All right, brethren, our text
this morning is gonna be John chapter 12. John 12, we're looking at verses
37 through 43. I'm just gonna read and then Joe
will come up and we'll sing the hymns together and follow our
normal service. But though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him, that the
saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spake,
Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the
Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe,
because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and
hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal them. These things said Isaiah when
he saw His glory, and spake of Him. Nevertheless, among the
chief rulers also, many believed on Him. But because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue. For they loved the praise of
men more than the praise of God. Let me just pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy and grace to us this
day. We thank you, Lord, for gathering
together your people to hear your word. and fulfilling our
hearts, Lord, with faith and hope and love. Lord, we desire
to worship you this day. And Lord, we pray that your grace
and mercy would rest upon us and that you would comfort us
and teach us and draw near to us. And Lord, bless this people. Lord, bless this body, this congregation. We pray that you would indeed
strengthen us, and confirm us in the truth of the gospel, and
that you would establish this work here, and that you would
draw out others, your lost sheep, who are hungering and thirsting
for the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that you would draw them
here. And when you do, Lord, help us
to minister that grace which you've ministered unto us that
we would be faithful to walk in a manner that is according
to the truth of the gospel, that it would be according to faith.
It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. We're going to sing out of the
softback, 101, Electing Love Adored, 101. Let's all stand and sing. ? All glory to the great I Am ?
? Who chose me in the blessed Lamb ? ? Though millions of this
fallen race ? ? Shall never know or taste His grace ? Praise,
honor, power, and glory be to Christ the Lamb of Calvary, who
gave his life's atoning blood and reconciled me to my God. Grace to the spirit must be given
Who frees from sin and leads to heaven Chosen, redeemed, and
called by grace To God alone I give my praise. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. I'm going to read Psalm 7. This
morning. Psalm seven. Oh, Lord, my God,
in thee do I put my trust. Save me from all them that persecutes
me and deliver me lest lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending
it in pieces while there is none to deliver. O Lord my God, if
I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands, if I have
rewarded evil unto him, that was at peace with me. Yea, I
have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy. Let the
enemy persecute my soul and take it. Yea, let him tread down my
life upon the earth and lay mine honor in the dust. Selah. Arise,
O Lord, in thine anger. Lift up thyself because of the
rage of mine enemies, and awake for me to the judgment that thou
hast commanded. So shall the congregation of
the people come past thee, about, for their sakes. Therefore return
thou on high. The Lord shall judge the people.
Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according
to mine integrity that is in me. O let the wickedness of the
wicked come to an end, but establish the just, for the righteous God
trieth the hearts and reins. My defense is of God, which saveth
the upright in heart. God judges the righteous, and
God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he
will wet his sword. He hath bent his bow, and make
it ready. He hath also prepared for him
the instruments of death. He ordained his arrows against
the persecutors. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity,
and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
For he made a pit and digged it, and has fallen into the ditch
which he made. His mischief shall return upon
his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon
his own pair. I will praise the Lord according
to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the
Lord Most High. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning,
thankful for this chapter of Scripture. Father, we know the
righteousness, any righteousness that we speak of is God-given
righteousness. Our only hope is the righteousness
provided to an elect people. Father, we're thankful that you've
chosen to send your son to do that, to take the place of a
group of people, to take the pain and the humiliation that
was due us. Father, we're I'm always thankful
for a place to come to hear the gospel and for our pastor. Lord,
may you always strengthen him and support him in his study.
