Turning your Scriptures with me to John chapter 10, John chapter 10, and today if you want to, if you're the kind who likes your bulletin to be absolutely accurate, you might put behind the words never-never as the title part 1. There are two parts to this message today. Let me tell you why there are two parts to this message. Other than the fact that we would be here to the evening service, there are two parts to this message because it is helpful to us to break up a concept or a thinking on a particular topic that we might have opportunity to grasp it. Let me frame this in the context of the presentation of the gospel. The gospel is offered by God. We petition God for salvation. God grants that we would be saved. In each of those there is an understanding both by the sovereign in the offering of the gospel and the granting of salvation, and also in us who receive the gospel offer and petition God that we would be saved. Nowhere is salvation simply laid out for us to go and to grab. It is offered and we ask to receive. So there is a perspective of the one who petitions and there is a perspective of the one who grants and both of these are within the teaching of this passage. To put this in another way that is the language of debate in our theology, God is sovereign over salvation. Man is responsible in his response to the gospel. Man must of his and I guess we should put it in a talents or quotation marks because we'll have to explain his free will must choose salvation. However, while man must indeed choose God, salvation still and the ability to make that choice rest in the hands of a sovereign God. And so how these things work together, perhaps this teaching by Christ in John chapter 10, the verses that following could be in a condensed form or in a condensed place, one place of scripture or one passage of scripture where you can find both of these tensions in the world of theology and the world of Christendom for entire denominations have made as their centerpiece these opposing views that man is absolutely free and able and that man is unable to choose. And so they have made these the centerpost around which their church is orbit these places of tension we find here in this passage. And so today we will talk about the offer and just what is the responsibility of man in receiving and petitioning God for salvation and then we'll carry on into next week to find that our assurance is in fact based and founded in the sovereignty of God. Not in our own ability to choose anything but in God's ability not only ability but power to grant. One of the most comforting doctrines in all of scripture I believe is that of assurance. When a saint is at life's end, the calm repose of one who knows Christ certainly contrasts with the one who does not. And it is a testimony of their certainty that they belong to God and it blesses them with a sense of peace at life's end. When a loved one of ours is called home unexpectedly or perhaps even at a young age often you will hear the family speaking among one another with one another you'll hear them speaking to others taking some solace and knowing that the one whom they have loved now resides in paradise with God. Assurance grants a peace and a time of crisis or at life's end in our daily life. Our assurance is also what helps to motivate us to continue to press on for Christ, to continue to sacrifice in our daily living, to continue to drive on and make decisions and choices so that our life becomes more Christlike rather than more like the world. We view this life as temporary because we have an assurance that there is a life to come and we are able to live without the fear of what death may bring but instead we who are assured of our salvation welcome death. We welcome it not as a thief taking away all that we love but as a transition or even an entrance to the presence of the Almighty. What is our assurance based upon? Shouldn't we ask that? That is what Christ is answering here in John 10, 22 and following. What will our assurance be based upon? Simply because we said so. Simply because we wish it to be. Is it based upon our imagination? Is it based upon our right to be saved? God owes it to us to save us? Is it based upon our insistence? Because we said God will save us therefore he's obligated to save us because we said that he would we've claimed something and therefore he is somehow obligated or constrained to do what we say to do that he would save us. Let's enter into this by first and I am reading the scripture after this not because it's second and order of merit or not by any means the scripture is far superior above any other source I might read but I want to help you to understand how a confession, a confession of faith or on West Mister confession. You might read through it and you might not see in the reading of a confession what this passage is actually teaching. Often the confession will come under some criticism they say well that's what man wrote and I just want what God wrote but what if what man has written is to explain what God has written? Would it be of any value to us? Would it be of any value at all to be in discussions with those learned men and often women of the past who have left a legacy of a lifetime of study of the scriptures themselves to help explain these truths of the scripture. There is one place in here particularly that I want to read is in chapter 14 where blessed that our Trinity him no has a copy of the West