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Discussion Forum : General Topics : BUT OF GOD. [John 1:13]

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aeryck
Member



Joined: 2005/1/11
Posts: 234
United Kingdom

 BUT OF GOD. [John 1:13]

I heard a tale today of a man who served the Lord for 23 years. He started off leading Sunday School and taught little children about Jesus. Then he became a deacon and helped with money matters and visitation. Finally he became and elder and was the most devout and respectful, raising his hands to worship and always ready to give a word, in season and out.

Finally, he sought out the Pastor in his study one evening, and opened his heart.

He said, "Pastor, I have served the Lord, in this church for 23 years. To everyone I am an example of moral excellence, but I have to tell you right now that I have not been 'born of God' "

The Pastor sensitively knelt with the man as he prayed to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness and gave his heart fully and finally to the Lord Jesus.

Often right next to us people are living out a lie so well, that we might not even notice. Obvious to some their lie, but some live it so well that they convince even the most devout disciple.

Hollywood acting has most of us sitting on the end of a chair. We gasp, we cry, we giggle, some even roll on the floor, but it is all a very good lie.

With this introduction I want to look at the next verse out of the Gospel of John.

WHICH WERE BORN, NOT OF BLOOD, NOR OF THE WILL OF THE FLESH, NOR OF THE WILL OF MAN, BUT OF GOD.
[John 1:13]

Let's look long and hard and in context of the first chapter, the book, the 66 books. Then consider and comment.

PLEASE NO SHOTGUN SERMONS, JUST THE OLD RIFLE SHOT, SO GIVE ME WHATCHA GOT.

In Jesus,
Aeryck
:-P


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Eric John Sawyer

 2005/6/20 15:45Profile
ZekeO
Member



Joined: 2004/7/4
Posts: 1014
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

 Re: BUT OF GOD. [John 1:13]

Quote:

aeryck wrote:
Let's look long and hard and in context of the first chapter, the book, the 66 books. Then consider and comment.

PLEASE NO SHOTGUN SERMONS, JUST THE OLD RIFLE SHOT, SO GIVE ME WHATCHA GOT.

I am sorry bro, what are you wanting, seems quite clear what you saying.

Quote:

Aeryck
:-P


Does you mouth get dry, doing that all the time.


_________________
Zeke Oosthuis

 2005/6/20 16:06Profile
aeryck
Member



Joined: 2005/1/11
Posts: 234
United Kingdom

 OF GOD. [John 1:13]

ZekeO,

I suppose, what does it mean to you, to be 'born of God.'?


In Jesus,
Aeryck
:-?


_________________
Eric John Sawyer

 2005/6/20 20:29Profile
Spitfire
Member



Joined: 2004/8/3
Posts: 633


 Re: OF GOD. [John 1:13]

Quote:
what does it mean to you, to be 'born of God.'?


I'm so glad you've asked this question, because I am one who thought I was born again only to discover I wasn't. I believe that being born again is choosing to exchange my life for the life of Christ. It is coming into covenant with God. He takes my place in death, I give him my place in life. God explained it to me this way:

You are on death row and dying from a terminal disease. You are very upset because you know you are going to die one way or the other. Someone comes to your door and says, "I'll trade places with you." Great! So the door opens, he comes in, I go out. But...where do I go? I go back to my life. A few days later, a policeman shows up at my door, says, "Maam, you must go to death row." What?! Some guy took my place! "Well, Maam, you broke the agreement. The agreement was to exchange places. You were supposed to go live his life, not your own. You have nullified the contract by violating the agreement." New birth is trading in our old life for the life of God. The requirement for us is that "I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me." This is what it means to me to be born again. Dian.

 2005/6/20 21:40Profile
aeryck
Member



Joined: 2005/1/11
Posts: 234
United Kingdom

 Re:

Bless God, Spitfire. This was my own testimony as well. I was not on death row, but I was in Naval Detention in 1976.

Quote:
I'm so glad you've asked this question, because I am one who thought I was born again only to discover I wasn't. I believe that being born again is choosing to exchange my life for the life of Christ. It is coming into covenant with God. He takes my place in death, I give him my place in life. God explained it to me this way:

You are on death row and dying from a terminal disease. You are very upset because you know you are going to die one way or the other. Someone comes to your door and says, "I'll trade places with you." Great! So the door opens, he comes in, I go out. But...where do I go? I go back to my life. A few days later, a policeman shows up at my door, says, "Maam, you must go to death row." What?! Some guy took my place! "Well, Maam, you broke the agreement. The agreement was to exchange places. You were supposed to go live his life, not your own. You have nullified the contract by violating the agreement." New birth is trading in our old life for the life of God. The requirement for us is that "I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me." This is what it means to me to be born again.



This is a wonderful commentary to this verse. Bless God, for this testimony Dian.

