Jesus' Great Confession (Part 1)

Let's begin. Titled this, Jesus' Great Confession.

Jesus' Great Confession. You know, it makes me think that the apostle Peter had a great confession to make, but it was who

Christ was. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Within those words is the confession of the church that comes from the apostle

Peter of who Jesus Christ is. But Jesus made a great confession of himself, about himself.

So please turn with me now to the Gospel of John, chapter 8, chapter 8.

We will be looking at the conclusion, the concluding verses,

I should say. Verse 48 to verse 59. As we continue our study through John's account and testimony of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we took a lengthy break from our study of John.

Now, here we are. We're back on track, getting back on course.

And we are at the conclusion again, as I say, the closing verses of chapter 8. So let me read this text to you, beginning in verse 48 to the end of the chapter, verse 59.

Hear the eternal living Word of our

God. It's alive, isn't it? John 8, beginning with verse 48 to 59.

I'll be reading from the New King James translation this morning. Then the

Jews answered and said to Him, Do we not say rightly that you are a

Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my

Father, and you dishonor me. And I do not seek my own glory.

There is one who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death.

Then the Jews said to Him, Now we know that you have a demon.

Abraham is dead, and the prophets. And you say, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never taste death.

Are you greater than our father Abraham who is dead? And the prophets are dead?

Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, and notice

His patience here, His long suffering toward these people that hated Him. If I honor myself, my honor is nothing.

It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that He is your

God. Yet you have not known Him, but I know

Him. And if I say I do not know Him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know

Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.

Then the Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen

Abraham? Jesus said to them, and here is

His confession of Himself. Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was,

I am. What was their response? Verse 59, Then they took up stones to throw at Him.

But Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

May God bless the reading of His holy word from our ears to our hearts this morning.

Please bow with me in prayer as we seek our Lord's face and favor within this hour of worship as we hear

His word. Our gracious Heavenly Father, most holy as we have sung this morning,

You are holy, holy, holy. Lord, we stand amazed in Your presence, who

You are, knowing Your word. We thank

You for the eternal word, the Logos, the word that became flesh, the great

I AM, Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, Your beloved

Son, that left that position, that sovereign position, from the eternal throne of His deity, to be born in a manger, yet remains deity in flesh, born to die on a criminal's cross called

Golgotha, a hill named Calvary, shed His precious blood for our eternal redemption, for our salvation.

And truly, Father, He is worthy,

You are worthy, the Lamb is worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom and strength, honor, glory and praise, the

Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. Lord, our prayer this morning is we pray that as we hear

Your word, Lord, penetrate and pierce our hearts, sanctify us through Your word, and make us more and more like our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we would ask this for Your honor and glory, in Jesus' name,

Amen. Amen. Praise God. All the way from verse 1 of this chapter, this wonderful chapter, chapter 8, with the woman caught in adultery, to this weighty, long discourse about the light of the world, and whom

Jesus is, the great truth of Christ, and His identification of His character, who

He truly is, there is so, so much truth to know.

Better yet, there's so much here in our text, in verse 48 to 59, for us to know more and more about Jesus.

But it's more than just to know intellectually about Him. As you hear quite often from this pulpit, it's more than just intellectual assent, but it's knowledge of the truth, an intimate, personal knowledge, a true knowledge of God, is more, again, than just mere doctrine.

Even though their doctrine is important, Jesus spoke of His doctrine,

His teaching of Himself. So we come to know God through the knowledge of the truth, but what

I'm saying is, true theology, the study of God, always leads to doxology, worship.

And if it doesn't have that, it's nothing. The Pharisees knew about Christ.

Even Judas knew much about Christ and never came to true repentance. The Pharisees, along with the religious rulers here in this chapter, did not have a clue in Jesus' true identity, of who

He truly was. And when Jesus spoke of His deity, they began to get very violent, as we read, to kill

Him. They picked up stones, but this is not anything different from the previous chapters that we've seen.

Ten times in this chapter, there are assaults that are unleashed on Jesus.

Jesus antagonizes them on purpose. You can actually say it's holy antagonizing.

But they began to get very violent. The irony of this is that the

Pharisees continually accused Jesus, throwing assaults at Him, of the same thing.

And they said that He was all about getting attention for Himself. They accused

Him of wanting attention when He healed the multitude. He wasn't asking for attention.

It's just simply He was getting it because He was doing things no one else had ever done before.

