He that is of God heareth God's
words He that is of God he that's born
of God birth of God born of the Spirit of God He hears my words. He hears God's words Our Lord said my sheep hear my
voice They hear the voice of the shepherd. And another, it says they will
not follow. They'll not follow another voice.
God won't let them. They don't have an ear for another
voice. They have an ear for the shepherd. Now, our Lord has been speaking
to these Jews. They heard what he had to say.
But they could not understand the spiritual message. They could not hear God speaking
to them. This is God speaking to them.
This is Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, standing
there in their presence, speaking to them, audibly speaking to
them. And they couldn't hear Him. That
shows you how dead How dead we are without the new birth, without
spiritual resurrection, that shows you how dead we are by
nature. God, God can stand in our presence. And with his word, he's in our
presence. By his spirit, his word, he's in our presence. And
some cannot, they just cannot hear God is speaking. God is
speaking. I like what my granddaughter
said concerning Walter. He was preaching there in Wheelersburg.
And after he had preached on the way home, Madison said to
Jeremy, she said, that wasn't a man speaking this morning.
That was God. That was God speaking. I hope this morning God speaks
to my heart and your heart. I hope we can hear him. I do. And the reason they could not
hear him or understand the spiritual message he was giving them is
because they were deaf. They were spiritually deaf. It
doesn't matter how loud you turn the sound up, a deaf man still
can't hear it. He still can't hear it. You can
crank it up till the walls are banging. He still can't hear
it. He's deaf. He has no ears to
hear. And this is why, and this ought to make us who hear, we
ought to be so thrilled and yet so humbled that God has given
us ears to hear how many times did he say over in the book of
revelation he that hath ears to hear let him hear has God
given you ears to hear the gospel has he given you ears to hear
his voice his message he said this is the reason why you can't
hear you don't have ears to hear And here's another reason why
they were in bondage to their tradition and they didn't want
to give it up. People hate change. They didn't
want to give it up. Henry told me once in the study
before we go out to read, he asked me to read. He said, he
said, you know, I would, I'd like to have just one service
on Sunday. We have the Bible class like
we do and have the next, and then we have this service. He
said, I would like to not have the evening service. Because
people need to just go home, rest, think about what you've
heard, and get ready for the week. Get ready for Monday, here
it comes. But he said, we are so steeped
in tradition, he said, people would fall apart. He said, they'd
fall apart if we didn't have that second service. We are just in bondage. Here's
what I want to make sure of, that we're not in bondage, that
we're not doing what we do because of some kind of bondage, but
because we're free to do it. We're free to do it. And then
they were so prejudiced. They were so prejudiced. They
were prejudiced toward our Lord. They were prejudiced as far as
His parentage. You're the carpenter's son. You
want us to listen to you? They were prejudiced about His
education. How knoweth this man letters,
having never learned? You want us to listen to you?
Really? I had a customer one time. Brilliant, brilliant man. And he had his own business.
But he worked for a large company at one time, and they put him
over the engineering firm. He didn't have a college education.
He said, I had so much trouble with those engineers because
I didn't have a college education. But he was so brilliant that
that company, a large company, put him over the engineering
firm. They recognized his brilliance. I recognized it when I was in
his presence. This man was just brilliant. And that's the attitude
they have here. How knoweth this man letters,
having never learned? You gonna teach us? You gonna
teach us? And then they were prejudiced
because of his poverty. He stood before them not in royalty. He stood before them not dressed
in a nice suit. He stood before them dressed
like a common man. And they saw that, and it offended
them. Listen to what Solomon said.
The poor is despised even by his neighbor. You let two men
walk in this room, one dressed to the nines, and one coming
here in rags, poverty. We greet the one as a visitor,
glad you're here. The other one, you're uneasy,
aren't you? You're uneasy. You think, what's
he up to? I'm telling you, that's us by
nature. It's still in us. And they were prejudiced against
His poverty. And because of this, they would
not receive Him as Messiah. But here's the reason why, and
the Lord gives the reason why. He's bringing this thing to a
head. He's going to bring this message to a head that He's been
talking to them about. And here in verse 44, He's going
to tell them the truth. You want the truth? Do you? It's hard on this flesh. It's
hard on this flesh. The word of God has nothing good
to say about human nature, does it? Not one thing. You won't
find it in the word of God. In verse 44, he says, ye are
of your father, the devil. Now that'll make you mad. Because
these were the religious leaders in town. A lot of them were. He's standing there talking to
these Jews. A lot of them were religious leaders. And he said, you're
of your father, the devil. That is not how you win friends
and influence people. You're of your father, the devil,
and the lust, the desire of your father, you will do. Which is
what? They wanted to kill him. Satan wanted to kill him. It said over the book of Acts,
ye by wicked hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory. That's what you want to do. That's
what Satan wants to do. And the lust of your father, you'll do.
