This message is from the teaching
ministry of James Tippins, pastor of Grace Truth Church. More information
can be found online at gracetruth.org and anchoringfaith.org. A people
for His glory, by His grace. Everything that we've learned
thus far in John's Gospel is surely important to carry us
to this place today. We've seen the prologue. We've
seen it play out time and time again. over and over in every
discourse and every dialogue and every narrative, every explanation
that we've seen thus far in this gospel writing. We've seen the
trueness of Christ as God. It is an essential doctrine.
Jesus is the eternal God. He is God the Son. He's eternally
the Son. We see that He is sovereign over
all things, that He has come to this earth to save His people
from their sins, to save them from the wrath of God only by
mercy. We've seen time and time again
that even though He created the world, that the world did not
recognize Him, even though He had given His oracles for millennia
to a particular people, that He had chosen and elected out
of the world, Even they, in their humanity, could not see the truth. And as we close out 12, we've
got this week and next week, this will be the last time that
Jesus has a public appearance before his crucifixion. This
is on a Tuesday, and of course he is arrested and tried and
crucified on Friday. This is the end of Jesus' public
ministry. We see oftentimes where John's
gospel, as we've seen over the last two years, has been taken
out of context. We've seen what we call a pretext,
where people can isogee, that means they can read in what they
want to see in the text, versus looking at the scripture in a
holistic way and seeing exactly what it is that it is teaching
us. We see that our culture, our
religious culture, can work the scripture for their own benefit,
can do anything that's necessary for them to find it able to say
what they want it to say. Because when it comes to seeing
Christ, as we've already learned many times over, the only way
someone can truly see Christ is by the Spirit of God making
them alive. You must be born again. You must
be born again. That's a message that we do not
hear often. As a matter of fact, the gospel,
as we've already said for years, has been relegated to this type
of well meant offer and opportunity, something that you can respond
to. Where we find in the narrative
of even the apostles, as they went by the power of the spirit
from city to city to city, they never were. They never gave opportunity
to measure a response in a human way. But they always expected
supernaturally God in a divine way to do the work that he had
promised to do to fulfill the promise of eternal life for his
people. And we've also learned that the
religious leaders, the zealots, those who would be looked upon
in the culture of that day, much like today, were the ones who
were furthest from the gospel. For they added to and they took
away. They expressly desire to see
their own glory and their own self-interests in the name of
God. More than they wanted to see
the God that stood before them. The one and only God who makes
God known. I don't want to remind you, church, that the reason
that this gospel was written according to its writer is that
you may know that Jesus is Messiah. He is the very essence of God
as the one and only son, the only son he has, full of grace
and truth. And from his fullness, we, his
people, receive grace upon grace. And these things are written
that you may know who he is, and by knowing who he is, you
may have eternal life. And see, that's not an adventure
that you can decide to set upon. When any man, woman or child
in their own intellect decides to set on the errand of knowing
Christ. In their own way, knowing Christ
in their own intellect, knowing Christ in their own cultural
understanding, knowing Christ and some sort of relevance, knowing
Christ in any way except through divine revelation. It is a fool's
errand. It is costly. It is condemning. You cannot catechize your children
into the faith and say they're born again. You cannot send someone
to Sunday school who knows all the answers of all the lineage
of all the Old Testament saints who can see election and redemption
from the garden to Gethsemane and say that they're born of
God. You cannot use the will and the mind and the intellect
of humanity as a litmus test to say whether one is or is not
a brother or a sister in Christ. Only if they have been born again
can they testify to the trueness and the fullness of Christ alone
as their everlasting hope. This gospel is for that purpose,
beloved. And this gospel writer also expounds
in his epistles to say to the people who read these letters,
those who are the elect of God, we have seen him, we have touched
him with our hands, we have heard him, the eternal life. And now, as he has been manifest
to us by God, the spirit, we make him known to you. And over
and over again, the scripture testifies of the person of Christ
very particularly, very explicitly, very myopically. In other words,
there is no margin of interpretation when it comes to who Jesus is
and what he accomplished and for whom there is no error. There's no margin of error whereby
we can say, well, you're almost there. For if we have error in our knowledge
of Christ, according to Jesus' own words in John 17, we have
not been born of God. Error is much different than
ignorance. because the scripture says that he will teach his people.