Mister confession of faith in the back. If you are a quick page flipper and you desire to flip to it is on page 856. I'll have to move right along though you'll have to catch up. It's chapter 14 and the title of this chapter is of saving faith. Grace of faith whereby the elect are unable to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the spirit of Christ in their hearts and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word. How does this apply to what we're saying? We have a work of the spirit in the heart that enables belief. The belief is the activity and the action of the one who is to be saved. I believe God by grace grants that I may believe so we have here two activities don't we? We have God's granting and my responding God grants that I may believe my response is that I do believe. ordinarily this is wrought by the ministry of the word we've been speaking of the means of grace already by which also and by the administration of the sacraments and prayer it is increased and strengthened by this faith in paragraph two. A Christian believe it to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word assurance here we have assurance God has revealed to us in his word that which is true that which we can have assurance of assurance of in salvation for the authority of God himself speaking therein and acts differently upon that which each particular passage contains yielding obedience to the commands. Now I would encourage you to read through the rest of this because it is it is wonderful teaching but here I want to emphasize the points which I've already mentioned. God grants grace that we would be able to believe we believe to what end that we would have an assurance that would then lead us to obedience a life that is truly transformed. Now let's look together at our scriptures our assurance is based on the sovereign will empower of God and our receiving the teaching of Christ as the truth. So let's turn now together to that teaching of Christ and John the 10th chapter beginning at verse 22. At that time the feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem it was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonate of Solomon so the Jews gathered around him and said to him how long will you keep us in suspense. If you are the Christ tell us plainly Jesus answered them I told you and you did not believe the works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. Jesus is here teaching at the feast of the Tabernacles of the feast of dedication in the month of December around the 25th of December the latter part of the month were told that as winter it could be why Jesus is walking along this colonate of Solomon's portico it's one of the oldest portions of the temple that was remaining it was covered. Perhaps it was there to keep the wind off perhaps it was there because of the weather or perhaps we are told it was winter because winter also tells us the condition of the souls of those whom he was ministering to. While that might be a stretch as far as a literal interpretation it certainly bears true as we consider those Jews who are now gathering to ask Jesus these questions. The feast of dedication just very briefly to give you a touch of the history was a rededication of the temple back in 165 BC by Judas Maccabee who was rededicating the temple after it had been cleansed after it had been after a false god I believe the image of Zeus had been set up there as Rome was seeking to enforce one god and one faith over all people. And so Judas Maccabee let a revolt and after a number of heroic and stunning victories the temple was cleansed it was rededicated and the people of Israel celebrated that at the feast of dedication each year afterwards. The people gathering here to talk to Jesus and our language today we would call them hard-headed people. Hard-headed people, stubborn people. The reference to the Jews gathering around him in verse 24 so the Jews gathered around him. Remember now in each of the passages we've studied before whenever the Jews gathered around him was this a friendly crowd. Was this a group of people who were receptive to his teaching? No, no it was not. It was the Jews who would go to pick up the stones and try to stone him. It was the Jews who were always trying to pin him or always trying to quiz him or doubting him. They seem to often be this middle ground group. The Pharisees watching at a distance are being more direct and pointed in their attacks and assaults. The Jews often were gathered around hoping or conspiring that circumstances and events would be such that Jesus would stumble in something that he said. And so here they're asking him for an answer. Jews are identifying those who are adversarial to Christ. They're looking for reasons to continue their attack against him. Jesus knew it was impossible to make a declaration of his being the Messiah publicly without it being taken in the political sense. They were looking for that political Messiah. If Jesus were to say, I am the Messiah come to liberate the people then the events would have begun to sweep him along and if not him personally certainly all that had occurred and the whole concept of a Messiah is in our midst. All of that would have swept along into revolution and then the people would have missed the whole idea and the whole teaching behind the spiritual kingdom which Christ had come to usher in. He was seeking to proclaim the truth and yet to avoid being mistaken