Amen. John chapter 12. Our subject
is they believed not on Him. This is the statement of the
Spirit of God. All of these people, multitudes
of people had been eyewitnesses to the miracles of the Lord Jesus.
A good many of his miracles were done before lots and lots of
people. And notwithstanding being eyewitnesses
of all of these wonders. And indeed lots of these people,
they were there when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Just a
few days before this. That miracle and all of the rest
of the miracles that He performed that people witnessed, that didn't
bring them to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Though He had done,
the Scripture says, so many, so many. How many miracles did
the Lord perform? Well, John tells us at the end
of this book that if everything He did were written in books,
John said all the books in the world couldn't hold them all.
There were thousands and thousands of people who were the beneficiaries
of the healing mercies of Christ Jesus. He touched them, He spoke
to them, He willed them back to health. Demons were cast out. And He did this over and over
again. We spoke just recently in the
Bible class about how for three days the Lord, all He did was
heal people. Heal and teach. Heal and preach. And yet, though He healed all
of these people, and He performed so many miracles, feeding the
5,000, then plus women and children, then feeding 4,000, plus women
and children, so thousands and thousands of people, they ate
of that food which He produced right in front of their eyes.
And they knew He had just a pittance of food. How much food do we
have here? Well, five barley loaves and
two fish. Bring it to me." Well, it's just
enough for a little lad to have his lunch. And then they watched
as this man from Galilee multiplied it, just right out of his hands,
in front of their eyes. And they were aghast. They said,
this is amazing. And everybody fed until they
were full and had baskets full, a dozen baskets full left over. So many of these, they were actually
participants, receivers in these miracles, and yet, they didn't
believe Him. They didn't believe Him. Now
let me make three statements. Number one, this is a fact and you know it
to be truth. Very, very soon, our life upon
this earth will come to an end. and we'll leave and depart into
eternity, and then we're going to meet God. Now that's a fact. Scripture says it is appointed
unto man once to die, but after this, the judgment. James says,
what is your life? What is your life? It's a vapor. He said that to people who said,
you know, we're going to go into such and such a city and we'll
stay there a year. And James says, a year? You don't
even know what a day will bring forth. You don't know what's
going to happen. The next day, tomorrow that is. And yet here you are boasting
of what you're going to do next year. He says, what is your life?
What is your life? It's a vapor. That's all your
life is. That's all my life is. It's just
a vapor. We're here. We're gone. And then we enter into eternity.
Then we meet God. The Scripture says over in Ecclesiastes
chapter 12, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was,
and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it. That's where
we're going, right? We're going to the grave. Ecclesiastes 8.8 says, There
is no man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit,
neither hath he any power in the day of death, and there is
no discharge No discharge from that war. No, in other words,
no release from that war. What war? With death. With death. And I know men fight against
death. We struggle against death. We
don't want to die. The flesh doesn't want to die.
God's given us a love for life. And so it's a battle. It's a
battle all the way. But when the Lord is ready to
remove us from this world, death comes to us and says, ready or
not, here I come. Kind of like the old hide and
seek game that we used to play. Ready or not, whether you're
ready or not, whether you're prepared or not, whether you
have a savior or not, whether you have a mediator or not, whether
you have righteousness or not, whether you're justified or not,
here I come and there you go. Going out to meet God. And we're going to meet Him and
we'll stand before Him. And then He's going to do something
with us. Because this body is just a pile of dust that He's
fashioned together. That's all the body is, right?