The desire of your father to kill me, you'll do it. In a little
while, you'll do it. You'll cry, crucify him. Crucify
him. It's what you'll do. He was a murderer from the beginning. He's charged, he's charged, Satan
is charged with the murder of the human race. He's charged
with the murder of Adam in the garden. That's what he did. Adam
and Eve, that's exactly what he did. Spiritually murdered. He said he's a murder from the
beginning and he stood not, he abode not in the truth, he stood
not in the truth, he left the truth. And here's why, because
there's no truth in him. There's no truth in him. Void. Void of truth. When he speaks
a lie, he speaks of his own. That's his character. That's
his nature. Satan couldn't tell you the truth
if his life depended on it. Everything coming out of his
mouth is a lie. And what's it say about men?
Let God be true and every man a liar. Every man. where he is
a liar and the father of it it says over in first john 2 21
that no lie is of the truth god can't lie you know what the scripture
says god cannot lie you know why it's not because he knows
the truth it's because he is the truth he's the embodiment
of truth and he he tells them here here's
what he's telling them he's telling you're not the children of abraham
You're the children of the devil. You're not the children of promise.
Now he ought to know, he's God. You're not the children of promise.
That's why you don't believe. That's why you have no interest
in me. You're children of the devil. That's a powerful statement. And he proved they were children
of the devil. Look over in verse 42. And Jesus said to them, if
God were your father, You love me. You love Christ. Do you really
genuinely love Jesus Christ? That's because God's your father.
That's family love. That's paternal love. You love your brothers and sisters.
I'm talking about your natural brothers and sisters. You have
a paternal love to them. Well, this is a spiritual paternal
love. If God were your father, you'd love me. You'd love me,
you'd believe me, you'd follow me if God were your father. He
plainly tells them the truth. He's saying here that your moral
likeness is like that of Satan. Immoral. Immoral. He's stamped
on, the image of him is stamped on you, his children. And because
I tell you the truth, you don't believe me. Because I tell you
the truth, I tell you your father's a devil. You don't believe me. Truth is offensive to humanity. It's offensive. I preached a
message on, uh, we featured on sermon audio and, uh, lessons
learned in the house of mourning. A listener sent a comment back
to me and said that God abandoned man in the garden. That's twisting the truth. It's
twisting the Word of God. Who? Adam abandoned God. God did not abandon Adam. I tell
you what, if God had abandoned man in the garden, it would have
exploded right then. It would have been over right
then, and Adam and Eve would be in hell. I believe God saved
them. I believe He shed that blood,
and He put that coat of skin on them. He had to shed blood.
God's the first one to shed blood. He covered him with coach of
skin, and I believe Abel learned the gospel from Adam. He learned
the gospel sitting in that house. He learned the gospel of the
seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ. But Adam left God. He abandoned God. But God in
mercy, God in mercy, Determined and purposed that the creation
of the world and humanity was not going to be a total loss
Just like the creation of the angels. There are the elect angels
And then there's the one who failed and you know what God
has the royal prerogative to make the choice and There's no
one better to make the choice than God Is there anyone wiser
than God God Almighty doesn't keep anyone from coming to Him.
Christ said you will not, that's why you don't come. The reason
people will not come and confess Christ and baptism and they won't
follow Christ in their life is because their will. Their will
is not to come. They don't NEED Jesus Christ!
If God ever convicts a person of sin, they will FLEE to Christ! They will RUN to Christ! You
don't have to beg them to come down an aisle, they're going
to RUN to Christ! If God ever makes them to see
their sinfulness, and what's coming, their guilt, the punishment
of it, oh, you're going to RUN to Christ! I'm telling you, you're
going to RUN to Christ! But he says here, you don't believe
me because I tell you the truth. I tell you the truth about God,
about myself, about yourself, and you don't want it. You don't
want it. The reason you don't want it is because you're not
of God. You know, I didn't know I was lost until God saved me. I didn't know I was blind until
God gave me eyes to see. I didn't know I was deaf until
God gave me ears to hear the gospel. I didn't know it. I didn't
know I was in darkness until he gave me light. See, that's
salvation. That's God doing the saving. I didn't know that. You know,
someday somebody's going to sit here and he goes, I see. You're
going to have an interest by God's grace. You're going to
have a real interest in Christ. God just saved you. God saved
you. That's why you have an interest.
