FBCWest 585 | He Came to Save not to Judge
Recorded On: 12/17/2023
Bulletin
Hymn # 83 “Come All Ye Faithful”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 89:1 - 8
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Holy Forever”
“What a Glorious Night”
“He Shall Regin Forevermore”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“He Came to Save not to Judge”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“God You Are”
Benediction “There Is Freedom”
Sermon Notes
John 12:37 Even though He performed so many signs and yet they didn’t believe
John 12:38 – 41 The unbelief was not a surprise, Isaiah prophesied it
John 12:42 & 43 Yet many of the rulers believed in Him, but were afraid to confess that
John 12:44 – 46 To believe and see Jesus is to see and believe in the Father
John 12:47 & 48 He came to save the world, not to judge it, but if you don’t believe His teachings will judge you
John 12:49 & 50 He did not come on His own initiative, but the Father command Him what to say and did just as the Father told Him
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
During Jesus' earthly ministry, it's not unlike today. There were those who believed, but many did not or could not believe. There were others who believed but did not confess.
Jesus said that He came into the world not to judge the world but to save it. But He does tell us there is something that we'll judge. Come and listen to what that has to be said.
If you have your Bibles, as I constantly say, and you should, turn to the Gospel of John chapter 12. We're going to start with verse 37.
Now, the context of this is that Jesus entered into Jerusalem on that triumphal day, whatever day that was.
He then met with Gentile Greeks and others, and He continued to teach.
The Gospel of John doesn't make any distinction between the days between the triumphal entry and the Passover celebration.
We're not sure which day this was, but Jesus continues to teach and preach throughout the time that He has left here on the earth.
We see in this context, it says in verse 37, "But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him."
Jesus taught the Word of God.
Jesus demonstrated the Word of God through His life and His actions and the signs and wonders whether they were turning water into wine or calming the sea or ceasing the wind or healing the sick, the blind, the lame, or whether He raised the dead.
And yet, there were those who would still not believe in Him.
This is going to be no surprise, and we're going to look at this, but it goes to show
that we are not so much different. Even though there's been the passage of 2,000 years, people are people.
And so there's still today many people who do not believe in Him, and it's going to explain why.
Because this was to fulfill the Word of Isaiah the prophet, which spoke, "Lord, who has believed a report into whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes and He has hardened their hearts so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts and be converted, and I healed them."
These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory and he spoke of them.
And so we see that the Word of God is fulfilled in this statement that there were those who did not believe and could not believe because of what had been prophesied and as a confirmation of this.
And it says that Isaiah prophesied this, not because he came up with it on his own, but because he saw the glory of the Lord. I encourage you to look at Isaiah chapter 6, where Isaiah sees the Lord lifted up and on high and on His throne and the glory filling the temple and the cherubim and the cherubim all-serving and then seeing this he goes, "Whoa, I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips." He understands that he's a sinner and that his tongue is touched and healed and he's in essence, if you will, converted.
And then the Lord says, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" And having seen the glory of the Lord, Isaiah basically raises his sentence and says, "I'll go."
As long as your God is the little God, as long as your God is not lifted up on high and it's holy and awesome and wonderful and glorious, you'll take a seat in the pew and be fine.
But once you have seen the glory of God, you will be like Isaiah and say, "Here I am, send me."
But it's interesting that the mission that God sends Isaiah on, He says, "Here's the mission I'm going to give to you. You're going to preach and they're going to hear and they're going to see and no one's going to be converted in your day and in the day to come."
And again, if God sent Isaiah on such a mission and if God sent his own son on such a mission and very few believe in him, should we be any less willing to raise our hands and say, "It doesn't matter the result.
I see who you are, your glory, your awesomeness."
And I'll go as Jesus has said, "And to be your witness."
Not because they will be converted, but because I've seen who you are and your declared glory should be declared further.
And so there are those who could not and would not see. And Jesus even Himself said, "If what had taken place in Sodom and Gomorrah had taken place in Jerusalem, they would have repented in fat cloth and ash long ago."
And so we have those who could not and would not believe. And again, we see in today's world there are those who could not and would not believe.
And continuous as nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing Him for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.
For they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. And again, we see that again today. There are those who believe and deep down in their heart, they understand who God is.
But they won't confess Him.
Because they're afraid of the opinion of others.
That somehow their friends won't like them as much. That somehow they might lose a promotion. That somehow they might not gain an advantage because they confess.
Let's face it, in today's world you can believe anything you want except that Jesus is Lord.
When it comes to our faith, they tell us, "Keep it to yourself."
You can believe that Jesus is the Messiah, just keep it to yourself.
Don't tell anybody, don't share it. And yet, as we see the world today, you can have any opinion, right or wrong.
And you can block traffic, you can shout it and irritate people because you have the right to free speech, and yes you do.
When it comes to confessing that Jesus is Lord.
And there are those who still today are afraid to make that confession. Because the scripture doesn't say just believe, it says, "If you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, you shall be saved."
One half of the equation doesn't get you saved.
It needs both half.
But they love the approval of men rather than God. They were afraid that they would lose position, they were to be put out of the synagogue.
Certainly they weren't Baptists, because we Baptists form more churches by being irritated at each other than we do on purpose.
If I were to throw you out, you'd just simply start another church. That's just the way we do things. So I don't know why they didn't start another synagogue, but that's what they did.
And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in me does not believe in me but in him who sent me." Jesus continues this message.
It's not just, "Oh I believe that Jesus is the Son of God." And He goes, "No, no. Not only do you believe that, but you've got to believe that it's God the Father who sent me." It's a package deal. It's not, "Okay, Jesus is the Son of God and Buddha and whatever." No, no. It's a package deal.
