Born into the Body

Before we get into the message, I do want to make an announcement about our preaching direction. I felt strongly impressed that we needed to cover what we've been looking at the past few weeks. So next week we'll get back into the Sermon on the Mount in Chapter 6. So maybe dust off your notebook with those notes. You need to go back and listen to a message or two and come in here ready to study what True Kingdom Living is all about. Remember the series title? It's called the Extraordinary Christian Life. And it's not that there is an ordinary Christian life and then we have this extraordinary Christian life. No.

The true Christian life is an extraordinary life. Now we'll go ahead and tell you about our message this morning. I will not have any information on the screens. It's just a lot of review. And I think you'll see what I mean by it doesn't need to be on the screen. I don't want us to be distracted. So you follow along. I always encourage you to take notes. And if I say something that hits you, jot it down. If I mention a scripture or two, you jot those down. But more than anything, I want us to be together in heart and mind and in spirit and what we're studying. Well, like I said earlier, turn to 1 Corinthians 12.

That's where we'll be first of all in verses 12 to 27. And I'll read a few of those verses, but not all of them because we did read them in our scripture reading time. And then later towards the end of the message, I will ask you to turn to John chapter 1. Just two verses there, verse 12 and verse 13. Now this morning we're going to finish up our little series that we've been in for several weeks and that is Life in the Body. For 10 weeks we have been examining really one large subject. I call it one large subject because it's all about living life in the body in the local church. We haven't been focusing on life in the church universal.

I think you know what that term means. We've not been looking at life in the denomination. We are looking at life in the local body of Christ, the local church. Now we've been examining some specific topics, but everything we have studied pertains to this one large topic and that is living life in the local body. Do you have that theme by now? I think you do. Now why did I pause in our study through the Sermon on the Mount for this series? Why did I put our series on hold? Well as pastor here, I really felt burdened for three particular reasons and you could probably add to this list of reasons.

There were three reasons that burden me to address what we've been looking at. First of all as a church we have faced a few difficulties. Some of you know what I'm referring to and we've done well through these difficulties I firmly believe. Now don't be alarmed. Don't be alarmed by that because all churches face struggles. The real concern that we should have in our minds and hearts is how is the church facing those difficulties? And what we have studied has really helped some of you answer questions. Some of you have gained spiritual insight.

You've gained spiritual understanding and I have seen you grow and others have seen many of you grow as well. And then also I have come to realize more and more the past couple of years that many in churches today simply do not know how to behave and live in the church. Many just do not know how to live the Christian life in the local church and functioning as God would have them the function. And there are many reasons why. Mostly I believe it's because so many of us have come from terribly weak and terribly sick churches. Really we've all experienced this and really what happens here is you just do what you know even if it's false.

And the third reason some of you are new here at Grace Life Church and some of you would say that you're looking for a church home. Well what I have been bringing to you has helped you and of course all that we have been studying is not all that you need in considering a church home and we can help you there. Now let me show you what I'm talking about. I kind of want to give you an illustration here. You know as a pastor I counsel people often. A lot of times I counsel people in spiritual matters, personal spiritual matters. There are times I counsel matters and stuff that just pertains to life. You know folks will be buying a new home.

They'll be looking at a new job or difficulties in their work life. And they'll just want counsel and they'll want prayer and sometimes they'll want advice. But you know there are times when we help folks in family struggles. You know that's always gone on in my ministry throughout the years. When I was a youth pastor parents used to call me often. They'd be wanting help. They would have a struggling son or they would have a struggling daughter and they were wanting them to act right. They were wanting them to do well in school. And a lot of times they were just breaking rules in the home and they're wanting to act right in the home. You see?

Sometimes I help people in marriage struggles and it's about acting right and living godly within the home. But I reference the fact that sometimes people can have struggles in their family life. My wife was on the phone with one of our ladies just giving advice about how to deal with in-laws and sons and daughters. And I was having a conversation with a man in the life of the church this past week about dealing with siblings and parents and holidays. I think you see what I mean. Well this all relates. This all relates. Not only must we know how to live our life in our earthly family we must know how we should live in our church family.

