Holy Lord Jesus, Thou King of
my heart, Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou my best thought, by day
or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word, I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
child. Thou in me dwelling, and I with
Thee one. High King of heaven, my victory
won, Thou all of heaven's joy, bright heaven's sun, Lover of
my soul, whatever befall. O friend of sinners, my all and
in all. Riches I would heed not, nor
man's empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou
and Thou only, first in my heart. I, king of heaven, my treasure
thou art. Thou and thou only, first in
my heart. I, king of heaven, my treasure
thou art. Let us open our Bibles today
to the Gospel according to John, Chapter 8. John, Chapter 8. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
prophet that Moses prophesied of in Deuteronomy chapter 18
and verse 15 when he told the nation of Israel, the Lord thy
God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy
brethren like unto me. Unto him ye shall hearken. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
prophet that God had raised up from among the nation of Israel
like unto Moses. How was he like unto Moses? Well,
let me give us a few ways in which he was like unto Moses.
Moses was a mediator between God and the nation of Israel.
Moses went up on the mountain. When God came down upon Mount
Sinai, the people were commanded not to touch the mountain, because
if they even touched the mountain, they would die. And Moses went
up and got the commandments from the Lord and came back down.
He was a mediator, a go-between, between God and the nation of
Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator, the only mediator
between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He's qualified
to be the mediator because he is both God and man. Another way that our Lord was
likened to Moses, God brought many miracles through Moses.
Remember those wonders, those plagues that came upon the nation
of Egypt. Well, Moses, one of those miracles
was he turned water to blood. He turned the whole Nile River
to blood. The Lord Jesus Christ, he brought
many miracles himself. And one of his first miracles
was he turned water to wine. And isn't that a beautiful type
of picture in itself, how the law turned water to blood, but
how the gospel that came by Jesus Christ, grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ, turns water into wine, that which makes the
heart joyful. Another way that Christ was like
unto Moses, Moses delivered the children of Israel out of Egyptian
bondage. And the Lord Jesus Christ, we
know that he delivers, he saves his people, spiritual Israel,
from the bondage of sin and Satan. But what the prophecy said was
he would be a prophet. as mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ
is prophet, he's priest, and he's king. But here in this chapter,
John chapter 8, we see him exercising his office as prophet. That is,
he's teaching, he's preaching the word of God. I want you to
look in verse 2, John chapter 8 in verse 2, we read, And all the people came unto
him, and he sat down and taught the people. Now he remained in
the temple that day teaching the people until some of them
took up stones to stone him. If you look at the last verse
in the chapter, verse 59, we read, then took they 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. So for however
long it was that day he was in the temple, he was doing the
work of a prophet, teaching the word of God, preaching the word
of God. And when he went out of the temple,
his work that day wasn't ended. I started to entitle my message,
A Day in the Life of the Lord Jesus. But his work wasn't ended
after he had been in the temple teaching from early in the morning
until whatever time it was when they took up stones to kill him. But you notice in chapter 9,
verse 1, as he passed by, he saw a man which was blind from
his birth. His day was not ended. His work
was not ended. After teaching there in the temple
that day, he still had this work to cure, to open the eyes of
a man who was born blind. A day in the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ when he was here in this world. Wouldn't that
have been something just to have followed him one day, one day
in his life from early in the morning And then at night, most
often he would leave his disciples and he'd go out alone and spend
the night in prayer, praying for his people. Well, I want
us to look at seven things. I would love to go through this
chapter, John chapter eight, verse by verse, but I'm afraid
it would take us most of the day. And so I've chosen out seven
points that I want to call our attention to this morning as
our Lord was teaching that day in the temple. The first point
is in verse number 12. He confessed to be the light
of the world. Then spake Jesus again unto them
saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. It's very possible that when
our Lord spoke these words, the sun was just coming up. Because
remember before this, they had brought that woman into the temple
where he was teaching, who had been taken, and they said the
very act of adultery, most likely that was in the darkness. But
the sun is just coming up and the sun is filling the temple,
the light is, And the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the light of
the world. You know, there's two prophecies
in the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. That was
the last word that God spoke or sent to the nation of Israel. 400 years between the closing
of the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament,
which of course speaks of the birth of Christ. 400 years. But two prophecies in that book
of Malachi which spoke of him under the emblem of the sun. The sun. Let me read one of them. For from the rising of the sun,
even unto the going down of the same, my name, and remember when
we read of his name, it's speaking of him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever shall call
upon him, Christ the Lord. We, I think some people just
think, well, we just call his name. No, it's him. His name
represents him. And that prophecy tells us far
from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same,
my name shall be great among the Gentiles. That was prophesied. that in God's purpose, this small