So, it made the people, the religious crowd here, very furious and angry to the point that they wanted to kill

Him for it, even though it's exactly what they were guilty of themselves.

And that's why they were angry, because they were not getting the attention. But Jesus was not out to get the attention for Himself.

That was not His motive. He drew crowds, but it was for other reasons, and we're going to look at that.

Attention. All the Pharisees ever wanted. That's what they really wanted.

They desired... What did they desire? Jesus even said it. The praises of men, and they loved money.

That's what they loved. They loved the praises of men, and money. Because this is what they loved.

This is what they loved in their hearts, yet still they bring up over and over how

Jesus was trying to make more of Himself than He really was. But if you look at verse 53, for example, they said this,

Are you greater than our father Abraham who is dead? And then they said,

And the prophets who are dead, who do you make yourself out to be? Who do you think you are?

And our terminology in our language, these religious Pharisees are the ones that gave

Jesus the hardest time in His three years of ministry. Here, it's exactly about two and a half years within His ministry.

Six months to go, He'll be bleeding and dying on a cross. And they were the ones that turned

Him over and murdered Him. These religious in the providence of God and the foreknowledge of God.

But these religious Pharisees are totally, they're enraged to the point that they blaspheme the

Lord Jesus Christ. Now, keep in mind that the rapid change of speakers increases here.

It's in verses 49 to 59. 48 to 59.

And it heightens the tension in the dialogue within our text. So, if you look at 48, it speaks here,

Then the Jews answered, said to Him, Do we not say rightly that you are a

Samaritan and have a demon? Notice the accusation. So, here now the

Jews are resorting to name -calling. Why do they name -call?

They move from a defensive posture to a more aggressive tone by calling Jesus a demon -possessed

Samaritan, basically. Verse 48, again. Jews answered, said to Him, Do we not say rightly that you are a

Samaritan and have a demon? So, my question is this.

What motivated the Pharisees to say such insults, such blasphemy against our

Savior, our Lord, against His character? Well, if you look at what

Jesus tells the self -righteous play actors in verse 46 and 47, this actually gives us the context to the text.

Look at 46 and 47. Let me back it up. Go to 45.

But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. He tells the truth.

This is a war about truth, folks. All the religions of the world hates

Christianity, saying that we, there's only one way to God.

Folks, that is shattering. That's earth -shattering to people that are trying to get to God and then

Christ says there's only one way. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the

Father but by me. It's truth war. Verse 46, notice what Jesus says.

He gives them a question. Which of you convicts me of sin?

Which one of you? And if I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? And then

He says this. He who is of God hears God's words. Therefore, He right out told them, you do not hear because you are not of God.

That's the reason why. Their father was the devil.

They were children of the devil. That goes back to verse 46. You are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it.

And here's Jesus the truth. They hate the truth. This is why they turned against Him.

Jesus knew their motivations, their heart. So that's what motivated the

Pharisees to say such insults, blasphemy against our Savior. This is why the

Pharisees insulted Christ. Pastor MacArthur in his comments and his commentary says this, quote, the sense here is that the perfect holiness of Christ was demonstrated not by the

Jews' silence at Jesus' question here, but by the assurance of His direct consciousness of the purity of His whole life.

Only a perfectly holy one who has the closest and most intimate communion with the

Father could speak such words. And he goes on to say, the

Jews could marshal no convincing evidence that could convict

Him of sin in the heavenly court. End quote. And he's absolutely correct.

This is why the Pharisees resorted to abusive, insulting language because they could not answer the words of our

Lord Jesus Christ in any other way. So they threw insults to Him.

You are a Samaritan. You have a demon. In other words, really they didn't have a leg to stand on, so they were name -calling.

And to be called a Samaritan who were viewed by the Jews as a very vile people,

Samaritans were considered to be half -breeds, half -bloods. It was an insult.

Half -Jewish, half -Gentile. The Jewish people would not even speak to them.

They disdained them. Makes me think of the

Samaritan woman that Jesus reached out to. The rejects. And that's whom we are called to, right?

Is to reach out to rejects. The Pharisees tried to aggressively hit below the belt here, so to speak.

So, probably centers in the fact that the Samaritans like Jesus on the occasion questioned the

Jews exclusive rights, so to speak, to be called Abraham's children.

This is why the Pharisees said, if you go back to verse 33, verse 33 says,

We are Abraham's descendants. They prided themselves and never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say we will be made free?

