Out of John 8, on several verses
of scripture out of here, and my subject is our Lord's heart-searching
ifs. Ifs. Our Lord mentions if in
this chapter many times. And the word if is like the word
so in John 3.16. You can't plumb the depths of
that meaning. God so loved. How do we know
how much He loved? What did he give? He gave his
son. That if a man believes on him, he has everlasting life.
He has life. He has Christ. Christ in him,
and him in Christ. If Christ is in you, you're in
Christ. And Christ must come to you before you'll ever be
in him. But if is also a word that When you think about it, it can
certainly disturb your peace of mind and your soul. It can
make your world, turn it upside down. How many times have we
said, if I hadn't done this, if I hadn't went there, oh, if
I had just said that thing, if I'd have went to this place,
if I'd have just... And we always say, if I had, if I had, if I
had. If I just wouldn't have let them go here, if I wouldn't
have let them do that. If I hadn't have went there, if I hadn't,
and we always have these things that if I had. But a man can
drive himself crazy with ifs. You know, there's a lot of folks
say, you know, I wished if I had. I heard Brother Henry say time,
one time he lost his son Robbie when he was 19, only been in
Vietnam about 10 days when he got killed. And he said, oh,
if I had Robbie back. So just have Robbie back. But
you can't get Robbie back, if. If. But our Lord's ifs here,
in this chapter, they have eternal significance, eternal consequences. When our Lord puts an if somewhere,
it has an eternal and significant consequence. It's not like me
and you. Ours, well, if you put off, Yes,
your consequences will be eternal, too. But our Lord has several
ifs here. And I think they're heart-searching.
I think they search us out. I think they will tell us whether
we know Christ or not. I believe they'll tell us if
we have a relationship with the Lord Jesus or not. I believe
they'll tell us whether we're one of God's elect or whether
we're not, whether we have trusted Christ or whether we haven't.
And I want to know that I've trusted the Lord. I want to trust
Christ. I do not want to be deceived.
I do not want to find, get to the end of the way. I heard a
dear friend one time, he asked a preacher, he was getting ready
to die, getting ready to go into eternity. And he said, are you
ready to go? And you know what he told that
preacher? He said, if you told me the truth, I am. If you told
me the truth, I am. Were you ready to go into eternity
by what you've heard, what you believe? That's what our Lord's
talking about. And let me give you the first
one here. The if of discipleship. Look in verse 31. The if of discipleship. And many of them, well, I'm in
the wrong chapter. It's just me. John 8, 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him. Now, listen to this. They believed
on him. He said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples."
Indeed. It's not just claiming a relationship
with Christ. That's not what he's talking
about. They believed on him. It also says in another place
over there in John 6 that many believed on him, and many turned
and walked no more with him because they said, this is a hard saying.
They just turned and walked away from Him. Multitudes walked away
from Him. In fact, all of them did, but
He turned to the twelve. All of them left, but the twelve.
And He turned to them and said, Will you also go away? And they
said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You've got the words of eternal
life. And the word disciple, what it means, yes, it means
a learner. And adhere to what one is learning. Somebody teaches you something.
John had disciples. They came and said, why do your
disciples pass and your disciples don't? Why does John's disciples
do this? Why does your disciples not do
that? And there's lots of people in this world that say they're
somebody's disciples. There's people that have disciples
over economics. There's all kinds of people that
have disciples over different things. They adhere to somebody's
teaching and they try to learn that teaching. Well, that Lord
Jesus Christ, He says, are you a learner of me? Do you adhere
to my teaching? Do you listen to what I've got
to say? Are you continuing in my word? Don't just believe me,
but do you continue in it? You see, I'm going to tell you
something. A person cannot now, nor can
be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, who does not abide in
His word and abide in His truth. I mean, we're not talking about
abiding in His truth, believing in His truth, continuing in His
truth. It's not just coming to the front and making a decision. It's not just deciding, I'm going
to be a Christian today. It's not just saying, I'm going
to stop doing a few things. It's actually saying, I believe
what Christ said and find out what He says and live in what
He says. Live by what He says. Live by
what our Master tells us to do. Let me show you, if you keep
John 8, look over here in Acts 11. Acts 11. You know, there's lots of reasons
why people don't abide in the truth. Lots of reasons why. Look here in John 11, I mean
Acts 11, 26. There's lots of reasons why men
won't abide in the truth. And when he had found him, Paul
was looking, Barnabas was looking for Saul, and when they had found
him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole
year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much
people." Now listen to this. And what he says, "...and the
disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." Who was the
disciples? What made them distinguish them
as disciples from what they were taught? They said, these folks
were Christians. They're following what these
fellas said about Christ. They're following and living
by what they said about the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me show
you another in Ephesians 4. You need to see this right here.
