then we're not going to believe
in total depravity. You can't believe in total depravity
and total inability and still believe that man has a free will
and that man's decision is the ultimate determining factor. You know, God created Adam. As
you know, I'm not telling you folks anything you don't know,
of course. God created Adam. upright, perfect, sinless. The Lord said everything was
good and after He made everything, He said everything is very good.
That was man included. That was an upright man. He was
without any fault. No sin. No sin. But he became
corrupt. We know that. You know what happened
in Genesis chapter 3. And Adam, he sinned and he died
spiritually. And when he died spiritually,
he didn't just die as a private individual. In other words, when
Adam acted, it didn't just have an effect on himself. You know,
when we do various things, every once in a while something only
has an effect on us. But if you're the head of the
household, or us being adults, oftentimes what we do has an
effect on others. Isn't that right? Has an effect
on others. Well, here's the case with Adam. What Adam did, it
had an effect on all of his household. And he's got a really big household.
It's all of mankind. It's everybody who's ever been
born as a result of union of a man and a woman. We're all
born into sin. The scripture says, by one man,
this man of sin, entered into the world and death, death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. And Adam, he was a representative
man. And of course, we know from Romans
chapter 5, he was a figure. He was a figure. Adam was a figure
of him who was to come. That is Christ Jesus. Very clearly
there in Romans chapter 5, He's a figure, He's a type of Christ.
Because our Lord Jesus, He came to this world. He also was a
representative man. He didn't come as a private man.
He came as a man who represented His seed. All of those that God
gave Him in the covenant of grace. And due to His action, his action,
what he did, his work, that all of those he represented reap
the benefits of his faithfulness to God and of the sacrifice that
he laid down. So we know that the Bible sets
before us two representative men. And so Adam sinned, and
we were all legally constituted to be sinners. Now, as to that
condition of depravity, our condition of inability, total inability,
there's an abundance of evidence of this. Mark chapter 7, let me just read
a few verses here. Mark 7 and verse 14, speaking
of the Savior when the Lord Jesus had called all the people unto
Him, He said unto him, Hearken unto me, every one of you, and
understand. Listen up, he said. There is
nothing, nothing from without a man that entering into him
can defile him. But the things which come out
of him, those are the things that defile the man. If any man
will have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered
into the house, a private house, from the people, his disciples,
they asked him concerning the parable. And this is how he answered
them. He said, are ye so without understanding
also? Do you not perceive that whatsoever
thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him?
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly,
and goeth out into the draft, purging all meats. And he said,
that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man, for
from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, that's unbridled lust. That's what that
is. You just can't control yourself. Unbridled lust, an evil eye,
blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things, they come
from within and defile the man. These are evidences of our depravity. All of these things that he listed.
But of all of the evidences of our depravity, I'll tell you
the one that is to me the most glaring, the most obvious evidence
that we're totally depraved is the fact we don't believe God. We don't believe God. And now
I want to go back to John chapter 12. John chapter 12 and verse
37. And in just one verse that I
want to consider with you, right here, John 12 and 37, and our
Lord Jesus has now finished His last message to the public. We've already established that. The most of the rest of the chapter
kind of is a brief summary of his entire ministry. But he's
finished preaching to the mainstream Jews. And this is what we read. But, though he had done so many
miracles, and he did them before them, they were eyewitnesses
Yet, they believed not on Him. This is, to me, it's as clear
an evidence of the fall of man and the total depravity of all
men of our utter inability to do anything spiritual. This is
as clear an evidence as you're going to get because here, we
find that unbelief is deeply rooted within all of us. It's just there. And even being
an eyewitness to the miracles of the Lord Jesus. And we've
been, you know, throughout the Gospel of John, we've talked
about some of the miracles that he performed, and John does set
forth, he sets forth some of them, maybe not as many as Matthew
and Mark and Luke, but he certainly sets forth several of them because
he's establishing the deity of Jesus of Nazareth. And the latest
one was the resurrection of Lazarus. And that happened just a couple
of miles outside of Jerusalem. at Bethany. And many of these
in his audience, in his congregation, for this is the last message
that they will ever hear him preach. Many of these people
were eyewitnesses of that resurrection. They were there. They were there. And not only did they see the
resurrection of Lazarus, They were also there. These are upstanding
Jewish citizens. They're there for the Passover. And they would have witnessed,
and if they weren't eyewitnesses, they would have at least heard
about the fact that He made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem. And they knew the Scriptures.
