I'm going to start this evening
in Ephesians, the second chapter. And then we'll be going back
to the third chapter of John. And our subject this evening
is belief and unbelief. But I'd like to begin in Ephesians,
the second chapter. And I'll read a few verses in
just a little bit. I decided that I would take my
strong concordance and look up the word great. Every once in a while you get
a word on your mind, on your heart. I just thought I would
kind of study it, that word great. I knew it was used in the scriptures. lots of times, and I didn't actually
realize it's used about a thousand times. Now, we won't look at
all of them this evening, but I kind of picked out several
that I'd just like to make mention to you. This is the word great. And one of the first usages in
the scripture is in the book of Genesis, of course. And it's
in the sixth chapter where the Bible speaks of great wickedness. Listen to the word of God. God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. There's a great wickedness. I'm
thankful to say there's a great salvation for those of us who
have great wickedness. We read about this great salvation
in Hebrews, the second chapter, where we read how shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation, which began at first to be spoken
by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by those that heard him. There's great wickedness, that's
us. There's a great salvation, that's
God's work. And therefore, there's got to
be great glory given to God. So we read in Psalm 48 verse
1, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. We read also in
Psalm 21 verse 5, His glory is great in salvation and honor
and majesty thou hast laid upon him. And then this great salvation
that comes to those who are in great wickedness, it is on the
basis of great grace. And we realize it by great, great
power. And so we read in Acts chapter
4 verse 33, And with great power gave the apostles witness of
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on
them all. We just sang about God's great
grace. What's it going to take to save
those of us who have great wickedness? Well, it's going to take a great
salvation, a great salvation attributed to our great God,
and it's got to be a great salvation that's all of grace, and it's
got to have great power to come to us to save us by this great
grace. The greatness of God is set forth
in His great promises. And so we read in 2 Peter chapter
1, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. By the grace of God we have wonderful fellowship with
our God. And then we read in the scriptures
of a great Savior. He's said to be the great God
and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of these days,
our great Savior is coming back into this world and He's going
to sit on a great white throne. We read in Revelation chapter
20, verse 11. And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them." That
day when he sits on his great white throne in judgment is referred
to as the great day of God's wrath. Revelation chapter 6 and
verse 17, For the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall
be able to stand? And then also in the book of
Revelation we read of two great cities. Those great cities are
first Babylon, it's a great city, and then Jerusalem, it's a great
city. Babylon represents all of false
religion and all who are the occupants of that city, they
constitute the ungodly. Revelation chapter 18 and verse
21 says, And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone,
and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that
great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more
at all. Babylon is a great city that
God Himself is going to destroy because Babylon represents all
of false religion. That is, any kind of religious
teaching that insinuates or asserts that salvation is either by the
works of man or the worth of man or the will of man. Those
who believe a false gospel, they are indeed occupants of the city
of Babylon, which God calls that great city. But there is another
city. It's a greater city. It is also
said to be the great city. It is the holy Jerusalem. And
the occupants of that city have been chosen in grace and washed
in the blood of the Lord Jesus. In Revelation chapter 21 in verse
10 we read, And He carried me away into the Spirit unto a great
and high mountain. And He showed me that great city,
the great Jerusalem, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of
heaven from God. And as to the number of the occupants
of that city, we read in Revelation chapter 7 in verse 9, it's a
great multitude which no man can number. Our wickedness is indeed great. But the grace of God is greater. And this salvation that comes
to people who are greatly overwhelmed and stand in bondage to sin and
Satan, this great salvation applied by the great power of God comes
to us in its saving energy. And now in Ephesians the second
chapter, here's another significant passage where the word great
is used. Ephesians chapter two and verse
one, and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and
sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, not but you, Not but
I, not but we, but God. When we were in this state of
absolute, utter helplessness, there was one and only one who
could come to our rescue and did come to our rescue, and that's
our great God. And when we were dead in sin,"
verse 4, I'm sorry, "...but God, who is rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are
saved." I know that our guilt is great. There is no question
about that. But there is something that is
greater than our guilt. There is something that is greater
than our sin. There is something that is greater
than our depravity. And that something is the greatness
of God's grace and the greatness of God's love for His people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, I say remember the greatness
of our guilt. But even more so, remember the
greatness of the love of God for us in Christ Jesus. And that
brings us back to John chapter 3. If you would, go to John chapter
3. Indeed, in John 3, in verse number
16, we read of the greatness of God's love. For God so loved,
there's the greatness of His love, How much did He love the
world? He so loved the world. The world
