WWUTT 923 They Still Did Not Believe?

The Jews had just heard the voice of God speaking from heaven, and they didn't understand it.

Because their hearts were hard, their hearts had been hardened and they could not believe.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come once again to John chapter 12, starting in the middle part of verse 36.

And I'll read through to the end of the chapter. The Apostle John wrote, When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.

Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the words spoken by the prophet

Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he 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. For they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

And Jesus cried out and said, Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

And whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

For I have not spoken of my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak.

And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore,

I say as the Father has told me. So it's the middle part of verse 36 that we finished up yesterday.

It says where Jesus was speaking, while you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light.

And when Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them, though he had done many signs before them.

They still did not believe in him. What was the last sign that we had considered yesterday?

It wasn't a sign necessarily that Jesus himself did, but the Father did in the presence of all the

Jews who were there leading up to the Passover feast. So Jerusalem is full at this particular time.

And as Jesus was speaking and teaching to the people, there was a voice that thundered from heaven and said,

I have glorified it. The father referring to his own name, because Jesus had said,

Father, glorify your name. And God said, I have glorified it and I will glorify it again.

And the people, how did they react to that? Some of them said, well, that was just thunder. They heard words, but they dismissed it as some sort of natural occurrence instead of the father actually speaking from heaven.

Now, imagine this was a bunch of people who claim to believe in God. These were all monotheists who believe that God was in heaven looking down upon them and his favor was on them.

This is that group of people, the nation that was called out from Egypt, whom God had revealed himself to spoke to them from Mount Sinai.

He went before them in a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night.

The pillar came down and descended upon the tabernacle and God dwelled there with his people encamped around the tabernacle while they were in the wilderness.

He sent the people into the promised land, giving to them that which he had promised when

Solomon had built the temple unto the Lord. God's presence came into it again with fire from heaven.

They had seen fire called down from heaven from Elijah and many other miraculous things that he did.

And then Elisha following him. And then you have Jesus performing all these great signs and wonders, so much so that there are people asking if this man is the prophet that is to come, because otherwise, how would he be able to do the miraculous things that he does?

And these were the murmurings among the people. Even Nicodemus said to Jesus, we know that you have to be a man come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

And yet, despite all of this, these people who believe in the one true God who had the law and the prophets, yet they did not even understand when the voice of God himself spoke from heaven.

They denied it. They rejected it. They tried to find a natural explanation instead of rejoicing to know that God is speaking to us and he has even come to us again in the

God man, Jesus Christ, who is right here in our midst. And he has confirmed that he is the promised

Messiah, the son of man. Who is this son of man? As they even ask Jesus here in verse thirty four.

Here he is right among them and he has confirmed himself. He is affirmed that he is sent from the father through all the signs and wonders that he has done.

But the people yet do not believe it. I remember when

I was much younger and much more foolish than I am now. When I thought, hey, if I could just go into Bible times, if I could just even go to the days of Christ and be one of his disciples and follow him around and see all the miraculous things that he did, then

I would believe it would be so much easier for me to believe if I could just see these miracles with my own eyes.

I even wrestled with this for a couple of years from about the age of 18 and 19.

And I really would pray and ask God, can you show me a sign? I mean, a burning bush, water turned to wine, something.

Can I see some kind of miracle like the miracles that we read about in the Bible? You know, interestingly enough, my brother went through the same exact same thing at about the exact same age.

I think it was about 17 or 18 years old. Might have might have been around 18 or 19. He asked God the same questions that I did.

I just wouldn't find out about it until a couple of years later. It sounded like he was praying the same prayers that I prayed when

I was 18, asking God for some sort of sign or miracle. But what what happened with me is

I realized that the scripture gives me everything. So I don't need a sign of God from heaven.

It has already been done by Christ, affirmed by the apostles who saw it and written down in the

Bible, which Peter refers to in second Peter, chapter one as the prophetic word more fully confirmed.

This is more confirmed than what it was that the apostles saw with their own eyes. See, they saw it and they didn't even understand it after Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

They didn't get that either. They were totally puzzled by that. And it wasn't until right before Jesus ascended into heaven, according to what we read in Luke 24, that Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

And then they were able to put all of these things together because the Holy Spirit, because God revealed it to them, even as we've read here in John, the disciples didn't understand these things when they saw him or when they saw them happen.

But then they remembered them later. Even John has written about that here. So this is what the

Lord showed to me when I was in that period of wrestling in my life, of wanting to see a miracle. And then it would be easier for me to believe.

But then coming to realize because I had asked God to show me and he did, he gave me his spirit, that I may honor him rightly through his word, through his written word.

As Jesus says in this little sermonette that we have at the end of chapter 12, he says, if anyone hears my words and does not keep them,

I do not judge him. But that person does have a judge. And it's going to be the word that I have spoken that will judge him on the last day.

And Christ, the one who has spoken this word, he is the ultimate judge at the very end.

See, he comes the first time his first advent, which is what we're reading about here, the earthly ministry of Christ.

He came the first time to save the world. He's going to come the second time to judge the world. His second coming will be in judgment.

Salvation the first time. So we have this time now to preach the gospel, to hear it, to repent and to believe the next time

Christ comes, it will be as a judge. And so God revealed this word to me.

It opened my eyes to read it and understand it because of the

Holy Spirit that is within me. So, again, that was that was kind of the wrestling that I went through at about the age of 18 or 19.

Like I said, my brother went through that same period, about the same age, but the result for him was different because his motivation was wrong.

See, I wanted to see the Lord and I wanted to know God. But my brother was demanding of God that he meet my brother on his terms, not that he would come to know

God on God's terms. And so he would make demands like, show me a miracle. And if you love me, you'll show me one.