And Father, we just ask that you watch over us and have the
church grow as you see fit. And Lord, we just ask that you
watch over and care for us in Christ's name. If you would, turn to hymn number
four, Hail Sovereign Love, number four. Till sovereign love at first
began the scheme to rescue fallen men, and matchless free eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules
the sky, I fought with hand uplifted high, despised the mention of
His grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. And wrapped in thick Egyptian
night, And fond of darkness more than light, Madly I ran the sinful
race, Secure without a hiding place. But thus the Eternal Counselor
and Almighty loved the rest that met. I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place. Indignant justice stood in view,
To Sinai's fiery mount I flew. But justice cried with drowning
face, This mountain is no hiding place. There along a heavenly
voice I heard, and mercy's angel form appeared, who led me on
with gentle pace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. On him almighty vengeance fell,
that must have sunk a world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race, and thus became their hiding place. A few more rolling suns
at most shall land me safe on heaven's coast. There I shall
sing the song of grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. Good morning. Let's turn to John
chapter 12. Our text is verses 37 through
43. Now in this passage we're brought
once again to see that salvation is the work of our God. We know that no man seeks after
the true and living God. not according to his nature. He doesn't seek to know who God
is, not the true and living God, and he never will, except God
first be gracious to him, except God first turn the heart to behold
the living God and to behold his salvation, to look to his
servant whom he has sent to save his people from their sins. We
do that when he gives us the Spirit and gives us life, being
born from heaven above, being born again by the Spirit. And so man cannot be saved but
by the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Being left to himself,
We reject God. We refuse God. We fight against
God. We go our own way. We're stubborn. We're ignorant. We're in darkness.
We're fools. We fight against our God. And so unless God is gracious
to us, unless he gives us a new nature, unless he gives us his
spirit and faith to believe on him, we shall never, never look
to Christ unto salvation. We shall never look to him unto
salvation. And there's no debate about this. The scriptures are clear. As
Jonah found out, salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord.
It's all of his grace. I want us to see this morning
that salvation is God's gift. And that gift is wrought in whom
he chooses, those whom he is pleased to be gracious to. Whoever
God sets His love upon in eternity past, they shall be given hope
and faith and life in the Lord Jesus Christ. You that hope in
Christ and have no other righteousness, you hope in Him because He's
given you that faith, because He's delivered you from darkness. I've titled this, God Makes the
Difference. God Makes the Difference. If
our God isn't gracious to you and doesn't forgive you by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll never believe on him and
you'll perish in your sins. So the Apostle John here, in
writing this, he's showing us here that the will of man, our
will, We see ourselves in this by nature. This is what we are
left to ourselves in our nature. We are a hard, dark soul. We're full of blackness. We're
full of sin. We're full of enmity against
the true and living God. We are enmity against him. And left to himself, we grope
about in darkness. We think we're religious. We
think we're on the right track. We think we're doing good things.
But it's our hope is found in our doing. Our hope is found
in something we've done by nature, that's where we are, until the
Lord says, no, it's not you that saves you. It's not your will,
it's not your running, it's not your works, it's Christ that
saves us. And so, here we see that man
can have very God himself standing before him, the very light of
God, the truth of God standing before him, and he does not see
it, and he does not believe. And let's see that there in verse
37, John 12, 37, but though Christ had done so many miracles before
them, yet they believed not on him. So Christ is standing there,
the very Christ of God. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
bodily right there before them. They saw all his miracles, they
heard his words, yet they believed not on him. And our Lord did
many wonderful miracles. He fed thousands from just a
few loaves and a couple fishes. And He healed the sick. He cast out devils. He healed
the blind, giving them sight. He unstopped their ears. He loosened
the tongue. He raised people from the dead. He raised others from the dead.
He gave them life again and yet they would not believe on him. Even though he did these miracles
and no man can do what he did except God were with him. And he taught them when he spoke
to them, he taught them as one having authority and not as the
scribes and the Pharisees. And regardless of all those things,
the majority of Jews did not believe that he was the long
expected Messiah. He wasn't just concentrated in
the ruling Jews, the Sanhedrin, it was even the people. It was
even the people. And I know that because after
he rose from the dead, Most of the nation still perished in
their sins. Most of the nation did not believe on Christ. And so they heard of him, they
heard what he did, and some saw him, some heard him with their
own ears, some saw his miracles, and yet they did not believe
on him. As it says in John 1.11, he came unto his own, and his
own received him not. And so spirit man is spiritually
dead. And even with great preaching
and great teaching, it's not gonna make a difference for him
if he's left to himself. They had the greatest teacher
and the greatest preacher, Christ himself, and they did not believe. And so we see, except God be
gracious to a sinner, they will not believe. They will not hear
what God has done for His people in His Son. Turn over to Luke 16. Luke 16. And our Lord gives us
a parable beginning in verse 27. where this truth is illustrated,
that we can see miracles, we can hear the truth and not believe. So Luke 16 verse 27. Our Lord
is illustrating a truth using a rich man and a poor man who
have both died. And the rich man went to hell,
and the poor man went to heaven. He went to what's called Abraham's
bosom. So it says, verse 27, and the rich man said, I pray
thee therefore, Father, speaking to Abraham, that thou wouldest
send him, this poor man named Lazarus, who is now in heaven,
that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five
brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come
into this place of torment. And Abraham said unto him, They
have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said,
Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead,
they will repent. And he said unto them, If they
hear not Moses and the prophets, Neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead." And we know that by this time,
several had been raised from the dead. And we know that Christ
himself rose from the dead. It says after he rose from the
dead that there were saints who came up out of the graves and
went and showed themselves to others. It says that in Matthew
27, 52 and 53. And so they saw some come up
out of the graves and yet they did not believe. Now, Isaiah
had prophesied of this truth and What he spoke was made evidently
clear. What we were seeing here with
these Jews of their unbelief, of them standing before the Messiah
and seeing these miracles and hearing the truth that he declared,
they saw this, but Isaiah already spoke about this. He already
declared that this would come to pass. He spoke by the Spirit
of God declaring this day, this day. And it says in verse 38,
in John 12, 38, The reason why they didn't believe
is that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled.
