John chapter 8. John chapter
8. My text this morning is not coming
from John 8, though there's great help in this chapter in understanding
what our text has to say. The title this morning is, Am
I a Jew? And the text will be, not now
but later, Romans chapter 2, verses 28 and 29. And the essence of those two
verses, that will be the subject a bit later, is the difference
between inward and outward, between the physical and the spiritual. And in this passage, this is
obvious from the We begin at verse 30 in John chapter 8. As our Lord spoke these words,
that is the words recorded for us just prior to this statement,
many believed on Him. Now what they did to indicate
their believing on Him, I'm at a loss. I don't know. And so
our Lord said to those Jews, which believed on him. If you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free." And all of a sudden, they
have issues with Christ. You must be very careful telling
a person they are a believer. The Bible is full of false converts,
people who think they're something when they aren't, people who
think they love Christ when just a few verses later they're ready
to put Him to death, try to stone Him. Surely you don't think religion
is any better now than it was then. You don't think Christ
is any different, do you? When our Lord told them that
they shall know the truth and make them free, here's what they
said in verse 33, they answered Him, we be Abraham's seed and
were never in bondage to any man. How say you, how on earth
can you say you shall be made free? They're telling him in
no uncertain terms that not only are not now, they never have
been in bondage to anybody or anything. And the truth of this
whole book from cover to cover is that we are slaves and servants
of the devil from the day of our birth until the day God saves
us by His grace in Christ. And that's universally true.
It's true of every country. Every tribe, every tongue, every
kindred on the face of the earth. Jesus answered them in verse
34, Amen, amen, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the
servant of sin. So the question for us is simply
this, am I a sinner? Do I sin? And if you don't answer
a big yes to both of those, You don't know who God is or who
you are or who Christ is. And the servant abides not in
the house forever, but the Son abides ever. If the Son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now this is adding
a little more fuel to the fire. This is a much bolder statement
than the one in 32. This one identifies Christ If the Son, the Son of God, the
Lord Jesus, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. He
said to them, I know that you are Abraham's seed, literally
in the flesh. They could trace their ancestry
to Abraham. But you seek to kill me because
my word has no place in you. I speak that which I've seen
with my father, and you do that which you've seen with your father."
Oh, now this gets down to the real meat of the matter. They answered him and said unto
him, Abraham is our father. Our Lord said if you were Abraham's
children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek
to kill Me, a man that has told you the truth which I have heard
of God." Abraham didn't do this. You do the deeds of your father.
Then said they unto him, We be not born of fornication. We have
one Father, even God. And as a whole, a host of preachers
this very day that's proclaiming God the Father of everybody in
that auditorium or wherever it is. God is your Father. He loves you. On and on and on
it goes. Our Lord did not do that. Jesus,
verse 42, said unto them, if God were your Father, you would
love Me. Do you know that people actually
talk of loving God and not knowing Christ? That's impossible. Christ is the only revelation
of God there is for human beings. And I've not heard of any for
angels. Never been one appointed or sent. If God were your Father,
you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither
came I of myself, but He sent me. Why do you not understand
my speech? Even because you cannot. He doesn't say, will not. You
cannot hear my word. You are of your father. Now you
walk in a Baptist church this day and age and tell them they're
children of the devil because they hate Christ and his gospel
of sovereign grace. Ain't no telling what they'd
do to you. Your father was a murderer from
the beginning and abode not in the truth because there's no
truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own,
for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you
the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convince me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me? He that is of God hears God's
words. You therefore hear them not,
because you are not of God.' Then answered the Jews and said
unto him, Say we not well that you are a Samaritan, a half-breed,
and have a devil, demon-possessed? Jesus answered, I have not a
devil, but I honor my Father, and you do dishonor me. And I
seek not my own glory. There is one that seeks and judges. Amen, amen, I say unto you, if
a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Yet every one of us, if Christ
doesn't come back first, we're going to be buried in a graveyard
somewhere. We have to die physically. Obviously then, our Lord is speaking
of the soul and the spirit. That will be important later
on when we come to Romans 2, 28 and 29. Then said the Jews
unto him in verse 52, now we know that you have a devil, Abraham
is dead, and the prophets. And you say, if a man keep my
saying, he shall never taste of death." In order to understand
the Bible, we must be able to hold in our mind the concept
of physical and spiritual. We have to distinguish those
two things, the life of the body is not the life of the soul.
Are you greater than our father Abraham who is dead and the prophets
are dead? Who do you make yourself to be? Jesus answered, if I honor myself,
my honor is nothing. It is my father that honors me
of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him,
but I know him. And if I should say I don't know
him, I'd be a liar just like you, but I know him, and I keep
his sayings. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then said the Jews
unto our Savior, you aren't even 50 years old, and have you seen
Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Amen, and
I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. That's all it took. Everything
broke loose at that point. They took up stones to cast at
him, but our Lord hid himself and went right through the middle
of them going out of the temple and so passed by. What a revealing
passage of scripture. And every last one of us will
be right in the middle of that, leading the charge, if it weren't
for the grace of God. All right, verses 28 and 29.
