Open back up to John 12. Back up to John 12. Read our passage and kind of go back and give two fundamental points, I think, that are necessary for us to, again, have an accurate understanding of the passage. So John 12, let me just read 37 to 41. It says, "'But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, "'Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?' Therefore, they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Isaiah when he saw His glory, and spake of Him." said the title of the message this morning was Understanding Unbelief Biblically. And so we looked at unbelief and the will, the human will, unbelief and prophecy and the passage, and then unbelief and the sovereignty of God. Now, if you've grown up in the church here, in this church or in a church that holds the doctrines of grace the way that we do, then what was said this morning is not that big of a deal. You've heard it before. But if not, or maybe you're really trying to wrestle through it for the first time on your own, I think admittedly we're talking about some complex stuff. God hardening the heart. We're thinking about the principle like with Pharaoh or even with these guys. God hardening the heart. The individual hardening their heart. Their heart being hardened. How do we understand all that? Well, this is just a basic principle in understanding Scripture. Any of the complex things in Scripture that you need to understand are always going to be built on basic fundamentals of the faith. That is, when you get to some of these complex passages, you have to understand them. I mean, we took the text for what it said, but I'm thinking theologically with the concepts that you have, doctrinal understanding, You have to build them from the ground up. You don't build them from the top down. Now, here's what I mean when I say that. Sometimes people get to a passage like this and they say, wait a second, it says that God blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart that they shouldn't see and they shouldn't understand and should not be converted or healed. And they say, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. That's inconsistent with God's character. So what they've done is they've taken this passage that's complex and they've tried to build something from the top down. Would God really do that? That's inconsistent with God's character. That's not right. When what we need to be doing is building from the bottom up. So it's not, let me figure out what God's character would be like to make this make sense. It's okay, here's God's character. I know it already. Here's man's character. I know it already. Here's what Scripture says. These are basics about salvation. I know it already. Now let me try to understand John 12 in light of these things. I want to understand John 12 in light of God's revealed character. What the Bible says about man's character and what the Bible says about salvation. Not the other way around, which would mean I'm trying to figure out what the Bible says about God's character, man's character and salvation in light of John 12. Is that making sense? Am I confusing? You start with the basics. Not with John 12. And then you make your way up. Some of these things are never going to change as it relates to theological concepts. So, I want to lay two of those out this afternoon. Number one, Scripture's description of human nature or our natural condition. What does Scripture say about humanity in our natural condition? Not just some of us, all of us. That's a very basic foundation. And if we get that wrong, it's going to be very difficult to make sense out of some of the more complex things. If we get it right, then it'll be a whole lot easier. And the reason why I say this, by the way, is that the Bible is consistent with itself. Is that a fair statement? So if the Bible says something about human nature that's true and it's basic and it's foundational, you're not going to find doctrines that contradict that. It's going to be consistent with that. What does the Bible say about our natural condition? Well, we'll go to a few passages here. Look in Romans 5. Just to start us out. Romans 5. Verse 12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Now we're just thinking about principles here that we can pull from these texts, and this is one that most of you are going to be very familiar with. First thing we learn about man, this passage in Romans 5.12 is a text that talks about original sin. That is, death came into the world through one man's sin. That would be Adam. We're talking about the fall. Genesis 3. When Adam sinned, he plunged the rest of humanity under the curse of sin. That is a Bible basic. were fallen creatures, okay? And so what happened then, death came by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Now, it's important to get this right. When we think about being a sinner, or when we think about sinning, you don't become a sinner once you sin. You sinned because you were already a sinner. Okay? That's just a basic. After Adam fell, the curse of sin infected and impacted every single human who would ever come after because we live in a fallen world. So that we are spiritually dead, or we could say dead in sin, But we're fallen. Well, what does that mean? What would that mean about an individual? Well, a couple of descriptions that we get, and again, you're going to be familiar with most of these, if not all. In Genesis 6, I'm going to get a couple of passages here about the heart. And why would that matter? Why would that matter? Well, the New Testament tells us that we believe with our heart. We're talking about unbelief. It's something that happens at the heart level. Okay, so the condition of your heart is going to affect whether or not you're believing or by faith coming to Christ. So here's what Genesis 6-5 says that God saw whenever He looked at the wickedness of man, when He looked at man's heart. Genesis 6-5, this is before the flood. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Here's the description of an individual who is dead in sin. Every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil continually. Now, that doesn't mean that in Noah's day that they didn't take care of their families. That doesn't mean, and now we're going to be kind of silly, but that doesn't mean they didn't pet their dogs. It doesn't mean they never smiled. That's not what that means. It means that everything that they did preceded out of a wicked heart that was self-centered and self-exalting It's the opposite of a heart that's seeking to exalt God. So, one of the things we've talked about before, Anne and John, is it possible for you to do the right thing for the wrong reason? Is that a possibility? This is the afternoon, so you can move around a little bit. Yes. It is possible. If you do the right thing for the wrong reason, does God call that good? No. No, he would call that evil. OK, so. Evil things proceed out of an evil heart, we could also say it this way, that a godless life proceeds out of a godless heart. The fool has said in his heart, you know, the text says there is no God, but the original and take the italics out is the fool has said in his heart, no. God. No. You won't be ruling over me. You won't be telling me what to do. No. I might do a little bit if I see that it's beneficial, but for the most part, it's no. So man, by his nature, fallen nature, sin nature, his heart is evil. The imagination of the thought of his heart is evil continually. That's something. Continually. When does that end? I mean, that's something to think about. It would be one thing if it said, well, for the most part, the imagination of the thoughts of his heart are evil, but that's not what it says. It is continually. That means it's never not that way. Now, Jeremiah would pick up on this same description and give us a little bit of a help in our understanding in Jeremiah 17, 9. Jeremiah 17, 9, when he says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So his description here is we'll take the last one first. The heart is desperately wicked. And maybe we say, well, you know, I know I've done some bad things. I know I've had some, you know, some bad thoughts, but it seems to be a bit of a stretch to say that my heart is desperately wicked. And that's where it's helpful to keep in mind that Jeremiah also says it is deceitful above all things. Who can know it? So if you look at yourself or if you look at those that you know and you just think, you know, I know they've done some bad things, but there's a lot of good in them, too. And, you know, that just seems to be a bit of an exaggeration. Well, we live out of deceitful hearts left to ourselves. Who can know it? We can't know our own hearts. We can't see past our own deceit, according to Jeremiah. This is our natural condition. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. We've been trying to think about the nature of humanity that is just left to ourselves without any kind of work of grace in our life. What are we by nature? Romans 5 says we're dead due to the sin of Adam, under the curse of sin. Genesis 6 says every imagination of our heart is evil continually. That is, when God weighs it, it doesn't fall on the good side, it's the evil side. Jeremiah would say the same, except that it's deceitful. Then we get into 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. But the natural man, that is just man by nature. You and I in our natural state. Everybody you know in their natural state. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Okay? So the Apostle Paul says here, that man by nature or you in your natural state outside of an intervening work of God. This is the condition that you're in. You do not receive. Excuse me, you do not receive. You really cannot receive. The things of the Spirit of God. It doesn't mean that. If. You know, if somebody says something spiritual that someone in their natural state is confused, it's not like it's some sort of a riddle and they can't make heads or tails out of it. I mean, Paul tells us it's foolishness. It's foolishness. That sounds a whole lot like unbelief and rejection, doesn't it? Because that's what it is. It's foolishness to them. Why? Because these things are spiritually discerned. I mean, the text says, neither can. That's an ability word. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So, the natural man in and of himself He cannot receive the things of the Spirit. He cannot know the things of the Spirit because it takes spiritual discernment to do either of those two. So, man who is dead in sin is spiritually helpless. There's no capacity. use this kind of language when he was talking to Nicodemus in John 3, verse 3, whenever he said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. He cannot. It's not that it's hard. It's not that it's a challenge. It's an inability. It cannot happen. Because he's not a spiritual Being now last text for this in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. In verse 5. Where he says for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." So those who are after the flesh, All right, now the flesh is just a synonym for the natural man. You in your fallen condition, you're just in your flesh. I'm just in my flesh. After the Lord does a work of grace, then we get to the Galatians 5 thing we've been talking about on Wednesday nights where the flesh is warring against the spirit and the spirit is warring against the flesh. But in your natural state, there's just flesh. There's no warring being done inside of you because the Spirit of God is not in you until you're born again. So. They that are after the flesh do mind or they do set their minds on the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. So here's a question. If this is the case, is there any possibility