They knew that's a fulfillment of a Messianic prophecy. Zechariah spoke about Messiah
entering into Jerusalem. He's going to come in in a lowly
fashion. And the people are going to say,
Behold thy King cometh. These are Jewish people. These
are not uneducated people. These are religious people. These
are people who are faithful to the synagogue. Faithful to the
temple. They're here for the Passover.
The Passover. The greatest of all the feasts. This is commemorating the Lord
bringing the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage by means of
the blood of the Passover lamb. These people are students of
the Scripture. and notwithstanding having witnessed
all of these miracles of Jesus of Nazareth, nevertheless, they
don't believe him. If ever there was an evidence
of man's utter, total depravity and inability to do anything
spiritual, this is it. even in the face of these witnesses,
of being eyewitnesses of His miracles. You know, our Lord,
look over to Luke chapter 16. Look at this passage of Scripture,
Luke chapter 16. And you know the story about
the certain rich man and Lazarus. So I'm not going to read down
through this. You're well acquainted with it.
The rich man died and he went to hell. Lazarus died and he
was carried by the angels in Abraham's bosom. And I like to
think of the death of a believer as our souls are caressed by
angels. And angels, they safely escort
us into the very presence of King Jesus. And it happens very
quickly, but they're there. Somebody said, you believe you
have a guardian angel? I believe we have a host of angels. We have a host of angels, and
we ought to be very appreciative of the Lord that He provides
these angels for us. He provided those angels for
our Savior. When our Lord Jesus was in the
Garden of Gethsemane, angels came and in, I don't know, some
manner, they ministered to Him. And they ministered to us. And
when we die, like when Lazarus died, angels, they gather around
us by divine appointment. God sends them to us. It takes
the soul home to be with the Lord Jesus. That's very peaceful
to me. It certainly is soothing to me,
because we've got to face the deathbed sooner or later. Well,
the rich man, he's in hell, and Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom,
and to the Jews, that was just another name for heaven or paradise. And of course, Abraham says,
there's a gulf fixed. You can't come over here and
we can't go over there. I really believe, based upon
Isaiah chapter 66, that every once in a while, I don't know
how often, when we're in glory throughout eternity, that the
Lord is going to, as it were, pull back the curtain, and He's
going to expose or show us that which we've been saved from.
He's going to show us the regions of the damned. And we're going
to bless Him, praise Him, and thank Him, because but for His
distinguishing, sovereign, free grace, that's where we'd be forever. You read sometime, right there
toward the end of Isaiah chapter 66. But anyway, there's a goal
fixed. And of course, the man who perished,
the rich man, all of a sudden he becomes evangelical. He's now concerned about his
loved ones, about his brothers. Five brothers. And so he says to Abraham, in
verse 27, then he said, I pray thee therefore Father, that is
Father Abraham, Abraham was considered to be the father of all the Jews,
the father of the Jewish nation, that thou wouldest send him to
my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify
unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said unto him, this is
very important, they have Moses and the prophets, Let them hear
them." Here's what he said. They have the Word of God. They
have the Word of God. But he's still a rebel. You see,
if you die a rebel, you remain a rebel. He that is filthy, let
him be filthy. Still. He that is righteous,
let him be righteous still. That's what it says there in
Revelation chapter 22. He says, No! No, Father Abraham! But, if one went unto them from
the dead, they will repent. If they could see a miracle. of a man being raised from the
dead, then they would believe. You think so? And he said unto him, if they
hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded
though one rose from the dead. being an eyewitness to a miracle.
