The Marks of False and True Belief: Part 1

Well, thank you for your singing. I'd ask you to open your Bibles to John chapter 2, please. To the Gospel of John, chapter 2. We move on to this well-known narrative with Nicodemus. We'll spend a few weeks going through this text. I'll read it, and we'll go to the Lord in prayer.

John chapter 2, start at verse 23. Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus.

He's a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows what it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit nicodemus said to him how can these things be jesus answered him are you the teacher of the israel and yet you do not understand these things truly truly i say to you we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen but you do not receive our testimony if i've told you earthly things and you do not believe it how can you believe if i tell you the heavenly things no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And as Moses was lifted up, lifted up the servant in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God and this is the judgment the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil for everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed but whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God Let us pray to our God. Oh Lord in heaven, we are a people desperately in need of your help this morning. You have given us these beautiful means of grace for us to utilize, to draw near and closer to you.

We know God, as the one Puritan divine has said, we are very dull people in our need of your help. So God, would you be so kind to help us like you've promised to. You've promised to send the spirit to us to help us in our time of need. you've promised to open our hearts to receive the word of Christ and to delight ourselves in you. And so, God, we ask that your word would be open to us, that it would be proclaimed faithfully, and that there would be a people ready to hear, listen, and obey, not by our own strength, but by the strength of the new birth, the miraculous work that you have done in your people.

Oh, God, I also pray for those who have not been born again, who are unbelievers, who perhaps even have a show of belief, but it is a false one. May you, Lord, even use this time to convict them of their sins, their sin of disbelief, their sin of false belief, and may you even draw them to your number so that they would come to know you truly and have life indeed. O God in heaven, we can expect great things from you because you have promised great things.

And so we are trusting in you now that your kingdom may spread in our hearts and here and now as we look to your word together. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, back in the good old days when I could stay up past the hour of 10 p.m., one of my favorite activities was to look at the stars at night. I remember there's many times me and Sarah, my first wife, would stay up and just look at the stars before we had a billion children around and we were too tired to do that.

And one of the exciting things, of course, if you ever just look at the stars for any amount of time, is you'll eventually, especially around these parts, you'll eventually see a shooting star go by. And to me, that's the most exciting part of stargazing, is to see that momentary shooting star flash across the sky. And it was interesting. I was talking to one of my sons recently.

I knew I was going to use this, and I like to tell true stories. I don't like to make up stories. And so I was wondering, who did I talk to about this? And none of them fessed up to it. But I'm still pretty sure this was a true story. I was talking to one of my sons, and we got talking about shooting stars. and they thought literally that a shooting star was a star that just shoots across the sky.

You know, like Beetlejuice all of a sudden just is like running across the sky randomly. And I remember thinking, oh, that's a silly thought. Like, you know, we understand that stars are huge. Like our sun is a medium-sized star. So the idea that all of a sudden it's just ripping across the sky is quite the thought. And I remember thinking that's quite the silly thought.

But really, if I put myself in my shoes, oh, here we go. my son shoes I could understand why that could be a thought right Because it looks like a star and then all of a sudden it just shoots across the sky so it makes sense But if we understand well if we know what going on we know that that simply probably the size of a pebble that getting burnt up in our atmosphere It's not way light years away, it's actually right there in the atmosphere being burnt up, and that's all it is. It's not a shooting star, even though it's named that, but rather just simply a little pebble burning up in our atmosphere. But it looks deceptive, doesn't it?

It's quite the counterfeit if you think about it, that it looks like a star is burning up, or it looks like a star moving, I should say, but instead the reality is it's simply something the size of a pebble burning up. And I use this as an illustration that we can easily, without proper information, believe a counterfeit. It's a very easy thing to our senses to see certain things, and without the full reality, the full truth of something, we can easily believe a counterfeit.

