Let's open our Bibles again to
John chapter 12. The title of the message this
morning is God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility. Fr. Henry told me one time about
a particular text, a deep text. The text is so deep, he said
you just jump in there and swim around for about 40 minutes and
get out. You can't exhaust it. God's sovereignty, man's responsibility. The scripture is very plain that
there are children of light and children of darkness. There are
children of God and children of Satan. Children of faith and
children of disobedience. Ephesians chapter 2 makes that
very clear. So how do children of darkness
become children of darkness, and how do they stay children
of darkness? And how do children of light become children of light? That answer is found in God's
sovereignty and man's responsibility. Now, let's begin looking at verse
32. We looked at these verses last
week, but we'll begin here today. John 12, verse 32. And I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me. This he
said signifying what death he should die. Now look over in
Luke chapter 9. Our Lord makes this statement.
He signified not only what death that he should die, but he signified
what that death would accomplish. If he's lifted up, the people
that he's speaking to know full well that means that he's going
to be lifted up on a cross, on a tree. He's going to be made
a curse. So that's what kind of death
he would die and what that death would accomplish. In Luke 9 verse
29. And as he prayed, the fashion
of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and
glistering. And behold, there talked with him two men, which
were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease,
which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." They are talking
about what the death of our Lord would accomplish. Now this happened
on the Mount of Transfiguration when our Lord Jesus revealed
his glory as God. If this man is God, then his
death cannot be in vain. It is going to accomplish the
purpose that God sent him to accomplish, which is the salvation
of his people. Now, the death of Christ is necessary. He must be lifted up because
all men, by nature, are children of darkness. They were made children
of darkness in Adam. When Adam sinned, All men were
plunged into darkness, into spiritual darkness. And that darkness is
so deep that by nature we cannot see Christ. We cannot understand
sin. We cannot understand our need
of Christ to be our Savior. We can't see. We don't have the
ability to see. And no amount of intellectual
teaching, no amount of physical sight or physical light or education
will enable us to see through that darkness. It's spiritual
darkness. And unless God does something
for us, that's the way we'll stay and we'll spend eternity
in spiritual darkness and utter darkness. And this is why Christ
must be lifted up. To make his people children of
light. Now here's my first point. They're
children of darkness. And children of darkness do not
know Christ. They don't know Christ. They
don't know who He died for. They've heard that He died, but
they don't know why He died. They don't know who He died for.
They don't understand, even though they've heard Christ died on
the cross, that He was buried and He was resurrected, they
still don't understand how God saves sinners, because they're
children of darkness. They don't see the necessity
of Christ's death. They don't know what it accomplished.
And even a physical sight of Christ, which we don't have,
but you know, if you could have a vision. It wouldn't matter. These people that our Lord is
talking to had a physical sight of the Lord Himself, and it did
not change their spiritual darkness. Look back a few pages in John
1, verse 5. And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. That doesn't just apply
to the people who are there in our Lord's day. That applies
to us today. You come here, there's in this crowd of people, there
are children of darkness and children of light. The light
shines forth in the gospel. The person of Christ shines forth
in the gospel and children of darkness comprehend it not. They
don't understand unless God does something for them. Even reading
God's Word, and I'm not saying you ought not to read God's Word,
you ought to read, everybody ought to read God's Word. Whether
you know Christ or you don't, you ought to be reading God's
Word. This is where Christ is revealed. But even a reading
of God's Word with just the natural understanding will not enlighten
our darkened understanding. Look at verse 34, John 12 in
our text, And the people answered him, We have heard out of the
law that Christ abided forever. And how sayest thou, the Son
of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" Now
these are children of darkness speaking to our Lord. They were
talking to the Lord Jesus Christ. They're talking to God's Son
and they ask Him, who is the Son of Man? Now the only reason
you'd ask that question is if you're in darkness. You must
be blind to ask that question to the Son of Man Himself. They're
talking to Him. And they don't know who He is
because they're in darkness. Now, children of darkness can
read Scripture. Children of darkness can memorize
Scripture. But they don't know Christ, so
they don't understand the meaning of the Scripture. If you don't
know Christ, you don't have the key to understand Scripture.
