Ep 7 – Born of God

Hi there tom Harris with it’s all greek to me again, I would like you to tell your friends about this program would like to get it as far as we can to people that have never heard the gospel. I’m an evangelist, but I’m also a bible teacher. And I go into the greek words as it says in first Corinthians chapter two and verse 13 that God’s thoughts are communicated to us through God’s words. The actual words that he chooses to use are inspired of God. And today we want to look at one word from the Gospel of john and that is chapter one, which is the word genesis were Now now if I was speaking in modern greek, we used the same word uh significa past tense. I was born in Ithaca uh 1949 in Thessaloniki Greece. And so I would say that in Ithaca genesis is the birth of something. And there are beautiful passages of scripture concerning that we’re gonna look at some of them when you’re born, you have life and the gospel of john is the gospel of life, it is the gospel of light, It is the gospel of love. And so what we wanna do is just look at this life and john 14, it says in him was life in jesus christ was life and the life was the light of men. So the very life of jesus christ becomes light. Now for all of mankind, another place, it says in john 3 15 and 16, it says this is eternal life for God, so loved the world that he gave, his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have what eternal life, it’s not just life, physical life on a physical plane, but eternal life, Ionia Zoi. And of course in john 5 29 and also 11 25 it talks about life, that’s the resurrection of life, the resurrection of life. And then in john chapter six and verse 35 jesus refers to himself. Of course, he also referred to himself as the resurrection of life, but he refers to himself as the bread of life that is the substance or the not only the physical bread, but more importantly the spiritual bread because man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So he is the bread of life. This eternal life, we are fed on the bread of life and also in john 8 12, the light of life and john 10 10, the abundant life the thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. But jesus said, I have come to give life and to give it what it is more abundantly overflowing. So uh and also one more verse in John 14, 6 I am the way the truth and the life, So jesus is, he’s the way the way to God he is the truth, the truth of God and he is the life the life of God, Jesus christ is the embodiment of truth, he is truth, he is life, he is the way And finally, in John 2031, it says these things are written that you might believe that Jesus, the man is the messiah, the christ and believing, what is written about him. You may have life believing, you may have life in his name. The power of his name produces the life to those of us who believe So, we start that way from the gospel of john And we work our way down in John one It says in verse 11, he came to his own, the jewish people. He came to the people that he knew that he lived with and those who were his own did not receive him. His own people rejected him as the Messiah, his own people rejected him as the prop prophecy one that was to come fulfilled 365 prophecies. Yet they rejected him. But here is the great promise of God in john chapter one in verse 12, but it’s a humongous, but they’re whoever believed in him to those, he gives the right to become the Children of God. So, but as many as received him, You see that in verse 12, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become, you know me from, from genesis genesis, the Children of God, even to those who believe on his name, who are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And that’s the first thing. So in order for us to really understand that this, what this word about born is all about is first we’ve got to have physical birth and but jesus christ makes it clear here that in order for us to really connect with God, we must receive him And he gives us the right or the excuse to this is the executive authority. Same word as his Matthew chapter 28 in verse 19 that he gives the authority, the delegated authority, the ability and authority. Uh, that’s delegated from God Almighty. For us to become to be born. Rather, you know me to be birthed Children of God. Huh? Tekken on the word is Tekken on Ferrell. And even to those who believe in his name. So that’s what we have here in uh, in the first chapter of the Gospel of john, my favorite gospel. And he’s talking about several things here. Number one receive and believe are synonymous and and complement one another and could be interchangeable if you receive him. You believe on him. If you believe on him, you’ve received him, you just can’t in this context. You cannot just believe into intellectually. You must believe volitional lee with your mind with the information plus you have to repent and believe with your heart receive and believe are synonymous and Complimentary therefore those who receive believe and those who believe received. # two power is exposure, which has the meaning of might and right both. Number three to become the Children. Tech non of God to do so. God gives us a very simple prescription. You want to become a child of God. You’re physically born and you know that there’s a God something inside of you tells you that there’s a God, there’s divine design and creation. You say, well, I know there’s something out there, but I don’t know him. And and God tells you how you can connect with him. You receive the person of jesus christ, the one who came fulfilling all the prophecies from the old testament. Born in Bethlehem and you receive him as your personal