Introduction:
3 Reasons You Have to Receive Jesus Today (John 12:36-43):
- Because you may not be able to Tomorrow . (John 12:37,40)
Why Would God Harden a Person's Heart?
- God gives us what we want
- Because it is merciful
- Because Healing is available right now. (John 12:40)
- Because you are building your spiritual Reputation right now. (John 12:42-43)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:55-00:58
Open up your Bibles with me please to John 12.
01:02-01:05
John 12, verse 36.
01:07-01:11
We're continuing our series on knowing about Jesus.
01:12-01:15
Actually it's knowing Jesus, and that's why we're going through John.
01:16-01:20
Jesus said that eternal life is knowing Him.
01:22-01:27
And too many people sitting in churches know about Jesus, but they don't know Jesus.
01:29-01:30
That's why we're going through this gospel.
01:31-01:32
Look at verse 36.
01:35-01:41
This is actually where we left off last week, so if you'll indulge me, we're going to do just a tiny bit of overlap.
01:42-01:48
Jesus concluded His teaching to the people who were standing in His face and basically just rejecting Him.
01:48-01:51
Remember we talked about that last week?
01:51-02:00
They were like, "We already have all the answers." And Jesus pointed out they were ignorant of their true condition and they had no sense of urgency.
02:00-02:02
And this is how that passage closed.
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Jesus said, "While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." When Jesus had said these things, He departed and hid Himself from them.
02:19-02:24
though He had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in Him.
02:26-02:41
So that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, "Lord, who has believed what He heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Therefore, they could not believe.
02:42-03:18
For again, Isaiah said, "He has blinded their eyes harden their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them." Stop there for a second. This passage right here, this is a divine commentary on unbelief. Because we've been going through John since chapter 1, verse And really, chapters 5 through 12, it's just rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection.
03:18-03:23
For the most part, there were some people who received Christ, but for the most part, it was just rejection.
03:24-03:37
And here, we have under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John saying, "Here's what was going on." This was actually prophesied by Isaiah 700 years earlier.
03:37-03:40
And you notice there are two cross-reference verses here.
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The first one is verse 38, that comes from Isaiah 53.1.
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And if you go to Isaiah 53.1, what you have there is the prophet Isaiah was surprised by the blindness and deafness of people.
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Isaiah would say, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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You hear the message of God and you see His hand at work and you still don't believe?
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Like what the heck is going on with you?" The second cross-reference is from verse 40.
04:11-04:13
That comes from Isaiah 6.10.
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And a lot of us are familiar with that passage.
04:17-04:22
In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees the glory of God in the temple.
04:24-04:40
And Isaiah was commissioned to go to Israel, but when God sent him, God gave Isaiah a warning like, "Oh, by the way." says, "I've blind and hardened the people who refuse me, and they're never going to be healed.
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They're never going to be saved." So why did John, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, cross-reference these verses here?
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What's the point?
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Here's the point.
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All these people in chapters 5-12 who shockingly rejected Jesus Christ, God blinded and hardened their hearts.
05:13-05:17
They now cannot believe.
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And you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, hang on, hang on a second.
05:23-05:31
Jeff, it sounds like what you're saying is it's sort of God's fault that these people don't believe.
05:33-05:34
Yeah.
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Look, it's what the passage says, right?
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I don't make up the message, I just broadcast the message, and if you look at the message, it clearly says that God prevents some people from believing.
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You're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.
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How can that be?
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I thought that God wanted people saved.
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I thought God loved saving people.
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Why would, if God wants people saved, why would He blind and harden some people so that they can't be saved?" Look, there's a mystery in salvation.
06:18-06:23
How God calls and man responds.
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And you're like, "Well, how does that all work?" And I don't know.
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I don't know how that works.
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Because He is God and I am not.
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And that means it's okay if there are some things about God that I don't understand.
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I have as much chance of fully understanding God as a fruit fly does of fully understanding an iPhone.
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It's not going to happen.
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Okay?
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And church, we have to be okay with that, but I do have to say this.
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There are many Christians who simply boil it down to this.
