Title of the message, He that
is of God, heareth God's words. The hearing ear, the seeing eye, spiritually and
physically, is of God, isn't it? It's of God. I may have to preach next week
from chapter 9. That's caught my attention this
morning. My attention has been on chapter
9 this morning. After I looked at that verse
10, how were thine eyes opened? The seeing eyes is of God. But isn't this typical of religion? How were thine eyes opened? Did
you know what he told them? Who? He told them who opened
his eyes. They wouldn't know how it was
done. He told them who. The man that's called Jesus.
Well, we'll have to look at that maybe next week. Let's get back
over here in chapter 8. I'm basically going to pick up
in verse 44. But the Jews here claimed Abraham
as their father. And Christ answered them, He
said, if Abraham were your father, you'd do the works of Abraham.
You'd believe God. You would believe God. Abraham
believed God, the scripture says. Then they went a little further
and they said, God is our father. We've been not born of fornication.
God's our father. Christ said, if God were your
father, you would love me. If God were your father, you
would fall in love with me. You would have some of the characteristics
of your father. I have some of the characteristics
of my earthly father. If you knew my dad real well
and knew me, you'd say, you're kind of like your dad. And our
Lord is saying, if God were your father, you'd have some of these
characteristics. You'd love me. Love is of God, isn't it? Does
Scripture say God is love? Love is of God? If that's so,
you'd love me and you'd delight to show mercy. Remember that
adulterous woman they brought? Threw her down at his feet, hoping
that she'd be stoned, hoping to trap him in his words, in
his judgment. If God were your Father, you
wouldn't act like that. If God were your Father, you'd love
me. You'd have the same characteristics of your Father. You talked this
morning about the nature of Christ If the nature of Christ is in
you, I promise you, you're going to have the characteristics of
Christ. Love, grace, mercy, kindness, meek and lowly. There's no weakness
in that. If God were your Father, you'd
have some of His characteristics. But instead, He says, you lie,
you lie and you want to kill me. Those are not characteristics
of God, is it? Think about it. Boy, he's pointing
out the truth here. And I tell you, you have to tell
the truth. God's not going to save me in my life. It's got
to be the truth. And he's telling the truth here.
You're liars and you want to kill me. That's the characteristics
of Satan. Our actions. You know, I said
once before, we are what we eat. Our actions show who we belong
to. They do. Our actions show who
we belong to. A good tree, the Scripture says,
brings forth good fruit. It brings forth good fruit. And
you can eat of that tree. But a corrupt tree brings forth
bad fruit. And you're not going to eat of
that tree. And He's doing them a service
here by telling them the truth. Not placating them. Not patting
them on the back. He's telling them the truth.
He said, you're of your father the devil. He said, well, that's
brutal. No, it's not. It's truth. Spurgeon
said this, a man will never find balance until he finds truth.
Boy, I thought that was good. If you want balance in your life,
people talk about balance, everybody to the left, everybody to the
right. If you want balance, find the truth. Truth will give you
balance. And that's what our Lord, He's
doing. He's telling them the truth. He said, you are of your father
the devil. And these are the law-abiding
citizens. These are the ones who go to
the synagogue or go to the temple every Sabbath. They go there.
And they read the Word of God every Sabbath. And then the Lord,
the God of heaven and earth, comes along and says, you're
of your father the devil. He tells them plainly that their
father is the devil. They have the same characteristics
as their father. He says, you want to kill me,
and you're a liar. Their principles, their attitude,
their walk was formed by his influence. You know, when he
says here, you're of your father the devil, immediately people
think automatically of a bunch of drunks or perverts or whatever. They don't think of the law-abiding
citizens that stops at every traffic light and every stop
sign and obeys the traffic laws. He's looking at these church-going
people. That's who he's talking to. And
that's who he says, you're of your father the devil. And the
lust and the desire of your father you will do. You're under his
influence. You're under his control. If the Son sets you free, you're
free indeed. But until then, you're not free.
Until then, or unless that happens, I'm telling you, you're not free.
