John, pt. 51 | John 8:37-47

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September 17, 2023 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN Pastor Jeff Rice

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John, pt. 52 | John 8: 48-59

John, pt. 52 | John 8: 48-59

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If you will, at this time, take your copy of the scriptures.
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We're going to be, for the second time, in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, considering verses 37 through 47.
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The Gospel of John, chapter 8, verses 37 through 47.
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O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, please,
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Lord, in the name of Jesus and by the power of your Spirit, Lord, I pray this day that you use me once again to proclaim, to announce your
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Word, who it is that Christ is, and what are we, as followers of Christ, to do as we follow you, the one true
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God. Lord, allow me to speak forth as a prophet of the
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Old Testament, proclaiming your Word to your people. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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Let's begin with the text, John, chapter 8, verses 37 through 47, 37.
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Jesus speaking, I indeed know that you are Abraham's seed, and yet you are seeking to kill me because my
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Word has no place in you. I speak the things which
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I have seen with my father, therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.
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They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you are
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Abraham's children, you would do the deeds of Abraham, but now you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which
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I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father.
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And they said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father,
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God. And Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me.
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For I proceeded forth and have come from God. For I have not even come of myself, but he sent me.
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Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my
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Word. 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 and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.
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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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But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin?
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If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me? 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 this is our second message in this theme, and our theme is
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Like Father, Like Son. And last week I made mention about sayings like this, the
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Like Father, Like Son. And one that's very popular is that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
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And I gave examples, like we as parents, we see our kids develop, they grow older, and we see them do things that they probably didn't see us do when we were kids, or they're doing things that our parents may have done, right?
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We see this in their actions, like I can remember when Trinity was a child, she used to do this thing with her feet, she would lay on her stomach, and she would bounce her feet on the edge of the bed.
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Like growing up as a child, I remember my daddy doing these things. My dad would, when he jumps on the bed and his feet were hanging off, and he would bounce his feet, and it would shake the bed, and we would laugh.
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And then Trinity as a child, I remember she used to do the same thing, and I would think the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
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Why is that, right? Why is it that the apple doesn't fall far?
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It's because Like Father, Like Son, or Like Mother, Like Daughters. I'm not trying to exclude women here, it's just like, the saying isn't
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Like Mother, Like Daughter, but you know, it can go in that direction, right? It's the way that it is, and my proposition is this, is that you can't, and again, that's not always the, it doesn't always line up like that, right?
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So my proposition is this, is that you cannot have both God and the devil as your father.
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You cannot, listen, you cannot serve both God and money, just like you cannot serve both
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God and the devil. Jesus in our text is speaking to a group of people who believe
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Him, right? That's what it says in verse 30. A group of people who believe, not only believed in Him, but this group of people believed that they are the children of the one true
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God. These are Jews, and here in the Bible Belt, we are surrounded by people who believe that they are children of the one true
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God. I mean, come out and witness with us, or you've probably done some witnessing in your time, and you speak to many people who profess faith in Christ, and you know that they don't possess faith in Christ, they know nothing of Christ, right?
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That they, you know, they grew up with a church family, or maybe have a family that talks about Jesus, but they don't know anything about Jesus.
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And being a Christian has to do with knowledge, in one sense.
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You have to know, and you have to understand that Jesus is the long -awaited
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Messiah, the Son of God, who came into the world, who lived a life that we could not live, and who took our punishment in His death.
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So many times, I've witnessed the people who profess to be a Christian, and they did not know the
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Gospel, and ladies and gentlemen, how can you be saved by a Gospel that you do not know? We live in the
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Bible Belt, and we are surrounded by people who believe they're Christians, and they don't know Jesus, and they don't know the
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Gospel, and one of the biggest lies by the devil, that's told by the devil, is spoken from Christians, and oftentimes from pulpits.
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Well, they'll tell people that all of us are born children of the one true
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God. I remember as a kid, I probably mentioned this before, in kindergarten, people would say, we're all brothers and sisters, in God's way.
