Chapter 2. I'm certainly in no
hurry to get to Chapter 3, which is a powerful passage on, you
must be born again. So many people know something
about John 3.16 and on and on. But these three verses at the
end of this chapter, we just briefly looked at, and they really
spoke to me and stood out. There's so much here, so much
in just the phrase that our Lord spoke. Now, verse 23-25, Now
when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many
believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did.
Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all
men, women, children. He needed not that any should
testify of Him. He knew what was in man. Many
believed in His name. That really stood out to me. Now, verse 23 says, when He was
in Jerusalem at the Passover. Who was in Jerusalem? Who is
this talking about? It was talking about Jesus. But then and now, many, many,
many, many, if not most persons believe in Jesus. but don't believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Many believe in the historical
figure named Jesus who came, who lived, who died, some believe
He even rose again. If you ask the average person,
do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe in Jesus of Nazareth,
that He came, He lived? Oh yeah, sure we do. the miracle
worker. They believe, perhaps, that He
performed some of these miracles. They believe that He was a healer,
a helper, a lover of all. That's what they say. You know,
Jesus loves you. Matthew 21. Go back to Matthew
chapter 21. And what I want us to see, and
I hope the Lord will reveal in us, to us, whether or not we
believe on Him, and not just in it. Okay? This is the difference
between salvation and a mere profession of faith. Believing
on Him is salvation. Believing in Him. Everybody believes
in Him. A woman found out I was a preacher, and when people do
that, they immediately want me to know that they're religious. And she said, I believe in God.
Yeah, everybody does. Most everybody. Matthew 21, verse 10. It says,
when he was coming to Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying,
Who is this? And the multitude, all of them,
said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. They
all said that. This is Jesus. This is that man
who was born of Mary and Joseph, and they say in Bethlehem he
was raised in Nazareth and lives now in Galilee. We know who he
is. This is Jesus, the prophet. He's a prophet. He's a prophet. Turn to Deuteronomy 18. And this
is a Bible study, so we're going to look at several scriptures. Deuteronomy 18. He's a prophet. They say he's the prophet of
Nazareth. He's a prophet just like Elijah
was a prophet, just like Isaiah was a prophet. He's a prophet.
And that's a high calling and an honor in it. Look at Deuteronomy 18, verse
15. Moses is speaking. He said, The
Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet. What do you see
there different? It's capitalized in. That's a
title. That's talking about a person
in a high office, capital. Prophets never capitalize in
the Scripture, but right here. Never ever. Apostles never capitalize
except in Hebrews 3. Never. High priest is never capitalized
except in Hebrews 3, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ,
never, ever. Bishop, capitalized only in talking
about Christ. Prophet, a prophet from the midst
of thee, look at verse 18, I will raise him up a prophet, capital
P. Go back to John 7. Many believe
he's a prophet. And they believe in Jesus. Verse
37 of John. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. By this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive. And verse 40
says, many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying,
said, of a truth, this is the prophet, capital P. They even
said, well, this is him. Others said, this is the Christ.
Some said, well, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Half of
the scripture said that Christ cometh out of the seat of David
and out of the town of Bethlehem. They didn't really know who he
was. Some said they believed. So there
was a division among the people because of him, a division. Look
at John 9, verse 10. There was a division. They were
all divided over who he was. This is the chapter when the
Lord healed this blind man. They began to question this blind
man. They said, how were your eyes
open? Verse 10. And he answered and said, a man
that is called Jesus made play and annoyed my eye. Even this
man didn't know who he was. When we get to this chapter,
we'll see. This man wasn't saved until... Well, I'll show you. Look at verse 16. The Pharisees
said, this man's not of God. Talking about Jesus. He's not
of God. It's not of God. He doesn't keep
the Sabbath done. Others said, how can a man that's
a sinner do such miracles then? There was a division among them. Verse 36, and now when the Lord
confronted this blind man, He found him, verse 35, our Lord
found the blind man. And he said unto him, dost thou
believe on the Son of God? Not believe in Jesus. And he
said, verse 36, the blind man said, who is he, Lord, that I
might believe on him? And our Lord said unto him, Jesus
said unto him, thou hast both seen him, it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, That blind man said, before he
said, a man named Jesus. And now he said, Lord, I believe
in what He did. I believe He hit His knees and
He worshipped Him. He worshipped Him. Now, I'm not
splitting hairs. Go to Matthew 16. I'm not splitting
hairs. I'm not making someone an offender
for a word. This is not a question of semantics
or the way we make things sound or the way we say things. One
time I applied for some health insurance from this company that
was supposed to be a Christian health insurance. All these people all over the
nation that called themselves Christian would send their premium into a major fund. They'd pool it all together.
