Ability

John chapter two beginning in verse 23. This is God's word, eternally true. Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast many people saw the miraculous signs He was doing and believed in his name But Jesus would not entrust himself to them for he knew all men He did not need man's testimony about man for he knew what was in a man Here ends our reading. There's a response of thankfulness printed for you in your bulletin and up here the word of the Lord Thanks indeed, let's pray

You know sometimes you have good intentions and are doing good things But there's not a good response to it Take in point feeding bears. I think bears are pretty cool, which I do think they're pretty cool But if I tried to feed a bear that would probably not end well All right, I put out food and approached the bear with food and put it down right there That is the bear would probably not look at me with a look that said thank you John He made it easy But rather he would probably mow me Even though what I had done for him was was good assuming that I knew what bear food was And gave him the right kind of food there But though what I had done was good he would mow me and return Bears are our brute beasts And the new heavens and new earth perhaps bears will be around and and we'll be able to pet them and and feed them and that kind of thing I don't know But their brute beasts without understanding They don't recognize that what we're doing is for their for their good and that we're not out to harm them or their cubs Or anything like that. We just want to be Left alone or or to see them and watch them with no harm in our our minds What Jesus understands about human beings is very similar and What we see in all of scripture about human beings is very similar to that as well and that brings us to our first point here What God shows us from this text and if you like to fill up blanks in an outline You're welcome to start that now. You can just listen if you want to though. That's fine Fine by me, but God communicates to us here through Jesus response to the people their injuries from who were God's people people in covenant People following the laws of Moses at least externally He says to you today expect persecution in this world Expect persecution And so a there for you who wants you know that persecution is normal Persecution is normal persecution is what you will experience. That's your second blank there in a persecution is normal It's what you'll experience for your faith and so chapter 24 or sorry verse 24 and 25 Jesus would not verse 24 Jesus would not entrust himself to them This is not Romans isn't these are not atheists. These are not people worshiping other gods Jesus is in the temple Celebrating the Passover with other faithful Jews who have come for the Passover Traveling from some of them great distances from all over all over that Middle Eastern world and turkey and and and places like Italy as well and up from the northern coast of Africa E the and their Ethiopia Egypt and and Libya These people Jesus would not entrust himself to them for he knew all men. In other words men are not worthy of his trust

Jesus knew this because he's the word he's god. He was with the father in the beginning. He has No beginning and no end. Jesus is the one who created human beings John 13 And he knows what men are like Because he saw Adam take that first bite And he saw as we talked about in our Confession of our faith That man is corrupt in his nature Which is what we call original sin We're born with a corrupt we're conceived with a corrupt Nature and so so Jesus didn't entrust himself to men for he knew all men And he didn't need somebody to And tell them that like verse 25 says he did not need man's testimony about what men are like For he knew what was in a man is a creator Like you know if you if you bake something you know what's in it because you put it in there And Jesus knew what was what was in men and women boys and girls apart from his spirit And he said that's I'm not entrusting myself to them now part of this is what's going on What John shows in his gospel that Jesus had a time clock going on there was his out And so John you'll see John say you know and Jesus did this because he knew his hour had not get come And that hour was that hour where Jesus would say the things he knew he would need to say to get himself on the cross Which is why he came And so when his hour comes it's okay now we're in motion here boom and all these things happen But but so that's part of what's going on and so Jesus doesn't say certain things He holds back from saying certain things early in his ministry So he can train his disciples and heal people and do various things that he needed to accomplish first Before going to the cross But the point here is that he knew Men are persecutors of those who follow the one true God Even among his covenant people um As Jesus said in Matthew 5 11 and 12 that's referenced for you there Jesus said if you're persecuted for me Rejoice and be glad for so the prophets were persecuted before you The prophets they didn't go to people in the world The prophets went to people in the church The prophets went to people in Israel and the promised land who were following Moses and the prophets God is Jesus Talked to the Pharisees and reminded them of these Old Testament truth truth the prophets got put in pits and killed and And by God's own people It wasn't outsiders Okay, it