Unbelief

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Hymn — Come, Let Us Sing unto the Lord
• Call to Worship — Isaiah 40:27-31
• Hymn — Come, Let Us Sing unto the Lord
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Philippians 2:6-11
• Scripture Reading — Joshua 1:1-18
• Hymn — How Firm a Foundation
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me
• Sermon
• Prayer
• Hymn — I Surrender All
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: Unbelief

Scripture: John 12:37-50

I. Unbelief Stems from God's Judgment

A. Though Jesus performed many signs, the crowd still did not believe — John 12:37

B. John applies two passages from Isaiah to explain this unbelief

1. Isaiah 53:1 — "Who has believed what he heard from us?" — John 12:38
2. Isaiah 6:10 — God blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts — John 12:39-40

C. This is a judicial hardening — God's judgment confirming obstinate, willful rejection

1. Pharaoh hardened his own heart repeatedly before God hardened it in judgment
2. Israel in Isaiah's day repeatedly rejected the Lord before being confirmed in hardness
3. Romans 1 pattern: man refuses to honor God, therefore God gives them over — Romans 1:24, Romans 1:26
4. God hardens whom he wills and has mercy on whom he wills — Romans 9:18

D. Jesus's response to hardened unbelief: he cries out the gospel — John 12:44

1. Warning: do not test God's patience to the point of no return (cf. the man in the iron cage in Pilgrim's Progress)
2. Comfort: the power of God unto salvation remains open to all who still have ears to hear

II. Unbelief Stems from Lack of Godly Fear

A. Many authorities believed in Jesus but would not confess it for fear of the Pharisees — John 12:42-43

1. Nicodemus (John 3) and Joseph of Arimathea are the two named examples
2. Their faith may have grown bold after the resurrection (cf. Thomas Cranmer's recantation of his recantation)

B. This is a man-fearing faith rather than a God-fearing faith — indicted by John as deficient

C. The root cause: they loved the glory (kavod — weightiness, worth) that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God — John 12:43

D. Application: Christians today face the same pressure — culture demands faith be kept behind closed doors

1. When we make God look more like man, our proclamation shrinks to the size of man's glory
2. Remedy: contemplate the measureless majesty of God versus the measly glory of man, and open our lips

III. Unbelief Stems from Rejection of God's Word

A. Jesus's final public words center on the truth that his words are the Father's words — John 12:44-50

B. The Father's commandment to the Son is eternal life — John 12:50

1. For the Jewish audience, the path to eternal life was found in the Torah — the word of God
2. Jesus, introduced in John's prologue as the Word of God incarnate, is himself that path

C. Isaiah saw Christ's glory and spoke of him — John 12:41

1. Isaiah 6 was both a commission to speak to Israel in Isaiah's day and a prophecy of Israel's rejection of the Messiah
2. The suffering servant of Isaiah 53:1 and the hardening of Isaiah 6:10 both point forward to Christ

D. To reject any portion of Scripture is to reject the Son — the Word of God is the Son of God

1. Abraham believed the word and therefore had Christ — John 8:56
2. Old Covenant saints are saved the same way as New Covenant saints: by believing in the Word, Jesus Christ
3. Spurgeon: "Never was man blamed in heaven for preaching Christ too much"

E. Call to response: turn from sin, look to Christ, and live — he is the whole counsel of God, the yes and amen to every promise