Today I Preached and John 8 Was the Text

the desert metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona, this is The Dividing Line. The Apostle Peter commanded

Christians to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us, yet to give that answer with gentleness and reverence.

Our host is Dr. James White, Director of Alpha Omega Ministries and an Elder at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church.

This is a live program and we invite your participation. If you'd like to talk with Dr. White, call now at 602 -973 -4602 or toll free across the

United States. It's 1 -877 -753 -3341. And now, with today's topic, here is

James White. Good afternoon, welcome to The Dividing Line, as once again my ears bleed from the ...

That's loud. Okay, that's a little bit better.

Oh, goodness. We need to do a mic check, mic check, mic check on one, testing one, two, there we go.

Nothing like doing that after we get started. We need to do that before we get started. That'll work a whole lot better in the future.

Anyway, welcome to The Dividing Line. Yeah, we always get started on the right foot around here, don't we?

I really need to develop a thing so I can go ... I wonder if there's a particular sound that they have for that for Rush when he does that, or does he really just grab ...

Because that really messes up whatever you're shaking. Have you noticed that? I mean, I just put a bunch of little wrinkles in this thing

I had printed out. Anyways, what are we talking about today? I don't know. 877 -753 -3341.

I noted today on the blog that John Dominick Crossan is doing a lot of debating recently.

In fact, in just a matter of weeks we'll be debating N .T. Wright on the resurrection at the

ETS meeting in New Orleans. That will be very, very good.

It's sort of sad, I've mentioned this to a few people, because ... Folks, this is an attitude we really, really, really need to avoid, and that is

I hear people say things because, for example, I disagree very strongly with N .T.

Wright on the subject of justification and his reading of what

Paul meant by that. Our tendency is to then just, if we disagree with somebody on something that's really important, then we simply throw them right under the truck about everything.

The fact of the matter is that N .T. Wright has been one of the leading voices opposing people like John Dominick Crossan, the

Jesus Seminar, the radical historical Jesus movement, et cetera, et cetera.

Books like The Resurrection of the Son of God are massive tomes that respond to that type of stuff.

You've got to give credit where credit is due. You're just inconsistent when you can look at somebody and they do something good in one area, but because,

I don't like what he says over there, so he ... We have to learn discernment.

We have to learn to recognize that you're not compromising anything by saying, you know what, this scholar over here does a great job in this area, and over here ...

You know, I don't necessarily agree, but does a great job over here.

Even at that, even at that, you might say, well, you know, he said some things in The Resurrection of the Son of God that are not on the same level as ...

They're not as conservative as what I would say. Okay. Okay, well,

I'll tell you what. Then learn from the good stuff and add the better stuff, but you still don't have to throw the guy under a truck.

You know what I mean? It's just, I don't know. I know a lot of people assume that that's what you do when you're conservative, is that if you're really conservative, you really believe in the inerrancy of scripture, which puts you immediately in a very small group of odd people.

When you believe that kind of stuff, then they assume, and I've seen this attitude, this is the very same attitude that I run into when people recognize that I am very conservative in my view of inspiration and things like that, and they like, for example, what

I do with Roman Catholicism, but they're King James only. And so they just throw me under the truck, or you're a

Calvinist, so they just throw me under the truck. I mean, they recognize that what I do about Mormonism is good, but since they disagree with me over there, throw me under the truck.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why I'm so sensitive to it when I see other people doing it within my own camp.

But at the same time, part of it's ... When I go to school anywhere, when

I go to almost any seminary, I'm going to be the most conservative person there. So I have to learn how to appreciate, how to mine gold from anybody and get rid of the other stuff.

That's not compromise. It only becomes compromise when you start changing your own perspective.

That's what becomes compromise. So I'm going to be ... I'll guarantee you one thing. I need to find out where to get those

CDs. Have you noticed we all still say the same ... This is how you find out if someone is an old person or an older person now, and that's me.

You call them tapes. I got to get the tapes for that. Does anybody make tapes anymore?

We got rid of them. So the modern generation says that we need to get hold of the

CDs. I'll get caught up with that eventually, but I need to get hold of the

CDs, MP3s, whatever it is. If you're really cool, you've got an

MP3 player, and I have a number of them. Thank you. But I need to get hold of those and listen.

