To praise you, your your matchless
love and for your sovereign grace. for all worlds in covenant grace,
you set your heart on me. and resolve to save me. Descending from your throne on
high, with men you came to dwell. That as my surety you might,
died to save my soul from hell. In shame and agony you died Beneath
the wrath of God In my place you were crucified You bought
me with your blood Exalted to your heavenly throne You rule
over all flesh In love for me, your chosen one, you rule in
providence. And in the time of love, you
came and spread your skirt o'er me. Savior divine, you spoke
my name and caused me to be. Now what I am, I owe to you. I'm saved by sovereign grace. Jesus, my Savior, I praise you
and magnify your grace. Lord, when I reach my home above
and see you face to Alright, let's bow and have a little prayer. Our gracious heavenly father,
we thank you for the day and we thank you for your love and
your mercy. We thank you for this grace that
we have in Christ that we just opportunity to lift our hearts
and voices in song. We thank you for this day that
we have together as your church to teach and to preach and to
sing these hymns, to pray, to fellowship together, to edify
one another. Lord, we're just so grateful
today for the love and the grace that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We thank you, Father, for our forgiveness of sins that
we've been granted through the blood of Christ. We thank you
for the salvation That's been eternally ours, Lord, but yet
now in time, we've been able to experience this wonderful
mercy that was extended to us, Lord, even though we were sinners.
And so, Father, Lord, we just ask now that you would speak
to our heart today. Lord, I ask that you would help
me to preach and administer the gospel, help me to preach and
teach the things of truth, Lord, not from any selfish motives,
not from any man's wisdom, not from any traditions, that come
from men, Father, but I pray that you would give me the ability
to speak the truth as it is in Christ, as it is in your word. And Lord, I pray for those that
are here that you might give them hearing ears and that they
might understand and that the Holy Spirit would apply those
things which are being preached today, that you might encourage
the saints that are here today. Father, we ask and pray that
you might help us to worship you rightly. You say in your
word that we must worship in spirit and truth. That's how
you desire to be worshiped. And Lord, we just pray that the
spirit would guide us in that. We know that we cannot do that
alone, that we need your help. And so we pray that the spirit
come and aid us in that worship. We pray, Father, that our hearts
have been prepared already as we come to lift up these songs,
that they might not just be from rote, that they might not just
be something that we do for tradition, But truly, as we sing these things,
we sing these praises to you because of our love for you that
you have shed abroad in our heart. Father, we ask that you just
might glorify your son today in our worship, and that it might
be pleasing to him. It's in his name that we pray,
amen. All right, turn with me now,
if you would, to hymn number 82 in the blue book. Hymn number
82 in the blue book. Good morning. M number 82. My times are in my hand. We'll
sing this to the tune of, uh, I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord. If I can remember the tune. All right. My times are in thy hand. My God, I want them there. Choose, Lord, the path that's
best for me throughout my journey here. My times are in thy hand. There is no cause for fear. My father's providence is good. I should be free of care. My times are in thy hand. I would submissive be. Forgive my fears, forgive my
doubts, drive unbelief from me. My times are in thy hand. My God, do what you will. Grant grace to me to honor you. Well, that's easy to sing, but
not so easy to live. You know that? My times are in
my hands. Do with me what you want, but
give me grace to be able to go through it. It's not easy to
do that. We need his help to do that.
Hymn number 110, if you would, also. We're going to be in this
whole book. The whole song goes here until
we get to request if you want something from a different one. Hymn number 110. 110, God is
love. God doesn't just love. It's not
just an action that he does, but it is who he is. God is love. Love is defined by God. We'll
sing this to the tune of, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." God is love. He loves us freely with an everlasting
love. In eternal love, he chose us
and ordained our place above. God is love. See how he shows
it. See his son upon the tree. God incarnate died for sinners
to forgive and set us free God is love and love he called
us by his spirit's grace and power by almighty grace he saved
us ♪ At his own appointed hour ♪ God is love, is love most tender
♪ Wisely rules this world below ♪ For the good of all his people
♪ And all good he will bestow God is love, He will preserve
us, He will keep us to the end. He will never, never leave us,
nor will let us ever leave Him. God is love and if we know him,
we will love each other too. And in love we'll walk before
him, till our God makes all things new. I think I was mixing, uh,
brethren we have meant to worship in Tisra's way to walking Jesus.
We did a, that's kind of a popular thing now, mashups, right? Taking
two songs and mashing them together. All right, does anybody have
one that you'd like to sing? I don't know if we have it or
not, but... In my heart there is melody. In my heart there
is melody. I don't know if it's in the recording,
but we'll see. I wasn't sure about the title.
Yeah, it would probably be by the first line that this thing
here does. Yeah. I forgot how the first line goes.
Well, I haven't sung that in a long time. I know. It's a pretty song, isn't it? Is that the one you're talking
about? No, but I like that one, too. Maybe I know this part of it.
Maybe it's the chorus. Yeah, have some more of it. Do
you remember how the first line goes? Now I'm old, I'll stop after
I sing that part. There's within my heart a melody,
that Jesus keeps me tuned to. Something like that. Maybe it's
there's within my heart, not in my head. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Ooh, sing
out loud. We could tie, I forget. You may
have to look at the words. It's not in on this. Oh, it's
not? Well, we can skip it. I think we'll probably all be
able to remember once we do it. It's probably in those old, old
footnotes. I have them really high right here. Could you show
me? title for it. Okay, I have the words here. I think everybody might be able
to remember it. There we go. I think it'll come back to this.
