The experience of the new birth and the experience of believing are one if you find your heart

being drawn out to the Savior to embrace and receive Him, do it!

So how are we brought to faith in Jesus Christ? That's the question John Piper answers from

John 1-1-13 in this episode of Light and Truth. This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem

Baptist Church on October 5th, 2008.

What does God do to keep the darkness from overcoming the light?

Can we return to that implication? If they're not knowing Him, if they're not receiving Him,

what are they doing? Can they kill Him? Inkilling Him, are they overcoming the light?

And as he meets resistance everywhere he goes from so many, even disciples are going to leave

him in chapter 6 because he says hard things and little teeny band of people, he got about 120

after three years of ministry and he's the son of God! That's not a very effective church plant.

Well it was incredibly effective, just wasn't impressive.

So he's getting his resistance all over the place. What does God do so that this resistance

can be overcome rather than it overcoming the light? And you know where I'm going, I'm going

to verse 12 and 13 because that's the answer. I think I'm being guided by the flow here of what

He's doing. He's answering my question. He gave me my question by answering it. What do you do if

you're dead? And if your friends are dead and your family's dead and you don't want to be dead and

you can't see and you want to see what has to happen. All right now let's read the answer to that

question. Verse 12, but to all who did receive him, he came to his own, they didn't receive him,

but to all who did receive him, that is another word for receive, who believed in his name.

He gave the right to become the children of God. How did that happen? Verse 13 is going to tell you

how that happened. They were born, who were born. This is where new birth comes from. They were born,

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