Just a pile of dust fashioned together. We try to make it look
as good as we can, but really it's just a pile of dust. And
then we have an immaterial part, that's the soul or the spirit,
that goes back to God. And then we're going to spend
the rest of what's called time in a state with some kind of
body that the Lord has prepared for us, for everybody, whether
with Him or without Him. Whether in Christ Jesus or outside
of Christ Jesus, we're all going somewhere. Hey, there's life after death,
and I know people who argue against that, but that's foolish to think that
there isn't life after death, to deny that. We're going out
to meet God, and we're going to live somewhere forever. And
if we die in Christ Jesus, we die in faith, He had Scripture
in Hebrews chapter 11. These all died in faith. They died in faith because they
lived in faith. The Lord gave them faith. They
didn't believe in their faith. They didn't believe in their
good works. They believed in Christ Jesus. They looked to
Him. They looked to Him for all things. And I hope you do, and
I want to, to look to Him Absolutely. Unreservedly. Just have all my
confidence in Christ Jesus. I don't have any confidence in
my flesh and I absolutely don't have any confidence in anybody
else's flesh either. Because that's all we are. Because
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's all it will
ever be. And what I say flesh is, is just
a pile of dust. I don't have any confidence in
one another. I've got confidence in Christ
Jesus. And He's going to keep me. He's the one who died for
me. He's the one who redeemed me. He's the one who gave me
faith to reach out, take hold of Him. I took hold of Him because
long ago He took hold of me. I chose Him because long ago
He chose me. He chose me in everlasting election.
He chose me before the world ever was made. He said, You're
mine. You're mine. You're my property. He said His love on me. And then
the Lord Jesus came into this world and He redeemed me. He
bought me. All of my indebtedness He took
upon Himself. He paid my debt in full to the
justice of God. Justice cannot demand any more
of God's people. You can't demand anything from
God's people because justice has already been satisfied in
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid my debt. He settled the
issue. In the Spirit of God, He came
through the preaching of the Word, the preaching of the Gospel,
and He convinced me that I'm a sinner who needs the Savior. He convinced me who that Savior
is. He convinced me what that Savior
did. He convinced me where that Savior
is now. He convinced me that only in
this wonderful Redeemer can God be a just God and save a wretch
like me. This thing of salvation is of
the Lord. Those who know Him, those who
died in Christ Jesus, when we go out into eternity, we gonna
be with Him forever. Those who die without a Savior,
they're going to everlasting torment. Not a pleasant subject to think
about, but a biblical subject to think about. Folks who don't have Christ go
out to face the wrath of God by themselves. And the Lord's not going to curtail
that wrath throughout the endless ages of eternity. I can't comprehend
that. Sin's not going to be paid for.
People don't go to hell to pay for their sins. The only one
place sin was paid for, and that is at Calvary. Folks don't go
to hell to pay for their sins. Never. They can't pay for even
one sin. They go to endure the wrath of
God forever and ever. So, here's what I'm saying. Very
soon our life on this earth will be done. Be careful what you
get caught up into. Choose your battles wisely. I believe it was Scott Richardson
one time, he said, there are some battles not worth fighting.
It's just not worth fighting. Choose your battles wisely. You're
just here for a little bit. Some things not worth loving,
some things not worth fighting over. Our life upon this earth will
soon come to an end. Here's the second thing. If you're
saved, if you're justified, If you are righteous, if you're
right with God, if you one of these days enter into everlasting
bliss, if you go to heaven, if the Lord receives you into His
everlasting kingdom, it will be due to the grace of God in
Christ Jesus to you. And that's it. That's the only
reason. Because salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation comes to sinners by the will of God, the decree of
God, and the purpose of God. It comes to sinners because of
the righteousness and redemption and the intercession of the Son
of God. It comes to sinners because the
Spirit of God convinces us and reveals to us who Christ is,
what He did, why He did it, and where He is now. Salvation is
by grace. If you're saved, you're saved
by grace. It wasn't because of anything you did. It was something
He did. For by grace you're saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. For you're His workmanship. You're
God's workmanship created, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained, that you should walk in them.
God saved you a long time ago before He ever made the world.