I want to hear the dialogue between N .T.

Wright and Crossen and the people that are going to be offering responses there too later on is quite an interesting group, including

William Lane Craig. Now, does that mean that that's going to be the same type of interaction we have on the ship, for example?

That's the same topic there. No, not at all. In no way, shape, or form. In fact, I'm hoping for, my real desire is for that shipboard discussion to really center upon the practical living application of what it means to truly believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ in reality, not just as a parable, as a symbol, but what does it mean, how does it look different in a person's life when you truly believe that Jesus Christ rose from the grave bodily and that becomes the very guarantee of your own resurrection?

How does that impact what you have going on in your life?

Over against viewing it as a metaphor, as a symbol.

How does that flesh itself out? That's what I'm hoping is going to take place.

So, I'm going to be listening, and just as I've listened to the

Crossen -Craig dialogue and debate, and everybody knows I have a very different theological perspective than William Lane Craig does, and so that's going to impact how

I answer certain questions and how I phrase certain things. But, on most levels, at least in the discussion that they were taking place, it was taking place there, most of that,

I'm pretty much on the same page. We're talking about believing that the

Bible's the word of God, I'm talking about believing that these historical events took place, but yeah, the theology that we have is going to impact the way that we respond to things.

There's absolutely positively no two ways about that. So, looking forward to it, and looking forward to hearing that, what's going to be taking place.

As soon as I let my voice go down, it all of a sudden disappears. I'm not sure if anybody else is noticing that.

I've heard a few words disappear, actually, a couple times. But anyway, actually,

I was going to discuss today, I have queued up some more of the

Patterson discussion, but what I really thought about doing, just for some odd reason, was there is a passage in the

Gospel of John, and I know a number of you are immediately thinking, ah,

John chapter 6 again. No, actually, it's another of the tremendous passages in the

Gospel of John. It's John chapter 8, and I thought we would spend a little time looking at John chapter 8 today, and just getting a sense of what the passage is about, making some application, and the like.

And we'll see how that works out, and maybe take your phone calls if you would like to participate at 877 -753 -3341 after the break, something along those lines.

John chapter 8, obviously, from my perspective, it is not the first passage that I go to in providing, shall we call, a demonstration of the doctrines of grace to those who suffer from hyper -red letterism, that being the disease that says if it doesn't appear in red letters, it's really not as inspired as it could be or should be.

And I have attempted to speak with a large number of evangelicals who suffered from hyper -red letterism, who did not want to see something in Paul, because we all know, as Peter said, that Paul is difficult to understand, therefore you never use

Paul for theology, which is a rather amazing viewpoint. But anyway, there are passages you can go to in the

Gospels that are absolutely compelling if, once again, you can walk through the chapter.

Not if you're just citing a single verse, but if you can walk through the chapter, establish a context, establish a movement of the text, and allow an entire block of text to speak.

I have seen that communicate with people in a way that almost nothing else can.

I really have seen that. Obviously, you can't create in someone's heart the desire to be obedient to the

Word of God. You can't do that. It can be extremely frustrating when you encounter someone who claims to be an evangelical, claims to believe the

Bible's Word of God, but you just don't find any evidence in their thinking and in their willingness to examine the

Word of that alleged willingness to do so. Very, very frustrating. I see people come to the channel all the time, and they're saying,

I'm trying to talk with this friend of mine, and he just can't get it.

He just won't see it. Well, you can't force anybody to quote -unquote see it. In fact, what's really been weird is that recently, a fellow came into the channel fairly recently.

He's not there at the moment, at least not with his regular nick, if he is. And he was talking about how he used to hate me.

And I had lunch today with another fellow who comes into the channel fairly regularly, Johnny Red, which stands for Johnny Redeemed.

That's not his name, but that's how it is in channels. And likewise,

I don't have any idea who that was. Likewise, he said that he had hated me.

And I'm like, well, great, wonderful. What did I ever do to you? But both of them were in the context of they had heard debates

I had done. They had heard debates on the Bible Answer Man. They had heard the debate I did with George Bryson. They had heard of something

I had done in regards to promoting Calvinism. And the reason they hated me was not because I had done anything wrong to them, but because what

I said bothered them. They didn't have an answer. They knew it wasn't what they believed. And what really bugged them is the people they expected to give an answer to them and to refute me didn't.