That's why you see. That's why you have ears to hear. I didn't give myself these ears
on my head. I didn't give myself eyes. I
got that in my birth. When I was formed in the womb
of my mother, by the seed of my father, I started receiving
all the members of my body. I receive my ears, my eyes, my
taste, my smell, all these senses I have. The same happens spiritually
when we're born of God. The same happens. We receive
ears to hear, eyes to see, we can smell, we can taste the gospel. We can taste Christ, the bread
of life. We drink the water of life. And
spiritually, we need Him, spiritually, as water and bread, as much as
we need water and bread for this body. Anybody that can just have it
once in a while is dead. I'm telling you the truth, they're
just dead. I don't eat once in a while,
I eat every day. And if that person could have
just once in a while, no, no, you gotta have it every day.
You gotta have Christ daily. Because I tell you the truth,
you don't believe me. This is the greatest proof of
human depravity is this. Rejection of the truth. It's
not all the perversion going on out there. That's man being
man. But the greatest truth or greatest evidence of human depravity
is you will not believe God. That's the greatest proof. Now
he says here now which of you convinces me of seeing now pick
pick Pick out a sin that I've done, either in doctrine, my
teachings, or in my life. Bring it forth. He said, bring
it forth. Now, if you can't do that, why don't you believe me?
Why don't you believe me? Why don't you believe the truth
I'm telling you? You can't condemn me of anything.
There's no sin that you can bring up. If you could, then I could
understand you not believing me. You think I'm lying. I tell you what, if you could
find a sin, he probably is lying. He is lying. Well, he's not the
son of God if he is, if he can sin. Which of you convinces me
of sin? He's a spotless lamb of God.
Now, if I'm spotless and I have no sin, why don't you believe
me? Why don't you believe me? I can't
believe this is God. It's hard to believe. That's
why faith has to be of God. It's hard to believe that God
Almighty would be standing here talking to these rebels like
that. Now, you and I wouldn't be doing that. We'd be, what
was it, James and John, they got upset at some men one time,
they said, you want us to call fire down out of heaven and burn
these guys up? That's us. We're gonna burn everybody up,
except the ones we like. But that's not God. God has mercy
on sinners. God has mercy on a bunch of God-hating
rebels. And we're evidence of it. Some of us are evidence of
it. He that is of God heareth God's
words. You hear the gospel, you hear
Him, you hear His voice. Ye therefore hear them not. And here's why. You're not of
God. You've never been born of God.
Nicodemus, he said, you cannot see the kingdom of God, you cannot
understand the kingdom of God, unless you're born of God. It's
a different language. It's a different realm, a different
sphere. You've got to be born of God
to hear what God's saying. It's a different voice. As our Lord said, My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. In another place,
He said, You're not of My sheep. Is that too hard? Human nature resents that. But those who are born of God,
you understand that. You understand that God has to
give you something else that you don't have, and that's a
spiritual nature. If the word, if the gospel has
no lasting effect on us, it's evident we're naughty sheep.
Then answered the Jews and said to him, say we will that thou
art a Samaritan, has the devil, what's a Samaritan's got to do?
They don't have no dog in his fight. Their prejudice really
came out. They hated the Samaritans as
much as you could hate anybody. And they said, you're a Samaritan
and you have a devil. Well, I tell you what now, this
is dangerous. Here's danger. When you attribute
the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil, that's blasphemy. I mean, that's bordering on the
unpardonable sin. Attributing the work of Christ,
the words of Christ to the devil, to Satan. That's serious. That's serious. And the Lord
answered them. He said, I am not a devil. But
you notice he didn't say, I'm not like those Samaritans. You
know why? He had some women at the well.
Where was she from? Samaria. I got some sheep in
Samaria, in Samaria. Our Lord had no prejudice. He
had no, but he said, he did answer this. I don't have a devil. I
do not have a devil, but I honor my father and you're dishonoring
me. I'm telling you the truth. That's
honoring the father. I came to do his will. That's
honoring the father. But you dishonor me and I'm,
I'm from above. He told him I'm from above. You're
from beneath. You're of this world. I'm not. And I seek not my own glory.
