Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to John 11. I'd like to look at verses 45
to 48 this morning, and I've entitled this message, Some Believe
and Some Don't. The Lord, before calling Lazarus
from the dead, verbally thanked his father that those around
him might hear him thank the Father. Verse 41, 42 says, Then
they took away the stone, from the place where the dead
was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes
and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me, and
I knew that Thou hearest me always, but because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent
me. Faith cometh by hearing God's
Word, God's Gospel. That's the way that the Spirit
of God blesses to God's people the grace of faith. To believe
what God says. Now, the hearing of His Word
would have one of two effects on this group of people. Here's
what it's going to be. Either men would hear and believe,
or they would not. Verse 43 says, When he thus had
spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound
about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose
him, and let him go." Every regenerated sinner, every
one called out of spiritual darkness, comes forth this way. bound with grave clothes and
a napkin over his eyes, seeing through a glass darkly. And we
go through this life being loosed, taught, growing in grace, and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Loose Him! Let him go. God's people are His servants,
used, directed by the Lord. Paul said concerning the offices
that God gives, He gave some to be apostles, some prophets,
some preachers, teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the
saints. Not that God's servants are able
to perfect them. But through the proclamation
of God's Word, the teaching of God's Word, the establishing,
setting forth of God's Word, Almighty God teaches, perfects
them. You know what that word perfects
them, matures them? He matures them. God's people
are matured. As they go, as the Lord leads
and directs and guides, they grow in maturity by hearing the
Word of God. Now, the next two verses set
forth absolutely the effect that surely is going to be found when
men hear the gospel of God's free grace. A division is always one or the
other. Verse 45 says, Then many of the
Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus
did, believed on Him. Those that believed evidenced
that they were eternally The Lord's. Faith is the evidence
of God's eternal purpose to show mercy. Faith, evidence is, hold
your finger right there and turn to Acts 13.48. What does God have to say? Acts
13.48. What does God have to say about
faith? What does God have to say about
it? Here again, let's just establish what does the Lord have to say.
Acts 13.48, And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and
glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained
to eternal life, believed. As many as were ordained. Almighty God ordains. He has eternally ordained His
people to life. And they are going to believe.
So whenever a man or woman believes God, it evidences that Almighty
God has eternally purposed to show them mercy. Purposed to
call them out of darkness. Listen to this Scripture, and
I'm going to give you some interpretations of these words. You can look
them up. Let me just tell you. John 1.12, as received Him, to them gave
He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name." Now, let me tell you exactly what the words mean
of the Scripture that I just read. But as many as received
Him by faith, to them gave He power His power. To them gave them His power. His privilege. That's another
word. That word power, it means privilege. To them gave He His
privilege. His power. To become, or that
word become there means to come into being. to be made manifest. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the privilege, His power, to come into being, to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. All men, 2 Thessalonians 3 says,
for all men have not faith. I've always been told that everybody
has faith if they'll just exercise it. The Scripture does not bear
that out. God's Word says all men, 2 Thessalonians
3, 2, have not faith. But these that believed, in verse
45, I know how they were believed.
I know how they believed. Psalm 110.3 says they were made
willing in the day of His power. The same power that He gave them
in John 1.12. To them He gave power. Privilege. He graced them to
believe Him. He allowed them to believe Him.
Permitted them to believe Him. But some of them went their ways
to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done." Oh, what a sad epitaph. They went their ways. The ways that seemed right unto
a man. Where did they go? Well, the
Scripture says they went to the Pharisees in absolute open defiance
of our Lord, exhibiting themselves to be a reprobate. A reprobate. One that the Lord has left to
Himself and fitted for destruction. Left to themselves. They went
their ways. John 6.37 says, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. The word come there means
shall arrive. They shall arrive to me. And him that arrives, him that
cometh to me, and cometh, and cometh, and cometh. You that
believe, do you know what you're What are you doing right now?
