Well, let's open our Bibles together to the Gospel of John, Chapter 3. John's Gospel, Chapter 3. Let me turn this on. That might be better. Maybe you can hear now. John chapter 3. I'm going to begin reading in verse 13. And hear the Word of God. No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man, who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. And if you look at the end of chapter three in verse 27, I'm going to read 27 until the end of the chapter. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but a friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all and what he has seen and heard that he testifies and no one receives his testimony. He who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God. For God did not give the spirit by measure. The father loves the son and has given all things into his hands. He who believes in the son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe the son shall not see life. that the wrath of God abides on Him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that it is true in every sense of the word. We thank You that it has revealed to us the wonderful grace of the gospel, and even the free offer of the gospel to sinners. And we pray tonight that you would give us ears to hear, that you would give us eyes to see, that you would even awaken the dead, Father, those who might be spiritually dead. And we pray that you would comfort your people, and that you would refresh them, Lord, in the truths of who you are and of what you have done. We pray for your blessing, in Jesus' name, amen. So tonight we want to focus in on the topic that question 91 raises in the Baptist Catechism. And that question is, what is faith in Jesus Christ? What is faith in Jesus Christ? And the answer provided for us in the catechism is this, faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered to us in the gospel. You may notice that in this question and in this answer that the Catechism isn't just speaking about just any type of faith or just any type of belief. It's talking about faith in Jesus Christ that is a saving grace. And then he goes on, or the Catechism goes on, and if you notice, he does a couple of things in the answer. He talks about receiving and resting upon him alone for salvation. Receiving Christ and resting upon Christ alone for salvation as a part of faith that is saving. But it also says, as he is offered to us in the gospel. So there needs to be both an understanding knowledge of the gospel, there needs to be an ascent to the truth, and at the same time, saving faith is also a resting upon that truth and a receiving of the person of Christ, trusting in his work and in his person to save us from our sins. John Owen in his work on the person of Christ, in chapter 10, he speaks this way about faith that saves. And notice what he says. The person of Christ, which is the first and principal object of that faith, wherewith we are required to believe in him, and that so to do is not only to assent to the truth of the doctrine revealed by him, It is also to place our trust and our confidence in Him for mercy, relief, protection, for righteousness, for life, and for salvation. Both emphases here by John Owen on the ascent to the truth. the knowledge of the gospel, the person of Christ, who he is as God's savior for sinners. And at the same time, this faith is a faith that places our trust and our confidence in him. Our pastor sent out an article this week. I don't know if you took time to read it. The questions we ask when others leave the faith. There's been some noteworthy examples of that recently in the news. And I would recommend you reading this article. It was posted on August the 30th, October 2019. But in the fourth section of the article of the blog, the last paragraph of section four, he talks about saving faith. He talks about what is faith. This is what he says. Mere intellectual knowledge about Christ is not enough in itself to tie our hearts to him. Mere intellectual knowledge about Christ is not enough in itself to tie our hearts to him. We must embrace Well, we know by faith. Peter confesses Christ, and this is the reason why he will not go away or he will not depart from Christ. When the truth of Christ is confessed on the basis of a resolution to go to no one else, it is an act of saving faith. Firm faith in the person and the office of Christ, firm faith in the person and the office of Christ, Receiving and resting on him is saving faith in operation. Again, all three of these emphasize in different ways the same truth, the necessity of knowing the gospel, the critical importance of knowing the truth about who Christ is and what Christ has done for sinners. But at the same time, understanding that intellectual knowledge is sent alone to the doctrine is not sufficient. They all go on to say that there must be a resting in Him, a trusting in Him. And as some of the Puritans used to say, a closing with Christ, a casting ourselves upon Christ, on who He is and what He has done. We are trusting Him. for our salvation and Him alone. So let's look at our text for tonight. Just a few introductory remarks about John's gospel I think are needed and are important before we look at this particular topic. First of all, John's gospel is a gospel that has a stated goal. It has a stated purpose. That stated purpose is found in chapter 20 and verse 31. But we are told that these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So the purpose of John's gospel, all that he writes, is so that we might hear the gospel of Christ, and in hearing the truth of Christ, that we would believe that he is the Christ. the Son of God, and that by believing we might have life in his name. There's something else interesting about John's Gospel that's quite strikingly different from the rest of the Gospels, the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Now there's a lot that's different about John than there is about Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but this particular point, as it has to do with belief or faith, I think is dramatically Noticeable. The Greek word or the Greek term for faith is pistouo, I believe. In John's gospel, a form of the Greek word for faith or believe, and most of the time, except I think for once in our New King James Bible, I think every time except for once, it's translated either believe, believed, or believing. The term faith is not used. But this term for belief in John's gospel is used 101 times. 