INTRO.- ILL.- During the French Revolution, men were determined to abolish Christianity. One fine, clear night an atheist was loudly proclaiming his doctrine to a poor countryman. “Everything,” he said, “will be abolished—churches, Bibles, clergymen; yes, even the word ‘God’ itself. We shall remove everything which speaks of religion!”
The countryman gave a quiet chuckle. “Why do you laugh?” said the other. The peasant pointed to the stars and replied, “I was just wondering how you and your crew would manage to get them down!” Great answer.
We do live in a world or society that wants to do away with God and everything sacred. Or so it seems.
Many people don’t believe in God, don’t care about God, and don’t want to hear anything about God, Christ or the Bible. And the world in which we’re living is pretty tough, wild, violent and unbelieving! And because it’s unbelieving, this is why we’re experiencing such wild and sinful behavior from people.
When people stop believing in the God of heaven and the fact that someday they have to give account to Him they will do anything! And that’s what we’re seeing and experiencing in our time.
Psalm 14:1-3 “The fool says in his heart, "There is no God.They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
What a powerful scripture. What a powerful truth about the condition of mankind. Foolish.
Unbelieving. Corrupt. Vile. No good. And the Lord sees us all. Will people never learn? Some won’t. And they will never learn unless we preach the gospel message! And some won’t even then.
Overall people are corrupt. Sin has infected us all and there is only one answer and one escape. And it’s through Christ. And being born again!
Basically, if a person wants to see eternal life he or she must be born again. They must experience a new life in Christ and our text reveals what this means.
PROP.- Being born of God means many things.
1- Being born of God requires belief in Jesus Christ
2- Being born of God surrenders in obedience to God
3- Being born of God gives victory over the world
I. BEING BORN OF GOD REQUIRES BELIEF IN JESUS CHRIST
1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
Belief in Jesus Christ is what this born again business is all about. Do you believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be?
Matthew 16:13-16 “13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
What a question? And it’s a question that all people must some day answer. Either here on earth or when they die!
John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” Or you believe in God. Believe also in me.
It’s not enough just to believe in God or believe that God exists. If a person is going to experience a new life, a born again life then they must also believe in Jesus Christ.
Many people believe in “a” god, but the true and living God is the one who sent Jesus into the world to save us. That’s the God we believe in and the Jesus we believe in. Many people still don’t believe in Jesus. It all depends on who you ask.
ILL.- In South Africa: I think Jesus is not god and can’t be god. He is human and he was a prophet. God can’t take the shape of a human. God is infinite and can’t be contained in human body.
- In Alabama: I think Jesus might have been a good person in his time. Today he is a monument to the stupidity of Christians.
- In Maryland: Jesus was a rabble rouser and a good, smart guy that lived and died about 2000 years ago.
I beg to differ with these people!
ILL.- Josephus, the famed Jewish historian, lived from A.D. 37 to 95, wrote: “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call Him a man: for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to Him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first did not forsake Him; for He appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him. And the tribe of Christians so named from Him, are not extinct at this day.”
ILL.- The Encyclopedia Britannica uses 20,000 words to tell about Jesus, and never hints that He did not exist. This is more words than the Britannica allows for Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Cicero, Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte. And H. G. Wells (English journalist) blasphemed Jesus, yet he felt compelled to discuss Jesus on ten pages in his Outline of History and never questioned that Jesus lived.
ILL.- The Hon. William Jennings Bryan, more than once candidate for the U.S. Presidency, in his book, In His Image, wrote: “The fact of Christ cannot be denied. Christ lived; that is admitted. He taught; we have His words. He died upon the Cross, that we know. We can trace His blood by its cleansing power as it flows through the centuries. Judged by His life, His teachings, and His death, and the impression they have made upon the human race, we conclude that He was Divine, and that He has justified the titles bestowed upon Him.”
I John 2:22-23 “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
The fact remains: No one can experience the new birth or the new life unless they believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.
II. BEING BORN OF GOD SURRENDERS IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD
2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.
We must come to God on His terms or not at all. We can’t make our own rules when it comes to God, but many people try! Faith and obedience go hand-in-hand. Many people like the idea of living by faith but this obedience business is something else.
ILL.- A couple had been married for 20 years and were having a heated discussion. The husband said, “Don’t you remember promising to love, honor and obey me?” The wife said, “Of course, I do. What else could I do? I didn’t want to make a scene in church.”
ILL.- I read that a bride doesn’t have to say “obey” in the new Church of England marriage service, which was the first major change in the rite since the Book of Common Prayer was issued in 1662.
Well, guess what? Most people don’t want to obey anybody: a husband, a boss, a manager, a commander, or even God! However, obedience is absolutely necessary when it comes to being born again and experiencing a new life in Christ!
