[0:00] The End The End The End
[1:30] The End The End The End The End The Lord's help will direct you to the gospel according to John chapter 1 and verses 11 and 12.
[2:29] We've read the context. We're at the center with the Lord's help in verse 11 and 12. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
[2:48] 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.
[3:04] John is declaring the Lord Jesus Christ in the most profound and beautiful way we can use that expression.
[3:25] A true way.
[3:55] When you read the words of Jesus Christ, he could never give that understanding of anything that was not right because he was true.
[4:06] And you may pray to him, and you may pray to him, and you may pray to him, and the Lord give it to you, and plead his words, and plead his promises, because he is true.
[4:18] And he is true.
[4:48] The Lord give it to him, and the Lord give it to him, and the Lord give it to you. then hath the Jew much in every way because chiefly unto them were committed the oracles of God.
[5:01] What is the reasoning and the summing up of it? Is he the God of the Jews only? No. Is he not the God of the Gentiles? God has saved the uncircumcision through faith and the circumcision through faith and the uncircumcision, that is the Gentiles like us, by faith.
[5:27] I'm not going to go into that truth, believer, you will understand and seek to understand further, I am sure, that the Jews have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.
[5:46] They have rejected his word for that which is inferior. The works of men, the Koran and others. The word of God is rejected as the Son of God is connected.
[6:01] He came unto his own and his own received him not. That's the sad declaration of John and it's true. But if you were to follow spiritually what is difficult to understand how that one day they shall look on him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him.
[6:28] The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem now is no reflection really of what it must be to mourn for the dear Redeemer as one mourns for his only Son.
[6:46] Some of you may know that. But to spiritually mourn after and mourn for Christ is the blessing promised. The Jews are gained to be grafted in.
[6:58] I leave these things, it is not my work this morning. But he came unto his own and his own received him not. And you that are born again by God's Spirit and know the strivings of the Spirit in your soul.
[7:18] The very Spirit of God who said, I will not always strive with man. Spoken in Genesis. I will not always go after men and strive with them.
[7:33] There will come a day when the Gospel will no more be preached. And the day of mercy will be passed. And the Spirit will no longer strive with men through the preaching of the Gospel.
[7:48] Solemn day when there will be no more striving with men. But we live in the Gospel day and there is a striving with men. And because of that striving of the Holy Spirit with sinners like you and I, there has come a receiving of a precious Christ into the hearts by faith.
[8:11] It's all of the freest and sovereign mercy of God. And it's all to the glory of his grace. And you say, why for so long he came to me, to my soul, striving, seeking, contending with me in the Gospel by the Word of truth.
[8:31] And we received him not. But there's a time of love, isn't there? Believer, you know it. There's a time, a set time to favour Zion.
[8:47] There's a set time to receive Christ in your soul's experience. And here's the comfort of our word this morning, but as many as received him.
[9:01] That to my spirit this morning is very, very beautiful. The receiving of Christ into your poor soul.
[9:12] I felt that he softened in these truths this morning. But as many as received him.
[9:24] You see, the world doesn't receive him. The world in its folly and madness doesn't want him. The carnal heart, enmity against God, will not receive him, does not want, sees no beauty in him to desire him.
[9:41] To them he is the root head of a dry ground, hath no form nor comeliness that they should desire him. But as many as received him.
[9:53] To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name and believer for your comfort, having known that disregard you once had that barrier broken down in your soul.
[10:14] Oh, do ponder this truth in his set force here this morning which were born not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but of God, but of God.
[10:31] No, it was not the will of man nor flesh. my soul's new heavenly birth began. It was of God. Can you bless God this morning that it was of God?
[10:45] God. God's striving, God's power, God making you willing in the day of his power to repent and to receive Jesus Christ into your poor heart by faith.
[11:02] Can you bless God this morning that these things are true? They're true in him and they're true in your own experience. There's a word here, I'm sure it has stumbled a good many of us in our spiritual understanding early days and since.
[11:22] to them gave he power, power. Men love to talk of power, don't they? They love to talk and boast of power and today many under false claims of the Holy Spirit upon them love to talk of power and influence, what the Lord showed them, what wonderful visions.
[11:45] I leave that. It's sad but it isn't all so when the Spirit of the Lord is graciously revealing his love with power, his enabling with power that if there's a receiving of Christ there's a coming.