All things written of him must be fulfilled. And it's what he
spake. He says, Lord, who hath believed
our report? And to whom hath the arm of the
Lord been revealed? You know, faith in Christ and
belief of the truth, it's a revelation that God gives to His children. The arm of the Lord that Isaiah
is speaking of there is Christ. It's the arm of His salvation.
It's the arm of the Lord that brings deliverance to the people
of God. It's how we are saved. It's by
Christ Himself. And who's believed this? Who's
believed the report? To whom has it been revealed? So that we understand that the
salvation of God is a revelation of God to whom He will. To whom
He will be gracious. You hear and you hunger and thirst
for his righteousness because he's gracious to you. He's given
you that heart. He's given you to see your sin.
He's given you to see that you cannot work a righteousness for
yourselves because he's gracious to you in showing you the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, we often get to thinking
that there's something that we've got to do, that there's something
more that I've got to do, I've got to be doing, be about doing. It's Christ. Look to Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Thou and all thy household. The
Lord is merciful to His people. There's nothing we can do to
work for our salvation and that brethren is given to you It's
revealed to you by the grace of God because man left to himself
Here's it and does not believe the report because it's not been
revealed Unto him now those words that's taken from Isaiah 53 verse
1 and we know that chapter that's that glorious grand chapter of
which describes the sacrifice that your Lord made to put away
your sin by the death of himself when he went willingly as the
servant of God to be the surety, the salvation, the deliverer
of his people by bearing their sins, going to that cross, and
as our high priest offering up himself unto the Father to make
an atonement, to pay for our sins. to obtain that atonement,
that covering, that covers all your sins and makes you righteous
and accepted with the Father and to have peace and reconciliation
and fellowship with Him. The wages of sin, we're told,
is death. And we earn that. We earn that
by our sin. That's what we've earned. That's
what we get for all our works. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God. gift of your God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's what he freely gives in
grace because of what Christ has done to obtain our eternal
redemption. He's gracious to us. And so Christ
is the arm of the Lord and he has come to obtain eternal redemption
for the lost sheep, those who fell in Adam and lost everything
and could do nothing to restore it and to regain what was lost
in Adam by their own works. And so we read in Isaiah 53,
11, Christ shall see of the travail, the suffering of his soul, and
shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. And so the lesson that our God
is giving to you is to behold the wonderful. the power, the
glory, the preciousness, the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that He is our salvation. He has obtained your deliverance. He is the Lord's salvation for
His people. Apart from Him, there is no salvation. There's nothing we can do. And
so the fact is that we have no part in our salvation. All we
bring to the table is our sin. That's all we have is sin and
shame and misery and corruption and enmity. But Christ comes
and he puts that all away by the death of himself. He bore
that punishment. And so that further glorifies
Christ in our hearts and in our minds. As he said earlier in
John 12, the hour has come that the Son of Man be glorified. And that's what your God does.
