John, pt 53 | John

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October 8, 2023 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN Pastor Jeff Rice

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Does everyone here have breath in their lungs? I guess we are to praise the
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Lord, right? Amen. If at this time you will take your copy of the
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Scriptures and join me in the Gospel of John chapter 8, we will consider verses 48 through 59.
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The Gospel of John chapter 8, 48 through 59.
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We have one more message in this Gospel next week, I mean in this chapter, excuse me, chapter 8.
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And then after chapter 8, we're going to take a quick, we're going to take a break from the
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Gospel of John and we're going to go through the book of Acts showing all the gospel presentations.
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So just to give us a little break and then we'll get back into the book of Acts, I mean the book of John.
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So we've been in it for a year now and so we'll take probably a three to six month break and then we'll get back into the
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Gospel of John. We'll do a series called Revive Us Again. So it's going to be really good.
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We're going to read through the whole book and preach the presentations.
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Let me pray. Father, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, please, by the power of your
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Spirit, use me this day to speak to your people. Lord, they have not gathered to hear from me, but to hear from you.
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Lord, please, in the name of Jesus, and through your
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Holy Spirit, please speak to your people through this broken vessel.
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Amen. Let's begin with reading the text. John chapter 8, beginning in verse 48.
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The Jews answered and said to him, do we not say rightly that you are a
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Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me.
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But I do not seek my glory. There is one who seeks and judges.
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Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death ever.
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The Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon.
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Abraham died, and the prophets also, and you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death ever.
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Surely you're not greater than our father Abraham, who died. The prophets died too.
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Whom do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
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It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say is our
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God. And you have not known him, but I know him.
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And if I say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his word.
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Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.
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So the Jews said to him, you're not yet 50 years old, and you have seen
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Abraham. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was,
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I am. Therefore they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
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Our theme has been last week, this week, and again next week, before Abraham.
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This man, Jesus, prior to his incarnation was before Abraham.
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He is greater than Abraham, and he visited with Abraham. And like I mentioned last week, if Jesus was not before Abraham, right, if he's not eternal, if he's not deity, then
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Jesus is not worthy of worship. The Bible is clear, we are to worship one
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God. We are to worship God alone. In Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, this is known as the
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Shemot, it says, hear, O Israel, the Lord our
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God, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our
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God, Yahweh is one. I believe the main purpose,
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I said it this last week, I believe the main purpose of this gospel is to show that Jesus is deity, that Jesus is the
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Son of God, the Son of Man. He is the
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Messiah, that God has taken on flesh and has revealed himself to us.
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And that in his taking on flesh, he covers the glory, he veils the glory.
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He cannot just walk around in his glory and expect to fulfill the purpose of the
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Father. It had to be veiled. Thomas, after seeing the resurrected
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Christ, cried out, my Lord and my God. In our outline today, we're going to see that Jesus meets the requirements of deity.
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Salvation is through Jesus alone. The litmus test of greater according to these
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Jews. The glory is God's alone in that Abraham worshiped
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Jesus. So, the first point is what we looked at last week, and we'll do a brief, we'll go through that briefly, what we looked at last week, and that was that salvation is through Jesus.
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Today, we're going to focus on points two and three. Point number two, the litmus test of greater according to the
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Jews. Point number three, the glory is God's alone, and then next week, we'll look at Abraham worshiped
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Jesus. As we transition, once again, we cannot let this escape our minds that these, that Jesus is in the scriptures, our passage, he is speaking to a group of Jews who believed in him.
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And I think that, I'm not going to un -muddy the waters today because of the conference that's coming up, but just know that there's a difference between believing and believing.
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Right? If you just look at verse 30, it says, as he was speaking these things, these things being that he is the light of the world, that if you don't believe that he is
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God, you're going to die in your sins. It says, verse 30, and as he was speaking these things, many believed in him.
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So verse 31, it says, so Jesus was saying to those who believed in him.
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So everything that we've been going through, this whole conversation between Jesus and the
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Jews, the Jews here in this conversation were those that believed in him.