All right. There is within my heart a melody
Jesus whispers sweet and low Fear not, I am with thee, peace
be still In all of life's ebb and flow Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
Sweetest name I know Fills my every longing Keeps me singing
as I go All my life was wrecked by sin and strife Discord filled
my heart with pain Jesus swept across the broken strings Stirred
the slumbering chords again Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Sweetest name I
know Fills my every longing Keeps me singing as I go Though sometimes
He leads through waters deep Trials fall across the way Though
sometimes the path seems rough and steep Seen his footprints
all the way Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Sweetest name I know Fills my
every longing Keeps me singing as I go Feasting on the riches
of His grace Resting beneath His sheltering wing Always looking
on His smiling face That is why I shout and sing Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus Sweetest name I know Fills my every longing Keeps me singing
as I go Soon he's coming back to welcome me Far beyond the
starry sky I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown I shall reign
with him on high Sweetest name I know Fills my
every longing Keeps me singing as I go That's a good song. I like it. Alright, anybody else
got one to like to sing? In any of the books or not in
the books? I can look it up. We need to rewrite that last verse. When Jesus comes back, we're
not going to be taken away some far away place. We're actually
going to be here. A lot of gospel songs talk about
that. Kind of a traditional thing that
we just kind of don't pay much attention to sometimes. But actually,
the Bible says when He comes again, this world is going to
be destroyed. New heavens and a new earth is
going to come down. Wherein dwells righteousness,
and that's where we'll be. It's here on the, it'll be actually
on the earth. There'll be a new heaven and
a new earth. Not to be whisked away to some far off place out
in the distance. Younger, wherever it's at, out
there. Beyond the starry skies? Yeah,
beyond the starry skies. Beyond the starry skies. Which
is funny, especially since the Bible teaches that the heavens
and the stars are within the firmament. And we're not gonna
be going too far to heaven, where God abodes is above the firmament,
but the starry skies is below the firmament, within the firmament.
All right, turn if you would this morning over to John chapter
eight. John chapter eight. Unless the Lord sees fit to guide
me further in this section, this will probably be our last installment
of the No Other Gospel or the Gospel of Jesus. We've been,
again, in a series, overall arching series, on the Ekklesia, or the
Church of Jesus Christ, and we've been looking at several different
sections. We've looked at the nature of
the church. We've looked at the birth or the beginning of the
church. Where did it start? When did it start? And now we're
looking at the gospel of the church and looking at it. And then we're going to segue
into the other parts of the Ecclesia
study, Lord willing, next week. Hopefully we'll be looking at
the commission. Now that we see what the gospel
is, then the commission is to go out with that gospel and we'll
see what the commission to the church is. And then from there,
we'll begin to look more at maybe the internal structure of the
Lord's church, the officers, the ordinances, the things such
as that, but, and maybe vice versa. Maybe I'll do that first,
then we'll go on to the, Commission, but anyhow, let's conclude this
morning if the Lord so leads us that direction to Look finish
looking at what the gospel of Jesus Christ actually was Now
if you remember when we started this portion of the study, we
were seeing that there is only one gospel Ecumenical society
today they really want to push that it really doesn't matter
long as you believe in Jesus and and think that you're a Christian,
that we all are saying the same thing, promoting the same gospel,
going to the same place, you know, all that stuff. But yet
the scriptures are very clear that there is only one gospel.
And if you don't preach that gospel that Jesus preached, then
you are preaching another gospel. And that gospel is to be rejected
by the Lord's church. It's not to be preached by the
Lord's church, and it's not to be entertained by the Lord's
church or acknowledged by the Lord's church. As I've mentioned
here before, that's one of the reasons why we don't do a lot
of ecumenical work here in town with other churches is because
so many of the churches here in town, and I'm not trying to
bash other churches and say we're the only church that there is
to go to. That's not the case. But we judge
by the gospel. That's how we are to judge, is
to judge by the gospel. Whenever the scripture tells
us to make right judgments, well, that's one of the right judgments
that we're to make as the church is we are to make the right judgment
as to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so there are many places
around that call themselves churches, but they do not hold the doctrine
of Jesus Christ. And so we're not to recognize
them as brothers in Christ until they believe the gospel. That
doesn't mean that they're not saved by the blood of Christ,
that they've been the elect of God. They just have yet been
brought to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel. And
those are the only ones that we can call brothers are those
who are believing on the gospel. And so what we've been doing
after we see the warnings by Paul and mainly by Paul and John,
we see that we are going back into the New Testament gospels
and looking at what is the gospel of Jesus? What did he preach?
And I also mentioned, I think earlier in this too, you know,
there even among sovereign grace believers, there's this little
division that says, you know, well, how much of that gospel
does it that somebody needs to know to be considered preaching
or teaching the gospel? Because a lot of people are so,
they're so shy to say that the Arminian is not our brother and
sister in Christ. And I think the reason for that,
and I think if everyone kind of understands the terminology
and what we mean by that, is that we're not saying that they
have not been saved by Christ in his eternal work, right? What we're saying is that they
have not been brought to believe. You know, at one time I was an
Armenian preaching and teaching Armenian doctrine, and doing,
you know, zealously good works. I was out preaching, teaching,
tithing, you know, going, visiting people, studying all the time,
praying and all, you know, all the things that we do. But yet
the Bible says that all of that is nothing. Paul said, you know,
whenever he did all that stuff before he come to believe that
he counted that as done. It was nothing, you know, all
that stuff for his righteousness was considered done and that
all of it was of no use to him because it was all done wrongly. And so, whenever we come to believe,
we come to believe the gospel of Christ. And if we believe
something that isn't the gospel of Christ, just because we are
zealously believing that, following that, and serving in that, doesn't
mean that we're just serving, but just serving without knowledge.
The Bible says that you cannot serve. If you remember, we read
that passage that says that if they don't believe those things,
that they are not serving God. They're serving their own belly.