He glorifies the Lord in your hearts. knowing, Lord, thank
you. I've got nothing to boast in,
nothing, no works of confidence for myself, Lord, you've done
it all by your son. And so, God left man to himself
in a state of nature, and the reason why he does that is because
it shows us the exceeding sinfulness of our sin. It shows us that
our nature is nothing but rebellious against God. When you read of
these Jews here, we're seeing what we are left to ourselves,
that this is exactly how we would be. And we're foolish to think
that we would be any different than how these Jews were to Christ. I used to say things like that.
Man, if I was there, I would have believed on him. I would
have been one of his greatest disciples. No, I wouldn't. I'd
be right there crucifying him. physically wanting him to be
put to death. And so I've got nothing to boast
in. And by the grace of God, you
know it too, of your own selves, that we too would fall far short
and do fall far short of the glory of God. And so our nature
is veiled with blindness. It's veiled It's veiled with
foolishness. It's veiled with dark and false ideas about ourselves
and about God. And that veil must be delivered. It must be taken off. We must
be delivered from that darkness. And so, in the midst of all that
foolishness of man and that pride and arrogance and thinking he
knew what was what, the grace of our God came right through
that weakness, came just walking right through the midst of us
when we were fighting and warring against God, and it was the Lord
Jesus Christ who came and went faithfully to that cross to put
away the enmity and the sins of his people to deliver us and
to obtain life and restoration for us with holy God. And he
says in verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit." Much fruit. And so that's what our Lord and
Savior was purposed to do. That's what he was purposed to
do, to establish the covenant of grace that God may be gracious
to you justly that there's no fault with him being merciful
to you there's no fault with God and being gracious to you
now because Christ paid the price in full he put away all the sin
that God may be gracious to us and none of the princes of this
world knew it all their wisdom and all their might and all their
hatred and enmity against God they didn't even see how that
the weakness of God coming in the flesh of Christ accomplished
the salvation of his people because God is so much greater than any
of us and that's a comfort because we see how we wreck things we
see how others wreck things and and how we wreck them and yet
God is on the throne ruling and reigning and that's a great comfort
Because we're ignorant. We're fools left to ourselves.
And so what a mercy, what a grace. So the princes of this world
didn't know, for had they known it, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory. And then we'd be left in our
sins. There'd be no atonement for our sins. And so Christ faithfully
did all the will of the Father. And with men shut up in darkness
and unaware, Christ being made a willing bondservant accomplished
our salvation. Turn over to Acts chapter 2.
Go to Acts chapter 2 verse 22 and 23. Peter when preaching to the Jews,
Said ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by him in the midst of you. As ye yourselves also
know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain. And that's because whatsoever
God's hand and God's counsel determined before to be done
was brought to pass. God was accomplishing our very
salvation. And so, that being done, it's
because God alone is God, he's sovereign and whatsoever he pleases,
that he does. That he does. And it pleases
him to save his people. Let's read Isaiah 45. Go there. Go to Isaiah 45. And we'll read
verses five through seven. Our Lord says, I am the Lord,
and there is none else. There's no God beside me. I girded
thee, though thou hast not known me. that they may know from the
rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside
me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create
evil. I the Lord do all these things."
And so we see that in our nature we're far too confident and far
too cocky and think far too highly of ourselves and When we think
that our will is the deciding factor in our salvation, that's
deceit. We're being thieves and liars
and we're idolizing self. When we think that it's our free
will that has accomplished God being gracious to us. If God
does not save us, we shall die in our sins and we shall stand
before God in judgment only to hear the eternal sentence of
death. because we'll have no covering
apart from Christ. And so we see in these that we're
all idle worshipers. We're all self-righteous and
worshipers of self until the Lord reveals his glory to us,
until he delivers us from our false delusions in this idea
that God loves us all because we're God's children. We naturally
have that thought or want to believe that about ourselves.