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Like, I didn't understand what that meant then, I still don't understand what it means now, right? I mean, from five to 43,
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I still have no understanding what that means. The Bible is actually clear about this subject, that not everyone is born children of God, and we looked at this text last week, just by way of reminder,
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I want to read it again, from 1 John 3, verse 10.
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1 John 3, verse 10, it says this,
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By this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested.
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Everyone who does not do, that means does not do, does not practice righteousness, is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother.
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Now listen, those of us who are here, who are Christians, who are sold out to the
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Reformed faith, right, how does one become righteous?
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How is one made, how is one counted righteousness the way
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Abraham is? And it's by believing. Abraham is the man of faith, the believer.
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You and I, in order to be counted righteous, to be counted as righteousness, we have to believe.
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Well, what do we believe? We believe what he has done for us in Jesus Christ. So this verse right here, it says,
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By this the children of God and the children of God are manifested. Everyone who does not do, that means does not do, does not practice righteousness, is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother.
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I mean, verse 23, and this is his commandment. So right here is his commandment.
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This is the righteous that he's speaking about, that we believe in the name of the
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Son, Jesus Christ, and we love one another as ourselves. How do you practice righteousness?
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By continuing to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, and what, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
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Ladies and gentlemen, if you do not believe that Jesus is the Christ, and you are not loving your neighbors, you are not practicing righteousness, and it's manifested that you are not a child of God, but you are indeed a child of the devil, and that is not taught from pulpits, for the most part.
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In our outline today, we're going to look at five different seeds.
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We looked at three last week. Today we will go into the fourth and fifth with a conclusion.
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The first, point number one, was the physical seed of Abraham.
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Point number two, the spiritual seed of Abraham. Point number three, the heavenly seed of God.
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Point number four, the promised seed of Abraham. And point number five, the demonic seed of Satan.
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And as we transition, let's begin our time together with a brief overview of Baptist covenant theology.
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Real quick, turn to Genesis chapter three, look at verse 15 once again.
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Now, we will not be diving really deep into this, but just by way of reminder from last week.
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God, speak into the serpent for deceiving the woman who deceives
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Adam, who takes a life and death, says to the serpent, look at verse 14 first, then
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Yahweh God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you more than any other cattle and more than every beast of the field.
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On your belly you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life.
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Right here, kind of makes you think, I wonder what a serpent looked like before this.
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I wonder what a snake looked like before it was cursed to eat the dust of the ground.
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It definitely had to have legs and probably arms, like most creatures do.
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But the snake, because of this, the serpent was cursed and that's the curse of it. But it also gives another one.
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Verse 15, God tells this serpent of Ode, I will put enmity between you, that's
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Satan, and the woman, Eve, and between your seed, the seed of the devil,
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I'm going to put enmity between your seed, the seed of the devil, and her seed, the seed of Eve.
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And he will bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
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This here is the new covenant promise, the binding of Satan and the crucifixion of Jesus.
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When Jesus is crucified, he's nailed to the cross. This is whenever he bruises the head of the serpent, that's his binding.
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He binds Satan from deceiving the nations. But this seed, this seed that comes from the woman is the promise of the new covenant.
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A covenant has to be made. And right here, this is telling us that one is going to be made, a covenant is going to be made.
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And you will know when it's made, when this seed that comes from the woman bruises the head of the serpent while only bruising his heel.
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This seed of the woman is passed from the woman to Abraham. And in Abraham, we see, we have the beginning of God's physical covenant people, the
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Jews. Jesus Christ is a Jew. He comes from Abraham.
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He comes from Isaac, from Judah. He is the prophet spoken of by Moses.
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He is the offspring of David, who kept the law and was seated on the throne at his resurrection.
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Point being that this promise seed finds its fulfillment, this promise covenant finds its fulfillment in Christ.
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Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise of the new covenant, and it was inaugurated with blood on that cross.
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Now before we begin what we left off last week, I want to revisit those three points we looked at.
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The first point was the physical seed of Abraham. Remember, Abraham, in Abraham, this nation begins, this nation where this promise seed will come from begins.