And there wasn't supposed to be anybody making any money off
of it. So then they had a board. that would dole out the money
to people who got sick, and the doctors would pay all that, and
it was cheaper than others, okay? Well, you had to be a Christian
to have this health insurance. Do you know how many people claimed
to be Christian? Anyway, they sent out a questionnaire
you had to agree with. You had to sign this questionnaire. proving that you were a Christian. And one of the questions was,
do you believe that a person has to accept Jesus as his personal
Savior to be saved? I'm not going to sign that. I
didn't sign it. Well, they called me. One of
the representatives called me on the phone and said, we noticed. You know, I had questions like,
do you believe God is one God, one, you know, God's Bible is
God's Word and all of it all. Yes, yes, yes. We got to that. I wouldn't sign it. So they called
me and said, we can't accept your application until you sign
this. It says here you don't believe
that you must accept Jesus. I said, salvation is not to accept Jesus
as your personal Savior. It's to be accepted in the beloved.
And I went on and on to talk about that. And the fellow, he
thought I was just splitting hair. He thought, oh well, oh,
so if it was worded differently, it'd be okay? I said, I'm not
going to sign that. I'm not going to sign that. So
he got around that because he wanted my money. He got around
it. It's not a question of semantics.
Well, you believe in Jesus and I believe on Jesus. No, no, no,
that's not it. You say, you know, that you don't believe that we
must accept Him, must receive Him. There's a huge difference. We've seen that, haven't we?
We've seen that. Accepting Him means He's up for
your approval. Accepting Him means it's within
your power to do something. I've got a track down there that
Woodlawn over here, The Baptist church put out. There were three
families, two families, two families, were you all there? Three families
were there. Okay. You read that tract and
it talks about God being God and it says good things. It keeps
going, good things. Christ died for our sins according
to Scripture. They made it sound though like
He died for everybody. Alright, but it gets down to
the end. And in big, big, big, bold, capital, dark, bold letters,
it says, the decision is yours. It all sounded real good. It
might be orthodox. It might sound real good. Get
to that. That's free will religion. That's false religion. That's
a lie. That's where Satan started all
this, in the garden. You have a free will. Exercise
it. Nothing could be further from
the truth. The decision is not yours. Salvation doesn't rest
in a decision. Salvation is not us accepting
Him. We'll see this in a minute here. Matthew 16. Look at verse 13. The Lord came. I've told you before, He calls
Him Jesus. The Holy Spirit in writing this,
the narrator is the Holy Spirit. He calls Him Jesus to distinguish
Him from God in heaven. Right? It doesn't always say
the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, You might think he's
talking about the Lord God in heaven, when he's talking about
this man on earth who is the Lord God from heaven. All right? You see that verse? When Jesus
came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? I'm a man. They know
that. They believe that. One time they said, we know who
you are. We're sons of Abraham. You're
born of fornication. We know your mother, she was
pregnant before she got married. We all know that. That's what
they said. And he said, you neither know
me, or my father. You don't know me. They said, well, he's John the
Baptist, risen from the dead, verse 14. Or Elias, Elijah. Others, Jeremiah, are one of
the prophets. He said unto them, his disciples,
to whom say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And our Lord
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee. You didn't decide
to believe that. You did up and one day decide
that. No preacher convinced you of that, but my Father which
is in heaven has revealed. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father, and he to whom the Father will reveal it. No man knoweth
the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal
it. Don't know. Can't. Spiritually discern, reveal. You must be born of God. And so he said, my father revealed
me to you. Many believed in his name though,
Jesus, Savior, Joshua. They knew what the name Jesus
was, Joshua. These Jews knew that Jesus was the Greek name
for Joshua. They all believed in Joshua.