was if you've been around the church while I was big boxers Um, it was people who were in covenant with God who were not regenerate who did not I've got it did not At God's spirit And so even among those who are religious Let alone those who are outside That the environment of of God's church and God's people expect persecution Because that's what even the prophets Prophets God and so Paul writes this at the end of his life Uh, the second sentence in 312 for those who desire to live God lane Jesus Christ Jesus you will be persecuted That was Paul's life Paul relived Jesus experience on the earth He went into the synagogues and proclaimed Jesus as the Christ meaning the king to them This is the new son of David proving to them from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ He would go in the synagogues and where would what would happen to Paul He had about a three three-week shelf life He could last about three Sabbath days and in the synagogues before his life sometimes were in danger and And those who had become believers in Jesus were hiding him and saying Paul don't leave this place Stay here until night. We'll let you we'll you know lower you down Uh, out you know off the city wall like he was let down in Damascus So now that persecution is is normal um We see this with Jesus persecution was normal for Jesus Persecutions normal for Jesus followers We saw this with Jesus healing the blind man man born blind from birth in John chapter 9 He's he's persecuted What's he done other than get healed and now he's an enemy And when he says, you know, he say who do you think this man is He says, well, surely, you know at least a prophet And they say where do you think he comes from? Well, amazing. You don't know where he's from You don't think God had sent him who's ever heard of a man born blind now seeing And they say we're you're you're one of his disciples word of disciples of Moses persecution um And then Jesus himself raises Lazarus from the dead And what's the response of the Pharisees when they hear when they hear this report that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead on his way into Jerusalem for that final pass over Celebration Prior to his crucifixion What's the response last verse that Bob Redforce they plotted his death Okay, so so as Jesus told us disciples later in in John if they hated me They hate the master They're going to hate the student They're going to hate the masters of servant as well If they persecute me they hate me. They're going to hate you too So be there one be persecution comes because the world hates Jesus And his disciples and so that's what Bob Redforce lastly in John 15 when Jesus is talking to his disciples After the Passover meal before Judas has has led the the temple guard to arrest Jesus and bring him the trial Jesus tells his disciples the world hates me and the world hates you because you belong to me So know that as Christian person Where that's easier for us to understand today as American Senate was for us as Americans to understand 30 years ago But the world hates us You want to get some hatred you want to get canceled Say some things Jesus said and say I believe this up on Facebook See the response you'll get Um, I believe Jesus is the only way and those who don't believe in him will go to hell when they die And they'll go to the lake of fire forever body and soul when he returns Say that on Facebook see see see the love you get There Not that that's the first foot we put forward You know what people know that's Going to happen that's what Paul says in Romans 1 and 2 and so when we when we say that where as Paul says You know where we become the aroma of death We become a reminder of what they know is true And they get infuriated because we've reminded them of something they know is true that they don't like and so We put forward instead that Jesus is God and he'll forgive sins That's the that's the style that's a solution To what they know in their hearts is true Romans 2 everyone knows god exists I owe everything to him and that judgment is coming Um, and so we offer we offer Jesus to people but the world hates Jesus and his disciples Um as John would later say in 1 John 1 and 2 the world hates the light Jesus would say it and right after John 3 16 Is it the world hates the light and when the light comes into the world they they run from it Because they don't want their deeds to be exposed because their deeds are evil. This is John 3 18 and and 19 So persecution comes because the world hates Jesus and his disciples so Expect persecution. Don't be surprised by persecution Know that that's normal. Know that that's normal think about this for John's readers As John writes to Jewish Christians around AD 90 They are being persecuted by Jews who hadn't believed in Jesus So their brothers their sisters their friends growing up maybe their mom and dad had disowned them Um their moms and dads had disowned them and they were being persecuted beginning to be persecuted by the Roman government By the time AD 90 Comes around of another round of Roman persecution Uh, and so John gives the message here from the words of Jesus Jesus understood what was in all men And so should you they have the Roman government's persecuting you of course If Jews who hadn't believed in Jesus are persecuting you Of course Jesus understood it Jesus was persecuted by Jews who didn't believe in him Jesus was persecuted by the Roman government