You've come into Christ. As you therefore received Him,
how did you receive Him? By faith. So walk ye in Him. What are you doing right now?
Coming to Him. Salvation is not a one-time act
of faith. Well, I was saved back And I
understand the terminology. I understand that there was a
time in your life when the Lord revealed Himself to you. And
anybody that's honest will tell you, well, I can tell you there
was a time during my life when the Lord began to reveal Himself
to me. And I know that we go from darkness
to light. I know that. But I'll be honest
with you. There's a time in my life when
I can relate back to a time when the Lord began to teach me some
things. But at that particular moment
in my life when I said, it was at 322 on a Tuesday in March, God's people know that God has
revealed Himself. And He reveals to them that He's
revealed Himself to them. But I promise you this, that's
not the issue. 25, 30, 40, 50 years ago, Carl's
not the issue. What does a man think of Christ
right now? Right now. I'm telling you, my little fickle
brain, I'm forgetful, I'm wavering, but I'm telling you, He that
cometh, cometh. and cometh unto me. I will in no wise eject him out,
cast him out." I won't. And the older a believer gets,
what we were just talking about now, the older a believer gets,
I'm telling you, the more he knows something of the war that's
going on with him, the more he realizes, Lord, if You don't
save me, Lord, if You don't keep me, I'm not going to make it. Lord, if you don't hold on to
me, I'll never hold on to you. Lord, it's not by my strength,
not by my might, but by yours. Light had come and stood in the
very midst of these folks right here. And they loved darkness
rather than light. Then gathered were 47, the chief
priests and the Pharisees, a council, and said, What do we? For this
man doeth many miracles if we let him alone, if we let him
thus alone. All men will believe on him and
the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
Two groups of people they talked about, chief priests and the
Pharisees. Two groups that were ruling assemblies,
and they joined forces against the Lord, and in so doing, fulfilled
this Scripture right here in Psalm 2, 2 and 3. The kings of the earth set themselves,
and rulers take counsel together against the Lord, against His
anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast
away their cords from us. What are we going to do? They ask the question that's
at the very heart of every man born in Adam. What do we? What are we going to do? There's no heart to stand still
as Moses told the people, the Red Sea, to see and behold the
salvation of the Lord. Man by nature will not wait on
God. He will not come to Christ. He
never considers that without the Lord, he can do nothing.
Never considers that. What do we? If we let him thus alone, Romans come, take away our place
and our nation. And all men will leave on him.
If we leave him alone, everybody is going to believe on him. Boy,
that's presumption. All he considers by nature. Man is his own honor, and he
desires the praise of men. We're going to lose our place.
We're going to lose our nation. They had witnessed a miracle
of a dead man being raised from the grave, and they didn't believe. You say, well, man, that's a
miracle. And they didn't believe? God raised one from the dead
and they didn't believe? That doesn't surprise me. You know why? There's a lot of
folks that are sitting in this room this morning that God has
spiritually raised from the dead and has given a heart for Christ.
And they love His Word. They love Him. They love His
people. And folks look at them, and they
don't believe. That's the first resurrection. Faith does not come by viewing
miracles. If it did, every person that
saw a believer would believe. They look at them. But man by nature looks at a
believer, and that doesn't more mean anything to him than a hill
of beans. If the Lord doesn't give a new
heart to hear Moses and the prophets, neither will he be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead. Well, I said, well, I can understand
if somebody was regenerated and it didn't impress me. But now,
if somebody rose from the dead, real dead, I'd believe them.
The Lord just said, if they don't hear Moses and
the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose
from the dead. I heard Brother Henry say this.