101 times. Well, you might say to yourself, well, it's the gospel. He's going to talk about faith. Certainly he should mention faith. He should mention believing in Christ 100 times. But consider that in Matthew, this word for faith is used 11 times. In Mark, it is used 15 times. And in Luke, it is used nine times. So 35 times in the other three Gospels combined, and yet in John's Gospel, it's used at least 100 times, maybe even 101 times. So when we think about this catechism question of what is faith in Jesus Christ, my mind automatically went to John because of John's emphasis on faith and belief. Because you see that the truths that are detailed and taught throughout the Gospel of John are not a thread of truth or a thread of teaching about belief. but rather it is like a highway, a four-lane highway where you can't miss the term believe. You can't miss the fact if you read John's gospel, you can't miss the fact that his emphasis is on believing in Christ. But the word in the gospel is not always used in the same sense. It is used to describe those who do not believe as well as those who do believe. It is also used to describe a type of belief that is not saving, a type of belief that does not unite someone to Christ. Let's look at an example in chapter 2, verses 23 and 24. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, During the feast, many believed in his name, when they saw the signs which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself to them, because he knew all men, and he had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. And what's interesting about this, is more than one thing. One thing is we have to ask the question, what type of belief did they have then in Christ, which led Christ not to commit himself to them? But in the Greek language, this word commit, this talks about Christ would not commit himself to them, is the only time that the form of the word pistou or belief is used where it's not translated belief. translated commit. You could translate this verse that Jesus did not entrust himself to them, Jesus did not commit himself to them, Jesus did not believe in some form, he did not trust them because he had no need to for anyone to testify of man. J.C. Ryle in his commentary on the Gospel of John says this about this verse. He says that we lastly in this passage, we see lastly in this passage how perfect is our Lord Jesus Christ's knowledge of the human heart. We are told that when our Lord was at Jerusalem the first time, he did not commit himself to those who professed belief in him. He knew that they were not to be depended on. They were astonished at the miracles which they saw him work. They were even intellectually convinced that he was the Messiah whom they had long expected, but they were not disciples indeed. They were not converted. They were not true believers. So as Jesus reveals the hearts of these men, and maybe even women, who had a type of faith, a type of belief in Him, we are told clearly that it was not a saving belief. because Jesus would not commit himself to them. I personally think, just from an interpretation standpoint, I personally think that their belief in Christ was just a knowledge that he was a man doing miracles. That he was a man, probably sent from God, doing miracles. Whether or not they believed that he was the Christ, just intellectually or not, I don't know. But there was something missing, there was something vacant. about their faith where Jesus would not commit himself to them. So as we come to our text and we think about faith particularly, and I need to do this quickly, there are five lessons that we need to consider from this text, and what I'll do for the sake of time this evening is not read all of the passages. I will give you some quotes, or I will give some of the references for the texts, but in order to help us with our time, I think it's important that we understand these five lessons, five lessons from our passage that we've read tonight, and we will also be referring over to John chapter one as well. What is this first lesson that we learn from our text? The first lesson that we are taught about faith is that we are taught that God is a God of sovereign grace and we are to trust Him. That we are to trust in the God of sovereign grace. At the beginning of chapter 3, which we did not take time to read, is the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus where Jesus emphasized for him over several times that he must be born again. He must be born of water and the Spirit or he will not see or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And the sovereignty aspect of this is the fact that Jesus points him to the work of the Spirit and that the work of the Spirit must take place within a person in order for them to enter the kingdom of God or to even see and understand what the kingdom of God is. It comes to a pinnacle in verse 8 of chapter 3 where Jesus says to Nicodemus, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it. But you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes, and so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." An emphasis on the sovereign working of the Spirit of God to bring about the new birth in the hearts of people that will produce faith and repentance in them and belief in Jesus Christ. We read also in verse 27, you may just remember as we read in beginning chapter 3 in verse 27, that a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. These Pharisees had come to John and said, are you the Christ? He said, no, I am not the Christ. I've come to bear witness about the Christ. And then these Pharisees come back to him and ask