Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he was doing. But Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men. And because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man. Now, in chapter 1 of John's gospel, the apostle testified that Jesus is the eternal Son of God. Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He is God. That's the first thing John tells us in this gospel. He's the one to whom all things were made. And John presented the testimony of John the Baptist that Jesus is the Lamb of God who's come into the world to take away sins. He's not like one of those priests or one of those sacrificial animals in the Old Testament who would be offered up for a temporary covering of sins. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And the apostle told us of John the Baptist pointing Andrew and another disciple, presumably John himself, to Jesus and of their beginning to follow Jesus. And Jesus then came into Galilee, where He called Philip and Nathanael to follow Him. And both Philip and Nathanael also believed, and they both testified, that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. So, as we come to our passage and Jesus coming to Jerusalem, five, at least five, and probably six of the apostles had now come to follow Him. The apostle John, along with Peter, and Andrew, and Philip, and Nathanael, and presumably John's brother James. So, now Jesus had come into Galilee, and in Galilee, in the town of Cana, there was a wedding feast, and the disciples were invited to that wedding feast. And when the wedding party ran out of wine, now this is a feast of several days. When the wedding party ran out of wine, Jesus miraculously changed six large pots of water, 20 to 30 gallons each, into wine. And not only wine, but into wine of an excellent quality. He did this supernaturally. And of that supernatural work, John wrote, this beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and in doing this sign He manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. So the miracles that Jesus worked were usually signs, almost always, done as proof of His divine authority and power, of His divine origin, proof that He was sent by God. That's why He did these miracle signs. They were given to authenticate Him and the gospel message that would accompany the signs. And they were given to instill and to help grow faith in people. Faith in the Word that He was preaching. I mean, that's the whole point of the signs, is to give authentication to what Jesus was saying to them, the truth that He is the Messiah, and to bring people to believe in Him. That's why He did the miracles. And this sign that He did in Cana affirmed that this new era had come, that God had now come into men and in this sign His glory was manifested. So there at Cana, He demonstrated His power and authority over the natural world. He demonstrated His authority over the laws of chemistry and biology that He Himself had created and set into motion 4,000 years earlier. So now John begins his recitation of Jesus' public ministry. Now would begin his proclamation of the good news that He, the Son of God, had come unto men and the kingdom of God with Him. He had brought the kingdom of God. He had brought the message of forgiveness of sins and eternal life and glory through faith in Him. So last Lord's Day, We saw in verses 12 through 22, Jesus and His disciples came to Jerusalem for the first of three Passover festivals in John's Gospel. Now the Passover was a festival, there was a day of Passover on the 14th of the first month. wherein they would observe and recall and remember the deliverance of the sons of Jacob, the Jews, from bondage in Egypt 1,500 years earlier. And they did this for 1,500 years, celebrating this meal on the 14th day of the first month marking their deliverance by God from Egyptian slavery. And then for the next seven days would be a festival called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And of course, the unleavened bread was a reminder that when they fled out of Egypt, when God got them out of Egypt, They didn't have time to let the bread rise. And so off they went into the wilderness and heading for the promised land. So that's this festival. And it was mandatory on every Jewish adult male. So they're all in Israel. There are probably a million people in Jerusalem at this time. And Jesus came to Jerusalem. Now, He was a Jew. He was born under the Jewish law. And He came to Jerusalem for the Passover. And when He got there, He went into the temple. And what did He do? What did He find there? He found a marketplace, a stockyard, these animals, cattle and sheep and oxen and doves, all in cages and in pens. And He found these men selling them. These would be the animals that would be offered in sacrifice during the Passover festival. He also found money changers, currency exchangers, who would exchange foreign currencies for the silver Jewish currency that was to be used in purchasing the sacrificial animals. And so Jesus sees this, and there's this stench, and there's this, what amounts to a stockyard in the temple, and he's properly outraged. And as we saw, he made a scourge of whip, a whip of cords. He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He threw them all out of the temple. And to those who were selling the doves, he said, take these things away. Stop making my father's house a place of business. Temple was the place where God had established a place, his name, the place, excuse me, where he was to be worshiped. Well, he did this and the Jewish religious leaders demanded that he provide them a sign of his authority to be doing this. Now, they had been the authorities in Jerusalem. They'd been the authorities in the temple. They said, prove your authority to us. How dare you come into our temple and do this? But the Jewish religious leaders had missed the point of Jesus' actions. His exercise of His authority in the temple, as He purged it of all those things that were polluting it, and the manner in which He was doing it, was His declaration of His authority in the