I'm not on a self-glorifying trip here. I didn't come here
of my own. You know, the Lord never sought
His glory. The Father seeks the glory of
the Son, and the Son seeks the glory of the Father. They seek
each other's glory. They don't seek their own glory
apart from one another. They do nothing separate of one
another like we do. We do things separate from one
another. They don't. They don't. They seek to honor one another.
Verily, verily, I say to you, if a man keep my saying, he shall
never see death. He introduces something here
that's really going to bring out their ignorance. It's going
to really bring it out. He says here, if a man keep my
saying, he'll never see death. How do we keep his say? Well,
first of all, they've got to be in the heart. If my words
abide in you, what he said, they got to be in you. It's not just
something we have a memory. We don't just commit this to
memory. You know, this is not a memorization test. My words
live in you. My words are effectual in you. That first has to happen. Secondly,
we keep it in our memory. After that, we do, we do remember
his word. Peter said, as I, as we looked
in Bible class, I stir you up to remembrance. And then it's
here. Thirdly, it, it governs our walk
in our talk. It governs everything we do.
The word of God, the gospel governs every aspect of our life. Every
aspect of our life. Our talk is seasoned with grace
and our walk is one of humility, true humility. This person shall
never see death. And the Jews, they said, oh,
we got you now. We know you got it. We know you got a devil now.
Oh, you just, you just stepped in it. We know you got a devil. Because Abraham, here's their
ignorance. See here, our Lord said this to expose their ignorance.
Abraham is dead. The prophets are dead. You see,
they say that the next verse 53, you great our father Abraham,
which is dead. The prophets are dead. And you say, if we keep your
saying, we'll never taste of death. He exposed their ignorance. as
to that spiritual relationship that we have in Christ. Is Abraham
dead? Are the prophets dead? Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Daniel, are they dead? They're alive and well. They
are alive and well. Listen to Matthew 22, 32. I am the God of Abraham, and
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God
of the dead, but of the living. He's not the God of the dead.
If they're dead, they're lost. They are lost. My, my, my. Our Lord exposed
their ignorance, spiritual ignorance. I know this, I mean, I've had
some funerals here, the believers here, they're not dead. This is what makes it easy for
me to do, and I say easy, but easy for me to do the funeral
of believers. I'm not doing the funeral of
someone that's actually dead in trespasses and sins. I'm doing
the funeral of someone who has left this place and gone to heaven.
As the Lord said to that thief, today shalt thou be with me in
paradise. That's where they are. Would
you bring them back from paradise? Would you? Oh, no, no, you wouldn't. Jesus answered in verse 54, if
I honor myself, my honor is nothing. Self-honor is nothing. Self-bragging
is nothing. Boasting is nothing. But here's
what means everything. It's my father who honors me. That means everything. That meant
everything to him and it means everything to us. That we are
sons of God. You know what an honor that is?
That's an unspeakable honor. Now are we the sons of God, not
later, now. It's now. He said, my father honored me
at his birth. The angels, the angels spoke
at his birth and his baptism. The father spoke from heaven
at his baptism. He honored him by his works.
The miracles that he performed were done in the power of his
father. Then he honored, he was honored by being raised from
the dead ascended on high. And right now he's being honored
by the, as ruler of all, all things turned over to him. All
things are his. Your life and my life is in His
hands. They're in His hands. Our lives
are. But you don't know Him. You don't
know my Father. You don't know Him. You have
no clue who He is. But I know Him. I know His will.
I know His purpose. And you know, thank God, that
there's some here who know something of the will of God and the purpose
of God in redemption. We know it. We know it. The mysteries of the gospel has
been revealed to you. We know it. I know him. Now, if I said I didn't know
him, I'd be a liar. If I said I didn't believe the gospel,
I'd be a liar, because I do. I know. I do. I can't help it.
I do. I believe it. I'll tell you what,
when God saves somebody, they're going to believe the gospel.
And they can't do anything else. They can't believe anything else.
They can't do it. He makes it so evident to them. They were totally ignorant of
God. The one they said was their God
and father. They was totally ignorant of it. That's a terrible
way to be. Terrible way to be. But here, when he speaks of knowledge,
he's not talking about some facts. He's talking about, first of
all, a spiritual understanding. He's talking about also affection.