as a political Messiah. And so here they are asking him very pointed, how long are you going to keep us in suspense? Here sarcasm in that. Here disbelief in that. Don't hear an honest inquisition because Jesus's response is, I've already told you. I've already shown you. You should already know. He's not withholding this information. He's not hiding from them the truth. That's not his ministry to hide the truth from his own. While Jesus had limited his outright announcements that he was the Messiah, his actions and his teachings were clearly in fulfillment of the Scriptures. It was clearly in fulfillment of the Scriptures concerning the Messiah that they should have understood his actions. But rather than accept what Jesus was teaching, the people were saying that Jesus wasn't clear enough in his teaching. It just wasn't plain enough to them. Isn't this an echo from the Garden of Eden? The accusation that is made that it just wasn't plain enough. A shifting of the blame, you see what they're blaming is their unbelief on Christ Himself. They're saying it's your fault that we don't believe. Just tell us. Just say it and we'll believe. Jesus knows that they will not even if he was to say in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve having fallen in sin were hiding from God when God came and He called and they emerged. He asked Eve, what's happened? She confessed that the serpent deceived me. He deceived me and I sinned. He turned to Adam. He says, Adam, what's happened with you? Adam says, what? Lord, I knew the truth and I knew what was right but I was carried along by my passion and my lust and I desired to have no conflict with the woman which you gave. He didn't say that. He didn't say that at all. He wasn't trying to keep peace in the house. He turned around and he said, well, it's her fault. It's her fault because she's the one that made the meal. She brought the apple or the fruit as it were. And in blaming her, he's also blaming God because wasn't it God who after all gave him the woman. Adam is essentially saying, you know, Lord, things would have been just fine if you had just maybe given me some counseling so I could have got through my loneliness and instead you had to give me this woman and look at the trouble she's caused. Look what she's done. All we had going here. Me and you together in the Garden, you put her here, she's ruined the whole house. But that wasn't the truth. That wasn't the truth. Unbelief. Unbelief is unreasonable. And though the Jews were trying to blame Jesus for their lack of unbelief, we know that the Scripture says it's only the fool who says it is hard. There is no God. It's only the fool who is in denial of truth. We understand revelation and testimony to be from the general to the specific. If what we taught and what we believed in the Scripture wasn't upheld by God's own creation to be true, if all that we believe was fundamentally out of sync with all of God's creation. For example, as we understand God's providential care of His people, of His tender caring and love of His people, we are told in the Scriptures that not a sparrow falls from the sky that the Lord doesn't know. There is not a hair on our head that is not counted by the Lord. The number of our days are known by God. And we see that same care and provision in His creation. The most fragile of all creatures seem somehow to survive in such a hostile environment. Despite all that we do, and yes, today's environmental movement would seem to teach that we have God-like powers, all that we have sought to do to destroy our legs and our streams and our air and space with junk and everything else, it seems that God's creation is so resilient. That even with our best efforts, we are unable to completely and utterly destroy it. I heard on the radio this week that the island Bikini Island out in the Pacific, not where they make bikinis, but nevertheless, where many nuclear tests were conducted back in the 50s, that that particular island which was devastated by all of this nuclear atrocity now has new life. Coral has returned and life has once again growing on an island that we saw, I guess, to destroy completely. And even our most powerful weapons have only about 50 years of destructive capability before God's creation begins to come back. Providence, nature, testifies to our God and validates the teaching of Scripture. Because what applies to creation would we not think God also applies to man. When he reveals truth about the world which has upheld the test of time, why would we doubt his testimony about man? Why would we call him a truth teller regarding the world and a liar regarding man? Romans chapter 1 teaches us that God's creation shows us and it is evidently true. Romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 25, I'm only going to read a couple of verses however, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who buy their unrighteousness and here it is, suppress the truth. They suppress the truth. What truth can they see? Well, the next verse doesn't leave us without explanation for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse. They simply desire to not believe. John chapter 1, we're not left only with the creation to bear testimony, but this testimony of God, this word from God became flesh. It became flesh and it dwelt among us and he taught and he healed and he showed and he left witnesses to write and to bear testimony and yet there is still