temple. And His actions, while not a supernatural work, were a sign to them that their authority in the temple was coming to an end. And really, the Jewish rulers weren't really looking for a sign. They were going to witness many signs and hear of many supernatural works that Jesus was going to be performing during the next three years, showing that He is God. But still, they rejected Him, and they demanded that He be murdered on a cross. So no sign was going to make any difference to them, even though they're saying, what sign do you do to show us that this is okay? After Jesus raised Lazarus, three years later, from death back to life, He called him out of the tomb. Many were believing in Jesus. In John 11, 47, the chief priests, though, and the Pharisees convened a council. They're saying, what are we doing? This man's performing many signs. You see, they admit he's doing the signs. But they said, if we let him go on like this, everyone's going to flee us and believe in him. And the Romans are going to come and take away our place and our nation. So, Jesus then said to them, the most important sign was going to come at the conclusion of His saving mission. And in words His hearers did not understand that day, Jesus told them of this sign. He said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Now they thought He was talking about the temple, the building. But he wasn't. They said, it took 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? But John then wrote, Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body. And the sign he would give was his own bodily resurrection, which happened three years later. So, the Jewish rulers had demanded that Jesus defend His actions, had now received their answer. They didn't understand it, but He had told them in advance what was going to happen. Now, here in verses 23, 24, and 25, John tells us Jesus performed other signs in Jerusalem that week during the Passover. We're not told when any of the signs were, but we are told that many of those who witnessed those signs believed in His name. Now, verse 23, 24, and 25, we are taught of two monumental truths. First is the omniscience of Jesus Christ, the divine Son. And we're all also told that not all who profess belief in Jesus actually have genuine saving faith. Now these are very important truths. So let's look at verse 23. When he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did. So that week he performed more signs. We don't know how many, but he performed more signs. And the purpose, again, was to demonstrate he'd come from God and to authenticate the message he was preaching. And as a result, John writes, many believed in His name. And at first glance we read this and these words might appear to us to say that some came to Christ and surrendered their lives and hearts to Him. That they had come to believe in such a way that they were saved from their sin and the penalty. But what does this phrase mean here? Many believed in His name. Well, we know when we read verses 24 and 25 that this was a belief that fell short of the faith by which a sinner is saved from their sin and hell. So what is it these people believed? Well, some read these words as saying they believed He was one sent by God, that He was a prophet. And they may have even believed that He was the long-awaited Messiah. But this was not the same thing as saying that their belief was the kind of faith that saves someone. And that's what we're going to see in our look at this passage this morning. Brethren, an intellectual belief, mere mental assent, mental knowledge that Jesus was sent by God, that He is God, is not sufficient to save anyone. The faith that saves, it's a gift of God, and it's a faith such that one entrusts himself to Christ and surrenders his heart and will to Him. Now, this is all a work of God. But their belief in Jesus depended solely on the miracles He was doing. It had no root in the gospel, no root in their recognition of their own sin, of their own need for an atonement to God for the sins they had committed. It was an atonement they themselves could never make. Their belief had no root in the truth. It only was a belief in His power. So, many who witnessed the signs that Jesus performed in Jerusalem that week, they believed in His power. Well, His power is obvious. Look outside the window. Who could have made this but God? And many, as I said, may have believed He was the Messiah, but they were not entrusting their lives to Him. What they believed didn't manifest itself in a changed heart. And so, this brings us to the question here, what is saving faith? Well, when God converts a sinner, He gives him a new heart. He gives him a new heart. But whatever was in their minds and hearts was not evidence of a transformed heart. It was not true saving faith. What was in their minds, what they knew, had not penetrated into their hearts. 2 Corinthians 5.17, Paul writes, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, in union with Christ, meaning saved, He's a new creature. He's someone he didn't used to be. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. It is a transformed heart together with belief in the truth of who Jesus is and what He has accomplished for those who truly believe in Him. That's what saves a man. That's the kind of faith that saves. Everybody can see God is powerful. And they acknowledge Jesus' power that day. But one may marvel at the power of God, and yet refuse to wholly surrender to it. We see it all the time. As we see in verses 24 and 25, Jesus knew what was in their hearts. Faith may well begin by trusting in signs, but the signs he performed and the word that he preached belong together. The signs were given as seals of the truth he was speaking. The seals alone don't save anyone. When miracles come, they can aid a sinner in arriving at the truth. Signs can strengthen true saving faith, but only the Holy Spirit can create faith in a sinner. And He does that through hearing and believing the gospel. Witnessing a sign is not the way God saves people. And if the Holy Spirit does that saving work in a