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And like we saw last week, they called him, they said he had a, hey, he was a
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Samaritan and he had a demon. These are people who believed in him.
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And so there has to be some kind of a difference between believing and believing. And so what we, we called this group of people were believing unbelievers.
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These were the gospel seed that didn't land in good soil.
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They landed beside the road where there's a little bit of grassy area right there. And the devil comes and he snatches up the seed.
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And we see that clearly take place within minutes, within moments of them believing.
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They're now not believing. Again, which that statement alone should tell you that Calvinism is true.
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The Greek word here to believe in verse 30 is the Greek word pastuo.
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Pastuo means to have faith in, to believe in, or to put one's trust in.
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It's the same Greek word as used for saving faith, except this time the faith does not save.
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Right? So if you believe that faith produces regeneration, what just happened?
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What just happened? If they believed, then they should be regenerated.
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But we don't see that taking place. They are believing unbelievers.
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It's the same word pastuo. It can also, in certain areas, pistus, the
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Greek word, but it means the same thing. To have faith in, to believe, to put one's trust in, or to trust oneself to.
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Question is, why does it not save? And the answer is, because it wasn't given to them by God.
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Faith, according to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8, is the gift of God. You are saved.
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It says we are saved by grace, that's His grace, through faith, that's ours, that, it says you're saved by grace through faith, and that is not of yourself.
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What's not of yourself? Faith. Let's read it real quick, because I feel like I just butchered it for some reason.
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Verse 8, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8, for you are saved by grace, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourself.
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It is the gift of God. Faith, ladies and gentlemen, is the gift of God. It is not of yourself, and yet you can believe, you can have a faith, you can have a belief that is not saving, because it has not been given to you.
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We live in a world where many people have called upon the name of the Lord, but they have not believed in their heart that God raised
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Jesus from the dead. There might be some of you in here today who have called upon the name of the
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Lord, but you have not believed that Jesus was truly raised from the dead. We're telling you to believe something that is scientifically impossible.
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This is not something you experience daily. You do not wake up and, hey, oh yeah, Bill died, well
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I wonder if he's going to rise in three days like Job, right? It's not something we experience, but it goes deeper than that.
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We're saying that the God of all eternity came into time, took on flesh, took on flesh, lived a perfect life, died as a substitutionary atonement, was buried three days later, came up out the grave, and he ascended into heaven, and he sits at the right hand of the
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Father, he's ruling and reigning, and he's coming back. And you're to believe that.
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If that's not what you truly believe in your heart, the faith that you have is not saving faith.
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There's going to come a time in your life where times are going to get difficult, and you're going to depart from the faith.
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You say, Jeff, how can you say such a thing, because the Bible says such a thing. If that's not your foundation, you do not have saving faith.
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Faith was not given to you, it's something that you conjure up when you called upon the name of the
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Lord. Both have to be true. Yes, you got to call upon the name of the Lord, but yes, you have to believe who
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Jesus is and what he says about himself. And that's, my friend, is what we're dealing with in this text.
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If God doesn't give it, you don't get it. Now, how trailer park is that, right?
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If God doesn't give it, you don't get it. We have to believe these things in order to be saved.
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So point number one, we looked at last week, salvation is through Jesus alone.
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It's taken from verses 48 through 41. Let's quickly read that again. Let's begin in verse 47, so we understand what verse 48 is saying.
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Verse 47, he who is of God hears the words of God.
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For this reason, you do not hear them because you're not of God.
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So Jesus is just telling these people that they don't hear from God because they're not of God.
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Verse 48, the Jews answered and said to him, do we not rightly say that you are a
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Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father.
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You dishonor me, but my, but I do not seek my glory.
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There is one who seeks and judges truly, truly. I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death ever.
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All right, so in these four verses, we saw that these believing unbelievers blaspheme
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Jesus. Now, how do they blaspheme Jesus? By calling him a Samaritan.