He gave you grace in Christ Jesus. Therefore, the Spirit of God
revealed the Savior to you. You see, if we, like the believing
thief, if we enter into everlasting paradise, it will be because
that One who died for us redeemed us by His blood and
reconciled us to God. We've got to get this understanding. Everything necessary, everything
necessary to satisfy God, our Lord Jesus Christ finished when
He died. It's done now. Every obstacle
has been taken out of the way. It's been removed. Now we don't
find out about it until conversion. But when we're converted, our
faith, our repentance, that doesn't put sin away. That doesn't remove
the guilt. Our confession, that might do
our conscience good, but that don't satisfy God. It took the
blood of the Lord Jesus to satisfy God. You see, the Spirit of God
in regeneration, in conversion, He shows us, He teaches us, He
reveals us of a work and the one who did the work a long time
ago. That's what He does. He shows
us that it's been done. That Jesus paid it all. All the
debt that we owed. It's the work of God. So if you
believe, if you believe, it's because of God's grace given
to you in Christ. But now here's the third thing.
If you live and die in unbelief, like these people, if you never
come to Christ as a needy sinner, you never bow to Him, You never
entrust your soul to Him. You never, like Saul of Tarsus,
commit yourself to Christ Jesus. You will perish in your sin.
And if you die without Christ, if you die without God's salvation
and without hope, if you go to hell, if you suffer the wrath
of God in the pit of the dam forever, it will be your fault. You have no one to blame but
yourself. Now listen to the Scripture.
Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death. That's what it
says in Romans. For the wages of sin is death.
Wages. You know what wages are? That's
what a man earns. You go to a job, you work a good
job at the end of the week, end of the month, however you get
paid. Wages. You get paid. All of our sins merit wages. Wages from God. We've been earning
wages, as it were. All of our sins. And here's what
it is. They're earning death. That's
all we deserve is death. That's all we merit. You see, everlasting death in
hell is something you merit, something you earn. Now, on the
other hand, eternal life, that's a gift of God. For the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God, Romans 6.23, the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But if we perish, that's our
fault. You know, there's an interesting verse over here. Look at Matthew
chapter 23. If you would, Matthew chapter
23. And let me say this, I know many
who believe sovereign grace. They think they're being protective of the sovereign purpose of God
by denying man's responsibility. And their reasoning, it's always
a dangerous thing to bring human reasoning into the things of
God. But the reasoning runs something
like this. If we say a sinner must believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, then they say, well then what you're
saying is they're able in and of themselves to believe. No,
that's not what we're saying. We are saying a sinner is responsible
to believe the gospel. But we're not saying a sinner
has the ability in and of himself to believe. We're not saying
that. You see, we have the responsibility
because He's our God. We have a responsibility to believe
Him, to believe His Word. We believe everybody else. How
come we can't believe God? You think about this. We believe
newspapers, Facebook, Internet, history books, Science books. We read these books and we believe
them even though most of the people who wrote them hated God.
But we believe them. We believe them. We believe rumors. We believe just about anything
we read except the natural man will not believe the Word of
God. Isn't that amazing? We'll believe everybody but God.
Nancy was telling me she was watching some kind of movie.
And they were talking about millions and millions and millions of
years ago this happened and that happened, this cataclysmic thing
happened to eventually bring about life on this earth and
it was just a little life and it divided and then there was
another life and it divided. And I said, it takes a bunch
of faith to believe all that garbage. And yet men will believe
the biologists They'll believe the geologists. They'll believe
the scientists. They'll believe all of this junk. But they won't believe God. But
we're responsible to believe Him. See, that's the thing. We're
responsible to believe God. Our inability to believe Him
does not relieve us of the duty and the responsibility to believe
our Creator and bow to His Word. And if you want to see man's
depravity, this is one of the areas where you see it. We will
believe anything else except the Word of God. And I'll tell
you what, if we disbelieve the Word of God, go on and on in
our rebellion, here's what God's going to do. He's going to send
us heresy. He'll send us a lie, and guess
what? We'll believe it. Yeah, read
2 Thessalonians chapter 2, that's exactly what he says. because
they receive not the love of the truth. To believe the Word
of God, to believe salvation by grace, to believe that God
is who He says He is, He's sovereign, He's holy, He's righteous, and
Christ is the effectual Savior, and salvation is all of grace,
and man says, I'm not going to believe that. God says, okay,
I'll send you a lie, and you'll believe that, and then I'm going
to damn you for it. That's what the Scripture says. It isn't that we've lost responsibility
to believe God. We can still think. We still
have a mind. We can still read. Well, what
has happened to us? The fall. It's the fall. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. And I'll tell you, while it's
our responsibility to believe this gospel, our only hope is
that that One who is life comes and does something for us who
are dead. He's the only hope we've got. You see, this was Israel's problem.
