Gospel chapter 12. I've looked at different things to preach on this week and this is kind of where the Lord settled me. I'm going to give you a little bit of a backdrop before we get to this. Let me say this as well, John's Gospel chapter 12 verse 37. Whatever my allergies are doing to me right now, I don't know what for sure, but I have I've never been as sleepy the last two or three days as I've been in my life. I slept, and I'm not joking, I slept till 11 o'clock yesterday morning, got up, went to a birthday party, came home, went to bed, got up, went back to bed, got up, studied, went back to bed, slept all night. I can lay down on that pew right now and go out like a light. I don't know what it is it's doing to me, but I've never been as sleepy in my life. I have zero energy. You're thinking, praise God, he won't preach long this morning, and I probably won't. But I just, so if I don't make sense, just please pray for me. I mean, I just, I don't know what's going on, but it's just, my allergies a lot of times in the spring, I have a couple bouts, usually. And it's not uncommon, but man, it's knocking me for a loop right now. All right, John's Gospel, chapter 12, verse 37. Everybody there? It says, But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him, that the same Isaiah, Isaiah, this is Isaiah, so it's referring to the prophet, might be fulfilled which he spake, Lord, who hath believed thy report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? For those of you that read your Bibles, you know that's from Isaiah chapter 53, we've got a few answers. Verse 39, therefore they could not believe because that Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes and 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. I think this is one of the saddest verses in the Bible, verse 42. Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also, many believed on him. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him. At least they should be put out of the synagogue. They love the praise of men more than the praise of God. Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful again for your mercy, for your grace, for your love and your forgiveness. And God, I pray this morning that you will help us today. Holy Spirit, I pray that you give me the works needed. I need you to take over. and preach this as you see fit. Lord, we love you this morning and we want to love you more each day of our life. We thank you for those that are here, pray for those that could be here and just elect not to, for those that could not be here that would like to be. We ask you, Lord, to touch hearts of anyone that's here this morning, maybe someone that's watching or may listen some other way later on. We thank you, we praise you. Open your word to us now, Holy Spirit. Teach us from your word, show us what you want us to see, and let us learn from you and touch the hearts again. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Now if you go back in your Bibles just a chapter over, you know that chapter 11 is when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and at that time A lot of the religious rulers, as we refer to often as the scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious rulers, each one had their own part. Most of the time they argued back and forth. They didn't get along. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. The only time they really got along was when they wanted to crucify Christ. They came together on that common goal. And they knew that because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead many people believed on him. I mean it was impossible to deny what just happened right before everybody's eyes. There was no question, there was no doubting, there was no making that up. And so they became that much more enraged against him and sought even more to kill him and trying to bring about false accusations. And you go in chapter 12 And that's when Mary adorned his feet with her hair with the ointment and spiked her. And Judas said this ought to have been sold and given to the poor. He could care less about the poor. He wanted the money for himself. Then he rides into Jerusalem on the donkey and they're praising him. And on Hosanna, on the triumphal entry as it's often called. I kind of like what Tom Price said one time. I think the triumphal entry is in Revelations when he comes back at the end of seven years riding on a horse with Lord of Lords and King of Kings written on his side as conquer and rule. That's a triumphal entry right there. But I like this one. But nevertheless they're praising him and they're thanking him. Then you go on down in verse 23 and he's talking to the disciples and he tells them about his forthcoming death. And I started to preach on the thought and I just couldn't get it together about how that he raised Lazarus from the dead and he told them, he said this is for an example for you. And I think one of the reasons that God allowed that to happen, I think there's many, but one of them is that He showed the disciples seven days, or about seven, eight days, or about ten minutes I got back, about a week and a half before He died on the cross that He could raise from the dead. He showed them, I can raise the dead. And so when He died on the cross and they saw that, it should have been easier for them to recognize our Savior could come back from the dead because I watched what He did with Lazarus. And I've often wondered about that. But as the triumph of victory goes on and they're getting, the religious crowd's getting more and more mad at him and they're getting more tore up about