Now, they're right. It's true. Scripture does say
Christ abideth forever. Psalm 45, 6. Thy throne, O God,
is forever and ever. He's not going to die, or he'll
abide forever. Psalm 110, verse 4, the Lord
has sworn or will not repent, thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. His priesthood is without end.
Daniel 7, verse 14, his dominion is an everlasting dominion and
shall not pass away. His reign is without end. So
it's true. Scripture says Christ abides
forever, doesn't it? But that does not mean Christ
will never die. It doesn't mean that. They ignored
the many other scriptures that speak of the death of Christ.
Isaiah 53. He was cut off out of the land
of the living. He made his grave with the wicked and with the
rich in his death. He's going to die. Zechariah
12. They should look on him whom
they've pierced and they're going to mourn for him. They understood
that means the Lord is going to die. The Messiah is going
to die. God never said the Savior wouldn't die. He just said the
Savior would live forever. Christ died. But He arose again. And He abides forever. Because
the sin that was charged to Him has been put away under the blood
of His sacrifice. The debt's paid. And Christ arose
for the justification of His people. And He ever lives. He
abides forever. Making intercession for His people.
Now, I'm going to see if I can make this applicable to today.
There is a very real danger in taking God's word and making
it prove our point. Instead of reading God's word
to see what God says and believing it in its entirety. If we try
to take God's word, make it prove our point, more likely you can
do it. But if you do that, you know
what's going to happen? You're going to exalt one truth at the
expense of another. Just what these folks did. And
we can do the same thing today. And it's deadly. It's deadly.
It'll lead to error that'll take away from the glory of Christ.
It'll lead to error that made these people who are standing
there talking to the Lord himself, miss Christ. I'll give you a
good example. Christ is holy. The Messiah is
holy. The Savior is sinless. God's
words are so plain on that. But if you take that truth and
you exalted to the point that you diminish other truths of
the scripture, you're going to miss Christ. If you take that
truth, Christ is holy, and you make that to say Christ cannot
be made guilty, even by the Father, then you're taking away the truth
of salvation. You're taking away the hope that
a sinner has of salvation, because any salvation that does not make
Christ guilty of my sin is an abomination. Because it's saying
God's not holy. You know, the very truth they're
trying to defend makes God not holy. Because they're saying
God can ignore sin by saving a sinner by pretending. Can't
happen. That takes away from the glory
of God and salvation. Because it limits God's power.
If we say, well, Christ is holy, so he can't be made guilty. That's
limiting God's power to doing only what I can understand. Brethren,
if God's limited to what I can understand, we're all going to
go to hell. We have no hope. God's God. I don't understand how Christ
could be made sin. I don't understand what all that
means, but I don't understand anything else God does for that
matter. God's God. The point is this. Read God's
Word and believe it. Don't make God's Word, read it
and take it to make it prove your point. Read God's Word and
ask God to give you faith. Ask God to give you faith to
believe. And this same principle holds true when we're talking
about God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Both are true. Here's my second point. Man's in darkness, but children
of darkness are still responsible. Now God's sovereign and man is
responsible. Man's responsible. No one will
ever go to hell because Adam sinned. No one. People go to
hell because they sinned. Because they're responsible for
their own rebellion. My sin is my sin. My sin is my
fault. It's not Adam's fault. It's my
fault. Now, I was made guilty in Adam. I was made a sinner
in Adam. I was given a sin nature in Adam.
But I'm responsible. Look at verse 35 in our text.
Then Jesus said unto them, yet a little while is the light with
you. Walk while you have the light. lest darkness come upon
you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be
the children of light. These things begged Jesus, and
departed, and did hide himself from them." Now, who is this
light that our Lord is talking about? Well, it's Himself. Christ
is the light. Christ is seen and believed and
understood in the light of Himself. Christ is the light of the world.