And so I found that odd. But here are people confessing, you know, I don't hate you anymore, but I did at one point in time.

I really disliked what you had to say. Well, you encounter that type of thing. And you ask people, well, could we look at the Word of God? Could we look at the text?

Things like that. And you do all that type of thing. And there's my wife calling again, right in the middle of the dividing line.

Hi, honey. I can't talk right now, but we'll have to talk later. Hope you're okay. Love you much. Bye. All right.

And we put it on silent now because no one remembers that it's between 4 and 5 o 'clock.

But we'll leave it right there because if it goes off again, that means it's a really bad thing. And so we'll see what happens.

Maybe I ought to give it to Rich, and if it goes off again, then he can answer it and find out what's really going on.

So anyway, back to the subject of the program today. I thought

I had everybody in my family sort of trained at this point. Anyway. Anyhow, back to John chapter 8.

And the fact that you have a situation here where I like to walk people through this one.

If you've gotten somebody to the point where they're willing to listen to you, to actually work through a passage and do so with you, with their eyes open, then, you know, that really means you've gotten a long ways.

And the benefit of John chapter 8 is the fact that you have a number of the important disputed elements of tradition.

Found here in John chapter 8. What do I mean? Well, you have, for example, the issue of false faith.

And... I hate it when I do that. Sorry. That was the text message from my wife.

False faith. And you get it illustrated in one of the best ways I know of in Scripture.

What do I mean by that? Well, Jesus is preaching and he's teaching.

And listen to some of the stuff he says. We have some of our most famous passages. You have the conflict going on between Jesus and the

Pharisees and the scribes. See? And Jesus is pushing his identity.

He is emphasizing who he truly is. And you even have the passage in John 8, 24.

Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am, ego, I, me, you will die in your sins.

And Jesus says this to people who are standing right in front of him. And he makes truth about who he is and belief in the truth about who he is central and definitional to salvation itself.

Now we could spend a lot of time on that one because there's so many people who simply don't believe that.

They don't believe it's part of the gospel. But it's right there in the words of Jesus. Verse 25.

So they're saying to him, Who are you? Jesus said to them, What have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you.

But he who sent me is true. And the things which I heard from him, these I speak to the world. They did not realize that he was speaking to them about the

Father. So Jesus said, When you lift up the Son of Man When you lift up the

Son of Man Remember all the argumentation we had back when the passion came out about a year ago now?

Who killed Jesus? And we recognized, you know, the only way to understand that in scripture is to be a compatibilist, isn't it?

Look at Acts chapter 4, verse 27 to 28. That doesn't remove from people their responsibility, does it?

But when you lift up the Son of Man then you will know that Ego I me And I do nothing on my own initiative but I speak these things the

Father taught me. Ego I me, the phrase I am. I keep assuming everyone has read the

Forgotten Trinity which obviously isn't the case. Ego I me, the Greek phrase for I am that is used primarily in the

Gospel of John not only in the Gospel of John but primarily in the Gospel of John as a reference to deity.

And so when you lift up the Son of Man then you will know that I am. Ever wondered about the kind of blindness within the heart of man that can cause the

Jews to do what they did when they sought to lie about the resurrection and bribe people to say the disciples stole the body?

What does that tell you? They knew! They knew the body wasn't there and they still refused to repent.

That will tell you a little something about what slavery to sin is all about which is what this passage gets into.

And he who sent me is with me he has not left me alone for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.

And so Jesus is talking about his relationship to the Father and notice what happens in verse 30

As he spoke these things many came to believe in him.

Many came to believe in him. Wow! Isn't that great? They came to believe in him.

In our ecumenical evangelical seeker -friendly whatever type of world today that's all that's important, isn't it?

They believed. They believed. And that's all you need.

Never question that, right? I mean, the most unspiritual thing that you could ever, ever do would be to question someone's belief.

And yet that's what Jesus does here, isn't it? As he spoke these things they came to believe in him but in the language of the

New Testament There's something interesting. Now, some people might argue that there really isn't a basis for this.

I think there is. Basis for what? Well, it's the form of the word believe.

It's found in verse 30. It is an aorist. Now, the old style of understanding the aorist was to describe each of the present, the imperfect, the aorist primarily in in terms of time rather than in form of action, type of action.