No, that won't do it. Because here in John chapter
12, these people, they were eyewitnesses. And yet, they abode in unbelief. And that ought to give us some
idea of the rottenness of our hearts. Here's the Lord of glory. And He does all of these wonderful
things, and people still won't believe Him. Unbelief. Now, there might be
someone listening to me, maybe somebody here tonight, somebody
watching, somebody listening to this message later on, who's
kind of thinking, now Jim, look around. Not too many of us here
tonight. And you're talking, it's like
preaching to the choir. You know what that means? Preaching
to the choir? You're preaching to people who agree with you.
Well, I hope you do. I hope you do agree with me. But, you know, maybe somebody's
saying, Jim, you're preaching to people who believe Christ. We've made professions of faith. I know that. I know that. But others that we've known,
they also said they believed and they've gone away. Isn't
that true too? I know, we believe. We believe
Christ. We believe the Gospel. We believe
grace. We believe salvation by the Lord. We believe the bloody death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe. Others have said
exactly the same thing and they're not here anymore. They're gone. Where are they? They've gone
with the wind. Like the movie, Gone with the
Wind. So I have to preach on unbelief
because it's very prevalent. And secondly, I would say I don't have the
ability to see anybody's heart here this evening. So you may
appear to be a follower of Christ. You may appear to be a believer
in the Lord Jesus and not be. I don't know. But I'll tell you
what, and as I thought about this yesterday, nice and quiet,
except for every once in a while the nurse comes in and checks
my vital signs, makes sure I'm still breathing, that sort of
stuff, you know. But as I thought about this, I thought about my own heart.
Lord, I don't want to just go through the motions of religion
through my life. carrying a Bible and preaching, and being a professor of Christ
Jesus, and just take this for granted, and then go out into
eternity and be found in unbelief. That scares me. I want to be
found in Christ. That's what I want. I want to
know Him. Isn't that what the Apostle said
in the book of Philippians? He said, I want to know Christ.
I want to know Christ and Him crucified. You say, but Jim, I'm not like
those people of John 12 who didn't believe Christ. I've been a member
here a long time. I've been regular in my attendance.
I read my Bible, I pray, and I've been involved in this assembly.
Well, you know, I read about some people in Matthew chapter
7. They talked about what they'd
done for the Lord. You want to look at it again?
Matthew chapter 7. Look at Matthew chapter 7 verse
21. You're talking about being zealous, being active in their
church. Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, Not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Hey listen, I say Lord, Lord,
don't you? You call Him Lord, don't you?
Well sure you do. But not everybody who addresses
Him as Lord, Lord, is going to enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven, this is the will of my Father,
John chapter 6, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth
on Him has everlasting life. to see His glories, to see the
necessity of His death, to see Him as the only Savior, to see
Him as your righteousness. Everyone which seeth the Son
and believeth on Him, you commit yourself to Him. Like Joe read
there in 2 Timothy chapter 1 where Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. I'm persuaded He's able to keep
that which I have committed unto Him against that day. But not everybody who says, Lord,
Lord, is gonna enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Verse 22, many
will say to me in that day, what day? The day of judgment. The
day when they meet God. Many, not a few, not several,
but many. We're talking about lots of people.
Maybe people that we've known. Maybe people we've sat beside
of in the church service. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? Hey, I preached.
I taught a Sunday school class. In Thy name cast out devils.
I did great works. And in thy name done many wonderful
works, outstanding works. I was very active in church.
And then, he has a profession to make. I never knew you. Isn't that
awful? I never knew you. I never knew
you. I never loved you. You're never
one of my own. I didn't buy you. I didn't purchase
you. You're a stranger to me. I had
no love for you and you have no love for me. So depart from me. Get out of
me. Leave me. Because everything you've done
just works of iniquity. I don't want to wind up people
like that. See, this is frightening because
we're busy in church. We're doing things. These people are doing things. It's not our doing, it's His
doing. That's the way of salvation,
isn't that right? It's His doing. And then someone
might be thinking, but I've repented of the wrong things that I've
done. So I must be alright. Well, you know, look at Matthew
chapter 27. Here's a man who, he had remorse
over what he did. His name is Judas. He's one of
the twelve. He walked and talked with the
Lord Jesus for a long time. He even preached. And get this,
he would have preached the Gospel. He preached what he was taught. And you know what the Savior
taught him. He taught him salvation by grace.