We can easily believe that that shooting star going across the sky is an actual star just moving across the sky, even though that's not even close to reality. And really, the reason why it's so important for us to set our hearts and minds on the fact that we can easily follow counterfeits is because Satan loves to place counterfeits in our view for us to believe upon and draw us away from the aim of our life. And what I mean by that is the greatest aim for man is to experience spiritual life in our physical life or with our physical life.

And so it's no surprise that the enemy has created a counterfeit life, a way in which we can experience life supposedly if we just do it a different way. It's a counterfeit. It looks like the real deal if we do not have the understanding and we can pursue it like it's true and it can carry us off to death. And we talk about this often, but Adam was to enjoy life by obeying God in the garden and Satan provides a counterfeit.

You can enjoy life, but you can do it this way instead. You can please your flesh, not obey God instead. That's a counterfeit. And really, Adam, Eve, it's like, hey, that looks like the real deal. Let's go for it. And they did, and they brought all of their posterity, me and you, into death.

And so again, to remind ourselves where we're at, because it's going to make sense where we're going in John, John, his thesis, if you remember, his point of writing this gospel is to say life, the whole reason for our existence is to have life, life is believing upon Christ through the signs he has provided. That's the whole purpose of John writing this gospel. I write you these things, these signs, so that you would believe upon Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, and have life.

So it shouldn't surprise us at all whenever Satan comes and he says, okay, here's the counterfeit. He says, here's a counterfeit, here's a belief, but it doesn't lead to life. And so what Satan does is he says, here's a belief, it looks kind of like the real deal and it can confuse you, it can bring you down the wrong path and it will lead you on to death instead of life.

Satan loves to create a counterfeit. He did it in the garden and he does it today. So if our greatest aim is to have spiritual life, then it is imperative we are not being duped into a counterfeit way of life, into a counterfeit belief that leads to death. That's like as if you believed as an adult that that's literally, oh man, maybe if you did, I don't mean to make you feel bad, but that's like as if thinking that there's really a star shooting across the sky randomly, right?

Not true at all. And Satan loves to create a counterfeit to lead you away from the whole purpose of your life onto death. And so here we have this coming into our full view with this familiar conversation with Nicodemus. And really the backdrop of this conversation with Nicodemus, it's a helpful teaching on what true belief is and on what false belief is.

If John is trying to express to you, you need to believe upon Jesus to have life, he is telling you right now and satan provides a counterfeit belief that will lead you astray and so here with this conversation with nicodemus the thing that we'll be talking about these next few weeks is what does false belief look like and then we contrast that with what is true belief look like because you may be right here sitting here with a false belief and on your way to hell you may be believing the counterfeit or you may be a true believer but yet every you know we all go in and out of true belief, don't we? We all have, if we are truly in Christ, you have eternal life, but sometimes you look like as if you're believing a falsehood or you're believing a false belief, and it brings us out of that joy of eternal life. And so this teaching for us is helpful.

What is false belief? What does it look like? And then how does that contrast with true belief so that we are not believing it counterfeits? And so this morning, as we look at, I think we'll get to John chapter 3 verse 3. We're going to see false belief in general or generally stated and then we're going to see a particular example of false belief in Nicodemus.

So we're going to see false belief generally stated and then we're going to see it in a particular way in Nicodemus and it's going to help us as we move into what true belief is. So let's look at false belief in general. Look again at your text in John chapter 2. Look at verse 23. John says, now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

We can see that and be like, hey, hooray. You know, mission success, right? John is writing this gospel that we would see the signs of Jesus and believe, right? And we can see, okay, it's happening. It's happening right here, beginning of his ministry. Jesus goes to Jerusalem at the Passover feast.

He spends a week there, if you remember. We talked about how that would be a week ordeal. the beginning of it he cleanses the temple and then the whole week he's been doing signs now we don't know what kind of signs but there were certain miracles that attested to the fact that this is messiah this is the son of god believe upon him you have life in him and here we see they see his signs and many believed in his name when they saw those signs he was doing And so it looks like if you just kind of have a cursory look that hey it's working, right? It seems like they are seeing the signs and believing as John wants to happen, as we saw in his thesis statement.