And part of that is because most of the time that's how it works. But the problem is when you only use something that works most of the time you end up with lots of quote unquote exceptions to the rule which aren't actually exceptions anyways.

It just meant you didn't really describe it overly well in the first place. But when

John uses this word pisteuo, to believe and he places it in the aorist rather than the present there is a contrast in meaning frequently in his gospel.

And we see it in John 2, we see it here in John 8. In John 2 men believed but Jesus did not believe himself to them.

Well that's odd. And when we see saving faith described in the gospel of John almost invariably it's in the present tense which isn't so much talking about the time as it is the kind of action, it's ongoing.

It's not just a point, it's not just the idea of an action taking place but nothing being said about its nature.

It's ongoing nature. And we certainly see here in John 8 they came to believe in him.

That's John 8 .30. What are they doing by the end of John chapter 8? They're picking up stones to stone him.

This is that kind of faith that is seen in the parables of Jesus.

That is where you have that instant sprouting of some positive kind of response but it doesn't last.

This would be the shallow ground. The ground that can be warmed up very very quickly by the sun.

And therefore there is instant growth but since it's shallow there can be no growing of roots.

There can be no connection to that which gives real life and very soon the amount of nutrition available from the seed and from its initial germination is gone.

And without a connection to a source of life, water and nutrients, there is very quickly death.

And so that's the kind of belief we have here. You know, you hear the incarnate son of God talking about his relationship to the father and that can be very impressive.

That can really get you excited. And so many came to believe in him. They liked what this teacher was saying but notice what

Jesus does. He does what we should do. He does what we must do.

He doesn't just simply go, Oh, you've believed. Oh, that's so wonderful.

Would you like to start teaching a Sunday school class? Would you like to become a deacon? Do you feel called to the ministry?

Oh, you have musical talents? We'll let you lead in worship. Isn't that what we do?

John 8 .31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine.

And immediately people throw their hands up in the air and they go, Oh, work salvation!

You don't believe in grace! And you know what?

If I wasn't a Calvinist that would be a fairly accurate charge, wouldn't it be? You say, where did you get the connection there?

Think about it. A Calvinist, because we believe salvation is the work of the

Holy Spirit of God, it is infallible. God ordains the time of our regeneration.

That regeneration includes everything that God needs to do within our hearts to give us a new nature, to change us from being

God -haters to God -lovers. He takes out the heart of stone, gives us a heart of flesh, because we believe

God's the one who does all that. We don't have any problem saying, If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine.

Because we're not going to misread that into thinking that Oh, by my continuing in his word, you see,

I had this free will, see, and I chose to start down this, but it's by my continuing to choose to start down this road, by my continuing in his word, then

I become truly a disciple of his, see? There's no danger of reading it as if this is a prescription for how you become.

Instead, Jesus uses the term truly. These are descriptions of the result of the sovereign work of the

Spirit of God in the heart of one of his elect people. Those people continue in his word.

They're not going to be like these people. These people are exactly, they're picking up stones to stone him. They're like the people in John 6.

They walk away, at least John 6. They, you know, they walked away, they didn't pick up stones.

You know, sometimes people just get disillusioned to walk away. Here, they're going to get angry. See? They're not going to continue in his word.

Right now, the word sounded cool to them. You know why? Because it didn't expose their own spiritual bankruptcy.

Jesus is about to demonstrate what happens when his word goes from talking about things out there to talking about things in here, in the heart.

If you continue, you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples.

And you will know the truth. And here it is, folks. Here is the big offense.

And the truth will free you. Free you.

Set free. That is a term every person who heard Jesus say these words knew he was talking about freedom from slavery.

Freedom from slavery. And it might even be described sort of in the way of, if we were to try to use a colloquial phrase today, a term that might communicate for us today.

It's not directly parallel, but one part of it that we don't, when we read this, we don't get some of the offense of it.

But if we were to say some long lines, if you continue to believe in me, you'll actually end up with a job. The idea being, you don't got one.

You're unemployed. You're a bum. You're dependent upon others. So there was a part of the very words that offended, necessarily offended these surface level followers.

