Receiving Christ as our personal Saviour is certainly the one most important experience of our life. If we have received Christ personally in our heart, it is the greatest experience of all eternity for us. Therefore, it is very important to understand what it is to receive Christ. If we misunderstand this, we could be deceived.

We may think we have received Christ when, in fact, we have not, or we could be living in fatalism where we think we will receive Him later and do not. The importance of understanding our text, "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."

The way to heaven is referred to in Scripture as a highway; it is like a road, and it has a ditch on each side. Remember: Satan is very crafty; his design is to keep us off the road, and he is not at all concerned about which ditch he can get us into as long as he can keep us off the road. As long as we are not on the strait and narrow way, we are headed for destruction.

We can have one half of the truth and be mired down in the barrow pit on this side or have the other half of the truth and be mired down in the ditch on the other side of the road. Either way we still miss the road. A half-truth is a lie.

What we may have may be true, but is it the whole truth? That must be our concern. As He addressed the people, Jesus said in MAT 15:14, "Let them alone: they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."

Do we have light? Do we have understanding in what it means to receive Christ? We can easily presume to have the truth when in reality we have only half of the truth.

Satan would have us to be deceived into either rejecting Christ through unbelief, or on the other hand, Satan would like to have us make a false claim of having received Him outside of God's ordained way. V:11 says, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." That means they rejected Him; they refused to accept Him. We could be running around claiming that we have received Christ, but it may be outside of God's ordained way. Either ditch is devastating. They are both off the strait and narrow way, and the end results are the same.

FOR OUR FIRST POINT, let's consider why God's children refuse Christ in their carnal state. JOH 1:11 says, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." We want to go into the Scriptures to find out why they rejected Him.

FOR OUR SECOND POINT, let's consider who they are who do receive Christ. JOH 1:12 tells us, "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:"

FOR OUR THIRD POINT, let's consider how God's dear children receive Christ. JOH 1:13 says, "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

FIRST, let's consider why God's children refuse Christ in their carnal state. JOH 1:11 "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." In this instance the word received means accepted. Let's take time to understand this vitally important point. Sometimes the English language plays some very crafty tricks on us if we don't do some research.

In our text the word received in V:11 and the same word in V:12 are opposites. One means accepted and the other does not. The two verses are in perfect harmony with V:13 when the difference is understood. Perfect harmony can be shown between these three verses through our research and use of the meanings in the original Greek.

Let's consider why God's children refuse Christ in their carnal state. They do not receive Him because they are still unregenerate. By nature you and I are unregenerate; that means we are spiritually dead.

The carnal mind cannot receive the things of God. ROM 8:6 says, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

By nature, when we are born, every human being is carnal. The word carnal, is taken from the Greek word sarx, which means, " Unregenerate, pertaining to the flesh, the symbol of what is external, human nature with all its frailties and passions, the human being as such, carnally minded, i.e., fleshly."

Have you ever heard of a carnal Christian? That would be an unregenerate Christian. That is a contradiction. Such a thing cannot be. By nature you and I are unregenerate, carnal. We have no room for Christ; there is no desire for Christ. To be carnally minded, i.e., spiritually dead, is the portion of all mankind until they are quickened by the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration. To be carnal is to be unregenerate, but to be spiritual is to be regenerated by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit.

EPH 2:1 tells us, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." The Apostle Paul is speaking to the children of God. You and I, by nature, are dead spiritually; we cannot receive Christ until the Holy Spirit quickens us; until then we have no desire after Him.

Think for a moment about a person who has an alcohol problem. That person cannot be helped until he admits he has a problem. Until a person understands he is a sinner; until a person has been quickened by the Holy Spirit to see the sinfulness of sin; and has been convicted that he is a sinner; he has no more need for Christ than a person with no cancer needs a cancer specialist.

A person with a healthy heart sees no personal need of a heart surgeon. Therefore, people who are still carnal, who see no sin in themselves reject Christ. They don't see the sinfulness of sin. They are hardened, and they have not been quickened, nor have their eyes been opened to understand they are sinners. The whole, healthy people have no need of a physician. That is why those who have never seen their malady of sin reject the heavenly Physician.

This condition is universal until God works grace in the hearts. In EPH 2:2-3 the Apostle Paul was speaking to the church at Ephesus, but he included himself.

He says, "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

Do you see that this condition is universal? It is brought upon the human race by sin; they are unregenerate and reject Christ.

When Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, He didn't put His arm around him and tell him, "Now Lazarus, all you have to do is..." Lazarus was as dead naturally as you and I are spiritually dead by nature. You and I are spiritually dead until the power of the Word, the unction of the Spirit accompanying the Word, quickens us individually. It was by the power of the Word that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and so it is with every sinner who is quickened by the Holy Spirit.

Mankind universally rejects Christ because those who do not see His beauty are in an unregenerate state. This was prophesied in ISA 53:1-3, "Who hath believed our report? [In our natural condition we will not believe the report.] and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

The people who are spiritually dead see no beauty in Christ; they despise Him and reject Him. They do not see that He is a Man of Sorrows who came, and by His stripes we would be healed. They reject Him because they are unregenerate.

FOR OUR SECOND POINT, let's consider who they are who do receive Christ. JOH 1:12 says, "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:"

Before we can understand who it is that our text is speaking about, those who do receive Christ, I must hasten to point out that there are two quite different meanings to the word received as they are used in our text.

The word received as it is used in JOH 1:11, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not," is taken from the Greek word, Paralambano which means "To associate with oneself in an intimate relationship, to accept or delight in, to receive."

In other words, it is the intimate relationship as between a man and his wife or between Christ and His bride that was not there. Jesus' saying, "...his own received him not," means the intimacy was missing. They did not receive Him; they did not accept or delight in Him because they had no love for Him as their heavenly Bridegroom.

The word received, as it is used in JOH 1:12, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God," comes from the Greek word lambano. It is a different word. The word lambano can best be translated by showing how it is used in other Scriptures as the word received. The word lambano has been translated as received in the following verses.

1CO 4:7: "For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" Here received is used to denote a gift, something bestowed upon one by another. That is quite a distinct difference from the other use of accepting or delighting in another person.

Let's follow this up in HEB 11:8: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." Again receive speaks of a gift, something bestowed upon him, for which he did nothing to earn.

In HEB 11:35 again lambano is translated as received, meaning to receive something given by another. "Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection."

The same is true in 1JO 2:27: "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." How did we receive the anointing? The Lord bestowed it upon us as an act of His grace.

This same word lambano is again used in 1PE 4:10 to reveal that a gift is bestowed upon us outside of our doing. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."

Regenerating grace is the only thing that makes us to differ; it is the quickening grace of the Spirit that makes us different. 1CO 4:7 says, "For who maketh thee to differ from another? [Why are we searching for salvation in Christ? Only because of the free gift of regenerating grace!] and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?"

Why do we take glory? What do we have in the way of grace that was not bestowed graciously upon us by the Holy Spirit? Grace is the divine influence of the Spirit upon the heart that can be seen by the whole world; it is the quickening of the Spirit, giving us new desires and a new will.

Our text says, "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," JOH 1:12.

Now we must deal with the word power in order to know what the verse is teaching us and the harmony of God's Word. The word power comes from the Greek word Exousia. It means, "a privilege, freedom, delegated influence, liberty, power, right, strength." To those who received Him as the gift of the Father, He gave them the power, privilege, freedom, delegated influence, liberty, right, and strength to become the sons of God. This isn't something we have a right to have; it is a privilege. We cannot take or claim, earn, or merit it. We can only (lambano), or receive it as a free, sovereign gift.

So "as many as received Him" are the ones privileged to become the sons of God. They received the freedom, they were delegated the Divine influence of the Spirit upon their heart to become the sons of God.

By nature we will not let Him reign as king over us, we will not come into His service. By nature we want to serve self and sin because we see no beauty in Him. It is only those who have the Divine influence upon the heart, delegated by the Holy Spirit, who have a desire to come under Christ's blessed yoke. The grace of God works this desire in the hearts of His own.

The privilege or right to become the sons of God is granted only to those whom God has chosen and loved from eternity. It comes not from any good or evil He saw in us, but it is by His own free choice. EPH 1:4 says, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."

Let's stop and analyze this; it was God who chose, and this choice was made before the world was created! To what were we predestined? It was to be conformed to the image of Christ and holiness.

Can any person come up and say that isn't fair because he was not predestined to holiness? Are any of us compelled to live in sin? Is any person going to say they didn't have the privilege of living a holy life? No. Would it be a privilege or would they consider it an imposition upon their freedom?

Those, whom God has sanctified, i.e., set apart for Himself from eternity, are the sons who receive the call of the Spirit. All these sons of God need the call of the Spirit; we need the quickening power of the Spirit to bring us to the point where we have the desire to be conformed to His blessed image.