him again, are you the Christ? And he says, no one can receive anything unless it has been given to them from above, that he is not the Christ. He emphasized to them again, he is not the Christ. So God's work of sovereign grace is also seen not only in chapter three, we also recognize in chapter one, verses 12 and 13. And I think it is important that we read these two verses, John chapter one, verses 12 and 13, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. As many as received him, as many as believed upon his name, have the right to become children of God. And how is it that someone can come to believe in his name? Because they are born from above. They're not born from blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but they are born of God. God working in their heart, God Himself invading the human heart with His Holy Spirit to bring life from death so that they will understand, so that the sinner would understand that they need a Savior and that Jesus Christ is that perfect Savior. My great-grandparents were primitive Baptists. Now, I do not know the doctrine of Primitive Baptist today. I haven't really had any interest in that, but I know enough about Primitive Baptist when my great-grandparents were a part of that church to know that they were so convinced of the sovereignty of God and salvation that there was no need to evangelize anyone. But it was more than just what we might call a hyper-Calvinism, to where you don't need to evangelize or bring the gospel to others. They were so convinced of the sovereignty of God that whoever he had chosen, whether they believed in him in this life or not, that even after death, if God had chosen them, they would still have eternal life. Now that's an extreme position on the sovereignty of God. But it does bear the question if God is sovereign, and he is, in giving new life to a sinner in order for the sinner to turn to Christ and to believe in him, the question we must ask is then what shall we do? What should a sinner do? What should a Christian do? Should we not evangelize? Should we not pray for the lost? Should we not consider missions? We are reminded both in this text and throughout the gospel of John and the New Testament that the sovereign God who saves his people is also a God who uses means. And if you're a Christian here tonight, God has called you to pray for the lost as a means to bring about their conversion. He has called you to share the gospel with the lost. He has called you to teach your children about Christ, about who He is, about what He has done for sinners, and to pray for them. So we should pray and share the good news of Christ because it is the gospel of Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation. It is a teaching and the proclamation of Jesus Christ and him crucified, buried and resurrected from the dead that the Holy Spirit uses to quicken the heart in the new birth. It is that gospel and that gospel alone. But if you're here tonight and you're an unbeliever, And you hear about the sovereignty of God, that the Spirit of God moves as He wills. And He brings to life those whom He chooses. What are you to do as an unbeliever? It's really very simple. You are to believe. You are to believe in the Son of God. that God gave his Son so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. You are to believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and that he became a man, that he lived a sinless life so that his sacrifice upon the cross would be a perfect sacrifice for your salvation. But you are not only to believe the facts of the truth of the gospel, that Jesus died, was buried and rose again for our sins, but you are to cast yourself upon him. You are to trust in him. You are to believe his promises and trust his promises with your life. That Christ has come to save and he must believe that he has come to save you. The second lesson we are taught in this passage, and we'll put the second and the third lessons together for the sake of time, is that we are taught about Christ's person, and that we are also taught about Christ's work. Said another way, we are taught about who Jesus is, and what He has done. Who Jesus is and what He has done. Without reading through the text again, let me just highlight what these texts and also John chapter 1, what they teach us concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. They teach us that Jesus was sent from God the Father. Chapter 3, 13 through 17, and 31 through 34, Jesus Christ was sent from God the Father, that he is eternally the begotten Son of God, that Jesus had no beginning and he has no end, but he is the eternally, the eternal begotten Son of God. John 3.16, John 1.1 and verse 14. Jesus is not only the eternal son of God, but he is also God himself. John 1, 1 and 14. He is God's fullest revelation of himself to mankind. In other words, if you want to know what God is like and who God is, Jesus came in order to reveal him to us. Let me read John 1, verse 18, where John tells us that no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who was in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. The Apostle Paul talks in the book of Corinthians where he addresses the Corinthian church and he says, when God shines the light of the glory of the gospel in the heart of a sinner, that we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What does he mean? That verse always, for a long time, puzzled me. What did Paul mean when he said that we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? What he meant is, if you want to know God, you need to look to Christ. That we behold and learn what God is and who He is like, and what His glory is, by learning and reading the Gospels and the Scriptures. about who God is, that we behold His glory in beholding Christ. He is fully God and fully man. And He is the only Savior for sinners. He is the only Savior for sinners. What is the work of Christ? John chapter 3 verses 14 through 16 references an Old Testament narrative, an Old Testament story. I do want us to turn back to Numbers chapter 