Dear friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and worthy name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. We are delighted and we are greatly honored to represent him. We come to you with the highest authority of heaven, knowing that in heaven above, the great head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Savior, and who died for us upon the cross of Calvary, list for us on the throne of glory in heaven and coming again is our great authority for coming to you with the message of God. How a precious study at this particular time involves the meditation upon the fatherhood of God and his family of children. I wonder my radio friend, have you ever given serious thought and meditation that is deep upon this great truth that God reveals himself as a Father. He is called in the Word of God, as we have read, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But He is not only the Father, the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is also the God and Father of all who are His children. We have noted very carefully and repeat the truth, that it is out of this world, from the human race, the fallen race of Adam, that God predetermined to obtain the family of children to fill his home above. My radio friend, have you ever considered the signal, honor, that God, in his matchless grace, determined to get the family from the same family you belong to upon the earth, a race of fallen sinners. You may wonder improperly why this should be done. Why should he ever choose to reach down to the earth below, where you and I in the darkness of sin have dwelt, have lived, and have shown our rebellion against that holy God above. There are only two things I could say. It is only because, first, of His matchless love. What a love for God so loved the world. And then second, because of His matchless grace. That not only by His great love, but by the power of His grace, God knew how He could obtain that family and bring out of the human race with its wreckage and its ruin that sin had caused. A family of children that would be forever in heaven with him and through endless ages be the object of his eternal delight, his good pleasure, and of his eternal love. Every one of them, morally, wholly, and like himself. and before Him, without blame, in love. I say again, amazing grace. God help you and me to realize, though we cannot fathom why He should, we can believe He has done this. Now we have been considering how God sent the Son to obtain the family. In our recent message, the preceding one, we considered from John eleven, the fact that Christ came, according to the purpose of his father, to die that he might obtain the family, that God might gather his family together in one family, that were scattered throughout the world. My beloved may I say, and thank God for the wonderful grace and power that it reveals. When God gathers his family together, and they're all with him in heaven, they will have come from every kindred, every tongue, every tribe, and every nation, northeast, south, and west, from all quarters of the earth, those children will have been gathered. Oh, the joy of recognizing the wonderful scope of the gospel of his grace and of his matchless love. that the Savior declared upon his death and following his resurrection and his ascension, as he commissioned his disciples, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now why was that command given? To go into all the world, my beloved, it is out of every tribe and country and kindred and people and nation. God determined He would gather the children. It matters not their racial origin. It matters not the color of their skin. It matters not whether heathen or not. God purposed He would gather the family from all the world. Now may we not ask the question properly at this time? How do we become? How can we become the children of God? We have been stating God determined and God reveals that he will have a family. You might probably be asking, I hope some of you are, how can I become a child of God? We turn to the word of God in John's Gospel chapter one today. We would read two verses. Let's read chapter one, verse twelve and verse thirteen and fourteen. Or verse twelve and thirteen only would be sufficient. Here are the words. but as many as received him, and this is the person of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but as many as received him to them, gave he power, meaning the right, the privilege, the authority to become the sons of God or the children 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. Now here are two verses that we wish to consider how one can become a child of God. Now when you read the Gospel of John, you will find that John presents at the very opening of his Gospel in verse eleven that Christ came into this world and that he came to his own nation, Israel. but they received him not. And so when you go to verse him, twelve, you find the apostle writes of some that did receive him. For what you find, and let me point this out very clearly, what you find in the opening of this gospel is a division of two companies, two separate companies of people in the whole world. In verse eleven, you have a company of Christ rejectors. men and women who refuse to accept Christ, men and women who receive him not. Then when you look in verse twelve, the words open by speaking of some, many receive him. And I think you can recognize this certainly is a true division of the human race. For verily, the relationship to God as children, or not being as children, rests upon what men and women do with Christ. Those who reject Him, they cannot be His children. They are not His children. Those who receive Him, they are given in this authority of the Word of God, the right to become and to be called the children of God because they believe upon His name. But may I also point out very carefully now, particularly from verse thirteen, The way we become God's children. First, let me suggest. The origin. And we are told in verse thirteen, These who are the children of God were born. And if you go to the end of the verse, they were born of God. In other words, their origin and source was by a birth. Now I'm sure you realize this was not their natural birth. This was their spiritual birth. This was a new birth. For as you read verse thirteen, and please note very carefully, they were not born of blood. Now that speaks of one's natural birth. Neither were they born by the will of the flesh. That again speaks of the natural birth. Neither were they born by the will of man. That once again speaks of natural birth. By nature, being born of blood, which we are by nature. Being born by the will of the flesh, which we are by nature. Being born of the will of man, which we are by nature. That is not the way to become a child of God. In other words, it proves what we have stated, the principle. All men are not born by nature to be the children of God. We must be born again. Well, did Nicodemus Hear the Lord Jesus say to him, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And again, marvel not that I say unto you, ye must be born again, was the language of the Savior. Now, beloved, let me repeat again, it gives the emphasis properly to the necessity of being born again. of being born into God's family. May I read the words again of verse thirteen, we'll be back again in verse twelve, before we close this scripture study. But in verse thirteen, let me take the opening words and the closing words, which were born of God. In other words, a divine, new birth by the power of God, through the operation of the Holy Spirit's power and in the person of the Holy Spirit being accomplished by him. A new birth. A birth that is spiritual. Now please, let me raise the question before we have to close. How many birthdays do you have? You have been born once. That is true of all. And that was your natural birth. But when God wants you in his family, you need another birth. a spiritual birth, a birth not from beneath. But as the Lord Jesus said, except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, beloved, let us close with this thought, and with which we shall continue, God willing. We must be born again to become the children of God. For the Father desired that everyone in his family must be born again. Will you consider it if never you have? Oh, Father, make the truth by the power of the Spirit driven home, riveted to the hearts of all in Jesus' name. Amen.