Verse 39, They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. See, they continued to pride themselves of their father

Abraham, their descendants by blood. Now, this is right on course of everything that John gives commentary on.

If you go back to John chapter 1, he gives the commentary really on 12 chapters of John that stresses the rejection of Christ.

If you look at it, Jesus' rejection comes through the first 12 chapters, while chapters 13 to verse 21 focus on the believing remnant who receives

Christ. This is the way it's laid out in John's gospel. For example, if you go to John chapter 1, we observe rejection of Christ.

In John chapter 1, look at verse 9 to 11.

That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world.

The world was made through Him and the world did not know Him. He came to His own and His own did not receive

Him. Stop right there. There's the rejection. There's the commentary of the rejection of Jesus Christ.

And then we see the acceptance of Christ in verse 12 and 13.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right, the power, the privilege to become the children of God to those who believe in His name.

And notice what He says here in verse 13. Who were born not of blood.

You notice how the Pharisees prided themselves of being of the blood, the descendants of Abraham, their father

Abraham? Yeah, people today think this is a big deal by blood, the bloodline.

No, they're not born. The remnant here, those who receive Christ, when they come to God, they're not born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, not by man's willpower, not by religious blood, but of God.

But of God. But of God. Born of God. Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood as Fanny Crosby, as we sung it this morning.

So here you have, in our text, chapter 8, we see these self -righteous

Jewish religious Pharisees rejecting this Holy Son of God. The religious people.

Very religious. Oh, they prayed. They fasted. They did all the externals, but their heart was far from God.

They gave lip service only to God. That should be a warning for all of us.

We should always search our own hearts. Where is our hearts? Called Him a demon.

You get a demon possessed. A Samaritan. Such an insult. So blasphemous.

So awful. Awful. Because of the slur.

Ethnic slur. You're a Samaritan. Demon possessed.

It was as if they said that He was not a pure Jew, but was an enemy of Israel.

That's what they were saying. It was also accusing Him of having a demon. And by the way, they were basically saying that Jesus was insane when they said that.

You're crazy. You're out of your mind for saying such things like you're equal with God.

To them, only a man out of his mind would ever make such claims which

Jesus had been making. Think of it. This is the Holy Son of God.

This is God in the flesh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who left the glories of heaven, spoke the words of life, perfect wisdom, perfect love, did nothing but good to them, gave them the gospel, the good news of eternal life, performed miracles to them, gave them bread from heaven.

The heavenly bread He even offers Himself is the living bread. And now they throw terrible insults and blasphemy at Him.

Terrible sin. Doesn't this show how vile and wicked we are?

And I say we, we are of Adam's race unless you've been born of God. And everything changes.

But oh, the great goodness and patience of God in Jesus Christ. Notice how

He answers them. He answers them patiently, lovingly. We consider the great truths here about Jesus and who

He is and His claims, His identity. And this will be part one.

I'm only going to hit only two points because we're not going to have much time to hit all of them, three, but I want next

Lord's Day, God willing, look at the great I Am.

But I do want to pick up that, that He is the great I Am, that He alone,

Jesus Christ, is the great I Am. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

The first point I have here, Jesus, the great I Am, is the one who points to the

Father. This is what we'll see in our text. The great I Am, Jesus Christ, is the one who points to the

Father. He gives the Father honor. We see this in verse 49 -50.

Jesus answered, and notice how He answers. I do not have a demon, but I honor my

Father and you dishonor me. And I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges.

Now, I want you to notice here in the words of Jesus, the perfect wisdom of Christ here.

Even -tempered. He is long -suffering.

He is patient to these people that literally hate Him to the core. He graciously, not harshly, answers

His enemies. And His teachings here were not words of one who had a demon, but rather the one who sought to honor

God the Father. It was for this that they were dishonoring Him. Not because He was insane or crazy, but because He was completely and absolutely in total submission with the desires and the will of His Father in Heaven.

If you look at verse 29 in chapter 8, Jesus says this. He says this,

And He who sent me is with me. And the Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things which please

Him. Notice what Jesus says. This speaks of His active obedience to His Father. He always does those things that pleases

Him. No one else on planet Earth has ever done that. Jesus, the

Son of God, the Son of Man, always did those things that pleased the Father. Always.

