Let us turn to God's Word once
again and the portion we were reading in the Gospel according
to St. John. Here in chapter 8 and drawing
your attention for a while this evening to the words that we
have in verse 24. The Lord Jesus is there in the temple
as we see in the opening part of the chapter early in the morning
he came again to the temple and all the people came on to him
and he sat down and taught them and then we read of the activity
of the scribes and the Pharisees seeking to catch him out as they
present this woman taken in adultery Well, we started to read the
portion, verse 21, and as I say, it's the words that follow in
verse 24 that I really want to center your attention on this
morning. Let me get it right, this evening. This evening. Verse 24, I said
therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe
not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins. Word spoken then by the Lord
Jesus on this occasion there in the temple in Jerusalem and
addressing himself to the Jews. He came unto his own, remember,
and his own received him not. And how we see that, we see it
in the portion that we read through to the end of the chapter. And
how striking are the words that we have in this text. We observe
that the pronoun is in italics, and you know the significance
of that. It's been introduced in the translation, it's not
there in the original, so we can omit it quite justifiably.
And then how does it read? I said therefore unto you that
ye shall die in your sins if ye believe not that I am. ye shall die in your sins." Or
the fearful consequence of infidelity, unbelief, unbelief. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God hath
given of his Son. And that's what we have here
in Scripture, of course, the record that God hath given of
His Son, and we're to believe it. and we to believe what the
Lord Jesus is saying of himself here in the words of this text
if you believe not that I am if we deny the truth of his deity what danger we're in we die in
our sins on belief is it not the root of all sins it's there
isn't it in the in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. What was it that lay at the root
of that sin of theirs when they partook of forbidden fruit? It
was unbelief. It was denying God's truth, disobeying
God's commandments, embracing rather the lie of the devil.
I believe the sin which does so easily beset us. Atheism really. It's atheism
that is the very root of all sins. And in many ways we live
in such a secular society. Now a nation that really denies
God, certainly rejects the word of God. And we'll have nothing
to do with the commandments of God. It's unbelief all about
us. And how solemn it is, think of
the words that we have previously in the third chapter. And there
at verse 18, the Lord says, He that believeth on him is not
condemned, But he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world,
and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. Oh, that accursed sin, that awful
sin of unbelief. I think I've told the story many
times maybe, but it does strike me. That dear man, Rabbi Duncan,
fine Christian, he became a remarkable minister. He had a great love
for the Jews, God's ancient covenant people at one stage. Rabbi Duncan,
John Duncan, his real name, he was called Rabbi because he had
such a love for the Jews. He'd served as a missionary for
a while in Budapest. He was a professor in the Free
Church of Scotland, in the college there in Edinburgh, professor
of Hebrew, a great Hebraist. That's why they gave him that
nickname, Rabbi Duncan. But he tells us how as a young
man he was so bedevilled with unbelief and black atheistic
thoughts. And then the day came when he
was delivered from that accursed sin. and he was in Aberdeen,
he was an Aberdonian and he was there on the bridge of D, the
brig of D and I don't know, he came to him so forcibly that
God is there isn't God or he came to be delivered from his
atheism he believed in God and he said that wasn't that wasn't
saving faith oh but he was so thankful that he was brought
to believe There is a God, and of course in his goodness God
went on to do a most gracious work in the depths of that man's
soul, had a real experience of the grace of God in salvation. But how he first of all had to
be delivered from that awful sin of unbelief, And here we see that the Lord
Jesus makes it plain that one has to believe in Him. If you believe not that I am,
if you believe not that this is the Lord, this is Jehovah,
This is the true God. You shall die in your sins. And so we read the chapter and
we see the Lord here discoursing with the Jews and there are those
who do come to believe in Him. That's the amazing thing. At
verse 30, as He spoke these words, many believed on Him. Then said
Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my
word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free. But then at the same
time there were others who didn't believe. As we see in verse 43,
Why do ye not understand my speech? even because he cannot hear my
word, or how important it is that we can hear his word, that
we do hear his word, that that word is brought with power and
authority into our souls that we might believe in his word. The ministry of the Lord Jesus
we see time and again how discriminating and how separating it is. Well,
I want us tonight, as I say, to consider more carefully what
the Lord is saying here in this particular verse, verse 24. And first of all to say something
with regards to the importance of a right belief in his person,
a belief in his deity, a belief in the fact that this man The
Lord Jesus is in fact true almighty God, the person. He is God and He is man. And as we read through this particular
chapter there is certainly a certain emphasis upon the truth of His
deity. We have it here in the text,
if you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. We see it again there in the
28th verse. What does the Lord say? When
you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know that
I am He. And again, you will observe the
pronoun in italics, literally. When you have lifted up the Son
of Man, you shall know that I am. And then, of course, at the end
of the chapter we have the statement, and there's no pronoun added
there, verily, verily, before Abraham was, I am, the words
that we have in verse 58. How remarkable are these words,
then, that we find. And also, there's a remarkable
saying in the 25th verse. when they ask, who art thou?