who became complicit complicit with the Jews and put Jesus on a cross did nothing about it though they recognized the injustice of it So next one we expect persecution number two Persecution against Jesus in his disciples is and John wants us to understand this and I think it's a point in all four gospels That persecution is nonsensical Okay nonsensical it's one word um used to be two now we remove hyphens Nonsens non-sensical it doesn't make sense If nonsensical doesn't make sense So a couple of things here three a the miracles were proof that Jesus was king and God The miracles were proof that Jesus was king and God so like we looked at in chapter two Jesus creates All this abundant wine out of water sign that he's king If there's a faithful king in Israel the wine was flowing and that's the Old Testament talked about That the grapes were so abundant that you could tie your donkey to the grapevine and you didn't care How many grapes your donkey ate because that the harvest was so abundant you didn't need all the grapes You had more grapes. Yeah, it's like when you grow cucumbers Right. It's like oh man. I grew like five of these plants. I can't eat all these since they come to church and you give them out. Thank you

But you know that that's so Jesus is doing all these things that prove He's the Christ or the king as John says and that's what John's doing through the miracles right John John 20 verses 31 and 30 and 31 he says here's where I'm writing the gospel He says in John 23 Jesus said many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book But these are written that you may believe That Jesus is the Christ see that connection signs So that you may believe If you see the sign and don't believe that's nonsensical. It doesn't make sense So miracles were proved that Jesus was king And god so verse 23 there you see some believe in Jesus It says now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast first 23 Many people saw the miraculous signs these were signs that John doesn't go into specifically that he doesn't record He just says Jesus did many miraculous signs he was doing and they saw these and believed in his name That's the response We should respect we should expect Jesus does these miraculous signs and people believe we say yeah That makes that makes sense

Verse chapter 4 verse 29 Jesus tells the woman at the well everything she's ever done Not everything she's ever done but he says yeah You've had five husbands in the man you're living west is not your husband And so she goes into her village like car and and she says come You're 429 come see a man who told me everything I ever did and here's her conclusion It's cynical she says could this be the Christ Because he did something miraculous. I've never met him before no one told him about me And he told me exactly how many husbands I had and he told me that I was living with a man who is not my husband And her conclusion is right I think this could be the one we've been looking for um John 731 still many in the crowd put their faith in him They said when the Christ comes will he do more miraculous signs than this man See this is a job reminding us what makes sense Jesus does these miracles and the proper conclusion is No one's ever done this We're looking for one who will be king and will save us from all our our our pains and aches And those kind of things he will rescue us The Christ the king will just like David did just like Solomon did he will put us in a kingdom of blessing When this Christ comes and so they say boy God is certainly with this man Just like God was with David David won every battle he fought God is certainly with Solomon Solomon's gone got more wisdom and then anyone who's ever lived and he he's He runs as is a palace better than any other king and kings and queens from other places are coming just to witness him to to pick up some tips Could God be with anyone with anyone more than he is with Solomon or with David and so same kind of thing Jesus is doing these signs and like Who else would be the Christ? He's exceeding David. He's exceeding Solomon That's a response that's Sensical or the man who's born blind and John 9 the Bobbred forest Jesus says do you believe in the Son of man Now son of man is that Daniel 713 and 14 One who's king who sits down who replaces the kingdom The previous stuff in Daniel 7 is the kingdom of Babylon and then the kingdom of Persian and the kingdom of Greece and then the kingdom of Rome And in the midst of the kingdom of Rome Another king a son of man. So maybe another king comes and he's seated and what's said of this king All peoples nations And men of every language will bow to him will give him homage His kingdom is dominion is a kingdom that will never will not pass away Like Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed And so Jesus says do you believe in the Son of man and the one who is king and his kingdom will last forever and never be destroyed Do you believe in the Son of man and this blind Man man who was blind who's now seen says Lord I believe Any worship to him That's the proper response In response to the Jews and response to the world that persecutes those Who receive the blessings that Jesus has passing out for free for anyone who'll come to him Or John 11 Martha says to Jesus yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ the Son of God who has come into the world As Jesus says, you know that do you believe that Lazarus can be raised