And folks, if we compromise the teaching of the word of God, if you do not teach the word of God in your church in such a way as to allow all of it to speak, you don't bring all of the truth of God to bear upon your people in the

Sunday school class, in the morning service, in the evening service, if you duck passages because you know that it might offend somebody, you are not following Christ's example.

And you're poisoning the fellowship in the process. You shall know the truth and the truth will free you.

It will remove you from slavery. That's what's going on here.

Let's continue on because there's going to be a lot more, but we need to take a break and we'll continue with John 8, 32, and what comes afterwards on the other side.

Here on the Dividing Line today, we'll be right back. Under the guise of tolerance, modern culture grants alternative lifestyle status to homosexuality.

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This portion of the dividing line has been made possible by the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church.

The Apostle Paul spoke of the importance of solemnly testifying of the gospel of the grace of God. The proclamation of God's truth is the most important element of his worship in his church.

The elders and people of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church invite you to worship with them this coming Lord's Day.

The morning Bible study begins at 9 .30 a .m. and the worship service is at 10 .45. Evening services are at 6 .30

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where the ministry extends around the world through the archives of sermons and Bible study lessons available 24 hours a day.

This is

Steve Camp. Once again, you know, he really has to drop everything he's doing and to call in to do that, singing for us each week, twice a week, and getting the orchestra together.

It's a lot of work, and I think we should... What? It's recording? Oh, man.

I thought we were special. Yeah, leave the...

You know, we're the professionals. I know. I'm sorry. We are looking at John chapter 8. During the break,

I should say, though, that... Um... Yeah, that's me, actually.

Hi! We have a listener at the moment who's not in our channel.

It's in a different channel. Hi, no lady. Yeah, that's me. Anyway, we've been looking at John chapter 8, but during the break,

I was looking at an email I just got from Steve Hayes, and I linked to Steve Hayes on my blog, given his earlier response to J .P.

Holding, those of you who have been following the blog know what I'm talking about, and he's now commenting on the current situation in my commentary in response to J .P.

Holding. I've got to get this up on the blog. I'll do it as soon as the program is over, and it's...

Let's just say I like having folks like Steve out there doing his things. We're looking at John chapter 8, and we had just finished this section.

Not finished. Just had encountered the statements of the Lord in response to those who had believed in him, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

Now, two things. First of all, we live in a day and age where that term truth is under a tremendous amount of pressure.

You know what I mean? I was discussing the emergent church movement and post -modernism and things like that while speaking in North Carolina a couple weeks ago.

It's something we've had to address fairly often in the course of the past number of months, and I obviously think it's going to continue in the future as well.

That term truth is being robbed of all of its value in our modern society.

When you make the creature the measure of what that means, I determine what truth is for me, you determine what truth is for you, the

Lord's words make no sense. I mean, think about it in this context.

You will know the truth. No, that's not you will define the truth, is it? No. If you continue in his word, then you're truly oh, you mean there's something external to me, continuing in his word.

Now, immediately the emergent church slash post -modernist slash deconstructionist slash anti -foundationalist da da da da da da da immediately want to go, well, you know, there's a personal element here, and there is.

No one is questioning that in the Christian faith, when you encounter truth, even though it's external to you in the sense of being in the word of God, that it changes you.

That's why the Holy Spirit brings it into your life and applies it to you and you grow in grace and all the rest of those things.

There's no question about any of that. It's not a, either it's a personal experience or it's these great timeless propositional truths.

It's both. And when I encounter that truth and I know that truth, notice it does not say know about the truth.

You will know the truth. And that truth will set you free.

And when you have that type of offensiveness of saying we'll set you free, here is where we see the depravity of the heart of man.

Because listen to the response. These are believers! At least they are aorist believers.

They have had that point -action faith. Not the ongoing type of faith.

Here's what non -saving faith looks like. They answered him. Have you ever thought about that?

Creatures standing before the incarnate Son of God who created all things dared to give answer and argue with the potter.

They answered him. We are the seed of Abraham.

And when you look at the Greek, it's actually sperma abraham. Seed of Abraham we are.

Can you hear the what do you mean? We are Abraham's descendants.

I can't even say it with a straight face. We've never been enslaved to anyone. What do you mean you've never been enslaved to anyone?

You're enslaved to the Romans right now. It is just amazing.