So they are not the servants of God if they are preaching
another gospel. And so that's why we've taken
the time to go through and look through, and we've just done
it in John, and I think it's easiest because it's more clear
in John than it is in some of the other gospels, but you can
go to Matthew, Mark, and Luke and find these same teachings
from Jesus, but it doesn't matter whether it's there or not. If
it's in John, it's there. I mean, it's in the Bible. But
we went through, And we've seen, does Jesus teach what we would
call sovereign grace theology or sovereign grace doctrine?
Does Jesus teach that there is a total inability of man to do
anything spiritual? Does Jesus teach that there is
an unconditional election of God where he has chosen people
from the foundation of the world and it has nothing to do with
anything of their own conditions that they have to meet? Does
Jesus teach that there is a death that he will die that is only
for his people and no one else? Does he teach a limited atonement
or a particular redemption? Does Jesus teach that grace is
sovereign, that it is overcoming, that it is irresistible? And
when we say irresistible grace, what we're saying is does the
Holy Spirit come and quicken the child of grace and bring
that new birth to them, irregardless of a condition? Does the Holy
Spirit give new life, whether that person asked for it or not,
whether that person prays for it or not, whether that person
has kept any commands or not, whether that person has done
anything, repent, believe, receive, all the things that we hear in
evangelical preaching, does the Holy Spirit have the ability,
have the right, have the power to come and give life to that
sinner that is elect of God, irregardless of any condition?
And does Jesus teach that? Does Jesus teach that that person
who is given to him, who is a child of grace, elect of God, is that
person gonna be preserved from ever falling away from that salvation? Is that person gonna be kept
and preserved until the day of Jesus Christ? And so those are
what we would traditionally call the five points of sovereign
grace, or the five point of TULIP, or whatever you want to call
the acronym TULIP, and everything. I don't like calling them five
points of Calvinism, because I don't want to go into that,
but it's just not the five points of Calvinism. Anyway, did Jesus
teach those things? So we've seen that Jesus has
taught every one of those points very strongly, very vividly,
even to the point where And one time, some of his disciples completely
left him because it was a hard teaching. Preaching it so harsh
and so distinct that the religious leaders who everybody looked
up to, everybody followed after, everyone was listening to, thinking
that they was the rule and the guide, that these men wanted
to kill him. They wanted to just kill him. These things that you're saying,
You know, who, first they wanna know, who give you the authority
to say these things? Second of all, you know, hey, you're saying
things about us and we're Abraham's seed. You know, we've got it. What you're saying is not true.
And then they began to accuse him of blasphemy because he was
saying that he was God and didn't have no right to say those things.
And yet we found out last week that Jesus said that the, this
document, in fact, if you wanna turn back a page in your Bible
to chapter seven, Verse 16, we see that Jesus made this declaration
to those men in the temple. He said, my doctrine is not mine,
but his that sent me. So Jesus said that my doctrine
that I'm teaching, this teaching that I'm giving you while I'm
here, it's not my doctrine, it's the Father's doctrine. It's God's
doctrine. And that's kind of where we left
off last week is seeing that This doctrine of sovereign grace
is the doctrine of God. Not just Jesus on earth, it's
the doctrine of God. It was the doctrine that God
give Jesus to give to us. And we're going to see that when
we get into chapter 17. But God, Jesus said, you know,
hey, I've only done and said and given you what The Father
has given me, that's all I do. The only thing I do is that which
the Father has told me to do and told me to say, and this
doctrine is not my doctrine, although it was his doctrine,
right? He says, it's not just my doctrine, it's the Father's,
it's God's doctrine. So this doctrine that I've been
teaching you guys is the doctrine from heaven. It's not the doctrine
of the earth. And see, there's where the contrast
is, brethren. You always know a church, a preacher,
a believer, by their doctrine, whether it is of heaven or whether
it is of earth. Remember whenever they were talking
about John the Baptist and whether or not he was legit or not? And
what was one of the things that Jesus asked? He said, John the
Baptist, was his baptism of heaven or was it of earth? And the religious
leaders were kind of, I don't know what to say there, because
if we do say it was heaven, then this man was sent from God. If
we say it's of earth, hey, everybody's gonna get mad about it, because
they all recognize that it is from heaven. And so they were
in a quandary. But see, that was what Jesus
was contrasting, is that is what John is preaching and teaching,
is that a doctrine from heaven or is it a doctrine of earth?
Jesus is contrasting his doctrine from that which is of heaven
and that which is of earth. And now, even today, after Jesus
has ascended back to the Father, and is sitting in the throne
of God and is ruling over all things, the question down here
is, is are we a church of heaven or a church of the earth? Are
we preaching a gospel of heaven or a gospel of the earth? And
there are only two ways that you can see that. You're either
preaching the doctrine of Christ or you're not preaching the doctrine
of Christ. And the doctrine of Christ is
a doctrine of sovereign grace. And the doctrine of earth has
always been, from the very beginning, starting in the garden with the
serpent, a doctrine of free will. Hath God said, for one, throwing
doubt, and he says, you, if you eat this fruit, can be as God,
knowing good from evil, making up your own choice, doing what
you want to do. And from the very beginning,
it has always been implanted in everything that there is a
free will to do whatever you want to do, to choose your own
destiny, to be who you want to be, that by righteous works or
by your own efforts, you can become saved or you can become
accepted by God. And so while that sometimes takes
its form, like in the Catholics, very overtly, outwardly, I mean,
just they actually come out and say, we believe that we are saved
by Christ and by good works. Those two things are hand in
hand. We have to do both. Or whether it's not so outwardly
and open and just right in your face, when it says that you have
to believe or you have to receive or you have to, before you can
be saved. See, there is a condition laid
upon it. And the tradition or the gospel
of the earth is always conditional. But that which is from heaven
is not conditional. It's never conditioned upon man.
And so Jesus said, this doctrine is not mine, it is from God. So it's the gospel of heaven.