And Jesus saith unto them, even the sign that I said unto you
from the beginning. Now you will observe in that
25th verse that again we have two words introduced in italics,
the words, the sign. Jesus said that he was even the
sign that I said unto you from the beginning. Now if we render
that verse in a very literal sense, taking account of the
syntax, it reads something like this, I am that beginning which
also I speak unto you. I am that beginning. I am the beginning. Again, verse
25 really, like those other verses where He declares Himself to
be I Am, verse 25 also is a declaration of the truth that He is God. He is that One from the beginning.
What does God say back in Isaiah 41 and verse 4? I the Lord, the
first, and with the last. God is the first and the last.
The Lord Jesus again speaking there in the opening chapter
of the Revelation. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, which was and which is and which is to come, the
Almighty. The Alpha, the Omega, the first and the last letters
of the Hebrew alphabet. The beginning and the end. In
all of these statements we see how he clearly declares himself
to be God. He is God from the beginning
and he is one with the Father. Does he not say as much? Later
in chapter 10 and verse 30, I and my Father are one. and together with the Father
and the Holy Ghost he is that one who has entered into a covenant,
the great covenant of redemption God's great purpose of salvation
and in that covenant of course the Son is the one who willingly
will take upon him the salvation of sinners and become the very
servant of God to that end the language of Isaiah 42, Behold
my servant whom I uphold, my elect in whom my soul delighteth,
I have put my spirit upon him. Oh he is that one you see who
will serve the will of the Father who comes to this world not to
do his own will but the will of him who has sent him he says
and to finish his work to accomplish all that work and what does the
Father do? Well, to that end, He anoints
him with the Spirit, He is the Christ. And the Father giveth
not the Spirit by measure unto Him. Oh, He comes at the appointed
time, when the fullness of the time was come, we're told. God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law. this great work that he has come
to accomplish. And so whilst on one occasion
he can say I and my father are one, on another occasion he can
say my father is greater than I. Oh yes, as the eternal Son of
God he is equal to the Father, equal to the Holy Ghost. But
as God's servant in the outworking of the covenants, as He undertakes
to fulfill all those covenant engagements, He will say, My
Father is greater than I. As He says here in verse 26,
I have many things to say and to judge of you, but He that
sent me is true. And I speak to the world those
things which I have heard of Him. He has come to serve God,
to reveal God. He is the image of the invisible
God. And we are to believe here in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That great mystery of godliness. Remember how the Apostle Paul
speaks of it there at the end of 1st Timothy 3. Without controversy. Or there's no disputing the fact. This is the mystery. This is
the mystery of godliness, the mystery of Christ. God was manifest
in the flesh. Unto us a child is born. Unto
us a son is given. Well, the child is born, but
the son is given. The eternal son is the one that's
given. But what is conceived in the womb of the Virgin is
that holy thing, that human nature, that body and soul that's going
to be joined to the eternal Son of God. The Virgin shall conceive and
bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Immanuel. This is the one who is speaking
here in the text you see, and we're to take account, we're
to believe in the person of this one. We're to believe that he
truly a man speaking to other men here upon the earth and yet
never anything less than true Almighty God. If ye believe not that I am ye
shall die in your sins, he says. He's in the form of God. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no
reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant. He was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, he became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. You see, salvation is in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as in the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We must recognize that. I recall,
some years ago, I was at a Banner of Truth ministers' conference
at Leicester. So it was probably back in the
1980s, and in conversation with some other men, some other ministers,
and I think Principally they were Scots, they were ministers
from the Free Presbyterian Church in Scotland and we were just
talking together about various truths, various doctrines and
speaking, well I said something with regards to the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, made certain comments, but one of these men
pointed out that whilst we're right to make much of the work
of Christ, we must never neglect to speak also of the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And in some ways it came to me
as something of a reprimand. I felt, well yes, I want to make
much of the work, that amazing work that Christ has accomplished,
here upon the earth, standing in the Lord's place of his people.