That's the local church, the local body of Christ, that local church that we are identified with in and through church membership. You see? It's all about this little phrase. Life in the body. It's all life in the body. You can even summarize that. You can shorten that by calling it body life. And I think that some of you really need to grasp the term and the implications and the teaching and that's what we're doing here this morning. Well whether you know it or not that's what's happening with Paul in this Corinthian situation. Earlier we read out of 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

One of their basic problems was that they had a church full of people who did not know how to behave in the church. Now yes they had a lot of sins. They had a whole host of divisions and they had a lot of theological problems in the church. Really and truly they had more problems than most churches. Now think about it. I know I have said something like this before. The Corinthian church was so problematic that most of us would not have wanted to be there. Think about that. They had so many problems we would have wanted to move. We would have wanted to go to another church.

And it is safe to say that many of their problems did stem from those who just didn't know how to behave in the church. Let me show you what I mean. They had leadership problems. We see that in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. They had leadership problems and they didn't know how to behave and how to relate to their leaders. They had immorality, horrible immorality in the church. That was improper behavior. And see even folks in the pew didn't condemn that sin like they should have. They weren't behaving right. They had lawsuits in the church. Christians suing other Christians in the pagan courts. Well Paul was saying you don't act like that.

You don't behave like that. They had the abuse of the Lord's Supper. They had the abuse of spiritual gifts. Paul was dealing with those sins. Yes, but he's saying you don't act like that in the church you see. Now I know that many of their problems went deeper than behavior. I'm not trying to minimize what was happening here. I know that Paul was addressing grievous sins, deep divisions, terrible theological problems, but he was dealing with their behavior as well. Now question. How did Paul address this big and broad behavioral problem in the Corinthian church? How did he address this big and broad problem, behavioral problem in the church?

He did it by teaching them who they were and how they were to relate to each other. It was the who and how. Who they were and how they were to relate to each other. Now if you think about it, for us all that we have covered in this short series, it's dealt with who we are to be and how we are to live. Isn't that right? This is all spoken to who we are to be and how we are to live where in the local church. Now here's what I'm going to do this morning as we're closing out this series. I think I've mentioned this. I want to briefly glance at what we've studied and then I want to finish up with a question.

Now don't overlook the review because there's some application and some comments. There's some teaching that I believe we all need to see. But what is the question we must ask here? How do we get into the body? See this is all about body life, life in the body. And we must ask ourselves how do we get into the body, the body of Christ, this body called the local church. Now before we quickly glance at some of the topics, we really need to spend a little time remembering how we started the series. Listen folks, we need to see how we started. We really need to let all of this soak into our thinking. This needs to soak into our understanding.

It needs to soak into the way we think and the way we live in the church. I can't emphasize that enough. Now right away we learn that as individual Christians in a local church we are one but many. Let me say that again. We are one but we are many. We saw this in 1 Corinthians 12 verses 12 to 14. Now I do want to read those verses. Notice what Paul is saying, "For just as the body is one and has many members," see the one but many, "and all of the members of the body, though they are many, are one body." So it is with Christ and Christ is being identified with the church there.

"For in the spirit we are all baptized in the one body, Jews are Greek, slaves are free, and we are all made to drink of one spirit." We are all in Christ is what he is saying. Now here we learn that born again Christians have a supernatural spiritual union with Christ and as a result we have this supernatural spiritual union with each other. And that each other are born again individuals in the local body of the church. Paul says in verse 13 that we are Holy Spirit baptized into Christ. Holy Spirit baptized into the body. And we need to see that Paul uses this word "baptized" for a reason. Now this is not water baptism, no.

Paul is pointing to something spiritual and this isn't some type of a second feeling or a second baptism, no. That's not what this verse of these verses mean. One scholar that I studied pointed out how the secular Greek sources of the day use this word baptism. They described a sunken ship as being baptized. It was immersed. That ship was not only submerged into the water but the ship was totally overwhelmed by the water. The ship was in the water and the water was in the ship. You see in the writer points out that that was Paul's message here in using this word baptized in the teaching. Christians are spiritually submerged into Christ.

They are in Christ and Christ is in them. He goes on to say the same, that the same goes for Christians and the body. You see Christians are immersed into each other and into the body. Spiritually speaking Christians are immersed into the body as well as being immersed into Christ and each other. You see how it's all tangled up together in a good way? And listen, this insight helps us to see that our Christianity is more than a profession of faith in Christ. It's more than this verbal confession. And this helps us see that our church membership is more than a name on a membership card that's been filed away.