So that's the sensical response. It's nonsensical Miracles are proof that Jesus was king and God. It's nonsensical to look at the miracles and say this is a person to be despised Right that makes no sense and we're to see that we're to see and you're to know that you're thinking Clearly and God wants you to know that John wanted his readers to know that you're thinking clearly The Jews who haven't believed in Jesus in your day ad 90 they're not thinking clearly Gentiles who are not believe in Jesus. They're not thinking clearly because these miracles have happened So be there faith in Jesus is the sensical response Be faith in Jesus is the sensical response to what Jesus did and said That's the sensical response and John shows that with different people The woman at the well at the sensical response that makes sense come see the man who's told me everything I've ever done Could he be the Christ? The people in John 7 is anyone gonna ever gonna do more miracles than this man certainly he's like he's the Christ The the man born blind in John 9 tell me lord who is he and Jesus said he who is speaking to you is he And the man bows down and he worships him and says lord or Thomas we didn't go over that one and in John 20 Jesus says Thomas put your hand put your finger in my hands and and dig your hand into my side And Thomas says my lord and my god the ultimate miracle rising from the dead That's the sensical response and in your parentheses there and what else What else this this hits us as it hits those who are living in ad 90 they're not ad 90 60 years after the cross Okay, so most people John's writing to we're not eyewitnesses of Jesus John is very old John was perhaps the youngest of the disciples When you see John is the brother of James and whenever their list of James is listed first James was probably the older brother John was the little brother as I was with my brother this week up in up in Ohio So we went it to a 10 of the class of 1980 at Delaware. He's high school as class of 85 So they were very nice to me by very much the little brother Did you have any siblings who were my age? I would ask There but but John's very young, but he's talking to people who hadn't seen Jesus But here's the here's the proof and here's what's going on and this this parentheses for you Faith is in Jesus the sensical response what Jesus did and said and to the fact That Jesus disciples never shed their faith Never shed their faith to save their lives In ad 90 all the apostles had shed had had died Rather than say just kidding That's all I had to say They had to be quiet about Jesus And they would have been released from prison. They would not have been killed But instead they say Kill me But I can't deny what I've seen and heard I saw Jesus I ate fish with him on the beach I put my finger in his hands. I put my hand in his side I saw all these miracles and in the first century you get to year 100 and the church is still up and running Why is that If this is and to me this is the greatest Confidence builder for me in my faith the church has no reason for being around. It's not a philosophy that makes your life nice Okay, now it does good things for your soul But it's a philosophy that means your friends look at your funny Right, it's a philosophy that means you know, I'm making how much I make instead of how much I would have made Right change change of wife halfway through college Called a ministry It's it's a faith that makes you at odds with your relatives Right Jesus said that I came not to bring peace but a sword and you the own enemy your own enemies will be those of your household Who see you're crazy? Yeah, John's a nut now Glad when my family hasn't done that but some of you that's the case You've been considered you're from a Catholic background you've you've left the faith right Because you follow Jesus and very much a similar situation that growing up to growing up Jewish But the reason the church exists is not because it led to a cushy life for anybody in the first century It was a decision to walk into persecution It's like Jesus says to Ananias and Ananias is the one in Damascus who receives blind sol of Tarsus After Jesus has appeared to Saul Tarsus on his way to Damascus Jesus then after talking to Saul Tarsus He goes and speaks to to Ananias and Damascus and says Saul is coming. I want you to take him in I want you to put your hands on him and make him receive his sight and and Ananias is what? Saul Tarsus and Jesus says, you know, I've saved him and I will show him how much he must suffer for my sake That's what the gospel is it's it's a message of you know eternal bliss but suffering for you right now And so the fact that the church survives the first century. I mean they start experiencing A persecution from Acts chapter 7 You know, what's that about about 80 32 33 something like that maybe 31 You know, it's it's early in the church and church experiences that all through the first century and it's still around Why because people saw you know, it's like they saw Jesus do these miracles They saw him alive after he was crucified people who saw him crucified saw him dying across Then talk to him three days later and for 40 days and then they saw him rise up into heaven It's like do what you want to me But I believe what Jesus said don't fear those who can kill the body So go ahead kill me send me to Jesus Go ahead punk make my day All right, that's