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God chooses some people to save, and He chooses some people who are not going to be saved.
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That's how some Christians boil it down.
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And get it on the record, I do not believe that.
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I do not believe that's how it works.
07:20-07:34
I believe it is so much more complicated and intricate and purposeful than just simply God in heaven going, "You, not you, not you, not you, you, you, you, not..." I don't believe that.
07:36-08:00
When I was training in Chicago, I was with a group of pastors who were talking about just some interactions they've had with their sons, and the one pastor said to me, "Jeff, It must be hard for you to not be able to have a conversation with your son." And I said, "Well, you know how I look at it.
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I'll have all of heaven to talk to him.
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I'll have all of eternity to catch up with him." And the one pastor just kind of sneered at me.
08:11-08:22
He goes, "If he's elect." I jammed my elbow into his eye.
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I did not, but by show of hands, how many are you wishing that that's how the story ended?
08:31-08:31
Okay.
08:34-08:36
I had a moment of divine restraint.
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But if you're still not up to speed here, let me break that down for you.
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This man's theology believed that that God would take someone who has the inability to accept or reject Him and send that person to hell because that's just His purpose.
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And we're just going to be okay with, "I created Him and He can't accept or reject Christ, but I'm going to send Him to hell just because that's what I think." Let me ask you, does that sound like God to you?
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You've been studying God's Word.
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Does any of that sound like the character and the heart of God that we read in His revealed Word?
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Does that sound like God to you?
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Because that sure doesn't sound like God to me.
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So you're like, "So what do we have here?" What we have in this passage is - and this is no overstatement - this is the gravest warning in the entire Bible that if you're like Jeff, you have one more sermon to preach, you pick the subject, and this is the last sermon before you're heading to heaven, what would it be? It would have to be this, because this is the most urgent warning in all of the Bible, and that is this, "If you will not believe, someday you cannot believe." In other words, if you refuse to receive Jesus Christ today, tomorrow you will be unable to believe in Jesus Christ.
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I want to break that down for you on your outline, jot this down.
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Three reasons you have to receive Jesus today.
10:29-10:34
Okay, so last week we were sort of talking to Christians that were like, "You know, I tried witnessing to this guy and he's not listening.
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Why is that?" We kind of saw that in the text.
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I want to speak mainly today of people that are sitting in church or people that are watching the stream and have not yet received Jesus Christ.
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I'm going to show you, there's three reasons you have to receive Him today.
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And jot this one down first of all.
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I already gave you a little spoiler alert, but we're going to flesh this out a bit.
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Number one is because you may not be able to tomorrow.
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You have to receive Jesus today because you may not be able to tomorrow.
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Look at verse 37 again.
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It says, "Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him." So many miracles that we've seen, not just that John recorded, but Matthew recorded, others, and Mark, and Luke, so many miracles, and they still refuse to believe.
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Literally in the Greek, it translates this way, "They kept on not believing on him." That was their commentary.
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kept on not believing on Him, no matter what.
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Now this isn't some sort of a passing comment.
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This verse is the key to understanding the rest of the passage, because yes, we're going to see God blinded.
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Yes, God hardened their hearts, but not arbitrarily.
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God did that because they chose not to believe.
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These people saw Jesus Christ.
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They knew about Him.
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They experienced some things with Him, but they refused to believe in Him, so now, they can't.
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They can't.
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And if you haven't received Jesus Christ, if you've been coming to church, or watching online, and you've been meaning to get around to it Someday, I hope, probably, I think I might do that.
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You can end up just like these people, and that is a horrific and tragic way to live.
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Because there's a physical law that's also a spiritual law that we see taking place right here.
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And that law is called atrophy.
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So try this if you don't believe me.
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What's atrophy?
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We're just gonna call it use it or lose it.
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Use it or lose it.
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So if you don't believe me, I'm gonna give you a little experiment to try.
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You can try this at home.
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And you only need one thing.
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You just need a piece of rope.
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Tie your arm to your side, okay?
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Real tight.
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And don't use that arm for a month.