person, making him spiritually alive, he will come to believe in the Word of Jesus. His heart will be changed, even without any signs. Most of us have never seen any miracle signs. And yet, some of us, I hope all of us, believe and trust and have surrendered our lives to Him without any signs. Remember what Jesus said to Thomas. Thomas demanded a proof. And Jesus said, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. You see, when the Holy Spirit does this work, we don't need signs. So these signs, though, in the earliest days during Jesus' earthly ministry and during the apostolic age as well, were done before the Scripture was completed. Now we have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, testifies to our hearts and draws us. They accepted Jesus as a great prophet, perhaps even as a Messiah, but that does not mean the Holy Spirit had opened their eyes to all truth or that they had now surrendered their hearts to Him. And look at verse 24, Jesus did not entrust Himself to them. This is the same word, entrust and belief, it's both from the same Greek root word, It's a play on words we have here. He didn't entrust Himself to them because He knew all men. He had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. Now just think about the implications of that for us. We're going to look at those in a few minutes. So here's this play on words. They believed in Him, but not in a saving way. He did not entrust Himself to them. Though they believed in Jesus, He did not believe in them. He had no faith in their faith. It was a superficial faith. Lacked the basic elements of a faith that saves. There's no evidence of consciousness of their sin or their need for forgiveness. The conviction and belief that He alone could provide that forgiveness. That's the faith that saves. They believed because of what they saw, not because of an inner transformation of the heart. And this is the difference between a true believer and one who professes belief, but whose life does not give evidence of a transformed heart. That's what this passage is all about here. Remember what James wrote, even the demons believe in God, but they shudder. So it's not just belief in God's power. God's power is undeniable. But knowing that doesn't by itself save anyone. And so given that their belief was only in His power, He was not entrusting Himself to them. And He didn't have to hear any testimony about what was in their hearts because His own eyes could penetrate into their hearts. And His eyes can penetrate into our hearts as well. Look at these words. Jesus knew all men. He knew what was in man. These words should at least strike us with a note of caution, a note of self-examination. He'd already exercised, remember, the power to see into men's hearts. Remember what he said to Nathaniel. Before, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. He would use this ability to see into men's hearts throughout His public ministry, especially in His dealings with His enemies. He's God. He cannot be deceived. You cannot fool Him. I can't fool Him. It's a remarkable thing that we tend to sometimes maybe lose sight of. So what does this say to us? It says God knows your hearts. He knows my heart. I mean, we can put on whatever, but He knows what's inside our hearts. He knew their hearts. He knows our hearts. Now we, by contrast, we're a little different than Jesus. If somebody speaks well of us, what is our normal reaction? Well, we tend to think well of them. We think they're discerning. Somebody speaks unkindly toward us or of us, we tend to think less of them. We think and act upon external displays, on the words people speak and on the things they do. And Jesus also looks at the things we say and the things we do, but He also looks past those things. He looks into our hearts. You know who else can do that? Nobody but God. And the Bible teaches this truth more times than we can count. I gathered so many scriptures to simply affirm this truth that I had to remove most of them. But Jesus will illustrate this truth that He sees our hearts throughout this gospel. Case of Nicodemus in chapter 3. And then the Samaritan woman, remember, in chapter 4, as we're going to see, and many, many others. The Bible teaches this truth that God can see into our hearts from the very beginning. Genesis 6, 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 1 Kings 8.39, For you alone know the hearts of all the sons of men. 1 Samuel 16.7, The Lord said to Samuel, Don't look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, speaking of Saul, because I have rejected him. For God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Psalm 44, 20, if we had forgotten the name of our God or extended our hands to a strange God, would not God find this out? What do you think? Well, He knows the secrets of the heart. Yet, O Lord of hosts, You who test the righteous, who see the mind and the heart, Jeremiah 20, 12. One more, Jeremiah 1710, I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. And when Jesus became a man, he did not surrender his divine attributes. He set aside the divine glory. He set aside the use of his divine attributes at times and for a time. But He remained omniscient. He still is omniscient. And all of this is still true. What John is showing us here is that Jesus, the incarnate Son, because He is God, He knows what's in our hearts. In Matthew chapter 9, after healing a paralytic, remember what Jesus said? They come up to Him and they want to know, where's He getting His authority again? In Matthew 9, verse 4, Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Jesus is God. He's always possessed the power to see into the hearts of men and women. Always. Richard Lenski wrote this, During his humiliation, Jesus used his supernatural knowledge when and where it served the purpose of his saving work. He often used it in his dealings with his enemies. You ever notice they were never able to deceive him? That's because he was just smarter than them? They were never able to deceive him. Their lies, their schemes. Because they were always laid bare