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And last week we saw that that is the Jews, and they are in fact the physical seed, offspring, descendants of Abraham.
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Like there's no debate. We don't see people debating this issue. It's no debate. The Jewish people, the
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Israelites are the physical descendants of Abraham, and Jesus made it clear to them in verse 37a, let's look back at our text, verse 37a, he says to them,
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I know that you are Abraham's seed.
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Jesus made it clear to the Jews that he knows that they were the physical seed of Abraham.
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Point number two, the spiritual seed of Abraham. Although Jesus acknowledges that they are the physical descendants of Abraham, right?
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Verse 37, Jesus also says to them, if, he gives a conditional statement, if, so here's the condition, you are the children of Abraham, you would believe, you would do the deeds of Abraham.
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He's saying, if you are, I know you're the physical descendants, but if you're actually the children of Abraham, you would do the deeds of Abraham.
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And what did Abraham do? When Abraham was visited by Yahweh, Abraham at his door sees three men coming, one of them being
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Yahweh. He takes off running, according to Genesis chapter 8, he approaches
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Yahweh and he bows down and worships him. He worships him and then he serves him.
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He serves Yahweh. These Jews in our text are being visited by Yahweh in the person of the son,
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Jesus the Christ, and I would say so was Abraham. But instead of serving
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Yahweh, as we will see later, they pick up stones to stone him.
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They were not doing the deeds of Abraham. And we also saw that the spiritual seed of Abraham were those who had the faith of Abraham.
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Again, let's look at Galatians chapter 3, Galatians chapter 3, beginning in verse 6.
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Just as Abraham, here it comes, believed God and was counted as righteousness, so know that those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.
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Do you have faith in Jesus Christ? If so, you're a son of Abraham, you're a son and a daughter of Abraham.
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This is what this text is teaching. And the scriptures foreseeing, listen, foreseeing that God would justify the
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Gentiles by faith, proclaim the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, all the nations will be blessed in you.
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So then, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer.
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Why was the gospel given to Abraham? Because God foresaw the
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Gentiles coming. That's what it says. There should be no debate.
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That's what it says. God wants to bless all the nations through the promised seed.
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So what does he do? He starts with one man and he takes that seed that's coming from the woman, establishes it in the one man who
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God grants a kingdom people, a offspring of him, but not just a physical offspring.
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There will be a spiritual offspring of this one man, Abraham. And what you have here is the works through the law versus the works of the gospel.
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Continue to read. Look at verse 10. For as many are as are of the works, so this is speaking of the
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Jews, for as many as are of the works or of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things that are written in the book of law and to do them.
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So the Jews considered themselves the people of the law, and yet they could not keep the law.
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And he's saying they are cursed for that fact. Now, that no one is justified by the law before God is evident for the righteous, those who are counted righteous, those who are counted righteous by believing, what are they to do?
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They shall live by faith, a continuing practicing of that righteousness.
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Do you see it? However, the law is not of faith, rather, he who does them shall live by them.
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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree, in order that Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, might come to the
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Gentiles, so that we who receive the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith.
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You have works through the law or faith through the gospel.
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That's what it always comes down to in all religions. Works of the law, name any religion, that's what it is.
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Or Christianity, faith through the gospel.
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But it's not a one -time faith, yes I believe, it's a continuing living in that belief.
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It ain't no believing one day and not the next. It's every day, dying to self, living for Jesus Christ.
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Point number three was the heavenly seed of God. The heavenly seed of God are those that are chosen by God to be his.
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But there's two choosings that we see here in the Bible. We see God choosing in two ways.
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The first, which is not the heavenly seed, first way is to be the physical descendant of Abraham, which are the
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Jews, which are those who lived under the works of the law. And then you have the second, which is the heavenly seed.
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The second way is to be a spiritual descendant of Abraham. That's Christians, those who have faith in Jesus.
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God's heavenly seed are the spiritual descendants of Abraham.
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Now to our fourth point, the promise seed of Abraham.