and answering the commandments of God for his people, both in
terms of penalty and precept. He lived the life of obedience
to every precept, every commandment. He brought a righteousness. His
name is the Lord our righteousness, Jehovah Sidkenu. That is his
name. It is that righteousness of Christ
that justifies the sinner before God. But he also answered the Lord
in terms of all his dreadful penalties, because that holy,
righteous and just man died. And he died in the sinner's place,
he died for the unjust, to bring sinners to God. He was
made sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him, says the Apostle. But how important it is that
we don't just concentrate on the wonder of the work, but we
come to appreciate the wonder of the person, the great mystery
of godliness. That in Jesus of Nazareth we
have one who is God, and never anything less than God. and yet
at the same time he is always a man and he's a real man the
wonder of it and what the Lord is saying here I said therefore
unto you that ye shall die in your sins for if ye believe not
that I am ye shall die in your sins there is to believe then
to be belief in his deity belief in the person of the Lord Jesus,
the God-man. But also, we must take account,
a real proper account of his death. There's to be belief in
his dying. How can that be? How can one
who is never anything less than God die? That's the mystery. Of course, after this service
we, as a church, will observe again that Holy Supper when we'll
remember His dying in the symbols of broken bread and the communion
cup, the wine poured into the cup. We partake of the bread,
we drink of the cup. and we remember the Lord, and
we remember Him especially in His dying. So I want to say something
here with regards to His work, which culminates of course in
the cross. We've already referred to those
words in Philippians 2. He was obedient unto death, says
Paul, even the death of the cross. Even that death. And what a death
was that? That was the accursed death.
Accursed is every one that hangeth on a tree, says the Lord of God.
How he hangs there, a spectacle to men, naked. And all beholding
the dreadful scene. The sinless man dying. The wonder
of it. How could he die? No man could
take his life from him. He had power to lay that life
down. He had power to take it again. He died by a voluntary
act. He gave himself. But let us think
of his death, because in that sense, in dying, when we see
the fact of his voluntary dying, do we not see there a wonderful
revelation of his deity? This is God who's dying. this
is God who is dying and remember when they come to arrest him
in the garden later here in John he immediately as they would lay
hands upon him declares himself to be the I am and they can't
do anything they can't touch him there in chapter 18 at verse verse 4 following we're told Jesus therefore knowing
all things which would come upon him went forth and said unto
them whom seek ye? here is Judas with a band of
officers and men from the chief priests coming to take the Lord
to lay hold of him to arrest him as it were And He says to
them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am He. Judas also, which betrayed Him,
stood with them. As soon then as He had said unto
them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then
I see them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus answered, I have told you that I am He. If therefore ye
seek Me, let these go their way. and if you turn to the passages
I've just read those verses you will have observed how in verses
5 and 6 and 8 again we have the pronoun the masculine pronoun
he in italics so we can legitimately ignore it when they When the Lord answers them, or
rather when the Lord asks them, Whom seek ye? And they answer Him, Jesus says unto them, I am He. Literally, they answered Him
that seeking Jesus of Nazareth, He says unto them, I am. in verse 5. He simply says, I
am. As soon then as he had said unto
them, I am, they went backwards. They went backwards. They fell
to the ground backwards. They are repulsed really. They
can't draw near to him. They are overwhelmed. And then
he says again in verse 8, I have told you that I am. Even you
see as they come to arrest him, He reveals something of his deity. This is God. This is God. And so in dying we see Christ
revealing himself and all his majesty. And I want us to observe
two things with regards to the death of the Lord Jesus. First
of all, Not surprisingly, there are remarkable wonders and signs
that accompany his dying. We're told, aren't we, how the
sun was darkened from the 6th hour to the 9th hour of the day. The 6th hour, that's high noon.