They have all been taught by God. The spirit even taught the
disciples, the apostles exactly what it was they needed to know
so that they would write it down that through the scripture alone,
not through a pastor, not through a peace, not through a priest,
not through a prophet, not through some bishop or anybody in today's
time to give you what God has for you, but that we can, in
our own language, read these words and by the power of God,
the Spirit grasps of them as our hope. And Jesus came to be that Messiah,
came to be the Lamb of God, came to reveal the fullness of God's
glory. Remember, what is God's glory?
The vision of exactly who He is in every respect. The fullness of His essence visible. As Moses longed to see it. As
Abraham rejoiced in that day. Oh, beloved, we see the fullness
of God in His Word. And His Word is His Son, Jesus
Christ. We saw Jesus teach a lot of things
thus far. His teaching ministry in John's
gospel is nearly done. We can look at the synoptics,
Matthew, Mark and Luke, and we can see a lot of other things
that he taught that John did not utilize because for the purpose
in which he wrote this letter, this gospel, it didn't matter. And we had those other ones already.
But there are some healings that take place in John's gospel.
And sometimes in our world we think, OK, God is in the business
of healing for the sake of healing. But in the New Testament, Jesus
was not in the business of healing for the sake of healing. For
everywhere he went to heal, he left multitudes to die in their
illness. For everywhere he went to give
reprieve from suffering, he left a majority to suffer continually. So if Jesus' ministry was to
bring suffering to an end in the flesh and to bring healing
to the body in the flesh, he is a miserable failure and a
liar and a fraud. Scripture would even say, as
we saw in John 5, there were many invalid there at the pool
of Bethsaida. And because of that, Jesus vanished
from their midst. For they saw this man of 38 years
stand up and walk. And surely they would want the
same. The healing of the Lord Jesus
Christ was to prove his divine power. But it was also a shadow
of the divine healing of eternal life, of being born again. Let's turn to John chapter 12,
starting in verse 35. I know we've already taught this,
but we're going to read this part again. These Greeks inquire of the Son
of Man. These multitudes inquire why
He could say that the Son of Man would be killed, lifted up,
they understood that as crucifixion, if He were to be Messiah, because
the scriptures would say Messiah would remain forever. And Jesus said to them, verse
35, the light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while
you have the light. Less darkness consume you. Control you. The one who walks
in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you
have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons
of light. When Jesus had said these things,
he departed and hid himself from them. And though he had done
so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him
so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.
Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom
has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could
not believe. For again, Isaiah said, he has
blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with
their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would
heal them. Isaiah said these things because
he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many, even
of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees,
they did not confess it. so that they would not be put
out of the synagogue. Four, they love the glory that
comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. There is a lot that we could
not just unpack in this short text, but there's a lot of things
that we could consider. A lot of things that you should
consider. This is not the first time you've
heard this doctrine. This is not the first time you've
seen the sovereignty of God in reprobation. This is not the
first time you've seen the impossibility of man's belief outside of the
work of God. Yet here it is again. We see
multitudes having what we would call a spurious faith, a faith
in Jesus that Possibly he could be a savior for the kingdom.
Possibly he could be a savior for the world. Possibly he could
be Messiah for the way of life of Judaism. Maybe he could free
us from Rome. Maybe he could give us something
to eat. John 6. Maybe he could heal us of our
infirmities. Maybe he could be the Messiah
who could rule us into righteousness. Getting the temple back in shape.
Getting the worship back in shape. Getting these Hellenists back
in shape. Helenus being a Greek Jew. But Jesus did not come to do
any of those things. He was not to be a king of this
world. He does not have a people who comprise a nation of this
world. Jesus Christ is God. And from the very beginning,
before there was anything created, His sovereignty reigned over
all things. And the point and the purpose
of His creation is that he would be glorified in it, that he would
be seen for who he is in the salvation of a particular people
for his own glory, as Paul would so passionately expound to the
praise of his glorious grace. A glorious grace. In verse 35,
as Jesus says, this light is among you for a little while
longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness consume
you. The one who walks in darkness does not know where he's going.
See, without truly keeping this gospel in mind, which is why
I tell you to read it every week, it takes 90 minutes in one sitting
to read this at a slow pace out loud. You could read it faster
or even slower. You could read it in portions.