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No, they did not blaspheme the Holy Spirit by calling him a Samaritan. They blaspheme
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Jesus by calling Jesus a Samaritan, and they blaspheme the
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Holy Spirit by saying that Jesus had a demon. All right, Jesus is living his life, performing these wondrous works, preaching the gospel, doing what he does.
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He has the Holy Spirit in him. And so when they say, no, you have a demon, they're no longer speaking about the blaspheme against Jesus, which he can be forgiven of.
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But we're talking about the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit, which the Bible says there is no forgiveness of.
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The Holy Spirit does not share residency with demons.
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We have these big movements that are taking place today of Christian groups going around casting demons out of Christians.
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Ladies and gentlemen, if you're casting demons out of a Christian, guess what they are? A believing unbeliever.
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They're not truly believers. If someone tells you that they are a believer and yet truly they're demon possessed, then they're not really a believer.
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Because if they're truly a believer, they cannot be possessed by a demon because the
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Holy Spirit does not share residency with devils. A true believer cannot be possessed by Satan, by Beelzebub, by demons.
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Why? Because the true believer is filled with the Holy Spirit.
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As a matter of fact, if you look in where it talks about the idea of us being filled with the Spirit, it says that God sprinkles with clean water.
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He removes the heart of stone, gives a heart of faith, and he puts his spirit in us that keeps the law.
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It doesn't say that he revives our spirit. He's not in us doing CPR to get our spirit alive.
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The Ephesians says that we're spiritually dead. I think it's taken a light there when really we don't have a spirit.
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It's dead. It cannot be. When it says it's dead, I'm saying that it cannot be resuscitated.
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It's dead. Now, what has to happen? CPR? No. God has to put his spirit in us.
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If his spirit is in us, then we cannot be possessed by demons.
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I would go as far as to say if someone is saying that Christians can have demons, they're either breaking this, they're committing the blaspheme of the
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Holy Spirit, or they're really getting close to doing so. I pressed last week on how we are to be very careful when dealing with the subject of the
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Holy Spirit. Philippians, if you turn to Philippians chapter 2, we're looking at verses 9 -11, but before we read them,
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I want to say that Jesus, as we looked at last week, he did not come to seek his own glory, but the glory that comes from the
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Father. He didn't come for men to bow down to him. He came to seek the glory that comes from the
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Father. So in Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 9, it says this, therefore God also highly exalted him, the him here is
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Jesus, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow.
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Those that are in heaven, those who have already passed, right, and those that are under the earth, in every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's not something he came, like that's not something that he received here on earth.
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It's speaking of things in heaven and things under the earth. This is something that's going to culminate in the second coming.
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When he came, he came to fulfill the purpose of the Father. He did not come seeking glory.
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And also we looked at that salvation was in Jesus Christ alone.
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Those that keep his word will not see, will not taste death.
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To keep his word is to believe, to follow, and to stay in the light, right?
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We spoke about this a little bit in Sunday school. To receive, you know, you are to receive
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Christ by repenting and putting your faith in. That's our response.
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We are to repent and put our faith in Christ. We are to believe, right?
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But we're also to keep repenting and to keep faithing. We're to keep believing.
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We do that by following. We do that by staying in the light. If there's ever a time where you're not repenting, you're not believing, guess what happened?
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You exited the light. You're not following Christ. We are to, as a people, be a people who receive
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Christ by repentance and faith, who continually every day repent and believe in Christ.
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We are to follow him. We're to keep his word. And for those that have received him by faith and continually to receive him by faith, following after him will never see death ever.
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Death here is not speaking about the physical death. It's not speaking about, you know, you not dying or your parents not dying or a loved one not dying.
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It's not saying that Christians don't, you know, pass away. It's speaking about the judgment.
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John chapter 5 verse 24 says this, truly, truly, I say to you,
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Jesus speaking, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
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So he who hears Jesus's word and believes him who sent him, you know,
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Jesus and the father has eternal life.
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How do we get that eternal life? That spirit we were talking about comes within us to dwells. Jesus is eternal life.
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And those who believe Jesus, believe the father, are filled with the spirit, they have eternal life and they do not come into judgment, but rather they pass from death to life.