The sun at its zenith. And for 3 hours, from the 6th
hour, from 12 noon to the 9th hour, 3 o'clock in the afternoon,
there is darkness. The sun was darkened and the
veil of the temple is rent in the midst. Suddenly, that great
veil separating the holy of holies from the holy place, it's rent
in the midst. as the Lord Jesus dies upon the
cross. But other things also accompanying
his dying. Remarkable things are spoken
of in the account that we have in Matthew 27. What a remarkable thing! Matthew 27 and there at verse
50 Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil
of the temple was entwined from the top to the bottom, and the
earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened,
and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out
of the graves after his resurrection. and went into the holy city and
appeared unto many. What remarkable events are associated with the
dying of the Lord Jesus. And then we read on there in
the following verse, when the centurion And they that were
with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things
that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son
of God. Truly this was the Son of God. He marks it down, truly this
man, he's a real man. But the centurion, the hardened
Roman centurion says this man was the son of God. It's interesting how we have
different renderings in the Gospels because in Luke's accounts, Luke
23, 47, it says certainly this was a righteous man. He's the son of God, he's a righteous
man though. Now, doubtless the centurion
was aware of what had happened. Had not the Lord Jesus been brought
before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, had there not been a
trial, a mockery of a trial, yes, but nonetheless it was some
sort of a trial, and had not Pontius Pilate declared this
man to be guiltless, I find no fault in him, he says to the
Jews, twice. He tells them plainly there's
no fault in this man. He's guiltless. He's sinless.
And here is the Roman centurion confessing the truth of that.
He is a righteous man. And this righteous man is none
other than the Son of God. There are wonders and signs. There's something glorious. even
about this ignominious death that the Lord Jesus Christ is
having to die. But besides the wonders, the
signs, there's also that blessed witness of the Holy Spirit. Remember at His baptism, the
Spirit descends upon Him. The Father giveth not the Spirit
by measure. There's such an effusion of the
Spirit, such a blessed outpouring of the Spirit. And the Spirit
is everywhere in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Read the Gospels.
Read the Gospels carefully and see how as a man he lives his
life as one who is dependent upon the Spirit of God. And of
course that's how believers have to live their lives. Isn't this
the dispensation of the Holy Spirit? Hasn't God granted to
us that best of all donations? The glorious coming of the Spirit
on the day of Pentecost well previous to that how the Lord
lives his life and lives it under that gracious
ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the Spirit is there at the
end to witness in the previous chapter here
again we see the Lord ministering to the people. What does He say? The last day, that great day
of the Feast, again He's there at Jerusalem, the Feast of Tabernacles. What does the Lord say? On that last day of the Feast, He
cries, if any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He
that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the
Spirit, which say, The belief on him should receive, for the
Holy Ghost was not yet given, because the Jesus was not yet
glorified. The gift of the Spirit, of course,
is associated with his dying. Now it's not saying here that
there was no ministry of the Holy Spirit previous to the glorifying
of the Lord Jesus. There's a ministry of the Holy
Spirit in his own life. There's a ministry of the Holy
Spirit there in the Old Testament. David in his great penitential
psalm cries out, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And the
disciples who follow the Lord Do not they know something of
that gracious ministry of the Spirit in their souls to constrain
them to follow Him? No, what is being spoken of is
that glorious descent, the coming in state, as it were, of the
Holy Spirit, but that is associated with His departing, with His
dying. The Holy Spirit was not yet given.
because Jesus was not yet glorified and how is he glorified? He is
glorified by passing through the death of the cross or there
can be no crown except there is first the cross nevertheless
I tell you the truth he says to his disciples it is expedient
for you that I go away For if I go not away, the Holy Spirit
will not come. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. He must go away, he must die.