savior. And you ask him to forgive you and come in your life and save your soul from all the sin. And the bible makes it clear that you will be given the power that moment to become a child of God notice what else it says there in uh, in that passage. And this birth is not by blood or by the will of the flesh is not by the will of men. Now, these are three things. These are three uh prohibitions on who were born of God. Number one, it’s not based on my D. N. A. And who I’m related to. I’m related to a pastor. I’m related to a priest. I’m related to a governor. I’m related to a very wealthy person. I’m related to man. You don’t understand my family. We are really good people has nothing to do with that. Number two. It is not of the will of the flesh. It’s not based on your resolutions. I’m gonna be better next month. I’m gonna be better next week. I’m gonna stop doing this to stop doing that. Many, many people think based on the fact of what they can or cannot do, they are going to have a relationship with God. That’s not the way it works. And it says nor of the will of man. It doesn’t it’s not based on religion. Well, I’m gonna go to church. I’m gonna read the bible. I’m gonna pray. I’m gonna all those things are right. But that’s not how you become a child of God. It’s impossible to become a child of God based on my relationship to my relatives or the resolutions I make or the religious ceremonies or disciplines in my life. I’m gonna beat myself up. I’m gonna walk my on my hands and knees in Mexico or Guadalupe. I’m gonna I’m gonna do so many uh hail marys. I’m gonna give so much money. It doesn’t work like that. That’s not what it says because in Ephesians two and verse eight and nine, it says for it is by grace were safe, not of ourselves. It is a gift of God and not as a result of works lest we boast about it. So this scripture is so clear but they must be noticed what it says born of God, that’s what we have to, we have to be born of God. Well what does that mean? What does it mean to be? Unisys abdomen? Theo xo Kenneth eason from God. They must be born. That’s what literally that means Right there. So what is that? Well, the first thing in John Chapter one, you must be born of God. If you’re gonna be born, this word born has to be defined born of God. Okay. But as many as received him to those, he gave the right to be born of God. That’s the word you now is the actual word and we’re going to trace that word. It’s found in several places. It’s found right here in john 1 12 and 13. It’s also found in john three. And verse three When you go to John three and verse three you look at that Jesus Christ is speaking to Nicodemus at night. Nicodemus uh you know is telling jesus that you we know you’re a great teacher. No one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him. And uh and the Lord jesus stops him and in verse three says jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly alito’s alito’s whenever you have a double word like that it’s there for emphasis and for clarity and he says alito’s alito’s he says, I say to you Unless one is born it says again I know that in the king James and in the new american standard N. I. V. But the actual word does not mean again it means from above. I’m nothin I’m no thin and most of the passages it’s translated from above. And so he says unless you are born again meaning from above. A spiritual birth from God from the father, from the Holy Spirit from God the son. Unless you are born from above, you cannot see or enter, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. And then Nicodemus comes back again and says to him how can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born can he? And jesus christ uh answers him and he tells him truly truly I say uh truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God again that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit of Spirit. Do not marvel that I said you must be born again. So number two is you must be born of the spirit. So not only are you to be born from above, you must be born of God, you must be born from above. You must be born of the spirit. You see those three statements are so important and jesus christ is the one that’s saying you will not see or enter into the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God, if you are not born from above or born again spiritually, you had your physical birth now you must have your spiritual bird that which is of the flesh is flesh, that which is of the spirit of spirit. What’s interesting in this passage is there are four metaphors for pictures that God gives us of this relationship with God. The first one is a baby. You have to be born in God’s family. You have to be born from above. The 2nd 1 is of the wind, it’s like the wind coming in your life. You must, it’s not enough that you’re born uh physically you must be born spiritually and the and the picture there is the wind because the word spirit and the word wind are the same word hip never mama plasma. And the 3rd 1 is, you have to be born realistically looking at the old testament serpent on the tree there and that’s the next one that Nicodemus has given because he still couldn’t figure it out. So jesus christ said as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up. So that one is the third illustration of what it means to have a relationship with God. You’ve got to repent of your sin, you’ve got to deal with the sin in your life and the way to do that is through jesus christ who took our sins on the cross became the lamb of God was bled for our sins was buried. Rose again. And so he deals with sin. That’s why, you know, unless we believe in the son of man and that’s what it says in verse 15, then then we’ll have eternal life for God. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life again. This is eternal life that we have this. We are born from above. We are born of the spirit. We are born through jesus christ, death and burial and resurrection. So you see that they’re in the third point here, born of the spirit. So we must be born of God. We must be born from above, john three, we must be born of the spirit, john 35 six and seven. And then we must be born through the Gospel. Notice what the Apostle paul says in first Corinthians in chapter four and verse 15, he says for if you were to have countless tutors yet you would not have many fathers for in christ, jesus, I became your father through the Gospel. Now, what’s that? What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the good news Evangelion. It is the good news of the jesus christ died for our sins was buried and Rose again. Now that information, I keep telling people that information nonstop. But only God’s spirit can take the information and make it inspiration where he applies that to your heart. That christ died for our sins first. Corinthians 15 verse one and two and three that he died for our sins. That christ when he was dying on the cross 2000 years ago, he was a sacrifice the just for the unjust to bring us to God that he died for our sins. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we could have the righteousness of God in him that he died for our sins. Think about it. And it says here the Apostle paul says you become born into God’s family and paul says I became your father through this message of the gospel. Isn’t it wonderful? Now, obviously he’s not. No man called called No man on Earth your father. He’s he’s saying I became your father, meaning I impregnated you so to speak with this gospel so that God could become your father and that you could become Children of God through that gospel. Yeah, it’s not enough for us to just be teaching 100 and one things we have to give people the gospel, the Evangelia, the good news that God loves them. That jesus christ died as their sin bearer on the cross, that he was buried and physically bodily arose again from the dead and believing that Gospel, they have eternal life, their sins are forgiven. The spirit of God comes in their life and now they’re Children of God by faith in jesus christ, that’s what it says in Galatians 2 16. None of us, not through our own works do we become justified? But through faith in jesus christ, I am crucified with christ paul said in Galatians 2 20. Nevertheless, I live it isn’t I who lives? It’s christ who is living in me and the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He’s our redemption, he’s our redeemer. He’s the one who shed his blood. The grace of God has appeared, titus chapter two verse 11, bringing salvation to all men in verse 14 and he redeemed us and made us. But you see are the the treasure of God through that sacrifice of his own blood. First peter chapter one in verse 18 He shed his blood, innocent, pure blood, spotless, precious lamb, the blood of christ. And that’s how it happened. Now we go on, not only through the gospel, but notice That it happens through the promise of God Galatians, Chapter four in verse 23, but the sun by the bond woman was born according to the flesh and the son of the Free woman was born through the promise. So this birth that we’re talking about was based on a promise that God made that if we would but trust christ who died for us was buried and rose again. That promise would be given to us and we would enter into the covenant of the new birth. This birth from above. This birth from God. This birth of the spirit. Immediately upon believing that promise of God Next we have the uh born of persecution or born to be persecuted. In other words, there’s a fight between the flesh and between the flesh and the spirit in in Galatians 4 29 there’s this constant fight like a Malek and Israel, it’s a picture and once you have become a child of God and you are into the family of God, the flesh is gonna fight like crazy. The world is gonna fight like crazy the world, the flesh and the devil, you know, the bible makes that clear the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life there, they’re going to attack us as Children of God. And the next one is the next step is born in imprisonment. What does that mean? That means that this could happen anywhere. At this particular point, Philemon was a prisoner, the apostle paul was able to share the good news in prison. This doesn’t happen in some cathedral. It doesn’t happen. Uh, you know when you’re baptized, it doesn’t happen because you’re doing something wholly or something sacred because of some ritual. No, it happens anywhere on the street, in an apartment in a house, in a, in a farm lands in a jail. When you come to these specific things that we just talked about, that we are born of God, born from above, Born of the spirit born through the Gospel. Born by God’s promise. And know that when we are being persecuted, there’s a normal thing that is going to happen to us and it could happen anywhere even in prison. Now there’s some specific things as a child of God that we need to understand that when when the Apostle john wrote the Gospel of john, he was giving us some indications as to what a child of God would look like. I’m talking about spiritually. First of all that child is gonna practice righteousness, we were practicing sin. I remember when I was a lost teenager here in new york city, uh you know when I got involved in a band and I started going out to parties and I just a total crazy man, sex drugs and rock and roll and then all