how many people are starting to follow him. And while it's going on, they get that much more worried about the effect he's having on the people. No, they could care less about anything but their position. Notice what the Bible says here. And I want to give you just three simple points. It's a little message here. And try to give us something to think about it and help you with your understanding of Jesus. It's a little bit more. In verse 37, we'll pick the story back up. And let me back up just a little bit. Verse 35, back up, he's answering. And he said, Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whether he goeth. That's pretty simple, isn't it? That's speaking spiritually. You know, when Lazarus was dead, he had no use for food. He didn't have any use for anything. It would have done him no good. When people are spiritually dead, they have no use for spiritual food. They need it. They need to be saved. They need to be brought to life. But the things that encourage us, that helps us, does nothing for them. Does that make sense? In verse 36 he says, While ye have light, believe the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed him, and hid himself from them. The reason he hid himself was because he knew they were after him. It wasn't time yet for him to be arrested. He had to have the Last Supper, as we often call it, and give the disciples some parting words, and that is in the next chapter. But here I want to pick this up. He says, But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him, that the saying of Isaiah, as the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, until hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Number one, they believed the bad report. They didn't want to hear the truth. They didn't want to hear what the reality was of the situation. So many times in our life you will find people who you tell the truth to, who you witness to, and they do not want to believe the report of Jesus Christ. They want what the world offers because it's comforting to the flesh. I know you hear this a lot. And it's comforting to them. And so I preached, if you remember, a week or so ago on how the world will not like you. It will hate you because it hated Him. They believe the bad report. Now let me say this. So much of the time, Satan has done everything he can to make the gospel a bad report, to try to counterfeit it, to try to do everything he can to make it in bad light and to cast you and I in a bad light. He does everything he can to make the world hate us and us hate each other. He wants the bad report reported and the truth left aside. He says, Who hath believed our report? Isaiah 53 I think is one of the saddest chapters in the Word of God. It gives a detailed description of how Jesus suffered for you and I. How He was rejected. How He was pushed aside. How He was beaten and torn asunder for your sins, your sins, my sins. Individually we've done these things. And the report that they gave is that they have not believed it. How in the world can people not believe the truth that is set before them in very clear, plain explanation. Yet they believe not the report. Today they still don't believe it. And there's times you and I don't. There's times we don't believe the gospel for what it says, the word of God for what it says. We have to try to somehow have some kind of constant proof and different things in our life. When Jesus is saying everything God has did for you, it is the report that I gave you. Look at it. Give me a report card of what I told you if it is not true. everything he ever told us has come to be past just like he said Isaiah prophesied this and it's exactly what happened oftentimes in the Bible God will tell us something and he warns us yet somehow we act like it's some kind of great big surprise when it happens but listen a bad report will always bring bad heartache and bad pain so it was fulfilled the prophet might be fulfilled to speak Lord who has believed our report and to And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe because Isaiah had said again. So he goes on to tell them again they could not believe. Could you imagine? I've often thought about this. How in the world that you could watch someone be raised from the dead, see the stone rolled back and watch them walk out bound in grave clothes and say loose him and he's perfectly fine. No stench. No decay. And a day later he's sitting down at the table eating. And yet people refuse to believe what they saw with their very eyes. Folks, I'm going to tell you something. Sometimes no matter how much you love somebody, no matter how much you witness to them, no matter how hard you try, they're just not going to believe. They're just not going to believe. Sometimes it's heartache. It's heartbreaking. It's heartache that people won't believe the report that's been given to us when it's right before our very eyes. How in the world could you ignore what God has done and said in His Word? And it said, The arm of the Lord hath been revealed. He has showed Himself clearly to the world, to people, and to you and I. And listen, we must believe the true report, not the bad report. In verse 19, or 39, I'm going to read it again. Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. 