Here's a grace preacher. That's right, this is a grace
preacher. This is a man who fooled everybody. When the Lord Jesus, as we shall
see in studying John chapter 13, the next chapter that we're
going to get into, when the Lord Jesus revealed to His disciples
that one of you is going to betray Me, nobody suspected Judas. They didn't all say, I know it,
it's Judas, that's who it is. No, nobody suspected him. They started saying, is it me?
Is it me? This is a man chosen to his office. Hey, he not only was a preacher,
he cast out devils. You cast out devils? You can't
cast out death. But he did. This man had unusual
gifts. Our Lord gave to these apostles
unusual supernatural gifts. And he, Judas being one of them,
he would have had them as well. But he sold the Savior for 30
pieces of silver. He had a covetous heart. The Lord said, did I not choose
you twelve? One of you is a devil. Of course,
the Lord knew from the beginning. That's what it says. He knew
from the beginning. We'll see that in John 13 too.
Who this man was and what he was going to do. But look at
verse 3, Matthew 27. Then Judas, which had betrayed
him, when he saw that he was condemned, He repented Himself. This is remorse. He's sorry. I've had people tell me, I'm
sorry for my sins. Well, that's good. He's sorry
for his sin too. And he brought the 30 pieces
of silver to the chief priests and elders, and he said, watch
this, I have sinned. I have sinned. You don't hear
too many people saying that. You know, preacher, I have sinned. I have sinned in that I have
betrayed, watch it, the innocent blood. He believed in the impeccability
of Jesus of Nazareth. Impeccability is perfection. That's what he believed. This
is innocent blood. Here's a man who's innocent.
He's died and he's innocent. He believed he's sinless. And they said, what's that to
us? It don't mean anything to us. See thou to it. And he cast the
pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, he went out and
hanged himself. On some level, he's sorry for
what he did. He repented, but he is an unbeliever. So you can be sorry about the
wrong things that you've done, and you can even think, very
highly of Jesus Christ and still be an unbeliever. He said, I
betray Thee, Thee, innocent blood. He's the only one who's innocent. That's what Judas was saying.
Well, that's a great declaration. And I'll tell you, Judas, you're
absolutely right. He is the innocent blood, the
spotless, immaculate Savior, even when He is dying for His
people's sins. In Himself, He is perfect, spotless. But this man is an unbeliever. And I can go on and on. There
are people who have a knowledge of the Scriptures. You remember
when the wise men in Matthew the second chapter went to Herod
and said, we're looking for the king of the Jews. We followed
his star. Boy, Herod, he's all upset and
he calls the chief priests in. And he says, well, listen, fellows,
I have a question to ask you. Where is Messiah going to be
born? Without hesitation, they said,
Bethlehem. They quoted Matthew 5 verse 2,
Micah chapter 5 verse 2. That's what they quoted. Without
hesitation. You talk about knowing the Bible,
they knew the Bible. Immediately, they quoted all
of them together, all the chief priests. Micah 5 verse 2, Bethlehem,
Judea. See, there are people who know
their Bibles, But they don't know the God of
the Bible. They don't know the Christ of
the Bible. Nicodemus had a high regard for
Jesus Christ. He said, I know, I know you've
come from God because nobody can do the things that you do
except God be with him. Well, that's pretty high talk
there. The rest of the Pharisees said
he did his works as a result of the power of Beelzebub. You're
working for Beelzebub. And Nicodemus, he came to him
by night and said, Rabbi, we know you're a man sent from God
because nobody can do the works that you do except God be with
him. Well, that sounds really good.
But he never came out publicly and confessed Christ. And I'll tell you another man.