nation of Israel that God had dealt with all through the Old
Testament for over 2,000 years, that His purpose was to spread
the gospel out, just like the sun comes up in the east and
runs its course through the day. So the gospel has gone around
this world Over these last 2,000 plus years, the gospel of Jesus
Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation, has gone
around this world from the rising of the sun to the going down
thereof. His name shall be called great
among the Gentiles, the great salvation that he has brought
to his people. The world itself, for God so
loved the world, not just the small nation of Israel, the nation
of the Jews, but Gentiles as well. Yes, and the gospel has
gone forth. What a blessing to think the
gospel came to us, that we lived in a place that the gospel came
to us. We could have been born in some
place where the gospel still hasn't been brought, or it may
have come there and left. I think of places, when you study
church history, you learn the Reformation, especially how God
blessed Europe, many of those nations of Europe. England was
so blessed with the gospel. And I read just this past week
they passed a law there that is so against the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Tell me you have to drive for
miles in Great Britain to find a gospel church today. The same
thing might happen to America, to the United States of America. Oh, but God has his people all
around the world. Revelation chapter 5, you know,
we have that picture there of heaven, when people from every
tongue, every nation, all together singing the same praise to the
Lord, that by his blood he's redeemed us unto our God. There's a second prophecy there
in Malachi, which actually uses the sun, S-U-N, speaking of the
sun, S-O-N, and it reads like this. But unto you that fear
my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing. in his wings or under his wings,
healing under his wings. And here this day in the temple
is the great physician. The sun has arisen. I am the
light of the world, the great physician who has power to save,
to heal the greatest of all disease, the disease of sin. And he said,
his blood is the only cure for my sin for your sin. There is
no other remedy for sin other than His blood. The psalmist praised God when
he said, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy
diseases. We have one Son to light our
world. One sun, S-U-N, to light our
world. The moon reflects the light of
the sun, doesn't it? The sun is a type of the son
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world.
The moon is a type of his church. She just reflects his light.
And that's what we are to do as a church. We are to reflect
his light. We're to give forth his light
in this world. What a wonderful promise he gives
every child of God here this morning. He that followeth me
shall not walk in darkness. The second thing I wanted to
bring out is he answered a charge of the Pharisees in verse 13. The Pharisees therefore said
unto him, thou barest record of thyself. Thy record is not
true. Well, if you turn back a few
pages for just a moment in John chapter 5 and verse 31, could be that they have reference
to this saying that he had said before. In verse 31, he said,
if I bear record of myself, my witness is not true. You know,
in the law, the law of God, They had to have two witnesses. And
the Lord Jesus Christ said, if I am the only one who bear witness
of myself. Now they may have understood
him differently as they often did. If I bear witness of myself
alone, my witness is not true. But notice here in John chapter
five, he mentions these other witnesses. He wasn't the only
one who bore witness to himself. because he names, first of all,
in verse 36, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish
the same works that I do. His works, the miracles that
he wrought, they all bore witness to him. You know, even Nicodemus,
the first time he came to the Lord, recorded in John chapter
three, that's the way he approached the Lord. Lord, we know that
thou art a prophet come from God. For no man could do these
miracles that thou art doing. Yes, the Lord testified of himself,
but he didn't testify himself only. These miracles also testified
of him. And then number two, he said,
not only did he have the miracles, the works, which the father gave
him to do, but his father, his father testified of him at his
baptism, remember. at his baptism, there came a voice from heaven,
This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And on the
Mount of Transfiguration, also, when Peter, not knowing what
to say, because he had witnessed the Lord Jesus Christ and Elijah
and Moses there with the Lord. He got so excited, he said, let's
build three temples here. No, not three temples. The Lord
spoke from heaven, this is my beloved son. Elijah was a great
prophet, so was Moses. but not anything like the Lord
Jesus Christ. They were only men. Here we have
the Son of God. Not only did our Lord here in
John 5 say, the works that I do bear witness of me, my Father
bears witness of me, but he also said the scriptures. Now the
only scriptures they had at that time was the Old Testament, the
scriptures. One of the reasons that we know
the Word of God is inspired, it is the inspired Word of God,
is because the number of prophecies that were given in the Old Testament
that have been fulfilled. A man, just a man apart from
God the Holy Spirit, inspiring them to write what we have here
in the Word of God. There is no way that men, some
of them hundreds, yay, thousands of years before the birth of
Christ could have told where he would be born. Many other
things were foretold of Christ and what would take place when
he came into this world. They said here in our text in
John 8, you bear witness of yourself. You're not true. Thou bearest record of thyself,
thy record is not true. But he wasn't alone. And he wasn't
the only one who bore witness to himself. But he said, if I
do, my witness is 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
whither I go, But you cannot tell whence I come and whither
I go. Yes, they accused him, as they
often did while he was here in the flesh. The Pharisees and
the Sadducees and the Herodians accused him of many things. And here they accused him. Can
you imagine how? the Lord Jesus Christ suffered.