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. Could you imagine being Isaiah? Hundreds of years before Jesus came, And you looked and you could see the glory of God standing among people seeing them rejecting Him and writing this down wondering how it's going to play out. I mean, I can't imagine that. I can't put that in perspective what that must have been like for Isaiah. Number one, we got a bad report. Number two, we got blind eyes. People don't want to see. Listen church, don't you fall in the category of a blinded Christian sometimes when God is trying to show you something to get you to do something for Him and you believe the bad report of Satan, you believe the bad report of your flesh or the world and you blind your eyes to the glory of God and how wonderful it is to serve Him and honor Him and be a bitty to Him and all the things that comes with that because when you blind your eyes to Him, your heart will be hardened on that spot. We often talk about God said he'll harden Pharaoh's heart. And this is just my interpretation of this scripture here like that. I don't believe that God intentionally zapped Pharaoh's heart and made his heart hard. I don't think that's what happened. What I personally believe is God spoke to him. He loved him. He drew him. And every time Pharaoh said no, he got that much harder towards God. He got that much more angry towards God. And it's the same way here with these people. Every time God spoke to them, every time He tried to call them, Jesus was calling them saying, Would you please believe on me? Would you please come and listen to what I'm telling you? But their heart got harder. Every time you say no to God, it gets easier and easier and easier. Listen, Christian friend. In your life and my life, our hearts can get hard towards God. And it can make a difference when God asks us to do something. But we say no. We say no. And sooner or later God will say, I'm fine. I'll take that blessing and I'll give it to someone else if you don't want it. His will will be done. Things will get accomplished with or without you. Too much of the time It's heartbreaking in our world. We see the people that believe the bad reports, the reports being given to them, but they don't want to believe it. And they blind their eye to the truth and harden their heart. And they can't see, they can't understand, can be converted. I don't, I don't know sometimes how to get certain things across, bring it across the way I want to, the way I see it, to try to help people not sound mean, not sound cold, or sound like I'm better than you. or come across in no way, shape or form like I've got it together or something. But folks, listen, if we don't realize that Jesus matters above all and put Him in the center of our life like we should, things in our lives would go, yes, there's going to be battles, there's going to be trials, but they'll go better. You'll have peace in your heart that the world cannot understand. Yes, you're going to have troubles and the devil's going to fight. But the rewards are so much worth it. He is worth gaining. We covet too much things on this earth. We covet too much reputation things sometimes. I hope I'm making sense. I don't know if I am or not. Verse 42, he says, Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess him. At least they should be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Number three, being someone. They believed the bad report, they had the blind eyes, and they loved being someone. Now, I'm going to slow down here for just a second and tell you a couple Bible stories. I cannot imagine Right now, some of the people that I've read about in the Bible, what they're going through. I think about the rich young grower. Came up to Jesus. He said, Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus went down the commandments with him. He said, keep all these. He said, I've kept every one of them, which we know that's not true. But nevertheless, according to him, he had done them all. And Jesus said, there's one thing thou likest. Go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor. then shall you inherit eternal life. So that rich young grower turned around with his head down was very sorrowful because he was a very wealthy man. I find nowhere in Bible history or in the Bible that that man ever went back to Jesus again and ever did what Jesus told him to do. It's not that Jesus expected, I'll be honest with you, Jesus may have expected him to do it, but the bottom line is that money was his God. It meant more to him than Jesus. Could you imagine now, 2,000 some years later, him being in hell for 2,000 years, and thought about seeing Jesus face to face? I wonder how often some of these Pharisees, it says they believed on him, but there's a verse in the Bible, and Jesus told them this too, as well, but I'm going to quote you a verse in the Bible that all you should be able to quote to a lost person. Romans 10 and 9. that if thou shalt confess with thy and believe in thine thou shalt be saved they believed it here they didn't confess it here could you realize they were that close to getting salvation and for 2,000 years they've been in hell burning because they wanted the praise of men they didn't want to get kicked out of the synagogue They didn't want to get kicked out of the popular club, the group, the crowd, the go-to. They loved it more than they did God. They loved it more than they did their own life, than their eternal life. Their worldly life, their life here meant more to them than it did eternal life. And I'm afraid sometimes some of you may fall into that category. We got a very low crowd this morning. I don't know why I didn't hear anybody here. That's between them and God. I know why some's not here. Some I don't. But I wonder sometimes how much, I'll be honest with you, I'll worry about some of our church people who come to this church. I really wonder if some of them are saved. They just don't seem to show enough concern for