gave power to become the sons of God.
I desire to notice two or three things concerning this power Christ gave to those that received Him. By way of illustration and in order to bring out what is meant by this power, which some translate a “right” and others a “privilege,” there was long ago, more than fifty years ago at least, a large estate in England and there was no heir to the estate. There was a man in Australia called Tichborne and he claimed the estate. They were at law for a long time and he tried to prove that he was the next of kin or the descendant of the man to whom the estate belonged, and he almost got it, but another man came from Australia and proved in the court in London, that the other man was a fraud, and instead of getting the estate, he got fourteen years’ hard labour. That is a very forcible illustration of those who claim to be born from above, and who, instead of receiving the Kingdom of Heaven, they will get penal servitude in a lost eternity. We see in the chapter, and in this Gospel, that none can inherit the Kingdom of God without being changed in their hearts by Christ although they may make a profession. That does not excuse anyone for being careless and godless, but it ought to warn us of the danger of claiming that we have Christ as our Saviour, and at the same time that such is not true. But He says here that as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God. Just as the heir of an estate, the children of God are born to an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, but reserved in heaven for them, but none can justly claim that inheritance but such as are born of God from above or are made new creatures. He goes on to show that they are not born of blood. Grace does not run in the blood. That is true. It is not by blood. The Jews were of the seed of Abraham and thus expected that the children of godly men, of godly parents would not be cast away. Many build their hope for eternity on this. We find when Christ told the Jews they were of their father the devil they said they were the children of Abraham and therefore they were the children of God and would not be cast into hell, whereas the hell of such unless they repent will be all the more awful. Christ said to Capernaum that the Day of Judgment would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorah where the Gospel was not preached than for that city. It was not at all because they were Jews or on account of blood that they received grace. That had no part in it at all. Then He says that it was not of the will of the flesh. It meant that it was not of the will of their parents. We have not met many who really tried to teach their children that there is no God at all. That is a rare thing, although men in our day have fallen so low as even to do that. We always find that however careless parents are they would like their children to be saved, and we find that almost everywhere. It is not of the will of the flesh. We have known them who were brought up at the family altar by godly parents, and we know such in the world to-day who are as careless and godless as any we know. Some have gone into eternity in that condition. Although parents should have the wisdom to know that their children need to be saved, and do their utmost to instruct them in the fear of the Lord, they must all confess that they cannot change a son or daughter whatever they may teach them. Man’s ruined condition is so complete that although he should be taught by the most godly man or woman that ever was in the world that would not change his heart or his mind. It is not of the will of man, and every man or woman who has got the least hope that they received grace, when they look back, must see that it was not of them. They had no real desire by nature to receive grace although they would like that Christ would save them from hell. It is not of the will of man, so that shuts out all that man can do, but at the same time that does not mean that man has not got a duty to perform, and that this duty is to search the Scriptures, for in them we think we have eternal life and they are they which testify of Christ. He goes on to say that they were born not of the will of man but of God. This work is entirely God’s work. It is not man’s work at all. It is all of grace, and I am going to mention a few things in connection with this and the first thing I desire to notice is in connection with this work being of God. It was from eternity in God’s purpose that He would save sinners. It is a thing that was determined before the foundation of the world, and that, not only as regards the election of grace as a whole, but as regards each individual. The time and the place were set apart by God from all eternity at which He would do this work in the heart of a lost sinner by His Word and Spirit. We are told that the Saviour was set up from everlasting. Before the mountains and hills were formed He was set up to do this work. Then the second thing I desire to notice is in connection with this, that although man cannot work this change in himself; though he cannot create in himself a clean heart, and no one can be saved without that, yet notwithstanding it is in man it must be done. This must take place in the heart of everyone that will ever see Heaven, and that when they are in the world, by the Spirit of God and by His Word, they are made new creatures. It is true of every one of them. It is not true of all that make a profession of religion that the Holy Ghost convinced them of sin. That is not true of many but it is true of all the elect wherever they may be. It is true of everyone that will go to heaven and will be saved at last that this change comes over them in time, and that by His Word and Spirit convincing them and making them conscious of the fact that they are sinners, and when they began to turn back, they expected, as all men do, that they would be able to reconcile themselves to God. They may reform their ways for a little while. Men may reform outwardly but to change the heart is a thing that none but God can accomplish, and you find He gives this extraordinary promise:—”A new heart will I give unto you.” That is the change that must be made in every one of Adam’s lost seed who will be saved. Before I leave this I must mention two things. None by nature are conscious of their own inability. Everyone that is born of God is conscious of this. They are conscious of the desperate wickedness of their own hearts and how they depart from God. That is true of God’s children down to this day. But the rest who may be making only a profession are not conscious of this at all although they may be speaking about it. The evil that they find in their hearts has not become a grief to them. Those that are born of God are fully conscious that the law of God condemns sin in the heart. Others think that they do not sin unless they are committing it outwardly. The lusts of the heart and the mind do not trouble them at all. We never heard of the careless world complain of a bad heart, and never heard them complain of being condemned in their consciences on account of their lusts, but that is true of all that are born of God. The Word of God discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. It thus condemns men while they think they have a good heart and a good mind and that there is no sin in them. The godly are made conscious of the fact that although they had never sinned outwardly in the world they have so much sin in their hearts and their minds that God would be just in casting them away for ever that they need to be made clean in heart by the Word and Spirit, and all those that are born of God are made to cry for this. Those who are born of God are members of the family of God. God has a family in the world and they become members of that family, and immediately they are born of God they begin from that moment to take an interest in their sisters and brothers and what concerns their God and Saviour—their Elder Brother. Others are content with a profession that will take them through the world. Godliness is not a thing that is one time at the Lord’s Table and another time at the dance. That is not true of those who are born of God. They have a real concern about the things of God and for the salvation of others in the world. That is following them down through the ages. It was true of Lydia that whenever the Lord opened her heart to receive Christ in the Gospel that she opened the door of her house to the Lord’s people, and asked them to come in, and this was on account of the love she had in her heart to the Lord’s people. It is a love which unites them the one to the other. I desire to mention one thing more concerning those who have received Christ. This change that was wrought in them was entirely of God. It was God who convinced them and reconciled them through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Although that is true it is the individual sinner that must repent of sin—not something that another can do for you. However godly a father or mother may be, and however earnest they may be in instructing their children in the fear of God, they cannot repent for them. “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” It is not a thing that ministers can do for you although they may be godly. It is you who must grieve for your sins as it is in the 33rd chapter of Job—”I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not.” You must as an individual have this not only on your tongue but in your heart that you sinned and perverted the law of God which is holy and just and good, and that instead of it being a profit to you, you must realise that it is a great loss. It is you who must do this or else perish forever. Not only that it is the individual that must repent for sin and confess it to God, but it is the individual that must believe. Another cannot believe for you. Although you had the most godly father or mother in the world they cannot believe for you. It is the act of the individual soul, and we are told that these two things, repentance and faith, are the gifts of God. They are not things we have in ourselves.