But there's one problem, isn't there? There's a problem. And we see that problem in the next verse when it says in verse 24, but, remember that word but there, a great contrast, Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them. And so we see that they have a belief, but if you notice that word entrust in the next verse, that's the same word in the Greek as belief.

And so it's like John is saying they believed upon him because they saw the signs, but Jesus didn't believe their belief. They believed upon Jesus, but Jesus didn't believe their own belief. Or in other words, he didn't entrust himself to their belief, or them being true believers. He didn't entrust himself to them. He did not enjoy, or he did not move into having close fellowship with them despite the fact that they were believing upon him.

And one thing we need to understand is that a belief that does not result in fellowship with Christ is a belief that has no life. And remember what John is trying to do here. Remember his goal is that you would believe because of the signs and by the belief have what? Life. So here we have a belief because of the signs, but that belief did not equal life.

And so it looks like, hey, it's working, but actually what we have is a counterfeit. We see that it does not have the full reality of John's goal that they would have life from the belief. Really, this needs to cause us, we should pause here for a moment, because there is a belief in Jesus that does not result in life. That's important for us to meditate on for a bit, that there is a certain belief upon Jesus that does not result in him fellowshipping with you.

There is a belief you can have in which he will not entrust himself to your belief. And if I could say it like a billion times, it's important to say. We live in such a self-saturated age that we think that God wants us so bad that he doesn't care how we approach him. So long as we bless him with our approach. Yet Jesus sees their belief here and says, nope, that's not it.

That's a false. that is not real. The kind of belief you have matters before God and he will not and he will not be fooled by a counterfeit. That is vital for all of us to understand. But especially for those of you who have a counterfeit belief. We must understand that Jesus will not entrust himself to a counterfeit. Why?

Why doesn't he? why does he in this text why doesn't he entrust himself to their belief i mean can you imagine here's a peasant out of nowhere age 30 and all of a sudden people are flocking to him any of us would be tempted to say all right i'll accept this this is nice but jesus did not do it why why doesn't he trust himself to their belief answering that question the why question will reveal just how different true belief is to false belief. Answering the why question, why didn't Jesus entrust himself? Why did he see, what did he see here, will answer just how different true belief is to false belief.

And it's as different as a star is to a shooting star. So what's the reason? Why? Well, let's look at that. Look at verse 24. Look what John says, but Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them.

And here's the reason why. And it'll explain to us, it'll help us see what true belief is versus false belief. He says, because he knew all people, and he needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. You see, where we can only see actions as humans, as humans that are not truly God, we can see actions, and then we can surmise from those actions the heart.

You know, you can't see someone's heart, you can't see motivations, you can't see how they are in the inside. You can only kind of, surmise because of their actions. See, Jesus doesn't have that problem. Jesus is truly God, truly man. He has eyes of fire and nothing is hidden from him. Jesus being truly God could see the heart just as easily as we can see actions.

Think about that for a moment. He's not fooled by anything. We're like the child just amazed by the shooting star thinking that's a star shooting across the sky. And Jesus knows exactly the difference between the shooting star and the real star. He knows it all. And when Jesus looked within their hearts, he did not see true belief.

He saw a counterfeit. He saw a false belief. He saw what John says here, natural man. He saw man. He knew what was in man. He saw natural man.

So imagine Jesus sees the heart and he says, I see natural man. That's what I see. And it's a counterfeit. So then we've got to ask ourselves, what is natural man? What does it mean that he just saw man? What does John mean when he writes that he knew all people, no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man?

What's in man? And we can label it natural man. And that is humans in their natural state are born after Adam. We're all born after Adam. Adam sinned in the garden as we've already located. He sinned because he believed the lie of Satan that I can have life by pursuing my own passions of the flesh.

The apple looks good or that fruit looks good even though it's not obedient to God I think I can enjoy life without God And so that's what happened to Adam and so everyone is born after Adam which were under the same curse in which we believe the same lie that we can have life without God And it's important to have in our mind that foundational text of Ephesians 2 1 through 3 right and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the son's obedience, among whom we all once lived in what? The passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. So when Jesus looked into the heart of people who are saying, hey, we believe upon him.