You could read a few chapters a day, but keep it in your heart. For in the Word of God alone
are we able to receive the mercy and the grace of God. In the
Word of God alone, not through my teaching, but through your
reading, will you find sustenance. And in this word, as we see where
we are, we're 104 sermons late. This is to be taken in in one
sitting. It's to be seen at one time. It's like watching five
minutes of a movie once a month. It's going to lose its appeal,
beloved. Watch the credits. Watch the
opening scene. Well, in November, we'll get
to where things start happening. We can't use the scripture that
way, beloved. Eat of it and live. Rejoice, be full. So as Jesus is saying these things,
it's not the first we've heard of the light. As a matter of
fact, John, in the very beginning, when he says that the word was
and the word is God and the word was with God. And the word created
all things in him was the light, the life of men. In John 3, Jesus says something
incredible as Nicodemus comes to him at night to profess that
we know you are the one that has come from God. Moses spoke
of the prophet to come and it is Jesus as we see in John 5. John the Baptist would just passionately
proclaim without Question I am not the Christ. I am not Messiah. I am the one that comes before
to make straight the way of the Lord. His proclamation of the
Christ is so that everyone would know for sure. Who Christ was
and what Christ came to accomplish. And Jesus says these words to
Nicodemus. This is the judgment. The light
has come into the world, but people, you, Nicodemus, the teacher
of all Israel, who has confessed me to be the one that come from
God. Love the darkness rather than
the light, because your faith and your works and your teaching
and your prayers and your temple worship is darkness, it's evil
for you do them in lieu of me when they point to me, when they
speak of me. See, this is where Jesus dialogue
with the Jews continued. They speak of Me. They reveal
Me. The Father speaks of Me. The
Spirit speaks of Me. The Word and the Prophets speak
of Me. Moses speaks of Me. And you know
that it does, but yet you refuse Me. Why? For they have not been
born again. Friends, if we were to pick a
simple gospel quote presentation of the most dynamic and biblical
proportion, it would be better to say to the masses of this
world, you will die in your sin unless God divinely makes you
alive. Apart from you, that is a better
gospel than anything I've heard in 50 years, and I'm not even
50. That's how they felt about Jesus.
How have you heard of Abraham? Seen Abraham and you're not even
50. He wasn't even 40. It's a better gospel. You must
be born again by God in order to escape his judgment. You must be made alive because
of the work of Christ for his people. Because no amount of convincing
will ever make a man believe, truly believe. These Pharisees walked in darkness. These Greeks walked in darkness. These religious people walked
in darkness. Baptists walk in darkness. Evangelicals walk in darkness
as a majority. Beloved, I want you to listen
to that. History is not a friend to sovereign
grace. The longer men live and the more
they write, the more the flesh begins to take control over sovereignty. The more sermons I preach out
of my own philosophy, you'll start to see my sovereignty. which is no sovereignty. The darkness will consume you,
but it will not overcome the light. You cannot be lost, beloved,
if Christ has paid for your sins. You will not be lost if his body
and blood were crushed for you. If He purchased you with His
blood, you will come to believe it. The one who walks in darkness
does not know where he is going. I don't have to go through all
that again, but I'll tell you this, beloved. Many men who are
students of this Scripture with extreme intelligence don't know
where they're going. But while we have the light.
We should believe. That we may become the sons of
light. John has already said that those the world did not
see him, did not recognize him, did not believe in him, his own
people did not believe in him, but those who did believe in
him. He gave the right to become the
children of God, not because of the will of man, the decision
of the mind, the blood of the flesh, but by the will of God. John 1. You will become the sons of light
by believing in the light, the exposure, the illumination, the
pulling the sheep back on the mystery of the unmade bed of
God's redemption. We see it face to face. It's not hidden for us, though
it is mysterious. It is not a cloud for us to wonder. How is it that God has made me
righteous? How is it that God has declared
me righteous? How is it that God has done away
with my sins? How is it that God is satisfied
with me? It's because His Son has paid
it all. He's paid it all. The latter
part of verse 36 is extremely prophetic in this narrative.