of His elect. The world of those that He had
chosen in grace in Christ Jesus before the world began. For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Love, you see, is always unselfish. Love is always unselfish in its
character because love always gives. Love is not selfish. Love is
not stingy. Love gives. And God has indicated
to us, He has manifested to us the greatness of His love for
His covenant people in that He gave us His only begotten Son. It isn't merely that God has
given us the things of this world. It isn't merely that God has
given us blessings which are infinite in number, but He has
given to us the very darling of His bosom. He gave His only
begotten Son to live and die and rise again for us that God
might be just and the justifier of all who believe in the Lord
Jesus. Oh, how great is this love! You'll
notice verse 17, for God sent not His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He didn't send Christ Jesus to
condemn the world, but that the world might be saved. Now there's
every reason within us as to why we ought to be condemned,
as to why we deserve to be judged, as to why God should pour out
His infinite wrath on us. But God didn't send His Son to
judge us. He sent His Son to save us. And
He sent His Son to judge our sins. Lord Jesus, He came into
this world to do something about that which separated us from
God. That great mountain of our wickedness. Our Lord Jesus, He came to remove
it. To remove it out of sight. Let
me remind you in verse 17 of the word might. It doesn't express
uncertainty. But rather, this word might,
it declares the very purpose of God. It sets forth the design
of God in sending His Son. What was God's purpose in sending
His Son? What was God's design in sending
His Son into this world? It wasn't to make an effort to
save the people of His love, but it was to save them. That's
why the Savior came into the world. You'll notice there in
verse 17, the Word through Him. The words through Him. That the
world through Him might be saved. The words through Him might well
be translated by Him. For by Him we're saved. It can
also be translated, the original word, as we see in other places
in the New Testament, which we don't have the time to go to
right now, but it's also translated, for whose sake. for whose sake,
that the world for His sake would be saved. Why does God save sinners? He saves sinners for Christ's
sake. Why does He forgive us? We read
in the book of Ephesians chapter 4 that God has forgiven us of
all of our sins and therefore we ought to be forgiving of those
who wrong us. Why does God forgive us? The
Apostle Paul says, God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. It's for Christ's sake. It's also translated, this little
expression, through Him, is also translated, by means of. That is, we're saved by means
of the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sin. So this
word, to go back and visit the word might, it doesn't mean there's
some uncertainty as to whether this will happen or not. Rather,
when we see the word might, this is what it's saying to us. This
shall be accomplished. This shall be accomplished. For
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
this will be accomplished, the world through Him, the world
for His sake, the world by means of the Lord Jesus Christ will
be saved. While we can't wind up any other
way but saved since Christ has come to save us. Here's the purpose. Here's the
object of God making our Savior to be sin for us. Here's the
object. Here's the purpose. Here's the
reason why God imputed the sin of His people to Jesus Christ
the Lord. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. That He would save us. Here's
another reference where the word might is found. It's in Galatians
chapter 4 verses 4 and 5. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. That we might, through
Christ Jesus and by Christ Jesus, receive the adoption of sons.
This was God's design in sending His Son into the world. This
is God's purpose in sending His Son into the world, to redeem
us. to buy us from the law, the law
that took us captive, the law that said the soul that sinneth
shall die. That penalty had to be paid by
somebody that was qualified by God. Somebody who was satisfactory
to every demand of God. Christ Jesus, He came and He
satisfied God. He's equal with God in every
way and He's bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. And He
died that we might receive the adoption of sons. That's the
purpose of God in sending His Son. I look at verse 18 here
in John 3. He that believeth on him... You'll
notice that belief is not said to be an isolated event. Like a one-time thing. That little suffix E-T-H means
a lot. And I would simply say to you
that when you read a word that ends in E-T-H, just think of
something that just keeps on going. It doesn't fizzle out,
it doesn't run out. It's just not a one-time thing. Faith in the Lord Jesus is a
persuasion of the heart created within us by the Holy Spirit
that never exhausts itself. Faith just keeps on going. Faith
keeps on believing. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. But, he that believeth not is condemned
already. For what reason? Well, we're
not left in the dark. It's because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now back in verse
14 we're told that Christ had to be lifted up to die. As Moses lifted up the serpent,
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
Our Lord Jesus had to be lifted up to die. God's law required
that He be lifted up to die because He had assumed the indebtedness
of all of His chosen people. And further, God's eternal covenant
of grace demanded that he die for he had agreed in that covenant
to lay down his life for the sheep. But here's the question. Just exactly in what way or maybe
I should say how is it that this salvation comes to us. That is, how does it become real
to us? How do we receive this salvation? And the answer is, by faith. By faith. We believe Him. We believe the record that God
has given to us. Now we've already learned of
the necessity of the new birth which does precede faith. Let me be clear on that. The
new birth always precedes faith. Faith doesn't lead to the new
birth. The new birth leads to faith.