We think about his sufferings on the cross, and we should,
and they were awful. But just to live in this world,
just to live in this world, this world of sin, degradation, evil,
and for him to be accused like he was, yes, it was awful that
they spit in his face, But they accused him of being born of
fornication. They accused him in so many different
ways. The third thing I wanted to mention
to us is found in verse 19. He declared this fundamental
truth in verse 19. Then said they unto him, where
is thy father? Jesus answered, you neither know
me nor my father. Now watch this. It's very important. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also. You remember in John 14 when
he told Philip, he that has seen me has seen the father. Well,
how is that true? Because he is one, because God
is one and he is God equal with the father. The only way that
anyone knows God as father is to know Christ. There is no other
way. Many times people think, well,
we've, we've got all these major religions, five major religions. They're all leading to the same
place. They're all taking us to God.
They may have a different name for God, different way to go,
but they're, no, no, no. There's only one way to God.
There's only one way to know God is our father, and that is
to know his son. He said, This is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, speaking to His Father, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. There's only one way
to the Father. Only one way to know the Father,
to know God, and that is to know Christ, who is the express image
of the Father. To see Him is to see God. He told these people here in
our text, if you had known me, you would have known the father.
You're saying, show us the father. Listen, if you had known me,
you would know the father. In Matthew chapter 11, verse
27, listen to these words of the Lord. All things are delivered
unto me of my father. No man knoweth the son, But the
Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and
He to whom the Son will reveal Him. Only Christ reveals the
Father. You know, people sometimes ask,
what did our Lord mean when He said, all things are delivered
unto me of my Father? As God, as the eternal Son of
God, all things were His. He's the creator of all things,
John chapter one tells us that. But as a God man, as a mediator,
as he came into this world, incarnate, the word was made flesh, then
was given unto him all things, all things. Everything is under
his hand, under his power, under his authority. People sometimes
say, well, I feel sorry for Jesus. Well, you don't know Jesus. You
don't know him. He's a sovereign. All things
are delivered unto him of his father. You, me, everyone else
in this world. In him, we live and move and
have our being. All things. It's not hard to
understand. I just don't understand it. It's
not hard to understand. All things. That's very simple
language, isn't it? A-L-L, one word, one syllable. All, all things are delivered
unto me of my Father. It's not hard to understand.
It's hard for rebellious, Men to accept, to bow to, but it's
not hard to understand. People say, well, no, I want
to be in charge. I want to be the master of my
own fate, you know. Invictus. Well, it ain't that
way. All things are delivered unto
the Son. No man knows the Father but the
Son. and he to whomsoever the Son
shall reveal him. This is one of the things, one
of the several things that is offensive about the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Now the gospel says God loves
everybody and Christ died for everyone and the Holy Spirit's
doing his best work to try to get everyone saved. That does
not offend anyone. Never has, never will. But the message of the cross
is offensive to the natural man. Why? Well, one of the reasons
is that salvation comes by revelation. Man likes to think that he's
a king of the hill, do anything he wants to do, be anything he
wants to be, decide anything he wants to decide. The only problem with that is
not true. We're his creatures. It's not
what we will do with Jesus, it's what he will do with us. That's
the issue. The Lord has to conquer a person,
bring a person down, just like we saw in the Bible study lesson
about Jacob. God had to bring him down. And God does that to his people. The fourth thing I want to mention
is he told the awful consequences of unbelief in verse 24. And I said, therefore, unto you,
that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I
am, you shall die in your sins. What is he saying here? Well,
he says very clearly, all will die in their sins who do not
believe that he is God. People say, well, I think he
was a good man. I put him on the level with Plato
and Aristotle and some of those Greek philosophers, a good man,
and there's been others like him. No, he is God. And he said, if a person doesn't
believe that he is, I am, he shall die in his sins. What does
it mean to die in your sins? What does it mean? You know,
people die in a lot of different places. Most of us want to die
in our beds, I guess. Die with our boots on, as they
used to say. People die out on the road. out in the field, in a dumpster.