He was the Savior. He was the Conqueror. Do you
know what the Jews wanted though? All these Jews? They believed
He was something of a Messiah. He's coming to save us from what? Roman tyranny. He's come to save
us, restore the kingdom to Israel. We're all going to live under
our vine and fig tree, you know, like Solomon. That's what they
wanted. That's what they believed. This is Him. Look at John 6,
John chapter 6. They believed in Him. He's the Savior. He's the one
we've been looking for. Look at this, verse 14, John
6. Those men, when they saw the miracle that Jesus did, said,
this is of a truth, that prophet that should come into the world
that Moses spoke of. Yes. You know what all Moses wrote
about him? He's not going to set up an earthly kingdom, or
not one you can see. And he didn't come to restore the
kingdom to Israel. Moses didn't write that. Moses
wrote about a lamb that was slain. Moses wrote about the Christ
that must come and suffer for the sins of His people. Moses
wrote about the Messiah who is going to come and put away the
sins of His people and put them into His spiritual kingdom and
wipe out all this other stuff. Look at verse 15, John 6, When
Jesus therefore perceived they would come and take Him by force
to make Him a king, He departed. Well, don't men
say today, make Jesus your Lord? Isn't that the same thing? Isn't
that what they're saying? What's wrong with that? Anybody
that says that doesn't know Him. He doesn't know it. Make Him
Lord? Are you kidding? He is Lord. Are you blind? The heavens declare
His glory. See that big ball of hydrogen
burning up there that we depend on? That's Jesus Christ. Are
you blind? Yeah. Are you deaf? Deaf. Can't you hear what He
said? If you believe not that I am, you'll die in your sin. And I am God. Who can forgive
sins but God? That's right. But the Pharisees
said, right out of their mouth, who can forgive sins but God?
Christ went around forgiving sins. Don't you know that? No, they don't. These people
do. These people do. Alright, here's
what modern free will, false religion says, across the board,
without reservation, without exception, this is what they
believe, across the board. God loves you. Jesus died for
you. He loves you. You believe in
him, don't you? Well, yeah, sure I do. And you're
a sinner. Well, not as bad as some, but
yeah, I am. You need help, don't you? You've
got all these problems, bad marriages, and maybe some addictions. You don't want to go to hell,
do you? No, I don't. I don't. You don't want to go to heaven,
don't you, when you die? Sure I do. Well, Jesus died to save you.
That's all you've got to do. It's just, just accept this. Just believe this. If you believe
this, well, okay, you're safe. And now, he wants to be Lord
of your life. He wants control of everything.
Would you give him control? Would you let him be Lord of
your life? We're talking about the God in
whose hands our breath is. Let Him do what? Isaiah 43. Oh, how I love Isaiah
43. We looked at that not long ago,
didn't we? How the Lord says, I, even I,
am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sin." In Isaiah 43, he says, you bring the blind
people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears, and the
nations be gathered, and the people be assembled. And I'm going to declare this.
And God says, you're my witness, my chosen, my servant whom I've
chosen, that you might know and believe me and understand that
I am he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord. He's not saying, won't you let
me be your Lord. I am the Lord. Beside me there's
no God. I have declared. He wants to
save you. No, he says, I have saved. I
have saved. I have declared, I have saved,
I have showed, I've showed you, I've revealed to you, you're
my witnesses that I am God." Not want to be, I am God. He
says, before the day was, I am He, as none can deliver out of
my hand. I will work, and who will let
me do anything? Who's going to let God do anything? I've been tempted to vandalize
in my life a few times. One of them was even now as an
adult. Whenever I see on these church
signs, let God be God. I want to get some black spray
paint so bad. I think I'd go to jail for that.
But nobody would understand that. They'd just call me a fool. We don't make Him Lord. God did
that. We don't let Him be Lord. He
is Lord. Salvation comes when He lets
us know that He is Lord. He doesn't ask us if we'll let
Him. He lets us know that He is Lord. That's when salvation comes.
This is life eternal, that they might know thee, thee the only
true God. Meaning believe in God. No you
don't. When they say that, they believe in God. No you don't.
You'd be on your knees right now. A man told me that. I was talking to him on the railroad.
And he said, oh, I believe in God. He said, I believe if I
died right now, I'd go to hell. I'm such a bad... I said, no,
you don't. No, you don't believe that. You're not trembling right
now as you say that. If you really believe in Him, you
call on Him. If you really believe in Him,
you'll be on your knees before Him. See that? I got to hurry. Look at... I had so many scriptures
to show you, but go back to John 3. Go back to our text. No, no,
look at this. John chapter... Shoot. I have so many scriptures. Which
do I leave out? Mark 10, look at Mark chapter
10, alright? This is the story of blind Bartimaeus. You know blind Bartimaeus? You
know how he called on Jesus? You know that. Three times he
called, Jesus? Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter
10, look at verse 47. And when blind Bartimaeus, son
of Timaeus, sat by the wayside, when he heard it was Jesus of
Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy on me. Now, saying son of David, you
know what he's saying? Christ. Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Jesus stood
still, commanded him to be called. I'd love to tear into preaching
on this right now. He commanded him to be called,
you see. You won't come until he commands
you, until he calls you. They called the blind man and
said, Be of good comfort. He called it then, and he cast
it, oh my, cast away his garment. Rose, he was quickened. He came to Jesus. Jesus answered
and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
Now he's come to He's been commanded. He's been called. He came to
the Lord. He called on Him. The blind man
said unto Him, what's He calling Him now? Lord, that I might believe,
that I might receive my sight. When you find out that Jesus
of Nazareth is Lord, you quit calling Him Jesus. You'll call
Him Lord. I'm not splitting hairs here.