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They pass from that judgment into life. Not to mention when the
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Bible speaks about death concerning followers of Jesus, it says they sleep.
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They sleep. Because to experience true death is to experience the judgment of God.
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The judgment of God, the judgment that this death is speaking about is the second death.
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You ever heard that saying, born once, die twice, born twice, die once, right?
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Those that are not in Christ, when you die, you are going to experience a greater death.
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It's called the second death. It's the lake of fire, what some commonly call hell.
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For those of us who are in Christ, we are going to shed this body and as we do, we enter into life.
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We pass from death to life. We pass out of judgment into life.
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We do not experience what's called the second death.
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Point number two, the litmus test of greater according to the
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Jews. So look at verse 52 of our text. The Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon.
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Abraham died and the prophets also.
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And you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death ever.
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Surely you are not greater than our father Abraham who died. The prophets died too.
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Whom do you make yourself out to be? First thing
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I want you to notice that they knuckled down on the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit.
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They said to him, now we know, now we know you have a demon.
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They went from saying to knowing, right?
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They went from saying to knowing. They said, do we not rightly say or say rightly, depending on your translation, do we not say rightly that you have a demon to saying now we know you have a demon.
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So because of the statement made by Jesus, they say, now we know you have a demon.
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Ladies and gentlemen, this is something they did not do by accident.
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Right? This isn't something that you can just, you can, you can accidentally do. Remember last week
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I talked about many people, uh, they come up to me or they might've come up to you when they found out that you're a
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Christian and there are, are you yourself might've wondered, I know I myself might've wondered at one time, did, have
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I committed the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit? This is not something that you do by accident.
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This is not a oopsie daisy. This is not, Oh, I didn't mean to step on you. Right? This is something that they're doing purposefully.
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It started out with, are we not rightly saying to now, now that now we know, we know you have a demon.
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They are blaspheming the Holy Spirit. They are purposely saying that Jesus is demonic, purposely saying that Jesus is demonic.
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A group of Jews had already said the same thing. When you look in chapters, chapter seven, verse 20, look at chapter seven, verse 20.
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Now rather some of these Jews that he's speaking to in chapter eight could be a part of the same crowd. We don't, we, we don't know the chapter 20.
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Let's see. Verse, excuse me. Chapter seven, verse 20, the crowd answered, you have a demon who is seeking to kill you.
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And we also will see it again in chapter 10, verse 20, chapter 10, verse 20.
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And many of them were saying he has a demon and he, and is insane.
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Why do you listen to him? He has a demon and is insane.
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Why do you listen to him? They are blaspheming the
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Holy Spirit by saying that Jesus has a demon. They also, right here, they restate what
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Jesus says in verse 51. They went by saying taste instead of see.
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Jesus saying that if you follow him, you will not see. And they add, you said, for those that follow you will not taste, speaking of death.
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To see death is to behold death. To taste death is to partake.
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And for those that are Christian, both are true. If you are in Christ, you will never behold or partake in the judgment.
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You will see death, people die, right? You'll see natural death, people die, and you will partake in that.
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You are going to die. This is talking about the judgment, the second death.
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This is talking about the lake of fire. You're never going to see someone burning in the lake of fire.
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You're never going to see someone burning in the lake of fire, nor are you going to burn in the lake of fire.
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Those of us who are in Christ. Why? Because of the cross.
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Because of the cross. Because of the cross. Everything, everything.
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Ladies and gentlemen, everything is summed up at the cross. What He did for us because of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension.
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Those that are in Christ are perfectly righteous before God and our sins were punished at the cross and therefore there is no condemnation in this life and there is no judgment for us in the afterlife.
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How could there be? If He has swallowed up death for us to swallow victory, how could we experience the condemnation that the world has to offer and the judgment that's coming from the wrath of God?
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The lake of fire is the wrath of God for those who do not repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ.
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This group of Jews, to this group of Jews, excuse me, for Jesus to be greater than Abraham, He would have to not die.
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Isn't that what it says? It says, now we know that you have a demon.