21, if you would, Numbers 21, because in John chapter 3, Jesus said, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. And he goes on to define who that son of man is. But that account of the serpent being lifted up in the wilderness is found in Numbers 21. Beginning in verse 9. I'm sorry, verse 4. I want to begin reading in verse 5 where he says, And the people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread. Our soul despises this worthless bread, this manna, this provision from God. So what did God do in verse six? So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And so Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole. And it shall be that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it shall live. And so Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. And so it was. If a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. those who had complained and murmured and despised the provisions of God. The reason I wanted to read it is so that you would see an emphasis in the text of how they responded to God's discipline and judgment. Sort of different in a way from how we respond to God's discipline and judgment when we go through times of suffering because of our sin, a lot of the times we want to get out of the suffering. But that's the primary point of our petitions to God. Lord, take this away. But what the Israelites did after God had sent these serpents into the camp where many people had died. We see the priority of their petition in verse seven. Well, they said the people came to Moses. And here was the first words out of their mouth. We have sinned. We have sinned. For we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And so Moses prayed for the people. And those who had been bitten by the serpents, who had not died, who believed and trusted in the promise of God through the servant Moses, when they looked upon the serpent, when they looked upon the bronze serpent, they were healed. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. The work of Christ is seen and defined in this passage as being lifted up. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Christ was lifted up upon the cross. He was lifted up for our salvation. He was nailed to the cross. The innocent lamb of God who was slain. And he was lifted up and was scorned and was mocked. but he did so for our salvation. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent, Jesus Christ was lifted up. so that all who believe in Him, all who look to Him, all who trust in Him will have everlasting life. The fourth lesson we learn is that we are reminded in this text of God's love for sinners. And the last lesson is that we learn of the urgency to believe in Christ. I want to close with just two illustrations. We are reminded of the love of God for sinners. It's found in John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And I wish we had time to unfold the biblical truths on the eternal love of God. and the love of his son and the love of his spirit to save sinners from their sins. But this morning, during Sunday school, and I couldn't get over it this afternoon, where our pastor explained to us the Greco-Roman culture and the depravity and the wickedness things that were taking place that we would not even want to look at. And he placed these things before us as to the culture of what the gospel was being spread in, where the gospel was being taught and preached by the Apostle Paul and the other apostles and the Christians in the first and second century. And as I was sitting right back there in the third row, it kept coming into my mind as he was explaining the evil of man and the sinfulness of man. For God so loved the world. For God so loved the world that he gave. And it just kept repeating itself in my mind as he was explaining how sinful we really are. that God loved us when we didn't love Him. And He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And that gospel message, that message of Christ and Him crucified was so powerful through the working of the Holy Spirit that it changed families. It changed cultures. He described what a church gathering might look like in the first and second century, and it's a way in which I had never thought of before. But it reminded me of the love of God and the salvation of those who were his enemies. And yet he loved them from before the foundation of the earth, and he brought them to himself by His Holy Spirit. And He changed them. He changed them. And He changed the world. But there's also an urgency. There's also an urgency. For he who does not believe is condemned already. He who does not believe is condemned already. And John the Baptist, even at the very last verse of chapter 3, says, And he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him. There's only two paths. There's only two paths. There's a path to eternal life, which is through Jesus Christ, the son of God, who died and was buried and rose again to save sinners from their sins. And there is a path to destruction, a path to eternal misery, eternal suffering, and a place that the Bible calls hell. And everybody in this room is on one of those two paths. And there's an urgency for us to consider our own faith. What type of faith do we have? Is it an intellectual knowledge alone? Do we just intellectually believe the facts? about Christ, about what He has done? Or have you by faith given yourself to Him, entrusted yourself to Him, cast yourself upon Him, the Savior who died for sinners? So it is crucial and urgent To remind ourselves again, what is it to have faith in Christ? And to have faith in Christ is to believe, find page one here. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel. Let us pray. Father, we ask that you would bless your word. We thank you for it. We pray that you would open our eyes and our hearts to the true condition, Lord, of our own soul. Lord, if we have never truly trusted in Christ, but only believe the facts about him, Lord, make that known to us. We pray for the working of your Holy Spirit to bless your word in Jesus name. Amen.