He's the light of the gospel. When we preach the gospel, it's
Christ that shines forth to you. Now, these folks our Lord's talking
to, they have His bodily presence for a few more days. And in a
few more days, they won't have His bodily presence anymore.
He's going to go back to the Father and judicial blindness
is going to come on the Jewish nation because they're responsible,
because they rejected Him. And the Jewish nation is in blindness
to this day. They can't see Christ because
they're walking in darkness. They've been given judicial blindness
because they rejected Christ, the only light. Now there's a
lesson to us here. We have Christ preached to us
three times a week, if you care to listen. He's preached here
faithfully three times a week. Walk in the light God's given
you. Look to Christ. And believe on Him. Walk in the
light that God's given you. You have an unspeakable blessing. God's put you in a place where
you can hear the gospel. What a blessing. You children,
it's no accident that you've been born to parents who believe
Christ and bring you here. It's no accident. That's God's
blessing. Walk in the light that God's
given you. God's giving you teachers. You have the best teachers you
can find anywhere here. Teach the classes for our young
people. Walk in the light God's giving you. Pay attention. Listen.
Ask God to give you faith to believe it. And take advantage
of this blessing. This blessing's not everywhere.
And it may not be here forever. It may not be. Believe while
it's called today. We are responsible. to walk in
the light God's given us. Brother Henry said it so many
times. We're responsible to hear the Gospel. We're responsible
to believe it. We're even responsible for what
we could have heard. Now man's in darkness. He can't
see. He doesn't have the ability to
see. He can't walk right. Of course he stumbles around.
He's in darkness. He can't see where he's going.
He can't find the way of life. He can't find Christ. Yet, he's
responsible. This is the best illustration
I can think of to illustrate this point. A man goes out drinking
alcohol. Just gets absolutely waylaid. And gets in his car and drives.
He's driving down the road. He's drunk. It's impossible for
him to control that vehicle. Impossible. He runs off the road
and hits your child. Kills her. Do we let him go? Well, he wasn't
responsible. I mean, you know, he can't help
it. No, he's responsible. Man is responsible. The Gospels
preached in this town. You're responsible to hear it.
You're responsible to believe. And if you don't believe, you
know if the light's not on. We were over here before Bible
school and that storm came through and the lights went out. Nobody
had to tell us the lights went out, did they? Everybody knew
we're in darkness. If you don't believe Christ,
I'm telling you, make it your business to be here every time
these doors are open. Make it your business. You can
turn on your computer and Sermon Audio's got some of the best
preaching you can find anywhere. You can listen any time you want.
I'd make it my business to listen, because faith cometh by hearing.
Man's responsible to believe Christ, yet he can't. Left to himself, he can't. But
the lack of ability does not remove our responsibility to
believe. Man's responsible. To call on
Christ and beg Him for forgiveness. Begging for forgiveness. Now,
by nature, we won't. By nature, we will not come to
Christ. Isn't that right? That's what
Scripture says. You will not come unto me that you might have
life. And we cannot come to Christ. We don't have the ability by
nature to come to Christ, except the Father draws. Isn't that
what Scripture says? Well, which is it? Is it that I will not come to
Christ or I cannot come to Christ? Which is it? It doesn't matter. It's the same thing. We cannot
come because we will not come. That's our nature. That's the
nature that we're born with. And man's responsible for that.
And anyone, anyone who winds up in hell will tell you it's
their own fault. It's not God's fault. It's their
fault. They're getting exactly what
their sin deserves. I promise you everybody in hell
say that. Now look over Romans chapter
1. I'm going to give you a couple of examples of this from God's
Word. In Romans 1 verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
hold the truth and unrighteousness, because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them."
They can't say they don't know. God's put it in them. God's showed
it to them. Well, what does man by nature
do with that knowledge? Look at verse 20, "...for the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen." being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because of that, when they knew
God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools." Now whose fault is it? It's their fault. They can't say they didn't know.