We're all straight on that, aren't we? Sure we are. We've learned
the necessity of the new birth. And obviously, faith then doesn't
give us spiritual life. And there's an abundance of error
in religion on that very point today. But the Word of God says that
faith is a result of the quickening work of the Spirit of God. You
must be born again. And we've already dealt with
this in John chapter 3, that before the Savior said anything
to Nicodemus about believing Him, about receiving Him, He
said to him, you must be born again. You'll remember at the
end of the second chapter, there were many who professed to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Savior didn't commit Himself
to them because He knew what was in them and He knew they
didn't have faith. Which naturally brings to mind
this question, well, how is it that anybody will ever have faith? And the Savior answers that.
You must be born again. And the new birth, He goes on
to tell us in the 8th verse, is the work of the sovereign
Spirit, who blows where He wills. You see, the new birth, regeneration,
being born from above, it's not a result of the will of man,
it's a result of the will of God. Back in the first chapter,
our Lord has set forth through the inspired writer, John, that
there are those who do receive Him. But those who receive Him,
those who believe Him, those who rest in the blood and the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus, they do so because they're born
again. They're born not of the will
of man and not of the will of the flesh, and they're not born
of blood either. And He said that first. We are
born of God. Those only believe God. Those only embrace the Lord Jesus
Christ as their all in all. Those only look to Him for righteousness
and forgiveness and salvation who have been born of the Spirit,
who always uses the gospel of God's grace in working the new
birth. Now, understand, faith is absolutely
vital. In this salvation that God has
ordained, you may rest assured of this, that salvation is of the Lord
and faith is of the Lord. If we had continued reading there
in Ephesians the second chapter, we would have read in verses
8 and 9, For by grace do you say through faith, and that not
of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. Faith is a gift of God. Salvation
is a gift of God. Faith is a gift of God. The evidence,
the evidence of the new birth is faith. That's the evidence
of the new birth. It's not the reason for the new
birth, but it's the evidence of the new birth. You say, Preacher,
I don't know whether the Spirit of God has done a work of grace
within me or not. Well, why are you looking within
to determine whether the Spirit of God has done something for
you? Here's the issue. Are you looking to Jesus Christ
alone for salvation? Are you resting in the blood
and the righteousness of the Savior? Do you have some comprehension
that the only way God can be a just God and a Savior was through
the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus and you rest fully
in Him and what He did at Calvary? And if you do believe Him in
your heart, Well, you've been born again. That's the evidence
of the new birth. Our Lord in this passage of Scripture,
and I'll remind you, He's still talking to Nicodemus. He is speaking
to Nicodemus down through the 21st verse. And He speaks often
of believing. Look in verse number 15. That
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. Verse 16, For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Verse
18, He that believeth in Him is not condemned, but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. I know that salvation was ordained
in eternity. I know that God chose a people
in Jesus Christ. But we can only know that we're
the elect of God. We can only know that Christ
redeemed us at the cross. We can only know of God's everlasting
love for us. We can only know that we've been
bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus if we've been brought to
believe Him. It's the only way you know. This
is what the apostle says over in 1 Thessalonians when he writes
to the Thessalonians. He says, knowing beloved of God
your election. I know you are the elect of God.