God. I mean, you say, well, how could you say that, preacher? I'm going to tell you something. Our churches are full of lost people. And I wonder sometimes how close some people are to God, and they miss Him by a mile, and they're right beside of Him. Could you imagine? What are they going to say when they stand before God one day? Here they saw Lazarus raised from the dead. They saw Jesus feed thousands. They saw and heard stories of him walking under water healing Gadarean who was a demonic and cut himself and lived in the tombs and the cemetery and everything and put him in his right mind and clothed him and he could go on and on and on of all the things they witnessed and saw. And they've been here for hundreds of years about a coming Messiah and he lived out everything that was written in the Old Testament yet They believed not because they loved the praise of men more than of God. One of the problems with the praise of God is number one, he doesn't share his glory. A lot of times in church, don't be mad at me, a lot of people would do things in a church just because they want some recognition. Or if they do do something and they don't get recognition, they get mad and they get upset. Well, someone got recognized and I didn't. Well, bless your heart. I wonder if God took notice of it. I think I'd be a little more concerned about that. Look, if you don't get the pat on the back you think you deserve, let God pat you on the back. It may not come when you want it and how you want it. I would rather I had the pat on the back when I stand before Him one day at the judgment seat of Christ than I ever would here. I don't get the recognition I deserve, so be it. I want God's recognition. What's more important to you? Somebody said, oh, that was wonderful. We couldn't make it without you. Nobody say a word and you stand for Jesus one day. He says, let's put your life on fire. Boom, there's the fire comes and engulfs your whole life. And there we start seeing some crowns and some rubies and things being picked out. He said, there is the one that you thought at the time you thought nobody was looking. But I was. I saw it. Here's your crown. And now for eternity, you get eternal recognition and the whole world gets to see your reward versus just a handful here. Wouldn't it matter to you that God gets the glory instead of you and I. He's earned it. He deserves it. We haven't done anything to earn it, but He has. I know it won't happen this way. Humor me and I'm done. I wondered sometimes I'd like to sit down beside some of these people and be able to talk to them. and say how, what was it like to want to stay with that group more than you wanted Him and seeing all that He was doing? I mean what was going through your mind? And to a degree we can almost do that today. I realize it's not quite the same but church I'm telling you there's miracle after miracle taking place in front of our eyes that deals with God. And people today still says, I want this. They're blinded. I know Satan's blinded their eyes. I get that. Church, I'm going to say this. Don't let him blind your eyes. Don't let the praise of men, the praise of yourself, your life mean more to you than God does. I couldn't imagine. being one of these Pharisees, watching what they just saw laid out. We're nearing down the last week of Jesus' life at this point. He's down this last few days before he died on the cross. And it's all coming together. He's kind of wrapping everything up in what he's saying and doing. And all they can say is, crucify, crucify. I wonder, what is it today that God's telling you to do, or has asked you to do, when you don't want to? I admire Mike in a lot of ways. I admire all of you in different ways. And I don't mean to put him on a pedestal. He doesn't need to be. He told me for a long time, he's a preacher, he said, sometimes I just want to run or jump up and down. I said, then run or jump up and down? He said, I'm afraid of what people say. I said, who cares? I said, if they say anything to you, tell them to come to me. I like to watch ballgames too good sometimes. And West Virginia will break your heart every time. If you want to know what it's like to have a broken heart in the sports world, just root for the Mountaineers. You'll know what it's like to have a broken heart in the sports world. They'll never let you down, I promise. They'll never let you down. When they're doing good, Drew and I will sit on the couch and I'll say, yes, when they score this or that, I'm going to say yes for Jesus. Yes, Jesus! If I'm going to cheer for my winning team, I'm going to cheer for the winning team. We need to let the world know we're on the winning side. Father, we thank you again for this time together. And God, I don't know if this little message made any sense. I hope it did. I tried to preach what I felt like you gave me. And Lord, I ask that you take these words and you put them together. And Lord, if there's somebody here that needs to come and pray for whatever the reasons may be, I don't know what's going on in people's lives right now. There's a handful of do, but God, you see what even I don't see. You see deeper than I ever can, a lot of times what we even do ourselves. Bring out in our hearts, Lord, in our minds what needs to be Holy Spirit. Search our hearts this morning and show us what's there that needs to be confessed and changed. Lord, we need you in our life more than anything else. We need you forefront. We need you, Lord, to be the most important thing to us above all. We thank you and we praise you, Lord Jesus Christ, in the name we pray. As we stand, we get a song.