God showed it to him, and God gave them what they wanted. They
rejected him, and he gave them what they wanted. He gave them
up to it. That's what the next verses say. Look over 1 Peter 1. Here's another
example. 1 Peter 2. Excuse me. 1 Peter 2.
Verse 6. Wherefore, also it is contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient.
were unto also they were appointed. Now the disobedient, I know they're
appointed to destruction, but they're still responsible. They
can't say they didn't know of Christ. They can't say they didn't
know of Christ, the chief cornerstone. They saw him. They just stumbled
over him because they're disobedient. They're responsible. Look at
2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Man's responsible and God's going
to give him exactly what he wants. So that it'll be their fault.
2 Thessalonians 2 verse 10. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received
not the love of the truth. It's not that they didn't hear
it. It's not that they couldn't understand it. They received not the love
of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause,
they're responsible. God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth, but they have pleasure in unrighteousness."
They're responsible, and God gave them exactly what they wanted.
All men by nature do not want Christ. They reject Him. And
if God doesn't give you and me a new will, we'll die in our
sin without Christ. Hebrews 2 verse 3. How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? The Gospel's been
preached to you. You've heard. How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation? We're responsible. So walk in
the light God gives. Now the Gospel's preached. God's
given us His Word. And if we refuse it, by nature
we will. And man can refuse the Gospel
so long God will take the light away. We can refuse the light
so long that in judgment, God will take the light away. Darkness
is the absence of light. All you got to do to make it
dark is remove the light. All right. Just remove the light.
It'll be dark. All God has to do to leave a
man in darkness and blindness is remove the light. And God
does that. He does that. He removes the
light so man cannot see. Now, how does God do that? Well,
I thought of three ways. First of all, we die. When we
die, there's no more light. There's no more opportunity to
hear the gospel. There's no more opportunity to
believe. There's no more opportunity to come to Christ. We're in darkness. It's appointed unto man once
to die, and after that, this, the judgment. Now, there's no
such thing as purgatory. Look in Luke chapter 16. There's
no such thing as purgatory. There's no such thing as, you
know, second chances to leave hell and enter into glory. No,
it's appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment. And these things are eternal.
There'll be no more life. In Luke 16, verse 23, this is
talking about the rich man who was in hell. And in hell he lifted
up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried, and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am
tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember
that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and
thou art tormented. And beside all this, between
us and you, there is a great gulf fixed. So that they which
would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass
to us that would come from hence. You can't cross. There's no more
light, no more opportunity to come to Christ when we die. Second,
old age. Old age takes away our mind. I was telling Lindy before the
class this morning, but I got to write myself notes. I forget. I didn't used to have to do that.
I got to write myself notes because I forget. Your mind just doesn't
work like it did when you were young. You can't comprehend things. You can't learn things like you
used to when you were young. Now I'm not just talking about
Alzheimer's and dementia. It's just normal aging. We're
not as sharp as we used to be. We become dull to things. We
can't comprehend things. And this is a danger. After many,
many years of hearing the gospel. Old age sets in and we can become
gospel hardened. It's not sweet anymore. It's
just not sweet. The gospel is not sweet anymore
because we've become gospel hardened. Darkness has set in. And third,
God could remove the candlestick. He could take his servant out
of town, remove the local church, remove his presence from that
town and leave that town in darkness. And we're so thankful to have
a place to worship. I'm so thankful. But God doesn't
owe us that. He doesn't owe it to us. It's
His mercy. It's His mercy. And when God
does remove His witness from a town, it could be He's leaving
that people and that town in their darkness. Many times that's
happened. Ephraim's joined to his idols.
Let Him alone. Let Him go His way. Our Lord told His disciples,
let Him alone. They'd be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind, they're both going
to fall into the ditch. Leave them alone. In Acts chapter 15, Paul determined,
I'm going to go into Asia and preach the Word. And the Holy
Ghost forbid Paul, don't you go there. And he said, all right,
well, I'll go into Bithynia. The Holy Ghost suffered him not
to go there. Those areas were left alone. God said, leave them
alone. And they're left in their darkness.