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You know what happens after a month?
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You lose function of that arm.
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Use it or lose it, pal.
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I read some stories this week about people who had to learn how to walk again after being in a coma.
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Do you know those people spent decades knowing how to walk before they ended up in a coma?
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So why did they have to learn to walk again?
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Use it or lose it.
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This is true physically, and this is true spiritually.
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Listen, here's what he's saying.
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You need to exercise faith when you can, or you will lose the ability to exercise faith.
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The day will come when you cannot believe.
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Did you see that in the text?
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Verse 37, look at this again.
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It says, "They still did not believe in Him." Now jump down to verse 39, "Therefore, they could not believe." Did you see that?
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Did you see that?
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Would not turned into could not.
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Did you see that?
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How did that happen?
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Use it or lose it.
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By the laws of nature that God created, God blinds and hardens people who refuse to believe.
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If you choose unbelief, if that's your choice, the hand of God is in the consequence of that choice.
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We've seen this in Romans chapter one, haven't we?
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Where people refused to acknowledge God, they didn't give thanks to God, they wouldn't worship God.
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Three times in Romans 1, God gave them over.
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God's like, "Oh, you don't want me.
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All right.
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You don't have to have me.
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Oh, you prefer sin.
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You can have sin." And he just lets them have it.
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And what happens?
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We saw, you know, debased minds.
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We saw applauding sin.
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We talked about all that stuff.
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That's the same principle in play here.
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For the person that says, "I don't want to receive Jesus Christ." God's going to be like, "Okay.
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You don't want to see?
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Then I'll make it so you're unable to see.
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You want to open your heart up to the gospel?
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Well, I'll make it so that you can't open your heart." God is saying use it or lose it.
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You're like, "Well, why would God do that?" That's a great question.
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Why would God harden a person's heart?
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Why would He do that?
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There's a whole lot of reasons, but I'm just going to give you my top two that you need to consider.
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Why would God harden a person's heart?
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Jot these down.
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The first one is God gives us what we want.
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It's just that simple.
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God gives us what we want, here and eternally.
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This is God's way of saying, "Oh, you don't want the light of the gospel?
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Well, then I'm just going to turn all the lights off." You prefer darkness, okay.
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Then you'll have it.
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By the way, the really devastating thing about that is that's true for eternity.
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That's what hell is.
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God says, "You don't want Me, My truth, My love, My people, worship, you don't want any of that?
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Well, I have a place that I prepared for the devil and his angels that's going to be separate from Me where that stuff that I mentioned, that doesn't happen there.
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And if you don't want Me, I'll put you in a place eternally where you'll never have to deal with Me." That's really God giving people what they want.
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That's how people make God out to be the bad guy.
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If you don't want worship, God's truth, God's people, God's presence, if you don't want those things, you don't want to go to heaven because that's what you have for eternity.
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So God hardens a person's heart.
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First of all, it's Him giving us what we want, but I want you to think about this, and boy, this is a whole other sermon series, but God hardening a person's heart is merciful to that person.
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Like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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Now you lost me." How is it merciful that God would harden the person's heart?
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Because there's another principle in place spiritually that we see through God's Word, and that's this, the more you know, the more you're accountable to know.
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And the more you're accountable for.
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To whom much is given, much is required.
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The more you know, the more you are accountable for.
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And Jesus made it clear, the more that you know and the more that you reject, the worse judgment will be for you.
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The worse hell will be for you.
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That's why Jesus said to the people of His day that He was standing there preaching to, He said, "You know what?
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It's going to be better for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment." Remember how wicked those cities were?
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He said, "Yeah, they were wicked, but they didn't have the Son of God standing in front of them. The more you know, the more you're accountable for. And this is God's way of being merciful to say, "I'm going to block off the spiritual information flow because hell's going to be a lot worse if you keep taking it in and not doing anything with it." So it's merciful. So for those of you that are sitting here, those of you that are watching the stream and you haven't gotten serious about Jesus Christ, you're in a really bad spot.
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Because if you don't act on the truth, God will take away your ability to recognize the truth.