disbelief. Jesus said to them, you do not believe. Look at verse 25, they're asking, just tell us, if you're the Messiah, tell us plainly in Jesus answered, I told you and you do not believe, you do not believe, that failure and their open hostility to Christ, that's their sin. They do not believe and they oppose Christ. In their time the ministry of Christ was drawing to a close. This is towards the end of Christ's ministry, this passage that we're reading. It won't be long before John takes us into the final week of Christ's life and we stay there for some time, for a number of chapters. The Messiah 820, the harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved. There is a season when the gospel is before you and there is a season when Christ is available to you, but then the harvest is past and the summer ends and if you have not received you are not saved. There is a time for you to receive by faith, the Christ of the Scriptures. Whether by outright rejection or by a life of indecision, we must be aware that when the summer of opportunity has passed that we are not left and the dead of winter unsaved Christ here in the winter was walking in the temple. Christ here was confronted by those who had rejected and Christ here says to them, you have not believed. He answers that He has told them plainly. How is it that He has told them plainly? How is it that they should have gotten it? Is it unfair for Jesus to say, I've already told you and you didn't get it? Is it unfair that He has left them with something that they really couldn't have grasped and couldn't have gotten a hold of? Is it true to believe that perhaps it was so cloaked in mystery, so veiled in actions that they couldn't receive that which Christ was telling them? Unless we make Jesus a liar, we have to say, of course not. Of course not. What specifically is it that Jesus has done to them or for them? And John chapter 4 verse 50, Jesus healed the nobleman's son who took him at his word. This man, this noble man had seen and heard Jesus, he had known of Jesus' miracles and he believed Christ and so his son was healed. Without Jesus even having to go to be there personally. Christ changed water to wine which was a sign of the arrival of the kingdom. That is what wine very often is in the scriptures. It is a liquid that is in view of the kingdom. He made cripples to walk. He made the blind to see fed 5,000 provided for 5,000 their food. He walked on water for his disciples and now here we have those who would challenge him. These Jews who were saying, that's not enough. That's not enough. Tell me plainly because all of those things are not enough. It was enough for Peter and John chapter 6 to say, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. John 5 you find a record of many of these signs I've already mentioned but it's in Matthew 11 I think that gives us a context of how these were to be received. John the Baptist was in prison and while he was in prison he was hearing about the deeds and the work of Christ and he sent word by his disciples to Christ. And here was the question that he wanted Christ to answer for him. Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? Here you have a man in prison whose days are numbered, who believed that this was the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world, the Messiah and he wants a word of assurance. He wants to know before his life's end that this was indeed his calling to be the forerunner of the Messiah. And Jesus answers to the disciples to carry a word back to John. He doesn't scold John for his inquisition for his inquiry. He says go until John what you hear and see that the blind received their sight and the lame walk lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. These works are kingdom works, the restoration of a broken and a sick and a blind and a crippled and a dying people. These were types, signs to point to the reality. It was enough to wear when Jesus appeared to Thomas. He would confess in reflection upon all this that Jesus was his Lord and his God and then when Jesus responds he says, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, that's us, brothers and sisters. And in John chapter 20 verse 31 we find the ministry to us, these are written, these words, this gospel is written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing you may have life in His name. James Montgomery voice tells a story, I think that helps us to get a grasp of where we're heading here. He talks about one who's driving down the road. This is purely fictional because none of us speed and I have a highway patrolman now no personally will testify that surely it wasn't me who was speeding because that's what I told him. He says, if you're traveling down the interstate, suppose you're going 75 and you're stopped by highway patrolman and the trooper comes to your window and he says, do you know how fast you were going and you very honestly look at him and say, I was going 75. He says, well, do you know what the speed limit is and you would say, well, no, I didn't see a sign. He said, well, back here about a mile is a sign that says 65 and your response would be, oh, well, I saw that sign. But I didn't see a sign here and so I knew back there was 65 but I wasn't sure what the sign here was and so he would look at you and he would say to you, when that sign is posted, it remains 65 until it is changed to what you then would reply to him. I think it would be a