In our text, our Lord told them, walk where you have the light.
And then what did He do? He did hide Himself from them.
And they're left in darkness. And to this day, God's left the
Jews in judicial blindness because they rejected Him. He came into
His own. His own received Him not. What
was their shout? Crucifying. We have no king but
Caesar. God said, all right. And He left
them alone in utter darkness. God gave them exactly what they
wanted. Now, who is responsible for that?
The ones who said we won't have Him. And when God removes the
light of Christ, men are in utter darkness and they'll perish in
that utter darkness unless God does something for them. And
that brings me to my third point. God is sovereign in salvation.
Verse 37 in our text, But though he had done so many miracles
before them, yet they believed not on him, that the saying of
Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath
believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been
revealed. Now, all these folks saw the
miracles. But they didn't believe God. Because he didn't give them
faith. They are completely dependent
on God to reveal Christ to them. And you and I are the exact same
way. We are completely dependent on Christ to save us. We're dependent
on God to reveal Christ to us. The unbelief of the Jews, he
came into his own. His own receipt did not. But
their unbelief did not frustrate God's Their unbelief didn't take
God by surprise. 700 years before Christ came,
Isaiah said that. They're going to reject him.
And the unbelief of the Jews, not only did it not thwart God's
purpose of redemption, as a matter of fact, it fulfilled it, didn't
it? He must be crucified if he's going to redeem his people from
their sins. So they rejected him and shouted crucify. Their
unbelief actually fulfilled God's purpose. Now earlier I told you,
If we go to hell, it's our fault. And if we awake in glory, in
Christ's lightness, that'll be God's fault. That will be God's
doing. Now, how are men made children
of darkness? In Adam. When Adam sinned, we
fell into complete darkness, and we love darkness rather than
light. Well, how are men made children of light? In Christ,
in the second Adam, who is light. God sends His gospel to His people. He sends Christ, the light of
the world, to His people. The gospel has been preached
in this town, in Ashland, Kentucky, for over 60 years. How many people believe? How
many people believe Christ? Where is everybody? Why isn't this place packed with
people? Because men love darkness rather
than light. Well, then we say with Isaiah,
well, Lord, who has believed our report? God's elect believe. You believe. Why? God showed it to you. God revealed Christ to you. I'll
tell you exactly who believes our report. Everyone to whom
the arm of the Lord has been revealed. They believe Christ.
Well, who is the arm of the Lord? The arm of the Lord is the Lord
Jesus Christ. That arm who is mighty to save. That arm that came to do the
work of redemption. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the arm of the Lord. Okay. When is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Apostle Paul said when it pleased
God. God's sovereign. The arm of the Lord is revealed
when it pleased God. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? God's elect. Everyone God chose to redeem,
Christ is revealed to them. Look back in John chapter 3. God sovereignly reveals His Son
to His elect. John 3 verse 19. And this is
the condemnation, that lights come into the world, and men
love darkness rather than light. because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." See, they
don't want to come to the light, because if they come to the light,
their sins are going to be seen for what it is. Their rebellion
is going to be seen for what it is, so they stay in the shadows
like a cockroach. But verse 21, "...but he that
doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God." Doing truth is simply believing
Christ. It's just believing Him. It's
trusting Christ to put away my sin. It's this confession. Doing good. Doing truth is simply
this. Confessing that the Lord Jesus
Christ is my righteousness. And if Christ has put my sin
away, I can tell you I'm coming to the light. I am. I'm coming
to the light because I want Christ to be seen in me. If Christ is
my righteousness, I want Christ my righteousness to be seen.