ILL.- Sir Leonard Wood once visited the King of France and the King was so pleased with him he was invited for dinner the next day. Sir Leonard went to the palace and the King meeting him in one of the halls, said, “Why, Sir Leonard, I did not expect to see you. How is it that you are here?” “Did not your majesty invite me to dine with you?” said the astonished guest. “Yes,” replied the King, “but you did not answer my invitation.”
Then it was that Sir Leonard Wood uttered one of the choicest sentences of his life. He replied, “A king’s invitation is never to be answered, but to be obeyed.”
What a great thought! There are many things that God has told us to do and we don’t need to question them. We just need to obey them. Immediate obedience is needed but that’s not what God often gets from us!
Romans 1:5 “Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith."
Obedience that comes from faith. Could it be that true faith always obeys?
Acts 2:38 “Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter called for obedience.
Acts 5:32 “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."
II Thessalonians 1:7-8 “...This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.”
Hebrews 11:8 “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
Often our faith is slow to surrender to God and obey Him. How can we do it better? How can we become more obedient? By starting where we are and obeying the Lord the best we can every time we come across a command in His Word. We start small and build up.
ILL.- You don’t run a marathon the first time you go out for a jog. It take time, effort and often, years before a person can run a full 26.2 miles. AND THE SAME PRINCIPLE APPLIES TO OBEYING GOD. We have to learn obedience. But we start to obey as soon as possible and get better at it.
III. BEING BORN OF GOD GIVES VICTORY OVER THE WORLD
4For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
What’s so bad about the world? That’s what many people would ask. What’s bad is that the ideas and ideologies of the word are opposed to God. And when a person falls in love with this world they become guilty of the sin of idolatry. Frankly, we all love this world too much!
ILL.- In England (1967), “The Forsyte Saga” TV series was so popular that ministers changed the hours of Sunday evening church services because they conflicted with the program. One man, whose home was flooded with seven feet of water, refused to come to the window to be rescued by a helicopter because he was watching an episode.
That sounds pretty wild, but it also sounds like something in the United States. I don’t remember what TV shows were shown on Sunday nights years ago but I’m sure that many people probably stayed home from church to watch them.
TV has come long way from where it once was! It’s more entertaining, more exciting, more realistic, and more bad language, nudity and violence than ever before! WHAT DO WE EXPECT FROM THE WORLD? Can’t expect gospel and godliness. There is very little of that on TV and at the movies.
ILL.- Robert H. Lauer wrote: Long ago, William Law warned that the world is now a greater enemy to the Christian than it was in apostolic times: It is a greater enemy, because it has greater power over Christians by its favors, riches, honors, rewards, and protection than it had by the fire and fury of its persecutors.
Yes, the world is quite attractive and in some ways, appears to be harmless. It’s not what God created that is our enemy but it’s what man has done with God’s creation that is our enemy! Look at the world’s ideas, ideologies and the world’s goals! LUST, GREED, PRIDE. All of these are in opposition to God and Christ.
I John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
As tempting as the world is, there is victory in Jesus. There is victory over the world’s sinfulness in Jesus.
ILL.- Wes Tuttle was a country western singer and guitarist: born Lamar, Colorado 30 December 1917; married 1947 Marilyn Myers (one son, and two daughters deceased); died Los Angeles 29 September 2003. In 1944, having played guitar on sessions by Capitol Records' first country signing, Tex Ritter, Tuttle became the second act ito be signed by the label.
His first release, a version of the Delmore Brothers' "Raining on the Mountains", was backed by "I Dreamed That My Daddy Came Home", a sentimental number that he co-wrote with the guitarist Merle Travis, and proved highly popular. He followed it with "With Tears in My Eyes" (1945) and topped the country charts for a month.
In 1957 the Tuttles left the Town Hall Party ( a weekly radio and television program showcasing the region's country-music talent) and, following the traumatic death of their four year-old daughter, decided to focus solely on gospel music.
I actually heard Wesley Tuttle sing in person at the Fairview Christian Church in Carthage, MO, back in the 1960‘s. He said that he’d never even been inside a church until he was 40 years old and once he was converted to Christ he never turned back.
This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
CONCLUSION--------------
Someone once said, “If you are born once, you’ll die twice, but if you’re born twice, you’ll die only once.”
What did he mean by those words? If you have only been born physically, you will experience the second death. But if you have experienced the new birth you will only die the physical death.
The door of heaven will be opened to you but it will be only because of your acceptance of Jesus Christ! IT ALL BECAUSE OF HIM AND ALL DEPENDS ON HIM AND FAITH IN HIM!
