Let's turn to John chapter one, shall we? John chapter one. Now all this week, I had been preparing to speak to you on a subject that's only mentioned once in the whole of the Bible by the name that I was going to use. I was going to talk this morning and this evening about discipline. Now it may surprise you to know that that word is only found once in our King James Version, but it's there. And there are so many things that we need to learn about it that I had catalogued some of them and intended to spend the time this morning and tonight talking about it. A disciplined life is a very wonderful thing, and as I say that, I realize how undisciplined mine is. However, I'm not going to speak about discipline today because I understand that tonight we're going to have three Turkish young men, Muslims with us, and I hardly felt that the topic, especially the second half of it, would have been helpful to them. So instead, you know what we're going to do this morning? We are going to review our blessings as Christians. I was thinking when we were singing, From sinking sand, He lifted me. About the earlier days of my life, I was saved when I was thirteen years of age, and my mother was not a Christian, my father was not a Christian, three of my sisters were not Christians, but one had gotten converted just ahead of me, invagled me into a service one Sunday night where the gospel was preached by a young man who'd gotten interested in her and who had been coming to our home so different from other young men that I knew. I remember the very first day that he was coming. I had an idea that any young man who came to my house for the benefit of any of my sisters had to be somehow strange in the head. But I thought this one must be particularly strange because he was coming to court, if you please, my religious sister. This is the one that had gotten saved all months before. And I couldn't understand what had happened to her. But I thought this young man had to be very strange. And I remember sitting in a bay window at home watching for him coming down the street. I didn't know him. But I was sure that I would. There'd be something about him. And there was. He came down the street and instead of coming through the garden gate, he actually jumped over it. And that was a Sunday afternoon, if you please. Now I somehow didn't associate Christians with jumping over garden gates and being so ecstatically happy, even though my sister had changed and was a much different person, I never remember her laying a hand on me after I got saved. All my sisters thought I was spoiled, and therefore it was their responsibility to discipline me, and I was very glad my sister got saved, if only for that reason. But he was the young man who was preaching the night that I was in Vagel, I'll use that word again, to go along to the service. I remember when my sister said to me, would you come to the gospel service on Sunday night? I said no. I have to go to Sunday school. I used to have to go to Sunday school. It was held on Sunday afternoon. And my parents went to bed. And I was very noisy. So that was a good way to get rid of me for an hour and a half while they had a sleep. But I was very emphatic. She said, before you say no, if you don't come on Sunday night, you'll be the only member of the family not there. I said, what? None of my family went to church. She said, they're coming because on Sunday night Ted is preaching. Oh. I thought to myself, if we're going to have a person in the family, I ordered at least to sample one of his sermons. And so I said, okay, if all the rest are going, and mind you, I had made sure of it, is mom going? Yes, she's going. Is dad going? I was sure she wouldn't say yes, but she did. Well, then I thought I'd get lost in the crowd. But you know, I made up my mind that I was not going to go in with the family. Because that was the particular place where I went to Sunday school on Sunday afternoons. And I knew that there were people there who might stop me on the way out if I was too far in and put a hand on my shoulder and ask me, are you saved? I was always scared to death that somebody would ask me that question. I was thirteen, and by this time I knew there were people getting concerned about me, but I didn't want anything to do with it. I made an arrangement with some of my friends to meet me when the service was over down the block. We didn't call it a block over there, but however, that's what it was. And as the service was coming to a close, I found myself getting very disturbed inside. I didn't intend to tell you this. But however, by the time the preacher closed his Bible, I was very relieved. I said, let me get outside and get to my friends. I'll never come in this place again. And the preacher, he closed his book, he opened his hymn book, and he announced the last hymn, and it was, sinner, how thy heart is troubled, God is coming very near. Do not hide thy deep emotion. Do not check the falling tear. All be saved, his grace is free. I stood up to sing it, but I couldn't get through it. And the preacher saw me break down and he came all the way down off the platform and I was sitting at the back. My family was sitting further up. But I followed him through my tears into a little back room and there I trusted the Lord Jesus. What's that got to do with the thinking fans? Well, that young man used to come to my home. and he and my sister would sit at the piano and she would play and together they would sing some of the old hymns and that was one of them and my unsaved mother would steal over to the piano and she would stand there and she would sing these old hymns with them and i've heard her more than once before she was saved singing beside the piano, from sinking