that's what we say, but that's the confidence we have The that Jesus wasn't telling Jesus told his disciples you better count the cost if you're gonna follow me You know, it flocks his devils. Yeah, the son of man. Look at me. I had no place to lay my head Everywhere I go the people who should embrace me are against me And you'll be hated by the world if you follow me But come and follow me and the churches follow people who say it's worth it It's worth it So faith in Jesus is a sensual response to what Jesus did instead and to the fact that the disciples never shed their faith to save their lives And that's what the writers of the gospel John could say The church Jesus was killed before their eyes. He was imprisoned He was taken away before their eyes and all these other disciples except for John We're taken away and here John is writing this Probably already exiled on the aisle of patents

But the story on John is that he was boiled in oil and survived Sounds fun Like being a Miami without Sunblock And then see see a non sensual response to this to what Jesus didn't said and to the presence of a church who clings on to Jesus despite It causing you causing them to lose friends and to be imprisoned and killed A non sensual response to this is hatred To the miracle doer and his disciples And that's what John shows us Like like in John 9 The the Pharisees response should have been You're this man we see every day who was born blind And when they heard from the parents who say yes he was born blind They should have said well who who made you see and they should have brought Jesus in and said talk to us What's the deal? How'd you make this person see And then they should have followed Jesus They couldn't make him they they passed them by every day right they couldn't make them see Their response should have been to follow him or hearing that Lazarus was Raised from the dead The response was to praise Jesus was to to recognize who he was Like Martha. I believe yes, you are the Christ

But instead the response is the plot To plot Jesus the plot Jesus death which they do and and they bring him to to kill this non sensual Responses John 18 chapters 18 and 19 the plot is death and actually you know bring him to death and they and they kill him Okay, so that's the non sensual response is hatred to the miracle doer. Jesus wasn't wasn't doing bad things He was doing good things to people And they hate him for That makes no sense And so recognize that today when when people hate you when they hate Jesus When they hate you because of Jesus like Why do why do he Jesus? What did he do that was wrong? They have no answer to that So recognize that in in your head that that's nonsensical. They're not making sense number three Persecution will happen against Jesus and his disciples because people here's here's part of the reason that we'll talk about that Jesus is talking about here It will happen because people are incomplete Incomplete people are incomplete people in a natural state as their born are incomplete And that's why they hate Jesus and those who follow him That is a people are born with ability ability deficits You were born with ability deficits And everyone around you who doesn't believe still has the ability Deficits. So what are these defects or these disabilities One First of all, they're death spiritually They're death spiritually So Matthew 13 13 Jesus says Though hearing They do not hear So people are born you were born hearing most people are born so they can hear physically But Jesus said the case is that people are born death spiritually they can't hear the things of God they can't hear the gospel they can't hear the good news And they can't and not hearing they don't understand so they physically hear the words But they don't hear they don't get it. They don't understand And then two the other disability Every person has who's not a believer is they are blind spiritually they're blind spiritually Again, Jesus says this in Matthew 13 and it's explaining as the parables to his disciples Uh, he quote Isaiah And this is Ezekiel does this to Jeremiah does this they say as you talk to God's people They're blind and they do not hear they'll hear your words physically But spiritually they don't hear and they don't see And Jesus would say this to Nicodemus and in the next chapter and and John 33 He says to Nicodemus unless you are born again You cannot see

You cannot see the kingdom of God and so people are are are walking around and they're disabled They don't have the ability to hear spiritually They don't have the ability to see spiritually And unless they see spiritually They cannot see the kingdom of God Um, so they're blind spiritually Uh, they can't understand uh, so they're they have an ability problem an ability problem Again, you don't They do Uh, B Mankind was created originally with the ability Mankind was created admanee created with the ability to see and hear that it's to understand spiritual reality They were created with that ability To see and understand spiritual reality and they could speak with God and understand spiritual things But number one there be one this ability This ability ceased if residents and human beings with Adams first sin And so Genesis 2 17 God's warning that this would happen Genesis 2 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it you will surely die Now Adam didn't cease to breathe when he ate that apple it wasn't like poison Wasn't