me. He repays my foes thereon. In your truth, Lord, bring ♪ I will praise your name with gladness ♪ ♪ For your name, O Lord, is good ♪ ♪ He has saved me from all trouble ♪ ♪ I in triumph see my foes ♪ Amen. People of God, if you would turn with me then to God's Word. 1 John chapter 5. 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation. Probably easiest to find Revelation 1. Turn a few pages back. Also, page 1304 in most of the Pew Bibles, 1 John 5. We'll be thinking at points, particularly about verse 1, and we'll read 1 through 5 for some context. And following our reading of God's Word, we'll turn to Canons of Dort 3-4, but let us first hear from God's Holy Word. 1 John 5, beginning at verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? So far the reading of God's Word. If you would turn with me then to Canons of Dort, page 271 in the Forms and Prayers book. We'll begin on page 271. The third and fourth main points of doctrine have been put together so can make for a little bit of a mouthful, but we'll read 3 slash 4 point 4, 5, and 6. Articles 4, 5, and 6 are the third and fourth main point of doctrine. Articles 4 and 5 are a little bit longer. I will read those, especially as they're not likely very familiar to us. makes them harder to read together. Article 6 is rather short. Why don't we read that one together when we come to Article 6. I'll begin reading at Article 4. The inadequacy of the light of nature. There is, to be sure, a certain light of nature remaining in man after the fall, by virtue of which he retains some notions about God, natural things, and the difference between what is moral and immoral, and demonstrates a certain eagerness for virtue and for good outward behavior. But this light of nature is far from enabling man to come to a saving knowledge of God and conversion to Him. So far, in fact, that man does not use it rightly even in matters of nature and society. Instead, in various ways, he completely distorts this light, whatever its precise character, and suppresses it in unrighteousness. In doing so, he renders himself without excuse before God. Article 5, the inadequacy of the law. In this respect, what is true of the light of nature is true also of the Ten Commandments given by God through Moses specifically to the Jews. For man cannot obtain saving grace through the echelon, because although it does expose the magnitude of his sin and increasingly convict him of his guilt, yet it does not offer a remedy or enable him to escape from his misery. And indeed, weakened as it is by the flesh, leaves the offender under the curse. Now I'll state article six and then we can read it together. Article six, the saving power of the gospel. What therefore neither the light of nature nor the law can do, God accomplishes by the power of the Holy Spirit through the word or the ministry of reconciliation. This is the gospel without the Messiah through which it has pleased God to save believers in both the Old and New Testament. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the title of this sermon could be God Makes His Own Children. Do you remember your own birth? No. Do your parents remember your own birth? Yes. Did you play a major part in your own birth? No. Did your parents play a major part in your own birth? Yes. These facts about birth are easily stated and easily understood. And we can say something very similar. In fact, this is the illustration type word which scripture uses to describe spiritual birth. This is clearly taught in scripture, although the history of the church has shown that despite the clear teachings of the Word of God, this teaching is not so quickly embraced. But tonight, we'll see that God is the one who brings about the spiritual birth of His children. And if you are like me, you will learn a new English word, new to you, which is actually a very old English word, as we work through these truths together. And our three points as we work through the canons this evening, basically moving from Article 4 to Article 5 to Article 6. First point, what nature does. Second, what the law does. and also what nature does not do and what the law does not do. And then our third point, what God does. So what does nature do? And if you would have your Bibles open with me, especially to the book of Romans, we'll be mostly turning to Romans a number of different times. Let's begin in Romans chapter one. And again, you can keep a finger between Romans 1 and Romans 10. I think we're turning to six different selections this evening. Romans 1, beginning at verse 18, what is nature able to do? And it's taught most explicitly here. We can read also about how the heart of man is foolish in Psalm 14, and certainly that has implications in this matter. We might say that we could read about these truths in narrative form if we turn to Genesis 6 to 9 and read about the flood, but it is most explicitly stated here, Romans 1, beginning at verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Again, we can think of how these truths that man is left without excuse, that the wrath of God is completely justified because of man's suppression of the truth which is before him. We could say this is taught in narrative form. Genesis 6-9, God