And through this supernatural work we are one body in many parts. Because of this work in reality we must relate to each other properly. And that is what Paul is doing in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Only starting in verse 15 all the way down to verse 27 Paul is giving a teaching analogy. He goes between the teaching and the analogy. The analogy and the teaching. You see? And it's all to explain how God's people are to relate to each other. Now I'm not going to read verses 14, 15 on down to verse 27. You need to go read them on your own. Notice how Paul goes from the teaching to the analogy to illustrate the teaching.

Now here in the analogy Paul is showing us that we need each other. Doesn't the body need each other? Don't different parts of the body need the other parts? Yes, we are different from one another. But we need each other. We need each other and we are to care for one another. And because we are supernaturally baptized into Christ and we are supernaturally baptized into the local body, we need each other. We must care for one another. And this all happens though. We are different from one another. You see how the analogy of the body teaches these spiritual truths? And listen folks.

We must see that any individualistic attitude in the church is sinful behavior. That is a terrible, terrible way to live the Christian life. Any individualistic attitude or behavior to disconnect from the body is sinful. How can the eye say to the foot, I don't need you? You see? In any attitude or behavior of superiority is sinful. You see? Any attitude of superiority is sinful. How can the mouth say to the arm, I am more important than you? Isn't that what Paul is saying? Yes, a part of the body can strike out on its own. Yes, a part of the body can think of themselves as better than others.

But those attitudes and behaviors are not of Christ. They are not of Christ. So we learn right off in these verses. So much that pertains to who we are and how we are to live. Who are we? We are born again believers. And we have been supernaturally baptized into Christ and into the body, the church. And how do we live? We live as one body but with many members. And just like a physical body needs every part of the body and must care for every part of the body for the body to be healthy. So it is with the local church, the local body of Christ. Now let me illustrate it this way. I want to use my children. Right now is when they get nervous.

You know I tell my girls all the time who they are. I tell them all the time who they are. I tell them that they are a shepherd. What does that mean? They have my name. They represent me. They represent me and my name. They represent me and my wife. They represent their father and their mother. Isn't that right? They represent our family. But you know what else I tell them all the time? They represent you. They represent this church and you because my children are a part of the life of this church. You see? Now some of you might say, "Well pastor, are you carrying that too far?" No I'm not.

I tell them how they live and how they behave matters. Their behavior affects me. Their behavior affects their mother. Their behavior even affects their extended family. My extended family and listen, I tell them that their behavior affects this church as well. You see? What about with us? Who are members here? We must fully embrace who we are. As members of this church we are saying that we have been baptized into Christ and baptized into this local body. Baptized into each other and how we live affects not just this work, not just the name of the church, but how we live affects every individual part of the body. You see that?

And so we must truly examine how we live in relation to each other and the work of the church and the name of the church. The church is a whole. How many times have you seen somebody who was a leader or a member of a church and they go off the rails spiritually and it is a reflection of that local church? I see heads nodding. All right, back to Paul. Back to the Corinthian situation here. Paul was trying to help these believers to see their proper place in the body. Yes, they were individuals and their individuality was important, but most importantly they were to see themselves as members of one body, Christ's body, the church.

I've said it a thousand times, unity and diversity, diversity and unity you can say it any way you want. That was our first message and the message was one but meaning. Now that message in all of the verses we examine set the stage for all that we studied in the rest of the series. Everything relates back to this teaching, back to these truths, back to this, let me say it like this, this standard of living. You see?

And again, meditate on this teaching, learn those verses, go back and listen to those messages, meditate, let it soak into your mind and into your thinking and let this raise the bar for the way you view your individual Christian life and your church life. And then from there we moved on to some specific topics that the Lord really burdened me about. The topics we studied came to my mind in the past year or so by simply pastoring and doing what God has called me here. First we examined division in the church. We examined division in the body or the church. Of course we looked at this very divided church there in Corinth.

It was our illustration. It was our model, our teaching model. And you know there were nine different divisions there in that church. Again that's the church we would run from. Now what did we learn? Divisions in the church are forbidden. Divisions and divisive people, that's all sinful. It all caused the divisive church there at Corinth to agree in all matters. And look there was a lot they had to agree on. But we did learn that divisions must come. See divisions and divisive people must come into the church. God has a purpose with allowing division and divisive people in the church. This is a verse you need to know, 1 Corinthians 11, 19.