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So this is taken from verses 42 and 43, read those with me.
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Verse 42, and Jesus said to them, if, notice the conditional statement, if God were your father, here it is, you would love me.
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For I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come of myself, but he sent me.
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Why do you not understand what I am saying to you? It is because you cannot hear my words.
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So if you are a child of God, you would love
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Jesus. So if you meet someone who does not love Jesus, guess what they're not?
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A child of God. A child of God. How many
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Jews do you know? How many Muslims do you know who claim to be children of God, but do not love
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Jesus? Jesus is saying, if you are truly a
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Jew, you would believe in me. Why? Because Jesus is the promise seed.
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Imagine these Jews from infancy on up into their life, they're hearing about these promises.
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They're hearing that God is sending a prophet like Moses. They're hearing that God himself is sending a
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Messiah and he's going to write the Romans. They're having to memorize scripture, especially these verses concerning the
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Messiah. And yet when visited by the Messiah, they do not do the works of Abraham.
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Romans 9 goes on to tell us that not all Israel is Israel. True Israel will believe in their
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Christ. If you meet a Jew who is a
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Christian who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, that, my friend, is a true
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Israel. He believes the promises. Those of us in the new covenant, the heavenly kingdom, the spiritual descendants of Abraham, Christians are the ones who believe in Jesus.
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We believe the promises. Only believers in Jesus as the
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Christ have God as their father. The Jews do not.
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The Muslims do not have God as their father. Only those who believe in Jesus Christ have
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God as their father. And when you pray, you can say, our father, Matthew 5,
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Matthew 6, excuse me. When you pray, you can say, our father, our father, which art in heaven, our father, the
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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, however you want to do it. You can say these words. He is your father because you are a believer in Jesus Christ.
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This is for the promised seed of Abraham, or those who look to the promised seed of Abraham, excuse me, or the heavenly seed of God.
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We are the ones who love Jesus. We believe that Jesus proceeded forth from the father, came forth from, sent by the father.
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That's what that's saying. Jesus saying, I was sent to you. For God so loved the world that he gave.
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That's the same thing that he gave. That's what it means to be proceeded forth from, that he gave his only begotten son.
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And that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life, will be children of that one true
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God. And it saddens me to say this, again, those in Judaism do not believe that.
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The physical descendants of Abraham, this should break your heart, do not believe in their own
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Messiah, for the most part. Look with me at John chapter one.
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We walk through these verses, we're just going to look at verse 11 and 12. John chapter one, verse 11 and 12, speaking of Jesus, he came to what was his own.
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And those who were his own did not receive him. That's speaking about the physical descendants of Abraham.
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Now listen what it says about all other people, the people who are not the physical descendants of Abraham.
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But as many as received him, that's you and I, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God.
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How do you become a child of God? By believing in the promised seed of Abraham.
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Look at verse 43. Jesus says, why do you not understand what
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I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my words.
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If you will go from John chapter eight and just turn over to John chapter 12,
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John chapter 12, it gives us more light on why they cannot believe. Look at verse 39, 39.
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For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, he, speaking of God, has blinded their eyes and has hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and return and I heal them.
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These things Isaiah said because he saw his glory and spoke about him.
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Spoke about who? Jesus. Spoke about Jesus. Isaiah saw
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Jesus according to John. I keep reading, nevertheless, many, even of the rulers, right here, believed in him.
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Let's see if they continued in that belief. But because of the
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Pharisees, they were not confessing him for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.
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For they love the glory that comes from man rather than the glory that comes from God.
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It sounds a lot like the Bible, Bill. Many people in Tallahoma and the surrounding counties say they believe, but they don't confess him.
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They don't live their life for him. You know, confession is way more than just saying words.
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It's more than just saying words. According to the
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New Testament, why is it so important to love Jesus? Answer, because Jesus is the promised seed of Abraham.
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And if you believe that, God is your father. And again, when you pray, you can address him as such.