Children, babies sometimes they find cast into a dumpster, new
born. It really doesn't matter where
we die physically, but it really does matter if we do not die
in Christ. That's what he said. If we die
in our sins, what does that mean? It means to go out. Think about
it. It means to go out to face God, a holy, righteous God against
whom we have sinned all of our lives, to face him. That's serious, isn't it? That's
what it means to die. And our Lord Jesus Christ, he
said this, he described it as a place where the worm doth not. Where the fire is not quenched,
the suffering has not ended. The worm doth not. What is that? Could it be man's conscience?
He lighteth every man that cometh into the world, the scripture
says. We all come into this world with a conscience. We're warned
when we do wrong. The worm dieth not. Could it
be that throughout eternity our conscience and our memory will
remind us? You remember that day? June the
22nd, 2025, when you were sitting in a church building, and the
preacher read from the scripture, and he read the word of God,
which said, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your
sins. And you didn't pay any attention.
You just let it run off your back like water off a duck's
back. I'll take care of that tomorrow.
There'll be another day, another time. Maybe there will, maybe
there won't be. But can you imagine throughout
eternity the many memories and conscience bearing witness to
us, the times that we had to hear the gospel, and we rejected
it. We didn't believe it. He's talking
about somebody else. That preacher's crazy to begin
with. He's talking about somebody else. He can't be talking about me.
I'm a good person. I'm so much better than people
I know around me. Well, I don't do this and I don't
do that. Except you believe that I am. The Lord Jesus said, you will
die in your sins. The awful consequence of unbelief. Unbelief. Every sin is evil. Every sin
is wicked. But unbelief. What is unbelief?
Calling God a liar. That's what it is. It's calling
God a liar. Here's the fifth thing. He foretold how he would die
in verse 28. Then said Jesus unto them, when
you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know that
I am. And I do nothing of myself, but
as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. He foretold
how he would die. When you have lifted up, he said. He had spoken these words to
Nicodemus in John chapter 3 when he said, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. He foretold how he would die,
how he would die to ransom his sheep and the ransom The ransom
price was his blood. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sin. The Lord's death and everything
about it was purpose before the foundation of the world. And
when you stop and think about it, so is ours. So is ours. The time of his death was purpose
before the foundation of the world. If you look in verse 20
here in the text, these words speak Jesus in the treasury as
he taught in the temple. And no man laid hands on him.
Why? It wasn't because they didn't
hate him. It wasn't because they weren't determined to slaughter
him, to kill him. But his hour was not yet come. The time of his death was purposed
by God. Did you know that's true of you
too? That's true of all of us. It's already marked on God's
calendar, isn't it? Our times are in his hands, the
psalmist said. Not only the time, but the way
he would die, being lifted up. Lifted up on a cross. Cast out from the world, crucify
him, crucify him. And the Father, God, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Between heaven and earth
did he die. All to redeem his people, to
redeem you, if you're one of his this morning. And the result also was determined
before. The result of his death. What
is the result of his death? He shall see his seed and shall
be satisfied. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. The results of his death. He
didn't die a fool's death. He died for his people, and everyone
that he died for, he redeemed with his blood. The sixth thing, and I must tell
you the sixth thing, he cautioned new believers in verses 30 and
31. 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. Notice the fact that
it says that they believed on him as he spoke these words. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. As our Lord was preaching and
teaching that day, we're told that some believed on him. But
he said unto them, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples
indeed. One of our Lord's parables, very
well-known parable, is of a farmer, a planter, a sower, as it is
recorded in the scripture. He goes out to sow seed. When our Lord explained the parable,
he tells us that he is the sower. Here he is in the temple that
day, sowing the seed. The seed is the word of God.