This will help you sleep well at night when you're dealing with division in the church because Paul says here that divisions must come. They are ordained of God and they are ordained of God to prove people. Simply God allows divisions to come to purify His approved people and to prove those who are disapproved for the work of the church. Remember that folks, divisions come to purify and prove those who are approved and to expose and prove those who are disapproved. And in the end what did we learn? Divisions and divisions is a sin. Divisive people are sinful. Divisive people who refuse to repent must be avoided.

But what do you do with a divisive person who will repent? You treat them like all other repentant sinners because that's what we all are. And ultimately divisive people who will not repent of their divisive behavior, they're put out of the church. That's a part of church discipline. And besides 1 Corinthians 11, 19, you need to know Romans 16, 17, and 18. And Titus 3, 10, 2, 11. And let me tell you, if you have those three portions of Scripture in your mind and your heart, you'll be able to deal with this issue of division properly. Then next we looked at unity in the body.

Now studying unity in the body really is what tied all of this together, alright? Notice what we have here. We are one body with many parts. We are baptized in the Christ into the work of the local church and division is a sin. But division and divisive people must come, remember, to prove and to purify. Prove and to purify. And in the Corinthian situation, Paul called these people to work hard to agree in all of these matters. He called them to work hard to agree in all of these matters that they disagreed on no matter who and no matter what. And really the only way that they could do that was to fixate on Jesus.

That's what he called them to do. I use that word fixate. Paul knew that these divided Corinthian Christians, if they would fixate on Jesus, their sin, their flesh, their pride, their evil desires, everything that is sinful, it would all just fade away. And what would the result be? Unity. Unity in Christ, you see? It was going to take a lot of work, a lot of death, a lot of repentance and a lot of humility and then some and then some. And we must remember this about unity. Unity is attacked and destroyed by pride and selfish interests in the church and unity in the church grows and matures when it is threatened and attacked.

Listen to that, folks. Unity is attacked and destroyed by pride and selfish, sinful interests, but unity in the church grows and matures when it is threatened and it is attacked. And right here is when I say as a pastor, I am so proud, I am so proud about how some of you have dealt with these issues. You have matured, you have grown, you have struggled, you have worked, you have prayed, you have received counsel, but listen, when the coin has fallen down, you're on the right side of things, folks, and I am as proud as I can be of the work that God has done in you and the work that you have done here.

Then third we examine meaningful church membership. Really it was a part one, a part two. Now right here is where so many of us, we've come from terrible backgrounds. So many of us have come from churches where church membership standards are so very low and the low standard is just accepted. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean. How many of us have come from churches where there are tons of names on the roll and you can't find them? The Department of Homeland Security can't find them. I have tried.

Many times you've come from churches, so many of you have come from churches where there are names on the roll when people are in open brazen sin. That sin's never dealt with. There's no church discipline. They're just on the roll in the pew in open sin. So many of us have come from churches where the church roll does not reflect truly born again people. I mean so many people there are on the roll and we give them a thumbs up as being Christian but they give no evidence of being truly born again.

And in many churches like this there's no expectation for the members to all tithe and to give and to serve and to use their time and their talents and their resources and their spiritual gifts in the church. You see how low the standard is? And remember what God has faithfully taught us here through the years. At its basic level church membership should represent three things. First a truly born again person. First a truly born again person. Second one who is worthy of life in the body of Christ the local church. And then third one who is worthy of and ready for kingdom work in the church. You get that? They're worthy of kingdom work.

But there's more. We have an extensive church membership definition. You can go and listen to those messages and hear how I flesh that out. And you know this is where some ask a question. A formal commitment. I use that term. Listen folks a formal commitment to church membership or a membership covenant is very healthy. It's very good and it's far more biblical than you know. I think the illustration I used was this. It's a lot like a marriage in many ways. Then fourth we studied church discipline in the body. Now we looked at the prescription for church discipline out of Matthew 18, 15 to 20 and oh that was a lot. I know.

And I want to focus for a minute on the part two because we examine our responsibility. Yes our responsibility. And I've got a great testimony when we get through with this section. Now I time out here. I time out. Usually there are so many misconceptions here and this is where we need to preface what we're going to say. We're not talking about turning folks out. We're not talking about the sinless perfection police. No. We're not talking about church and folks out the door. God's word says that church discipline is for the good of his people and for the good of the church. Church discipline is for the purity of Christians.