I think I told some of you this. Brother Henry said, if you actually
saw someone raised from the dead, you'd be impressed at least outwardly
for a while. But it wouldn't last long. It
didn't make any impression on them. Why would it make any impression
on us? Pretty soon it would just be
commonplace. It'd be over. These that believe not, had one
desire. This is what they had. I look
at him. To not leave him alone. Verse 48, If we let him thus
alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come
and take away both our place and our nation. They didn't want
to leave him alone For this reason, and here's the problem, because
they didn't want to lose their honor. If we leave him alone,
we're going to lose our honor. They didn't want to leave him
alone so that he wouldn't mess up their religious charade. Years ago, as the Lord began dealing with me and reveal
Christ in me. The pastor where I was attending, because I asked him about these
things. I'd come to this and I'd turn to Ephesians 1-4 and
2 Thessalonians 2-13 and Acts concerning you know, those that were ordained
to eternal life, believe. I asked him, I said, what about
that? And he told me this. He said,
Marvin, now look, I've looked at that. I've looked at that
before. That sovereignty stuff. And he said, I'm going to tell
you something. I'm going to give you a warning. He said, you open
up that can of worms, And he said, you'll never be able to
close it. And I look back now, and I think,
by the grace of God, I've never been able to close it. He looked
at it as a can of worms, his life. He disputed what the Scripture
said. And it was my only hope. What does God have to say? Leave
Him alone. We're going to lose everything.
Man by nature will not leave God Almighty alone, but hates
Him, despises Him. Do you know, if I don't agree
with you, if you don't agree with me on certain things that
don't matter, do you know what I'm going to do? Okay. That's fine. It doesn't
matter. If you don't agree with me, that's
okay. But not concerning this. Not concerning this. This is
life. An unbeliever will not leave
the gospel of God's free grace, Christ alone. Why? Because he
hates it. It exposes him. Exposes Him. And He exposes His God, His false
God, which is Himself. But for those that the Lord has
given a heart to love Him, they too, they don't want to leave
Him alone. Nobody wants to leave Christ
alone. Those that believe not don't want to leave Him alone
because He's going to mess up our place and our nation. This
thing they say, this is an evil thing. He's going to mess us
up. We've got to kill Him. And the wrath of man is going
to praise God. We've got to put Him out of our
misery. And by wicked hands, they took
him, Freddie, and accomplished the purpose of God. Doing exactly
what they wanted to do. But for those that know him and
love him, they don't want to leave him alone for a different
reason. They want to be where he is. That's what we just sang,
Gary. They desire his presence as the
bride desired his presence for her. Psalm of Solomon, listen
to this blessed passage of Scripture. Psalm of Solomon 3, 1-4, By night
on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth. Some of you know
something about that, don't you? I sought him, but I found him
not. I will rise now and go about
the city and the streets, And in the broad ways, that ought
to tell us something. I will seek him whom my soul
loveth. I sought him, but I found him not. The watchmen that go
about the city found me, to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul
loveth? And it was but a little that
I passed from them, I found Him whom my soul loveth. I held Him
and would not let Him go until I brought Him into my mother's
house, into the chamber of her that conceived me, into the place
of the church that we studied in the Song of Solomon. I wanted
to be where He's preached, where I was conceived openly and God
regenerated me by grace. I want to be where He is. I want
to hear Him. A believer doesn't want to leave
Him alone. They say as David, Psalm 51 11,
cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. That's the most fearful thought.
Lord, You who have promised to never leave me and never forsake
me. That's a given. That's a given. But Almighty God, in His infinite
wisdom and grace, if He withdraws His presence, and you don't know
what's going on, somebody says, well, how do you know? You know.
You that know Him know. Oh, to be where He is, to hear
what He has to say, to fellowship with Him in His Word, That's
the heart of a believer. Many will not leave him alone
because of their hatred of his sovereignty, but his people can't
leave him alone because he's all their hope. John 6, 67-69,
then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou
art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Let me ask you this. Could you go away? Could you? Could you leave him
alone? I mean, could you take him or
leave him? A believer says, I must have
Him. I must. Some won't leave Him
alone because His word exposes them. But some can't leave Him
alone by grace and power. Why? They're kept. Kept by the
power of God unto the day of salvation and redemption. Lord,
bless these words to our heart for Christ's sake.