looks at man and says, why did I create man? He brings the flood. He brings just judgment. But here it is stated in explicitly clear terms in just a few verses. Nature is clear, but man suppresses that clear truth and then is left without excuse at the judgment of God. Now, What does nature not do? Well, what does verse 18 say? Verse 18 says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, righteously, justly, but heaven, nature, we don't find, you know, we don't find some letters in a flower field that say Jesus Christ. We don't see that. We used to have, when I was little, we had a hillside and there are these wildflowers that grew there every year and I was just totally fascinated by it when I was little because every year it looked like the letter O to me. It was really just kind of a circle and there was a little space in the middle. I don't know why. Right? But we don't go out in nature and find, oh, there's a, you know, a J and an E and an S and a U. We don't find something like that in nature. Nature reveals who God is, but it doesn't proclaim salvation. And we need to hear the good news in order to be saved. Romans says this as well. And so if you would turn with me to Romans 10. and the rest of our passages in Romans will fall between Romans 1 and 10. And Romans 10 verse 14 says what? How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? You see, nature does not say this. And so what is the power of God unto salvation? Well, it's not those things which nature clearly reveals. It's. It's Jesus Christ. To everyone who believes in him. and that is one of the marks of a believer, as our text says it. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. We'll speak more about the order of that in our third point, but what is it clearly? If you've been born of God, well then you're one who believes in Jesus. How can you believe in Jesus unless you've heard of Jesus, as it says in Romans 10? Nature cannot do this. Nature never has and never will. Nature itself cannot do this. So as the canons say in Article 4, this light of nature is far from enabling man to come to a saving knowledge of God and a conversion to Him. Yes, nature clearly does something, even as our confessions explicitly state that we don't know particularly what this light is. But there is some light, there is some knowledge. This isn't just So we can use nature in two different ways now. We can talk about nature as in the animal kingdom and nature itself in that sense, but this is also nature, man's own nature, which has a certain light. remaining in it after the fall. This relates to moral things, right? We're still made in the image of God. All people still have some idea that there is morality, that there is right and that there is wrong. But because we suppress the truth, to use the language of Romans 1, man is left unable. to properly distinguish between what is moral and immoral. In fact, he does not use it rightly. That is the language of our confessions. It's distorted. It's not used rightly. That's how the canons say it. It is suppressed, is how Romans says it. Now, we could say something about nature itself as well. Nature itself being creation, the animal kingdom. And there too, there's something. We might even say in the behavior of animals, we see something of morality, a little something. It's not perfect, of course. The animal kingdom has now fallen and groans itself. And so animals do terrible things to other animals. They do terrible things to animals of other kinds. They do terrible things to animals of their own kind. They do terrible things to their own offspring. But there is something, here's a big word, altruistic. Altruistic behavior, right? So which means, basically, when one animal does something which benefits another animal, but it appears to have no benefit to itself. So in an animal, so say for example, we get some examples of this in nature. Birds will take in the young of another bird. So like a bird, a chick of one type, and their parents are dead, it's wandering, and then you think it's gonna die, but different birds come and raise it. That's one example called altruistic behavior. If you want to do something almost comical, look up how people of the world try to talk about why animals would do things from altruism. Evolutionists have a terribly difficult time describing why this exists in nature. Why would animals ever do something good for other animals that doesn't benefit them? especially when they're not their own offspring. Although even that is a little bit confusing within the evolutionary context. It's just, it's all for me, right? So why even raise your own offspring, much less the offspring of another animal? This is really weird. And the explanations of it are very almost comical in a sad kind of way. So even nature itself, not just the image of God which remains in man, shows something. We might say it this way, there are some animals which mate for life, right? There are others which do all kinds of terrible things in that regard. But, nature itself does not show us even what is right, much less what we need to know for salvation. And that includes not just nature itself, but the nature of the image of God, which remains in man as made in the image of God. It all falls short. It all falls short. It doesn't even show us, because it is suppressed, the law rightly. And that brings us to our second point, what the law does, what the law can do. And for this we can turn, if you are in Romans still, just over to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, verses 19 and 20. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. So that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. knowledge of sin. This is what the law does. That which has been suppressed, when we might say it this way, when it is merely written upon the heart, it is suppressed. We don't even understand the law itself rightly. But when it's written down in stone, well now, man is held accountable even in a further way. And through the law comes knowledge of sin. It shows clearly what sin is. It does this more clearly than the light of nature. It in that sense does something which nature does not do, right? When it comes to nature, what is written on our hearts, it's so easily distorted and suppressed. But then when it's written down clearly in stone, there's a way in which it can no longer be ignored. The whole world then may be held accountable to God. But Romans 7 tells us there's something else which the law does. Romans 7, we'll read 5 to 8, and then pause and read 9 and 10. Think of this in light of what the law does. Romans 7, verse 5, for while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. What then shall we say? That the law is sin by no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. Do you hear what the Apostle is saying here? Sin seizes an opportunity when the commandment is made clear. In other words, our nature is such that when the law is proclaimed clearly, it only incites us to open rebellion against God. What happened when I had the law? Sin seized an opportunity. It's like a small child who knows they're doing wrong and rejoices in it. I know it's wrong and now sin is going to seize an opportunity to do it all the more because by nature, we want to be in rebellion against God. So the Apostle saying, he's saying, I am in rebellion against God. The law comes, the law shows me clearly what God requires. And what does the law do? It incites my sinful nature to take hold of that and rebel all the more openly against God. No, this isn't the law's fault. What shall we say? That the law is sin by no means? But this is what in our nature we do. So Romans 7 verse 10, the very commandment that promised life proved to be death. And then he speaks again about sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment. It deceived me and through it killed me. So what does the law do? Two basic things. First, the law reveals clearly a knowledge of what God requires. That which cannot be suppressed as we suppress the light of nature. But second, the law actually incites us to break the law all the more quickly in what is now open rebellion. So in the end, the law is just like nature in that it cannot itself bring us to salvation. And it is only more than nature in the sense that it reveals more clearly what God requires and that it leads us to more open rebellion. So where does this leave us? Where does this leave us? Clearly, this leaves us in need of one who actually is righteous. This is where we're left. Surely, this leaves us in need of God and of new spiritual birth. In other words, The law, nature can't do it. The law, which we think might do it, only makes it worse. This is the bad news, but the good news is that what, therefore, neither the light of nature nor the law can do, God accomplishes by the power of the Holy Spirit. He uses means. He uses His Holy Spirit. He uses the Word and the ministry of reconciliation. But God is the one who does it. God is the one who gives birth. And he does it through his son, who, remember, the law is not to blame. No, the law has to be kept perfectly. Who did that? Jesus Christ, one who was born under the law, as it says in Galatians 4. one who kept the law perfectly, one who died for our sins, who knowing both the light of nature and the law of God have only increased our guilt. This is the good news and it is very good news. The law cannot be abolished. The law cannot be abolished. But Jesus kept it. We're not working all the way through 1 John 5, but it speaks of this, doesn't it? This is the love of God that we keep the commandments. This is one of the applications that flows from the reality of who we are spoken of in chapter five, verse one. And what is that reality in chapter five, verse one? That everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Notice, what is the order here? Notice two things that 1 John 5, verse one does not say. One of them we've already spoken of. 1 John 5, verse one does not remove Jesus from the picture. Nature is not enough. We need to know about Jesus. 