Do you believe on the Son of
God? That's what I've entitled this
message. Do you believe on the Son of
God? This is the question the Lord
asked this man, and this was a man who had quite an experience
He was born blind and given sight, yet he did not yet believe. And the Lord asks him, do you
believe on the Son of God? Think about this question. He
did not ask him, Do you know that you'll go to heaven when
you die? Soul winners love that question. He did not say, do you know you're
saved? He did not say, do you know that
Jesus Christ died for your sins? He did not say, do you know whether
or not you're one of the elect? He did not say, have you been
born again? He said, do you, and I'm asking
that to myself, and I'm asking that to you right now. Take this
question personally. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Now there are other important
questions you can answer, but nothing is more important than
this. Do you personally believe of the Son of God? Now this question will determine
where you spend eternity. Your answer to this question,
it's going to demonstrate whether you will spend eternity in heaven
or in hell. That's how serious this is. Do you believe on the Son of
God? And look at the man's reply in
verse 36. Who is He, Lord? You see, you can't believe if
you don't know who He is. Who is he, Lord, that I might
believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou
hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. You can't believe on him unless
you know who he is, and you can't know who he is unless he reveals
himself to you. The Son of God Mark chapter 1,
verse 1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. Only the Bible tells us of one
God in three distinct persons. That's not in any other religion.
Only in the Bible. One God in three distinct persons,
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We'd never figure that out, would
we? The only way we know this is because the Bible tells us
this is who He is. As a matter of fact, it's implied
in the very first verse of the scripture. In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. You know there the word
God is in the plural. God, the Father, God, the Son,
and God, the Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth. Do
you remember when God said, let us make man in our own image? Who's the us? God, the Father,
God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. the three persons of
the one true and living God. When the Lord was giving instructions
to his disciples right before his ascension, after his resurrection,
he said, go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. John said there are three, that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. Now the Lord asks this man, do
you believe on the Son of God? Now what I think is so interesting
about this question is this man had already experienced a miracle. He was born blind. He'd never
seen colors. He'd never seen a face. He had
no concept of what anything looked like. He was born blind. God
gave him sight. But he still doesn't know who
the Son of God is. This was a man who actually did what the Lord
told him to do. If you'll remember, he said,
go wash in the pool of Siloam. And he went and washed. And he
came seeing. He did what the Lord told him
to do. And he even knew some truth about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what he says in verse 17
of this chapter. They said unto the blind man
again, what sayest thou of him that opened thine eyes? He said,
he's a prophet. He knew the Lord Jesus Christ
was a prophet. Look what he says in verse 31 of the same text.
Verse 30. The man answered and said unto
him, Why, here it is a marvellous thing, that you know not from
whence it is, and yet he hath opened not eyes. Now we know
that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper
of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth, since the world began,
was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was
born blind? If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
You see, he saw some true things with regard to the Lord Jesus
Christ. had a great experience, given physical sight when he
was born blind, yet he does not yet know who the Son of God is. He saw a man, he saw a prophet,
he saw a man that was of God, but at this time he does not
see Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God. Now if the Lord asked him that
question, Surely, you and I should be asked that question. Do you
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And I love this
man's reply. Who is he? That I might believe. You see, you cannot believe that
he is the son of God unless you believe who he is. And you can't really know who
he is unless he makes himself known to you. I hope everybody
in this room is saying, who is he that I might believe? And
you're asking the Lord to make himself known to you. Now, who is he, Lord, that I
might believe? Well, he is the second person
of the Trinity. I began this message saying God
is one God in three distinct persons. That's so mysterious.