I know I'm taking too much time here on this, but you know, being
disciples, we want to be a learner. Mary sat at the feet of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And Martha was working and fixing
supper and cleaning the house and dusting and all that, trying
to do a lot of things. And Mary sat at the Lord Jesus'
feet. She said, Lord, don't you care
that she's not helping me? He says, Martha, Martha, you've
got a lot of things that worry you and encumber you and trouble
you. And there's nothing wrong with what you're doing. But Mary
had chosen that good part, and I'm not taking away from it.
You go ahead and worry about what's going on in this world.
You go ahead and worry about whether your couch is in the
right place or not. But I'm not getting Mary up off
of my feet just to tell her to go fix something. I'm not going
to do that. And that's what the thing is.
That's what our Lord said, that the most important thing in this
world is learning at the feet of Christ. Staying at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what He said here in Ephesians
4.20. Paul here's talking about, but
ye have not so learned Christ. Oh, you mean you learned Christ?
If so be... Now listen to this. How do you
learn Christ? If so be that ye have heard Him. Do you hear what he said? Heard Him. And have been taught
by Him as the truth is in Jesus. Heard Him. Learned on Him. Taught the truth, who done it?
He did. And that's what he said. And
if you're going to be my disciple, you know, I tell you, just saying
you believe on me is not enough. You've got to continue in my
word. And there's lots of reasons don't. You know, when we're out
here sowing the seed, our Lord says that we're seed sowers and
water boys. We're sowing seed. And that seed,
when we're preaching the gospel, we're sowing the word and we're
preaching the word, the seed's being sown. The Word of God's
the seed, incorruptible seed. And that Word falls, and sometimes
it falls by the wayside. And people on the path, the hard
path, and they won't get in, the bird will come down and catch
you right out of your mind. And it falls amongst thorns,
and it won't grow up because it's choked out by the cares
of life and the deceitfulness of riches and all the things
that trouble us. And then others fall over here amongst stony
ground. And it'll grow up just a little
while, and then something happens and say, well, that so-and-so
hurt my feelings, that so-and-so made me mad, or I didn't like
what the preacher said about that, and I've got other things
to do today. So they just fall away. But then, bless His holy
name, there is some seed that falls on good ground, and when
it does, it brings forth fruit. And that's when you become a
disciple of Christ. Is that not right? Oh, and I
tell you now, listen to me, some of them buy intellectually in
the Word. Intellectually, but not practically. What I mean
practically, our Lord says, many believed on Him, but the only
way anybody will ever know you as my disciple is not by what
they say in their brain or through their mouth, but how they act
in this world. Do you continue in my Word? That's
what He's saying. You see, and I'll tell you something,
hearing and doing, are always, always connected in the scriptures. You can't separate hearing from
doing. You want me to prove that? I believe I can prove that. Now
look over at James with me just a minute. James chapter 1. You know, in our Lord, this is
what our Master said. He says, If you are ashamed of
me and my words, That's how he said it. If you're ashamed of
me and my words in this life, I'll be ashamed of you before
my Father. And then the other half of it
says that I was not ashamed to call us brethren. But look what
he said here in James, chapter one, in verse twenty-two. Well, look in verse twenty-one. superfluity of naughtiness, and
receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your
souls. So it saves your souls, but be
ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. Listen to this,
deceiving yourselves. For any be a hearer of the word,
and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face
in a glass, and he will go away, and beholds himself, and goes
his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he is." You
know, that's why people, when they go to the mirror, and they
get everything all fixed up, and every time they get in front
of a mirror, they have to fix it all back again, because they
forget about the, you know, everything gets out of pocket. But now listen
to this, but who's still looking? into the perfect law of liberty.