You love the truth. You love the truth. You approve
of it. No matter how hard it is on this
flesh, you approve the truth. And you're obedient to it. You don't have to beg somebody
to follow the Lord in baptism. That's the reason I don't stand
here and beg people to follow the Lord in baptism. Because
I know this, if God ever saves them, they're going to do it.
If God ever saves them, they're going to follow Christ. They're
going to follow him. You understand the gospel, you
have an affection for the gospel, you love the gospel, you approve
it and you're obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, your father, Abraham,
boy, he throws one out here at him. You know, they made a big
deal of this thing of being the sons of Abraham, the heritage
of the children of Abraham. He said, your father, Abraham,
in other words, you claim, you claim Abraham's your father.
And they had a, they had a fleshly descendant to him, but your father,
Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. He foresaw
the coming of Christ. You know, when he offered up
Idy, Isaac, and he saw that lamb caught in a thicket, you know,
Isaac or Abraham was going to slay Isaac. But you know, it
says he saw him in a like figure raised up. Abraham believed that
when he, he takes that knife and he kills Isaac, as God said
to, he believed with all his heart that God was going to raise
him back up. because God couldn't fulfill
his promise about the seed and all the nations being blessed.
And that seed represented Christ. And I do believe that that, I'm
sure Abraham understood something of the gospel. He didn't have
the light we have. He didn't have that light. But
when he did that, And he saw that ram caught in the thicket.
And he got that ram, took Isaac off the altar, put that ram on
the altar, and slew that ram in Isaac's stead. He understood
substitution. He understood it. Christ said, he saw my day. He
saw my day. He saw my death. He saw my resurrection. He saw my life. He saw my substitutionary
work. Abraham saw my day and he believed
He believed you go over there in Romans chapter 4. I'm not
gonna read it right now But you go home Romans chapter 4 verses
17 through 22 Read that Abraham saw my day He saw it by faith. He saw it in type and he saw
by special revelation. He saw my day and the Jew said
well, you're not 50 years old. He's 33 years old. You're not
old enough to Abraham died years and years and years before you
ever came on the scene And our Lord is going to give a powerful
revelation You see how he leads you see how he's leading this
this whole thing He's bringing them to this conclusion that
you're of your father the devil You can't hear my words because
you're not of God Abraham saw my day the one you Say is your
father Abraham believed on me look to me trusted me and And
they said, well, you're not 50 years old. You're lying. You're lying. You're a liar. And Jesus said to them, verily,
verily, truly, truly, listen to me. I'm telling you the truth. Before Abraham was, before he
ever existed, I am. I am that I am. I am Jehovah. I'm the one that led you out
of Egypt. I'm the one in the burning bush. I'm the one who
parted the Red Sea. I'm the one who led you through
the wilderness. I'm the one who brought you to where you are
now. I am, I am that I am. And when they heard that, now
here's what, now listen, the gospel is gonna have its effect.
The word of God will not return void. That's what it says. You're
gonna do one of two things. You're either gonna fall down
at his feet and sue for mercy, you're going to fall down to
his feet and you're going to kiss the sun or you're going
to take up stones to cast at him. It's going to be one or
the other. You'll find fault with God. You'll
find fault with God's election. You'll find fault with whatever
God does or you'll fall down and kiss the sun. They took up
stones to cast at him. Remember he said, the lust of
your father you'll do, the desire of your father, the devil you'll
do. This is the desire of the devil. Cast stones at him, kill
him. Don't let him make it to the
cross. Don't let him get there. Kill him before he gets there.
How many times they try to kill him before he reached the cross? Because the cross is our salvation.
The sufferings of Christ, the shed blood of Christ is our salvation. He is our salvation. But Jesus
hid himself. I hope, I hope, I hope and I
pray that when every one of us leave here, that the Lord does
not hide himself. And you don't see, you don't
hear what was just said. But Jesus hid himself and went
out of the temple. He left that place. Going through
the midst of him, they didn't even see him. Walking through
the midst of him. He didn't go hide in a corner.
He didn't go crawl under a table. He got up and he walked right
through the midst of him. And I don't know how, but they
didn't even recognize him. They didn't recognize him, see him
passing by. Isn't that something? It's like he walks into this
room. The gospel's preached. And then he walks out. And some
don't even recognize it. Isn't that amazing? Going through the midst of them,
and so he passed by. Our Lord spoke of his eternal
existence. I am the eternal God, which was
and is and is to come. And they wanted to kill him.
The meeting's over. The meeting's over. And he left
the building. Alright.