You're under the influence of Satan. You're under the influence
dominion of sin, and the guilt of it, and the dominion of it,
and the power of it. It's what it says over here in
Ephesians. Look in Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2, he says,
And you hath he quicked. And Paul's writing here to believers
who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past Not
now, but in time past, you walked according to the course of this
world. According, listen, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. You are under his influence.
You are under his power. Outside of Christ, no one is
free from that power. The scripture says the whole
world lieth in wickedness. Not just parts and sections of
it, all of it. All of it. among whom also we
all had our conversation in time past, in the lust of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature, we had the exact same nature as the children of wrath,
even as others." He said, you're of your father
the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a
murderer and a liar. Doesn't that describe the human
race? As I read this again this morning, I thought this is a
good description of the human race. When you take the human
race as a whole, and you learn more of this when you're in business,
boy, there's an angle coming at you all the time. You know
what you have to deal with. There's a lie or an angle or
something coming all the time. You've got to be on the guard
for it. He said to them that your father, the devil, is a
liar and a murderer, and you're just like him. They wanted to
kill that adulterous woman. They didn't want to have mercy
on her. This group of people he's talking to here, this religious
group, did not want you and me at all in the house. They did
not want us in the house of God's mercy and grace. They wanted
the Jeti race annihilated. Even old Jonah. Even old Jonah got upset because
God did not kill the Ninevites. Because he had mercy on those
Ninevites. He was upset about it. He said,
I knew you'd do that. I knew you'd show mercy to them
if they repented. We went down to preach. They
repented and God had mercy on them. Jonah was mad. I knew that
would happen. I'm sure glad he did. I'm sure
glad he did. And he says here in verse 45,
because I tell you the truth, I'm telling you the truth, you
don't believe me. The truth, the absolute unadulterated
truth is the last thing lost men want to hear. Especially
religious lost men. That's the last thing they want
to hear is absolute truth. You let someone come along and
tell a lie And it just amazes me more and more when I see these
televangelists and these huge crowds and the stuff they come
up with. I think, surely to goodness,
some of these people went to school somewhere. You can't be, but
you can be. I don't say you can't be that
ignorant, but human nature is. The things that people fall for
is amazing. But you let someone come along
and tell a lie and multitudes will follow him. They were following. But you let the God of glory,
you let God Almighty come into this world in human flesh and
tell the truth and back it up with miracles. Back it up with
miracles. And the world wants to kill him.
The religious world wants to kill him. Amazing. He says, which of you
convinces me of sin? Which of you can prove that what
I'm saying is wrong? Bring forth evidence. If what
I'm saying is wrong, he says to them, to this religious group
of men, these religious leaders, bring forth the proof. Convince
me that I'm wrong. Bring the proof. And if not,
if you can't bring anything against me and prove that what I'm saying
is wrong, then why don't you believe me? Why don't you believe
me when I tell you the truth? I'll tell you why. Truth. Absolute truth has no
place in the human heart. There's no room for it. There's
no love for the truth. The scripture speaks of love
of the truth. They receive not what? The love
of the truth. The believer loves the truth.
I mean, you love the truth from beginning to end. You love the
truth you heard this morning about our fallen Adam? Because
it's truth. It's the truth. I'll tell you
this. When I lay down to die, I'm going
to thank God that He sent a man along, Henry Mahan, and told
me the truth. He didn't pat me on the back.
He didn't try to make me feel like I was somebody. No, He told
me the truth. I thank You for telling me the
truth. And I tell you, if God gives you someone to tell you
the truth, you've had a great blessing. One of the greatest
blessings. To tell you the truth. But truth has no place in the
human heart. And that's a sad commentary on
humanity. But now listen, He that is of
God, He that's born of God, He that's born of God, That man
or woman that is born of God, he heareth God's words. He obeys
God's words. He enjoys God's words. This is
the children's bread. If you can go without this, you've
never been born of God. This is the children's bread.
And he that is of God, he heareth God's words. He's saying to them,
if you were of God, you'd hear what I'm saying. You wouldn't
be so confused. You would not be so confused.
You wouldn't be so mad. You wouldn't be so upset. You'd
be rejoicing. God sent you the truth, even
if it hurts. God sent you the truth. I tell you, there are some who
hear His Word. There are some. Scripture says they're sheep.