And that's why it's so important that we make such a big deal
about the gospel. That's why we are seclusive when
it comes to the gospel. That's why we are dogmatic when
it comes to the gospel. That's why we stand in the face
of persecution, rejection, loss of loved ones and friends because
of the gospel. And Jesus even said this, listen,
this gospel is going to divide. It's going to divide households.
It's going to divide friendships. It's going to divide. It's going
to divide churches. Remember the scripture said,
you know, heresies must come to approve those which are his.
Whenever, in the church, there's gonna be times whenever heresy's
gonna come within the church, and that heresy that's gonna
spring up that's not the doctrine of Christ is gonna make evident
those who are His and who are not. Those who are not His are
gonna fall for the heresy, gonna follow the heresy, maybe even
preach the heresy. The Bible always talks about,
we're always worried about what's going on in these big, you know,
cults and false religions that we see out there that are just
evident, but the Bible's, more than speaking of those things
out there, It has actually more to say about what happens in
creeping up inside the church, that it comes in unawares, as
the Bible says, that it comes in like a sheep or a wolf in
sheep's clothing. It comes from among us. And so
that's why the gospel is what we judge by. That's why we can't
say that, well, there's this kind of, If we just know a little bit,
not everybody's gonna have the perfect truth, which is true.
We're not always gonna have the perfect truth. But there is some
things that Christ has specifically taught that we know, and those
are the things by which we judge whether or not it is of God,
whether it is of the word of God, whether it is the gospel
of Christ, whether it's the teaching and doctrine of Christ. And if
that's true, then we as the church have been given to hold those
things. We are the pillar in the ground of truth. Okay, what
does that mean? What is the pillar in the ground?
Whenever it talks about pillars and the pillar in the ground
of truth, what is that talking about? Foundation. Something solid,
right? The foundation is what the whole
house is built on. The pillars is what holds the
building up. The foundation is what holds the pillars up. Now
it could be talking about maybe the pillars that go down like
purlins or things that go down in the ground that hold the foundation
from sinking as well. But either way, it's talking
about a structure that's formed, that is holding everything together,
that's holding everything up. The church is that place. It's
within the Lord's local churches where the gospel is being held.
That's where, when it says that ye are the light of the world,
he's talking about the churches. What are we? We're the witness
of this gospel. We're to hold this gospel in faithfulness.
We're to hold this gospel in obedience as we follow the gospel. And so it's very important that
we keep that. And so often we get sentimental
and we want to, well, we really need to be nice to everybody.
So we really shouldn't say anything, but that's just the opposite
of what Jesus said. Now, when we do that, again,
I want to make this clear because a lot of people don't, They get
the part of, we need to hold fast to the gospel, and we need
to not compromise, and we need to confront, and all like that,
but they forget the other side, which is, the Bible says that
we are to, a servant of God must be gentle and meek, instructing
them and praying that God would, perventure, give them repentance
and acknowledging of the truth. Now, that was just a paraphrase.
That's not how it actually, I need to go back and read it so I don't
misquote it, That's the essence of what I'm saying. That whenever
we teach or we begin to correct people, we do that with gentleness
and respect and meekness. So that teaching them those things
that we hope and pray that the Lord will give them acknowledge
or repentance and acknowledge that this is the truth. And so
a lot of people forget to be the kind, be kind, one to another
part and begin to eat each other alive. A lot of reasons why I've
kind of withdrawn from a lot of discussion on Facebook is
because guys are just eating each other alive anymore. But
anyway, on to chapter 8. So in chapter 8 we see Jesus
now and he says, look with me if you would, now remember chapter
8 is where Let's see, where do I wanna start
here? This is where the woman was caught in adultery and they
were gonna cast the first stone, or he asked to cast the first
stone. But let's jump down to verse 14. I'm sorry, verse 13. The Pharisees
therefore said unto him, thou barest record of thyself, thy
record is not true. So Jesus is told that he is the
light of the world in verse 12. And they said that the record
that you bear about yourself is not true. You are not the
light of the world. Now, sometimes we skip over these things, and
actually it wasn't until this morning I was reading through
this. They stood in the face of Jesus and basically told him,
you're not the light of the world. We look at that now, this side
of the cross, knowing a little more than those men knew. And
we think, goodness gracious, that is horrible that someone
would look in Jesus's face and say, you're not the light of
the world. But listen, we're just as guilty as those men there,
because there are many times that we look in the face of Jesus
and said, I know you said that, but I don't care. I know you
said that, but it don't matter to me. The Pharisees therefore said
to him, thou bearest record of thyself, thy record is not true.
Jesus answered and said unto them, though I bear record of
myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came and
whether I go, but ye cannot tell whence I come and whether I go. Ye judge after the flesh, I judge
no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment
is true. And I am not alone, but I am
the father that sent me. It is also written in your law,
that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness
of myself and the father that sent me beareth witness of me.
Then said they unto him, where is thy father? Jesus answered,
you neither know me nor my father. If he had known me, you should
have known my father also. So here's where I kind of want
to see it. It's not, again, just outright screaming at you, but
it's there. Jesus is saying, The only way
that you can know the Father, to know what the Father says,
see, he's talking about the record that the Father has borne about
him, the witness or the testimony. Whenever Jesus said, I'm the
light of the world, what did he mean by that? I'm the light
of the world. He's saying that he is the testimony or the witness
to the world, okay? That's what that means whenever
you say that he is the light of the world. That means that
at that time, he was the witness of God. He was the one being
the witness for God. and there's a lot of verses that
we could go that backs that up. But after he left, remember,
he told us that ye are the light of the world. See, he's left
the church to be the light of the world. Now he's the true
light. We're conveying that light, but
yet we're that, when it comes to the truth, we're the conveyors
of that truth. Jesus was the conveyor of the
truth at this time, and he was bearing witness of God and his
doctrine. But yet now, The church is the one who bears witness
of that truth in his stead. And they are the voice piece.