1 John 5 verse 1 does not remove Jesus from the picture. But notice what else 1 John 5 verse 1 does not say. It does not say this. Those who had believed in Jesus are now being born of God. It does not say that. It says the opposite. Those who, everyone who believes, that is, what is presently seen and what presently describes the person who is a believer, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, and now what is the thing which has been accomplished in the past, was done in the past, here is now the past tense, has been born of God. You believe that means that you have been born of God. He accomplished it. He brought you forth. He gave birth to you spiritually. This is this is very much what we read from John in the Gospel of John and in John chapter three. And when the When Nicodemus, the Pharisee, comes by night, John 3, verse 3, Jesus answered him, Truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. We are a mess. The flesh is flesh. The flesh distorts the light of nature. The flesh takes the law and only makes more open rebellion. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes. And you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. You do not know your own birth. You do not remember it. And so it is not only of our physical birth, but also of our spiritual birth. God is the one who does it. God accomplishes our birth. What nature cannot do, what the law cannot do, God does. He gives birth to his children. Here's the word that I didn't know was actually an English word. I knew begot, begotten, but begat. I hadn't thought of that as an English word. And you see, in 1 John 5 verse 1, the word father is not actually used. We don't really use some of these old words anymore, so it makes sense that modern translations use the word Father. But let me read 1 John 5 verse 1 in the Old King James and hear this word. 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. And that very much since follows the Greek where the word father is not used. It's all about the bringing forth the one who begat and those who are begotten from him. He's the one who did it. He's the one who brings forth his children. He is the one who accomplishes salvation. And that is the beautiful truth and the beautiful good news, which brings us away from from us on our own apart from Jesus Christ, where whether we have the light of nature or the law with it, we are still lost until God comes and accomplishes salvation. And then there are other applications which flow from it. And A sermon on 1 John 5, 1-5 would be required to see just what is said there, but we can also read that and get the main thrust, can we not? now whenever we look at any child of God. So let me put it this way. We spoke this morning together, for all of us who are here, people of God, about how there's one who is despised by the world, but we are called by God to not just pray for the rich, but also for the poor. We would desire that all would come forth. So now let's not think of this in terms of evangelism, but let's think of this in terms of those who are already a part of us. Let's think about this in terms of those who are our fellow brothers and sisters right now. You see, since this is all what God has accomplished, no one has any reason to boast. We all must point to Jesus Christ, and everyone who is a part of this body is a son or daughter of God, and there is great dignity in that. That's what defines our fellow brothers and sisters, not their past sins or not what we may perceive to be their immaturity or this or that or whatever. Now, since God has accomplished it, that is the primary identity of all his children. And so 1 John 5, 1-5 is very much about church unity. But also about overcoming the world. God is the God over all things. He will overcome all things. And His children share in that victory. The applications flow from this, but the basic essential movement is this. We are only left in more need of salvation when the law is given. But in God there is salvation and life. So, look to God believe in Jesus, which is a mark which we can now see that shows, yes, all who believe in Jesus have been born of God. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, the one who has brought us forth. May we know then our complete dependence upon you and rejoice in our complete dependence upon you. Make us to be grateful, faithful sons and daughters We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Our song then of application, number 242, and let us stand together to sing all the stanzas of 242. you. Where long before creation You had chosen us in love, And what love so deep, so moving, Draws us close to Christ above, Still it keeps us firmly based in Christ alone. Though the world may change its fashion, you will still remain the same. Your compassion and your covenant through all ages will remain. Your own children shall forever praise Mercy free and never failing, moves our will, directs our way. God so loved us that he gave his only Son. Father, now before you we shall ever sing your grace, and our song will sound forever when we see you face to face, giving glory to the Lamb upon People of God, it's time now for our evening gifts and offerings this evening. That's for the general fund. Following that, the benediction, then our closing doxology number 563. Yeah. you If you would stand, if able. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Through the grace of Christ our Savior and the Father's boundless love, with the Holy Spirit's favor, rest upon us from above. Thus may we, abiding Joyous which earth cannot afford. ["Pomp and Circumstance"]