It doesn't say they're sheepish. It says they're sheep. His sheep
hear His voice and they follow Him. They follow the Shepherd. They
love the Shepherd. They desire the Shepherd. They
want the Shepherd. And they are willing to be led
by the Shepherd. Savior, like a Shepherd, lead me. We sing
this song. Every believer is indwelt by
the Holy Spirit of God. And because of this, he hears. He's born of God. He's been given
ears to hear. He's indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
And he hears God's words. And he hears the instructions.
What did I read you this morning out of Psalm 119? Let me look
back at that. In Psalm 119, thy testimonies, there in verse
24, thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. my counselors, take my counsel
from the Word of God. They give us our instructions.
The believer receives the Word with great affection. Great affection. You know, we
don't receive it as the letter. That's the way That's
the way the Jews received the law. They received the letter
of the law. They said, well, this is what
we're supposed to do today. They would read the law and see
what they were supposed to do. Not what they love to do. It's
like, this is how we're supposed to do this. And believing that
they would receive salvation by it. Totally missed it. Totally
blind as a bat. But the believer receives the
Word of God, the preaching of the Word, It's the preaching
of the Gospel. You receive it with affection. You love it. You love it. If a person hears them not, if
the Word really has no effect on them, you kind of look at
the clock. Hurry up. That person's lost. He doesn't
have any love for the Word of God, no desire or craving for
it. You know, when you're hungry, hungry people have to eat, don't
they? When you're hungry, you know, there are certain foods
that come to mind. When I get hungry, there are certain things that
I just like to eat. You know, it comes to my mind. When a believer
really, when he's born of God and he's hungry, he has to have
the Gospel. He has to have Christ preached
to him, the Bread of Life. He has to have it. It's our life. It's our life. A man can go without
them. He's a dead man. Dead people don't eat, do they?
Dead people don't need to eat, drink. But living people do. Living people do. And he's telling the truth here. You have to see what he's telling
the truth. If they just listen, if they can just hear it. He
says, you're not God. You're not part of the family.
That's part of the family. A person must be born of God
to hear God's Word. They said, well, you're a Samaritan.
You have a devil. So they couldn't answer his question,
so they resorted to name-calling. It's what kids do in school. They start just calling names.
He just baffled them. They are standing there totally
confused. I mean, with every turn, with
every answer, with every question, they're like, you're a Samaritan. They hated the Samaritans. Oh,
they hated the Samaritans. And he said, you're possessed
of a devil. What insults our Lord put up
with. And we can't put up with some. We really get offended if we're
insulted. And He's just standing there so calmly, so confidently. I find that the more confident
a person is, especially in the gospel of Christ, insults don't
get to them as easy. They still get to us, but not
as quickly. Our Lord just looked immolished. He loves people. And Jesus answered
and told them the truth, I don't have a devil. No, I don't have
a devil. But I honor my Father. I'm honoring
my Father. How's He doing that? Telling
the truth. Doing the work that was given to Him. We honor our Father when we believe
Him. We tell the truth. We stand here in a pulpit and
we tell the truth. We honor Him. We honor Him with His own Word.
We honor our Father with telling the truth He's given us. With
His own truth. He said, I honor my Father and
you do dishonor me. He told them the truth. He said, I don't have a devil.
You know, someone who's under the influence of Satan will flatter
you. That's right. They'll flatter
you. From the pulpit. Wives, that doesn't mean your
husband says you Looked pretty this morning. Devil you. That doesn't mean that. That
means from the pulpit. He's just flattering you. Telling you how good you are.
You know, I'm not up here trying to just beat on people either.
Satan, he's in a flattering business. And that person will be inflated
with pride, and he'll seek the honor and fame
of the people. Christ didn't seek the honor of men, did He?
He didn't seek it. We try to seek the honor
of our peers, but He has none. He has no peers. He sought the honor of His Father. He sought the honor of his Father.
And he was meek and lowly in their presence. And they knew
it. That kind of attitude is not
of Satan. That's of God. And he said, and I seek not my own glory.
There's one that seeketh and judgeth. If he had been seeking
his own glory, he would have taken a different course here.