of a sudden I hear the Gospel, I turned to God, I lost, you know, 3\/4 of my speech. The way I used to talk and now my habits and my desires and my wants, all the things in my life began to change. I never wanted to study, I never wanted to go to school before, christ. Now all of a sudden all I can think about is I want to, I want to study the bible, I want to know more about jesus christ, I want to hang out with people that are gonna teach me, you’re gonna start practicing righteousness immediately. I got, you know, I was baptized, I started going to church, I started reading the bible, I started learning the word of God by mentors who loved God and loved me and we’re able to teach me things, I was able to stop living with my girlfriend Vicky, I took her back to her home, we eventually went to bible school, we got married, we began to just practice righteousness. We wanted a testimony that was above reproach and this is what you have to do. It’s a sign of being born a child of God, a child of God, not only practices righteousness, but he’s not gonna practice sin, I’m not going to get drunk or high anymore, I’m not gonna run around and do the things I used to do before, I was a believer, I’m not going to fight with my brother with my family and you know, the cursing and uh chasing after money, chasing after power, chasing after positions. That’s not the motive of my life any longer, not practicing sin, not only for me, but all the testimony of the church fathers guys like totally in, in Augustine uh you know, people in the bible, look at the apostle paul himself, I’ve been to Angola prison and uh there are murderers, they’re serving 23 times life sentences. I’ve talked to David Berkowitz right here in new york, who murdered seven women and you know, here’s a guy who’s accepted christ and who now is practicing righteousness no longer is he getting involved in in running after sin and hurting people? He’s actually using his money, using his time and his thoughts to bless other people. He is so broken hearted and penitent that the devil and the demons had him and he stopped practicing sin and began to practice righteousness, also loving one another. I mean, there’s this evidence that when you’re a child of God, you love the brethren, jesus said in john 13 and verse 35 by this is the way, you’re gonna let everyone know that you’re my disciples when you have love for one another. And it says that In 1st John 4 7, that when you are a child of God, that you have this love for one another as believers and not only that, but believing that jesus is the christ, a child of God will confess that jesus, the man is the messiah of Israel and the God of the universe, if you don’t confess that if you don’t confess the deity of jesus christ, If you don’t believe that the man, jesus christ is God in the flesh, then you you’re not a believer. You see because a true child of God, one who is born in the family of God is gonna confess with his mouth That Jesus Christ is Lord. This is found in Romans chapter 10 and verse eight and 9 and 10. And it says in first john in chapter one, in verse five, believing that jesus is the christ is chris is absolutely necessary for you to know that you are a child of God. We’ve seen it, we’ve handled it, we’ve heard it uh that he is the christ, believing that jesus is the christ and then overcoming the world, a child of God is ultimately going to overcome the world. Not only does he know and she know that our sins are forgiven, but also that we have power over the evil one. The word of God abides in us. We overcome the evil one. That’s what it says in first john 54 and Ephesians 28 and nine. And finally he is protected, he is protected uh from the evil or from evil or from the evil one. First john 1 12 through 14, that’s what it says concerning this particular person. Now, what a phenomenal display of uh power that the child of God. These marks of a child of God that are given in first john all throughout the book, practicing righteousness, not practicing sin, loving one another, believing that jesus is the christ. Overcoming the world and protected from evil. Listen, you have to ask yourself are these things true in my life, you have to ask yourself that question. These my credentials. Then I know I’m a child of God. But it starts out really simple and easy. It starts out real simple. But as many as received him to those, he gave the right to become the Children of God. Final thought from the book of john chapter uh first johN chapter five again, going back to the where we started, it says if we receive the witness of man, the witness of God is greater. The witness of God. Is this that he has born concerning his son? The one who believes in the son has uh the witness in himself. The one who does not believe that God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the witness that God is born concerning his son. And here is the witness. This is it that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son. He who has the son has the life, he who does not have the son of God does not have the life. These things I’ve written on to you who believe in the name of the son of God in order that you may know you have eternal life tom Harris with. It’s all greek to me. We took that one word. Yeah. Niecy So yet yeah. Now that we have been born of God. What a beautiful thought and how God made it so clear in his word. Now let’s keep studying and go to the greek. It’s all greek to me, we’ll see you next time, share this friend, me and then share it with all the other people that are going to follow us on the Internet with global seven dot tv. God bless you and have a great night, have a great day wherever you are.