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If your heart isn't open to the gospel, it gets calloused and unable to receive it.
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It's like seed falling on a hard ground.
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It's not going to take root.
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And the problem's not the seed, the problem is the ground.
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It's the same thing with the gospel.
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The problem isn't the gospel, the problem is your heart.
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And if you decide you're going to harden your heart against the gospel, God is going to cooperate with that action and He will harden your heart.
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That's why you have to respond today.
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Because you might not be able to tomorrow.
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Look at verse 41.
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It says, "Isaiah said these things because he saw His glory and spoke of Him." You're like, "Wait, Isaiah saw Jesus?" Yeah, remember we mentioned Isaiah 6, Isaiah seeing God in the temple, and the train of his robe filling and the angels and John saying that was Jesus that Isaiah saw and you're like well why is this comment here I mean besides that's awesome why is this comment here and he's just simply pointing out that the same principles been in play since ancient Israel They refuse to look to God.
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So God says, "I'm shutting their eyes." They refuse to allow them into their hearts.
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God says, "Well, then your heart's going to be hard." And this law has been as consistent over time as gravity.
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It was true in Isaiah's day.
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It was true and fulfilled in Jesus' day, and it's also true in our day.
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God is the same, people are the same, and the response is the same.
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that you can get to the place in your life where you have said no to Jesus Christ so many times and rejected Him, God will give you over to your blindness, give you over to your hardness of heart, that you can live the rest of your life on this earth unable to receive Jesus Christ.
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And there are other places in the Bible that speak about this, and if I had more time, I'd love to chase that down with you.
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But this is a spiritual truth.
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it or lose it.
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Right now somebody might be like, "Whoa, man.
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I never really understood this before, but now I'm wondering, have I done that?
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Have I crossed that line?
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I mean I haven't received Christ yet, I haven't seen, this is resonating, but have I hardened and blinded myself beyond hope?
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Have I crossed?
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Am I like one of these guys now?" Well, I got some great news for you.
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If you're asking that, if you're wondering about that, if that scares you to death, then the answer is more than likely no.
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Because the person who truly gets in this condition doesn't even care to ask.
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That you try to share the gospel with them and they're like, "Not interested, don't care." Well, I do have to warn you again, as I have often, every time you say no to Jesus, it gets easier to say no the next time, and then it gets easier to say no the next time, and then it gets easier to say no the next time, and then, you're like, "Why are we still talking about this.
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I shared with you before the man that I encountered in prison ministry, he's like, "Hey, so if somebody prays to receive Jesus on their deathbed, they go to heaven, right?" And I said, "Yeah, that's true." He goes, "Well, I'm just going to do that." And it was so funny to look at his face because it was like he found a way to cheat the system.
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Like the Almighty all-knowing didn't think about that, huh?
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I just found a way in.
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And what he was saying was I could live like the devil for my life on the earth and I'll just kind of slip in the back door of heaven at the end, right?
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Because I mean, you said deathbed, you talked about thief on the cross, not by works.
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He says, "Oh yeah." He goes, "I'll just give my life to Jesus on my deathbed." And I said, "No, you won't." He was like, "What do you mean no, I won't?" You won't do that.
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He's like, what are you talking about?
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I said, I'm gonna give you two reasons why that's not gonna happen.
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Numero uno, said you might not have a deathbed.
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I know, I know Jesse, we all wanna think that our lives go like this.
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I live to be 104, and then one day I'm really tired, and I'm laying in bed and the doctor says, he's about to pass away peacefully, and the family comes in, and they're all around my bedside holding my hand, and I just go to sleep.
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And everybody says kumbaya or whatever, but that's how we're all gonna go.
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Do you know how rare that is?
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That people actually have a deathbed experience?
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That's just not the norm.
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So I'm like, you might not have that.
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But I told this man, you know what, I'm gonna give it to you.
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I'm gonna say hypothetically, I'm gonna give you that.
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I'm gonna say you're going to live to be over 100 and you're gonna have this ripe old life and you're gonna have your deathbed and your family's gonna be around you.