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That means you are in, so this is true of you, that you believe in the promised seed of Abraham, that you believe
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Jesus is this promised seed, that means you are in the new covenant that Genesis chapter 3 spoke about.
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That is, that was to come, that right now has come. That means that you are in the new covenant and you are part of the heavenly kingdom people, which are the spiritual descendants of Abraham.
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That means you have entered that new covenant kingdom people by being born again.
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And you were, when you were given faith to believe you were born again, that means you have received the covenant sign, which is baptism, and you are partaking in the new covenant meal, which is the
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Lord's Supper, and Jesus is your king. In order to be in the new covenant kingdom of heaven, you must first be born again.
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And then you get the sign and eat the meal because Jesus is king.
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That cannot be in any other order. You must be born again.
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You must be born again, ladies and gentlemen.
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You must be transformed, turned into a new creature, a new creation in Christ to be in this covenant people.
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The Jews had to radically be born naturally. You have to radically be born again.
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In order to receive the sign, partake in the meal, and have
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Jesus as your king. Point number five, the demonic seed of Abraham.
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We see this in verses 44 through 46. I want you to notice right here, he's going to say something.
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He's going to say, you cannot hear my word. We see that in verse 45.
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Yeah. No, no, no. Verse 43 at the very, look at verse 43 before we read it. And why do you not understand what
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I am saying is because you cannot hear my word. Verse 44a, you are of your father, the devil.
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So why is it that they cannot hear his word? It's because they are of their father, the devil, not
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God. God was their father. They would hear his word. They are of their father, the devil.
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Verse 44a shows us, well, somehow now
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I wrestled, I probably spent the night without writing anything down because I was just studying this, trying to figure this out and listen, no one is talking about it.
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No one is talking about it. How in the world did the offspring of the serpent infiltrate the offspring of Abraham?
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No one talks about it. Like there's nothing out there, at least that I myself could find.
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So I've come to this conclusion that I believe that it just has to be speaking about how all of us,
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Jew and Gentile, are born covered in the dust of Adam. But there's nothing else out there.
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I couldn't find anything. How is it whenever God made this kingdom people through Abraham, were they still the children of the devil at that moment?
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Because there's nothing out there, I have to conclude that, yeah, I mean, because I don't want to teach something that's new, that yeah, they must be at that very moment the children of the devil, physical descendants of Abraham.
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They had to still be the children of the devil. They had to be covered just like you and I when we're born, covered in the dust of Adam.
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And this is why the physical descendants of Abraham are not left out of the curse, which is why they too must be born again.
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Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, and he's a Pharisee, a Jew, a ruler of the people.
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And he tells him that he, this Pharisee, this grown man, must be born again.
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Something radical has to take place in order for you to truly follow
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God. And in Genesis 315, we see God puts enmity between the serpent and the woman.
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And between the, listen, seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.
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Who's the seed of the woman? Christ. The seed of the serpent.
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Who's the seed of the serpent? Everyone else. Everyone else.
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And in Genesis 3, because of Genesis 315, which we read earlier, the seed of the woman being
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Jesus, and the Christ, and the seed of the serpent being the rest of mankind. And in our text, we see that this is specifically speaking of the
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Jews. In the time of Jesus, we are able to see everything play out.
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The definition of enmity is this. The state of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.
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It's kind of the opposite of righteousness. To do righteousness would be in the state of being looking and following Jesus Christ.
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But the enmity here is the state of being actively opposed, hostile to someone or something.
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According to the Bible, the biblical definition for enmity is deep -rooted hatred.
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Deep -rooted hatred. Again, turn to 1 John 2. 1
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John 2. Now, it doesn't say those words exactly, but you'll see what it's speaking about.
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Look at verse 15. 1 John 2 .15.
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Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
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Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the
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Father, but is from the world. Now turn with me to Romans chapter 8.
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Romans chapter 8. We'll look at verse 6 through 9.
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Romans 8, beginning in verse 6. For the mind is set on the flesh is death.
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Hear that again. For the mind set on the flesh is death. But the mind that is set on the
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Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God.
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For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not able to do so.