He'll act like a politician. You see all these political ads
going on now. Boy, are they bragging on themselves
or what? They're going to save the world, aren't they? They're
going to save this country. If it's saved, God will do it.
He'll use men, but God will do it. No, he says, I don't seek my
own glory. But there's one. There's one. who seeks the honor of the Son. There's one. And He's going to
make every knee bow and every tongue confess. Everyone. There's
like what? Six billion people living on
this earth right now plus? Well, you add up all the years,
the thousands of years, and however long it still goes. Every knee. Every tongue that's ever been
on this earth is going to bow down and confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Everyone. Everyone. There is one. There
wasn't any standing there that he was talking to, but there's
one. He's saying there's one who seeks and judges. He seeks the honor
of His Son, and He's going to judge every man according to
truth, what's really in the heart. He's going to judge things just
as they really are. Now, verily, verily, truly, truly,
I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. If a man keep my saying, Here
in verse 51, He keeps my say. What is His
say? Well, it's the whole Word of
God, isn't it? It's not just the words of Christ
written in red in Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John. It's from Genesis
to Revelation. That's His Word. That's His Word. This whole book is His saying. He that keeps My saying, he shall
never see death. He'll never taste of eternal
death. That's what He's talking about.
He's talking about eternal. He'll never see eternal death. Our Lord had much to say about
keeping His word and saying here. How does one do that? How does
one keep his saying? Well, first of all, is to hide
it in your heart. You've got to have it in you
to keep it. Put the word in your heart. Then
it's to keep it in memory. Then it's to be governed by it
in your walk and your talk. That's to keep his saying. Our walk being seasoned with
grace. This person shall never see or taste of eternal death.
You'll never see death. This body will. You said this
body will. I'm not going to die. That's more real to me now at
52 than it was when I was 22. At 22, through my 20s, even in
30s, I knew I was going to die. I know you're going to die. But
I'm not going to die. They're going to lay this body
in the grave. But I'm not going to die. I'm just going to change
locations. You believe that? That's the God's truth. You're
not going to die. And they said, now we know you're
lying. We got you now. We got you now. We know you're
lying. Because the prophets and Abraham
are dead. No, they're not. No, they are not dead. They are
as live as we are. When I read that, I thought of
some of the people I've known over the years. Charlie Payne,
Cecil Roach, some of the other men and women that I've known
over the years. They're not dead. They are as live as we are. They said, now we know you're
alive because Abraham's dead. No, Abraham's not dead. The prophets
are dead. No, they're not dead. They're
with the Lord. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. But this shows how impossible it
is to understand the gospel without regeneration, without being born
again. That's why the Lord said to Nicodemus,
you can't understand what I'm saying unless you're born again,
Nicodemus. I don't care if you've sat in a temple there and you've
read and you grew up and you grew up in a Sunday school class
and you've done all this and read all this and you've Unless
you're born again, you can't understand what I'm saying. Who's
going to care if you grow up in the best Sunday school class
in the world? So to speak. Unless you're born again, you
can't understand it. We can instruct our children
and teach them. We are to do that. But unless
God gives life, they'll never understand it. Never. He must give the increase. The natural man cannot comprehend
the truth, but he can't be saved without it either. He's got to
have it. And I tell you this, because
they cannot understand it, doesn't mean it's not so. If that were
so, not too much would exist, would it? Because we don't understand
too much, really. You take the smartest, most intelligent
person in the world and they really don't understand too much. Most of us, well I guess about
all of us, we go to school to get an education. We spend our
lives learning and trying to do one thing. I thought last night, how narrow
is that? You go through your school, you
go to college, you learn to do a certain job and you do that
for the rest of your life. Oh, my. You don't comprehend too much. Not too much. And then they said to him, Are
you greater? Are you greater than Abraham?
Oh, what a question. If only they understood the answer.
The question might not be too bad if they understood the answer.
Are you greater than Abraham and the prophets? Who do you think you are? That's
what they're really saying. Who do you think you are? You
poor carpenter? You're greater than Abraham?
Is he greater than Abraham and the prophets? You better believe
he is. He's their God. He's their Creator. He's their
Savior. He's their Redeemer. He's their
everything. But here's the question for me and you. Is He greater
to me than all others? Is He? Is He greater to me than everything
else? Is He greater to me than my family?