The Gospel writer says, and when Jesus had said these things,
He departed and He hid Himself from them. I remember as a boy hearing what we'd call the old school
evangelists and their tactics. Whether you were saved, not saved,
born again, not born again, believed, didn't believe, pagan, Christian,
didn't matter, Hare Krishna, didn't matter. You gave flowers
out of the airport, didn't matter what you did. What do they call
those? The moonies. No matter what you believed,
everybody was on the same playing field. And they would always put it
in your lap. What are you going to do with
the light? I'm going to use this term. You've
heard the gospel, which is debatable. What are you going to do with
it? And everybody's sitting there
going, what am I supposed to do? Now, I have done conferences
throughout my life. And I've done a lot of college
conferences, a lot of youth conferences. And there's something extremely
exciting about having a group of 7,000 people and offering
a $20 prize for the last man standing, which Simon says. A man I learned to play Simon
Says from is a champion. A champion. I've seen him do
it 10,000 people and everybody's out in three minutes. Loved it. And when the last man's standing,
he's out before he gets to the stage. I'm not going to tell
you why. Trust me. That's sort of what evangelism
is becoming today. When somebody gives a hook of
emotional fortitude with a not gospel, not good news, it may
be it's possibly good news. You see the difference? If you
do the right thing in this moment, it might be good news for you.
No, the gospel is the gospel that God has established and
finished the work for His people. You will not die in your sin,
beloved. You will believe that he is.
I am. You will hold fast and your assurance
today and 50 years from now, 100 years from now, a millennia
from now will be that he saved you from your sin perfectly and
fully. I have nothing to do with you
except that you are the beneficiary of an amazing grace. But when
that hook sits in your lap, even the devout religious people of
the day, even what we used to call the counselors, they sit there and their heart
beats fast. If we'd had Apple watches in
the 80s, boy, we'd know what their heartbeat was. What is
mine? 69 beats a minute. It's the lowest
it's been in a long time. I don't know why. It's usually
like 140. But your heart gets to beating.
You feel those cold sweats, you know. And a good evangelist could
say, now I know the Lord is talking to you. Your heart rates up. What are you going to do? I could
have exchanged places with this man and say, Simon says, stand
up. And everybody stands up. Simon says, raise your hand.
Simon says, bow your head. Simon says, come on out. Simon
says, come to the front. Now stand over there. Oh, Simon
didn't say you're out. What kind of absurd example is
this? It's the same thing. It's the same thing. When the
onus is on our ability and our power to save ourselves, whatever
the man in charge tells you, you will try. And there's one
thing true about every try. It's just a failed attempt at
due. If I play a song on the keyboard,
and I play it without any errors, no one would say afterward, that
was a wonderful try. But if I fail, they say, you
tried hard, good job. No, you mean I failed. You can't
fail in faith. Because He is faithful. And He hides Himself from all
those who think they can." Did you hear that again? Jesus departs
from and hides from all those who think they can. And here's the explanation of
that, verse 37. Though He had done so many signs
before them. We're not talking about this
dialogue. Now he's talking about three
and a half years. Everything that Jesus had done before them.
Giving sight to the blind, putting legs back on bodies, causing
cripples to walk. Opening up voices, raising from
the dead, healing from illness. Time and time and time again,
many things. Yet they still do not believe
in him. But in every situation, when
he did something miraculous, when his arm went out, when the
arm of the Lord, as we'll see in Isaiah six in a minute, when
the arm of the Lord stretched out over the people, it's funny
that Paul uses that exact same allusion in Romans 10 and 11. In response to the fact, has
God's word failed according to his people? Has his promises
failed? Has God been unfaithful to Israel? And Paul says, no, no. God hides himself from some.
God hides himself from many. But though he had done many signs,
they still did not believe. And in verse 38, this is troubling
for me just in the grammar, because I'm not quite sure how to take
it, because I know in Isaiah, Isaiah's ministry, if you go
to read Isaiah, God revealed himself to Isaiah. God's glory
was manifest to the eyes of Isaiah. And then God commissioned Isaiah
and through a series of questions. And then Isaiah says, send me,
you remember, who shall I send? Who will go for me? Who will
be the mouthpiece of my glory? And Isaiah says, send me. And
then the Lord gives Isaiah a commission, and that commission is the worst
missionary commissioning in the entire Bible. Second would be
Jeremiah. Third, I think, would be Noah. Why is it the worst? Because God tells him it's not
going to be a success. God tells Jeremiah, I'm going
to send you to preach the gospel and I will not permit these people
to see it. I will not let them hear it.
I will not allow them to believe. I want you to preach clearly
what they already know and I'm going to hide myself from them
because that is what I can do. For I will have mercy on whom
I have mercy and I will give what? I will put judgment on
whom I have judgment. I will do with whatever I want,
with whomever I want. And I am righteous in all my
ways. This is the God of Scripture.