a physical death it was a spiritual death now eventually it did bring on his spiritual death It began the process of spirit or of physical decay so there was an eventual spirit physical death that came about But spiritually he died then Romans 5 17 pulses uh, by the trespass of one man Adam He's talking about Adam and Romans 5 by the trespass of one man death rained in all Through that one man So people are born spiritually dead They don't have the ability to understand to see to hear spiritual things They don't have the ability for their heart deep down to understand the truth of the gospel the truth of who Jesus is They don't have the ability to take in I am a sinner and I am forlorn and and uh in trouble As I have approached my own death They know they fear death But they don't have an ability to understand what's going on This is why if you're non-Christian save all kinds of stupid things when somebody dies or when they talk about their own death Okay, because they don't they don't know how to handle that They don't know what to say because there's no spiritual understanding. It's like trying to do a math problem if you've never been taught math You know, it's just numbers and a symbol you don't get it um John 524 Jesus says I tell you the truth Whoever hears my word Whoever hears my word has crossed over from death to life John 524 Jesus is saying I'm speaking but most people don't hear my word If they do hear my word that means that crossed over from death to life What Jesus is saying there's most people are in their state of spiritual death and they're not hearing my word that I mean Sound waves are bouncing on their ears But they're not hearing Because they haven't crossed over from death to life But if anyone hears my word and believes him who sent me the father he's crossed over from death the life That's what that means means he has spiritual life now um So number two there Every person is born physically alive, but also spirits like dead. So humans are born disabled in spiritual ability Spiritual ability was something an Adam and Eve have spiritual ability was something that human beings were created with That they no longer have at the point of birth So they're incomplete Not as God had designed Human beings were designed to understand physical and spiritual realities Designed and so they're born to this Not as it should be reality Now number four number four Therefore disbelief disbelief in Jesus does not arise from superior ability but from a lack of ability The John is giving his readers confidence and God is giving you confidence now through this message Nonbelievers want to make you to feel inferior because you believe in Jesus John and God here are doing the opposite for you. He's informing you. You're not the inferior one They are from the words of P.V. Herman. I know you are, but what am I? And that's it You know the nonbelievers say you're inferior. You believe in Jesus. Jesus is just a crutch You believe in things you can't see. Don't you know science proves everything whatever And we they say you're inferior and we say I know you are, but what am I? um Because we're not inferior We've been brought back to the state of Adam Not completely there yet He didn't have a signature in him. Yeah, he didn't have his nature corrupt until after that first sin But we've been brought into that that state where now we can understand things physically like everybody else on the earth But we can also understand spiritual things we have that ability now And so we have the superior ability to evaluate things So we see the miracles of Jesus. We see the presence of the church despite the suffering it causes people And we have the appropriate sensical response Jesus really did these things or the church doesn't make it through the first 10 years after the cross Because it gets persecuted out of existence Because everybody says well, yeah, we were just making that up about the miracles And now it's going to cost me my life. No thanks Uh But we have the sensical response to this we said Jesus did the miracles This means he is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing I will have life in his name eternal life life forever So disbelief in Jesus doesn't arise from superior ability, but from a lack of ability um a This ability a this ability to also see here and understand spiritual things as well as physical ones Only comes Comes to a person by Jesus granting the Holy Spirit to him or her So this ability only comes to a person by Jesus granting the Holy Spirit to him or to her So John 3-3 Jesus declared I tell you that truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again So you can see if you're born again And then Jesus explains a few verses later in verse 7 of John 3 Verse 5 of John 3 what that means to be born again Jesus says I tell you that truth no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the spirit Okay, if you haven't been a father yet or a mother, you know it went when you know birth is happening Your mother has a sack of amniotic fluid around you know if you're an adult Sorry if you're an adult you understand this and and that before the As labor starts that sack of fluid breaks and you know the water breaks and so birth by waters that physical birth And so Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus unless you're born physically And of the spirit you can't see the kingdom of God Jesus says and Goes on their flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit You must be born again John 521 just as the father raises the dead and gives him life even so the son gives life To whom he is pleased to give it Verse 26 of John 5 for as the father has life in himself So he is granted the son to have life in himself And so Jesus has life in himself and he gives that by giving people individuals his whole is the whole spirit Um John 3 13 16 he says to his disciples about it right after saying people don't understand because they don't have eyes to see and ears to hear spiritually But he says to his disciples, but blessed are your eyes because they see And blessed are your ears because they hear If I tell you that for many prophets and righteous men long to see what you see So you have superior ability to see what you see But did not see it and to hear what you hear But did not hear it You have an ability to hear spiritual things to evaluate all things Physical and spiritual that non-believers don't have As the him and can't be so as long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and in nature's night Darkness can't see We stuff there in the room But I can't see it because it's totally dark. I don't know if it chairs there or Stay with the theme a bear or whatever is there. It's totally dark. So I can't see fast bound by sin And nature's night Thine eye your eye defused a quickening ray light I woke the dungeon flame with light all of a sudden I saw judgment Was coming my chains fell off my heart was free. I rose went forth and followed day That's what happened to each of us who believed in Jesus So number one there a one Response one to this that this ability Is granted Is given to you by Jesus giving you the Holy Spirit response one be grateful to God Be grateful to God for you didn't have the ability to believe It wasn't that you had the ability and therefore you believe and other people didn't and therefore they didn't believe You didn't have the ability just like non-believers today don't have the ability So be grateful for you didn't have the ability to believe eternal salvation depended on you believing That's what eternal salvation depends on you believing That above john twenty thirty one that by believing you may have life in his name And God that's your next blank and God gave it to you He gave you the ability He gave it to you and not because you were good You were not you can write in there. I wasn't You weren't good You didn't have the ability to believe and God gave you the ability to believe he gave you life he gave you his spirit Not because you were good you weren't But you instead deserved his wrath. That's the last one blank there for you you deserved his wrath like we we read about in our declaration Of the gospel there That that we were children of wrath objects of wrath because we were in our sins So Ephesians two one One through one through nine speaks of that so response one is be grateful to God He gave you the ability to believe by giving you his Holy Spirit So if you could see spiritually you could hear the gospel and believe response number two To this God's giving you the ability to believe Understand the disbelief of others and be gracious and patient Be gracious and patient with unbelievers Don't say I know you are, but what am I That's not gracious and patient. It's true But it's not being gracious and patient and so be gracious and patient with unbelievers remembering that you you can write in there I You would be disbelieving still Had not God given you years to hear and eyes to see spiritually Don't be perplexed by disbelief And be gracious and patient with those who are responding with hatred toward Jesus hatred towards you and persecution toward you As Paul says in Romans Romans 12 bless those who curse you bless and do not curse revenge his mind say it's the Lord um Do not take revenge And so Jesus said it in Luke 6, you know be be gracious and kind To those who hate you to those who persecute you then you'll truly be children of my father in heaven Because he is gracious and kind to the faithful or to the to the ungrateful and disbelieving And so we too to the ungrateful Ungrateful of God to the disbelieving in God We are gracious and kind to them because we recognize the difference between me and them Is that God graciously gave me his spirit Which gave me an ability To believe and the only difference is God hasn't given them His spirit yet And that's why they don't believe so I have no merit before them. I am not superior to them in my own ability But I am superior to them in my ability, but that's God given And so I can't take any credit for them and and I should look down upon them or or treat them What was scorn or derision instead be gracious and patient with unbelievers remembering that you would be disbelieving still had not God given you years to hear and eyes to see Spiritually. This is what Jesus was like Matthew 936 Jesus all the lost crowd and he had compassion on them For they were hapless And helpless like sheep without a shepherd And so, you know, we're around. I was at A horse race on Thursday this week. I went up for my mom's birthday on Monday She's 83 and then my hometown has harness racing there once a year harness racing is the where you have the horse And then you have the little buggy behind it. It's two wheels and you got a a jockey that the little wagon behind is called a socky And he's got his feet sticking way up and he's making