But the Lord teaches us in his word that those whom he loves,
he saves with the blood of Christ. He washes them with the blood
of Christ. In 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 13
and 14, Paul says, we're bound to give thanks unto God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God, this is
the distinguishing factor, because God, wasn't for God, we would
continue in darkness. But God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. If God has set his love upon
you, he comes with his Spirit and separates you apart. We don't
separate ourselves apart by our works. God separates us apart
to hear this gospel and he works faith, he gives faith whereby
we believe the truth of God. Our hearts are set on him and
we believe, yes, he is the salvation and no, I can't save myself apart
from him and yes, Lord, save me, wash me in the blood of Christ. Whereunto he hath called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And so we see nothing. Nothing
was going to interrupt, nothing was going to stop you from hearing
the truth and believing the truth by the power of God. It was God's
will and purpose to call you to himself, to call you in the
name of Christ, by Christ, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We've obtained salvation by our
Lord and Savior. Now we may go a long time in
religion and we may hold on to a lot of vain, foolish ideas
about God and what kind of relationship we have to Him and why we have
a relationship with Him and what we've done to improve that, but
when our Lord comes with power, whatever works we did, they dissolve
into dust. I don't know, have you ever been
cleaning up the yard or had a pet or something like that and you
look on the ground and you think it's something you pick it up
and realize oh that's dog poop or cat poop or or you realize
you're cleaning up outside and you realize whoa that's a a mouse
carcass or something like that in your hand and you let go.
It's filthy to you and you wash your hands. That's how it is
when the Lord comes with power. He shows us that what we were
holding on to and thought was our righteousness and our good
works is nothing but dung. And we let go of it. And we don't
want to have any part with that or stand in that for our righteousness
because the Lord shows us the preciousness of Christ and how
he's pleased and accepted with him. and not with our works. Job said it this way when he
saw the Lord. In Job 42 verses 5 and 6, I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. He heard about the
Lord. He sat in services and heard
a lot of true things about the Lord. And he thought he knew
the Lord. And he says, but now mine eye
seeth thee. Now I see who the true and living
God is. Wherefore, I abhor myself. I hate myself, I hate my works,
I hate the confidences I had, and repent in dust and ashes. It all turned to worthless dung,
and I see that I have no hope, no righteousness, but in the
Lord Jesus Christ." And that's what Isaiah's experience was
as well. If you turn over to Isaiah chapter
6, Well, while you're going, I'm sorry, I should have, we're
gonna read, I'm gonna read it from John first, what John says
in chapter 12, verses 39 through 41, and then we'll go to Isaiah
six. John records it this way, verse
39, therefore, the Jews could not believe because that Isaiah
said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart,
that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with
their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These
things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him. And so John's telling us Isaiah
was brought to a point where he saw the glory of God and he
spoke of the glory of God. He declared what he saw according
to the glory of God. And Isaiah tells us that the
Jews here, standing before Christ, seeing his miracles, hearing
him speak, they didn't see that he was the Messiah. And it's
because he hath God hath blinded their eyes and hardened their
heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand
with their heart. So let's turn over to Isaiah
chapter six. And here we're told in verse
one, we'll begin and we'll see what Isaiah saw. In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple."
Up to this point, Isaiah was a devoted, faithful servant of
King Uzziah. He loved King Uzziah. King Uzziah
was a godly king, and Isaiah loved him, and he loved to serve
him. When he served the king, he believed, this is my duty
unto God. This is how I give God service,
is serving King Uzziah. But God removed the idol of Isaiah's
heart. He loved Uzziah. Supposedly he
was a cousin of Isaiah's. And he loved them. He believed
this is wonderful. And he loved serving them. But
when God removed the idol of his heart, then Isaiah saw also
the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. And we're
told in allegorical language that Isaiah was born again. What
he's saying is, I saw the Lord. And he became a new creature. born of the Spirit of God. When it says His train, God's
majestic road, picturing His Spirit, when His train filled
the temple, what He's saying there is that the Spirit of God
filled my body. It came into me and gave me life. And I saw and beheld the true
and living God. I saw His salvation. I understood
that He's the Lord and I'm nothing. I'm nothing to myself. He's everything. He was filled with the Spirit,
because our body is the temple of the Lord. Know ye not that
ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you? 1 Corinthians 3.11, so we see
how the Spirit of God fills His people, the temple of His people,
whereby we know the true and living God. It's how we know
Him and believe His report. It's His revelation to us. And
so Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord being born again. And like
Job, he saw the true and living God and was never the same again.