And even we, beloved, who are born of God and have assurance
it should cause us to shudder in our souls. That God would
be just to condemn all of us. But to the praise of his glorious
mercy. Grace. Love. Kindness. He caused us, caused us to be
born again in Christ. Isaiah is quoted. He asks a question
of God, Lord. Who has believed what he's heard
from us now? Think about that. Who believed? Nobody. Isaiah
preached. Nobody believed. And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? Everybody, yet nobody could see it. It says in verse 38 that the
word so that the word. Spoken by the prophet Isaiah
might be fulfilled, and this is my confusion, so I have to
accept it as both. It happened in Isaiah's day.
And now it's happening in Jesus day. And it's happening today. Because when people cannot stomach
the reality of the grace of God in saving His people, when they
cannot embrace the simple and only true gospel, they become bitter and enraged
and callous. They harden their hearts and
God hardens their hearts. Who has believed what he has
heard from us? Who has heard from? What does it mean to hear, to
hear the preaching of the truth of Christ, who Christ is? That's
the gospel. Who is he? What's he done? If you want a
proper Christology, you need to get it from John's gospel. Because everything that Paul
wrote about Jesus is in John. Systematic theology. You can
go through John if you want a shortcut course, read Colossians. Everything that's essential about
Jesus is there. Are we knowing Because we figured
it out? Or do we know Christ because
He showed Himself to us? The second is true. The latter
is true. so that when we lay in the bed
at night and we rejoice that we are no longer condemned before
God, it is not because of our goodness, our transformation,
our morality, our spirituality, our zeal, our passion, our work,
our ministry, our missions, our evangelism, our preaching, teaching,
or whatever it may be. It is only because of the mercy
of God so that we do not look in the mirror and say, thank
you, God, for what you've done to me and in my life that I might
live for you. But we say thank you, God, that
you had mercy on a sinner who deserved to die. And that's what it means to give
all worship to him. What have we heard? Well, even
in the day of Jesus, the apostles preached, the disciples preached,
Jesus preached. Many people hear, but not everybody
hears. And many people see. The arm
of the Lord working, Jesus. Until now, the father is working,
now I am working. What he says to the Jews and
that makes them angry. Makes them angry because he dare
take credit as God in the work he did. The arm of the Lord is revealed.
What just happened? What is this John 12 on the cusp
of? The resurrection of Lazarus.
Proving he is God, he is the resurrection, he is the life.
This is what the Lord did with his arm. How many times have I hit the
microphone through the years? You see it, you hear it, you watch
it. The arm of the Lord in the performing of these miracles
proved without a doubt that He was indeed God, that everything
He said was divine, that He was speaking as the Father was speaking,
because they are both God, one and only God. So the answer to that is many
have heard, many have seen, But why have they not believed? Because
in verse 39, look, therefore they could not believe. It's
been preached, it's been shown, but they still cannot believe.
That's why John puts Isaiah six right there. Believe the light so that you
may be sons of the light while the light still shines. And then
he hid himself and departed. And though He had done many signs,
they still did not believe, just as it was said of Isaiah's day.
He has blinded their eyes, verse 40. They could not believe. He has blinded their eyes. Jesus came to open the eyes of
the blind. And that physical healing was
a picture of true spiritual healing. of new life, of regeneration,
of taking the darkness away for the darkness will not overcome
the light. No one for whom Christ died will
fail. To believe in him. He has hardened their heart. Why? Just so that we as human
beings could read thousands of years later because maybe just
in their own flesh they might be able to see and understand
and I might heal them. But just to show you it's not
going to take place. They're not going to change their
mind about their own righteousness. They're not going to change their
mind about me. What does this show us here?
But this shows us the sovereignty of God in salvation. Some months ago, I was in Romans,
Romans 9, Romans 10. And it talks about reprobation.
You see the term in Romans chapter one, reprobate mind. Reprobation
is the teaching that there are some people that God turns over
to judgment. Paul uses the Old Testament language
of vessels of wrath. He fashions them. He uses the
example of Esau. He uses the example of Pharaoh. He uses the example of Cain. God is sovereign. He is sovereign
in salvation or he is not a savior. And at no time is God on trial
for fairness in response to the age old question of philosophers.