for an individual who has not been born again of the Spirit of God to have a genuine interest in spiritual things? The answer is no. What if they saw a miracle? Is that enough? No. What if they saw a big miracle? Like a stinky guy coming out of the grave who'd been dead for three days. Still in his grave clothes. No, it's not. There's no capacity for it. It wouldn't matter what was done. There is no way for an individual who is in the flesh to take genuine interest in spiritual things. There has to be. a work of God in that individual's heart ahead of time, before the appetite's ever there, before the interest is ever there, before the sight and understanding is ever there. Okay? By nature, spiritually, we're dead, which means really a lot of the things that Jesus was talking about before were spiritually blind. There's no spiritual understanding. Our hearts are hardened to spiritual things. And again, the question is, if that's where we start, if every person starts with eyes that cannot see spiritual realities, with minds that do not understand spiritual realities, with hearts that are hardened before God, Romans 3, there are none who fear God. There are none who seek God. If that's where we start, you know, the base package of humanity, then what does God have to do to close the eyes, to blind the eyes, to darken the understanding or to harden the heart? He just has to leave them alone. It's already there. Now, they can become more hardened, they can become more blind, not in the sense of they're seeing less than they would have, but more hardened in where they already are. You know how that is. You know somebody who's stubborn and somebody who's really, really stubborn. They're doing the same kind of thing. They're just doubling down on it. So this hardness or being hardened It's just God leaving you where you already were. So that's the natural state of man. Dead in sin. A heart that is continually wicked. A heart that is deceitful and wicked. No capacity to understand spiritual things. and an individual who is, again, in the flesh with no spirit to wrestle back and forth with. So they're in the flesh and they mind the things of the flesh. So then the question becomes, how does a dead sinner come to faith in Christ? How does this happen? If we start out as bad as what we said, and again, what I said earlier, If we are wrong, if we're off on our understanding of humanity, you're going to be off on everything else. You can't be wrong on that one and get the rest of them right. Because we have to know what it is in substance that God is saving. Is God saving somebody who's in neutral? Is God saving someone who needs a little boost? Or is God saving someone who is dead? The answer to that matters. So the question then becomes, how is it that a dead sinner comes to faith in Christ? Well, we'll go to John for a few of these. Some of these are just going to be a reminder, but it's a reminder worth giving. In John 6, verse 29, really we could say verse 28, John 6, verse 28, some folks said to Jesus, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? And verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He had sent. This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent." Well, this can be a tough one for some folks to swallow, but who's the one doing the working when an individual comes to faith in Christ? It's God, right? This is the work of God going on in your life. Now, here's where sometimes people can get a little off. The work of God is going on when an individual comes to faith in Christ. But now the question is. Who is it that's doing the believing? When God brings a sinner to Christ? Is it the center or is it God? It's the center. It's the center. God does the work. And he produces faith. In the dead center, the dead alien center And that sinner believes. But he believes because of God's work. Now we see this order again in John 6. In verse 44. I think maybe we read this one this morning. John 6.44. This is Jesus speaking. No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. and I will raise him up at the last day." Here's Jesus' statement. We're asking, how can a dead sinner come to faith in Christ? Well, there's two parts. Number one, Jesus says, essentially what he says in John 15, with men, this is impossible. No man can come to me. It doesn't say it's doubtful that they will come to me. It doesn't say it's difficult for them to come to Me. This is talking about ability. No man has the ability to come to Me, Jesus says, except the Father who sent Me. Draw him. Now, if you look up that word draw, one of the synonyms is drag. This is this drawing power. The word picture it's using in secular Greek, and you've heard this before, maybe, but of drawing a bucket out of a well. Some people have the have explained this as you know, the the the father seeks to draw everybody. To himself, and if you cooperate, then you get there. But if you don't cooperate, well, then God just gives you what you want. Well, that can't be what this word means. I mean, can you imagine the individual who goes out to draw water from the well and they have the rope that's tied down to the bucket and they say, if this bucket will cooperate, we're going to get some water. It makes no sense. They're dragging the bucket out of the well. They're drawing the bucket out of the well. God is drawing a dead sinner to himself. through the irresistible power of the Holy Spirit. That's the way this works. No man can. Jesus would use that same phrase in John 6, verse 65, when He would say it this way, Therefore, I said unto you that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father. So, Father is drawing. through the Spirit, He's drawing the dead sinner to Christ. Why? Because those that are in the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. We have no spiritual understanding, no spiritual capacity. There's nothing about Jesus Christ that is attractive to someone who loves darkness and hates light. Not until God does a word. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 gives us another picture. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Starting in verse 3, Paul says, "'But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This is what Paul says. We preach the gospel. This is before verse 3. And then he says, if our gospel is hidden, if it's rejected, if it's hidden, if people don't understand it, if they don't see it, if they don't embrace it, If our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Well, what would their condition be? They're blind. By who? Well, the God of this world is what Paul says here. Those who are of the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. We're talking about the kingdom of darkness. We're talking about the satanic realm, the world, the flesh, the devil. But then he moves on and talks about what God does. And he compares it in verse 6 to creation. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. Now. Here's the question. Why wasn't the light already shining in the beginning? It wasn't there. That's exactly right. It had not yet been created. I mean, it was just this dark, murky chaos is really the picture that we get in the beginning that God begins to bring into order And when God speaks and the light shines into darkness, the reason it wasn't already doing that is because it didn't exist. It wasn't there. God spoke that which was not there into existence. And He does the same thing in the hearts of every sinner who comes to faith in Christ. So look how He says it. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined into our hearts." What hearts? You mean the ones that are wicked and their imagination of every thought is evil continually? The heart that's deceptive? The heart that loves darkness more than lying? Yeah, that's the same heart. The heart of flesh that minds the things of the flesh? That's the same one. God shines the light of the glorious gospel of Christ Let me get back where I am. I'm sorry. He shines the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ into our hearts. We're talking about a work of grace as he gives us life that we did not yet have through the power of the Spirit, who gives us understanding that we did not have through the power of the Spirit. It's this work. How is it that a sinner comes to faith in Christ? God shines His light into the darkness of that individual's heart. It's just another way of saying the Spirit of God brings a dead sinner to life, opens their eyes, gives them a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone, and He causes them to walk in the ways of God. The question then is, as we think about these two basic things tied in with what we said this morning, and we'll be done in just a second, how are we supposed to understand unbelief biblically? How do we understand unbelief biblically? Well, a couple of things. Number one, man is 100% active and responsible for their unbelief. It's not God's fault. That's just how we started out. I mean, if we're looking for somebody to pin it on, you could try to pin it on Adam, but you would have failed too. So you're 100% responsible. You'll never be able to say, God, it was your fault. Secondly, how do we understand man's unbelief biblically? Man is 100% responsible Number two, God is 100% sovereign over all of that. God has the prerogative to choose who He will and will not bring out of unbelief, who He will or will not be merciful to, really is the way that Scripture talks about it. God is sovereign in all that. And what I mean and why I even put that there is there is no one out there who somehow doesn't come to faith, and God says, I thought I was going to get them. It just didn't work. I thought I would get them. It's not the way that works. So what's really the overarching point here? As we think about this from a positive standpoint, the overarching point is this. All that is required for salvation is a gift that is given and obtained 100% by God's sovereign grace. All of it. God doesn't get us 99.5% the way there and we give that other 0.5% push by embracing what He's given. That's not it. God doesn't hold a gift out and then we have to embrace it. Dead people don't embrace anything. Hearts that are continually wicked don't want good gifts. God is 100% responsible for every work of salvation that's ever done in the heart of an individual. And it is all by grace. It is all by mercy. And it is all through Him. And so if God is the God of grace and the God of mercy and God is the only place where that grace and that mercy can be found. Then if you've been brought or if we are brought to a place to where we see our need. Of Jesus grace and Jesus mercy. First thing I would say is that's a gift. The Comforter came to reprove the world of sin. The conviction that's brought into the heart of the sinner who sees his desperate need for Christ, that's a gift. And so now you go to the only one who can give you that grace and that mercy, and you ask for it. Jesus says in Matthew 11, 28, come to me. He says in John 6, 37, those that come to me, I will in no wise cast out. So as we understand unbelief biblically, it leads us to the place to where the only thing we can say is what Jonah said in Jonah 2, and that is, salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we do thank You, Lord, that You are sovereign in the salvation of Your people, that You have determined that You would not lose one and in Your faithfulness, Lord, You have faithfully executed the entire scheme of salvation for Your people up to this point. You planned it from eternity past. Christ secured it through His work on the cross. The Holy Spirit is applying it as He quickens and dwells in Your people. And so, Lord, we just pray You would continue Your work and that we would give you the praise for it in Jesus name. Amen.