That's so glorious, it's not something somebody could figure
out. It's only known because the Bible tells us that's who
he is. One God in three distinct persons,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the
Son of God. Now listen to this scripture
from Colossians chapter two, verse nine, describing Jesus
Christ. It says, in him. In the man Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, who walked on this earth some 2,000 years
ago, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a
body, in a human body. The Son of God
possesses every attribute of deity. He's all-powerful. He's all wise. He's absolutely
sovereign. He's independent. He's immutable. He's omnipresent. Do you remember
when he said to Nebuchadnezzar, no man has ascended up to heaven,
but he that the son of man right now who is in heaven, he's on
earth, he's in heaven at the same time. That's who he is. He's the son of God. You believe that? In John chapter
1 verses 1 and 2, we read, in the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God as a distinct person, and the Word was God,
God the Son. The same was, eternally was,
eternal existence. The same was in the beginning
with God. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. You see, he's eternal. You know,
I hope, maybe I won't, but I hope I do, I hope I quote this scripture
every time I preach. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. That's who he is. This world
was created for this purpose, for Him to be the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Before there was ever a sinner,
there was a Savior. And He's called the Lamb slain,
having been slain from the foundation of the world. Now, He made many
pre-incarnate appearances in the Old Testament. That means
He didn't become flesh until He was born into this world.
I realize that. pre-incarnate appearances before
he became flesh. For instance, after Adam fell,
we read where he came to him as the voice of God walking in
the cool of the evening. Who's the voice of God? The Word
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He appeared to Abraham before
the destruction of Sodom. He was the one who wrestled with
Jacob. Remember, Jacob said, I've seen
the Lord. He appeared to Moses in the burning bush and spake
with him face to face as a man speaks with his friend. I love
it when Joshua sees the man with the drawn sword and he said,
are you for us or for our enemies? Whose side are you on? Neither. I don't take sides. I'm the Lord
of hosts. One of the most thrilling appearances
It's found in Daniel chapter three. I wish you would turn
there with me. Daniel chapter three, right after Ezekiel, Daniel,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The third chapter. I want to
begin reading in verse 19. Then was Nebuchadnezzar, full
of fury. This is because these three men
would not bow the knee to his image that he had made. And he
was filled with fury. He was angry. And the form of
his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Therefore he spake and commanded that they should heat the furnace,
one seven times more than was wont to be heated. And he commanded
the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning, fiery
furnace. Then these men were bound in
their coats, their hoes, and their hats, and their other garments,
and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's
commandment was urgent, the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the
fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men that threw them in
were burned up. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
fell down, bound in the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king
was astonished, and rose up in haste and spake, and said unto
his counselors, did not we cast three men bound into the midst
of the fire? They answered and said unto the
king, true, O king. He answered and said, lo, I see four men
loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt,
and the form of the fourth, is like the Son of God. How'd he know? If you see him,
you'll know. I'm sure of that. If you don't
know, you've never seen. If you see him, you'll know.
You'll recognize. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near
to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace. And Spacan said, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth
and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
came forth of the midst of the fire. Can you imagine them walking
out of that furnace? And the princes, the governors,
the captains, the kings, the counselors, being gathered together,
saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power. nor was a hair of their head
singed, neither was their coats changed, nor the smell of fire
had passed on them." They didn't even smell like smoke being in
that furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and
said, of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel,
the Son of God, and delivered his servants that trusted in
him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded not their bodies,
that they might not serve nor worship any god except their
own god. Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and
language that speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses
shall be made a dunghill, Because there's no other God that can
deliver after this sort. The Son of God. Upon his birth, the angels announced
that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. God, the son, the uncreated son
of God. Satan knew who he was. If you're the son of God. He
heard the Father speak from heaven, this is my beloved Son, in whom
I'm well pleased. He said, if you are, prove it. And that's when the Lord answered
him with three, it is written. The demons knew, they said, we
know thee who thou art, the Son of God. Art thou come to torment
us before the time? The Pharisees knew he made that
claim. You remember when he said he ought to die, they said this
to Pilate, he ought to die because he made himself the son of God. They knew exactly who he was
claiming to be. I love the Roman centurion's
conclusion when the scripture says, when he heard him, so cry
out, it is finished. He said, surely. This was the
Son of God. Turn back a few pages to John
chapter five. I want us to read the Lord's
description of himself as the Son of God. Verse 17. John chapter 5 verse 17, but
Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto and I work.
What he does, I do. Our works are one. Verse 18,
therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him because not
only had he broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his
father making himself equal with God. There's only one person
who can be equal with God. God, God, the Son, equal to the
Father. Verse 19, then answered Jesus
and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. For what
thing soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son. Likewise,
everything I do is what God does. For the Father loveth the Son,
and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show
him greater works than these that you may marvel. For as the
Father raises up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son
quickens whom he will." If you live, it's only because I will
it. I'm in absolute sovereign control, just like my Father.