What about man's responsibility? We're guilty before we're responsible. See, that's the thing that needs
to be clear. We talk about Adam and I've got
some dear friends who would disagree with me on this, but we're working
a response for some of these guys in love in Adam. All are dead. And in Christ alone, the many
will be made righteous. Before Rebecca's children were
ever born in order for God's decree of election to stand, He said, He decreed, the younger,
the older shall serve the younger. And even though by name, my English
name, James, Jacobus, Jacob, supplanter. It was by the decree of the sovereignty
of God. Isaiah said these things, verse
41, because He saw His glory and
spoke of Him. I love people sometimes. And I love grammaticians, is
that what they call them? Because I wish I was one. That
impresses me more than anything. Somebody that can just speak
rightly, write correctly. If it weren't for Grammarly,
I sound like an idiot. Oh, excuse me, more of an idiot. Some people say, well, the hymn
here is Jesus. He's the one in view. His pronoun
is Jesus. But Isaiah wasn't speaking of
Jesus. Well, tell me this. Who has ever
seen God? No one. And anyone who has ever seen
God has only seen God the Son. Because it is only and eternally
only the way God reveals Himself. Just like Wednesday night when
I did that machine gun rapid trip through Jude. I did not. I went back and listened to it
and I'm going, my ears are on fire. It was necessary though. Jude says that Jesus led the
Israelites out of Egypt. Jude said that Jesus burned Sodom
and Gomorrah. Jude says that Jesus is the God
of the Old Testament. Because He is. Isaiah said these
things because he saw the glory of God and he spoke of God the
Son. Nevertheless, many, even of the
authorities, believed in him. But for fear of the Pharisees,
they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of
the synagogue, for they love the glory that comes from man
more than the glory that comes from God. Spurious faith is difficult because everybody
wants to say, well, is my faith spurious? It's my faith experience. Is it worthless? Is it false?
Is it emotional, academic, intellectual, willed faith? Am I believing
in Jesus like these people are? And on the flip side of that,
it'd be real easy and fundamental of me to come back and say, OK,
if you're not standing for Jesus, you're lost. So if you want to
be saved, stand for Jesus. You see how easy that is to manipulate?
We've got Nicodemus, who is counted for Christ. For he and Joseph
of Arimathea worked to get Jesus a burial place. It cost him. Some of these people may go,
wow, this must really be Messiah. Just like the enemy, the non-elect
angels, they know who he is. But it's a spurious knowledge.
It's not a saving faith. It's not a God given faith. A God given faith resolves to
put our hope, our confidence, our assurance in Jesus alone. For what? For our righteousness.
We are right before God because Jesus, in his perfection, in
his glorious righteousness, in his justice, declared us so. The gospel isn't that God works
to make me more like Jesus. The gospel is that God, in the
work of Christ, declared me to be equally righteous like Jesus,
with an alien righteousness of Jesus. I'm not a righteous person, but
I am righteous before the Father because of Christ. and see what that does? It leaves
us in this weird Western dichotomy. Where do I go now? What do I
do with this? I know this is true. Great. But is your assurance there?
Saving faith is having assurance in the finished work of Christ.
Confidence in the finished work of Christ. making no provision
for the flesh. But then what happens? We see
Romans 7. We see Paul, who, when he gives
his pre-conversion resume, he's the Jew of all Jews, circumcised
on the eighth day, has the name of the first King Saul, the tribe
of Benjamin. The list goes on and on and on
and on. He says, according with zeal, I loved the Lord, I worshiped,
I had zeal, I had passion for the things of God. According
to the law, I was perfect, sinless. And then when Jesus met him and
Jesus converted him, Jesus gave him faith. Jesus gave him a new
eye to see the fullness of God in Christ and that only the mercy
of God in Christ was his everlasting hope. Then his tune changed. Now, all of a sudden, that law,
which he thought he kept, he realized he'd never kept. Because he just wanted things
to be a little bit different for himself at times. He wished
he probably wasn't always locked up. Could I have a weekend off
God? Could I get 29 stripes instead of 39? Could I not be in the
midst of a shipwreck? I mean, we don't know what Paul's
covetousness was, but Paul claimed it as idolatry. False worship. A violation of
the very first commandment. and the second and the third
and the fourth, all of them. Because the righteousness of
God in the law is fully known in the fullness of Jesus Christ. So when people would have a spurious
faith, what happens to it always fails, doesn't it? Now, I don't want to give you
a heart attack. We see Peter. What does Peter
do? We'll see. Does Peter have a spurious faith? No. Peter has a genuine faith,
but his flesh is very much active. It's fighting against God the
Spirit, against Jesus Christ, the new man. And yet Christ restores him.