before his eyes. He could see everything. So let us understand we don't have any secrets from him. Now, I know that probably doesn't come as news to us, but we really don't have any secrets from Him. So, the last two Lord's Days, what have we seen? Well, we've seen some different responses to the signs that Jesus worked during His earthly ministry. Now, some didn't recognize the meaning of the signs. Some responded in hostility. when they saw what things Jesus was doing. There were some who believed because of the signs, and only because of the signs, but whose belief was only in Jesus' power, as we see this morning. And to those, it's important we understand, an intellectual belief in His power, even that He might be a prophet from God, the Messiah Himself, was not enough to bring Jesus to entrust Himself to them. And what we've seen, the aspects of His deity in three separate incidents now here in this Gospel of John. The wedding at Cana, His power and authority over the natural world. I mean, just imagine if somebody came in here and took a big pot of water and turned it into wine. Well, God can do that. And only God can do that. In His cleansing of the temple. His authority over the temple and over the worship of God. Now there are men who claim such authority in the world today. They are blaspheming when they do that. Christ alone has that authority. And then in his response to those who believed only because of his powerful display. What do we see? We see his omniscience. He sees into their hearts. And by the way, while he was at it, he also has shown his omniscience in foreseeing his resurrection. Three aspects of his deity. And Jesus teaches us here the difference between a mere acknowledgment of His power and saving faith, a transformed heart manifested in one's total devotion to Him, serving Him as Lord, serving the brethren. Hear what the Lord Jesus Christ said. Matthew 16, 24. Here's what saving faith looks like. Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. But he wasn't done. He then said, For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. Matthew 10, 38, He who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. This is what saving faith looks like. Jesus said, He who places mother or father or son or daughter ahead of me is not worthy of me. He's not saying we should cease loving and serving others. But He is saying that we must stop putting anything else, anyone else, above Him, ahead of Him. Because He knows that those who put other things ahead of Him have not totally entrusted their hearts to Him. A 50% devotion to Christ will not suffice. And it's a glorious blessing we receive when we do this. Now, consider these of whom the apostle wrote here. They saw the signs, they had some measure of belief, but their hearts were not changed. He knew they'd not changed. At least not yet. They had not yet taken up their crosses and begun to follow Him. Clearly He could see there were things they were still putting ahead of Him. So this passage raises some very real questions for us. And they're questions that bear on our eternal destiny. Those who had witnessed the signs Jesus was performing believed in His name. Many people say, oh, I believe in Jesus. But like these people, for many, theirs is not the kind of belief that saves a man. You're here, I trust because you believe in Him. But let each of us ask himself, is that belief an abiding faith in Him and in His atoning work on the cross? Is it a faith that's in recognition of our need for a Savior? Is it my sin and my need for a forgiveness that led me to Him? Is it the kind of faith that manifests itself in a transformed heart? Are you a new creation in Christ? Are you somebody different than you were? Is there anything you're still placing ahead of Him? material possessions, money, your job, family. Again, Jesus said, He who loves father or mother or son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. That's a strong statement. But it's not to say we shouldn't love family. It's to say that we should love Christ even more. What about us? Are there still things that we place ahead of Christ and the service of Him? It's a question we all have to answer. Nobody can answer it for anybody else. It's only when we begin to look at our own heart. That's why when we have the Lord's Supper, we are called to examine ourselves. Is there something in us that is profaning the body and blood of Christ? When we begin to see our own heart as God sees it, then we begin to see ourselves truthfully. We see our own depravity even after God's grace and mercy has come to us. And we see what it means to serve Him as His adopted child. My mind keeps going back to the words of King David as I studied this passage the last few days. And David, of course, had committed terrible sins, adultery and murder. And then, stricken by his conscience and his understanding of his guilt and his sin before God, he prayed, Psalm 5110, create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Now this is a man who God said, spoke of as a man after my own heart. and light of his sin. He knew he still had much room to grow. He cried out to God to remove all that stood between him and his Lord. This is an appropriate prayer, I believe, for us this morning. And so, let's take a moment and meditate on the Word that our Lord has spoken to us this morning. Let's bow before the Savior, and then we will close in prayer Lord, we fall so woefully short in so many ways on so many occasions in our service to you. With all the blessings that you pour out on us, you require, it seems, very little in return. But Lord, I pray that you would bring conviction upon each of us wherever it's needed. If there's anyone who has not been born again of the Spirit, I pray you would do that work here this morning. If there's anyone who's not come to you and surrendered, I pray you would call them to do it, and we would see that, Lord. And so, Lord, we give you thanks for every blessing, and we ask your blessing on all those gathered here this morning, that you would move our hearts in Christ's name. Amen.