JUD 1 teaches us, "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called." God has sanctified these sons of God, spoken of in our text, and preserved them in Jesus Christ from eternity; then He called them in the day of grace.

Now see 1CO 1:26, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." The calling is the call of the Spirit; the Lord calls whom He will. Not many of those listed receive the call of the Spirit. We receive the call of the Spirit because we are "the sons of God" from eternity.

GAL 4:6 says, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Isn't that beautiful? It is because we are sons. These are the people who are led by the Spirit of God. They are foreordained and chosen from eternity; they are led by the Spirit of God. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," ROM 8:14.

A right understanding of these two verses, JOH 1:11-12, brings them into perfect harmony with V:13 which says, "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." How do you and I become sons? We must be born! We become sons by being born of God, "Which were born, not of blood..." in other words, we do not become sons of God because we are the sons of Abraham or because our father was a Christian. It is not by bloodlines, neither is it by the will of the flesh. That means it is not because of our will or that a parent decreed it so. It is not because of the will of another person or the will of man or our will.

Do you see the harmony with the previous verses? Now we see who are the ones who receive Christ; they are the ones who were born again. Jesus said in JOH 3:5, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

FOR OUR THIRD POINT, let's consider how God's dear children receive Christ. "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," JOH 1:13.

First, we must notice they are "born." Notice all the sons of God are born again. That is what Jesus told Nicodemus in JOH 3:5, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Not of the will of man, not of the flesh, not of any bloodline such as Abraham, but except ye be born "of water and of the Spirit," you cannot enter the kingdom, i.e., the service of God.

The Spirit of God must quicken us with that new birth; that is how we receive Christ. By the quickening of the Spirit we become the sons of God by the regeneration of the Spirit. All God’s adopted sons are regenerated.

TIT 3:3-5 says, "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." This is a vivid description of man by nature; that is the carnal mind.

However, see what it says in V:4. "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." This is how we are delivered from the power of those heinous sins mentioned above and receive the Spirit of Christ; it is by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, that is the new birth.

We become sons of God by being born of the Spirit. The Word again uses the negative to show the positive, "Which were born, not of blood." We have to see how this negative approach confirms the positive.

This new birth does not descend through the bloodlines of our fathers as did the pollution of original sin; the pollution of original sin is inherited from our fathers, but we do not inherit the new birth. GEN 5:3 says, "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image..."

We inherited original sin, but we do not inherit the new birth from Abraham as his seed after the flesh. Being in Christ makes us the spiritual seed of Abraham as we see in GAL 3:29, "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

Even after the work of regeneration is worked in a soul, this sanctified soul does not beget a son in that likeness. A person can be a Christian who preaches the gospel and lives his whole life for the Lord Jesus Christ, yet have a child who is a reprobate. Many times those who labor the most for the Lord neglect the discipline of their own children the worst.

The Jewish belief is that regeneration was inherited through Abraham. That same doctrine is taught in many Christian churches today. They still teach that the covenant of circumcision incorporates them into the church of Christ, this becomes the vehicle by which they believe they are saved. They claim salvation through the bloodlines of Abraham, but our text says, "not of blood," i.e., not through any bloodlines after the flesh.

The new birth or work of regeneration is not obtained by the choice or will of man which labors under the spiritual death of Adam's fall. "... nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." If you or I were left over to our own will in our unregenerate state as we are all by nature, we would reject Christ.

The unregenerate mind rejects Jesus because we see no beauty in Him. It is only through the work of regeneration that any man is willing to serve Christ by entering His kingdom. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure," PHI 2:13.

EPH 1:4 tells us it is by the choice of God that we are to become holy and without blame. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."

It is the work of regenerating grace that makes one of Adam's fallen race willing to walk in this holiness. We are first made willing; there is no way the Lord will give salvation to someone who does want it. How does He make us willing? He makes us see the sinfulness of sin; the quickening of the Spirit brings us to the point He reproves [or convicts] the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. People who have been convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit desire deliverance from that sin; they are made willing because they have learned to see sin for what it is.

PSA 110:3 says, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth." The day of power is when the power of the Holy Spirit works regenerating grace in our heart. Now we become willing, not only willing but also we become beggars before the throne of grace, that is a step further than being willing.

As a beggar before God's throne of grace, we not only desire, but also hunger and thirst after righteousness; then our will becomes lost and dissolved in the will of God. Now we are not just willing, we hunger and thirst after Christ because by God's grace we have learned to see what sinful wretches we are by nature. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power," by God's grace, i.e., the Divine influence of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, we are made willing to serve Christ and keep His commandments, JOH 15:14.