Yes Christians and it is for the purity of the church as a whole and it is to protect the church. So two words here is for purification and for protection. Now Grace Life folks I want to remind you what we must take away from what we studied in Galatians 6 1 to 5. Our great responsibility. First we have a responsibility to be spiritual. Remember I differentiated between spiritual and mature. Maturity takes time but even a baby Christian can be spiritual. See what it means is we're to be Holy Spirit led. We're to be Holy Spirit controlled. We're to be Holy Spirit filled. And look if you've been converted for one month you can be spiritual.

Then second we're to have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to restore or repair the fallen brother or sister with great love and patience and gentleness. Listen we're not the church police. No. We love. We have great gentleness and we have great patience and we want to restore that fallen brother or sister that sinning brother or sister. We want them to be repaired and put back where they belong. And then third we have a responsibility to carry the wheat. Paul says in Galatians that the week or those they can't carry their burdens. Do you realize we have brothers and sisters.

They are so burdened by failures and past failures and temptations and trials and tests and struggles. They are so burdened that we must come along and help carry the wheat. You realize that. But then fourth we have a responsibility to carry our load. Paul says in verse 2 that we are to carry our own load. There is a load that we can carry and grace like folks remember 1 Corinthians 12 12 to 13. We need one another. Although we are all different the body needs every part of the body and this type of discipline is a part of healthy body life. Now here's the testimony.

We got to the end of dealing with some church discipline issues and me teaching through all of this. I'll never forget brother Keith looked at me and he said I'm so thankful that I have a church that if I stumble and if I sin or if I fail I have brothers who will come along beside me and move me towards repentance. You see. And that's our responsibility. And I have heard others say things like that as well. And then fifth we studied a very important subject. Oh this is far more important than you know. And that is Christian liberty from Romans 14. I showed you that there are those in the church who love law.

And then there are those on the other side of the sanctuary they love liberty. And we dealt with the tension that can arise between the two. We went on to see how the tension can bring about conflict. The tension can go from conflict to outright war if it's not worked outright in the life of the church. We saw that if those differences are not dealt with the tension between those who love law and liberty can possibly destroy the church. Paul refers to that in Romans 14 verse 20 because he's saying to those there in Rome are you going to destroy the work of God because of food. And even though we may be much different it must build us up.

Paul says you got to build each other up. We build each other up in our personal lives. Oh even when we're different and in the life of the church. In Romans 14 is all about building each other up. In these differences not tearing each other down. You know I thought about it like this last night. Many of us have come from churches where we have maybe taken a spiritual gift test. You ever heard of that. You know you take a spiritual gift test you come out of that class and you know your gifts and you're just ready. Isn't that right. It didn't always work out that way. But you know what I thought about.

We might need a law or liberty test to show people where they struggle in these matters. You see we might need to sit down with folks and ascertain if they struggle with being a little on the law side or if they struggle with being a little on the liberty side so that we can help them be able to live all these things out in the life of the church. You see. And I'm going to tell you folks something here. You need to go back. You need to study Romans 14. You need to get this far more than you know. You need to know this and understand how all this works out. I have known more churches who had problems in these matters far more than you know.

And then sixth or last. We took a look at small group ministry out of Titus 2. We looked at what I call the heart of healthy small groups. Really it was more than that out of Titus chapter 1 verse 9 and 2 chapter 2 verses 1 to 10. We looked at the heart not the structure. No not the structure. First Titus was an elder there in the island of Crete. He had churches under him and he had responsibilities. And then Paul talks to the older and they had a responsibility to be anchors of great godliness in the church. And then he shifts to the women the older women and they were to be the same.

They were to be great anchors of great godliness in the church. And Paul says they were to be pouring into the young women. And then fourth the younger men. They had a responsibility to be godly and to look to the older in the life of the church. And basically it's like this. Titus the elder he was to preach and teach in the church. The older they were to be mature and godly so as to pour into the younger. The younger were to look to the older as examples in their teaching. In the older more mature women were to pour into the younger women and the older more mature men were to pour into the younger men. Now this isn't about structure.

The leaders in the church have subjective wisdom from God to know how to structure all that out. You know Friday afternoon was an afternoon of great joy for me. I was studying quite a bit on Friday. And about two o'clock my brain just couldn't take any more. And so I changed clothes and put on some of my work clothes and I went outside and began to work on a project. I have a fire pit that was out here over the winter time and I had taken that thing home and I just cut the old bottom off of it and I had some pipe there and I broke out one of my welding machines and I weld legs on the fire pit.