Remember last week, a week ago tomorrow, I put a little note on the blog about the fact that February 11th, 1985 was the debate between Greg Bonson and Gordon Stein on the existence of God.

Classic, classic debate. Provide the link. If you haven't listened to it, you really, really, really do need to listen to it.

It's just classic stuff. And in that debate there is a little humor.

There's a little going back and forth. And Dr. Bonson pointed out that Dr.

Stein had done his doctoral dissertation in the ovarian maturation of Japanese quail,

I think is what it was. In other words, Dr. Stein is a naturalist. He's a scientist who's chosen to leave the field of his specialty so as to give his, dedicate his life to a campaign for atheism.

And then remember what Dr. Stein felt like he had to do in response was take a shot at Dr. Bonson's doctoral dissertation, which was on what?

On man's ability for self -deception. And you see, Stein didn't see how grossly relevant that is.

Here we have man in John 833 that, I've never read Dr. Bonson's doctoral dissertation.

I would like to. I'll have to order it someday. But the fact of the matter is,

I bet you anything John 833 is cited in there someplace. It would have to be. Here is self -deception.

We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone.

Uh -oh, here comes a Roman soldier. I'm going to have to carry his pack for a mile. The Romans are telling us who to have as high priest.

They've been enslaved many times. The Babylonians, the Assyrians, the list is very long.

How about the Egyptians? That would be a good one. When the truth of God touches upon our most sacred points of rebellion, our responses are frequently grossly irrational.

And that's what you have right here. You can tell these people are offended. Offended! We are

Abraham's descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free?

There it is, folks. There it is. There is the offensiveness of the Gospel. You can't proclaim a message that brings freedom to someone who refuses to recognize they are enslaved.

Don't tell me that I'm I need to be made free. I don't like that.

There it is. How do you say to us you will become free? Jesus answered.

Truly, truly, I say to you. And that is a way of emphasizing the solemnity of what you're about to say.

Truly, truly, I say to you. Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. Everyone doing the sin, literally, performing sin is the slave thereof.

Do we really believe that? Does your theology, does your evangelism reflect that truth?

It needs to. When we refuse to accept

Jesus' own teaching about the nature of sin and the fact that sin enslaves, it will impact every single element of our proclamation, of our view of the

Gospel. Extremely important. They say

I've never been enslaved. Jesus says you've always been enslaved. You've always been enslaved.

You don't even know your own character. You don't even know your own situation.

Your own need. This is the exact parallel to what we saw in John 6. Why did all those disciples who were so excited the day before, and so excited when they crossed the lake, walk away?

Because they hadn't been excited about Jesus as the source of spiritual life. They didn't see their own need.

The one to whom little has been forgiven loves little. They saw no need of their forgiveness, so they have little love.

Certainly not lasting love and not lasting faith. You can tell the anger on the part of the audience is great.

Jesus doesn't back down. I say to you, everyone, each individual, this is

Pascha Piscuon. Everyone who believes here is Pascha Poion.

Everyone committing sin is a slave of sin.

The slave, Jesus says, does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever.

He uses there the singular, the son. The one sent by the

Father, that's him. He's the one who has the right and the power to free.

So if the son makes you free, you'll be free indeed. And there it is again, folks.

I'm sorry to but every phrase here just pounds away at the shallow gospel of evangelicalism today.

Who is it that sets free? I am so tired of hearing people making Jesus a potential savior.

He makes you freeable if you will just take the keys and unlock the chains yourself.

That's not how it works. So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

The son has that power. It's the son who frees. Not us.

It's not the son. Does the son free everyone? Has everyone been freed?

No. So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

And if the son has not set you free, you remain enslaved.

And that phrase to make free there, that was the phrase you use of slavery.

And the only one who can set you free is the son. What powerful words.

I know, Jesus says, that you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you seek to kill me.

Now remember, who are we talking about here? We're talking about those who had claimed belief.

Had claimed faith. And did you see where the transition was?

Many believed in him. What has happened? Jesus applies the word to them and says, if you continue, then you will be my disciples.

And the truth will set you free. That becomes the application.

And yet, they had believed, but what ends up happening?

Yet you seek to kill me. Jesus knows the hearts of men. There's nothing hidden here.

Because why? Why do they seek to kill him? My word has no place in you.

Isn't it just up to us to make room for it? Isn't it?