Not sometimes. Always. Perfectly. He obeyed the will of the

Father in Heaven. He always pleased Him. And by that, He had full, perfect approval by God the

Father. So, the Pharisees accused Him of wanting attention. They did.

Because that's what they wanted. So they hurled insults to Him. All you want is to glorify yourself.

But if you notice in the text, Jesus says, I do not seek my own glory. And this is

Christ. And yet, even as a man, but yet,

God, He never sought His own glory. The truth is,

Jesus came honoring and pointing people to the Father. Always to the Father. You notice the disciples, the apostles, even

John the Baptist, their mission was always to point people to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. You notice how that has passed, and I believe

Brother Keith touched on that this morning. Jesus' mission was to point people to the

Father. The Father in Heaven. The Father in Heaven. Jesus came honoring God the Father. And at the same time,

God the Father sought and gave glory to His own name. The Father sought glory for Christ.

This made me think as I was studying this, there's only three instances during Jesus' ministry on Earth when

God the Father answered the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in an awesome, audible voice from Heaven.

Three times. Only three. I want us to look at these very quickly.

First of all, the first instance was in Matthew 3, verse 17, at the baptism of Jesus.

Jesus' baptism. The Father spoke from Heaven. Verse 17 says this.

And notice, in each instance it says, suddenly, suddenly, we'll see this.

A voice came from Heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom

I am well pleased. This is God the Father speaking about His Son.

I am well pleased in Him. Heavenly pronouncement that echoes

God's own written word that references the references that ties into Psalm 2 -7.

Notice what David said through the Spirit of God in Psalm 2. A great chapter.

I will declare the decree. You are my Son. Today I have begotten you. God the

Father is installed mediator. No one will impeach Him either.

He cannot be impeached. God the Father is well pleased with Him.

No one else. So the Father speaks audibly. Awesome voice.

Second time that God the Father spoke was at Jesus' transfiguration.

We see this in Matthew 17 -5. Notice what the verse says in Matthew 17 -5.

So God the Father speaks at Jesus' baptism. God the Father speaks at the transfiguration.

While He was speaking... This speaks about Peter. Peter was still speaking.

And the Scripture says, Behold a bright cloud... That's the Shekinah manifest presence of God Himself came over, overshadowed them.

And notice again what the Word of God says. And suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying...

Again, the Father says the same thing. This is my beloved

Son in whom I'm well pleased. But He adds one thing. Hear Him. Where they hear only the words of Christ.

Again, MacArthur says this. I couldn't leave this out. Really good. Peter erred in placing

Moses and Elijah in the same level as Christ. Christ was the very one to whom

Elijah and Moses had pointed. The voice of the Father in verse 5 interrupted while Peter was still speaking.

Can you imagine that? Could you imagine being rebuked by God the Father? And MacArthur goes on to say,

The words were the same as those spoken from heaven at Christ's baptism which

I said earlier. Now, what was the response? If you look at verse 6, and when the disciples heard it, they were terrified.

They fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. Verse 7,

But, don't you love this? But, Jesus came and touched them and said,

Arise. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

I think they got the lesson. Oh, Peter, being a

Jew as he was, got caught up in Elijah, that prophet of fire. He was taken up with a chariot of fire.

God took him up to heaven. Moses, the great deliverer. And they were actually,

Moses representing the law, Elijah representing the prophets, and Jesus in the middle.

But there was only one that God the Father's will pleased in, and that's His Son. Well, we see

God the Father speaks at His baptism, at Jesus' transfiguration. There is another time that God the

Father did speak. The voice audibly is found in John 12.

Flip over a few chapters. Chapter 12. Let me read this to you.

Chapter 12. This is really awesome. Jesus predicts

His death on the cross. How important that mission was. It was everything for our redemption to the glory of God.

Verse 27, Jesus says, Now my soul is troubled, and what shall

I say? Father, He's praying, save me from this hour, but for this purpose

I came to this hour. This is deep thought, folks. And then

He prays, Father, glorify Your name.

Glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said an angel had spoken to them.

They could not even recognize the voice of God. Then Jesus answered and said,

This voice did not come because of me, but for Your sake. Jesus said,

My soul is troubled. The term here in the language is a strong, strong language.

Signifies horror, anxiety, agitation, and that Jesus Christ Himself will be taken on the full wrath of God the

Father upon Himself for the sins of the world cause such revulsion in the sinless

Savior. He that was completely holy will take the sin upon Himself.