They are the ones who was bearing forth that light for Christ. But here he says, it is written
in your law, the testimony of two men is true. I am one that
bear witness of myself and the father that sent me bears witness.
So he's saying the father has already testified that I am his
son and that I have the witness of God and that you should be
listening to me. Now, where was that found? You
remember where that was said? You remember whenever Jesus was
baptized? The scriptures say that whenever
Jesus was baptized, that God spoke from heaven, the Holy Spirit
descended upon Christ as like a dove, and then a voice out
of heaven said, behold, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. that there was a time at the
Mount of Transfiguration, do you remember? Whenever Jesus
unveiled some of his glory there on the mountain and a voice out
of heaven saying, this is my son, hear ye him. Okay, the father
has bore witness that this is the son of God and that you need
to listen to him because he's bringing forth the witness of
me, okay? So Christ is bearing forth the
witness of God, and that we are to bear that same witness that
Christ bore. If we bear any other witness,
then we are lying on God. We are lying about who God is,
about what God says. No matter how good our heart
and our intention is, we are lying on Christ. That's why it's
so important that we have our gospel right. But Jesus said,
listen, I bear witness of myself, the Father bears witness. Now
that's two that bears witness. Then said they unto him, where
is thy father? Jesus said, neither know ye, know me, nor my father. If ye had known me, ye should
have known my father. So if we know Christ, we're gonna
know the father. So that is sovereign grace. Those
men didn't know because they have not been given to know the
father. These words spake Jesus in the treasury as he taught
in the temple, and no man laid hands on him, for his hour has
not yet come. Then said Jesus again unto them,
I go my way, ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins. Whether I go, ye cannot come.
Then said the Jews, will he kill himself? Because he said, whether
I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, ye are
from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not
of this world. Now just a side note, remember
our teaching on the manhood of Christ? and everything, there
you go. Jesus right here is saying that
we are from beneath, we are of the earth, earthy, but yet he
is from above. Even though he came in flesh,
that flesh didn't come from here, it didn't come from the earth,
it came from above. I am from above, ye are of this
world, I am not of this world. Verse 24, I said therefore unto
you that you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not
that I am he, Ye shall die in your sins, that I am he what? If ye believe not that I am he,
he who? He what? What is he talking about
there? Well, what's our context saying? Well, that he was the testimony
or the one sent to bear witness of the Father. He was the one that has come
with the doctrine of God, and he is bearing witness of the
testimony of God, of who God is, what God is saying. Not only that, but he's bearing
witness that he is the Christ that has come from God. Just
like John the Baptist was preaching, he is the lamb who is going to
take away the sin of the world. He is the one who has come that
was prophesied in the Old Testament. He is the one that the angel
said would save his people from their sin. See, he's bearing
witness of those things, of the truths that have been said about
him in prophecy. The things that have been said
about him in preaching and teaching. The things that have been said
about him in his miracles that he has done. There's several
places in scripture Jesus says, well, if you don't believe me,
what I'm saying, believe my works. They testify of me. Those are
also a testifying or a witness of who Christ is. See, those
religious leaders knew The Messiah that was to come is gonna be
doing these miraculous things. That was prophesied in the Old
Testament, foretold in the Old Testament, that when Messiah
come, he would do these things. Matter of fact, remember, whenever
John the Baptist began to have a little bit of doubt, Jesus
told the people, go send word to John and say, the blind are
seeing, the deaf are hearing, the lame are being raised up.
And what was that? Why was that? Because John, as
the prophet of God, as the preacher sent by God, knew, in the Old
Testament, the Messiah that he was to prepare the way for, one
of the signs of his appearing is that he would heal the blinded
eyes, he would heal the deaf ears, he would raise the lame,
he would raise the dead. And so Jesus was saying, my works
testify to who I am. I am the Christ, I am Messiah,
the Son of God. Yet, the religious leaders, They've
seen all these miracles and they just kept rejecting, kept rejecting,
kept rejecting. They didn't believe, they didn't
believe even though the words of Christ bore witness from the
Old Testament that He was the Christ. Even though His works
and all of His miracles bore witness to that, they still could
not believe. So even though they had the miracles,
even though they had the actual preaching of Jesus, himself,
their heart could not believe and Jesus specifically told them
the reason you can't believe is because you're not of God.
Only those who are of God can believe these things. It's an
inability. So Jesus is teaching in all this
and even though like I said, it's not just screaming, you
know, irresistible grace or screaming, you know, total depravity here.
This is what the implication of what Jesus is saying is. You
guys don't know this because you have not been made to know
this. You've not been given to know this. You still stay in
unbelief because you have not been given belief. Jesus says, 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. Then say they unto him, who art
thou? And Jesus said unto them, Even
the same that I said unto you from the beginning, 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. They understood not that he spake
to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, when
ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that
I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath
taught me, I speak these things. So he's saying, I'm bearing witness
of what the Father says and what he wants me to do. Plus, he's
also saying, whenever you lift me up, he's already foretelling
about his crucifixion. He already knows that's where
he's going. Okay, it wasn't a sidetrack thought. I mean, it wasn't a,
uh-oh, Jesus got himself into some trouble. Uh-oh, these men
are going to take Jesus. No, it was the plan all along,
right? Verse 29. And he that sent me
is with me. The father hath not left me alone,
for I do always those things that please him. As he spake
these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those
Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. Now, that's not a conditional
statement as much as it People want it to sound like that. Say,
there you go, we have to continue in these words, then we'll be
his disciples. No, it's a statement of fact.