That's what this blessed book is. A law that will set you free
and continues, listen to it, continues there. He being not
a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man should
be blessed in his deed. So, that's it. If you're my disciples,
you'll continue in my word and deed. To not continue in his
word is to be a false witness. Now, listen to me. I don't want
to make myself or anybody else to be something they're not.
There's not nobody, none of us continue in His Word perfectly. None of us do. We all have unbelief. We all have hypocrisies. We all
have failings. But it's in our heart, it's in
our intent, it's in the tenor of our lives that we follow the
Word of God. Is that not right? Is that not
right? Let me give you another one back
over here in John 8. The if of discipleship. Am I set in the learning of Christ?
Am I learning of Christ? Mary said this morning, on the
way to service this morning, said, Oh, my, this world chews
us up and spits us out, and we get to go on Sunday morning,
get to hear some gospel, and on Wednesday night get to hear
the gospel. She said, Oh, we need to hear about Christ, feed
thee with Christ. And then look here, and I tell
you what, that's why I said, the only way you can be fed with
Christ is if you know Him. Know Him. Now look here in John
8, verse 36. The if of freedom. He said here
in verse 36, if the Son therefore shall make you free, how free
will you be? You know, only the Lord Jesus
and the truth can set a man free. That's what these Jews said.
Look what they said down here. They said, verse 39, they said,
Abraham is our father. Oh my, we're not born of fornication.
Oh, we're not bound by nobody. We're not children of bondage
at all, is what they said. But our Lord Jesus says, if the
Son, and do you see how the Son's capitalized? That's a title. That's a position. That's a person. And only the Lord Jesus and the
truth can set a man free. You know the truth, and He'll
set you free. We live in the land of liberty.
We call it the land of the liberty. This is the land of freedom.
We got lots and lots of freedoms. Freedom to worship. Freedom to
assemble. Freedom to carry arms. Freedom
of speech. Freedom of the press. Great freedoms
we have. Nobody can keep us from worshiping
the way we do. There's lots of countries where
you can't do this. They're killing Christians all over the world,
in China, in Afghanistan, in Iraq. If they find somebody that
they think is not a Muslim, they kill them. Graveyard dead, just
passing it to them. But we have this land of liberty,
this wonderful country in which we live. And yet, almost everybody
in this land of liberty are slaves. Slaves. What are they slaves
to? Slaves to their sin. Slaves to the world. Slaves to
their job. Slaves to their opinion. Slaves
to their tradition. Slaves to their morality. Slaves
to their good opinion. Slaves to their pride. Slaves
to materialism. Slaves to everything but Christ. Bound, bound, bound, bound, bound. And how can you get free from
all of that? How can you be set free? I remember when Dewey was barely
a year old, maybe barely a little over a year old. Oh my, I was in a mess. I was
so sick, I was in a miserable mess. And I would lay in the
floor. And think, oh, if I could just
be free, free, free from my mind, if I could be free from this
pain, if I could be free from this agony of heart, mind, and
soul, I'd do anything. But I couldn't get free. I went
to doctors, I took medicine, stayed in hospitals, done lots
of things, but never did get free. Do you know when I got
free? When somebody preached the gospel
to me. Somebody told me where freedom
really was. You're looking in the wrong place.
Look to the... See, that's what we do. We look
in a place instead of looking to a person. We look to things
instead of looking to a person. We worry about things instead
of trusting in a person. And that's why the Lord Jesus
says, if the Son, if me, the Son of God, the eternal Son of
God, the one with the Father, if He sets you free, if He comes
and breaks those chains, if He comes and liberates that mind,
if He comes and takes out that stony heart, that lustful heart,
and puts in a heart of flesh, And you're free indeed. Oh, my. I tell you, that's why, you know,
our Lord Jesus Christ, He's the only one that can set you free.
And I tell you, you know, you've got to be in bondage before you'll
ever be set free. Anybody here know anything about
bondage? Huh? Oh, my. The Son sets us free.
