The verse I want to drill down in is verse 12, which explains that God gave the right for us to become children of God if we receive Him, and believe in His name. This is very important in light of the recent election season when we heard from a variety of false teachers that voting somehow was central to salvation. Mario Murillo and Greg Locke are lunatic teachers who have consistently said if you choose to vote Democratic then you are hell bound and unredeemable. Charisma News went beyond the lunatic fringe however. They sent out Jack Hibbs, once respected, twice to put forth these spiritual bullying teachings. The first time Hibbs actually taught that Jesus would be waiting for us on Judgment Day with our voting records in His hand. So, salvation was no longer contingent upon saving faith in Christ, which is based upon John 1:12. We are considered children of God not because we are registered with a political party or cast a vote a certain way but because we believe in His name and we receive His gift of salvation. Make no mistake about it. Adding anything, including carnal voting, to salvation is pure heresy. The second time he was trying to bully people who might choose to not vote at all and he wrote the following:
"As messy and as dirty as this year's election is, I am grateful that God is using it to separate the wheat from the chaff, the Christian from the almost Christian" - Jack Hibbs
So, according to Jack Hibbs, God was using the 2024 election to separate the wheat from the chaff, which is a biblical reference for separating who is going to heaven or hell. Chaff according to the bible will be burned in the unquenchable fires. So, Hibbs was saying if Christians did not vote for Donald Trump, or chose to not vote at all, then they would burn eternally in the unquenchable fires. That teaching is demonic and again flies directly against John 1:12. Hibbs, Murillo and Locke were certainly not alone but were the more "in your face" examples of the New Apostolic Reformation's dominionism eviscerating scripture and not caring that they were butchering the very requirements for eternal salvation. Verse 13 reminds us that once saved we are born not of the flesh, nor fleshly politics, but by God. Continuing on in John Chapter One.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
Let's take a deeper look at verse 16 here. From the fullness of Jesus Christ, we have received grace upon grace. Sometimes we bifurcate the law and grace as separate concepts because Paul said we are now under grace instead of the law but there is grace within the provision of the law. God did not have to provide the law. He did not have to provide anyway for redemption at all. Additionally, the law is always skewed by preaching to be negative but God did not give it to His people as punishment. It was for their own good to keep the law, even though their flesh would never be able to. Likewise, our flesh could never adhere to the law but that does not make it bad. It is still in our best interest to abide in it. Thank God however, that He provided us grace upon grace! Now we are no longer under the law, provided by the grace of God but instead are solely covered by the grace upon grace of Christ.
Yet there appears to be a memory disease infecting the church today. We forget where God found us. We forget where we were before we received the awesome gift of grace upon grace. The NAR has infected the church to convince them their enemy is not the devil but rather is the world. So, the church extends the bony finger of accusation against the very people that need the gospel the most. The devil is laughing because the NAR church spends most of its efforts hating other people in the name of carnal politics and the cause of Christ is damaged.
19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." 21 And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." 22 So they said to him, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" 23 He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said." 24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" 26 John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
So, here we start to get into John the Baptist. We see his humility on display first and throughout his ministry. His job was to represent Christ, to make straight the paths to Him and for Him. He was the herald of Christ and we would do well to emulate that and learn from him. Notice that the religious leaders asked him to speak about himself - what do you say about yourself? His answer says nothing about himself and only about who he serves. Once again, we would do well to emulate because in today's apostate church. It is all about the cult of personality pastors saying, "look at me" instead of look at Christ. My pastor once said to me, any sermon must come back to the cross of Christ or it is not worth preaching. We are no longer the ones crying out in the wilderness. The wilderness is still there. The barren places of this world. The wilderness the lost live in, including the lost sitting in the wilderness of the pews of America. What makes us the voice crying in the wilderness is not our efforts but the gospel. It is not politics and preaching morality to the people who think the things of God are foolishness but rather the gospel. It is not self-help or motivation - it's the gospel. John was considered the greatest man who ever lived but he understood that he was not even worthy to untie the sandals of Christ. Let's take a look at how Matthew Henry's Commentary looks at these verses:
