The Theology of Unbelief | Sermon 10/22/2023

Please turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 12. This is our last sermon in John chapter 12.

We're going to be in verses 37 through 50 today. And the title of this sermon today, church, is

The Theology of Unbelief. The Theology of Unbelief.

So starting in verse 37 of the gospel according to John chapter 12, hear now the words of the

Lord. These things

Isaiah said because he saw his glory and he spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed in him, but because of the

Pharisees, they were not confessing him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.

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

He who sees me sees the one who sent me. I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness.

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

He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him.

The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the

Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as what to say and what to speak.

I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the

Father has told me. Thus ending the reading of God's holy and magnificent word, let's pray as a church body.

God, these are your words. This is the truth that you've handed down to mankind.

God, I ask that you would illuminate the scriptures for your people today. God, these are hard truths.

These are difficult things to understand and to accept.

But God, I find them so crucial to understanding who you are and what your redemption has come to accomplish.

The sure salvation of a people for your own name. And so God, I pray that you would prepare the hearts of your people to receive the message today.

Lord, that they would see you for who you are and your message for what it is. And God, that I would get out of the way.

This wouldn't be a message of man or tradition, but a message simply from your word.

God, please help me to speak with clarity and with truth. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, unbelief can make people do foolish things.

Unbelief can cause someone to not be able to see what's right in front of them.

In Genesis chapter 6, it says, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

It says that God grieved that he made man. But there was one man who he made a preacher,

Noah. And for 120 years from the moment of God's declaration of judgment,

Noah warned the people. However, no one paid heed. They spurned his cautions, and they kept on living in sin.

In Peter's first letter, he said the patience of God kept waiting during the construction of the ark, but no one turned.

Not a single person. They stayed in their unbelief. The world we know drowned.

Every single one of them except for these eight people along with Noah. Think about, think about Egypt as well.

Pharaoh and the Egyptians saw the wonders of God. They, they saw ten plagues.

They knew the Lord had great power, and yet they would not relent. Each warning became one more word stacked upon Pharaoh's just condemnation.

Unbelief and hatred of God blinded him from turning. And this is nothing new for even the people of God.

In Israel's history, from the time of judges to the prophets, the people were continually and continually warned, and despite seeing the wonders of God, the miracles of God, power and provision of God, they would turn to idols.

They would, they would turn to things made of stone and wood, things that were powerless to aid them.

They would not heed the caution of God's messengers. Therefore, exile and captivity came upon them.

Those who returned to Jerusalem after 70 years of that judgment, they came back, and they rebuilt the temple, and they rebuilt the city, and they swore they would never go against the living

God again. They would stay faithful, but unbelief is not just a sickness that comes and passes.

It's a, it's a plague. It's a contagion. It's really the nature of mankind, unbelief.

And the New Covenant promised a Messiah and the Spirit that would change the hearts of people, hearts that are continually bent on unbelief, and that in receiving the

Spirit, obedience and faithfulness of the people would finally stick.

It would finally last, faithfulness. Lasting belief was the promise.

You see, we're not looking at 4 ,000 years before Christ, where there was so much belief and so much unbelief, and they were clashing.

No, the Bible demonstrates great unbelief, marked that of humanity from the beginning until the time of Christ.

Jesus came because of unbelief. He came because belief was constantly waning.

However, as we have found, even Israel wasn't ready for her day of visitation.

We're gonna see that in our passage today. Let's think about where we've come from in chapter 12.

This all started back with Jesus's arrival into the city of Zion, into Jerusalem, right before his death.

The famous triumphal entry took place. The King came in. We talked about that it's possible that a million or more people could have been in attendance, and many of them received

Jesus with shouts of what? Hosanna! Hosanna! We discuss that that means,

O Lord, save us. O Lord, we pray, save us. They called

Jesus their King. The Apostles were probably like, this is finally working out, right?

Things are going good now. After things settled down a bit,

Greeks came looking for Jesus, which was the trigger pulled to indicate that his hour had come.

Judgment has come to the world, he said. The ruler of the world is to be cast out.

Things are progressing. There's no getting off the ride now. And though Jesus was greatly troubled in his spirit, he prayed to the

Father, Father, glorify yourself. And the Father spoke audibly from heaven. It sounded like thunder to everyone else.

And he said, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. The people questioned

Jesus's statements on being lifted up. What do you mean the Son of Man is going to be lifted up, exalted?

And he finished by exhorting them to believe in him now, right now.

Turn to the light, walk in the light before he leaves and darkness comes.

Become sons and daughters of light. That's how we ended last week. So John tells us, however, the spiritual assessment of the ones who greeted

Jesus at his triumphal entry. People who had by now seen many great things, many incredible things that Jesus had done.

This is their spiritual assessment. They even saw Lazarus walking around who was once dead.

John reports in verse 37. But though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him.

Three years of signs and miracles and authority and teachings from God, they were not believing.

Now we've seen shallow faith based on signs, but this unbelief is something far more dangerous.

Inferior belief based on signs was shown in chapter 2 after the temple cleansing.

If you remember, John said, now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name.

Observing his signs, which he was doing, but Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men, and because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man.

We talked about that that word in the Greek, entrusting himself to them, means that Jesus did not believe their belief.

Jesus did not believe their belief. He knew all men.

He knows the reality of the soul of man. It's not prone to believe.

And so many believed on the basis of signs and wonders, but not on the basis of the actual

Messiah. Signed belief is shallow. It's shallow.

You know, you ever met people like that? They have more belief in the miracles they've said they've seen in their life than in the actual miracle maker.

So you got to see all the things that have happened to me, and they don't point you back to God, they point you to the miracle.

One's belief must be in the sign maker, not the sign. Then in John 4,

Jesus came to Cana of Galilee, and the royal officials, a son was sick, and with a single word from cities away, miles away,

Jesus healed his son. He said, your son lives, and the royal official believed

Jesus on the basis of his word. Which was different than the

Galileans in the north, who gave Jesus this really lame welcome, not as the

Messiah, but as some sort of miracle worker. Yeah, come fix our affirmaties. Be what we need, and then when we don't need you, we'll send you away.

He said at that moment, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown. In John 6, the

Lord Jesus was on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and it says that a large crowd followed him because they saw the signs, which he was performing on those who were sick.

And he revealed that the people followed simply because of his signs, and the bread and the fish that he multiplied to the 5 ,000.

He said, you're just coming for food. They didn't actually want the bread of life.

They didn't want the bread of heaven. He said in that moment, I am the bread of life. Eat my flesh and drink my blood is what he said, and that confused a lot of people.

He is the true bread from heaven, and every single person at that moment, every single person that said they were a disciple, every single person that believed, every single person that followed him through the desert, left him at that moment, except for the twelve apostles.

Every single one of them. Except for the twelve. This has been the hallmark of the earthly ministry of the

Christ, and as I said in my introduction, this is nothing new.

After God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt, and parted the

Red Sea, and they walked on dry ground, and after splitting the rock open for water, and raining bread from heaven, they quickly grumbled, and they lacked faith.

In fact, listen to this. Deuteronomy 29, 2 through 4 says, and Moses summoned all

Israel. Summoned them all together and said to them, You have seen all that the

Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all the land.

The great trials your eyes have seen. Those great signs and wonders your eyes have seen.

He says, yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

To this day, even though you've seen all this, the Lord, he said, the

Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

Moses resolved that the Lord had simply not given the people a heart to believe, and it's astounding.

One could see the miracles of God, but still not believe in the God who performed it. And I imagine that that sort of thing happens all the time today.

I imagine that even doctors and surgeons in emergency rooms and hospitals probably see

God perform miracles often, and yet they write it off like it's scientific, or there's got to be some sort of explanation, and they don't get it, and they continue to not believe.

It's absurdity. They see it often. Miracles and signs are kind of like shadows in a sense.

See my shadow back here. You can see a shadow, right? You can see the shape and outline of the one who, who's the shadow belongs to, but in the end a shadow can shift with the light.

It can change. You can't grab a shadow. We need the substance. We need the real thing.

We need to have faith in Jesus, and not just in the miracles he performed. But this is the wild aspect about belief and unbelief.

These people could see, as I said, Jesus fulfill prophecy, heal people, raise a man from the grave, speak with authority, teach in a way that no man has ever taught, even speak to heaven and receive an audible answer, but still not believe.

But still not believe. You know, I've heard people say, look, people are generally good.

If they just saw what heaven was like, if they just saw what God could do for them, they would turn, and this is showing otherwise.

The people for multiple millennia have seen God do great things, and yet they turn from him. Unbelief is insanity.

It's insanity. It sees truth, and yet wants falsehood.

This, to me, demonstrates the irresistibility of grace. When the Spirit regenerates, when the

Spirit of God comes and saves a person and pours out his spirit into someone, it's irresistible.

They come to him. There's no other way around it. All who are given to the Son by the

Father come to him, and he will draw all of them to himself, and he will cast none of them out.

Right? This also demonstrates the irresistibility of sin. That even when faced with life, even faced with the promises of eternal life, even seeing a man come out of a grave alive, you could go, no,

I don't really believe it. And the only way to make sense of it all, I believe the

Bible shows, is God's sovereignty and election over salvation, and that's exactly what John's going to argue in these next verses.

He says that this, the unbelief of men and women, despite many signs performed by the

Messiah, fulfills prophecy. It fulfills prophecy. Verse 38, This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke,

Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Now, if you don't know, that quote comes from the infamous passage in Isaiah 53.

What's Isaiah 53 about? Suffering servant, about Christ.

And so at the end of Isaiah 52, it's also talking about this servant of God, that he's going to be high and lifted up.

And what did Jesus just say in our last verses in the previous week?

He said he's going to be lifted up. And then it goes on in Isaiah 53, that the people reject him, this servant of the

Lord, and then he's crucified. Honestly, John syncs these things in Isaiah 52 and 53 perfectly with his gospel.

The question of, who has believed our report? Who has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

This is right in line with what happened with Jesus. The servant, high and lifted up, the promise, the question of belief or unbelief, and then crucifixion.

Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Now, what is the arm of the Lord? What does that mean? In other parts of the

Bible, the arm of the Lord is his power, and works, and wonders. But what's interesting is, after Isaiah chapter 40, for the rest of Isaiah, the arm of the

Lord is personified. The arm of the Lord becomes then synonymous with the servant of God, the suffering servant.

And who is the servant? Again, he is Jesus Christ. And so the arm of the Lord was to bring about a restoration for the people that they could not initiate themselves.

Isaiah chapter 40 verse 10. You can look in your printout or look in your Bible. Look at this, Isaiah 40 verse 10, behold the

Lord God will come with might. Look at this, with his arm ruling for him.

His arm is going to rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him like a shepherd.

He will tend his flock in his arm. He will gather the lambs. Who's going to gather the lambs?

Jesus Christ. But the arm is gathering the lambs here, carrying them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

Then look, Isaiah 51 verse 5 in your printout. My righteousness is near.

My salvation has gone forth, and my arm will judge the people's. What did the father say?

The father said he's given the the role of judgment to the Son in John chapter 5. My arm will judge the people's.

The coastlands will wait for me, and for my arm, they will wait expectantly.

And so the arm of the Lord came. He showed the power of the Lord through his signs and wonders, and Jesus gave the report of the

Lord. He gave the good news of the kingdom. But he says, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed? I want to argue that though they received the message from the arm, and the people saw the arm of the

Lord, and they saw that all the wonders and works that the arm performed, he wasn't truly revealed to them.

That's the question. To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Because why don't they believe our report?

Those who believe receive something they did not have prior. These are the ones who don't simply see signs.

Because John's whole point has been that unbelief mixed with signs produces shallow, plant -dying -in -the -sun sort of faith.

Those who believe are the ones who can see the power not just as plain power, but as the arm of the

Lord, the Messiah, the Christ. Paul quotes from this exact passage.

This exact question is covered in Romans chapter 10. And honestly, if you want to learn more about the topic of unbelief,

I encourage you to read Romans 9 through 11. Also, Romans 1 through 3 covers a lot of unbelief and sin, but Romans 9 through 11 covers largely the unbelief of Israel.

Why did they reject their Messiah when he came? Romans 9 through 11, check it out later. And Paul agrees that not all who receive the good news believe, and then he quotes from Isaiah 65 when the

Lord says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me.

The ones who we would have expected were waiting for the Messiah, that is, the

Jews here in Jerusalem at the triumphal entry, the ones who were seeking him did not find him. He wasn't made manifest to them as it says.

And John continues to explain why. He says in verse 39, for this reason they could not believe.

They could not believe. And they couldn't believe not because they didn't want to.

They couldn't believe not because they understood the truth, but simply rejected it. John shows us it is again a fulfillment of prophecy from Isaiah.

The divine activity of God and a person's faith or lack thereof are directly correlated.

That's the theology of unbelief, is that apart from the intervention of a righteous and merciful

God, we would stay in unbelief. That's the point that's going to be made throughout this whole section.

And John doesn't see a problem with that. God is sovereign and men are responsible.

They're culpable. In fact, God's sovereignty is never in opposition to men's responsibility in the scripture, not once.

Only we, especially us Westerners, have a problem with that. In the

Bible, it continues to show that God is the one who is sovereign and in control over even belief and faith, and yet none of the writers take issue with that.

None of the Old and New Testament writers find a problem, not one bit. The regeneration, the born -again status

Jesus spoke about in John 3 to Nicodemus, which is the promise of the New Covenant as mentioned in Old Testament prophecy, is the thing the majority of Jews refused.

Not only did they in their own will refuse it, but it was refused to be given to them by God.

That's what it says. For this reason they could not believe. As Isaiah said again, now look, verse 40,

He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their hearts so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart and be converted and I heal them.

This is hard stuff. This is heavy stuff. Like I said, I only want to give you what the

Word says. This comes, this section in particular, comes from Isaiah 6 and the

Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us insight on something magnificent here.

Let me go into something real quick before we continue on in unbelief. Verse 41 of chapter 12, and John says,

These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory and he spoke of Him. His glory.

Isaiah saw His glory. Isaiah spoke of Him. Who is that?

Who is the Him? Who is the His? Who did Isaiah see?

Well, in John chapter 12, thus far, every time a pronoun of Jesus has been stated, like in verse 37, it said,

He has performed many signs that He, in the Greek, is in the third person, genitive, singular, masculine pronoun, and so are these these pronouns in verse 41.

They are identical. And you're like, what does that mean? What does that mean?

That the pronoun in verse 37, that was about Jesus, and then it's used exactly the same way in verse 41 here.

What does that mean, Pastor Wade? Go to Isaiah chapter 6. This is how we're gonna know.

It's either in your printout or go in your Bible. Isaiah chapter 6. Let's read verses 1 through 7 first.

It says, In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.

Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings. With two, He covered His face, and with two,

He covered His feet, and with two, He flew. And one called out to another and said,

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory, and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of Him who called out.

While the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the

King. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.

He touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.

And so here we have a vision of Isaiah, and he sees the Lord. He sees this amazing vision, this majesty, this glory, this holiness, this shining

God on this throne, and he says, My eyes have seen the

King. He's ruined by it. He recognizes the holiness of the one on the throne.

And what's interesting is in the Hebrew, this word that says Lord is specifically

Adonai, which is another name for God. Adonai is on a throne.

He's lofty and exalted with the train of His rope filling the temple. Seraphim angels are around the one on the throne.

This is an amazing sight. They continue to call out the praise of the one on the throne. Holy, holy, holy is the

Lord of hosts. That is Yahweh of hosts recognizing His holiness.

And he says, I've seen King Yahweh. I've seen the King. I've seen the

Lord. And so the Bible, why is this significant? The Bible from front to back, cover to cover, says in multiple scriptural verses that no one has ever seen the

Father, that He is spirit. No one's ever seen God. Only the

Son. The Son says He's seen the Father, but no one else, as John 1 said.

And so who is this on the throne, lofty and exalted? Who is the one that Isaiah spoke of and saw

His glory? Who is the one whose robe is filling the heavenly temple, the one who's receiving worship from angels?

This, according to John, with those pronouns, is the pre -incarnate

Jesus Christ. This is Jesus in Isaiah chapter 6. This is the

Son of God in all His holiness and all His glory before He came to earth. This is the power and grandeur and majesty the

Son of God possessed prior to humbling Himself and taking on flesh.

You remember in John chapter 8, Jesus said, Abraham got to see my day, and he was glad.

And here we even see that Isaiah got to see Jesus, and he was glad.

And you think about that. This one on the throne, this pre -incarnate Christ, coal is put on His lips, and He says, your lips are clean, your iniquity is forgiven, and your sins are no more.

That is a foretaste of what Jesus would do when He came off that throne. That's what's amazing.

Jesus would come off that throne to give that cleansing for many people.

So, if we wanted to, honestly, there could be a whole another sermon about this section in Isaiah 6 and John 12, but I want us to stay in the vein of our passage today.

It's on unbelief. And so, of course, you know, by the way, this even speaks to the deity of Christ.

If anyone says Jesus is not God, well, John says here that Jesus is

Yahweh of hosts. He is the Lord of hosts. He gives the only name that belongs to the one true

God to Jesus. His eyes have seen the King. So, by the way, if anyone ever says Jesus isn't

God, go to John 12 and point them back to Isaiah 6. But, aside from that, this is about the unbelief of the people who have witnessed the miracles of the

Messiah. So now let's read Isaiah 6, 8 through 10. Go to the next verse.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?

Jesus says that. Then I said, here I am, send me. He said, go and tell this people, keep on listening, but do not perceive.

Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of the people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim.

Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.

The prophet Isaiah did indeed go to the people with this message. He went to the people with this message, but in an ultimate sense.

And what's amazing is, Jesus told Isaiah to speak this to the people, and 700 years later, after speaking this in the heavenly vision,

Jesus would then fulfill this right now in John. And look, how

John changed the tenses. It's past tense now in John chapter 12, as if it's happened, or it's happening.

John 12 verse 40. He has blinded their eyes. He has hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them.

Israel didn't learn after the Assyrian exile and the Babylonian captivity. The Jews are once again following God's after their own making.

This time themselves. They trust in their works. They trust in men.

They trust in Rome, and they reject the Messiah. I mean, it really is astounding.

Jesus said these words 700 years prior to Isaiah in a vision, and now they are ultimately fulfilled and carried out in his own person.

And so this is judgment language. God has blinded the eyes of the people witnessing

Jesus's signs. While they may see the miracles physically, they don't really see with their eyes.

God has hardened their hearts. In the Hebrew, it says that their hearts have become insensitive.

That means that their hearts have become fat, which means heavy and essentially unresponsive.

And this isn't happening because they were righteous or faithful and wanted the Messiah. They already did not truly seek

God, and God is judging them for their unbelief. They possessed that unbelief previously, even prior to this moment, and so God is giving them sustained unbelief.

He's letting them over. Carson says God's judicial hardening is not presented as the capricious manipulation of an arbitrary ruler that's cursing morally, morally neutral or even morally pure beings, but as a holy condemnation of a guilty people who are condemned to do and be what they themselves have chosen.

This is what they've chosen. And if we have temptation to say that God is unjust, then we need look no further than the coming of his

Son. The mere fact that Jesus is on earth means that God is gracious, even though he is just.

Paul speaks to this unbelief of the Jews, like I said in Romans chapter 9. You can go there in your printout or in your

Bible, Romans 9, starting in verse 14. What shall we say then?

There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be.

For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom

I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man. It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God.

It's on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very reason

I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.

And so Paul continues, so then God has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

You will say to me then, why does God still find fault? For who can resist this will of his?

On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this, will it?

Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

You see, we continue to elevate ourselves to the potter. We continue to elevate ourselves to the molder.

But we're simply that which is molded. We're simply that which is clay, and he has all the rights, and he's the one who wills.

And it continues, look. What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he also called not from among Jews only, but from among the

Gentiles. What if God was willing to make his power known? This is about God's glory.

And he has the right to make it about his glory. And he's prepared vessels of wrath ready for destruction beforehand.

He's willed it. You say, give me all the answers, Wade. I don't know all the answers.

I'm telling you what scripture says. This is what it says. And he did so that we would look at his vessels of mercy.

And you know what? I think all the time we're kind of looking at these verses, and we're looking at these God hardened their hearts, and God did this, and God judged them.

And we're looking at it as if they don't deserve it, as if we don't deserve that. We do deserve that.

We're supposed to look at the fact that he even prepared vessels of mercy for his glory and look at that and be in awe and be in wonder.

Oh God, it's not fair that you would give this to me. Oh God, it's not fair that you would actually save anyone.

We all should be vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, but you saved us. You poured out your grace on us.

And that's what Paul says, so that we would see this. And all the time we're focusing on the fact that there are those who are prepared for destruction, but he said look at the fact and marvel that any were prepared for glory, that any were prepared for mercy.

That's the wonder. That's what should cause us to honestly fall to our knees in thankfulness and gratitude.

This shows that there is no fault in God. There's no fault in God, Paul says.

Who finds fault? No one, he says. No one. Now, besides John quoting this

Isaiah 6 passage, Jesus also says this portion from Isaiah 6 in Matthew 13.

He says this exact thing after speaking of the parable of the soils, where the word of the good news is either snatched away or falls on rocky soil or looks promising, but then quickly dies, or this word falls among thorns and gets choked by the cares of the world.

Or it falls on good soil and bears fruit. That's Matthew 13. It says and then the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to the people in parables?

And Jesus answered them, to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.

And then he quotes from this Isaiah passage and says that the people will not see, and they will not hear, and they will not understand.

He won't grant them understanding and faith and belief. The Bible makes it clear.

These are granted. They are given. To you it's been granted. To you it's been given, not to them.

Paul also quotes from this Isaiah 6 passage in Acts 28. It says in Acts 28 that he's been giving out the gospel of the kingdom to people during his imprisonment, and it says that some were persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe.

Unbelief is the prevailing theme in the commission that was given to Isaiah 700 years prior by the incarnate

Christ. Every time this passage is quoted, seeing but not seeing, hearing but not hearing, it's all about unbelief.

Look what John says. Among the Jewish rulers are there any who believe in him?

Verses 42 and 43. Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in him, but because of the

Pharisees they were not confessing him for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.

Jesus talks about this a lot. The cost of discipleship, the cost to follow him, what you can lose in this world when you gain eternal life.

For some it's very difficult to give up what they have in the life of this world.

These men don't want to be kicked out of the synagogue. They don't want to lose their status.

They don't want to lose their influence. They love the approval of men rather than the approval of God, and the word here in the

Greek for approval is actually doxa. Where we get the word doxology, which means glory.

Glory. They love the glory of men over the glory of God, and John said that on purpose.

Why? Because he said Isaiah saw his glory. So when he's saying this, he's saying that they literally choose the glory of man than the glory of the son of man.

They want the glory of man rather than Jesus Christ. And so they will not see his kingdom.

The people love the glory of humans rather than the glory of God or Christ. They do not love the

Messiah that was sent to them. And if only they could see themselves compared to the glory and holiness of Christ, like Isaiah did when he saw

Jesus on the throne. Maybe then if they saw his holiness, they might turn.

I don't know. It's up to God. This fear of man, this approval of man lays a snare as Proverbs 29 says.

It is literally the noose around their neck. Jesus says, if you don't confess me before men,

I will not confess you before my father who is in heaven. And where the previous verses spoke of the divine actions of God causing unbelief, here we see the actions of men causing their own unbelief.

You see, men can continue to cause their own unbelief, but they cannot on their own cause their belief.

God must intervene. Now, I like to think that these

Jewish leaders who in some capacity believed in some way in the future that they have the

Holy Spirit poured out on them after Pentecost and they eventually confess Christ and forsook the glory of men and truly believe.

That's my hope. And we come to the final climactic scene of Jesus in his public ministry.

Jesus cries out. He shouts to all the people, verses 44 and 45.

He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me.

He who sees me sees the one who sent me. This cry of Jesus is one of mercy and grace.

He continues to call them to faith and repentance, even though they don't believe.

And these statements summarize all that Jesus has ever done in his earthly ministry. It's all about his oneness with and obedience to the

Father. This is still right in line with Isaiah 6, the throne, his glory, his oneness with the

Father. There's only one God and yet he is also Yahweh. Jesus coordinates himself with the

Father. Those who believe in the Son are ultimately believing in the

Father. And when you see the Son, you've seen the Father. Not that Jesus is some sort of copy of the

Father or that the Father has some sort of physical nature, but it's just like what he says in John chapter 1, verse 18.

No one has seen God at any time. The only monogamous theos, the only begotten unique Son of God who's in the bosom of the

Father, he has explained him. He is the greatest physical manifestation of God on earth.

And every religion that says that they follow God, they don't if they don't believe in Jesus Christ.

And that's the reality. If you don't believe in the Son, you don't believe in the

Father. And if you say you believe in the Father, but you don't, you don't believe in the

Son. They go together. The opposite of what

Jesus is saying here is true too. Those who believe in him believe in the Father, but also those who do not believe in him do not believe in the

Father. And he already proclaimed when the Jewish leaders said God is their

Father, he said your Father is not God, your Father is the devil. Verse 6 says,

I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness.

He said this over and over again in this gospel. This is what he's been saying all along.

His coming is what has brought the light. He is the light. He's the light of the world.

And everyone who walks in darkness, walks in darkness apart from him, only belief in him comes with light.

No one is illumined apart from Christ. There is no one enlightened apart from the intervention of God.

That's the whole point of the passage. We were once in darkness, but he, he brought us into light.

Verses 47 and 48. If anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them,

I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him.

The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. Jesus affirms the ultimate objective of his mission.