In Acts chapter 8, we don't have time to turn there, but a man
by the name of Simon Magus. Philip was preaching. And it
has lots of people believing. And Philip was baptizing a lot
of people. This guy, he's a sorcerer. And he believed, and I'm sure
they all said, we're having revival, the sorcerer's been saved. This
is wonderful. And he was baptized, and the
Scripture said, wherever Philip went, that's where he went. He
said, boy, if the pastor's going to preach somewhere, I'm falling
along. And everybody said, isn't this
wonderful? And he wasn't a shooting star, he wasn't just, okay, and
then he's gone. In one Sunday and out the other
Sunday. Scripture says he followed Philip. And word got back to Jerusalem,
to the apostles, James and John, that the Lord was doing a great
work in Samaria. So they came to check on things. Here's Philip. Philip was, he
was an evangelist, but he couldn't give any authority to anybody.
He couldn't lay hands on anybody, give them the gifts of the Spirit,
but the apostles could. See, Philip wasn't an apostle.
He was a deacon. And Peter and John came, and
they laid hands on people and gave gifts of the Holy Spirit
to them. And Simon Magus said, I've got
to have those gifts. Pulled out his bill phone and
said, what's that going to cost me? I'll pay anything. Simon Peter
said, your money pairs with you. Your heart's not right with God.
But he had been baptized. He had made a profession of faith,
and he followed the preacher around. He said, man, Philip's
the greatest preacher I've ever heard in my life. And everywhere
Philip went, that's where Simon Magus went. But he died in unbelief. As far as we know. Because Peter
said, your heart's not right. Your heart's not right. And Simon
Magus said, basically he said, pray for me. Pray for me. Here's what I'm saying. Don't take the things of God
for granted, and don't take them lightly. Lord, put the searchlight of
your Word on my heart. And like old John Newton said
one time, Lord, if I've not loved you before, let me start loving
you right now. Right now. I don't want to hold
on to a profession I made years ago and then perish in my sins. No. No. Peter said, give diligence, brethren. Brethren, to make your calling
and election sure. In order of events, election
took place before calling. In fact, we're called because
we are elected. But in our experience of grace,
we're called and that's how we know we've been elected. Have
you been called? Have you been called? Can you say what you want to
about Job? And I know there's a lot in him
that was wrong, and there's a lot in us that's wrong too. But he
said, I know my Redeemer liveth. And he said, though worms devour
this body and my flesh, I shall see God. That's what he said.
That's a confident man. David said, the Lord is my shepherd.
Paul said, I know whom I have believed. Simon Peter said, we
believe and we're sure thou art the Son of God. And let me give you one more
thing. Turn to John 16. And I'll make this the last reference. John chapter 16. It's a scary thing. A scary thing. John chapter 16, look at verse
7. Nevertheless, I'll tell you the
truth. He's speaking to His disciples now. It is expedient for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, if I don't
die, If I don't give my life a ransom for many, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, if I die, if
I offer myself as the sacrifice, I will send Him unto you. And
when He has come, He will reprove the world of sin, He'll convict
the world, He'll convince the world of God's elect of sin,
and of righteousness and of judgment. And watch this, of sin, because
they believe not on Me. That's what he convinces us of.
They believe not on Me. It's a terrible sin not to believe
Christ Jesus. And the Spirit of God when He
deals with us, and I've had people, I've talked to people, of course
through the years, Alan has, many of you have, And people
will talk about, well, I'm so sorry I stole something. I took the Lord's name in vain. All of these things that they
did. But what you'll rarely hear anybody say is this, I haven't
believed Christ Jesus. I am guilty of unbelief. But
that's the thing that the Lord Jesus said the Spirit of God
is going to convince you about. I hadn't believed Him. Well,
if I hadn't believed Him before, I sure want to believe Him now,
don't you? I don't want to miss Him. I don't want to miss Him.
Well, let's sing a closing song. Blessed Assurance. That's a good
song. Blessed Assurance. Jesus is mine. 255.