And that's why He said, My soul is troubled. But what shall I say?

Father, He's praying, save me from this hour. He's getting closer to the point. He's going to go to the cross, and it was more than physical death in and of itself.

That is horrifying. But when God the Father in three hours of darkness pours out

His full wrath on His Son, folks, we cannot even imagine this because this is the hell itself, the eternal hell that the

Father pours out on His Son because of the horrifying sin that Adam brought into this world.

Now, by nature, we have passed and it's been transmitted to us as each one of us are born.

What does 2 Corinthians 5 .21 say? It says it, doesn't it? For He made

Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Praise His name. Well, back to verse 49 of chapter 8 of John.

Jesus says, I honor My Father and you dishonor Me. Interesting to note this, that Jesus did not address the accusation that He was a

Samaritan. You notice that? I don't know why.

It's interesting. But He did not address that. But He does deny that He was a demon possessed.

He does deny that. He told them, I do not have a demon. By appealing to His relationship with God His Father, He then reproved the crowd of dishonoring

God because they did not honor God's chosen representative. Jesus was God's chosen representative.

Actually, God Himself in flesh. God the Son. But He submits to the will of the

Father as the Father sent Christ. The assumption in this text is that the one sent, who is

Jesus, is the same as the sender, God the Father. Therefore, the treatment of the emissary is equal to the treatment of the sender.

So they dishonored God the Father. They dishonored Christ. Verse 50,

Jesus says, and I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges.

They should have known this. But they don't know it. Why? Well, they're dead in their sins.

They're blinded by the God of this age. They're deaf -muted. They're unable to hear the words of God.

They cannot even hear God's Word because a dead man can't hear.

A dead man can't see. A dead man can't walk. He's dead. And that's the way they were.

It's amazing that Jesus is even... He knows what He's doing, but this is for our sake. But He speaks the words of life to them.

Unbelieving because of the hardness of their depraved hearts. They did not know. They couldn't see.

Again, they're dead in trespasses of sins. And at no time did they seek Jesus' glory.

Jesus perfectly lived and demonstrated perfect active obedience to honor the

Father perfectly. He always did. It was calculated to bring

God to Father glory. His entire life perfectly gave glory to God.

Everything Jesus did in His active obedience was to draw attention to His Father in heaven.

So He disputes that. He came seeking the Father's glory and speaking the

Father's Word. So think about it. Here's a question I have for all of us here.

How would we know how God the Father is like without Jesus? We'd have limited knowledge about this.

The Old Testament tells us much about God the Father. You see much of His righteousness, but you do see much of His grace.

But look at how much Jesus Himself reveals of who God the Father is in the

Gospels. It's incredible. So to know Jesus is to know

God the Father. The constant emphasis on Jesus as God incarnate is unmistakably crystal clear in the

Gospel records. We see this as an example in John 14.

Turn with me quickly to John 14. Look at verse 8 -11.

There's questions and answers, but I'm just going to bring out just a section here about Philip.

Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.

In other words, what he's saying is, this will be sufficient for us, Lord. Just show us the Father. Notice how

Jesus answers. He said, Jesus said to him, I have been with you so long, and yet you have not known me,

Philip. Now Jesus is not saying He's the Father. A lot of our

Jehovah Witness people that are lost and have no eyes to see, scales over their eyes, they don't see this.

But Jesus is saying He's deity though. He is saying He's God. Notice what He says,

He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the

Father? And then He goes on to say, Do you not believe that I am in the

Father and the Father in me? See what He's saying, He's one with the

Father. He's not the Father, nor is the Father the Son. He's one with the Father, and the

Father is one with Christ. The words, Jesus says, the words that I speak to you, I do not speak of my own authority.

But the Father who dwells in me, does the works. And then

He tells Philip, believe me. When Jesus says that, we can believe Him, right? Believe me, that I am in the

Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. That's powerful, folks.

Jesus is saying, I am God in flesh.

That's what He's saying. This whole book is about that. Jesus came to put on full display the great love and the mercy of God the

Father. And at the same time, He came revealing God's judgment and righteousness too. This was in full display at the cross of Jesus Christ on Calvary's hill.