He came to save the world. He doesn't judge those who don't believe him right now.

If you see, there was times in the old testament where these fissures and cracks and great chasms opened up in the world in the earth, and it would swallow up people who turned against God.

Jesus is like, look, those who are believing, not believing in me now, I don't judge them immediately.

They're not being swallowed up into the earth and going to hell at this very moment. We've talked about how

Jesus coming into the world naturally divides it. Because either you believe or you don't believe, and he said that those who don't believe are judged already.

John chapter 3. As one commentator says, what initiated the sending of the sun was love, not judgment, even if judgment is the inevitable result of their darkness.

And here Jesus is talking about final judgment, final condemnation on the last day.

Jesus says, I don't judge the one who rejects me right now. He confirms that there will be a time when the one who doesn't believe in him or heed his sayings will have one who judges him.

And like the damning evidence in a courtroom trial, so will Jesus's words be in this moment at the last day.

They heard the truth, they heard the warning, and he says, this will be remembered.

Jesus's testimony seals their fate. If anyone has superficial belief and heard his sayings, but doesn't do them, that person shows their superficial belief is actually unbelief.

Says in John 3 verse 36, he who believes in the son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

And that's the reality of what he's saying here and what he will especially impress upon the apostles later in in other chapters, that the believer both hears and keeps the words of Jesus.

James the brother of Jesus says that as well, be not only hearers, but doers of the word.

The Lord then finishes this discourse in verses 49 and 50. He says, for I did not speak on my own initiative, but the father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as what to say and what to speak.

I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the father has told me.

And this is the height of the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 18, when God says,

I will raise up a prophet from among their own countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth.

He shall speak to them, excuse me, all that I commanded him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name,

I myself will require it of him. The father has given the final prophet, his son, a commandment and he has given it to the people.

And those who do not listen to the father's words through the son, he will require it of them.

He will hold them to account for hearing these words from his final prophet, from his son, and not holding to them.

You see, there's a reason that these final words of Jesus are so intense. It's because they are the words of the father.

This was a triune operation. The son does not and cannot act alone from the father and holy spirit.

The mission of Jesus is facilitated by the providential will of the father and that commandment that he's given, the things that the father has told him to speak, those things are eternal life, he says.

His word is eternal life. It is the singular solution to man's greatest plight.

Many Jews saw that life came from Moses' commandments.

Moses' commandments bring life, but here the true and holy commandment given to Jesus is what brings life and salvation by grace, not the law.

And so church, Jesus finishes his public ministry the way that he started, in perfect obedience to the father as the father's greatest representation on earth.

He will also finish his life in the same way. He'll finish his life with perfect obedience to the father.

And so the word made flesh will now be the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The next five chapters leading up to the trial and crucifixion of Jesus in John 18 and 19 will contain the details of what

Jesus intimately taught his disciples. I'm excited for that.

This today marks the end in John of Jesus' public ministry to people and we'll spend the next five chapters looking at what he tells his apostles.

What he tells his disciples and by extension, because we're disciples too, what he means to tell you and I.

I'm excited for that. I find that amazing, honestly.

The Lord will spend his last days on the earth spending them to the men closest to him.

So let's wrap this up church. I want to leave us with a few reminders.

Okay. First, you and I don't know who will have ultimate unbelief.

And even though Jesus knew who believed and who didn't because he knew all men, he still gave this emotional and merciful plea to everyone.

Believing and unbelieving. We ought to follow that example. God has ordained the end, which is the salvation of man by his election.

And he's also ordained the means, gospel proclamation. None of us know the ultimate state of a person, only

God does. So we share the truth. And since God is behind it all, it guarantees our success.

You see, either God has elected a person and they turn or he has not and they don't turn.

And either way the results are on God, not you and I. You didn't fail if you were just faithful.

It's all on God, as Paul said in Romans 9. He gets all the glory with it.

Either way the results are on God. But that also means that since we don't know the ultimate state of a person, the reality is in the

Christian church, there are going to be some who profess Christ with their lips, but will later fall away.

They will turn away. This has happened even among the

Gentile, I'm sorry, among the apostles. Sorry. Demas loved the present world and left

Christ. Alexander and Hymenaeus suffered shipwreck of the faith, and it says that Paul handed them over to Satan in their unbelief.

And there are these warnings all throughout the book of Hebrews at a time when Jewish Christians were considering going back to Judaism, because of the persecution and various things that they were enduring.