sands he lifted me, with tender hands he lifted me, and so on. I believe God sowed the seeds of conviction in her heart through those old hymns until one day she came too to trust the Lord Jesus as her Savior. It's very important for us to be the kind of Christians who are attractive to people who do not know the Lord Jesus. My friend and the Garden Gate did something to me that Sunday afternoon. I learned that Christians are the people who ought to be the happiest people in the world because of all that they have. Let's read from the chapter to which we turned. John chapter one. Speaking of the word, capital W, at the beginning of the chapter, and that of course is a reference to the Lord Jesus, who was God. The Bible says so here. In verse ten we read, 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. I'm thinking especially of those verses, eleven and twelve. Though verse fourteen is important too, which says, And the word, same capital W, was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now just very briefly, I want to talk about what it means to know Christ and what it costs to reject Him. In these verses there are several things that become immediately apparent to me. One of them is that God is a forgiving God. Another one is that God is a fatherly God and another one is that God is a faithful God and another one is that he's a God who takes care of the future what do I mean when I say that he's a forgiving God it says he came unto his own and his own received him not. He came. Do you realize that the one about whom it, you do realize, I know you do, that the one about whom these verses are speaking is the one around whom all heaven revolved. He was the glory of heaven. He was the center of heaven. He was the one through whom God made the worlds and all things therein and so on. And yet he laid aside his glory, deliberately turned his back upon the worship of the angels there in heaven, left the side of his father and he came. Now that's a little expression, but all there's so much involved in it. When it says here, he came, it means this. Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. That's what's meant by this little expression, he came. There are also verses in Philippians which take him step by step down that stoop. until at last it says the death of the cross, even the death of the cross. He came. God must be a forgiving God. If he sent the darling of his heart to dying shame upon a Roman gibbet, so that we who were sinners, lost in our sin, might not only be delivered from its penalty but day by day saved by its power by from its power saved from sin's power God must be a forgiving God if we can read all of that in that little expression he came I know that he is a forgiving God because He sent his son to those who rejected him. He came unto his own, they were the Jewish people, and the Jewish people rejected him. They knew him not. But it goes on to say, but as many as received him. Now there's not only a coming here, there's a certain class of people. Those that receive him. Do you realize there are lots and lots of people who will tell you very, very glibly, oh, I know why Jesus came. He came to die on the cross. And if you ask them, well, why did he come to die on the cross? Without hesitation, they will tell you he came to die on the cross for sinners. But if you press the question, are you a sinner? Did Jesus die for you? If so, in giving his life for you, the Lord Jesus has put you under an obligation that you cannot discharge. If Jesus gave his life for you, then there's only one thing you can justifiably do and logically do, and that is give your life Now that's what is involved as it says here in receiving him. He came, we are told. And we know something of the detail of that coming. And he came to reach a certain class. People tell me, some people, oh everybody's going to be saved. In the end, it is not so. It is not so. To as many as received him, to them gave him power to become the children of God. Now this does not mean to say that God chooses certain here and there to be saved. No. He came and he presented himself and he pled for a place in the hearts of the people. And to as many as received him opened the door of their hearts to them. He gave power to become the children of God. It's a certain class. Now, I'd be presumptuous if I assumed that everybody here fell into that category. If I assumed that everyone in a simple way has said, Lord Jesus, I know you died for me. I thank you for dying for me. Please come into my heart and be my Savior. I repeat, I would be presumptuous if I assumed that. So I have to ask you, have you dropped into this category? Do you belong to this class, the class of those to whom Jesus came but who have received him? Now that received is a word that speaks of commitment. When you receive the Lord Jesus into your heart, you're saying in effect to him, I not only want you to come into my heart, I want you to sit upon the throne of my heart. I want you to be the possessor and controller of my life, to as many as receive him. So there's a coming and there's a class and there's a commitment. I'll tell you something else. There's a certification. The word of God says to them, gave he power, and that means authority or the right to become the children of God. Did anybody ever tell you that all men are children of God? They obviously didn't speak the truth, because the Lord Jesus once pointed at a group of men and said, ye are of your father the devil. How could all men be children of God if he could make that declaration? No. It's only to as many as received the Lord Jesus is given that certification, that guarantee, that authority, that right to become children of God. So the question boils down, have