[12:04] You cannot separate a coming from a receiving nor a receiving without a coming. If you receive there must be a coming and that'll be all of his gracious work and influence in your soul.
[12:18] You say don't talk to me of power. I'm under such an exercise of soul at the moment that I feel to be weak and sinful and encompassed with sinful infirmities and many fears many misgivings.
[12:43] Don't talk to me of power. I can't understand it. I can't relate it to the truth that we've given out this morning as a text. Let's understand the word of right.
[12:56] In our margins it says the right to become the sons of God. You say how can it possibly be to have power to become when I feel so poor?
[13:09] Understand it my friends a little the Lord will give us grace to set it out. Not only the right it's the ability the ability to come to come as helped enabled to come with power to please and power to lay hold and power to believe and power to receive the witness of the spirit of adoption whereby we cry father father I want to take you for a little while to godly Jacob we've read of his exercise of mind his brother hated him had sworn vengeance and now although that was not in Esau's heart because Esau was prospered he really couldn't be troubled to take out vengeance against Jacob you might say
[14:16] Jacob feared for naught but the fear was an exercise of the Lord to provoke Jacob to pray and Jacob did pray O Lord thou saidst unto me I will surely do thee good is it going to fall to the ground Lord is it all to come to nothing they saidst I will surely do thee good now I'm too bad I'm divided and now I've got to send the family on in droves and if one drove is destroyed the next one may be spared and so it will come down the line and perhaps I will be destroyed many fears and Jacob we read was left alone sinner child of God the Lord often brings us there you know Jacob was left alone it's good to be alone yet sometimes we fear to be alone we're too lonely to be alone we're too afraid to be alone we're too carnal to be alone we must be occupied as the world seeks to be occupied and every moment taken up with music and some distraction of one form or another child of
[15:40] God Jacob was left alone good place and they wrestled with Jacob a man a man who was that man do we know some have said the angel of the covenant some have said Jesus Christ in his pre incarnation appearance yes we might well consider when Jacob said for I have seen God face to face we might see our dear Emmanuel in his free incarnation form appearing to Jacob powerful wrestling with Jacob I've thought of the physical wrestling the wrestling was so strong that the man said let me go he perceived that
[16:46] Jacob was strong his power given to him was to lay hold and to wrestle in such a way in his fear that he was sensible he was wrestling with God and he wanted his God to appear and he wanted his God to deliver and he wanted his God to bless him and so he wrestled that wasn't just a physical wrestling was it it was so because when the hollow of his joint was touched it was put out of joint and it shrank and under the heat we see Jacob resting upon his star weary because his body was touched but here you see something a little further let me go for the day breaketh what wrestling Jacob told
[17:46] God all his troubles put before him all his fears and came as a needy man unto his God the God of his father Abraham and Isaac and the God that had promised him the God that said in thee shall all I see be blessed he could wrestle as he must because he must lay hold upon that which God had given him he wrestled in that his whole body mind and soul and spirit was engaged in that wrestling let let let him power and power i will not let thee go except they'll bless me power my friends power power the ability, the gracious enabling of the Spirit of God in Jacob to wrestle with his God in a way that he would not let him go.
[18:51] He dared not and he could not and he would not until the Lord blessed him. Arrogant? Never, my friends, never. No arrogance here. A true living soul fleeting with his God.
[19:08] The faithfulness of God to his promises and of his revealed mercy to such a sinner as Jacob felt to be. A supplanter, a deceiver.
[19:19] That was his name. What is thy name, he said. It's true, as John said, he was in the world, wasn't he?
[19:31] He was in the world, yes. He made the world and he was in the world before he was born of a virgin. Before he fulfilled all that was declared of his human nature, he was in the world.
[19:44] What is thy name? Jacob. Jacob, a supplanter, a deceiver. There should no more be called Jacob but Israel.
[19:55] Israel, the father of many. And poor Jacob, blessed with such grace and access and nearness and freeness, he said, I pray thee, tell me thy name.
[20:17] Tell me the name of the man that's wrestling with me. Tell me the name of the godlike person that is wrestling with me. Why do you ask my name?
[20:33] Said the man. And he didn't tell him, but he blessed him there. Beautiful, isn't it? Jacob didn't need any more telling, did he?
[20:46] He didn't need to be told any more that that was God that was wrestling with him. In the person of the dear Saviour and Redeemer. The God of eternal grace and purposes.
[20:59] He didn't need any more, did he? I've seen God face to face and my life is preserved. What did the man say to Jacob?