Those who are his disciples will continue in his word. And those who continue in his
word is gonna know the truth. And the truth of who Jesus is,
what he's there for, is gonna make them free. Now, another
side note, a little pet peeve of mine. A lot of times, the
world, especially the religious world, they'll take verses out
of the Bible and they'll use them out of context for their
little uplifting pump me up, you know, encouragement daily
quotes, you know, and this is one of them where he says that,
uh, uh, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
free. And they talk about that in every, in every kind of instance
possible. You know, a lot of people, whenever
they go to court, and everything, and it comes out, all the truth
finally comes out. You shall know the truth, and
the truth shall set you free. If we just speak the truth, the
truth will get us off the hook and everything. That's not what
all that's talking about, although that can be true, but in our
society, we know that's not true, because you can speak the truth
today, and the court says you can just do whatever they want
anymore. But what does he mean whenever
he says, for ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free? Well, number one, they're going
to know who the truth is, and that's Jesus. And who's the one
that made some fruit? That's Jesus. So that's in view,
but also the fact that whenever the Spirit of God comes within
the child of grace, they are able to understand the things
of the Spirit. And whenever they understand that their salvation
doesn't lie in the works that they have before them, it doesn't
that salvation doesn't come by law keeping, it doesn't come
by birth, it doesn't come by lineage, it doesn't come by being
Abraham's seed, that salvation comes by the righteous work of
Christ and it being imputed to us. That's where our salvation
comes, that our freedom is come because of an imputed righteousness,
because of a justification that was done outside of us. We aren't
justified by what we do. We're justified by what he did. And so our freedom comes by the,
in essence, by the truth. We come to know that truth. And what does that truth do?
It makes us free, frees us. We're no longer bound. We're
no longer restrained under the law of condemnation. We're not
buried in that anymore. And only the child of grace that's
been given spiritual understanding even knows he's there. Those
who are not given spiritual life doesn't know that they're under
that condemnation. Now, they can have an outward
show of that, but they truly in their heart don't. It's like
I said last week or the week before last, or last time we
met, or the time before last, You know, you had that Pharisee
that was there saying, hey, I thank you, Father, that I'm not like
this sinner. He was giving glory to God that he was righteous.
But he had that sinner says, you know, Lord, forgive me, I'm
a sinner. Have mercy upon me. And Jesus
said, that's the guy that's going to go down justified. Not this
guy who thinks he's righteous by doing all this stuff. It's
that guy who realizes I ain't going to be able to do it. Have
mercy, that's all I can ask is have mercy. And so what we see
here is that guy, whenever he sees the gospel, whenever he
hears the gospel, that you don't have to worry about that. Jesus
did it. That frees him up. And so now
we have peace knowing that yes, we fail and we don't want to
fall. I hate sinning. I hate to sin. But yet, whenever I do sin, whenever
I do have that, that gospel continues to ring in our ear. Now, it doesn't
ring in my ear saying, go keep sinning. No, it tells me, hey,
there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. He paid
for those sins. He knew those sins were gonna
happen. He knew exactly what you were gonna do. Even after
you knew of your salvation, he knew you was gonna sin. and that
every sin that you have ever committed or ever will commit,
He's paid that price for it. And it can't be held against
you ever again. It will never be held against
you. And so the Gospel, whenever we
know that, that brings a freedom to our heart to love Him and
to serve Him in righteousness. And so Jesus here is telling
these men, He's saying, You guys don't know what the Father is
saying because you don't have that life to let you know. And
then down in 31, He's saying, but those who do know, they'll
know that truth and that truth is going to make them free. Those
men who don't know what the Father says, they're still in bondage.
They're in bondage. They're enslaved. But those who are given life,
who are in Christ Jesus, who have been given the new birth
and spiritual understanding, they have been freed from that
bondage. How? Well, truly by the act of
Christ and what he did, that is truly what was the grounds
for their being freed. Nobody can be justified unless
the payment is made, right? Justice has to be served. But
yet, in their experience, not in the legality. The legality
was all in Christ and what he did. Legally they were free as
in an open cell came out and they walked out and was no longer
held captive in that. But yet in their experience,
knowing in their heart, nobody can truly know that except the
child of grace. You know, you want to know where
your assurance comes from? Being born again. Your assurance
doesn't come in what you do outwardly. Nobody is ever assured or given
assurance of their salvation by outward works. And why is
that? Why can we not be assured of
our outward works? Well, the letter and the experience
of it. Number one, the letter of the
scripture say that no man is gonna be justified by any works.
No one's gonna, the Bible says that we're not even kept by our
works. But the other thing is, is whenever
I lay my head down at night, guess what? I know I'm not doing
good works. I know that even the good works
that I do, they're not done in perfection because of my flesh. And so whenever I'm looking to
my works for assurance, I'm going to be very, it's going to be
dismal. When I look to my works for my
preservation, how am I going to last till Christ comes back?
How in the world am I going to persevere? The Bible tells me
that I need to persevere. How am I going to persevere knowing
that I can't even keep God's Word for a whole day? See, the freedom comes when we
look to Christ, though. Knowing that yes, you're going
to fail. There's always going to be failures. And so Jesus here is saying,
listen, that truth, you're going to know the truth when you're
given that of God. And that truth is gonna make
you free. Now, again, they misinterpret everything that Jesus was talking
about. And they said, we be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage
to any man. Well, that's true. They never were in bondage to
any man. Jesus wasn't saying they were in bondage to any man.
Although, you know what? That statement's not true either.
How many times was Israel in bondage to Babylon and to other
people? They were in bondage a lot, right?
But they were never really in bondage. That wasn't what Jesus
was even talking about. They weren't in bondage to man,
they were in bondage to the law. But they said, we be Abraham's
seed, we're never in bondage to any man. How says thou, ye
shall be made free. And Jesus said to them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant
of sin. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth forever. If the son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now listen to
what Jesus says here. I know that ye are Abraham's
seed in the flesh, he's talking about here. But ye seek to kill
me because my word hath no place in you. See, you can be of Abraham's
seed of the flesh, and God's word not be in you. See, that's another reason why
salvation doesn't come. We're in John chapter eight,
brother, verse 37. See, it doesn't come by the flesh.