He looks into their heart and he sees nothing but that natural man who desires the things of the flesh, period. That's what he sees. He sees a counterfeit. He sees a false belief. So Jesus saw their desire for self and not for God since they were dead to God. And he does not believe it.

Really good example of this. We'll get here eventually, but by the time we get here, you'll forget all about the sermon. So I'm not worried about repeating myself, but look at John chapter 6 verse 26. This is a really good example, a false belief rooted in natural man. And John chapter 6 verse 26, go there real quick. Well, not that quick, take your time, it's okay.

And the context is that Jesus just fed the masses. He just fed the masses food. Now in our day, we're so wealthy, it's like, okay, I probably would have rather McDonald's anyways. But in this day, to have a meal to people who are really hungry, this was a huge deal. Are you telling me I don't have to work for my food? That this man can provide me these things?

And so this is on their mind, and Jesus knows they're searching for him. The masses believe, and they're searching for him, and they find him, and they say, Rabbi, where were you? We've been looking for you, and what does Jesus say to him? He says in verse 26, in chapter 6, verse 26, truly truly I say to you you are seeking me you're believing upon me you're pursuing me not because you saw signs but because you ate your full of the loaves he says do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life which the son of man will give to you for on him God the father has set his seal you see what Jesus is saying there is that you're pursuing me you're believing upon me you want me right now not because I'm the son of God who can provide you life eternal life with God Not because you desire God, but because you desire your own fleshly desires, your own passions, your own whatever feels good to your senses.

Sorry is why you want to come to me right now. In other words, you have a counterfeit belief. And we've got to understand that you can have the noblest motivation for believing upon Jesus. Think about it. They were looking to eat. Have you ever thought about that?

They weren't looking for an explicit sin. They were looking to eat. Yet Jesus was not satisfied at all with that belief. You can have the noblest motivation for belief upon Jesus. I want to be a better parent. I want to be a better spouse.

I want to be a better friend. I cannot tell you how many times in counseling, and I don't have a very long career in this, but the problem, someone comes with a problem, and I see the motivating factor, what motivates them, is not to pursue God, not to enjoy him forever, but it is to be a good dad, be a good husband. And it leads them to all sorts of problems because that is a counterfeit belief.

You can have the noblest motivation for believing upon Jesus, but if your primary motivation isn't to have God, then Jesus will not entrust himself to your belief. Jesus did not come to feed the natural man's desire for self, no matter how much you think that the things you want are noble. So when the people believed upon him as a means for selfish passions, he refused to trust himself to them.

He saw the counterfeit. So many believed upon Jesus here at the feast, but it was a false belief. It was a counterfeit, driven by natural man or selfish desires, not driven for the desire to have God and enjoy him forever. So that is false belief in general. We see it right there in the text. Going back to John chapter 2, we see that at the end of chapter 2, we see false belief, right?

The main purpose of John is for you to believe and have life in his name. And now John is helping us see when we experience or see false belief. There is something that Satan has created for you to be led not to life, but instead astray. There's false belief and here it is in general. It's when we pursue Jesus not to have God but rather to have the things that he can provide.

Now, moving from the general to particular. Notice the transition from chapter 2 to chapter 3. He's moving in this general false belief or a counterfeit belief stated and then he moves into the particular. And notice the language. You can see it play out. Look again at verse 25.

We'll go to verse 24 again in chapter 2. But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Now look at chapter 3. Now there was a man. You notice that. Here's a particular example.

Jesus knows every man. He doesn't need anyone to tell him. He can see their false belief. He sees their false motivations. And now here's a particular example of that in this man. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

So here we have a particular example of false belief in Nicodemus. And Nicodemus makes for a great candidate for false belief. He really does. This man was a Pharisee. He knew his Bible well. He knew his Bible better than any of us probably know our Old Testament.