He was a new creature in Christ. It says in verse 5, Isaiah 6,
5, then said, I woe is me, for I'm undone, because I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then we read that an angel having
a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from
off the altar, came and touched Isaiah's lips and removed his
sin. So we see that that coal, that
tong, that altar, are all pictures of Christ. Just as your Lord
has fulfilled every office for you, everything that we need
for salvation, Christ is all of it to us. He's the coal, He's
the tongs, He's the altar, He's everything. Everything that purifies
us. and makes us acceptable unto
the Father. And so, verse 9, we see that
God sent Isaiah now to preach the Word of God, saying, go and
tell this people, hear ye indeed. And that means hear with close
attention, pay close attention. These people were listening very
closely, very intently to what was being said, but understand
not. And see ye indeed, meaning to
look intently, but perceive Not. And what he's saying there is
they're not going to understand. They're not going to look and
behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. They're going to hear that it's
their religion, that it's their works, that it's their doing
that saves them. They're not going to behold Christ.
They're not going to rest in Christ. They're going to keep
hearing what they want to hear, and they're not going to believe
the truth of God. Verse 10, make the heart of this
people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest
they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand
with their heart and convert and be healed. I know just because
you get sleepy in services sometimes does not mean that you're not
a child of God. Your hope and your faith, your
confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ. You that look to Him
and know that He's all my righteousness. If I have not the blood of Christ,
I have nothing, no hope before God. He's all your confidence.
Your heart has not been made fat. He's opened your ears. He's opened your eyes. He's opened
your heart and filled you with faith and with His Spirit. Trust
Him. Because I know when we read these
words, we think, well, what if that's me? Because I'm listening,
and I'm trying to listen, and I'm trying to hear. And Lord,
I want to believe. Help thou mine unbelief. You
that believe on Christ, that's grace. Because you wouldn't believe
on Christ, except it was grace. There's no one looking to Christ
and calling upon the name of Christ and for God to be merciful
to them, for Christ's sake, that will ever perish and fall short
of the glory of God. Because the flesh doesn't believe
on Christ. The grace of God, working in
you by His power, creating that new man, that's whereby we look
to Christ and believe Him. Otherwise, we would just be happy
and content in our dead religion and our lifelessness. Our belief
that our works, our dung is what saves us. But you believe Christ. You believe him. Look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Lord is making known
to his people that he's the one that makes the difference in
our salvation. And we see it here. And in these
Jews, we see it. The world boasts that salvation
is our choice, that it's our doing, it's our works. And the
Lord shows us that's death, that's blindness, that's deafness, that's
fatness of heart and not believing the truth. You're not hearing
what the Lord is saying. and they're continuing under
strong delusion. But Christ told the Jews in John 540, he will
not come unto me that ye might have life. That's the free will
of man. It's bound in sin and darkness. It can only do that which is
wicked. Man's gonna do what man's gonna
do, and what he does is wickedness. He will reject and will not believe
the truth. And so Paul says in Romans 9,
16, so then it's not of him that willeth. It's not of man's free
will. It's not of him that runneth.
It's not by our works of righteousness, but it's of God that showeth
mercy. It's of God who reveals the arm of the Lord, the salvation
of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's accomplished
our righteousness. He is our righteousness. And
he fills us with his spirit, making us born again, whereby
we hear and believe. And behold, not my works, Lord,
don't let me stand before you my righteousness. Lord, bring
me before you in the righteousness of your Son, Jesus Christ, clothed
in his robe of righteousness, clothed in him. So after reminding
the saints of God what we were before our Lord had mercy in
us, look over at Ephesians 2. After he tells us what we were,
how that by nature we were dead in trespasses and sins, by nature
we walked according to the course of this world, by nature we were
under the spell of the prince of the power of the air, and
that we were just like the children of disobedience and the children
of wrath. After showing us that, Our Lord shows us who makes the
difference, who the difference maker is. Ephesians 2.4 But God,
but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened,
hath made us alive together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. It wasn't your free will choice
of God that saved you. Our God first, while we were
yet dead in trespasses and sins, quickened us together with Christ
and hath raised us up, verse six, together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Because that's
where we're accepted of God, in Christ Jesus. That in the
ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are
you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God. And we know that all men have
not faith, but God's saints are given faith freely, graciously. He purifies our hearts with the
faith that he gives us because that's the gift of your God to
you in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have any vain thoughts
and ideas and fancy ideas that we do something for God, look
back in our text now in John 12, verses 42 and 43. Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers also, many believed on him. But because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise
of God." They recognize that this Jesus of Nazareth, there's
something special about him. It seems like he is the Christ
of God, but they loved themselves more, and they loved the praise
of men, and they wanted to be included with Those, the majority
of the people, and they didn't want to be cast out from them,
and that kept them bound in their prison, and they just continued
in their darkness. They heard, but they didn't understand.