[21:14] As a prince, thou hast power and hast prevailed with God. And that's the power, I believe, of their text in the Gospel.
[21:28] To them gave he power. It won't be a power that vaunts you and lifts you up with pride. It won't be a power that gives you the boast of God's gifts.
[21:43] It will be the power to plead with God. Enabling you to lay your case and to plead and tell him all your case like that woman in the Gospel.
[21:54] She told him all her case. And if that power from on high is with you, the power of the Holy Ghost upon you in your believing, you'll tell him all your case.
[22:08] Not some of it. Not some of it. All of it. I love Peter's expression, Lord, thou knowest all things.
[22:20] Thou knowest that I love thee all things. And it's power to tell your case.
[22:33] It's power to set forth your Saviour. Tell him all that he is to us. Tell him all that he has promised to do for you. In his loving kindness, in mercy.
[22:45] Plead his grace. Plead his power. Plead his pardon. And as a prince, there has prevailed and has power with God. You say, that belongs surely to great men in religion.
[22:59] No, my friends. The feeblest believer that hangs upon Jesus Christ has power to prevail with God.
[23:10] When I was in hospital in my first heart attack, or second heart attack, I think it was, I was with a man and I won't name his religion, but I felt he was a godly man.
[23:27] But in his coming and receiving of Christ, he had a very different terminology to us. He said, I remember the day I received the Lord Jesus Christ into my heart.
[23:42] I said, do you? He said, yes. Blessed day. He said, I remember when I gave my heart to the Lord.
[23:53] I said, do you? He said, yes. Yes. You say, surely you're not going to bring free will into the sermon this morning.
[24:05] No, my friend. Free is grace. I led that man into an understanding and I got a confession out of his heart that it was all of the Lord and it was the Lord's goodness.
[24:19] But that's how the dear man felt in his spiritual, godly simplicity. I received the Lord into my heart. You know, in the book of Revelation, you read of him that stands at the door and knocks.
[24:41] This was the door of the Laodicean church. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Some of you know that knocking.
[24:56] Why did the Lord stand at the door and knock as the head of that church and of all the churches? Was he impotent? Never. He had a lawful right as the head of the church to be worshipped, to be glorified, to be had in reverence.
[25:19] He had a lawful right to be within. And sinner, in your coming, in your need, in your despair, in your prayers and in your desires, in the striving of the Spirit with you, in the enabling that the Spirit gives you, you'll find in your coming that there's one that is without standing at the door and knocking.
[25:50] Because your heart is his royal throne. Oh, don't say that, you say. My heart is evil. My heart is a den of thieves, oh God.
[26:03] Be merciful to me. It's his lawful right. It's the Saviour coming to claim his own, his bride, that he hath redeemed with his own precious blood.
[26:18] He comes ever and stands at the door, now take it a little farther, if any man will open to me.
[26:30] Oh, my friend, who but a coming sinner with all his need and guilt and despair and yet hope and prayers and desires, who but a coming sinner, who but who's taught to know what a sinner he is and the guilt of the Lord, who but led to the Spirit will ever open to such a Saviour who has a perfect right.
[26:58] It's so sad, my friends, I could look at you and I could sweetly hope and pray that all of you know what it is for the Lord Jesus Christ to come into your heart.
[27:10] I could hope and pray that all of you will be able to say, I received the Lord Jesus Christ into my heart and I could hope and pray that you could say, yes, and I gave my heart to the Lord because if you don't and haven't, my friends, you're in a sad state.
[27:29] A sinner that has never given his heart to the Lord is a double-minded man in all his ways and will perish at last. Isn't it sad to think that there are so many in professional religion that have never felt it in their hearts to say, Lord, come in, Lord, come in, come in, Lord, take possession of my breast.
[27:55] There thy blood bought right, maintained, come, and without a rival reign. Do you know it, my friends? Oh, I'd be a deceiver if I didn't, to give my heart to the Lord, my poor, sinful heart.
[28:13] I give him, I tell him all my sins and woes we sing, and he reveals his love to me. This isn't free will, is it?
[28:25] Oh, so contrary to that doctrine, the doctrine of another gospel runs so closely alongside the true gospel, but it's another gospel still, and all that men say of their own strivings is but another gospel that will leave men in despair and damnation at last.
[28:47] If any man will open to me, I will come in and suck with him and he with me. Do you know the opening of the heart in the receiving of Christ?