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Abraham died and the prophets also. And you say if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death ever.
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Surely, you are not greater than our father Abraham who died.
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The prophets died too, whom do you make yourself out to be? In order to these
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Jews, in order for Jesus to be greater than Abraham and the prophets, He would have to not die.
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Now I just mentioned the cross so we know in fact that Jesus died, right?
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Jesus died. He died for our sins. Jesus died. And what makes him pass this litmus test is that he doesn't stay dead like everyone else has stayed dead before, right?
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The old analogy, right? We don't live a life to where we say, oh, you know, Bob just died. I wonder if he's going to rise three days later like Joe did, right?
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You know, we don't live in the, we don't experience anything like that in our lives. Jesus was crucified, nailed hands and feet to a
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Roman cross, beaten with a cat of nine tails, had a crown of thorns shoved on his head, was speared in the side, taken down from the cross, put into a tomb for three days, and he came about that tomb proving he is who he said he was.
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Jesus died and he came back to life. He rose again. He didn't stay dead.
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The grave could not hold him down. And ladies and gentlemen,
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Jesus, according to the Bible, is first fruits. First fruits.
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As goes the king, so goes the kingdom. So what that means is, is that Abraham is not going to stay dead.
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Right now, Abraham is dead. Abraham did not come about the grave. But there's going to come a time where Abraham, you and I, and however many the
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Lord brings to faith, are going to come back to life just as Jesus came about the grave.
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So he is greater. He passes our litmus test. Yes, he died, but he came back to life.
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And there's going to come a day where all those who have died in him are going to come about the grave just like he did.
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He is the first fruits, the Bible says. So yes,
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Abraham died. Yes, the prophets died. But the Abraham and the prophets were looking to Christ.
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And because they were looking to Christ, his death counted as their sacrifice. And when he rose as first fruits, by looking to him, that means that they too, you too, when
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Christ comes, we will rise. And at that moment, we are once again proving the litmus test that we see here in the scripture, that Jesus Christ is greater than Abraham.
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And he's greater than the prophets because the grave could not hold him. It's funny, you know, we talk about the, we talk about the gospel and a lot of people, they kind of glance over this, this idea, because the
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Bible says that God cannot die and we as men cannot live. I mean, we cannot keep the law.
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The wages of sin is death. And yet Jesus died in order for, for God, for in order for Jesus, him as God to die.
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How can that be if God cannot die? So God had to be truly a man and Jesus committed no sin and yet was made sin on that cross.
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And so if the wages of sin is death and God cannot die, how is it that Jesus died?
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He was nailed to a cross. He became a curse. And on that cross, as he became a curse, he died for the sins of many, for those that would be in him.
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And if Abraham, of course he is, Abraham and the prophets were looking to Jesus Christ and you and I who are looking to Jesus Christ, although we will die, our sins have been paid for and we will rise again, proving that Jesus is greater than Abraham.
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By the statement Jesus made, he said, truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death ever.
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So because he said those words, they bring up Abraham and the prophets and they are wanting
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Jesus to explain to them who he is.
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They said, who do you make yourself out to be? Now, there's two things from that sentence that's laughable to me.
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Like as I was studying, I actually chuckled. Like these guys, what are they doing?
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Are they not reading what I'm reading? I mean, did they not experience what it is that I'm reading, right? The first thing is, is that they, the
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Jews, and I'm not talking about like them in particularly, but the Jewish nation are the ones who killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to her.
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They're talking to Jesus about the prophets and how the prophets were great, but they are the ones that put the prophets to death.
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The nation of Israel put the prophets to death. They know this. They know that they themselves, their family, they put, they stoned, they killed the prophets that were sent to her.
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We see that in Matthew 23. And the second thing that made me laugh is that Jesus just had told them who he was and they believed.
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They believed in a way. He says that I am the light of the world.
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Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, pointing to himself being God. And he says, and if you do not believe that I am he, he is who, the light of the world,
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God, you're going to die in your sins. And it says that they believed. And now they're saying, who do you make yourself out to be?