They wouldn't believe God. And you read in Hebrews, at your
leisure, read Hebrews chapter 2 and on into chapter 3. And the Scripture says they had
the Gospel, but it wasn't mixed with faith. That's what it says. It wasn't mixed with faith. They
had the truth, and therefore in the second chapter the inspired
writer says, Beware lest there be found in any of you an evil
heart. of unbelief. It says, though he had done so
many miracles. And look here in Matthew 23,
verse 37. He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets, and they did, they killed the
prophets, and they stoned him that were sent unto them, like
Zacharias stoned him to death, and like they were going to do
later to Stephen, they stoned him to death. He says, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers
her chickens under her wings? Here's your issue. You would
not. You weren't willing. That's why
Christ said in John chapter 5 verse 40, "...and ye will not come
to me that ye might have life." Let people parade up and down
all the churches of America nearly and say, man's got a free will
and the Lord will not infringe on your will and your heart's
only got one doorknob and it's only inside, the Lord doesn't
have access. Let them say that all they want
to and brag about man's free will, but Christ says, you won't
come to Me. That's your problem, your unwillingness. And our only hope is that He
makes us willing in the day of His power. Psalm 110 verse 3. They wouldn't come to Christ
Jesus. And the Spirit of God sums it up over here in our text
in John chapter 12. They believed not on Him. Though He had done so many miracles. And go back to our text. And
look at verse 38. That the saying of Isaiah, Isaiah the prophet, might be
fulfilled which he spake, Lord, who hath believed, I report,
and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed." In other
words, here's a prophecy of Isaiah hundreds of years before this.
What, 450 years, give or take a few, before our Lord Jesus
was on this earth, and Isaiah prophesied of this time when
they wouldn't believe him. You know, as you read what I
would call the Gospel of Isaiah, he doesn't write as if he was
a prophet. He writes as if he is an evangelist. Why, he wrote of the birth of
the Savior. Didn't he say that a child would
be born and a son would be given? Didn't he say a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son? And then Matthew tells us in
his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us. Isaiah
wrote about his birth. Isaiah wrote about his death.
And even to back up before that, Isaiah wrote about his forerunner.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye
the way of the Lord. Isaiah wrote about the birth
of Christ. He wrote about John the Baptist coming. He wrote about the Savior's rejection. He's despised and rejected of
men, is what Isaiah said. Well, he wrote that as if it
was already happening. And Isaiah wrote of his sufferings
and death. The lamb led to the slaughter.
Wounded bruised for sinners. Jehovah's righteous servant who
justified many, who poured out his soul unto death. He pleased
the Lord to bruise him. Isaiah wrote about his sufferings,
wrote about his death. Isaiah wrote about his exaltation. Who is this coming from Basra
with blood all over his garments? What blood is it? The blood of
his enemies. He's the conqueror. Isaiah wrote of his exaltation. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord all so high and lifted up. His train filled
the temple. There wasn't any room for anything
else in the temple but the glorious Son of God. That's what he said. And in that same context in Isaiah
6, that's when Isaiah having heard the angels singing, Holy,
Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, he fell down and he said, Woe
is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. And in that same context, Look
at verse 39, Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said
again, He had blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that
they should not see with their eyes, and understand with their
heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. Isaiah wrote
that. Now watch the order. Look in
verse 37, They believed not on Him. All these miracles, Piled up. One miracle on top of another.