That's just so negative. How can we ever say that about someone?

That the word has no place in you. A person who is unwilling to believe the proclamation of the word of God about their own state and their own need and their own utter dependence upon Christ is not a believer.

Is not a Christian. Has not been changed. The word of God has a place in the heart that has been changed by the spirit of God.

And even though these were

Abraham's descendants, unlike Abraham, they had no place for the word of God within them.

Jesus says, I speak the things which I have seen of my father. Therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.

They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. They still thought that their genealogy could make them right before God.

Jesus said to them, if you're Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. As it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which

I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father.

They answered to him, we were not born of fornication. We have one father, God. Now some have seen in that possibly a backhanded slap at the virgin birth.

Maybe. It's possible. But it's also possible to read it just simply as Jesus saying, you're doing your deeds from your father.

And if it's not Abraham, then you are obviously born of fornication when you claim it was Abraham. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me.

For I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on my own initiative, but he sent me.

If you love God, you love Jesus. You think that might be slightly relevant to the arguments today concerning pluralism?

The Muslim says, I love Allah, and Allah and your God are the same

God. No, they're not. If God were your father, you would love

Jesus. Not the very, very different Jesus of the

Quran. The Jesus who is but a prophet. The Jesus who is not divine.

The Jesus who is not crucified. The Jesus who is not resurrected. For I proceeded and came forth from God.

Oh, no! The Quran says, no! Don't say Trinity! It'd be better for you!

Except these words were spoken and written half a millennium before Muhammad came along.

Then notice verse 43, because we're running out of time because I've been preaching. Why do you not understand what

I am saying? Stop right there. Just stop right there. How does the theology of so many of our evangelical brethren answer that question?

Without going on to what Jesus said, why do they not understand what he's saying?

Well, we haven't, you know, the church the church just hasn't been preaching with clarity and we haven't you know, we just haven't learned to communicate with our culture yet.

We need to do more interpretive dance and we need to have prettier pictures on the walls and the preacher needs to stop wearing a suit.

He needs to be in a golf shirt and maybe a Hawaiian shirt and Birkenstocks.

Then they'd understand Jesus' response is very different.

Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable. Very same phrase used.

Oh, where would it might be? Oh, John 6 44. You are unable to come to me and John 8 43.

You are not able to hear my word. You are not able to hear my word.

Really? Really? They could hear what he was saying.

So obviously hearing here is not that. They lack a fundamental ability to hear that word which is the only thing it can give life.

Is it not? If you abide in my word then you are my servant. The truth shall set you free. How can you abide in something you can't hear?

They lack the fundamental ability to hear the word.

That's not how most people answer the question, is it? No. They don't choose.

They don't want to. Jesus says you are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father.

There is something wrong with you. Your nature hasn't been changed. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand the truth because there is no truth in him.

Whenever he speaks lie he speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies but because I speak the truth you do not believe me.

It is not the nature of the unregenerate man to believe the truth but because I speak the truth you are not believing me.

Present tense. Notice they had believed. Aorist. He says you are not believing.

Why? Because I speak the truth. You mean the truth offends? The truth drives away false believers?

Yeah. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I speak truth why do you not believe me?

Because they are sinners. That is why. Though I hardly have time even to explicate the passage.

Look at verse 47. We know what is going to happen at the end. Right? They pick up stone and stone him. Because Jesus claims to be the

I am before Abraham was I am. But I only go through verse 47.

He who is of God. NIV says belongs to God. Hears the words of God.

Which he had just told other people they could not hear. And now he is saying the one who is of God hears the words of God.

Isn't that descriptive? It is not because he is somehow better. This person belongs to God.

Something is different. And it is God who makes the decision by the way. But then what it says.

Notice what it says. This is why you are not able to hear. Because you are not ek tu the you.

You are not of God. Oh but you know they can just choose any time.

Oh how lightly men treat the truth of God. How lightly they treat the truth of God so that they can just simply say oh.

Oh. Everybody has that ability. Everybody has that power. In and of yourself.

Jesus says no. Unless you are of God you will not hear. God is sovereign.

The matter of salvation. Jesus refused to back down. And if we honor his word.

We teach only what Jesus himself taught. We will see you on the dividing line

Tuesday morning. God bless. God bless.