Oh, I wished I could read some of these verses beforehand, but
I can't. What was my title this morning?
Am I a Jew? And another title that I wanted
to use, Mocking the reality with the shadows, mocking the inward
with the outward. That's today's religion to a
T. Any denomination you want to name, Protestant or Catholic,
doesn't make any difference. For he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly, literally, Neither is that circumcision which is
outward in the flesh." There's the outward. These things mean
nothing concerning our soul and God. God doesn't want to know
if you've been circumcised. He wants to know if your heart
has been broken by an operation of His grace in Christ. That's the question. Verse 29,
here's a definition. It also defines who is a Christian. Here we are. But he is a Jew
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart. Now watch
these next three words. In the, little s, spirit. That is, in the spirit and soul,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God. Well, how much praise is God
supposed to have? All there is. How much are we
supposed to have? None at all. We're operating
on a basis of mercy and grace. We can't deserve anything. We
have not deserved anything. And God in mercy and grace determined
for this world was ever made to choose a people out of all
the generations to live on the face of this earth and bring
them to trust and rest in his son. Mocking the reality with the
shadow. Edward, I read a church sign
this week at my son-in-law's. Not far from here, in fact, St.
Irwin, right across the Cape. Simple, not very elaborate, but
plain as day to read. First line says, Jesus is awesome! You'll never believe what the
next line said. Used tires. Boy, that's awesome, isn't it? I mean, if you can't afford but
one sign, just don't put that together. That's where Jesus
is in the modern-day religious mindset, the crutch. He's somebody
we need to do a little bit for us, but not everything. We'll
take Him as Savior, but we ain't going to have Him as Lord. In our generation, people wear
crosses around their neck. Sometimes you see idiots with
them hanging down to their knees. But the whole thing, the whole
cotton-picking thing is mocking the reality with the shadow. If we think that cross somehow
does something for us that we can't get by without it and that
God approves of it and it makes us closer to Him and dearer to
Him, that is an absolute lie. There's a guy up here somewhere
between Lillington and Fuquay on US-401. God talked to him
and told him to build a 60-foot cross in his field side of US-401. And so anybody in that community,
when somebody's sick and they want to twist God's arm, get
a little bit closer to him, they've already been out there in droves
to that cross. On Highway 2427 going to Carthage,
you pass a sign. Obvious hill on the left, you're
going that way. The sign says Prayer Mountain. And what that means is these
people are so dumb and so stupid, and I'm so dumb and you are so
dumb and so stupid as to believe that earthly elevation has something
to do with talking with God. Now that is mocking the reality
with the shadow. And that is not Christianity
and Christ is not in it. And people who do it are damning
their own soul. Not, mind you now, God could
still reclaim whomever he pleases. Some of us were in some pretty
sorry places and shape when he found us. Let's look at verse 28 once more.
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh." Now we look at
verse 29. This has not anything in the
world to do with who our ancestors were. Being kin to somebody doesn't
cut any ice with God. None at all. If anything, it
makes it more difficult for us to understand how things really
are. All right, so let's visit a few
spots in our Bibles. I'm trying to hold it down as
best I can. The first one is in John chapter
4. And don't forget John chapter
8. We simply don't have time to go back there. You remember in the fourth chapter
of John that our Lord Jesus with His disciples having gone into
the village to buy food, encounters this Samaritan woman, who in
the eyes of the Jews was a half-breed, and they hated and despised them.
And they wouldn't even go through that territory if they were trying
to get from south to north or north to south. They'd go around
it, even though it was much further. But here in this one chapter,
chapter 4, beginning at verse 21, We have these issues once
again in front of us and what are they? The outward and the
inward. Jesus said unto her, woman, after
a lengthy conversation now that she tried to redirect in certain
areas and our Lord, he said, woman, believe me, the hour comes
when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem
worship the Father. These places will be obsolete. God will no longer honor anything
that goes on in those places. You worship you know not what.