He knew it better than us. He was a Pharisee who knew the Bible well. he was the ruler of the Jews and that is not politically but religiously he was part of the Sanhedrin and so he wasn't just uh no one knew about him Nicodemus was was well known as a religious scholar who was in the Sanhedrin that made religious decisions with the Sanhedrin. And the most important credential for a false believer here is found in verse 2.

Look at the end of verse 2. He says to Jesus in verse 2, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. So not only is he a Pharisee in the Sanhedrin, a religious leader, but he saw the signs of Jesus and he says, that I believe. He sees the signs of Jesus and he attributes it to God.

You see, a lot of the Pharisees, what they were contributing the signs of Jesus was to a demon. And here Nicodemus is saying, you must be from God because no one could do these things unless God is with him. You see, not only was the Pharisee a leader of the Jews, but he also was seeing the signs that Jesus was doing. And he says, you must be from God.

In fact, he even calls him rabbi. Now imagine this. Nicodemus was a well-known teacher of the law. And Jesus is a peasant. No one has ever heard of him. And he's calling Jesus rabbi.

This is quite the belief, isn't it? In fact, we should all be pretty impressed. Jesus being there, right? You got a member of the Sanhedrin calling me rabbi? Whoa, no. This is quite the belief that we have before us. and notice it is driven by signs.

Now this is mirroring what we just looked at, generally speaking, isn't it? They saw the signs and they believed. Nicodemus saw the signs and he's believing. He believes. There's a belief there. But there's just one major problem.

Remember what the major problem was of general belief? It didn't lead to life. And we see here the major problem is there in particular. Look at verse 2. We skipped over it, but we'll see it now. This man came to Jesus by night.

This is John not trying to be a good novelist and creating a nice setting for us. It was nighttime. This is John laying out the spiritual condition of Nicodemus. Although he saw the signs of Jesus, although he responded by calling Jesus Rabbi, saying no one can do this unless if you're from God, he came to him by night this is like him saying this is like what we have uh summarized that he did not have life if we look night is a common theme in the book of john and i think it's worthy to look at for a moment just so we can understand what's going on here with nicodemus look at john chapter 9 verse 4 look at john chapter 9 verse 4 Jesus says we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day night is coming when no one can work and so we see there there's a difference that he's saying that we must as we have light work look at 11 verse 10 look at chapter 11 verse 10 Jesus says but if anyone walks in the night he stumbles because the light is not in him you see it's a moral statement if you're walking in the night if you're walking in darkness if you're walking in lawlessness you will stumble and one more time just look at 1330 look at 1330 when the betrayer leaves verse 30 so after receiving the morsel of bread the betrayer of what I want to call him Lazarus for some reason Judas after receiving it he immediately went out and it was night and so the point is is it's the work of darkness it's a work of lawlessness and so I'm going back to chapter two or chapter three going back to verse two we see this man this Nicodemus despite the fact that he had a belief, he came to him at night.

He came to him as a work of darkness. This belief of Nicodemus did not result in him wanting to enjoy identifying and being close with Jesus This belief of Nicodemus he had no desire to be seen with Jesus to have close fellowship with him to even be his disciple with him And so therefore it did not result in life And we talked about true life is our belief upon Jesus and experiencing nearness with him And so just like we saw, generally speaking, Jesus saw the mass belief, but he did not entrust himself to them. We're seeing it here.

Nicodemus had a belief, but it was in the disguise. It was in night. now why what was wrong with nicodemus why did he have a counterfeit belief what was his problem we're not really told but in in some way it got in the way of his desires of the natural man in some way nicodemus saw believing upon jesus and and and and having a rich relationship with him and being seen in the daylight, right, having that openness would create an obstacle for the desires of the natural man, his own desires. And we see a common problem with the Pharisee, this is a little bit of speculation here, but a common problem with the Pharisee is pride.