you become a member of God's family? Which brings me to my next thought. Not only is he a forgiving God, but he's a fatherly God. To as many as received the Lord Jesus, to then gave he power to become children of God. God has a family. Oh, I'm so glad that God has a family. We sing sometimes, I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. And indeed, I am truly happy this morning that I belong to the family of God. If you think about... God and his relationship to men, you will immediately be brought face to face with a unique creation. All things were made by the Lord Jesus, we read. Yes, it was the voice of the Lord Jesus that said, Let there be light, and there was light. It was the voice of the Lord Jesus that commanded the waters to be divided, that brought forth the plants and the animals and the fishes and the insects. The Lord Jesus was responsible. How do I know that? Ephesians three says, God created all things by Jesus Christ. That's the Word of God. That's the Scripture. That's the Bible in your hand that says that. Now, if you think about the creation of all these things, and then you look at the creation of man, you'll see that it is totally unique. God breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living soul. That's where man differs from all the rest of the creation. God deliberately made him, and again I'm quoting the scripture, in his own image. Now you think of what that means. to have a capability like this. If we were to read the earlier part of the chapter and the later part of the chapter, we would find these things here also. But I'm not going to take the time to go over them. But God in making us in his own image, God in making us a unique creation gave to us a unique capability. He made it possible for us to actually ponder, to think and to work things out. The rest of creation does not have that ability. Now I know that creatures have instincts that are absolutely fascinating and that constantly remind me God must have made them because they couldn't just have happened that way. Fishes know how to travel over thousands of miles to their spawning grounds. Birds know how unerringly to fly to their wintering grounds and back again. These are instincts. But the rest of creation unlike man doesn't know how to ponder and to think. and to figure things out in a logical and sane fashion. God gave to us that unique capability. But He also gave us another capability, and that was the capability of believing. Of believing. Now there is a certain extent to which I suppose animals, you think of a dog, particularly... that can understand that his master is not going to beat him, is not going to ill-treat him. A dog can get fond of his master and his master fond of the dog. But that's a long way away from being able to believe. The word of God when it speaks of receiving links with it also elsewhere the thought of believing. God gave to us the capability of pondering and sanely reasoning out, and he gave to us the capability of believing. He also gave us the capability of worshiping. But before we can do that, we have to become children of God, members of God's family, and that of course means a unique closeness. Can you imagine that any creature from God's hand should have the privilege of coming into God's immediate presence at any time with any need that's the kind of closeness that we have to God but I hope he doesn't stop there I hope that your closeness your nearness to God does not simply comprise a readiness to come to God and ask him for this and ask him for that and ask him for the other or even to come and say thank you I hope that that involves coming to him sometimes and simply saying, Lord, I didn't come to ask you for anything. I just came to tell you that I love you. Now that is what worship is in its essence. We've covered some of these things before. I'm just reminding you. Now this forgiving and fatherly God is also a faithful God. Now that faithfulness is shown in the sending of his Son. When Jesus came, and this is what we read here, he came unto his own. But we also read elsewhere that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. He sent him to be the Savior of the world. But he becomes the Savior only of that part of the world that is willing to acknowledge its sin and receive his Son and so be born into his family. God must have been a faithful God, a loving God too, to send his Son for the sake of sinners. But that faithfulness is also shown in God's seeking of the sinner. Not only the sending of the Son, but the seeking of the sinner. I wonder how long God chased you before he caught up with you. There's a poem called The Hound of Heaven. Did you ever read that poem? And it talks about a relentless pressing on, pressing on, pursuing and pursuing. God loved you so much that he brought influences to bear upon your life, many of which you turned aside and still persevered until that day when at last you said, I cannot run away any longer. If God loves me this much, I've got to surrender to him. I've got to give my life to him." Yes, God is a faithful God in seeking the sinner. Now if there's a sinner here that God's seeking, but you haven't yet let him find you, that's a horrible kind of existence, isn't it? To be constantly running away from God. Especially when you know that in the final analysis, you're not going to be successful. You cannot run away from God. But would it not be a sad thing to have a God seeking you all your life and you turning away from him to die in your sin, only eventually having to face him as your judge? Oh, God is faithful. He loves you so much that he chases you. He pursues you. He brings this person who's a Christian into contact with you. He brings that person who's a Christian into contact with you. He leads you into this circumstance where there are other Christians. And do you think that's coincidental? Of course it isn't. That's all in his plan because he wants to break down your resistance. He wants to reach your conscience. He wants you to save from your heart. Lord, at last. I surrender. Yes, he was faithful in sending the Son. He was faithful and still is in seeking the sinner. And that faithfulness is shown in his bestowing of the choicest gift of all. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. I used to travel with a group of preachers called the Pilgrim Preachers. Originally they walked. I was very grateful by the time I joined them that they were driving. We used to cover long distances throughout the British Isles and preach every night in the open air. Open air preaching was a good training ground. It was also a wonderful way to meet men who were outside of Christ and women too. I heard about a certain preacher preaching in the open air and he had a big crowd and there was a chimney sweep. Now the chimney sweep is not the common sight here as it is over there. But you can see the chimney sweep any day of your life. with a great big bundle of bamboo rods over his shoulder, a round brush on the end of one of them. And what he does, he comes at your invitation, six o'clock in the morning. My house, it always used to be in the middle of the winter. And I was the one that was sent outside to watch and make sure that broom came through the top of the chimney so that my mother knew he'd done the job properly. and he would screw rod after rod onto the brush until it got long enough to go out the top and then down would come the soot and he would get filthy in the process now this particular sweep had no time for the gospel and soon as the voice of the the preacher reached him or he is a man who's preaching the gospel And so he said, I'll soon scatter his crowd. And so in his filthy clothes, with his filthy broom and his filthy rods, he approached the back of this crowd. But before he could touch one of them, he heard the preacher say, God had a son. God had only one son. And God gave his very best for earth's worst. The sweet stuff right in his tracks. God had a son. God had only one son. And God gave his best for earth's worst. I've got eight sons. I wouldn't give the worst of my sons for the best of earth's men. There must be something about this God. You know, the end of the story, he stayed right there and listened and got saved afterwards. God is faithful. He gave a gift. It was the darling of his heart. God is also faithful in establishing the relationship we were talking about. He becomes our father. We become his children. It's very striking when you think about it. Every man or woman that you see does not have a claim upon God. There are many people who have no claim upon God. Somebody asks me, does God answer the prayers of unsaved men and women? Well, I know He does, at least one. When they come and say, God, be merciful to me as sinner, they come in their sins, and God certainly answers that prayer. I believe in His grace. God sometimes, and maybe more than just sometimes, does answer the prayers of unsaved people. But it's not. because they have any claim upon him. Only the children have a claim upon the Father. Only the children can come into the presence of the Father and claim because they are members of the family. And God was faithful not only in establishing that relationship but in maintaining it. So that we read in the New Testament that we, that is believers, have an advocate with the Father. That is one who pleads for us, with the Father. Now, it doesn't say we have an advocate with God. It says we have an advocate with the Father. The advocate is an advocate for the children, between the children and the Father. We, the children, have an advocate or I hope you're in the family. I hope you have access to that advocate because the Lord Jesus constantly pleads the cause of his people before his Father. I was going to talk about something else but my time has gone and I think maybe I've said enough. We ought to be such a grateful people that we can look up into God's face and say Father. that we can look into our past and find it all erased. That we can look into our future and do it without a fear because of what God has guaranteed to us. God's home is for God's children. And if that doesn't make you happy, there's nothing else I can tell you to make you happy. Let's pray, shall we? Our Father, we realize that every heart in this service is wide open to your scrutiny. We know that thou art able to look down upon our hearts and to read them accurately. Lord, we pray that if there is anyone here at all who does not know the Lord Jesus as Savior and does not have this family link with thee and does not have the advocate of the Lord. and does not have a claim upon thee. We ask that they may be made this morning conscious of their need. It's a need to admit sin. It's a need to turn one's back upon sin. It's a need to look by faith at the cross. It's a need there to realize that Jesus died for them. It's a need to say, Lord Jesus, I want you in my life and I want to follow you. Bless every heart here today, we pray. We thank thee, Lord, that so many of us do know thee, and we rejoice in these things. We are so happy in what you've done for us in the past. We are so glad for that you're doing for us in the present, and our hearts rejoice in what is laid up for us in the future, and oh, how much we want to share these things with those who do not have them. Lord Grant, that every one of us will ask ourselves the question, am I right with God, before we go out from this auditorium? In Jesus' name. Amen.