If you actually care about me, then you're going to reveal yourself to me by showing me some sort of a sign or a wonder.

And then when he didn't see that sign or wonder, he said either God doesn't exist or he doesn't care about me.

Now, he lived in a lot of sinfulness, so when it came down to it, he just was in love with his own passions, and so he was looking for an excuse to be able to do those things and not feel guilty about it.

And so he is what is said of those in Romans 1, 18, he suppresses the truth with unrighteousness.

And I still pray for my siblings. I pray that they would repent and come to believe the gospel.

They've all heard it and I've shared it with all of them. So has my dad raised us on on an understanding of God's word and what the gospel is.

But so many of my siblings have instead chased after the passions of their flesh and the things of this world rather than loving

God and coming to understand his word. Their eyes have been blinded.

Their hearts are hard. And it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that they will be broken of these things that they are so clinging tightly to and will destroy them in the very end if they don't turn from their sin and worship

Christ. It is because of what I observe happening in family members with the same blood coursing through their veins, and I long to have them turn from sin and worship

Christ. I'm able to empathize with Paul in Romans chapter nine when he speaks of his own kinsmen in the faith in Romans nine.

He says, I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the

Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.

Now, of course, Paul is speaking about the Israelites. And he goes on to mention that in verse four. And to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises to them belong the patriarchs.

And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God overall blessed forever.

Amen. But these are still those that that share the same kinship as Paul has.

And yet God has shown his glory to Paul and he is hard in the hearts of so many other

Jews. Paul wishes that he could make himself accursed for their sake. He would do it if he could.

And I understand that because I wish that for my siblings also, I would do anything for them if I knew it would mean that they would believe.

But my obligation is to my wife and to my children. I'm certainly not going to sacrifice them for the sake of my own brothers and sisters that we came from the same mother and father.

And my church family is closer to me in relation than my own flesh and blood brothers and sisters, because my church family,

I'm united with in the Holy Spirit of God, in Christ Jesus, and I will spend eternity with them.

But unless my brothers and sisters turn from their sin and worship Christ, I will not see them in glory.

It pains me to say that, but I know who my brothers and sisters really are, and it is those who are in Christ Jesus.

Nevertheless, if if one of my brothers and sisters whom I grew up with were to call me on the phone and say,

Gabe, I'm ready to believe, could you explain this to me? I would be hopping on a plane right away and flying to where they are and and taking however much time

I would need to take to to go through the scriptures with them that they may know, laboring with them, as Paul said in Galatians, until Christ is formed in them.

I would so delight to be able to do that. But it's only going to be a work of the Holy Spirit of God that would open their minds and hearts to understanding the truth of the word.

And here in this particular case, in John, chapter 12, the people are seeing but not believing, though he had done so many signs before them, they still not they still did not believe in him.

Now, we've read about seven major signs over the course of John's gospel, and we're shifting into now

Christ remaining with his disciples in the upper room for the last supper and then being arrested and crucified and risen again.

So that's kind of the next chapter of John, apart from the chapters that we haven't sectioned into.

It's kind of like John is given to us in two parts. We've had the seven signs and wonders that have been given to us in part one.

And now we're entering into part two, which is the ultimate sign of Christ's death and his conquering the grave by rising from death.

John will say at the end of this gospel that Jesus did so many things that even if there were there's not even enough parchment paper on earth to capture all of the things that Jesus has done.

But John signaled out or singled out seven things that through those seven things, we might know that Jesus is the creator himself who had come in human flesh, sent from the father to die for our sins, though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.

So he departed and hid himself from them. That was verse 36. So that the words spoken by the prophet

Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he 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 the eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them.

But this has been done to accomplish what God means to accomplish, and that is the glory of his own name, as we have read here in John 12, with God saying from heaven,

I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again. And ultimately, that is what

God will accomplish even through the death of his son. And his resurrection, it will be the glory of the name of God, even through the hardened hearts of these

Jews, these Israelites, God will be glorified through them. Going back again to Romans chapter nine, verse 19, you will say to me, then why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?

After all, we're reading right here. They could not believe because he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts.

John 12, verses 39 through 40. So then why does God find fault for who can resist his will?

Romans 920. But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called, not from the

Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. Let me repeat that once again, verse 22, what if God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.

So God has destined some vessels for wrath to show his mercy to those vessels that he is predestined for glory.

And so we come to understand this again, that God has hardened the hearts of these Jews so that he might show mercy to vessels of mercy, which is the

Gentiles. And all of this in the context of what we're reading here in John 12, because remember, all of this was set off by some

Greeks who came to Philip and said, we want to see Jesus. And then

Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified for the

Jews, their hearts had been hardened, their eyes had been blinded, less they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and God would heal them.

Isaiah said these things because he saw God's glory and spoke of his glory.

And Isaiah, by the way, is the one who made that reference to the potter and, and the vessels that he had made.

And Paul draws from that same analogy in Romans nine, John 12, 42.

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. And here is a terrifying verse.

I mean, really, this is, this is just a frightening verse, John 12, 43, for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

So they did not confess faith in Christ because they love the glory of man more than they love the glory of God.

May it be never said, may it be never said of you and I that we love the glory of man more than we love the glory of God.

So we would not confess him because we were too afraid of what other people might say.

Plead and ask that God would give you a heart that yearns for Christ, no matter what it costs you.

For as the apostle Paul said in Galatians 1 10, am I here to please man or to please

God? And may our desire be the latter to please God above all else.

You've been listening to when we understand the text of Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a

New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.