We wouldn't know how much God hates sin if Jesus hadn't come. But we also wouldn't know how much

God greatly loves us if Jesus hadn't come. And actually, you see the great love of the

Father for sending Christ. It's the love of God the Father that sent

Him. Isn't that great? So Jesus Christ allows us to see

God in flesh on full display. Paul speaks about this in 2

Corinthians 4, 5, and 6. Notice what Paul says. For we, and he's speaking of other apostles here, for we do not preach ourselves.

They were not about themselves. The apostles didn't lift up themselves because they're apostles, as we see in these phony false churches today.

Apostles so -and -so and apostles that run from it. It's wrong. Paul says, for we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the

Lord. And ourselves for your bond slaves for Jesus' sake. Notice what he says.

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

There you have it. So Jesus is saying in John 8, verse 50b, there is one who seeks and judges, and that's the

Father. And this one is referred to as God the Father. God the Father would seek glory for His beloved

Son and would judge all of those who failed to give Him the glory. You can mark that down.

God will ultimately get the glory. I believe we read this text today in Sunday school.

Philippians 2, verse 9 and 11. Here you have the exaltation of Jesus Christ.

Therefore God, God the Father, also has highly exalted Him, God the

Son, Jesus Christ, giving Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. There it is. That's the whole point.

That's the whole purpose. That's the purpose of Christ's resurrection.

That's the purpose of all that Christ did is for the glory of God. And when

He comes back in power and glory, it will be for the purpose of God the Father. But Christ will be getting glory.

And folks, when we glorify Christ, we glorify the Father. Because He's one with the

Father. I love what the Puritan John Bunyan said here. Whether to heaven or hell you bend,

God will have the glory in the end. Amen. Let me wrap this up.

Just go to the second point. Not only is Jesus the great I Am, is the one who points to the

Father. Jesus the great I Am is the one who offers and gives eternal life to those who believe in Him. This is great, isn't it?

Eternal life. Eternal life. So many people seek after eternal life.

They try to muster it up. Religion does everything they can to do this, to do that, to do this.

And God has already done it all in Jesus Christ. Isn't it wonderful?

It's not what man can do, it's what God has done. That's the message.

In Jesus Christ, in Christ alone. We will trumpet that until hell hears it.

Verse 51 is a loaded verse, folks. Jesus says this, most assuredly.

And I love this because of the translations. I like the O 'Keene James here, though.

Truly, truly. Or verily, verily. And you know what that means. Anytime Jesus says that, we better cut our ears on it.

Everything Jesus says is important. But when Jesus is saying truly, truly, verily, verily, He is basically saying

Amen, Amen. He puts the Amen at the beginning before He says it. He can do that.

We say Amen after a truth has been stated. But when the truth

Himself, Jesus is the truth, and He says Amen, Amen, you can count on it, folks.

This is a promise. I say to you, if anyone keeps

My word, he shall never see death. That's powerful. This is loaded, folks.

And I'm going to spend the rest of the time of the service right here. Again, we have one of those majestic sayings of our

Lord. The words which could only be uttered by one who is God Himself.

The words here are introduced by a familiar emphatic expression. I've already mentioned it. Truly, truly.

Verily, verily. Amen, Amen. It's a promise. It's a promise. Paul says all the promises of God are yes and Amen.

A blessed assurance, as we saw, from Jesus Himself promised to us. If anyone keeps, obeys

His word, that person shall never see death. Think of that.

Heeding to the teachings of Jesus and following Him, taking up the cross, self -denial daily.

All these are inclusive of being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. But let us never forget obedience to the word of God that follows it.

That is one of the sure marks of a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Eternal life.

Never will see death because our trust and faith is in Him who has earned us true life and who is eternal life

Himself. Jesus is not just talking about physical death here, folks.

We're gonna see this in the text. He's referring to something far more important and deeper than just our physical dying.

He's talking about spiritual death. And this is the death. You know, when we warn lost people, when we're out there in the highways and the byways compelling people to come to Jesus, and we are pointing people to Christ, as Jesus pointed to the

Father, we point people to Christ as the apostles did. But we never should forget, not only to warn them that they're gonna die physically, but they're going to die and we're all gonna die.

There's a spiritual death that we need to warn them of, right? There are two deaths according to the word of God, too.

And let me talk about this in our closing here as we conclude.

The first death is a physical death, of course, which is brought to us by our father,

Adam, through sin and disobedience. It could happen to any of us at any moment.

Scripture actually says in Hebrews 9 .27, and as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

This is a passageway to that point. Now, here's a general rule for all of mankind right here.