For the Father, verse 22, judges no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even
as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Jesus Christ is God the Son. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth,
the man that lived for 33 years here on earth, is the Son of
God. The uncreated Son of God equal
to the Father with all the attributes of God. I love to think of Philip
in Acts chapter 8, when he saw that Ethiopian eunuch, he was
reading Isaiah 53, and Philip comes to the chariot and said,
do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can
I except some man should guide me? And he talked about the passage
of scripture that he was reading, and he said, tell me, of whom
does the prophet speak, of himself or some other man? Philip opened his mouth at that
same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. And they come up to water. And evidently, in preaching the
gospel to them, he talked about water baptism. He said, see,
here's water. What hinders me from being baptized?
Is there a reason why I shouldn't be? I want to know. He said,
if you believe with all your heart, you may. And his reply
was, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Do you? 1 John 5 says, who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ. You see, this is the content
of saving faith, believing who he is. Please understand that. This is the content of saving
faith, believing who he is. If you and I believe who he is,
we're gonna believe everything else right, won't we? You see,
it's not what do you believe, but who do you believe? This is the content of saving
faith. In Acts chapter nine, after Paul
was converted, we read straight away, he preached Christ in the
synagogue that he is the son of God. Now, when the Lord asked
this man this question, I love his answer. He didn't say, of
course I do. Or he didn't say, no, I don't.
He said, who is he, Lord, that I might believe? Do you ask that question? Who
is he, Lord, that I might believe." You and I cannot believe on Him
unless we know who He is. Now, there's all kinds of people
preaching somebody named Jesus, but it's not the Jesus of Scripture.
Who is He, Lord, that I might believe? I want to know. And
we're completely shut up to Revelation. Look in John chapter 6. I won't
know unless he makes himself known. John chapter 6 verse 44. No man can come to me, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I'll raise him
up at the last day. It's written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. I want to be one of those
people, don't you? I want to be taught of God. Every man that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Now I want you to turn to 2 Timothy
chapter 1. This is a very important scripture.
2 Timothy chapter 1. Verse 12. For the witch cause, I also suffer
these things. You know everywhere Paul went,
when he would go into a town, after he preached, he may be
stoned. He might be tied up to a pole
and whipped with a cat of nine tails. He knew wherever he was
going, he was going to take a severe beating for preaching the gospel. What a man he was, that everywhere
he went, he knew that was going to happen. For the witch cause,
I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. I know not what. I know what I believe. That's
dumb. I know whom I have believed and
am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
to him against that day. I know whom. I have believed. I believe the probably clearest
illustration of what this means is found in the thief on the
cross. I know who I have believed. Now when I think about that thief
on the cross, When they first threw him down on the ground
and nailed those nails into his hands and feet and lifted up
the cross and dropped it in the stand and the pain, he was experiencing
a wall of pain. And his other buddy, they did
the same thing. You know what both of those guys were doing?
They were cursing Christ. They were angry. They said, if
thou be the Christ, save us and yourself. Prove it. He didn't
know who Jesus Christ was. Now, I don't know when, but sometime
during this time, all of a sudden, he quit cursing Christ. His other buddy continued cursing.
And he said, don't you fear God? This one you're cursing is God. Now, how did he know that? Well,
he heard the words of the Lord from the cross, didn't he? He
heard every one of those seven sayings. And faith cometh by
hearing. He was given understanding that
this one on the middle cross is the Son of God. Don't you
fear God, seeing we're in the same condemnation? Now, what
does he mean by that? He said, we're getting exactly
what we deserve. We deserve to be damned, me and you both. We
deserve to be sent to hell. We're getting exactly what we
deserve. You know somebody who says that?