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And those who are in the flesh are not able to please
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God. Verse 9. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the
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Spirit. Now remember what I said earlier about being born again. If indeed the
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Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the
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Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
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Ladies and gentlemen, how can you be in a covenant kingdom people and not have the Holy Spirit? You cannot, which is why you must be born again.
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And if you're not born again, you're a child of the devil, and you are at enmity with that promised seed of Abraham, which means you are a seed of the devil.
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In our text, these Jews, although they are the physical descendants of Abraham, they are covered in the dust of Adam, and they are unable to please
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God and therefore are the children of the devil. Again, since we have the
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Holy Scriptures in our vernacular, we can read how this enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent plays out.
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We're able to open up the Scriptures and see how when Yahweh visited His people and they reject
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Him and they did not serve Him in the manner of Abraham, but what do they do? They crucify their
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Lord. We see the enmity play out. We see their hostile, their being hostile towards God and their deep hatred for God play out.
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These Jews are indeed hostile towards Jesus Christ, the one true God. And the rest of verse 44 shows us how these
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Jews in the text are like their father. Remember our theme, like father, like son.
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Let's start back at verse 44. 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 and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.
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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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So, yes, we have all fallen in Adam, but because of the deception of the serpent, the devil, he is held responsible for the death of all mankind.
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The death of all mankind, the devil is held responsible.
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He was a murderer from the beginning. Look with me real quick to Romans chapter 5, verse 12.
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Romans chapter 5, verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man, who's this one man?
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Adam, just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all have sin.
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What does the Bible say over here in Romans chapter 6, verse 23?
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It says for the wages of sin is death. The soul that sins will die.
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Your death is on the head of the serpent because he was a murderer from the beginning.
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When he deceives Eve and all men plummet, when Adam takes a bite of that fruit, he right then and there committed the greatest murder that has ever been committed.
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And that is of all men everywhere because the soul that sins will die and we have sinned in Adam.
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And like father, like son. These Jews want
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Jesus dead. They want him dead. And we wanted to see them pick up stones to stone him.
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Look at verse 59. Therefore, they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
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And we all know six months from this moment, Jesus will be nailed hands and feet to a
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Roman cross. The reason being, they, just like the rest of the world, love the lie and hate the truth.
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Right? Just like you and I before we were born again, we love the lie and hated the truth.
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They, just like the rest of the world, don't want to hear the truth. So they allow the father of lies, the devil, to whisper in their ear.
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Now look at verses 45 through 46. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me.
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You see that? Because I speak the truth, you do not believe me.
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They love the lie. And because Jesus speaks the truth, they do not believe him.
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Verse 46, which of you convicts me of sin? If I have spoken the truth, why do you not believe me?
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Now, as we've seen in verse 37 and verse 43, they cannot hear his word.
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Look again at verse 37. Jesus speaking, I indeed know that you are
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Abraham's seed. Yet you are seeking to kill me because my word has no place in you.
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You cannot serve both God and the devil. Your word cannot be filled with the lies of the devil.
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I mean, your heart cannot be filled with the lies of the devil and also be filled with the word of God.
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And also verse 43. Why do you not understand what
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I am saying? Here's the answer. It is because you cannot hear my word. Carries into verse 44.
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Why can't they hear his word? Because their father is the devil. They cannot because their father is the devil.
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They're murderers just like their father. They cannot, hashtag
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Calvinism, because God has put enmity, deep hatred between them and his son.
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So that through their rejection of his son, he, the father, can bring about redemption and reconciliation to the world.
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Life to those in darkness. Life to those who are born children of the devil.
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To those who are covered in the dust of Adam. They cannot convict him of sin because he has not sinned.
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And we will see at his trial, they have this trial about him. Some will bring about false accusations.
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Now for the concluding verse, verse 47. Read with me. 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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I'm going to read that again. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, he who hears
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God's word is of God. Are you hearing God's word?
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Are you able to hear God's word? For this reason, if you say, if you say, no,
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I cannot hear God's word. It tells you for this reason, you cannot hear God's word. You cannot hear them because you're not of God.