He is saying to her that you Samaritans are just plain dumb
to God and ourselves. Now most people don't think Jesus
would talk to people like this, but I read you one of the most
dynamic passages in all the Bible in John chapter 8, and he didn't
pull the first punch. He told them exactly who they
were and what they were and why they were. He said, you're children
of the devil. You claim Abraham's your father,
God is your father. The devil is your father. You
worship you know not what. namely the Lord Jesus and perhaps
some of the Jews, know what we worship. For salvation is of
the Jews. The Savior came as the offspring
of David. But, and that's a significant
word, but the hour comes and now is. Now when did our Lord
say it was? Now. This was almost at the beginning
of his public life ministry. The hour comes, and although
it wasn't true of everybody, it was going to be true here
in just a moment of this woman. She's going to meet God. Right
now, she doesn't have a clue. The hour comes, and now is, when
the true worshipers shall worship the Father," now watch this,
in what? Little s. Well, if that's how we worship
Him now, how did we used to worship Him? With the flesh, with the
emotions, with a misguided, spiritually dead soul. We did everything
under the sun that we thought God would pay attention to us
and bless us. That's why we do such absurd
things. And that's the curse of my generation. In the Bible, people who actually
met God, I mean really and truly met Him, they despised themselves
and they never got over it. They went to their graves despising
themselves. All right, verse 24. Notice the
S on spirit now is all of a sudden what? Capitalized, correct? God, that is is actually italicized,
God, a spirit. God, a spirit. And they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in Christ. And the woman said to him, hey,
I'm not as dumb as you think. I know that the Messiah is coming.
A lot of people believe that. A lot of people believe He's
coming again. But we may not be ready for Him
to come. She said, I know that the Messiah
comes. I even know His name. He'll be
called Christ. which is the term for the Messiah,
which is called Christ. When He has come, He will tell
us all things. And if you'd go back and reread
this chapter, you'd find out that's what the Lord Jesus has
been doing from the very first time He spoke to her. He's been
telling her all things about herself and about God and about
that living water. And upon this came His disciples
and marveled I'm sorry, verse 26, Jesus said unto her. Now
it don't get any plainer than this. You won't find this statement,
I don't think, any place else in your Bible. If you find it,
let me know. These are Christ's words. I that speak unto you am He,
the Christ, the Messiah. And then the disciples bungle
in, you know, Conversation's over and she leaves her water
pot and heads for town and tells everybody she finds that she's
found the Messiah. Come and see. Well, let's see. While we're right here so close,
let's go one to the left to the book of Luke chapter 16. Shucks, I've got it marked and
don't have sense enough to even recognize the marker. Luke chapter
16. Jeremiah declared, the heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can? We can live a whole hundred years
in this world and die and never know that we've got a bad heart
spiritually. Let's try this statement. Luke
chapter 16. Did I give you the chapter? All
right. Fifteen? Let me start with fourteen. And the Pharisees also who were
covetous, our Lord just gave a parable having to do with covetousness,
heard all these things and they derided Him. They scoffed at
Him and mocked Him. And He said unto them, you are
they which justify yourselves before men. Now the only way
you can do that is to do it outwardly, but God knows your hearts." In
another place he says, your lips speak of your love for me, your
reverence for me, but your heart's not in it. It's from the heart
our Savior went on to teach are the issues of life. God knows
our hearts. He knows mine and yours. and
everybody else's. Now what's this? For that which
is highly esteemed among men, highly valued among religious
men, is abomination. God hates it with a purple passion. There are some good people all
over this country this morning gathered in buildings like this,
probably much larger and a lot more of them, And they think
that God is smiling on them. They've dressed in their best
attire. They're quiet and reverent. Some of them sit there like a
knot on a log and don't move or look away or wouldn't dare
talk to the person next to them on the pew. Lord, that would
be an awful way to go meet somebody. You just sit there like you're
in a straitjacket. But that's what we think God wants. I don't
know if I ever told you or not, It was a long time ago. We had
a big snow in January. We had canceled one Sunday and
it looked like we were going to have to cancel the next one,
so we decided to meet at like 2 or 2.30 in the afternoon, I
think, maybe 2 o'clock. Some fellow had called from Greenville,
South Carolina. He had come to bring his daughters
back to his wife. They're no longer living together
or married. And he was wanting to know how
to find his church, and so I told him. And he came out that afternoon
meeting. He sat right behind Linda. I'll
tell you, he sat there as solemn, didn't smile, didn't look. And when y'all left, he cornered
me in the foyer. He said, there's some things
I need to tell you. I said, well, if that's your
religion, you're welcome. And I don't. You go to a church,
the minute the amen is said, people run like a scared jackrabbit. Something bad wrong in that place.
You don't like to be around believers. Maybe there weren't any. I don't
know. But this is how it is. Whatever is popular in religion
is an abomination in the sight of God. Let me give you a quote
if I can do it without making too many mistakes. You'll find
these words in Psalm 119 verse 128. Therefore, I esteem, that
means to value, therefore I esteem all your precepts to be right
and I hate every false way. Now, here's part of what that
means. If I don't hate false religion that is damning the
souls of men on every hand, I do not know God, nor do I value
Him. Therefore, I esteem all your
precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every
false.