There are some men I like, I love, some old writers that often refer
to our Lord as Jesus. Often. And they're just wrong. Because you won't find the disciples
calling Him that. You just won't. And it's not
a sign that they're more intimate with the Lord. Nobody more intimate
than John. Nobody. Nobody. He laid on his bosom. He didn't call him Jesus. You read through all his Gospels,
that's who wrote this, and his epistles. No, no, no, you won't
find him calling him Jesus only. There's some fellas one time
came to Phillip and Andrew, and they said, Sirs, we would see
Jesus. Some Greeks. And I've heard some
good messages on that. Good, good, good. And listen,
the name Jesus is a wonderful name. Call His name Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sin. When we say Jesus, we mean it. When we say Jesus,
we mean He's our Joshua. He is our Savior. He didn't try
to save us. He did save His people. But that's
not all we call him. He has a full name, like I have
a name. If somebody just says, Paul,
Paul, Paul, which one are you talking about? I say that to
people all the time. I believe in Jesus. What Jesus
are you talking about? I've got a picture of me with
Jesus. I was in Mexico. I was at a church there and a
fellow named Jesus. I had my picture made with him. Me and Jesus. He's my friend.
That fellow's my friend. He's my equal. His name is Jesus. Now, I'm not on terms like that
with the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus. You've got to
define him, don't you? You've got to tell me who you're
talking about. Tell me who you're talking about. We say Jesus,
we mean Savior, that He actually saved and tried to, and we call
Him the Lord, God, Savior, God our Savior, and Christ the Messiah,
the Substitute, the only one, the only way, truth, and life
to God, only, only. And are I not to believe in Jesus
because of His miracles? That's not it. We must believe in Him, yes.
We must believe in Him. But to believe on Him is salvation. And in John chapter 3, and I
close with this, it says in verse 2, Nicodemus said, No man can
do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. John, he doesn't know who this
is. This is God with him right there. This is Emmanuel standing
in front of him. God with us. He said, we know
you're a man come from God. We know this. A good man, a powerful
man. Nobody feared Jesus. That's why these Pharisees got
in His face. They didn't fear Him. They fear Him now. They see Him as He is, the Lord
Jesus. And our Lord said down in verse
18, verses 15 and 16, Whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have eternal life. God so loved the world, he gave
his only begotten Son, and whosoever believeth in him should not perish. But verse 18 says, and verse
18 says, he that believeth on him is not condemned. Verse 36, "...he that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life." You must believe in Him, who He is. But
salvation is to cast all your care and your soul and your trust
on Him. And our Lord said before that,
you must be born again, or you won't believe on Him. You just
believe in Him. Whosoever believes in Him won't
perish. Why? Because the Lord will cause
them to call on Him, to cast their care on Him, their trust
on Him. Some people say things like this,
I believe in the Bible. That's not salvation. is to hang on the Word of God. Not believe in the Bible, but
to hang on the Word of God for dear life. You can believe in a ship. Believe
in a ship. There's a ship. If you believe
in it, that's a ship. I know it's a ship. It's not
a ship. I mean, you don't believe on
that ship until you get on board that ship. You get on board that ship. You
don't love Christ until you confess Him. You don't know Him until
you call on Him, bow before Him. That's the difference. That's
the difference. That's the difference. Many believe
in Him. This lady, their daughter grew
up with Hannah, and they got religion. And you know what they
based their religion on? Their daughter was in a swimming
pool and nearly drowned. They drove her out of the swimming
pool and her heart had stopped, her breathing, and she was stopped
for a little while and they finally resuscitated her and they got
the religion. And you ask them, do you believe?
Well, yes we do. Why? Because our daughter nearly
drowned. That's not what salvation is
about. When Christ comes, when the Holy Spirit comes, He'll
cause you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll show you
your sin. He'll show you His righteousness,
your lack of it, and the judgment you must pay. And you'll cast
all your hope, all your care upon Him. You'll believe on the
Lord, not believe in Him, but you'll believe upon Him. Does
that make sense? All through 1 John, you'll read
it for yourself. He said, these things are written
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, on the
name of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that you might
have life, that you might believe on Him, on Him, and that you're
in Him. And it's true.