What a statement. I know you are the elect of God. Well, how do you know that Paul? Because when the gospel came
to you, it came to you in power. And you believed. You believed. And this is the issue that I
set before you this evening. Here's the question I ask you
tonight as we gather together and those who are watching on
the internet. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? I mean believe him as he set
forth in the word of God. Not believe this weak Jesus who
wants to do some things but people won't let him. I'm not talking
about, that's false Jesus. I'm talking about do you believe
the Lord Jesus Christ? And have you been brought to
forsake, to forsake your idols? And to believe them as he's revealed
in this book. The sovereign Christ. The victorious
Christ. The all-conquering Christ. That
one who is the Lord of glory. Do you fully rely on Him? Is
He all of your hope? Can you honestly say in your
heart, listen, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and His righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but I wholly lean on Jesus' name. And if by the Spirit's
witness, You can say, listen, I have no other hope but Jesus
Christ. Sink or swim, I flee to Him. Well, that's evidence that God's
done a work of grace in you. Done a work of grace. You see,
this believing on the Lord Jesus, it's likened unto looking. We
look to Him. Look unto Me and be ye saved,
all ye ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.
It's like the Israelites when they were bitten by the fiery
serpents. They looked to the brazen serpent
and they were miraculously healed. I know that their look, their
look had no healing property, did it? Their look had no healing
property. Their look didn't cure the bite.
Their look didn't remove the poison. But I also know this, if they
didn't look, they'd die. They'd die. I'm saying Christ Jesus is the
only Savior from sin. He's the only one who can bring
us to the Father. He's the only one who can rescue
us from perishing. Look to Him. And if you look
to Him, if you rest in Him, if you trust Him, if you believe
Him as He's revealed in this book, you will live forever. That's what God's Word says. Because you see, the same God
that purposed salvation, the same God who ordained the death
of His Son so that God would in a just way save the people
of His love, He also purposed this, that the gospel would go
forth and His people would be quickened by the Spirit and brought
to rest all of their hope of glory in this one blessed Savior. We look to the Lord Jesus. But
somebody says this, I don't think my faith is strong
enough. I just, I'm afraid I don't believe
enough. Well, I can tell you right now,
you're looking to your belief and not to the Savior. allow me to just let my imagination
run for just a little bit. I'm thinking about those folks
who were bitten by the fiery serpents. I bet you some of those
people had 20-20 vision. And some others probably had
cataracts, a lot of older folks. Their vision was beginning to
fail them. And when they looked at the brazen
serpent, it was a little fuzzy. Just couldn't get it quite focused,
couldn't quite focus in on it. But they were looking. I'm going
to tell you this. Those who had 20-20 vision and
those who had weak vision were looking at the same object and
they were both equally healed. Not on the strength of their
look, but on the strength of the object to which they looked.
And you see in salvation, it's not all, I've got great faith. Fact of the matter is, none of
us have what we would call great faith. We don't believe like
we ought to. Is there anybody in here who would stand to your
feet and say, I believe like I ought to. I'm full of faith. Nobody would say that. But here's what we do say. I look to Jesus Christ alone.
And I ask for more faith. But He's the only hope I got. He's the only hope I got. And to those who look to Him,
here's what the Word of God says. You're not condemned. And you can't ever be condemned.
Now, the reason for your not being condemned is not due to
the fact that you believed, but due to the fact that the one
you believed died in your stead. He was condemned for you. Understand
that. But also understand this, to
those who don't believe Him, To all who despise the Son of
God, who refuse to look to Him for righteousness and forgiveness,
who insist that there's something you can do, surely you have some
merits before God, you're condemned already. Because you've not believed
on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And here's what this
verse tells us in verse 18. Why are you condemned? Because
you won't believe Christ. You won't look to His righteousness
alone. You look to your own. You won't
rest in His work of redemption alone. You rest in some work
that you have done or some work that you are doing. You won't
commit yourself to Christ Jesus to be saved by His blood and
His righteousness because you're resting in something you've done
or maybe you're resting in your faith. How great the sin of unbelief! And the greatness of unbelief
is made more serious because of the dignity and the greatness
and the majesty of the one that you slight. The one you won't
believe. The only begotten of the Father
who is infinitely true and who deserves to be believed He's
infinitely good. He's infinitely gracious. He's
infinitely merciful. And you won't believe Him. You see, unbelief is an awful
crime. It's an awful crime against God
because it calls God a liar. That's how serious. Well, preacher,
I just can't believe. Well, you're calling God a liar.