[29:05] Doctrinally, yes, we receive him in his word, we receive him by faith in the heart, but the experience of faith, the sacred and holy sanctified feelings of faith in the soul are where we receive him as a sinner to a saviour, where we suck with him and he with us, when we tell him all our woes and he reveals all his love and that's the gospel.
[29:33] He came into the world to save sinners, he comes to claim his own, it's his own blood-bought race. I should never forget my friends when I first prayed pleading for Christ's sake, I should never, never forget it and I felt my prayer was lifted forward and it was entered into the ear of God and I knew for the first time in my life that God had heard my poor pride when I prayed for Christ's sake.
[30:04] The virtue of his name seemed so wonderful, I've never lost the sense of it or the sight of it now. Mercy through blood I make my plea, O God, be merciful to me.
[30:21] So going back to that man and I believe his life was a godly life. His phrase y'all is he so different for they were brought up to it but he said I was such a lad he said.
[30:36] I love the music and the hymns but I didn't love the law. I didn't love the truth, that was boring but there came a time when I gave my heart to the law.
[30:51] You see, it was a time of love, wasn't it? It was the Lord's time. It was the Lord's, the King of grace, the King of glory, the King of my heart.
[31:05] It was the Lord irresistibly giving you power, gracious enabling and the right and the privilege. What for?
[31:16] to claim that you're a son, a son forgiven, a daughter whose faith has made her whole. Oh, my friends, see how there's that have come in the scriptures that you might find a comparison in your own experience.
[31:42] you take blind Bartimaeus. None of us are blind inwardly so, yes, of course, spiritually considered but none literally blind, I hope.
[31:57] But in his blindness and in his begging and in his being despised of all that passed by, there was faith raised up in that man's heart to believe that Jesus, who went about doing good was the son of David and could heal him of his blindness.
[32:18] And when he heard that Jesus passed by, he cried out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me, not just look upon me because I'm blind but have mercy upon me.
[32:34] He saw Jesus to be God full of mercy and compassion that could save and would see no reason why not to save.
[32:51] You know, there's a beautiful teaching in Scripture and Jesus taught it who said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me.
[33:03] They all shall come. Not one will be left behind. not most, not a few. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.
[33:15] And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. There's no wisdom of God's justice or holiness since I paid their debt and guilt.
[33:29] There's no wisdom in my heart. There's no wisdom in Satan's power to keep and to cast you out. There's no wise I will cast that out. There's no reasons in your own soul why you should be kept away if the Saviour draws you.
[33:45] I will in no wise cast a coming sinner out. There's no wisdom in heaven or earth or in hell that will keep a coming sinner from receiving a Saviour. No wisdom of men.
[34:00] None come, said Jesus, except the Father which sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day, him that comes, him that receives and him that believes.
[34:15] I will raise him up. Now you see the drawing love of the Father, the drawing power of the Holy Ghost, the drawing consolation of Christ and that's how we come as sinners.
[34:30] We're drawn and so we come and so we receive and so we give our heart for the Lord and so the Lord can look on all his loved ones and all his redeemed ones as redeemed as precious stones being built up and growing unto an holy temple in the Lord and as jewels in his crown created for himself.
[34:56] love. Now you take that blind man, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
[35:07] No one else has. No one else is likely to have mercy upon me. But he cried the more and they tried to stifle him. And here's a lesson for us that those that tried to prevent him were commanded to bring him, bring him unto me, bring him unto me.
[35:32] And for all his crying the Lord said, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee, Lord, that I might receive my sight?
[35:43] Go in faith, go in peace. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Is that coming to a dear redeemer?
[35:55] Oh, you've got to wait for twelve years or twelve months for your healing? Coming sinner, it isn't like that, is it? It isn't like that, is it?
[36:07] Lord, the Lord said, what wilt thou have that I should do unto thee? Simple question, simple answer, Lord, that I might receive my sight.
[36:20] A simple favour, receive thy sight, receive it. That's your faith, there's the answer to it, coming sinner. You say, but I don't seem to have got much faith.
[36:34] The faith that God gives you, the grace of his enabling through faith to venture and to come, and to come with nothing, and to lay at his dear feet, and to plead his name and his word in it, is the power, and that to become the sons of God.
[36:54] I'll take one other expression. When Jesus showed his power, he said, Son, thy sins be forgiven. And that crippled man rose, took up his bed and walked.