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I said, I can guarantee you you will not receive Jesus Christ on that day.
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He goes, well, why not?
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I said, because that means from today, every day, Until that day, you're on your deathbed, you're saying no to Jesus Christ.
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So you're telling me that on your deathbed, you're magically going to be into spiritual realities and you're suddenly going to have this hunger for Jesus that I didn't have the last 70 years.
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I call baloney on that.
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That's not gonna happen.
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You're not gonna suddenly be interested in Jesus because you have said no your entire life.
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What's one more time?
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And I told him, if that's your plan, what you're planning is to harden your heart.
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If you won't believe today, you may not be able to tomorrow.
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Three reasons you have to receive Jesus today.
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Number two, because healing is available right now.
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Look at verse 40 again.
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It says, "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them." So do you see, he's saying, if they hadn't refused me, then they could turn to me and experience healing.
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But because they refused me, they're never going to experience healing.
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If you harden your heart, you're never going to experience what God wants for you.
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You'll never know of His goodness and blessing in this life and you're not going to know of the eternal blessing of heaven.
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For those of you that have been putting it off, I just have to ask you, what's keeping you from believing?
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What is it?
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What are you waiting for?
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Why are you putting it off?
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Maybe do you think you're a good enough person to go to heaven on your own merit?
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Because none of us are.
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None of us.
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We all need Jesus Christ.
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Is there some sin in your life that you don't want to forsake?
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Like, "Well, if I come to Jesus, I know He's going to want to deal with this sin." Is that what's holding you back?
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Are you afraid of what your friends and family are going to say?
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Like, "Oh, he started going to that church that meets in that office building and now he's one of them Jesus kooks." You afraid of your family saying something like that?
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Or worse?
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Have you not found God's love compelling?
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Don't you recognize that He is what is missing from your life?
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Today, today, you can receive and experience healing.
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And that means way more than physical healing.
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A lot of times when we talk about healing, we think of cancer or a virus, and yes, that's part of it.
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But this is so much more than that.
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This is not just healing in your body, but healing in your mind.
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Healing in your spirit.
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It's total healing.
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And I want to remind you that God loves you.
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He loves you and He demonstrated that love through Jesus Christ.
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And did you know God wants to give you everything?
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And by everything, I mean literally everything.
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He wants to give you everything.
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Forgiveness of sin, eternal life, every provision in this life, and comfort, and peace, and joy, and everything that God wants to give you comes through the person of Jesus Christ.
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So I have to ask you, why would you wait?
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It would be like, imagine you had a horrible series of events in your life, where you ended up living in a dumpster.
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And after living in this dumpster for a year, somebody comes along and sees you and feels bad for you, and says, "I'll be right back." And they come back and say, "Hey, here's the keys to a mansion.
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You know what?
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It's all yours.
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have it. What would you do? Would you say, "Loving the dumpster life, bro! Thanks, but no thanks!" Would you do that? You're like, "Is it a really nice dumpster?" Of course you wouldn't. You wouldn't wait. If somebody handed you the keys to a house, you would say, "Well, why am I living here? I don't have to live here. This is horrible. Why do I have to live here? I was given access to something better." For those of you that haven't received Christ, I want to ask you, do you feel like your life's in a dumpster right now, maybe not literally, but maybe metaphorically, you feel like, "Man, I have been in the dumpster, and I have the pleasure of telling you that God has so much better for you, and you can have it today, because healing's available right now, if you'll turn to Him." The three reasons you have to receive Jesus today, the third one, jot this one down, because you're building your spiritual reputation right now.
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Because you are building your spiritual reputation, or rep, as we say in Shekorah, right now.
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Look at verses 42 and 43.
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Yes, many even of the authorities believed in Him.
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But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
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For they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God." I'm going to give you a little insight here.
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This is what my week looked like last week.
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I read this passage.
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And I'm like, "Were these people really believers?
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Or were they like not believers?" And I kind of looked at the passage, I looked it over and looked it over, and I have this stack of books sitting on my desk that explains some of the Greek wording.