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It's laughable. It's laughable. Remember by Jesus saying that he is the light,
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I kind of just touched on it. He is pointing back to God, pointing back to God being the light of Israel that led them out of the wilderness.
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Where did that light lead them to? The promised land, the land of Canaan.
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Just as God led them out of the wilderness, Jesus in that verse is saying that he is leading them to the father.
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Same way that God led them to the promised land, Jesus is leading his people to the father.
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John 14, 6. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
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He is the only way to the father. He says, no one comes to the father except through me.
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And I cannot wait till we get to that verse. There's some really good insight that I want to share right now, but I don't want to give it away.
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So please forgive me. Let's move on. And when Jesus says, truly, truly, he is saying,
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I solemnly tell you the truth. When he says truly, truly, that's what he's saying.
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I am about to solemnly tell you the truth. And what is the truth?
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It's that the gospel invitation is for everyone. Look back at what it says. If anyone, does it say if the
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Jews, does it say just the Greeks? No, it says, if anyone,
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Jew or Greece, Jew or Gentile, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death ever.
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Salvation is through Jesus Christ. And Abraham will never see death ever.
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They themselves at that moment would have never seen death ever if they would have truly repented and put their faith in him.
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And you listening to me today, you will never see death ever if you truly repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ.
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Point number three, the glory is God's alone. This is taken from verses 54 through 55, but let's read verse 54 to begin with.
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Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me of whom you say, he is our
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God. Now, if I could restate that, I would say, I'm just restating what
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I see here taking place in the words of Jesus. If I cause you to see my glory before it's time,
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I am not doing the will of the father. If I cause you to see my glory before it's time,
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I am not doing the will of my father. In Jesus fulfilling the purpose of the father, he has to, in fact, bring glory to God.
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So what was the purpose of the father? To save a people. How is he going to save this people?
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By sending his son to live the life they could not live, to take upon himself their death and punishment, was to be buried and rise again on the third day of the gospel.
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So Jesus is to fulfill the purpose in his life, death, burial, and resurrection.
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If Jesus, remember I said last week, if Jesus came shining in all of his glory, he come down, he didn't veil himself with human flesh, no one could kill him.
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Everyone who saw him would bow down and worship. You would still be in your sins and trespasses, dead in your sins and trespasses, if Jesus did not fulfill the purpose.
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And by him fulfilling the purpose, he brings glory to God. And that's what
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Jesus came. He did not come to receive glory, but to give glory to the father, to bring glory to the father through his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
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And therefore, Jesus fulfills the father's purpose. And so, excuse me, therefore, when
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Jesus fulfills the father's purpose, the father in return will give glory to the son.
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And that is what the resurrection is. The resurrection is where that first installment of glory comes to the son.
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We'll see the full totality of it at the second coming. Look at what it says in verse 54.
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It says, it is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our
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God. He doesn't need them to glorify him. The father glorifies him.
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As I just said, how does he do so? In the resurrection. Still today,
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Jewish people claim the father, who we call the father, as their God, but as we've already walked through in 1
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John, if you do not have the son, you do not have the father.
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All these religions out there that have come about, they even talk about the monotheist
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God. So you have the three major monotheists, Judaism, Islamism, and Christianity.
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They all talk about Yahweh, the father. But if you do not have the son, you do not have the father.
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And it's got to be the right son, the son who is God himself who took on flesh.
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If you do not have the son, you do not have the father. Now look at verse 55a.
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So right after Jesus is saying, of whom you say is our
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God, and you have not known him. So he's saying, you're saying that he is your
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God, but you do not know him. And you do not know him, but I know him.
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The words have not, you have not known, is past tense.
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Jesus is saying to these Jews, you have not known God. Isn't that what it says?
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Look at it again, verse 45a. And you have not known him.
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Who's the him? God. He's speaking to the physical descendants of Abraham, and he is telling them, you do not know
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God. You do not have God. You have not known him.
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Your whole life, you have not known him. You do not even know who he is. You talk about him, but you do not know him.