He sets us free from the curse of the law. Which the curse of
the law is the penalty of sin. Sin worth a death. And sin when
it's finished worketh death. And sin when it's finished worketh
death. Curse of the law. Christ was
made a curse for us to redeem us out from the curse of that
law. And I'll tell you what else He set us free from. He set us
free from the guilt of sin. Guilt of sin. Oh, guilt is a
horrible thing. Guilt is an awful thing. You
know, you have guilt over your children. Guilt over whether
you raised them right. Guilt over the way they turn
out. Guilt over something you said. Guilt over whether you
treated your mother right. Guilt over whether you said the
right thing. Guilt that I treated them right before they left this
world. We have all this guilt of sin. And guilt will drive
you crazy. But the Lord Jesus Christ said,
Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. And beloved, He put away
what would make you guilty. He put away sin. And where sin
ain't, there can't be any guilt. And by sin, there is still guilt.
And He put away sin, so if there ain't no sin, there's no reason
to be guilty. He said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. Who is
He that condemned us? It's God that justified us. He
puts sin away by the sacrifice of Himself and sins the most
powerful thing in this world in a human being. And only Christ
can save from the guilt of it. And I'll tell you what else He
saves us from. He saves us from the power of sin. He said, He
that committeth sin is a servant of the sin. But the Son is not. The Son abides in the house forever,
and that's what He says. He says that the Son will set
you free from your sin, and you'll not be a slave to sin anymore.
You abide in the house with the Son, and the Son sets you free.
Sets you free from the power of sin. Oh, my. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Why won't it? I'm going to tell you. Because
you're not under law, but you're under grace. Now,
what in the world does he mean by that? Sin shall not have dominion
because you're not under law, but you're under grace. If you're under law, all the
world will do is just stir you up. Just stir you up. You tell your children, well,
you tell anybody. I'm leaving the house, we're
leaving, and I tell you what, I don't want you, I'm going to
lock this door right here, and I don't want you to go in that door.
Some way or another, you will be going down the road two miles,
and you'll have a knife or something in there trying to get in there,
because that's law. But if you leave and say, honey,
house is yours, everything in it is yours, make yourself at
home, Cause I love you and I trust
you. They ain't going to be trying to break your nose. See, law
makes you want to do things. It just stirs you up. You know,
most divorces is because of law. If there was any grace involved,
there wouldn't be any divorces. This law says, well, he's too
hard on me, or she's too tough on me, she's too demanding, she's
too mean, she's too hateful. He specs things out in this law. But if there's love and grace
in a man and woman's heart, I'm telling you, beloved, they'll
stay together through thick and thin. And oh, beloved, listen, and
I'll tell you what else the sun sets us free from, from the fear
of death. Really, I mean, beloved, that's our Lord Jesus Christ.
He defeated death, destroyed death. And I tell you, and we
can face death. I told you Wednesday night about
the preacher. He says, you know, he's up preaching and he says,
if you hear I passed away, say, don't believe a word of it. He
said, I didn't pass away, I just started living. And that's the thing about it.
We're not afraid of death. I'm not afraid of it for me.
I'm not afraid of it for my family, except those that are lost. Because
death is just a, you know, the sting of it's gone. The power
of it's gone. The fear of it's gone. Because
why? It just takes us from this world
to the next. It takes us from this flesh to
pure spirit. It takes us from corruption to
incorruption. It takes us from mortal to immortality. It takes us from life to flesh
into Christ's blessed presence. What could be afraid about that?
Huh? And then He sets us free from
the fear of man. What in the world is man going
to do to us? What can man do to us? What can he do? Well, you know,
I don't want to feel bad about me. Somebody's going to feel
bad about you and not like you, no matter who you are, where
you are, how you act. Somebody's not going to like you. Somebody's not going to approve
of you. So just get used to it. Listen, it don't make any difference. And oh, here's the greatest freedom
He gives us. Freedom to worship God. Freedom
to approach God. Freedom to come into the presence
of God. We never had that before. Now we have freedom to worship.
Freedom to call on God. Freedom to come and gather worship
together. Freedom to worship Him and approach
Him and bless His name. And whom the Son sets free, you
know how free He is? He's indeed free. That's why
Paul says, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath set you free. Now, look back with me over in
John 8.39. Let me give you another. The if of discipleship, the if
of freedom. Oh, have you been set free? Have
you been set free? Does sin trouble you? Do you want to be done with it? You want to be done with it.