They didn't want to look bad in front of man. In fact, they took a lot of pride. They like to look good in front of man. If we had more time, we could see all the different ways that Jesus spoke ill about the Pharisees because they desired the glory of man rather than of God. And so I think it's safe to say that Nicodemus did not have a full-throttle belief because it would have gotten in the way of that pride or that looking good in front of man.

It got in the way of his natural desires. So this is a false belief from Nicodemus. An interest, pursuit of Jesus, driven by natural man's selfish desires. And if we can pause here for a moment once more, I think this last generation that we've seen, this last generation in America, was bloated with this kind of belief. It is a marveling or a belief upon Jesus, but it is not an actual true one with a pursuit to be close to God.

Instead, it is a natural man's belief. And we've seen this in this last generation, right? We've seen the churches bloated with people that did not have a true belief in Christ. They had other motivations involved with why they were at church. And what we started to see throughout this last generation as the culture, Christianity really lost the culture, is we see people just leaving the church.

We see all the false believers that were there, not because of true belief, but false belief. We see the mass exodus of the people. And this was a great test. How would the church respond when false believers started flooding away, when they started going and leaving the church? And what's sad is many churches followed the counterfeit faith or a counterfeit belief.

You had flooded with counterfeit belief. And then as they started to leave, we see that the church followed in that folly. We see sermons that are confirming them. We see songs that tickle the emotions. And we see prayers that are short and sweet so you can get to Bob Evans in time. We see this kind of drive of which the flood of false believers, and we see the church respond with, okay, we will play your game, we will follow the counterfeit, we will be fooled by the counterfeit, instead of staying true to God.

And how much we all need to remind ourselves right now that there is this kind of belief that Jesus will not entrust himself to that's a counterfeit. and here Jesus does not get distracted by the shooting star the counterfeit but he gets to the heart of Nicodemus of the matter he teaches us what true belief is and he begins with the very foundation and so now moving forward moving forward in chapter three we're going to see with this false belief now established we're going to see what is true belief and the very foundation of it is what Jesus starts with and we're only going to cover this verse now before we finish, he answers Nicodemus with this false belief. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, in verse three, he says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And so there we see with false belief, with a counterfeit belief of being of man and wanting the desires of man instead of wanting God Jesus says if you truly want to have true belief here then you need to be born again You need to be born again No more natural man A new birth needs to happen in which the natural man of Adam desiring the things of the flesh, is done away with.

You're born again. And in fact, you can see in that phrase, it can actually be translated born from above. Born again can be translated born from above. And so you need a new man that's from above. You remember Ephesians 2.6, right? You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but then when you're, because God, because of his great mercy, he brings you up to the heavenlies with Jesus.

This is the new birth from above in which no longer are you born after Adam, but now you're born after a new identity, a new birth that is from above the heavenlies where God is seated, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the father. So to go from false to true belief, you need God to powerfully work within you to change your very nature. Because if you pursue Jesus with the old nature, you'll pursue him wanting your own desires instead of wanting new desires, God himself.

And so Jesus cuts to the chase with Nicodemus. He cuts to the heart of the matter because he could see his heart. And he says, Nicodemus, you need a new birth. Your old nature needs to die, and you need a whole new work of God in you to give you a new nature to pursue the things not of the earth, but the things of God, to pursue being near to God and Christ.

And it's interesting with this false belief, and we looked at this, the false belief, since it is rooted in my own desires, and we saw this, remember, and we'll go back there, John chapter 6, verse 26. If you remember, this false belief that's rooted in your own natural man desire, in this case it is more food. You remember Jesus saying, you're seeking me not because you saw signs and want to pursue me, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

It's interesting to see that that kind of false belief of the natural man always leads to rejection of the word of God and a leaving of Jesus. It's an offense of his word. And we see this in John chapter 6. Look at verse 60. After Jesus teaches only for a moment about what true life is and having God truly, when many of the disciples heard it in verse 60, they said, this is a hard saying.

Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? So the point is that Jesus is saying that they hear his word, and because they're pursuing their own fleshly gain, they're offended by his word.