And the whole time I was enjoying breathing all that stuff and getting dirty and sweating a little bit and I had something in my mind the whole time I was working. A little later on my wife came home with a van full of ferns and flowers. It was time to get rid of the old plants that had died from our arctic freeze. They were all brown. Christie said maybe some of these things will come back. I said they're graveyard dead. But you know the whole time I was planting those flowers I was thinking about something.

And then a little later on in the night my girls came home and they said what a wonderful time they had had at the home of one of the ladies here in the life of the church. Now let me tell you what my great joy was. See after I preached on Titus 2, after I taught what we see here in chapter 2, there were two ladies who said they had a burden to spend time with our young teenage girls. They said they had a burden to spend time with our student girls. And see Friday night that's what they did. Two of the women in the church got our young girls together and they spent time with them.

And see all afternoon I was thinking of that and I shared this with Brother Keith Saturday. That was the first time our teenagers had spent time in somebody else's home besides me and it all came out of this teaching and that brought me great joy. And if those ladies will be true to the burden that the Lord's put on their heart, if they'll be obedient and will acquit them, God will use them in the lives of the young ladies, you see. Now I'm going back to small groups. Listen that's how we break all this down in the life of the church and I'm loving how God is using our small groups and you are too.

Now let's take a step back and notice the journey that we've been on. Our Lord has been showing us that this is all about life and the body. This is body life folks. We are the body of Christ. We're one but many. We have been seeing who we are and how we should live. And God is forming us here. He's been forming us in all that we've been studying. And listen to your pastor. I have seen tangible, measurable growth in you and all that we have studied. And I also believe that there are some areas where you need to grow even more because listen folks we've never arrived. We've never arrived.

Now as we wrap up this series we've got to get to the question. How do we get into the body? We have been talking about life and the body. Body life, life in the local church. Well how do we get in on all of this? How do we get into the body of Christ one way and only one way? See the Apostle John tells us in 1 John, excuse me, in the Gospel of John chapter 1 verses 12 and 13. And then you know John shows us how it all works out. He gives us an illustration and an example. John shows us this in two verses in chapter 1 and then he fleshes it all out in John 3 verses 1 to 15. But listen close here.

We need a big spiritual lesson here more than you know. For one to become a true child of God, for one to become a member of the body of Christ, they must be born into the body folks. One must experience the new birth. One must experience the second birth. One must experience what is called spiritual birth. It is called being saved and one must be spiritually born again, saved from their sin, saved from their self, saved from God's judgment for their rebellion against him. And this is not Baptist lingo. This is biblical truth and teaching. Now another question. What does it look like?

Well I'm glad you asked that question because we need to see what this looks like. This is our spiritual lesson. Let's go to 1 John chapter 1, just those two verses. Verse 12 and 13. John says, "But to all who did receive him," the hymn is Christ. Christ has been the subject of all of this besides John the Baptist in the previous verses. "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God." Now notice what's taking place in this lesson.

God inspired John to show us three ways someone is not birthed into the family of God, the body of Christ. First of all, this is not of blood. Isn't that what we see in verse 13? This is not of blood. Here John is saying that a person does not come into the family of God or into the body of Christ by having a Christian heritage. Salvation is not passed down from parent to child. It can't be inherited. It can't be passed down. Oh, we can give our children a godly heritage, and we should. We can give our children a godly heritage, but we can't pass down the new birth. We cannot inherit a new nature in Christ, a new life in Christ. We can't.

Second, this is not an act of the flesh. This is in verse 13 as well. This is not an act of the flesh. Simply salvation can't come from the will or an act of the flesh. John is talking about works here, folks. A person does not have the ability to produce the new birth from within themselves. A sinful person does not have the ability to bring themselves into Christ and into the body of Christ, and it is within the heart of all men to try to work their way to be right with God. That's what all of the world religions are all about, folks, except for Bible Christianity. And then third, this is not of the will of a man.