Well, I tell you what, the Son sets you free. Look what He said
in verse 39. The if of service. They answered and said unto him,
I speak that which I sing with my father, and you do that which
you sing with your father. They answered and said unto him,
Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto him, if you were
Abraham's children, now listen to this, you'd do the works of
Abraham. What does he mean, if you were Abraham's children?
John says, you know, say not we have Abraham thy father. God
is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And
what's a child of Abraham? Well, if you keep John, look
in Galatians 3, just a minute. The children of Abraham, they're
children of faith. They're children of faith. God
made Abraham a promise, and that promise was that in him also
he'd be the father of many nations. And, beloved, he's the father
of a nation of people all over this world, and has been since
his before him. And the children of Abraham show
their faith by their works, just like Abraham did. Look what he
says in Galatians 3 and verse 7. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Now, how
in the world did everybody know that Abraham believed God? How
did they know he believed God? Well, I'm going to show you in
Hebrews 11. I'm going to show you. I'm going
to show you how Abraham... You know, Abraham believed God.
How in the world does anybody know somebody believes God? Everybody says, I believe God.
Everybody says, you know, I believe in God. Heard a fellow one time
get up and says, I've believed in God all my life. Well, he
believed in Him too long. Because I can remember a time
I didn't. Huh? If you believed in Him all your
life, you can't even believe in someone you don't know anything
about. Well, he's wrote in a hymn this morning, he said, you know,
I was long and blind and deaf and dumb and served another God
and did not know it, but when God made Himself to me, I lost
all things that I ever trusted in before. Oh my, look what it
says here about Abraham. Down here in verse Verse 8, how
do we know? He says, if you were the children
of Abraham, you'd do the works of Abraham. By faith, Abraham,
when he was called to go out into a place which he should
after receive for inheritance, obeyed. He went out not knowing
where in the world he was going. He said, God said, you go yonder.
He said, every place you set your foot, it's going to be yours.
Now, so he went out. If you come out of the world,
if you come out of false religion, if you come out of yourself,
if you come out of any hope and trust in yourself, if you come
away from your faith, if you obey God and come out, listen
to this, then by faith he's a soldier in the land of promise, as in
a strange country. Is this world a strange country
to you? Does it grieve you by the way your children are? Does
it grieve you by the way the world is? Does it grieve you
because you're a stranger here? This world's not your home. Dwelling
in tabernacles, that means tents with Isaac and Jacob. He lived
in a tent. And that's what I've heard preachers
say before. Don't drive your tent stakes
down too deep. That tent's got to come up, it's
got to go. We dwell in a tent, we dwell
in a tabernacle, hold loose in this world, because it's all
going to have to be turned loose. And the longer you hold on to
it now, the easier it'll be to let it go when it comes time.
Huh? And then look what else it says
about him now. What was he doing when he was walking, going as
a stranger to Pilgrim in this world? Doing exactly like you
and I are. Looking for a city. City with
streets of gold. Walls of jasper. Gates of perfect. A city where God dwells Himself.
And oh, God's the builder and maker of it. And I'll tell you,
look down here, let me show you another thing that He done. Verse
17. Oh, I talked about Abraham. You
know, if you were Abraham's seed, you'd do Abraham's, if it was
really his children. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up by Isaac, And he that hath received the
promises offered up his only begotten son." Now listen to
this, "...of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed
be called." The promises that God had was in his son. But now
listen to what he says here. You know why he offered his son
up? Because he had counted that God was able to raise him up,
even from the dead. He said, if I offer him, God's
going to come back off this mountain. What it amounts to is he believed
God and he acted on his faith. You can't twiddle your thumbs.
He offered Isaac. And old Choc, old Law, his nephew,
said, I want to dwell over here where the grass is about waist
high and there's water down there in those plains. He said, that's
where I want to live. Sodom's down there a lot. Well,
that's where I'm going to go. Abraham said, you go your way
and I'll go mine. defeated five kings. One of the
kings come to him and said, listen, here, I'm going to give you all
this. And then he said, I've raised my hand to God, and I'll
take not so much as a shoe hatchet from you. I don't want a thing
you got. God provides for me, and God
has provided, and He shall. Oh, so listen, the if of service.