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And if you're not of God, you're of the devil. They, the
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Jews, are not of God because they're of the devil. They are of their father, like father, like son.
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Those that are of God will hear the words of God and will listen and will respond.
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Now, let's look at back at verse 30. So Jesus just has been preaching and all of a sudden, it seems that there has been faith given if you just stop at verse 30.
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And as he was speaking these things, many believed in him.
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Right there, it tells you that many believed in him. But this section, this group that he's talking to are the ones who believed in him.
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He's telling them they're children of the devil. But right here, it says that they believed in him.
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These are so -called believers. That means they responded, right?
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They responded. Look at verse 31 and 32. And Jesus was saying to those
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Jews, which Jews? The one who believed in him. Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in him, conditional statement, if you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciple and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.
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Those who are of God respond by abiding in Christ.
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How do you abide in Christ? Verse 12. Then Jesus again spoke to them saying,
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I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
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We abide by following the light. Jesus here proclaiming himself
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God, just as the old covenant Israels follow the light in the wilderness, new covenant kingdom people of God, Jew or Gentile, follow by following the light, which is
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Jesus Christ. And as we close, let me ask you, who is your father?
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Ladies and gentlemen, listen, you only have two choices.
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You can only choose from two. You can only choose God or the devil.
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Is your father God? Because if he is, you're going to be following Jesus Christ. And if your father is
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God, his word does not abide in you. You cannot hear.
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You cannot see. You cannot hear.
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You cannot hear. He said, I am the light of the world. Those that follow me will never walk in darkness.
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Those of you that are not following Jesus, your father is the devil.
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And guess what you want to do? The desires of your father. You want to do the desires of your father.
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But the truth that's rejected by these people and by those in our community today who profess to be
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Christian, but they do not know, is the gospel. That God purposed to save a people.
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And in Genesis 3, verse 15, he gives us the promise of that.
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And in Abraham, he establishes a covenant people to bring about the covenant seed.
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He was the prophet unto Moses and he was the true son of David who kept the covenant, who kept the law, and he sits on the throne of God forever.
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And he done that through his resurrection. So this means that as he came forth from the woman born of a virgin, he suffered under Pontius Pilate so that you and I can be reconciled to God.
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How can God let people like you and me, children of the devil, murderers from the beginning, like our father, into heaven without punishing our sin?
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The answer is Jesus Christ. He took our punishment.
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And the biblical response to this is repentance and faith.
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And it's to continue to repent and put your faith in Christ. It's not a one -time deal.
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Paul Washer says it's not a flu shot. It's not, oh, I did that. No, it's what you're doing.
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If you're not doing it, if you're not practicing it, if you're not doing righteousness, you've done nothing.
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You're nothing more than what we see in verse 30. They believed, but they wasn't true believers.
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They're believing unbelievers. The response is repentance and faith. Turn from yourself.
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Turn to God. How? By putting your faith in Jesus Christ. And I pray this day, if you are not a child of God, but a child of the devil, you will repent and you will believe.
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Like father, like son. We are available to anyone who wants to talk.
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Let's pray. Oh, God, Lord, in the name of Jesus.
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God, I just lift up everyone here today. Lord, I pray for those that are your children.
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Lord, that you use this message to strengthen them and to grow them in holiness. And Lord, I pray for those that are here today who are children of the devil.
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Lord, this day that you have granted to them faith to believe in their life,
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Lord, will be one that follows Jesus, the light, the same way that the Israelites would follow the bright cloud and the fire by night.
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When you were moving, they were moving. Lord, I pray that for us. And we are moving toward you constantly in our life.
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And Lord, I pray that as we partake in this meal, Lord, that right now, as we speak,
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Lord, if there's anyone here today who plans to partake and they're living in sin, Lord, that you grant them repentance and we pray that they confess their sins before they partake.
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And Lord, we just pray that as we partake in this meal, you use this, again, just like your word, to grow us in holiness.
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Lord, we love you and we need you in all things and always.