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You cannot know him unless you know Jesus, unless you receive the son.
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You said, but Abraham knew him. Absolutely. Because Abraham believed the promise. Abraham is what you would call a true
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Israelite. We see this in Nathanael. Nathanael comes to Jesus. Well, Philip witnesses to Nathanael.
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Nathanael comes to Jesus. Jesus sees Nathanael, and he says, a true Israelite who there is no deceit in.
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So when the Bible talks about a true Israelite, it's speaking about a physical descendant of Abraham, who is also a spiritual descendant of Abraham, because they believed the promise.
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And because these Jews have not believed the promise, they do not know God. You cannot, all the way throughout the
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Old Testament and the New Testament, you cannot know God apart from knowing the seed, the son, the
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Messiah, the Mashiach. And Jesus is telling them this. Have not is past tense.
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Jesus is saying to this group of Jews, you have never known God ever. And we will look at that more in our next point, which will be next week.
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Right now, let's finish reading this verse. Verse 55. Let's start at the beginning.
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And you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say to you that I do not know him,
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I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his word.
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And right off the bat, he is saying that they don't know him, but he knows him.
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Jesus knows God. Jesus is eternal life. As we've been, we saw several times in the past week where Jesus proclaims himself to be the eternal life.
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And if they knew God, they would know him. Meaning, if they knew
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God, they would have eternal life. To know God is to have eternal life. The Gospel of John chapter 17, verse 3 says,
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Jesus speaking in the high priestly prayer, he says, now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true
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God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. To know, I mean, to have eternal life is to know
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God through Jesus Christ. Eternal life is through Jesus Christ.
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You cannot know God outside of Christ. And he says that I know him.
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He says, if I didn't know him, I would be a liar like you. The reason why you don't know him is because you don't have eternal life.
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You don't have eternal life. You do not know God. And you don't know him because you don't know me.
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That's what he's saying. Do you see why these Jews are getting so angry? Like their whole life they've been told that they were chosen by God.
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And they're God's children, they're God's people. And then you have someone coming who is telling them that they're not
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God's children. They're not God's people because they don't know him. Can you put yourself in their shoes?
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Do you understand why they're upset? I do. Like I have this issue with me that even when
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I'm watching a debate and it's someone that I know is wrong, like I really try to let them melt that upon me to where I can feel where they're coming from.
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So that way then I know how to give grace to people in those areas as well.
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Look at verse 19 of the... So chapter 8 verse 19.
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So they were saying to him, where is your father? Jesus answered, you don't know, you neither know me nor my father.
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If you knew me, you would know my father also. And look back at verse 47.
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He who is of God hears the words of God.
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For this reason, you do not hear them because you are not of God.
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So when you meet a Jewish person today, listen to me. They're not
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God's people. They are the mission field. They are the mission field.
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Just because you meet someone who's a Jew, don't forget that they are the mission field.
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If they don't know Jesus, they do not have the father. Jesus is saying to them, he says, if he, speaking of Jesus, did not know
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God, then he, Jesus, would be a liar like them. Don't miss this.
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I'm just trying to think of a pithy way to say this and kind of make it into mine. And so in the rap game or in the world of writing, there's what's called a wordsmith.
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Anybody know what a wordsmith is? A wordsmith. And a wordsmith is someone who can masterfully put words and concepts together.
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Jesus in verse 55 is taken what has been said and he shapes it into a sentence that should be, in my opinion, if microphones were back then, should have been followed by a mic drop.
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Right after he said that. It's not sounding better in my head, sorry.
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In the presentation of Jesus as the light of the world.
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So Jesus gives a presentation that he himself is the light of the world. The one sent by the father.
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He tells them that if you do not know him, you do not know the father.
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And he tells them that if they don't believe that he is God, that they're going to die in their sins.
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And he tells them that they are the children of the devil and that they're taking after their father who is the devil.
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He tells them that the devil is a liar and like their father, they are liars.
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Look back at verse 44. Jesus says to them, you are of your father, the devil.
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Let me read that again. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.