And they wouldn't believe. They wouldn't believe. And more
evidence. And they said, show us a sign and we'll believe you.
More evidence he gave. And they wouldn't believe. And then they crossed a line into reprobation. And whereas in verse 37, they
believe not on Him, then in verse 39, they couldn't believe. I don't know much about deadlines. But I do believe there's a deadline
people can cross. And they're dead while they live.
This is judicial blindness. Judicial blindness. Because you
don't play games with God. He blinded their eyes. He hardened
their heart. He even said in Isaiah, He said,
there's no need for you to be stricken anymore. You'll just
revolt more and more. That's what He said, wasn't it,
Alan? He said, you'll just revolt more and more. All the preachers,
all the prophets, He said to them, they didn't believe Him.
He said, you'll just continue in rebellion. I'm done with you. That's what He said, I'm done
with you. All of your offerings, all of your sacrifices, it's
smoke in my nose, God said. Don't want it? I don't accept
it. All your feast days, I despise
them all, is what God said. And now all this is coming to
pass. They believed Him not. It's a dangerous thing not to
believe this gospel. Because you're flirting with
reprobation. You say, well, you just said
we can't believe. You can if you would. You can believe if you would.
The problem is your will. And I tell you, if people had
any sense at all that just run to the Lord and beg for mercy
and say, Lord, do something for me. I'm in a bad way, Lord. I can't do what you command me
to do. It'd be nice for people to be
honest with God, wouldn't it? Lord, you command me to believe
and I can't believe. I don't have the wherewithal
to believe. Lord, give me faith. Oh, I need your mercy. I cast
myself on you. And if you come to them with
that kind of attitude, He's already doing a work of grace in your
heart. Because I'll tell you this, and I'll quit. Here it
says, though he had done so many miracles, yet they believed not
on him. Man's unbelief will never frustrate
the purpose of God. Can't do it. That's impossible.
It's impossible. You go ahead, If you want, and
I know most of us are believers, hope we all are, folks I'm talking
to on the internet, but if I'm talking to somebody who's an
unbeliever and you're kind of staunch in your rebellion, you
say, I'm just not going to believe this message. I don't care what
you say, you're not going to convince me. Well, you're going
to have to be convinced by somebody else because I know I can't convince
you, but you go on in your rebellion. And one of these days, you're
going to find out. Salvation's of the Lord, and
you wasn't interested, and you're going to perish, and you're not
going to have anybody to blame but yourself. You know, there's
a reason the Lord said in the verses prior to what we studied
tonight, walk in the light. Walk in the light God gives you,
He'll give you more light. Think of how merciful God has
been to us. He's given us the light of His
truth. Walk in the light. Walk in the
light that God's given you. He's given you somewhere to come
and listen to the truth. You don't listen. There's no
junk going on in here. We're not teaching Arminian drivel
in here. We're not exalting man's will
in here. We're not boasting in man in
here. We're boasting in the Lord. That's
what we're doing. We're bragging on God. We're
bragging on Christ Jesus. Thank God. You ought to thank
God. You got somewhere you can come
and know every time you enter into the doors, Christ Jesus
is going to be exalted. And notwithstanding who I am,
thank God that He's been pleased to maintain faithful preachers
behind this pulpit who be honest with people and handle the Scriptures
with integrity and honesty and tell people the truth. as it
is in Christ Jesus. And nobody lied. No pastor of
this church, I'm the third pastor, we don't lie to you, we're not
spinning out yarns to you, we're not entertaining you on your
way into eternity, we're telling you the truth just as it is in
Christ Jesus. Be thankful for that. Because
I can tell you what, God who gave a light, He can take it
away just like that. It'll be gone. He can just snuff
it out and take it somewhere else. God help us to be true to the
truth, right? To seek His glory. Always. Well, let's sing 464, I will
praise Him. 464, I will praise Him. And that's
what we want to do. Praise Him every time we get
together in song. And then in the sermon, 416.