We will all die physically. It's coming, right? It's gonna happen. Just as we were born,

God allowed us to be born, we will die. And scriptures, notice what it says very carefully in Hebrews 9 .27.

It is appointed. Underscore that word appointed. We tell people, you have an appointment day.

We don't know when, we don't know how, but we're all gonna die. You could die of a heart attack tonight, we don't know how it's gonna happen, but we're gonna die.

We might as well prepare for it, folks. We better be telling people that. But there's something more that I believe

Jesus is talking about a physical death. I don't believe He's talking about physical death here. He's talking about you will never basically see death.

Anyone who keeps My word shall never taste death. He now shall never see death.

Keep My word. Spiritual death. This is what Jesus really came to defeat.

Not the physical death, but the spiritual death. And we're gonna look at from the word of God what this says.

The spiritual death takes place in the life of anyone who has never placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Augustine, our church father of old, from his tractates on Gospel John number 43, he said this,

What does this mean? He will never see death. Augustine said it like this,

It means nothing less than he saw another death from which he came to free us.

The second death. Eternal death. And Augustine goes on to say,

The death of hell. The death of the damned. Which is shared with the devil and his angels.

This is the real death. And the other kind of death, which he's talking about physical, is only a passage.

End quote. And he's absolutely correct. If you turn with me to the book of Revelation, we can see this.

Go to Revelation. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Isn't it wonderful? Men's study group has chosen the book of Revelation to study.

I think it's gonna be a wonderful study. Glorious study. It's all about Jesus. And His second coming.

The consummation. But here in chapter 20, in verse 11 -15, speaks to us about the great white throne judgment.

And at this judgment, there will be no believers at this judgment. No believers are here, folks.

This is a judgment which the final judgment of all unbelievers of all ages will happen.

And the judge of all the earth, Jesus Christ, will judge because Jesus said it

Himself that the Father has committed judgment to Him. He will judge all flesh.

Jesus Christ spoke of this judgment as the resurrection of condemnation.

In John 5 -29. The second death is spoken of also here in verse 14, in which we will see.

But before I read verse 14, I'm sorry, that verse in 11 -15, let me read one a little earlier.

Let me read verse 6, so we can really see what's being said here. Revelation has blessings in it.

And I want you to see this blessing. The first blessing is given in chapter 1.

When we spoke about this, and Brother Keith brought this up, which I really appreciate, but he says this in verse 3.

Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy. And as Jesus said, what?

And keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near. Keep it.

First, in order to get to the point of keeping it, we've got to read it. And then we've got to hear it.

Then we've got to keep it. Those three. But notice here in verse 6, in chapter 20.

Blessed and holy is he who has part of the first resurrection.

Notice this. Over such the second death has no power. But they shall be the priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Now, this is glorious, because here, first of all, let me say this.

Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power.

But they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Blessed, blessed, blessed and holy. Separated from the world. That's what he's talking about.

You're separated from the world. Are those who die in the

Lord. Verse 12. If you look at verse 12 of chapter 14, let me go back a little bit.

Look at this. Turn back a little bit. Here's the patience of the saints.

There's a better translation of patience. Here is the steadfastness of the saints.

You want to be steadfast? That's another word for perseverance. You want to persevere to the end?

Jesus said, He that believes, he that is saved, shall endure to the end. They shall endure to the end.

Perseverance of the saints. There's patience of the saints. The steadfastness of the saints.

And the word saints is holy ones. Separated. Holy ones. Here are those who, what?

Keep. There it is again. They keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Makes me think. What Paul says in Galatians 2 .20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless

I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And then he goes on to say, and he perseveres, he says, but it is the faith of the

Son of God. Faith of the Son of God. That he speaks of.

If you think of it, it's not our faith. Faith is a gift. And the gift that God gives us to come to Him.

To lay hold of Him. He gives us that faith, right? It's like repentance.

It's the gifts of the calling of God. It's irrevocable. It's a gift.

Granted. No one can trust in Christ or turn from their sins unless they have repentance and faith.

Those are two critical gifts. The faith of Jesus. Then it says,

I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, in verse 13, Blessed are the dead who die in the

Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit. That they may rest from their labors and their works because their works follow them.

So what he's saying, God's people, God's saints, God's believers are the blessed ones. They are the blessed ones.