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He was a murderer from the beginning. All of mankind fell in at him because of Satan.
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And he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whatever he speaks, whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies.
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And Jesus says, if I did not know him, I would be like you, a liar.
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Mic drop. Look at verse, again, verse 55.
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You have not known him, but I know him. And if I say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you.
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But I keep his word. But I know him and I keep his word. So in turn,
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Jesus is saying that if he did not know God, then he would be like them and everyone else without God, making him a child of the devil.
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That's what he's saying. He's putting it all on the line. If I don't know, if God is not my true father, then
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I'm just like you, a child of the devil who loves to live in his own nature by lying. So the question is this.
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Who is your father? We'll give you some follow -up things to think about.
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You only have two choices. The devil or God.
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That's it. That's all the Bible gives you. You're either a child of the devil or you're a child of God. Children, are you listening?
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Grown -ups, are you listening? You're either a child of the devil or you're a child of God.
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You cannot like, like there's no co -parenting here, right? Like one's not paying child support to the other.
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There's no co -parenting. You can't have two fathers. You have one father. It is either the devil or God.
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So who are you following? You have two choices.
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The devil or Jesus. Darkness or light. Who are you following?
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Are you following the light? Or are you living in darkness? Two choices.
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I want you to ask yourself something. And this right here is going to give you the answer. You're going to ask yourself a question and the answer to that question will answer the other question.
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Who are you following? The devil or Jesus? And the answer to who you're following will give you the answer to who's your father.
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If you're following, if you're living in darkness, your father is the devil. If you're following Jesus, your father is
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God. That's what it comes down to. So who's your father?
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You don't know who your father is? Who are you following? Who are you following? If your father isn't
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God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, then when you die, you're going to die in your sins.
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There is no sacrifice for you. You will not pass from death to life. You will behold, you will behold death.
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You will taste death in the judgment. You will experience the lake of fire, which is hell.
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If the devil is your father, if you're following darkness, that's what's ahead of you.
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But thanks be to God, he sent his son so that we can know him.
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And that's what the gospel is about. That we know the father through the son because the son willfully lived the life we could not live as our substitute and willfully took the punishment that we deserve in his death as a substitute.
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And to echo the words of Paul, owe to know him in his suffering.
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You want to know Christ? How much do you want to know him? Because in this life, the
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Bible says we will have trouble. That's even for the
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Christian. Christian, listen, in this life, you're going to have trouble. And I mentioned it earlier, that trouble is going to come to every one of us.
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And for those false professors, when that trouble comes, you're going to leave the faith because you do not truly believe.
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And when you do, you need to know that there is no sacrifice for your sins. To know him and his sufferings, to endure sufferings while knowing him.
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You really want to know him? That's what Paul says, owe to know him in his sufferings.
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The response is to repent and it's to believe. And ladies and gentlemen, there is no belief outside of repentance.
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Don't tell me you know God and live like the devil because I ain't listening. We are available to anyone who wants to talk.
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Let's pray. Father, Lord, these words and this gospel has been as sweet as honey, but also,
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Lord, as bitter as prunes. Lord, I just, I find myself rejoicing and weeping all at the same time.
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This has been a hard passage to go through to preach from, to read, and even to have this understanding.
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And Lord, we know that it's not even over. And next week, he'll dive a little deeper into what it means that Abraham worshiped him and that Abraham saw his day.
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Lord, we just pray for your mercy and for your grace, Lord, over the word. Lord, I pray for those that heard the word today in this house and then in all the churches in the world,
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Lord, who are gathering together to worship you. Lord, that you will use your word, whether it be bitter or sweet, to soften the hearts of those that need to repent.
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And Lord, we pray that you will open them and that you will grant them repentance and faith. And that for us who are
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Christians, Lord, that you will use this word to grow us in spiritual maturity and to the knowledge of Christ, Lord.
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And God, as we are about to partake in the supper, Lord, we ask that if there's anyone here that's been living in sin,
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Lord, that they will confess these things to you before they partake. Lord, that you will even use this to grow us into holiness.