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Then I got online and looked up some commentaries from people a lot smarter than me, and I'm still not sure.
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So I decided, and we don't normally do this, but we're going to settle this right here today.
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We're going to take a vote.
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Okay?
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So here's the issue on the table.
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Are these people true believers?
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We're going to take a vote, but don't vote yet because I want to present the options to you and let you think about them for a second.
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And then we're going to vote.
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And however rich Sprunk votes is how I'm going to believe.
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I heard somebody say amen.
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I'm going to give you the sales pitch for both sides, okay?
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Were these people true believers?
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First when I read this, I'm like, "Well, no, obviously they're not." Here's the sales pitch for no.
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They didn't seem to reflect the radical call of discipleship that Jesus just made.
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Remember Jesus just said, "You're going to hate your life, and that's when you find it?" I'm like, "Well, boy, these people sure didn't meet that criteria, did they?" I mean, they were afraid of the religious leaders, they wouldn't confess to believing Jesus, they were afraid of getting thrown out of the synagogues, and they cared more about what man thought of them than what God thought.
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So I'm like, "Absolutely, these guys can't be believers, like not true believers.
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That's no.
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Don't vote yet because I did a little more digging." Here's the sales pitch for yes, that they were true believers.
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And the yes comes from the way this is worded in the Greek.
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The way this is worded in the Greek seems to indicate they were believers, just really private secret wimpy believers.
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And a lot of that hinges on one word, and that's the word, look at your Bibles, verse 42, the first word, my Bible says "nevertheless." Now understand in the Greek, that is like ultimate emphatic.
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In other words, you're reading this passage, you're reading through John 12, and here's the flow.
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It's like some people are blind and hardened as prophesied and will never experience God's salvation.
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Nevertheless, there were some people in the authorities that believed.
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So that word nevertheless being so emphatic, it's like, "But!" Like there were people who rejected and God hardened them, "But these guys." That's a sales pitch for yes.
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All right, so we're going to vote.
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By show of hands, and you can vote at home on the stream.
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Yes, I can see you on the stream.
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I know how you're voting.
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It's just to freak them out, Alex.
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No, no, no, no, no paper about.
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We learned our lesson.
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We learned our lesson.
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Like wow, we had 500 yes votes.
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And 300 of them came in Sunday night after youth group.
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And we told everybody to go to sleep.
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All right, so do we know what we're voting for?
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How many people say, "No, I don't think these people were true believers." Show of hands.
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You're like, "Don't meet the call of discipleship that Jesus just said.
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Raise them high, come on.
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No, no, no." Okay, we have a handful of people here in person that say no.
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How many people say, "I think they are true believers." Yes.
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Okay.
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More than the no's.
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Which said yes?
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So we're going to say yes.
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You're like, "So which is it?" Truthfully, because of the word nevertheless, the way the Greek syntax and the word...that's kind of how I lean on that.
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But I'm not sure.
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But, but, but, but, but, there is one thing that I can say for sure, 100% absolute certainty there's one thing that I can say for sure about this passage, that this is a really sad commentary on these men that has been recorded forever in the Word of God.
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Isn't it?
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Could you imagine running into one of these guys in heaven?
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Like, who are you?
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I was one of the authorities in Jesus' day.
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You might've read about me in John 12.
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And you're like, "Oh, you were the guy "that was too scared to confess Jesus." Oh, yeah.
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"You cared more about what people thought of you than God.
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"Is that you?" Oh, well, did it say that?
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Oh, I guess it does say that.
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"You were concerned about being thrown out of the synagogue." "Yeah, it's kind of lame." All I can say is, look, this isn't the testimony that I want.
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And even if these people are believers, let's just say they are, even if they're believers, this is such a terrible way to be described!
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But there are people here today that really fall into this same camp.
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Like I don't know where any of you are with Jesus.
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I don't have like magic preacher glasses that I can see your heart.
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So he's definitely not saving them, she definitely is.
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I have no way of emphatically determining such a thing, but we have people, same camp.
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I believe in Jesus, but I'm afraid of people.