Again, this is in verse 13. Here John goes one more step. One more step. Simply salvation can't come from the will or from the actions of another. He is talking about the works of another person on behalf of someone else. Our mother does not have the power to bring us into Christ, into the body of Christ. The preacher or the traveling evangelist either. So John is taking another step here from a work from within to a work from another. You see that? Simply someone else cannot do this for us. But I'm thankful God did not stop there. God inspired John to show us the one in the only way someone can truly come into the family.

Look at those three words at the end of verse 13. But of God. You need to highlight those words, folks. Now I want to take a little bit of liberty here. Please do not accuse me of being a heretic right here. I want to rearrange the verses. Listen folks, this is going to help you. I want to take out the three ways man is not brought into the body. Now look at your copy with me. I want you to put your eyes on it. And I'm reading starting in verse 12. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born of God. You see that more clearly?

We see right here this important spiritual lesson. John is showing us that man is supernaturally born of God and therefore that man can receive Christ and believe in his name. You see that in the verse? Man receives Christ. He believes in Christ's name because he is born of God. And I'm going to be honest with you folks, the best way I know how to illustrate it is what God did in me. About a few years ago, on February the 9th of 1989, I was spiritually baptized into Christ. I received a new life. I received a new nature. Did I understand everything that God did in me? No, but I knew I was a sinner. I knew I was lost.

The Spirit of God had been preparing me all along the way for quite a bit of time. And someone opened up God's word. I had been witnessed to several times before and oh, that faithful night God did what only God could do by the power and the work of the Spirit of God. He birthed a new nature in me and I cried out, I wanted Christ and God did the miracle of miracles for me. I became a new creation in Christ. I was born again and I was baptized into Christ, submersed into Christ, Christ in me. Someone asked me to explain it.

Then the very next Sunday, oh the next miracle that I've been teaching on, I walked into the doors of the Highland Baptist Church. I did not fully understand at the time what I was doing, but I was walking right into the door of a new family. The body of Christ, the family of God there, and all of a sudden there began to develop this unique spiritual bond because I was baptized into that local body. Those people became my family. I couldn't get enough of them. I wanted everything to do with the work of the church. Folks, I've been living that in Christ and in the body ever since. You do the math. You tell me how many years.

You know what's wonderful? I've seen God do this for some of you. You know I don't call out names from the pulpit, but I could call out some names this morning. I've seen God do this for some of you. I've watched God save some of you, and I've watched you experience the new birth and live for Christ, and I've watched you be supernaturally baptized into this work. This is what you have lived, but I have to pivot there and I have to ask you a question. Is this you? Are you in the body? Does your name just belong in a role somewhere? I mean, are you just Christian by name? I mean, has this happened to you? Are you in the body?

Listen, folks, some of you here, the Spirit of God's been showing you you're on the outside. You're on the outside. You're on the outside. I never forget years ago there was a family in the life of our church that has moved on. We had the privilege of being used of God to see their teenage daughter come to faith in Christ. And anytime I baptized, I get folks to give their testimony. I ask them to write it out and I help them there. And I never forget, she described how all her life she knew she was on the outside. She talked about being around other Christians and she knew she wasn't on the inside.

She talked about Christians and her family and she knew she couldn't get on it. She was on the outside. She was seeing her sin. Oh, she was very religious. She could quote more scripture than you can, but she was on the outside, on the outside, on the outside. And God faithfully did what only God could do. God brought her to that place where she is born of the spirit. She was born of the spirit of God. She received a new nature. And what did she do? She did what we see here in John chapter one. She believed in his name. She trusted in Christ. And then she went from being on the outside to being on the inside. Are you in the body?

Are you in the body? What keeps you from staying on the outside? What keeps you from staying on the outside? It's just sin itself. Why would you hold on to your sin? Why would you stay on the outside? Why? Listen, friend, come to Christ. Come to Christ. God's brought you here. God's brought you to this day and this time for these things. Don't stay on the outside. Don't stay. And I cannot explain how someone has to be born of God, but yet they trust and they believe. Listen, please trust and believe this morning. Please let the spirit of God do what only God can do. All I know to do is beg you to come.

Come to Christ and you can be spiritually baptized into Christ and you can be baptized into the body and you won't be on the outside. So what have we looked at these past few weeks? Really it's a lot. It's about life and the body. And I can't think of a better way to end this series by dealing with what we've dealt with this morning. We are born into the body. And I'm so thankful that God did that for me so many years ago. Let's pray and then we'll close. We'll dismiss. Come back tonight for a small group. So let's pray.