Ain't that what he says back over there in John? Ain't that
what he said in verse 39? Oh, my. Are you my disciples? Continue
my word. Are you serving a sin? Son, I'll
make you free. If you were Abraham's children,
verse 39, you'd do the works of Abraham. You'd do them. And
let me give you another real quick here in verse 42. I'm taking
too long. Well, now, it's been probably
30 minutes. Oh, my. Do y'all worry about
time as much as I do? I can't help it, I just... Look
what our Lord said here, the if of sonship, for your son,
verse 41, or excuse me, 42. Jesus said unto them that after
they said, we have one God, one Father, even God, our Lord said
unto them, if God were your Father, you'd love me. You'd love me. I proceeded forth and came from
God, neither came I myself, but He sent me." You know, if you
love the Lord Jesus Christ, they said, you know, we have God,
our Father, even Him. And the Lord said, if you were
of the Father, you know what you'd do? You'd love Me. How
in the world do we know we belong to Christ? We're one of His children,
one of His sons, children of God, because you love Him. You actually really do love the
Lord Jesus Christ. You really, really do love Him.
You're like Simon Peter, Lord, you know. I don't love you like
you're worthy of it. I don't love you like I want
to. I don't love you like it's in my heart to, and I know I
don't show it as often as I should, but Lord Jesus, you know that
I love you. I love you. And, oh beloved,
we love Him. For who He is. Not just for what
He's done for us. He redeemed us, saved us by His
grace, washed us in His blood. We love Him for who He is. He's
the Son of God. He's our Lord. He's our Master.
He's our Redeemer. We love Him for making the Father
known to us. We'd never know the Father except
Christ had made Him known to us. He says, no man has seen God
at any time save the Son, and He to whomsoever revealed Him.
And I'll tell you what else we love Him. We love Him because
He makes us known to the Father. Not only make the Father known
to us, but He makes us known to the Father. Here's those that you've given
me. Here they are. And I'll tell you something else
we love Him for. He makes us acceptable to God. Acceptable
to God. There's not a time, from the
time we've been believers, that God saved us and made Himself
known that we've not been acceptable to God. You say, well, you just
don't know. There's not been a time that we've not been acceptable
to God. If you wait till you become acceptable,
you'll never be acceptable. We're only accepted in the middle
of it. Oh, I don't feel acceptable. He didn't say he didn't feel
acceptable. He said he may have accepted. Oh, man, we love Him for giving
Himself for us. And we love the Son. And I'll
tell you one other way you know if you love the Son. That's what
He says, you know. He says, you know, if you were
God your Father, first thing you'd do, you know what you'd
do? You'd love Me. If God were your Father, you'd love Me. If
God's my Father, is He your Father? Do you love Christ? That's what
He's saying. And I do know this, that if we
love the Son, if we love Him, we love those that the Father
saved, just like He did us. We know we've passed from death
unto life. How do we know? We love the brethren. We love
the brethren. Let me give you another quickly here. John 8, 46. Not only the if of
sonship are you sons. If you're a son of God, if the
Father is your Father, you love Me. You love Me. And another
one is the if of responsibility, down here in verse 46. Which
of you convinces me of sin? Now, listen to this. And if I
say the truth, what a question here. If I say the truth, why
do you not believe me? Why don't you believe me? If
I'm telling you the truth, and I am the truth, and I'm preaching
the truth to you, if I'm telling you the truth, why in the world
wouldn't you believe me? That's why our Lord said, why
don't you believe me? If this is truth, and what I'm telling
you is truth, why do you not believe me? And can you find,
that's why our Lord said, which of you convinces me of sin? Which
of you can convince me that I have not told the truth, that I have
not lived a holy, sinless, perfect life before God and before you?
He spoke the truth in His words. He was truth in all the acts
that He did. He spoke the truth about himself.
He said he was the way, the truth, and the life. He spoke the truth
about the Father, and I'll tell you, he especially spoke the
truth about man. What did they say to him up there
in verse 48? The Jews answered and said unto
him, Say we well that God the Samaritan has the devil. My soul,
calling the Lord Jesus Christ to sin, he has a devil? Huh? Oh my! And you know what he says
about man? John 2.29 says he needed not
anybody to tell him anything about a man. Because he knew
man. He knew man. You know what he
knows about us? That we're sinners. That's what he came to say. You
know what else he knows about us? That we're flesh. You know what else he knows about
us? That we're dust. You know what else he knows about
us? A man in his best faith is altogether vanity. When we talk
about depravity, let me tell you what I mean by depravity.