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I believe in Jesus, but I'm afraid of what somebody might say to me.
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Or is it going to affect me negatively in some way?
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I believe in Jesus, but really I prefer affirmation from people more than from God.
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I just want to remind you that right now, right now, you are building your spiritual reputation right now, your legacy right now. And living a half-hearted commitment is not only a disgrace to you, but it's damaging to others that you might have influence over. Like what do you mean by that? I'm not going to mention names, but recently there was a famous Christian apologist who passed And soon after he died, came out all of these allegations of sexual sin.
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And when something like that happens, and all that happens so often, but when something like that happens, it not only calls the person's legacy into question, but let's be honest, it calls the person's salvation into question in the back of our minds, doesn't it?
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And we hear a story like that and think, "Wow.
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Was he really saved?
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I mean, I thought he was, but wow." And suddenly this guy is just like the Jewish authorities here.
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Were they truly saved?
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And we're like, "I don't know, but I wonder, how can someone who knows Jesus act like that?" And I just have to ask you, church, is that the legacy that you want?
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Is that the legacy that you want?
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That someday I'm doing your funeral and I'm standing up and I'm like, "He believed in Jesus," and you're sitting there and you're going, "But he had a lot of secret sin that we found out about after he died." Is that the legacy you want?
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I'm standing at your funeral and I say, "Well, she believed in Jesus." And you're going, "But, you know, she kept it private because she was so worried about what other people might think about her if they found out she loved Jesus." Is that the legacy you want?
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Like he believed in Jesus and you're like, "But he always seemed to care more about pleasing people than pleasing God.
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Is that the legacy you want?
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Right now we're all like, "No.
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I sure wouldn't want to be remembered that way." Then I would say, "Well, then get your spiritual act together today so that someday when people talk about your faith, unlike these guys here, they don't have to say, 'But today, today, When? Today!
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Why does it have to be today?
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Because today is the only day that you're guaranteed to have.
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So today has to be the day of salvation.
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Tomorrow, you might not be here.
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Or your heart may be too hard to receive Jesus Christ and all that He has to give you.
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I'd like you to bow your heads with me please as the worship team comes up.
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Just bow your heads, we're not looking around.
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Because we don't care what people think, right?
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We care what God thinks.
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So just bow your head and close your eyes.
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And I want to talk specifically to people that have sort of been hanging out at church but haven't received Jesus Christ personally.
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You can do that today.
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In fact, you absolutely have to do that today.
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Because tomorrow you might not feel like it.
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Just with your head bowed, I just want you to pray something like this.
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It's not a matter of repeating the words, it's embracing the call of the gospel.
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What you need to pray right now, "God, I recognize that I am a lost and hopeless sinner on my own." Pray that.
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Pray, "God, I understand that Jesus Christ came to die for my sin.
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Jesus Christ took the punishment that I deserve, and Jesus Christ rose from the dead to give me the promise of eternal life.
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God, I believe that You love me, and that You came to provide a way that I can be with You for eternity.
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Pray that.
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Pray, "God, I want to receive Him today, because I realize...
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If I don't use it, I'll lose it.
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I realize spiritual atrophy is a thing.
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So Father, give me the faith to believe today.
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Give me the faith to turn from my sin and embrace this gift in Jesus Christ that You have so lovingly given.
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Father, I pray for those that maybe you're praying that right now are still wrestling through that right now.
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I pray, Father, You would draw them to You through the glorious gospel of Your Son.
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So if anyone prayed that prayer, or if you're like I want to, I want to encourage you to come and see me, Or contact me.
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Like, when should I do that?
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Today.
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Let's do it today.
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In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, forever.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 12:36-43
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
When thinking about “how salvation works”, do you lean more towards “God's sovereignty” or “man's responsibility”? Why?
Should we give up on someone who has rejected the Gospel? Is there ever a right time to assume they are “blinded and hard hearted” beyond hope? Or do we keep appealing to them to believe in Jesus?
The authorities in John 12:42-43, do you believe they were truly saved or not? Why?
Breakout
Pray for one another.