This new birth is not by the will of man as we see in 1PE 1:23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."

We are born by the Word of God. Our spiritual birth, as well as our natural birth, is without any contribution on our part.

Throughout Scripture the Lord Jesus Christ uses a natural father-son relationship to show the relationship between God and His children. What contribution did you make to being born the first time? What choice did you make whether or not you would be born? That is how much choice you have when the work of the Spirit is wrought in the heart and the conviction of sin is wrought in the soul. Birth takes place without our contribution.

1JO 3:1-3 says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." We become the sons of God by being born of the Spirit.

It is through this blessed hope that the Spirit works the new willingness to serve Christ and causes us to desire holiness in our hearts. It is our blessed hope that we shall be the sons of God even though we don't know when it shall be until we see Him as He is. It is through this blessed hope that the Spirit works a new will in us to serve Christ. Iit is through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that we receive the willingness and new desire in our heart after holiness.

1JO 3:3 says, "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." This is the same hope we saw in V:2 above. When we have the hope of a future with and eternal reward before us, we have the motivation for a holy life.

This purification is essential to adoption, for we cannot expect the love of God to dwell in us except we have something of His likeness. The working of regeneration works holiness; it is the work of the Holy Spirit giving us the desire and the will to do what is pleasing to the Lord. This work of grace is entirely of Lord.

Christ's likeness is brought about in our hearts as our tender loving Father deals with us as sons. We are sons, and because we are sons He has sent the Spirit of His Son in us. If you have a rebellious child, it does not change the fact that he is your child. If you have a submissive child who walks according to your will, does that fact make him your child? No.

HEB 12:5-6 tells us, "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."

Hebrews tells us we are sons and the Lord deals with us as sons. He chastens us to break our will so we will be in subjection to His will; that is the way He makes us willing in the day of His power. His chastening is accompanied by the working of the Holy Spirit; in His love the Father reminds us of His exhortation that He will deal with us as sons.

It is through this fatherly faithfulness that God's people are made willing to serve Him. In PRO 13:24 we read, "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." If the Father loves us, the chastening is to bring our will in subjection to His.

Now think about HEB 12:11 in this context. "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." That is the Lord dealing with us as sons. If you receive no chastening, you are a bastard, not a son. He will bring us to see "the peaceable fruit of righteousness," i.e., the peaceable fruit of a life in conformity to His divine law, when our will is dissolved in His will. We are made willing and desirous of righteousness in the day of His power.

We are not saved because we accept Jesus as Lord, but we accept Him as Lord because we are saved, because we are sons! It is important to understand this principle. The only ones who will truly, unconditionally surrender to Jesus as Lord and come under His dominion to walk in His ways are the sons of God.

Hear this in GAL 4:6, "And because ye are sons [that is the moving cause of all spiritual desires], God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Only those who are sons receive that Spirit of the Son of God, which is the spirit of submission. It is by the gift of the Spirit of Christ that we are made willing to receive Christ as King in our hearts and walk of life.

The Lord is not hindered by rebellion of those whom He has chosen to be sons. We could say, "I will not accept," that will not hinder the Lord. When the Lord comes with His free, sovereign grace, He is not hindered by the rebellion of our heart because He makes us willing in the day of His power.

Let's look at Jonah as an illustration. Jonah ran away from the Lord; he rebelled and was not going to obey the Lord. Was that a hindrance to the Lord? No. In JON 2:7-9 we read, "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD."

Do you know where Jonah rendered that prayer? He was in the depths of the sea in the belly of the whale. Was his rebellion a hindrance to the Lord? No! We may rebel all we want; if we are one of God's children, we will only bring God's chastening upon us.

The Lord will chasten us with very sore chastisement if we rebel too far, but it will not alter the fact of sonship. This was the lesson Jonah learned. When he tried to run from the Lord, he learned salvation is of the Lord. This is a point we need to understand.

We need to know the true meaning of the three verses of our text in their context and in the true meaning of the words that are used. Then we see how "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," JOH 1:11-13.

They would not accept him because they were unregenerate, but when God came with the quickening power of His Spirit, the new birth was wrought in their soul. That is the work of grace by the Holy Spirit, and by that Spirit they were born. At that time they received power, or the privilege, or the permission to become the sons of God. At that point we see the harmony.

Amen.