You're a thief and a robber. You're trying to get in some
other way. Unbelief is an awful thing. And notice what he says
in verses 19 and 20. This is the condemnation. Light
has come into the world. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. The reason people won't
believe on Jesus Christ is because they love darkness. And the reason
they love darkness is because they hate the light. The Jews
hated the light. They loved the darkness of their
own law. They were blind followers of
blind gods. They were all in darkness and
they loved it. And this is one of the awful
things about error. People who embrace error, people
who love error, they do so because they're absolutely blind. They're
blind to the truth. They're blind to the glories
of Christ Jesus, blind to the work that He did, and blind to
the necessity of His work of redemption. The Gentiles, of course, know
better than the Jews, because the Gentiles love the darkness
of their philosophy. They loved the darkness of their
false gods. They loved the darkness of their
religious superstition. And they hated the light of God's
Word. Do you remember when the Apostle
Paul preached in Athens on Mars Hill? And he saw all the temples
built to all these various gods. He saw an altar that had this
inscription, to the unknown God. just in case they'd missed one
with all the other idols that they had. Just in case we missed
one, we gonna put up an altar to the unknown God. And the unknown
God is a God of glory, a God that men don't know. He was unknown
to them. The Gentiles were just as blind
as the Jews. You see, all men are blind by
nature. We walk in darkness. He says in verse 20, For everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. What is it to come to the light?
To come to the light of God's Word. To come to the light of
Jesus Christ. He said, I am the light of the
world. Why won't men come to the Word
of God? Why won't men bring their beliefs
to the Word of God? Bring their works to the Word
of God? Bring their deeds to the Word
of God? And why won't they come to Jesus
Christ? Because they can't stand the
light. They can't bear the light. Because the light exposes error. The light exposes ignorance. The light exposes sin. Men don't
want that. Men don't want that. But look at verse 21. But He
that doeth truth, you know what He'll do? He'll come to the light,
E-T-H, He'll keep on coming. He'll keep on coming to the light.
He that doeth truth. You know what that word doeth
mean? That one who is committed to the truth. That one who is dedicated to
the truth. That one who wants to know the
truth. That one who bows to the truth. Who is the truth? Christ is the
truth. He is the truth. His Word is
the truth. He said in John 17 in His high
priestly prayer, Thy Word is truth. And those who come to the Word
of God, With this attitude, Lord, if I'm wrong, show me. I want
to know what the truth is. And shine the light in me. Expose me. Expose any error. I don't want to embrace error.
I want to know the truth. I want to know the truth as it
is in Jesus Christ the Lord. I come to the light. I come to
the Word. I bring my deeds to the light,
my works to the light, my prayers to the light, my sermons to the
light, my thoughts to the light, my desires to the light. I bring
them all to the light. Lord, show me. If I'm wrong,
show me. Teach me. But you see, those
who are in error, It won't come to the light. Because the light
has this outstanding quality. It does make things manifest. It shows you what's what. And those in whom God's Spirit
has done a work of grace, we come to the light. Say, Lord,
I want to know you. I want to know the truth. I don't
want to be deceived. I don't want to go to hell with
the Bible in my hands, swearing I know everything there is to
know, so you can't teach me anything. Lord, just empty me, Lord, and
then you fill me. The problem with most people
today, they've got this attitude, and I've had people tell me this
before. They've come up to me and said,
well, I can study the Bible as good as you can. Bless your heart. I need help.
I don't know about you. When I opened this book, I said,
oh, Spirit of God, teach me. If we'd come to the Bible with
this kind of attitude, Lord, I just don't know anything. I'm
a simpleton. I'm an empty vessel. You fill
me. I'm just ignorant. You teach me. Lord, expose whatever,
if I got some wrong ideas, Expose them. Expose them now. I just bow to your Word. You
see people who are born of the Spirit, that's the attitude we
have. We come to the Word of God. And I'll give you this in
closing. In verse 21, the Lord finishes His talk with Nicodemus,
who's in the dark himself. And I think it's significant
that he came to Jesus by night. He's in spiritual darkness. And
you know what he learned? He learned of his utter sinfulness.
He learned he had to be born again. He learned the necessity
of the death of Jesus Christ. He learned that the origin of
salvation is God's everlasting love for the world of his elect. And he learned this. The result
of the new birth is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who believe come to
the light. Come to the light. Let's sing
a closing song number 226.