[37:09] His body was healed and his sins were forgiven. And that woman had that spoken to her, daughter, go in peace, thy faith has made thee whole.
[37:20] And what was the faith? Yes, Lord, but I know that. I know it's not right to give the children's meat to dogs, but even the dogs can eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
[37:39] Thy faith saved thee. The power, my friends, the power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name.
[37:53] Now in coming, there's a receiving. And in receiving, there's a believing. And all this in the will of God. For Jesus said, this is the will of my Father, which is in heaven.
[38:07] That everyone that sees the Son and believeth in him hath everlasting life. And this is the will of God, that if all that thou hast given me I should raise him up.
[38:24] None of them is lost. None shall pluck you from my Father's hand. What about your coming this morning, my friend? I love hymns.
[38:36] I don't, I find a good theology in them. They're not scripture. They're based on scripture, theology and truth. If I ask him to receive me, will he say me nay?
[38:55] Will he? That's the question. Not till earth. and not till heaven pass away. And they won't pass away, will they?
[39:07] Until God wills it at last and commands it by his power. If I ask him, it's a children's hymn, isn't it? Will it be your prayer? If I ask him to receive me as a sinner, a hell deserving sinner, a helpless sinner, in all my weakness, will he say me nay?
[39:32] Turn me away. Find him wisdom in his heart, say I can't have you. Take another hymn of truth, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bids me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, not stay away, I come, I come.
[40:07] Power, grace. How many of us counted a privilege to have come that way? Not like the Pharisee, I thank God I'm not as other men are, but God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
[40:23] And what to find, what to find? To become the sons and daughters of God. And the work is the work of the spirit of adoption.
[40:38] Spirit of adoption, breathe and tell me all thy name. Just like Jacob, isn't it? Tell me, Lord, thy name.
[40:50] The God I pray to, tell me that thou art the living God, that thou art the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on Calvary. Tell me that thou art my God and will be forever.
[41:04] And he blessed him there. And sinner, perhaps you can take me to the spot where the Lord blessed you there, in all your misery, in all your need, in all your helplessness, and he raised you up.
[41:21] And the dunghill, to sit amongst princes, to call you one of his sons, and one of his daughters. And he sent forth the spirit of his sons, said the apostle to the Galatians, into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
[41:40] Oh, my friend, that's one of the sweetest experiences I cherished when I called God my Father. And still summarizes in a hymn, doesn't see, my God, my Father, blissful name, oh, may I call thee mine, may I with sweet assurance claim a portion so divine.
[42:06] If only can my fears control and bid my trouble cease, what harm can ever reach my soul, if thou art God art near.
[42:16] to have the sweet assurance then of the psalmist when he said, this God is my God and will be forever.
[42:29] Amen. Amen. Amen. Our final hymn is number 376 in Gatsby's, and the tune is Bethlehem 447.
[42:55] Hymn 376. Lord, I cannot let thee go, till a blessing thou bestow. Do not turn away thy face, mine's an urgent pressing case.
[43:11] 376. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[43:21] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[43:59] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[44:09] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[44:19] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yet the weather clears the sea To the Lord I sit with thee I can't surrender the Lord He will be red and bright before To my grace, my mighty love And the breath of the Lord was my name
[45:31] Once a day in the year is where So my grace is thee I can't As he has been set with me All my glory, my mighty name Where the grace of the Lord is where Where the grace of the Lord is where Where the grace of the Lord is where
[46:34] Then I be the best of the Lord Through the Lord the heart must love And the love of the Lord is where This may all have been to me What a firm and firm and firm How the grace of the Lord is where I am And the love of the Lord is where The power that he singeth now
[47:35] Though my God may take my home Till my Lord has raised me home I can't hold thee high of faith When my people hear the same O Lord, it is thy goodness that makes us bold.
[48:31] We have not come at our own charges. We have not spoken our own words. With thy help we have set forth thy word and thy truth.
[48:44] O Lord, then we pray, let sinners come, let sinners receive, let there be that gracious response in the heart.
[48:57] And let future days and life prove that here were born sons and daughters.
[49:08] Here were received sons and daughters as sinners called to be saved. And let it be recorded this day that ere God has been gracious, ere God has wrought his purposes of grace from all eternity, this day.
[49:27] May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, the communion of God the Holy Spirit, abide with us this day and forevermore.
[49:42] Amen. Amen. Amen.
[50:09] Thank you.