If all my sin is put away, I want to come to the spotlight of God's
holiness so I can be seen as righteous in Christ. And only
the elect will come to Christ that way. All the Father giveth
me shall come to me. Because their sin is going to
be put away. Now God's sovereign in salvation. It has to be that
way. If sinners are going to be saved,
God must do all the saving because men in darkness can't do anything
for themselves. And we'll be damned to utter
darkness if God leaves us alone. So that brings me to my fourth
point. Children of light are children of light because God
gives them light. Children of darkness don't see
because God hasn't given them any light, so they can't see.
Children of light see because God gives them light and He gives
them sight to see. Look at verse 40. He had blinded
their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see
with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them. These things said Isaiah when
he saw His glory and spake of Him. Now, God's not the author of
sin. But if we try to change the meaning
of this verse of so that it fits our theology. We're no better
than anybody in false religion. God determined to leave unbelievers
in darkness. He determined to leave them in
the darkness of unbelief. And God has blinded their eyes.
You know what that says? He has blinded their eyes. God
blinded their eyes simply by withholding Christ from them.
God hardened their hearts simply by withholding his grace, simply
by withholding the new birth, simply by withholding faith,
God hardened their heart. In Exodus, we read of Pharaoh. Pharaoh hardened his heart, didn't
he? Three times scripture says Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh's responsible. Ten times
it says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Five other times it says
Pharaoh's heart was hardened. I'll attribute that to God. 10
to 15 times God hardened Pharaoh's heart that his purpose might
be fulfilled. Now here's man's problem. In
verse 40, he's got blind eyes, he's got a hard heart, and he
sins sick. And when God saves a sinner,
God takes care of our problem. We've got blind eyes. That's
what we're born with by nature, blind eyes. When God saves a
sinner, God gives him new eyes. He turns the light of Christ
on and gives eyes to see. And those eyes look to Christ. They behold him. They see Christ
everywhere. He's always been there. Suddenly
they see Christ in creation. They never saw it before. They
see Christ in the scriptures. They thought the scriptures just
gave them some rules to live by. Now they see Christ. They
see Christ in the gospel. They see the gospel. is all concerning
God's Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. They have eyes that see. Where
was I all this time? It was always there. I was blind
and now I see. God gives eyes. We're born with
hard hearts. Hard hearts. You can't do anything
with a natural heart. You can't change it. You can't
mold it. You can't do anything with it. It's a lost cause. But
when God saves a sinner, He gives a new heart. A heart that understands. He gives a soft heart that loves
Christ. That believes Christ. That looks
to Christ. And that heart also understands.
These things apply to me. I'm the sinner. I'm the one in
need of grace. I'm the one who's completely
dependent on God. And I can only see that. I can
only understand that if God's merciful to me. I'm born sin sick. We all are.
We're born dead in sins. God saves a sinner. He heals
every sin sickness and gives new life. We're dead, so he causes
us to be born again. That's what it is to be converted.
Now, all that's the work of God. We can't do that for ourselves.
God does that for his people by giving light and life. Isaiah
said this 700 years before Christ was born. Well, when did he speak
of Christ? When did he have this prophecy?
When God gave him a vision of Christ. He saw Christ. And what
did Isaiah do? Spoke of Him. If you ever see
Christ, He'll be your message. He'll be all your hope. He'll
be all your salvation. Isaiah spoke of Him and you will
too. Now, here's my fifth point and the last point. Man's religious. But religion without Christ is
not salvation. Religion without Christ is darkness. Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers also, many believed on him. But because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise
of God." Now, these men could not have had saving faith, true
faith, couldn't have. They had a factual faith, but
not saving faith. They believed the facts. They
read the Scriptures. And they came to the conclusion,
Jesus of Nazareth must be the Messiah. He must be the one that
all the scriptures give witness to. And they thought that because
of the facts. They saw the miracles he did.
They saw the things. He fulfilled the scriptures.
He must be the Christ. But they didn't have saving faith.