Just like when we get to that place where we're just not sure
we can walk, we're not sure we can believe, we're not sure we
can hold fast, we see sin not just knocking at the door, kicking
it down like a SWAT team and running in and wetting our house
with a hose of debauchery. And it's real easy to go, well,
I just must be lost. Well, is your assurance in the
sufficiency of your cleanliness? Or is your assurance in the sufficiency
of Christ's righteousness? And the Holy Spirit will come
into our souls. And I'm saying that in a figurative
way. He is in us. He will speak to
us, he will teach us, and we will be at peace until the next
storm. He's faithful, beloved. He's
faithful. But spurious faith always fails
and spurious faith fails in a way not like our faith fails. Spurious
faith fails in a way when our affection begins to reveal itself
for what it is, when our flesh is more important than the flesh
work of Christ. Permanently. And spurious faith is a result
of a soul that has not been healed by Christ. It's not been healed. This spiritual
healing, the new birth being born again, results in many realities,
many things that come. And Paul gives a great list of
those things. Blessed be our God and Father. What does he say there? who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Everything that God has promised
us is ours, and everything that is ours is ours now in Christ
Jesus. All of it. who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in heaven and the places, even
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Even before the foundation of
the world, He predestined us to be holy and blameless. Before the foundation of the
world in love, He purposed to adopt us to Himself as sons by
His own will. according to the purpose of His
own will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He
has blessed us in the beloved. The new birth gives assurance
of redemption through the blood of Christ, which is the forgiveness
of sins. Not just to say, oh, it's over,
but it's forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His
grace, which He has drowned us in. In all wisdom and insight, revelation,
illumination, making known to us the mystery of his will, according
to the riches of his grace, making known to us the riches, I mean,
the mystery of his will, according to his purpose. Making known
to us the mystery of his will, which is only in Christ, which
is an eternal plan, which is a sovereign decree. Where he
will unite all things in heaven and on earth. We have an inheritance. because we've been predestined
according to the purpose of him who works all things according
to the counsel of his will, not the will of man, not the will
of pastors and preachers, not the will of Jews, not the will
of any other person in the world, not the will of anyone but him. So that there is no way that
his work will fail. Except Sometimes we think it
does fail when we see people not believe. But it hasn't. Because that's part of His work. And that's what this text is
showing us here. The primary, quote, fruit of
the new birth is a strong, confident assurance conviction of Jesus
Christ and His imputed righteousness. You don't have to know what the
word imputed means in order to be saved, but you need to know
that only Jesus' perfect righteousness stands between you and judgment. In this work, was validated. We have the Holy Spirit. To the praise of his glory. You
believed in him when you heard the gospel of your salvation.
You notice that Paul claims many times over that the gospel, the
good news of your salvation is only heard by those for whom
it. Operates. But we are sealed with the promised
Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire
possession of it to the praise of His glory. Let's pray. Father, it's very tempting to
just continue to labor the point, to move into this text that you've
given us. Whoever believes in Christ, believes
not just in Christ, but moreover, believes in you. You who sent
Jesus. You who sovereignly work salvation
before the foundations of the world. And Father, the judgment is that
we do love the darkness. But in your mercy, you have given
us life through Christ and you've given us the ability to see it,
to see and hope in this gospel. And the redemption that is ours
in Jesus' blood and body, Father, is what we've come to this time
in our service to remember the work of Christ on the cross,
and that it's not an opportunity for redemption, but it is a finished
purchase. It is a finished redemption.
And that in the weakest of our days, you remain faithful. Christ's work remains faithful. We will not be cast away. Father, as we read the Psalms
this morning, about our heart being downtrodden. Lord, last week we read about
Your love enduring forever. And Father, Your unchanging heart
and mind and movement and decrees and Your arm and Your message is that You've eternally loved
us who are to be found in Christ. And You will always love us.
And you will never hate us. We praise you for it. In Jesus'
name, amen. Thank you for listening. We hope
that this message has encouraged you in the faith. Subscribe to
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