They saw, but they didn't perceive what they were seeing. And so
they continued in their wickedness, and they continued in their false
ways. They didn't repent of them. Turn
over to Romans 9, Romans chapter 9. And first, while we're there,
let's look at verses 17 and 18. Romans 9, 17. For the scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will. he hardened,
he hardeneth. And so, unless God has mercy
on the sinner, that sinner's gonna continue doing religious
things, and they're gonna do things that they think are good,
but they're gonna fall short of God's glory. You know, even
Pharaoh had some changes of heart at times, and did things a little
differently, and said he was gonna be merciful to God's people,
and then his heart would turn, and he'd go right back to doing
his hatred, continuing in his hatred of the true and living
God. And so man does what he wants
to do and being left to himself, he's going to reject Christ.
He's going to refuse Christ. He's not going to rest in Christ. But when the Lord comes with
power and gives you of his spirit, you're going to do what you want
to do. That is, in the new man, which cannot sin, which can only
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And though we look at this flesh,
and we see things that we think we ought not to see, and we're
troubled by our sin, yet we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that
He's all my righteousness and all my acceptance with God. And
we can't turn from Christ. We have no confidence in self,
no hope in ourselves. These Jews didn't have that.
They just figured, I've got a backup. I've got an alternative. I've
got another means of righteousness for myself. But the child of
God says, I have nothing else. If I have not Christ, I have
nothing. I have nothing. I have no righteousness.
And so he keeps us there being born again of his spirit. And look at verses 22, Romans
9, 22 and 23. Paul says, well, what if God,
willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured
with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared unto glory? You that hope in Christ, you
stay right there. That's the grace of God working
in you. He's given you that. He's purified
your hearts by faith. And I wish I'd said this in the
last message, but you that walk according to the truth of the
gospel, what he's saying there is you walk by faith. You walk
by faith. You're not looking at what you
see. You're looking at the one whom you see by faith, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if that's your hope, praise
God because He's the one who made the difference in you. You
didn't do it for you. God did it for you in grace and
in mercy. So take comfort and bless His
name and rejoice in Him. Praise His name, because that's
what we're going to be doing for all eternity, is rejoicing
in Him and singing His praises, and we'll be happy and content
in it. And so, praise the Lord, brethren. All right. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and mercy. We see in these Jews here, recorded
in this chapter, what we are by nature. We see how foolish
we are, how blind we are, how ignorant we are, and how hard
of heart we are. But Lord, we that have no hope
in our own righteousness and have no hope in our works, Lord,
it makes it so much more evident to see your mercy, your grace,
your power, your effectual working in us, Lord, to deliver us what
we could not do for ourselves. We could never get free of the
bondage of sin, but Lord, you've come with power and glory and
having wrought our salvation and deliverance by the blood
of Christ. Thank you, Lord. Lord, continue to bless our hearts
as we behold and sit in wonder and awe of our Savior on the
throne. Keep us ever looking to him and
trusting his righteousness alone. And Lord, we thank you for it
because we know that that's your work of grace in us. You're the
difference maker. We have nothing to boast of but
Christ. Thank you, Lord. It's in Christ's
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, bro. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn. 144, when this passing world
is done. 144. When this passing world is done,
When there's oak and radiant sun, When I stand with Christ
on high, Looking o'er life's history, Then, Lord, shall I
fully know Not till then how much I owe. When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own, When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinning heart, Then, Lord, shall I fully know
Not till then how much I owe. Let's just sing an acapella,
all right? Oft I walk beneath a cloud, dark
as midnight's gloomy shroud. But when fear is at its height,
Jesus comes and all is light. Blessed Jesus, bid me show, doubting
saints how much I owe. When the praise of heaven I hear,
Loud as thunders to the ear, Loud as many waters' noise, Sweet
as harps' melodious voice, Then, Lord, shall I fully know, Not
till then how much I owe.