Is He greater to me than my career? Is He greater to me than my life? If He's greater to you than your
family, your family will be the best off for it, won't they?
The best thing that can happen is for Christ to any family,
any husband, wife, family, the best thing that can happen is
for Christ to be greater. That's the best thing. If He's
greater, boy, you're going to have a good home. You'll have
a good home. And you'll have a good life.
They didn't say you'd own everything in life. That's just a lot of
stuff you've got to put up with. But you'll have a good life if
he's greater. As I told Jerry Eskridge, he called me the other
day and we was talking. You know Jerry's got leukemia. We were
talking and just before I hung up and said goodbye, I said,
Jerry, our best days yet to come. If Christ is greater, our best
days yet to come. And Jesus answered, if I honor
myself, if I brag on myself, my bragging is nothing. You know,
if you listen to someone bragging on herself, it's nothing, isn't
it? He said, my bragging is nothing.
But if my Father, if it is my Father that honors
me, He's the one who's bragging on me. If He does, if He honors
me, whom you say He's your God, If He's honoring me, don't you
think you ought to listen to me? If He honors me and you say He's
your God, you better pay attention to me. You can imagine what judgment
would be like to those who dishonor the Son. This is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. And to spit in His face to deny
him. What does that man deserve? Yet, he says in verse 55, yet
you have not known him. You don't know him. You don't
know him at all. You act like you do. You think
you do, but you don't know him. But I know him. He knows him
intimately. He knows him perfectly. And if
I should say I don't know him, I'd be a liar like you. I'm just
like you. But I know Him, and I keep His
sayings. How many people claim to know God? How many people
claim to know God and are completely ignorant of God? How many people
have you talked to, and they claim to know God, and they talk
about Him, and it's just like, where did you read that? I've
had people say, well, doesn't the Bible say, and never quote
something. I say, where did you get that?
I've never read that anywhere in the Bible. He said, you don't know God.
You don't know Him. I know Him. And if you know Christ,
you know God. But if you don't know Christ,
you don't know God. But Christ wouldn't deny the
truth in order to get along here. He says, I know Him. I know Him. And to say differently, I'd be
lying. I'd be just like you. That wasn't
a slander. That was truth. There's a difference. There's a difference. There's
truth. I'd be just like you. And here's the mark of sonship.
I keep his sayings. I keep them. I delight in them.
I love them. Your father Abraham, the one you claim to be your
father, and he was their father by fleshly descendants. They
were the fleshly descendants of Abraham. He said, your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and he was glad. He
was glad to see me. You're not. But he was. He was. Abraham saw his day. He saw his gospel day by faith. He saw it by type. He saw it
by special revelation. And he rejoiced in it. It didn't
make him mad. And you say you're his children. You're not like your father. They said, well, you're not yet
50. You're not 50 years old. How could you see Abraham? How
could you have seen Abraham? You're not yet 50. Well, they
don't hear a thing going on here, do they? It's like talking to
the wall. You ever talk to someone like
that? It's like talking to the wall. You're not 50 years old yet.
How could you see Abraham? He not only saw Abraham, he saw
all of God's elect. Before the world was, I am. He is God. He is the living God. Before Abraham was, he revealed
his deity here. I am. I am God. I am that I am. The same one that spoke to Moses
is standing here speaking to you. I am. Then took they up stones. Boy,
instead of bowing down, are you not glad that the Lord has enabled
you to hear His words and bow down and worship the I Am, to
worship the Lord Jesus Christ? Because He could have left us
alone and we would have taken up stones also. Then took they
up stones to cast at Him. This is the religious world.
This is what the religious world will do to God if given a chance. Stone him. Take him off the throne. Dethrone him. Satan tried to
do it. All those angels of hell wanted
to do it. Adam tried to do it. Men have been trying to do it
ever since. But it ain't going to happen. But he that's of God,
heareth God's words. You heard this this morning.
Read. Read the Word of God. Preached the Word of God. And you say, that's the truth. That's the truth. He that's of
God, heareth God's words. And he loves them. He loves them.