the horse go that way And so the contact a Kentucky Derby of harness racing is in Delaware, Ohio It's a race called the little brown jug and it's the final big race of the year a million dollar purse on the race and so It's always the third Thursday of September and so I thought I'll go up I haven't been to that since I was like eighth grade or something like that All the city schools get Thursday that Thursday off every year jug day And so you're out of school. You can go to county fairs that week and so I went I got an elephant ear you know fried And a walleye sandwich But my brother and I I told him get tickets for us and so it's all horse racing but I was around there You know, and there's you know, just people there red face And all that and betting and all that stuff And it's a little depressing Seeing all that but but the right response is compassion Compassion these are cheap without a shepherd They don't know what's important in life and what life is about and then on understand, you know, the stuff and A lot of stuff in life and so they're leading lives that are difficult Because of that but have have compassion and then be knowing that belief in Jesus It's not a rise from an inbuilt superior ability from a but from a lack of ability um As disbelief rises from that lack of ability be confident in your faith For it's not you or you can write it in there. It's not I It's not I who is crazy or nonsensical You hear your blanks you see You hear and you understand You're not the crazy one The world is crazy The one who came who created all things and did all these miracles We recognize those and we believe And we've bowed and that's the sensical response That's the sensical response so be confident in your faith for it's not you who is crazy It's not I who is crazy or nonsensical you see You hear you understand both Things that is the physical and spiritual As created man originally could do You've got the full set the full set of abilities so be confident Um, you know, it's like someone trying to to one of the things that have that the high school north of us the country school Buckeye Valley they get the whole week out Because a lot of those kids are farm kids and they're showing their hogs and pigs and chickens and that kind of thing During the week at the fair imagine you're a judge and you can't see But we can see and so we can truly judge the things that are before us Um, instead of judging with that disability so be one there Um, so you out of original manability pre-fallibility original manability Um, by the Holy Spirit is giving you spiritual hearing insight as Adam first had You understand that's your blank you understand that Jesus is God and King and we have responded sensibly with belief

So be confident you're the you're you're like Adam before the fall and you know God's there And he shows up every once in a while walking in the cool of the day And you've had conversation with him. Do you know he's real and if anyone comes in it says God doesn't exist You say yes, he does he's here just five minutes ago Whatever that looked like in the garden before the fall Um, you have original manability so you understand what they get that Jesus is God and King and you've reacted sensibly with belief and then number two Um, those who still have the ability deficit Those who have the ability deficit you still have that ability deficit of spiritual deafness and spiritual blindness react nonsensically They react nonsensically with a disbelief And sometimes also with persecution For those who have responded sensibly So think of it this way Someone has asked you what's two plus two and you've said four and a whole class of 25 kids makes fun of you and says you idiot It's five Okay be confident. It's four You've been taught math you've been taught math by somebody who understands math and you can see and you can understand You've been taught right and you have the ability to do math You can even move long division And they don't even understand they don't even understand two plus two and you do so remain confident You have the ability and those who don't those who say differently are responding out of a lot Because they've never been given a math lesson before. Okay So summary summary um Not only can you be confident in your faith, but here's your summary be grateful Be grateful for your faith be grateful for your faith for you didn't have the ability to have it You didn't have the ability to have it Eternal salvation dependent upon it and God gave it to you when you deserved his wrath for all your sins This would be grateful for your faith for you didn't have the ability to have faith because you didn't have ears to hear and eyes to see But God gave you the ability um So that you could have faith and eternal salvation depends on you having faith and God gave you the ability so that you could have Faith When you deserved his wrath for all your sins and then second thing And in addition to being grateful that God gave you eyes to see and ears to hear Expect persecution as your two blanks there expect persecution From the world expect persecution from those who cannot see and hear Expect persecution from those who cannot see and hear Um, so it's like when a person who can't see who yells at you watch out for that wall Don't worry about it. They can't see Um, but you can you know there's no wall in front of you keep going Let's pray or down father. We are grateful that you love us