Jesus and the Father are one. The Father sent Him. And believing the Father means you believe the Son. And believing the Son means you believe the Father.
He who sees me, He's the one who sent me.
God is an invisible God. He's one who's not only omnipotent and omniscient, but He's omnipresent. We don't see Him, but all that we can see of the Father is held in the compact human
person of Jesus, of Nazareth.
You've seen Him. You've seen the Father. And if we in our spiritual community see Jesus, we then see the one who sent Him.
"I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness."
We in our modern world don't really appreciate this. For you see, if we turn out the lights and go outside at nighttime, there's such light pollution that you can't even see all the stars in the sky.
You gotta go somewhere so far away from humanity that you don't see light pollution. But darkness can be so dark you cannot see your hand in front of your face.
And Jesus is saying, "I've come as light into the world, not as enlightenment, but so that you might be able to see where you're going and to see who He is.
But if you don't believe in Him, you remain in darkness."
If anyone hears my saying, "It does not keep them. I do not judge Him, for I do not come to judge the world, but to save the world." Now we love this statement, and it's true.
If God wanted to judge the world, He would have just left Jesus at home in heaven.
If we would have been condemned already.
God did not send Jesus to condemn us.
God sent Him to save us from our own selves and from the wrath of God.
He sent Him that we might be children of God, that we might have not only salvation,
but that we might then have sanctification and glorification. It's again a package deal. You don't just simply get saved, but you become more and more and more holy so that one day we are glorified and one day we will be like the Son of God.
God empowered magnificence, but that's Him.
And we will see each other as we were meant to be seen.
But that's not the end of the story.
You see, Jesus did not come to condemn.
He did not come to judge, because quite frankly, you are condemned already if you don't believe.
And He says this, "He who rejects Me and does not receive My saying as one who judges Him."
You see, Jesus didn't come to judge, but to save. But there is a judgment to come.
And who's going to judge us if not Jesus?
The Word I spoke is what will judge Him at the last.
What has Jesus been saying? I am the Messiah, I am the Son of God. If you see Me, you see the Father. I have been sent by the Father. Those words will condemn us if we refuse to believe and confess.
So many people who claim to be believers will only tell you the good side. And I like the good side, because I like happiness and I like everybody that likes me and whatever. And there is definitely a good side.
Jesus came into the world to save sinners and to whom I am chief of law.
But He also came to say, "If you reject Him, you reject the one who sent Him, and His Word
will condemn you."
For I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. So Jesus is saying, "If you reject His Word, you're not only rejecting Jesus's Word, you're rejecting the Father's Word, because He is speaking as the Father not just told Him to do, but commanded Him to do."
He is preaching and teaching exactly the commandments that God told Him to do, so He's doing it. And if you reject His statement, you reject the Father's statement.
So the words of the Father will condemn you.
I know that His commandment is eternal life.
"Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as this Father has told me." He's saying, "Listen to my Word. Listen to who I am. Listen to what has sent me, because that is the answer to eternal life."
This world has us chasing all the wrong things.
It has us chasing riches and fame, power and influence, and a longer life.
It does not have us look at eternally.
There are parts of this country today, less so than it used to be, where it was culturally and socially expected for you to go to church.
Now whether you believed what church taught you and did, but were you there at the big church on Sunday and said, "Yeah, then you're cool and we'll do business with you."
It's less and less, so much.
Today, to respond to the words of Jesus takes the opposite of what we've been accused.
People accuse us of just having fear and being afraid.
It takes courage to say, "In this world as it did in Jesus' day, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God."
That he was sent by the Father to speak exactly what the Father told him to do, and then offered up his body to be sacrificed on Calvary for my sins and yours.
To die according to the Scriptures, to be buried according to the Scriptures, and to rise again according to the Scriptures, and that he is not dead but is alive, and not only lives in heaven but lives in my heart and I hope in yours.
And that someday he's coming back.
And that takes courage, because in our culture today, you can have that faith, just keep it to yourself, which is exactly the opposite of what we've been commanded.
We have been commanded to be his witness.
And here's the thing.
You see, Jesus didn't come into the world to condemn the world because the world has already been condemned.
If you speak up and they reject, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting him.
But not only that, people are afraid, "Well, if I tell them about Jesus and they reject him, then maybe they'll go to hell and I've sent them to hell."
You see, they are condemned already.
Therefore, we must speak not to avoid them from being condemned, but they might be given the opportunity to respond.
And yes, there'll be those who would not respond, and there will be those who cannot respond, and there will be those who are afraid to respond.
If I gave you 10 million dollars, notice I said "if."
I don't have 10 million dollars to give you, and quite frankly, if I did, I'd keep it.
I'm just that kind of guy.
But if I gave you 10 million dollars, I would hope you would say thank you.
I would hope, as you bought your new mansion, you would say, "You know, Joe Davis gave me that money to buy this."
And as you bought your Ferrari and were able to get driving lessons because you'll crash it if you don't get driving lessons, you'll say to the salesman who sells you the Ferrari, "Joe Davis gave me the money to buy this." You would be thankful, and you would tell people about it.
So if I gave you 10 million dollars, then hopefully you would be thankful.
What would you do if God forgave you of all of your sins?
What would you do if God made you his child?
What would you do if God said, "You may dwell in my house forever"?
What would you do if God said, "No matter what happens to you that may be bad, I will change it into peace"?
I hope you and I would be thankful.
I hope you and I would tell people about it.
That's just the kind of God we have and all God's people say.