good idea if about every hundred feet or so you would put another sign so that I would know at this point just what the sign is. In fact, if I'm passing one sign and I can see the next sign, then I'll know just what the speed is that I should be traveling. I don't think I should be held accountable for a sign that's a mile back. I need a sign here right now. The fault is not the signs, is it? The fault is the driver who does not like to abide by regulations and prefers his own authority on the road. Likewise, we can't say that God has not revealed the truth plainly. We can't say that God has not revealed the truth plainly. We say rather that we do not like the truth He has revealed and we let that truth move us to repentance and faith and the Savior if we receive it. You have your Bible. You have heard the doctrines of grace as they have been preached I know from this pulpit and I trust from others or ministers who come before me. Christ has said and done all that He has to and all that He needs to. It is all revealed to you to receive or to resist. We cannot escape the truth that these testify to and that creation itself stands witness of. Question is, what will you do about His words and His works? What will you do about His works and His words? Dwight Moody put it this way. There are very few who in their hearts do not believe in God but what they will not do is give Him exclusive right of way. If you have really heard Him, if you have really been in your scriptures, if you really believe Him then you will really follow Him. That is not simply rhetoric. I framed it this way to make a very real point. If you have really heard Him, if you have really believed Him then you will really follow Him. Matthew Henry, a great commentator, a wonderful man that so many have enjoyed his readings, says, we are apt to rest in a bare profession of faith and to think that this will save us. It is a cheap and easy religion to say we believe the articles of the Christian faith but it is a great delusion to imagine that this is enough to bring us to heaven. Let me call you to ask yourself this. How is your life different from what it was and from those around you because you believe and because you serve Christ? How is your life different because you believe and because you follow Christ? If your life is not different then ask yourself why you have it believed and followed. Ask yourself why you haven't believed and followed. We want assurance. We want to know that our souls will rest in eternity with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That assurance is granted by belief and by following, by belief and a life changed. So the first of our two parts is simply this. What has been your response to the gospel? Is it simply a credal affirmation? Is it simply saying I love the trappings of Christianity? I love the story of Christ. I think that it is so heartwarming to know that God would send his child, his only son, that he would die for us. I love the story of Christianity and I love the church and I love the peace that I receive when every now and then the preacher preachers something I like. And I get such a blessed assurance when the songs of old come back to my mind and cause to swell within me a sense of feeling that I have had for many many years and yet our lives remain completely unchanged. What is our salvation based upon? Our Christian experience or our conversion? Conversion means something happened, something changed, something is different. Christian experience means we've been hanging out in the church an awfully long time. What happened when you believe the first step to real assurance is real belief that has real evidence which is based on real conviction of mine and spirit. The testimony is there and many would say, you know, if Jesus would just tell me plainly how many times have I heard those who claim to be Christians say, I just wish God would somehow give me a sign. What is this a record of? What is creation a testimony of? To demand more is simply to say I will never have enough. Never will there be enough from God to move my unbelief and I will choose to suppress the truth because I choose to live the way I want to live the idols in my life are so important to me that I will never turn to Christ in faith and surrender my life when I work so hard to establish it. The belief followed by conversion followed by obedience. Here is the positive side of this assurance. If you have heard and you have believed and you reflect on your life and all be it imperfectly, you have salt to obey Christ and you have salt his will and his way. Most in times early in our Christian life misunderstanding, not knowing all of the realm of theology, sometimes realizing much to our chagrin later in life that we had something all wrong but nevertheless our intent all the way is to live for Christ and to become Christ like and to grow in our knowledge and grow in our love and to serve one another as the body of Christ. If that has been our intent then assurance my friend and my brother and my sister is yours for you have believed and you have given up anything this world could offer and you received the testimony of Jesus Christ. He says I told you the works I do and my father's name bear witness about me and those who are part of this flock here and those who are part of this flock receive. The first step to assurance is belief the second as we will see next week is to understand God sovereign grace.