In Jesus,
Aeryck
:-P:-P:-P


_________________
Eric John Sawyer

 2005/6/21 5:09Profile
philologos
Member



Joined: 2003/7/18
Posts: 6566
Reading, UK

 Re:

We live in the century of 'sound bites' and although slick phrases and epigrams may have their place it is certainly not in bible study. I understand the urge to 'get on' and say what you are saying but we need a little patience when examining such vital Bible truths.

In touching on a topic which runs through John's 'gospel' and his first letter, it is important that we start with a solid foundation. Our reaction might be, how complicated can this be, we are talking about three words! 'born of God'! Well let's presume we know who God is, so now we are down to two words and the topic quite plainly is 'birth'. The word is used almost 30 times in John's writings (John 1:13; 3:3-8; 8:41; 9:2,19-20,32,34; 16:21; 18:37; 1John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18) but it is when the word is used in conjunction with the preposition 'of' that it focuses our thoughts. The Greek preposition 'ek' means 'out of' as a point of origin. It speaks of the origin of things. Dog breeders and horse breeders still describe a pedigree by saying 'out of' or 'ex'. In using the phrase 'ek theou' John is telling us very plainly of an origin in God. Regeneration is 'of God'; there are no other origins or partners in this birth.

The word 'born' is also used constantly in the great pedigree of Matthew 1 and includes the section...“And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;” (Matt. 1:3, KJVS)Here we are told that 'Judah begat Phares and Zara [u]of[/u] Thamar. The origin of Phares and Zara was dual; Judah AND Thamar. The birth that John has in mind only has one origin 'of God'.

The British police force has a way of questioning many people when a crime has been committed. If you were to ask 'are they suspects' the standard answer would be 'we would like to eliminate them from our enquiries'. In other words reasoning is often a process of elimination. Some individuals who are 'helping the police with their enquiries' can be can be eliminated immediately... they were in another country, or addressing the Police Federation at the time... John would have appreciated this process; he uses it in this verse. It is very helpful in understanding Bible concepts to eliminate all other suspects and John does so very plainly. This is Young's Literal Translation“who — not of blood nor of a will of flesh, nor of a will of man but — of God were begotten.” (John 1:13, YNG)

The birth to which he refers is
1. [u]not[/u] 'of blood' (literally bloods, plural),
2. [u]not[/u] from the choices/desires of flesh,
3. [u]not[/u] from the choices/desires of man

The birth to which he is referring does not have its origin in any of these 'possible suspects'.
1. T Austin-Sparks sees the plural reference to bloods as indicating the origin of a normal physical birth. I think he is right and in this context we can add 'it not hereditary' not 'by descent'. This is an important point for those who saw their relationship to God as guaranteed by their pedigree. “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” (Matt. 3:9, KJVS)
2. I think 'flesh' here must simply mean 'human' in the light of the next verse which tells us that the Word became flesh. This 'begetter' is not human.
3. 'man' is andros, the male. The 'birth' is not the consequence of a male's choice/will/desire. This birth does is not the result of a male's initiation.
I think there is intentional overlap in these catagories and that what John is doing is eliminating every possible 'earthly' origin for such a birth.

On the contrary, this birth is 'ek theou', these are 'God-begotten' ones. The mind inevitable connects this with “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again (anoœthen, from above) he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, KJVS)

If we want more details about John's understanding of 'born of God' we shall have to broaden our scope to include 1 John.

Here are six characteristics of being 'born of God'. (begotten and born are the same Greek word here). A score of 1 out of 6 does not 'new birth'.

1. 1John 2:29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

2. 1John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

3. 1John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

4. 1John 5:1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

5. 1John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

6. 1John 5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.


_________________
Ron Bailey

 2005/6/21 6:33Profile
ZekeO
Member



Joined: 2004/7/4
Posts: 1014
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

 Tender mercies

Quote:

Aeryck
:-P:-P:-P

Sorry to interupt this discussion, but I am so glad, in fact relieved that you have a sense of humour... :-P


_________________
Zeke Oosthuis

 2005/6/21 7:58Profile
aeryck
Member



Joined: 2005/1/11
Posts: 234
United Kingdom

 Re: Tender mercies

Indeed ZekeO

I have found that much truth is best enjoyed with a huge helping of hysterical laughter.

Infact, when I stumbled into my first bible study, I laughed nearly the entire meeting. The guy was a roar, he was bubbling over with joy.

Don't get me wrong he preached the Word and my ears doth burn. However, it was not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord.

Often so much is yak-yak-yak..an no power. It is nice though when one actually can talk about Jesus with a smile on the dial.

In Jesus,
Aeryck.
:-(;-):-P


_________________
Eric John Sawyer

 2005/6/21 12:38Profile





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