Saving faith is never based on seeing the evidence and deciding
to believe Christ ever. We believe Christ because God
gives faith. He gives a heart of faith and
you can't help it. He just believes. I've seen evidence. I just believe. But man is so
dead. He's so lost in the darkness
of sin that no amount of logical arguments, no amount of miracles
will ever enable him to see Christ. The only way we'll ever have
that light is if God gives it. He gives it in new birth. These
men weren't born again. They didn't have a heart of faith.
All they had was a head knowledge. I know that. All they had was
a head knowledge. Because they chose the form of
religion over Christ. They wouldn't confess it. They
chose their friends over Christ. They chose society over Christ. They chose their long-established
habits over Christ. This is what I've always done.
I'm going to keep doing it instead of coming to Christ, instead
of confessing Him. They'd rather be in the in crowd
than with Christ. The only reason they thought
that is they never saw Him. They were still in darkness if
they made that choice. It's a factual faith. But if
you see Christ, you will identify with Him. You won't be able to
help it. You will. You'll confess him
in believer's baptism. You'll confess him by meeting
with his people and identifying with his gospel. You'll confess
him. Now, this confession of Christ,
baptism, is not a requirement for salvation. The thief on the
cross was not baptized, but he's in paradise today. But I have
to tell you this. I cannot have any confidence
in anybody's profession of faith if they don't confess Christ
in baptism. Because this is our Lord's commandment
to his people. Look in Luke chapter 12. Luke
12 verse 8. Also I say unto you, whosoever
shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also
confess before the angels of God. But he that denieth me before
men shall be denied before the angels." This confession of Christ
is important. And someone will say, well, I
don't know if I believe enough. I don't know if I have enough
life. Now listen to me. You're responsible
to walk in the light that God's given you. How do you expect
God to give you more light if you don't obey His first commandment?
Walk in the light God's given you. Obey His first commandment
and He'll give you more. He doesn't give you more light
until you walk in the light He's given you. Walk in the light God's
given you. Follow Him. He'll give you more
light. It's a blessing that we live
in the day of grace. Today is still the day of grace. I know it is because the gospel
is still being preached. And we've been exposed this morning
to the light of Christ. Every one of us is responsible
to walk in the light that God's given us. And what does that
mean? Walk in the light that God's
given you. It simply means this. You know Christ is the Savior. You know it. He's been set forth
evidently in God's Word to you that Christ is the Savior. Walk
in the light God's given you. Call on Him. Call on Him. Ask God to save you. Beg God
to be merciful to you. That's walking in the light that
God's given you. Salvation is of the Lord. God is sovereign in salvation. God saves whom He will, when
He will. But that doesn't mean you can't
call on Him. You can call on Him. You can seek Him. As a matter
of fact, God told you to seek Him. And if you seek Him, what
did God say? You seek Me with all your heart,
you'll find Me. You'll find Me because He finds
you. That's seeking. That's walking in the light that
God's given you. God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. For
42 minutes and 24 seconds, I swam in the deep end. Now I'm going
to get out. Hope the Lord will bless that too. That's a bowing
prayer. Our Heavenly Father, How we thank
You for Your Word. And I pray that You'd apply Your
Word to our hearts. We freely confess we're born
with a cold, dead and lifeless heart. Would You give us a heart
of faith, a heart of flesh that loves Christ, believes Christ
and looks to Christ. We're born with blind eyes, born
in darkness. By Your mercy and grace, would
You give us eyes Give us the light of the Lord Jesus Christ
that we might see Him, behold Him. We're born dead in sins,
with sin sicknesses, disease from the top of our head to the
sole of our foot. There's no sound of sin in us.
Nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Lord, just
save us by Your grace. Give us a new birth. Cleanse
us in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wash us in His precious
blood and we'll be whiter than snow. Oh, would You be merciful
to Your people. You've been so merciful to us
all these years. You've blessed Your Word all
these years. Father, would You bless it again. For Your great
namesake, we pray that You'd bless Your Word and for the good
of Your people. For the good of those who are
gathered here, we beg of You that You'd bless Your Word. It's
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we give thanks. Amen.