We are born again, not of the flesh, not of man, not of the
flesh, not of the will of man, not by blood. That's in the first
part of John. But what makes us a child of
grace? Well, it's because we've been elected. But he says, because
my word hath no place in you. God's word first must have a
place in you before you can believe. And only those who have God's
word in them is the seed of Abraham. Truly speaking, Jesus said, I
speak that which I have seen with my father and ye do that
which ye have seen with your father." Uh-oh, what does that
mean? We're gonna see here in just
a minute. Jesus says, I speak that which I have seen with my
father. So he's basically saying, what I'm telling you right here
is what God told me. God told me that those who are
gonna believe on me, listen to me, know that freedom and receive
that freedom are those who have the Father's word in them, and
only them. There is a, if you bear me this
word, there is a seed to be determined here. I mean, we're talking about
Abraham's seed, right? There is a seed that is gonna
declare his generation, but it's not in the flesh, it's in the
spirit. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father,
Jesus said unto them, If you were Abraham's children, you
would do the works of Abraham. What was the works of Abraham?
You remember what Abraham's works were? Was it getting out there
and hustling for the Lord? No, what was Abraham's work?
He believed that Christ was his righteousness. That's all he
believed. He believed that Christ was his
righteousness, that Christ was his justification, that Christ
was his righteousness before God that he had none of his own,
that he could do none of his own, and that he looked only
to Christ. Jesus said, before Abraham was,
I am. Who was Abraham looking to? He
was looking to Christ. Some people say, well, how did
he know that? Jesus hadn't even been born yet. Well, I'm sorry,
but Christ, Jesus, was before Abraham. And not just as the
word, he was as Jesus. before Abraham, because Jesus
said, before Abraham was, I am. Jesus was declaring himself.
Jesus said that Abraham saw Jesus in his day and rejoiced. And so what was Abraham's works?
Abraham's works wasn't getting out there and working. Abraham's
work was that he believed God and the seed was accounted to
Abraham. Jesus, or Abraham accounted Jesus as his righteousness. Look
at verse 40. But now you seek to kill me,
a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of
God. This did not Abraham. He said,
you know, you're saying you're Abraham's children. Listen, Abraham
listened to what I said about righteousness. Abraham listened
to what I said about myself. Abraham knew what God was bearing
witness of, of the Messiah. and he believed, but you're trying
to kill me. So you're not doing what Abraham's
seed should be doing. Because Abraham's seed does the
same thing as Abraham. But look what Jesus said. Now
this is where it gets harsh. You know, a lot of people think
preachers are harsh because they, you know, say stuff directly
to people. Look what Jesus says. He says,
ye do the deeds of your father, Now he's telling them, your father
is not Abraham. If you haven't caught the gist
there, he's saying Abraham is not your father. He says, ye
do the deeds of your father. Then they said to him, we be
not born of fornication, we have one father, even God. Now see, now they're trying to
play semantics here with Jesus, trying to sound religious. No,
wait a minute, wait a minute. We only have one father and that's
God. Now they were just talking about
how awesome it was that they were Abraham's seed, right? Who were they pointing to for
their righteousness? Hey, we're Abraham's seed. We
don't have nothing to worry about. We're children of Abraham of
the flesh. Nothing can happen to us. We're
God's because we're Abraham's. So they were pumping up Abraham,
but now whenever Jesus made it clear, well, this is what Abraham
did, and you're doing what your father wants you to do, they're
like, whoa, wait a minute. Let's get religious here. Well, actually,
God the Father is our only Father. See how religiousness works? Jesus said unto them, if God
were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and
came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do
ye," and here it is, this is the doctrine of Jesus again,
and does it teach sovereign grace? Does it teach total inability? It says, why do you not understand
my speech, even because you cannot hear my word? Now, verse 37,
he says, because my word hath no place in you. Now he's saying,
because you cannot hear my word. Verse 44, ye are of your father,
the devil. He's basically telling them,
you're children of the devil. You're the devil's children.
You're not mine. You're not the father's. You're
the devil's children. You're of your father, the devil,
and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from
the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not." So Jesus is comparing
here truth versus lie. He's telling the truth of what
the doctrine of God is. These guys think they have the
doctrine of God, but it's really the doctrine of Satan. The doctrine of the devil. And
because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of
you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth, what
does it mean? Which of you convinces me of
sin? That word convinces there. Someone trying to convince Jesus
to sin. Or which of you can bring forth
any sin that I've done, said or done? And if I say the truth, why do
ye not believe me? Jesus is telling them, man, I'm
telling you the truth. God told me this. But you're not believing
it. You're not listening to it. You're not understanding it.
It's not having any resonance in you. Why? Because my word
hath no place in you. That's why you can't hear it.
And you can't hear it because you have no place in you for
the word. Why? Because you're the father of
your devil. The only place that you have for you is to believe
lies. You want to know why some people cannot believe the gospel?
It's because their nature can only believe lies. They listen to what their father
says, because they're not God's children. He that is of God,
heareth God's word. He that is of God, so you have
to already be of God to be able to hear his word. preaching sovereign
grace there? Is he not preaching that there
first must be spiritual life and that we are already in union
and given to Christ and already God's people before we ever believed
and heard and understood? Or I guess I should backtrack
and say heard, believed, and followed. We were God's children. That's why we were able to believe. We were God's children. That's
why we repented and believed the gospel. We are God's children. That is why we look to Christ
alone for righteousness. If people are not looking to
Christ for their righteousness alone, then they are not of God. The ones who are not of God believes
the lies of the devil, that righteousness comes from their own works. That's the gist of what Jesus
is saying. He that is of God, heareth God's
word. Ye therefore hear them not because ye are not. That's the causal thing. Being
not of God is what is causing you to not believe. It has nothing
to do with your free will. It has nothing to do with the
oratory skills of the preacher preaching to you. It has nothing
to do with the evidence laid out before you as good as the
evidence has been laid out. Has nothing to do with miracles.