How important it is to be in Christ. Because if you're not in Christ, you're cursed. If you're in Christ, you're blessed.

That's what it's saying. The believers are the blessed ones with the great privilege of entering into the glorious kingdom.

They will be priests unto God. We will minister unto God and praise Him forever and ever.

And they have part in the first resurrection. Why? Because over such the second death has no power.

That's the death Jesus is speaking about, folks. That's the death that Jesus said,

You will not see death. You will not see this death. It's not going to touch us.

Because Jesus took it on Himself. Isn't that glorious?

You look at the cross. He paid the price. But He took that second death upon Himself because of our sins.

We deserve the death. We deserve hell. We deserve the judgment.

But Jesus hung and took it. It was three hours of darkness.

God unleashed the fury of His justice upon His Son.

And He crushed His Son. Again, the first death, as Augustine says, is only a passage.

I've got to land this plane. Folks, eternity in the lake of fire The final, eternal destination is for the unbelievers.

Let me read it. Then I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away.

And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God.

The books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life.

Only in that book of life is going to be God's saints. The dead were judged according to what was written in the books.

Notice the Bible says in verse 13, the sea gave up the dead. What's He talking about? Is He talking about the ocean?

No, He's talking about the sea of hell. The sea of hell. Billions of souls who were in it.

Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. It's like jail was opened up, now they're getting ready to be sentenced to prison, the lake of fire.

They were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death. Notice what it says, second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

That's the final ultimate hell that's horrifying.

Let me close with something that you would not think of. I had once a person that believed, at one time he did believe in a literal tormenting hell, and then he turned and started believing this damnable doctrine called annihilation, which is no tormenting hell, no literal hell.

He said, you'll never find anything in the Old Testament about hell, how wrong he is. Turn to Psalm 11, and I want to close with this psalm.

Psalm 11, as you turn there, speaks of faith in the Lord's righteousness. Beloved, Psalm 11 is an antidote for gloomy headlines that we hear all the time.

News, all bad news, war, violence, crime, corruption, political corruption, unrest, all this. And King David, through the

Spirit of God, reminds us that we can rise above these circumstances of life by keeping our eyes of faith on the

Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of hosts, in Psalm 11. Keep in mind the promise that Jesus gave in John 8, 51.

Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, shall never see death, as I read this.

We are ultimately delivered from the second eternal death and shall never suffer the pains of eternal hell.

Listen to the psalmist. In the Lord I put my trust. How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain?

For look, the wicked bend their bow, and they make ready their arrow on the stream, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart.

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Notice what he says.

He gives us something positive after that question. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

He turns to the Lord, the sovereign Lord. The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.

His eyes behold. His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence,

His soul hates. And notice what it says. Verse 6, Upon the wicked he will rain coals and fire and brimstone, and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.

Folks, he's talking about the second death. But verse 7 gives us that glorious hope.

For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness, and His countenance beholds the upright.

It's all in Jesus. All in Christ, His righteous one. That's how we are made righteous, because when

God looks at us, our righteousness is filthy rags, as Isaiah says, but it's the righteousness of Christ that we are dressed in.

Aren't you glad? Author unknown. He is everywhere, hath sway, and all things serve

His might. His every act pure blessing is that His path unsoiled light.

We comprehend Him not, yet earth and heaven tell. God sits as sovereign on the throne and ruleth all things well.

Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this hour of worship that we can hear

Your most holy word. Father, change us within, change us without. Lord, help us to see that what

Your word says, obedience is better than sacrifice. Father, how we thank You so much. Our repentance, our prayers, our obedience is all so imperfect, but the perfect righteousness of Christ covers us.

Where we fall so short of is even being a saint, a believer in Christ, Jesus Christ.

Look, Father, when You see Your Son, You see perfect righteousness. The perfect righteousness that we're dressed in.

You don't see us. You see Christ. Help us to keep our eyes, fix our eyes upon the author and finish of our faith, the

Lord Jesus Christ. From this time until we are called home to be with You.

In the meantime, Lord, help us to be intercessors, priests, to intercede, to pray, and to hold those up that don't know how to pray for themselves.

And Father, for our lost and dying world, help us, Lord, to be useful, faithful, burning coals of fire.

Lord, to go out into this world to tell a lost world about Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried, resurrected, and soon coming back.

Father, we thank You for this dear Son in whom You're well pleased in.

For this, we give You the honor and the glory in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.