And dying, he must rise again. And rising again, he must ascend
on high. And ascending on high, he will
then shed abroad the Holy Ghost. Being by the right hand of God
exalted, Peter says, He hath shed forth this which ye now
see and hear. always dying you see so essential,
so necessary that the Spirit come and when the Spirit is come
Christ says I will send him unto you from the Father so the Lord
sends the Spirit but first he must depart that the Spirit might
come and then when the Spirit comes what is his ministry? Why,
a significant part of that ministry, of course, is to bear testimony
to Christ. Here in John 16 and verse 13,
"...howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide
you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." all things that
the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of
mine and shall show it unto you who he comes as the Spirit of
Christ it is through the cross then
that the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted as the Saviour and then
sends that blessed work of the Spirit again look at the language that
we have in the twelfth chapter here in this Gospel. What do
we find the Lord saying there in verse 32 and verse 33? I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me. This is said signifying what
death he should die. It's as he is lifted up from
the earth exalted as it were upon the cross, that He will
draw all men to Him. Again, we see it previously in
chapter 3. In verse 14, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have eternal life. Now, of course, there is that
sense in which Christ is lifted up in the preaching of the Gospel.
Paul says we preach Christ and Him crucified. But we know from
the passage in chapter 12 that the lifting up really has regard
to Him literally being lifted up upon the cross. He is exalted
you see. Highly exalted. His deity revealed
even as He comes to the cross and suffers and dies that cruel
cruel death and he says it here doesn't he?
verse 28 then said Jesus unto them when you have lifted up
the son of man then you shall know that I am he now see who he is in the crucifixion
Or do we see that? Do we really see that? Do we
see that He is God even in dying? Doesn't Paul say in the Corinthian
epistle, 2nd Corinthians, that He was crucified through weakness? This is a paradox of it all,
isn't it? That this is God and yet as a man he dies and yet
in his dying we see the blessed truth of his deity that he's
still God and this is what he's telling the Jews this is the
mystery of Christ when you have lifted up the Son of Man then
you shall know that I am now we know how he's glorified then
in the resurrection He's declared to be the Son of God, with power,
according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead. But these are all the various stages of His exaltation, as
it were. Even as He descends into the
death of the cross, He's already, as it were, beginning to be raised
up and exalted on high. or the mystery of all these things.
And the most important thing is that we have faith in this God,
even the Lord Jesus. If ye believe not that I am,
he says, ye shall perish in your sins. Remember what the Lord says in
the next chapter, chapter 9, to the man born blind. And the Lord had performed that
remarkable miracle. He'd given sight to a man born
blind. And they'd cast that man out
of the synagogue. They'd excommunicated that man. They'd cut him off. And the Lord
finds the man and the Lord asks him a question. And what is the
question that the Lord puts to that man? Dost thou believe on
the Son of God? Well, that's the question, friends,
that we all have to answer. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? It's the person again. Yes, it's
the work. But we can't separate the work
from the person. Are we those who believe? that
He is the great I am that I am He is Jehovah, Jesus do we believe
that? without faith we're told it is
impossible it's impossible to please God
without faith he that comes to God must believe that He is His
I am We have to believe He's I Am. But how can we have that faith? Well,
here's the answer. It's looking on to Jesus again.
We have to look to Him, looking on to Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. The only way in which we can
obtain this faith is by being brought to the complete and utter
end of ourselves. And doesn't the Lord have to
keep on teaching us that lesson? Well, He does me. I have to learn
it over and over and over and over again. He turns us to what
we are, turns us to nothingness. That's what Paul was brought
to, though I be nothing. The cipher, the zero, He turns
us to destruction then he says return and how do we return? We look to Jesus. Oh are we those
friends who are learning that lesson all the time? The wonder
of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I said therefore unto you that
ye shall die in your sins. Solemn words For if ye believe not that I
am, ye shall die in your sins. O God, grant us that grace of
faith that we might confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Amen.