Has nothing to do with seminary degrees. Has nothing to do with
the church you go to. It has nothing to do with the
family that you're born into. It has nothing to do with any
condition that you could ever try to meet. It has to do with
whether or not you are of God or of the devil. You're either
of God or you're of the devil. And guess what? They don't cross
over. Those who are of the devil do
not cross over and become those who are of God. I am born of
two people, my mother and my father. I have a stepfather. I love him to death. He has been
a wonderful father to me my whole entire life. But you know what?
not of Theonite. As much as I love Theonite, who
raised me all my life, I am not of Theonite. I am of Wayne Smith
and Pam Kidwell. That's who I'm of. And I can't
ever, as much as I love Theonite, I cannot be of Theonite. Now I know that illustration
doesn't give the clearest form, but I hope you understand what
I'm trying to convey here. is the fact that we do not choose
whose seed we are. These children have absolutely
no choice in being my offspring. Absolutely no choice whatsoever.
And guess what? They can't ever change that.
They are my offspring forever. One is either of God or they
are of the devil. Now those who are of God come
from one lump. They have a nature, we were by
nature children of wrath like those who are of the devil. We
were sinners just like those who are of the devil. And there
in a time had not been given yet to believe those things just
like those who are of the devil. But God, by His mercy and grace,
give us new life and we believe. So that's what I'm saying. We
can't judge people all the time outwardly and say, well, they're
not elect because they don't believe the true gospel. Because
we don't know. There was a time I didn't believe
the true gospel, but now I do. That didn't change. Me not believing
the gospel didn't change my election, but my election made its appearance
and shown itself in time whenever I was given to believe the gospel.
It was proof that I've been born from above. The love for the brethren, the
love for God's word, those things are given to those who are children
of grace. And they do exhibit those things.
Now again, just because somebody says I believe in the five points
of two, look where I believe sovereign grace, that don't mean
anything because I even know people who believe sovereign
grace who have now went back into Arminianism and totally
reject the doctrines of grace. I know men who have believed
the ordinances of the church and the way that Christ has built
the church and left the church, who's totally went away from
that and believe that we're saved by baptism now. See, just because somebody exhibits
that outwardly doesn't always mean that, but yet it's still
true, those who are born of God have been given the love of God
for God and for the brethren and for his word. And that's because the word of
God dwells in them. He that is of God heareth God's
words, ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God. Then answered the Jews and said
unto him, say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast
a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a devil, but I honor my father,
and ye do dishonor me. And I seek not my own glory.
There is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, if any man keep my saying, he shall never see dead.
Then said the Jews unto him, now we know that thou hast a
devil. Abraham is dead. and the prophets, and thou sayeth,
if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste this." So they're
comparing and saying, well, wait a minute, what about the prophets?
What about Abraham? They died, and we know they kept
the words of God. Aren't thou greater than our
father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead, whom
makest thou thyself? Who didn't see death? Who's he
talking about? Verily, verily, I say unto you,
if any man, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Except for one that I know of
that God translated from this world to the next by his choice,
and God's able to intervene and do whatever he wants. But yet
this is a principle. But how do we know that anybody
has kept? We know that the Bible says,
for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. For all have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God. So no man keeps his saying. See, Jesus is letting them guys
know, listen, Abraham, all those guys that you keep appealing
to, Moses, Jacob, Isaac, you keep appealing to those, King
David, they all sinned, and that's why they're dead. Art thou greater
than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are
dead, whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, if I honor myself,
my honor is nothing, It is my father that honoreth me, of whom
ye say that he is your God. Yet ye have not known him, but
I know him. And if I should say, I know him
not, I shall be a liar like you. But I know him and keep his saying."
Who's the one that keeps the saying? Jesus. He's talking about
himself. He's the man that keeps his saying. See, there are some people that
say, there you go. If you'll just keep, we have the ability
to keep God's word, we're able to keep the commandments. Listen,
I know people even of my own kind, my own family, that believes
that we have the ability to not sin. And Jesus here says that, if
any man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Is he given,
Is he saying that now there's a category of humans, I'm not
supposed to say humans, I was corrected about that, that's
a Babylonian saying, or an Egyptian saying, that we are men, that we can
keep these things, we have the ability to keep these things?
Now Jesus is saying that if any man keep my saying, he shall
never see death, There's only one who kept everything. That was him. He's not giving
you hope that you can. Yeah, yeah, because he says here
that. I know him not. I shall be a
liar like unto you, but I know him and keep his same. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he saw it and was glad. Then said the Jews
unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen
Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. So another part of the doctrine
of Christ is that he is God. That he is God. It says, And they took up stones
to cast at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple,
going through the midst of them, and so passed by. If you look at verse 9, he says.
I must work the works of him that
sent me verse 4. While it is day, the night cometh
when no man can work. As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. So Jesus here again is saying
that I am the testimony of who God is to the world. And so we
ought to listen to him, believe what he sayeth. All right, we'll stop right there.
I thought we was gonna get on into
some of 10 and verse, chapter 17, but I guess we'll make one more shot
next week on this topic. But that's really all, because
there really isn't much left that I see here that will go
past next week. All right, anybody have any questions
or any comments? anything you'd like to add, a
prayer request or anything like that, or another hymn. It's always
okay to sing a hymn at the end as well if you want to. You don't
have to just be at the first. Well, it's fine. We'll have a word. Our gracious
Heavenly Father,