I don't mean to worry you out, but when we say somebody's absolutely,
totally depraved, ruined by sin, what that means is, it don't
mean you're as bad as you can be. When we say you're totally
depraved, totally lost, utterly, absolutely ruined, what it means
is you're not as bad as you can be, but you're as bad off in
the sight of God as you can be. Whether you're a harlot, or whether
you're a mother with ten children, in the sight of God, you're both
utterly and absolutely lost without God, without Christ, and without
hope. It's going to take the same grace, the same power, the
same mercy, the same effort. See, it's not how bad you are,
it's how bad off in the sight of God you are. And oh, who could convince him
of sin? His character, Oh, His mercy,
His compassion, His fearlessness, they couldn't deny it. And that's
why He says there, Why do you not believe Me? I'm going to
ask you a question. I'm going to ask you a question.
I hope everybody has stirred themselves up a little bit. I'm
going to ask this question. Our Lord says, If I say the truth,
why do you not believe Me? Who can justify themselves in
their unbelief? Who this morning can justify
themselves in their unbelief. Can you justify the fact that
you don't believe the truth? Can you justify yourselves that
you continue in your unbelief? Can you give a good reason why
you don't believe? And here's the last one. The
gift of assurance. And bless His holy name, He gives
us assurance. Told you these were precious
words, eternal words, and eternal consequences. Then look what
He says down in verse 51. The gift of assurance. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, if a man keep thy saying, you know what'll
happen? He'll never see death. What does
He mean by that? We'll never see death. No, you
know what happens? The body goes back to the dustbin. We just start living. We just start living. Talking
about somebody went on to glory the other day, and I said, George
was talking about the men. She left this world and went
up there, and that was the first day of her life. She's been there for all around
many years and death, She ain't even went through a whole day
yet. That's just why she just got
there. That's what our Lord said. If you keep my saying, you believe
me, trust me. Live by my sayings. Live that
I'm the Savior, that I'm the Redeemer. That you can come unto
the Father by me. I'll make you acceptable. You
have my righteousness. I bore the curse for you. He
says, listen, you know, and keep my saying, keep my doctrine,
keep my truth, keep what I've taught you, and you'll never
see death. You know, that's what's wonderful.
When a believer closes their eyes, we know right then and
there, damn, they're in the presence of Christ. We cry, we hurt, and
we kiss them goodbye. They will miss Him immensely.
Oh, some of you know that. You know that. You've been through
it. Oh, my, you've been through it. But let me tell you something.
That man who knows Christ, just watch him. The minute light leaves
your eyes, phew, they're gone. And all he says is, I'll see
you later. Henry, when he preached his daughter's
funeral, when he preached Becky's funeral, He stood up in the casket
right there in front of me and said, Honey, I'll be right behind
you. I'll see you later. I'll see
you later. And we went. We will never see
death. Never see death. Death gives
some people a death. But the foundation of our faith
and our reason for hope is in this blessed word. Eighty feet
old woman down in Alabama. She's fishing to die. And, oh,
beloved, she said, somebody asked her, she said, are you ready
to go? And she said, according to the Scriptures, according
to what Christ said, I am. Oh, to keep that Word, let your
soul in that Word. Let the Word be the anchor of
your soul in this life. And, oh, to believe Christ. He says, you keep my saying. You keep what I say. And you
remember how later the disciples said, they remembered the words
of the Lord Jesus. They remembered that He said.
And all beloved, we go through life and we say, boy, He said
this and He said that. And somebody asks us a question.
First thing we want to tell them is what the Lord said. We'll
say what God said. We'll say what Christ said. Oh
my. Just too much. Just too much. Too much to say too much too
fast. And I ain't done saying, but
I'm going to quit saying. I ain't done, but I'm going to
quit. I could go on for another 20, 30 minutes. I know I could,
but I ain't going to. I ain't going to do you that way. But I could. I could.