I think as pastor James White preaches, that Paul was preaching a message here and Luke was recording it, and Paul preaches there's nothing to go back to.

It's all falling apart. It's all fading away. It'll all be gone very soon.

There's nothing to go back to. He says in Hebrews chapter 3, Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living

God. An unbelieving heart that falls away from God, but encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, for we have become partakers of Christ.

Therefore, hold fast the beginning of your assurance firmly until the end. Don't go into unbelief.

Encourage one another day by day. When you feel like you're doubting, get before your pastor, get before your friends, hear the saints.

Get before the Word of God to remind you, stay firm in the faith.

Stand fast. Honestly, it's like a formula. I've seen it throughout my life now as a

Christian. Falling away begins with a neglect of your relationship with God.

Maybe a neglecting of the Word of God. Then a purposeful neglect of assembling on the

Lord's day. Then neglecting to serve others. And as the

Proverbs 18 says, he who secludes himself seeks his own desires. A secluding, a neglecting to be with others and serving others.

Then a neglect of the accountability of others. The accountability of personal sins.

Then compromise with sin over and over again, compromising, and then a pursuit of it.

And apostasy typically ends with someone justifying all the things that I just said.

This is why I do all of that. This is why I did that. The church has done this to me. People have done that to me.

God hasn't taken care of me. Justifying. This is why I'm gone. No, those aren't the true reasons why you're gone.

John defines this apostasy in his first letter. First John chapter 2 verse 19.

He says, they went out from us to show that they were not really of us.

But if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it would be shown that they are not really of us.

And so we all have to guard ourselves from these things. I exhort you to stand firm until the end.

Hold fast the confession of your faith that Jesus wrought in you from the beginning.

Don't forget your first love. I also encourage you today to not let this topic of unbelief weigh you down.

God has saved you. God has done something marvelous in you. And because God is sovereign over salvation, that means when you do believe,

He won't lose you. That's the amazing part of it. Since God is sovereign over salvation, it's not up to you.

It's a gift of God. And Jesus says, I will lose none whom the

Father give to me. Lose not one. He says, I will let none of the sheep God has given me perish.

None of them will be snatched out of my hand. So remember that.

If God isn't sovereign over salvation, we can't shout those things. We can't praise

God for those things. We have to then tremble every day. When will I fall away?

And when will I come back? And when will I fall away? And when will I come back? No. We may have times where there's little fruit in our lives.

There may be times where you struggle. But if this is God's work, which salvation is a work of God and not a work of man, then

He and that work will last in you. That's a promise. So remember those things.

God has given you eyes to see. He's given you ears to hear. He's changed your heart.

He's brought you from spiritual death into spiritual life. No longer slaves to sin, but slaves to Christ.

And so may gratitude and thankfulness to God flood your hearts in this moment.

Hold fast to the anchor of your soul, Jesus Christ. He is our only hope in this life and the one to come.

And so what incredible love He has for you, church. He let you and I in on an inheritance that we didn't deserve.

The Son gave His life in exchange for yours. The Son took your hell and gifted you

His heaven. And so knowing the theology of unbelief,

I charge you to pray that God would grant more belief during this time of His patience.

Because don't get that wrong. While we wait for Christ to return, we're in a time of patience.

It's amazing. God is waiting. And He will send His Son.

And He will judge the living and the dead, as He says. But during this time, may

He grant many more with belief. May the Lord bring many more to faith and repentance before that return.

And may He preserve us and cause us to persevere to the end.

Let's pray. Lord, thank You for Your Word. God, these are hard truths.

We struggle with these things in our minds. But God, I pray that You would impress upon Your people the holiness and majesty and power that You possess,

God. I pray that even now, we would be able to look in our minds as if Isaiah, when he was looking upon the one on the throne.

God, we're often bringing You down. We're making You smaller than You are. And we're making ourselves bigger than we are.

But who are we, oh man? Who are we but those that which are molded?

We came from the dust. Will people from the dust tell the God, the living

God, what to do? Lord, humble us.

Help us, God. To see that this was the greatest act of intervention, divine intervention, the world has ever seen.

Apart from You, Lord, we would be dead in our trespasses and sins. And that's the reality,

Lord. Cause us to remember that every single day. And help us to look and marvel more at the grace of Jesus Christ rather than the wrath.

That will be spent. For we know we all deserve that wrath. Lord, we praise