Somebody who sees that he's the son of God. If you ever see who
he is, you're gonna see who you are, not until then. If you ever
see who he is, you're gonna see your own sinfulness, your own
how you deserve to be in hell. You're not gonna have any doubt
about it. Now, as long as you don't see who he is, you're going
to think good thoughts about yourself. You're going to have
a high opinion of yourself. But when you see who he is, that
high opinion of yourself goes down and you see yourself as
deserving to be sent to hell. That's what this man saw. He said, we're receiving the
due reward of our deeds, but this man, This God-man hath done
nothing amiss. He's never sinned. He's never
done anything wrong. He's never committed a sin. How
did he know? We'd only known him for a couple
hours at the most because he knew who he is. If you know who
he is, you know he's never sinned. He's the son of God. He's incapable
of sin. This man hath done nothing amiss. And then he looked at
that man nailed to that cross where his visage was marred more
than the sons of men. And he looked at him and he said,
Lord, he knew he was the Lord of glory. How? Revelation. He knew he was Lord. Listen, that's not an empty title.
That means he's the Lord of creation. He's the one who created the
universe. That means he's the Lord of providence. He was controlling
everything that was taking place at that time. Everybody was only
performing his will because he's the Lord. He's the Lord of salvation. That means your salvation's up
to him. It's not up to you. It's up to him. Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. He said, Lord, Remember me when
you come into your kingdom. You see, he knew the Lord wouldn't
remain on that cross. He knew he wouldn't stay dead
because of who he is. He's the Lord of life. He's the
Lord of glory. He said, you're going to come
back as a mighty reigning king. You're incapable of failure. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Do you believe that if all the
Lord does is say, He's one of mine, I live for Him, I die for
Him, He's one of mine, will anything else need to be said? No. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. And then the Lord gave that man
more assurance than he's given anybody. Today, thou shalt be
with me in paradise. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, just like a thief did. And here comes the next part
of saving faith. He says, I'm persuaded that he
is able to keep that which I've committed to him against that
day. You see, if you know who he is, you'll believe he's able
to save you with no help from you. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down. at the right hand of the majesty
on high. You believe that he is able. And here's the last part of saving
faith. First, you know who he is. I know whom I believe. And
you're persuaded in his ability to save you. I'm persuaded he's
able. Jude 24, now unto him that's
able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. You believe
he's able to save you. He says, I know whom I believe
and I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which I have committed
to him. If you know who he is, you are
persuaded. He is able. And here's the final
proof that you really believe who He is and that you're persuaded
He's able. You will commit the salvation
of your soul to Him right now. If you've never done it before,
you'll do it right now. Now what is this thing of committing
the salvation of your soul to Him? If you believe in salvation by
works to any degree, if you believe your salvation is dependent upon
anything you do, that's failure to commit. You commit hands off. I have nothing to do with this.
It must be wholly Him. My only hope of being saved is
when He said it is finished. My salvation was finished. I commit the salvation of my
soul to Him against that day. My only hope of being saved is
that He did it all. And I'm committing that to Him.
I'm not looking to my works. I'm not looking to my experience.
I'm not looking to my past. I'm not looking to anything but
Him and Him alone. Now, in closing, go back to our
text in John chapter nine. Verse 35. Jesus heard that they'd cast
him out, and when he'd found him, he said, dost thou believe
on the Son of God? He answered and said, who is
he, Lord, that I might believe? And Jesus said unto him, thou
hast both seen him, and it's he that talketh with thee. And
he said, Lord, I believe. But don't miss this. And he worshiped him. Now if you believe, if I believe,
here's what I will do. I will worship Him. Now understand this thing of
worship. You only worship a complete, absolute sovereignty. You only
worship if you're in His hand and He can do with you whatever
He's pleased to do. He can save you or He can pass
you by. Whatever He does is right. Only
then, when you see that you have no control in this thing, You
are in His hand. Only then will you worship Him. Everybody who believes worships
Him as the God of glory. Does thou believe on the Son
of God? That can be answered with a yes
or no. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the Lord
Jesus. We believe he is your son. You're the God and father of
our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that because who he
is, there's saving efficacy in his blood. Lord, we believe that
he completely finished the work that you gave him to do. And Lord, we ask in Christ's name that
all of us would be enabled by your grace to say with this man,
I believe. and enable us to fall before
him in spirit and worship. Lord, we give thanks for this
time. We give thanks for this time of a meal together. We pray
that you'd bless this time for a time of fellowship around you,
your gospel. We thank you for the food. We
thank you for who you are. We thank you for the salvation
that's in your son. Bless us for Christ's sake. In
his name we pray. We're going to have a meal.