But what I want you to see is to contrast that with the true belief in chapter 6, verse 66, with the disciples. And after this, many of his disciples, like in verse 66, turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want to go away as well? And Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

And so we see that when one is born again, born afresh, born with a desire, with a new nature in heaven to seek God, we see that he wants to draw near to Jesus in his word. But we see false belief is to be close to his word and to be offended by it and to leave. And so to be born again, to have a new nature is to desire God from the heart and pursue him by his word.

This is why the woman at the well, if you remember, at first, the woman at the well, she wanted the water that Jesus provides physically in the well so she wouldn't have to draw water anymore. but once she heard the word of Jesus she says come and see this one who has said everything about me who knows me in other words she heard the word of Jesus the living water and she wants to draw near to him by his word remember Mary listening to the words of Jesus at his feet at dinner and it's just marveling at his word drawing near to him and there's Martha too busy with the things of the world right And two has too much cares to listen to the words of Jesus So true belief begins with a work of God changing your nature which will cause you to cling to God by his word It will cause you no longer to have a counterfeit belief in which you seeking things of this world, but instead it will cause you to say, I want God himself, and that comes through clinging to him by his word. So the question we need to ask ourselves as we finish this first sermon on Nicodemus is are we struggling with false belief? Again, are we struggling with false belief?

What is the motivation for you to pursue Jesus? What is your motivation as you have your faith in Jesus? Is it to have God himself? Is it to draw near to him by his word? Or is it for something else? And Jesus, we see that he has told us how we are to draw near to him.

He says, you must be born again. Now the question that we got to ask ourselves is, how can I do this? How can I make myself born again? How can I cause my whole nature to change? And we must understand that in order to do this, Jesus says, come to me. All who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

I will give you the things that you need. And so you must understand that as you are struggling with false belief, as you're struggling with a counterfeit faith, you can pursue Jesus. And he promises he will give you the things that you need. He will give you the new birth. He'll give you a new nature. He'll give you new desires to seek him through his word.

And so if you are a true believer, but yet you are struggling with false belief, it's the same antidote. It's the same Savior set up before you to say, Come to me, you who weary or heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It's the same Savior. Oh God, I've been worshiping you with false motivations. I've slipped back into it. Forgive me, oh Lord, and give me new motivations, proper motivations, motivations that come from above, not that are from below.

Do you understand that when your belief is true in that sense, it is true belief for the true Messiah, for true life, he will never turn his back on you. And you might be struggling for a year now, two years, three years. And he promises that if you come to him because you want him and you repent of your sins, he will not turn away from you. He will give you new desires.

He will give you a new identity. He will give you and have you realize the new birth. So let us look to Jesus. Let us follow him. and let us trust that everything that we need, he has made available by his grace and mercy. Let us pray. Oh, Father, I thank you, Lord, that although Satan has provided such a terrible counterfeit to confuse us, to lead us down broken paths that do not lead to life, we know that there is a true belief, a belief that is generated, the foundation is of a new birth, and that from that new birth we no longer desire ultimately the things of this world but instead we desire you we no longer lord have a desire to receive from you the things of this world so we can enjoy them without you but instead with the new birth with new desires being born from above we desire you above all things and we know lord that this is what jesus has come this is the kingdom of god as we'll see moving forward in the coming weeks this is what it means to have true belief.

It is to be born again and to pursue Jesus Christ our Lord and to walk in the light. And so I pray, God, that as we consider our own lives this week, as we consider who we are, may we look to see at our actions. May we look to see at our motivations. And may we ask, Lord, is this a motivation that is of the true nature? Is this a motivation that's to have God himself or have I fallen prey to a counterfeit in which I have contrary motivations.

And we're so thankful that you are a savior who says, come to me. So that with our faulty motivations, even as a true believer, when our motivations go awry, we can go to Christ and he'll make us realize the new birth that you've already produced in us. So help us to believe upon Christ Jesus, our Lord. Let us walk after him for he is life. and we thank you for the work that he's done for his people.

In Jesus' name, amen.