And in that parable, the Lord mentioned four types of hearers. The first type The seed fell
on the pathway where people were walking and immediately the fowls
of the air, they came along and picked it up, picked it up, picked
it up. People coming maybe here this morning before you get out
to your vehicle to leave here, the word of God that you've heard,
it'll be snatched out of your mind. That's the way Satan works. But then there were three other
types of hares, and the scripture says they received the seed. The first one didn't receive
the seed. The birds got it. But the other three types of
ground, they received the seed. But one was called a stony ground
hare. And before long, it brought forth
fruit. Like here, they believed, they
heard the word of God. And maybe it was an emotional
thing, as it is in so many places. They hear the preaching and the
singing, and in an emotional appeal, they make a decision
for Christ. And then they received the word,
but the After a while, because of the word, the persecution
that comes because of the word, because of believing the truth
about God, then they fall away. Then there's another group there
that received the seed also, but because of the cares of this
world, the riches of this world, it comes to nothing. But thank
God there's that fourth. Good ground, good ground hearers. They receive the seed and they
bring forth fruit. And our Lord tells these people
here who the scripture says they believed on him, if you continue
in my word. How many people over the years
have I seen for whatever reason, Had a preacher, pastor one time,
he used to call them popcorn Christians. They pop in, pop
off, and pop out. They come in, maybe their wife
tells them they're going to leave them. They got to do something. Profess faith in Christ. Some
tragedy, somebody dies in the family. Whatever. And they continue for just a
little while, and then they're gone. Our Lord said, if you continue
in my word, persevere believing. When trials come, temptations
come, difficulties come, and they will, and they do. but the
one who received the seed into good ground brings forth fruit. And our Lord is warning these
people, cautioning these people. If you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed. And here's the last thing that
I wanted to mention down in verse 51. Verily, verily. Verily, verily. I was looking at my concordance
And Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they have many verses there where
the Lord said, verily I say unto thee, but only John, only in
the gospel of John do we find these verily, verily. And there's
25 of them, if I counted them right. The first time he said
that was to Nicodemus. Verily, verily, truly, truly,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. But here, in this verse, verse
51, our Lord says, verily, verily, I say unto thee, if a man keep my saying, he shall
never see death. Well, the Jews, they did not
understand this saying because they thought he spoke about physical
death. What is death? Well, death is
separation. According to the scriptures,
death is separation. There's physical death when the
soul is separated from the body. There's spiritual death, when
Adam disobeyed God and his spirit separated from God. And that's
the way we come into this world, spiritually dead. But there's
also eternal death, separation of soul and body from God forever. Now, our Lord, obviously, he's
not talking about physical death here. When he said, verily, verily,
I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see
death. For believer, death is not really
death either, physical death. I mean, it is a separation of
the soul from the body, but the soul goes to be with the Lord. To depart, Paul said. and be
with Christ, which is far better. The body, yes, it's laid in the
grave to turn back to the dust to await the resurrection morning. But our Lord here clearly is
speaking about eternal death, that is separation of soul and
body from God throughout eternity. Verily, verily, This is the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking to you, to me this morning. Truly, truly,
I say unto you, he that receiveth or keeps my saying, he shall
never die. Well, what saying is he talking
about? Well, what about this saying
that he had said just some time before this? For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Whosoever
keepeth my saying, believeth my word, believeth me, believeth
the gospel, shall never die. Everlasting life is what our
Lord is speaking about here. We're going to meet again, all
of us. We're going to meet again. And oh, my prayer, my burden is that
when we meet again, we all meet at the feet of Christ to worship
him. Whatever you do, Don't die in
your sins. Look to Christ. Believe Him. Trust Him. This is His commandment, that
we believe on Him whom He has sent and love one another. That's
His command. So I don't feel, I don't read
anything here about feeling. Do you? I don't read anything
here about Whosoever feels a certain way, no, whosoever believeth
hath everlasting life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and confess him. Confess your faith. Follow him. Continue, as he said, continue
in my word. Then are you my disciples indeed. May the Lord bless the word to
all of us here today. I'm gonna