They called the name of a lady named Beulah, but I can't remember her last name. I wrote it down in my note. She had a heart attack, and they sent her to Asheville. Her first name was Beulah. We got it written down so it would be in a bulletin on Sunday, but I couldn't remember her name. Where did she say she was from? She didn't. She was from here. But I don't know what township she's from. But remember him and remember that family in your prayer. Her first name's Beulah. I don't know that I asked about it. No, the Lord does. So I asked for her. Remember the others who requested prayer also.

Let's begin our worship service tonight with hymn number 354, What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

What a friendly, happy Jesus
All my sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God ? We are found perfect ?
? All what needless may we bear ?
? All because we do like every ?
? Everything to God in prayer

?
? Every trials and temptations ?

Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. When we find our place of faithful, Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take him to the Lord in prayer. Army, we may be laden. Come and give the Lord a care. Preach, O Savior, still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do I pledge this life for safely? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms you're taken safely.

hymn number 46, O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.

O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise,
the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace.

My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim,
to strengthen all the earth around
the honors of Thy name.

Jesus, the Name that chums our fears,
that feeds our sorrow's seeds,
is music in the sinner's ears,
is life and health and peace.

Praise the power of the cat so sick,
He sets the prisoner free.
His blood can make the foulest king,
His blood availed for me.

Hear Him, ye dead, His praise ye done,
Your lucent tongues employ.
Be like me, O your Savior God,
and lead me length for joy.

Glory to God, and praise and love he ever,
ever will. By saints we loo, and saints above,
the Church in earth and heaven.

Turn with me in your bowels, please, to John chapter eight. Again, reading verse 37, read through verse 45. The thought of my message tonight is my father, your father. John chapter eight, verse 37. Our Lord says to these men, I know that ye are Abraham's seed, but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my father, and you do that which you have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto him, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. You knew the deeds of your father. Then they said to him, we're not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. Jesus said, if God were your father, you'd love me. For I proceed 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 hear my word. You are of your father, the devil. and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Let us pray.

Our Father in heaven, we are thankful for the distinctions that are clearly set forth in your word. And we are thankful for the faith you have given us to understand what they are. We are thankful, Father, for your great grace and mercy for ruined sinners who had no hope in helping themselves, who had nothing to offer unto you, had no way to pay their debt for the sin they had committed. And yet, in the goodness of your grace, you sent your Son into this world, made in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, and by His death, destroyed sin in the flesh. We are thankful that our salvation was wrought by Him, that you did not leave any of it up to us.

We pray for you, for what you've done, for who you are. Pray for those who are sick, this lady that's been mentioned. Ask Lord your help for her, for the others who requested prayer. We ask Lord you be with them for those who are away from us for whatever reason and pray you bring them safely back to us. For those who are going through trials and troubles, now know us in every case. Show mercy, we pray. Help us tonight as we look at your word. Give us grace and faith to glean that which you have for us, and cause us to worship you in spirit and in truth. We pray in Christ's name, amen.

Now back to verse 36, our Lord, speaking to the Pharisees, said that he had many things to judge them. He said, I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which ye have heard of him. He's talking to the Pharisees, and he had many things to judge of them. And what we see in this passage of scripture and what follows, in fact, throughout the book of John until the day of his crucifixion, he has much to judge of the Pharisees and what they believe. His words thus far have been a veritable list of judgments against them several times. He says you don't love God, you don't know God, things like these are judgments against them.

Their claim to righteousness before God was that they were sons of Abraham. This is what their argument that they set forth to the Lord Jesus Christ in this context, that Abraham was their father. And our Lord does not deny that they are the seed of Abraham. He says that in verse 37, I know that you are Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. So their claim to be Abraham or sons of Abraham had some validity to it, but they rejected the truth that they were servants of sin and that they were not free men.

Our Lord says, he who committed sin is a servant of sin. He shall know the truth, he said to his disciples, And the truth shall set you free. And if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. And they were patently ignorant of what he meant when he said that his word had no place in them. They didn't have any understanding of that. They didn't realize that he was the word. The word made flesh. He spoke the word. He wrote the word. He was the author and finisher of faith. This book was about him. He's already told them in chapter 5 and verse 39 that the scriptures were about him. But they had no idea when he said, my word has no place in you. They were rejecting his word.

Using their argument in this passage of scripture, that Abraham was their father, he declares the most profound judgment against them. He tells them that they were of the seed of Abraham, but Abraham was not their father. and tells them that they were descendants of another father, and one not so pleasing for these religious men to hear. Verse 38, our Lord makes an immediate distinction. He said, I speak that which I have seen with my father, and you do that which you have seen with your father. He said, my father and your father are completely different. He declares that he and the Pharisees had different fathers and their disagreement was not immediate. And they had doubts as if they had doubts to his lineage. They do have some doubts. In fact, they verse him down in verse 48. It says, Then answered the Jews and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil? Not only not a Jew, he's a Samaritan and he hath a devil. That was what they were eventually saying. At the least, they were calling into question that Abraham was Christ's progenitor, as if to say, we know who our father is, but we don't know who your father is.

That's why it said in verse 39, they answered and said, Abraham is our father. Jesus said of him, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. So evidently what they're doing, And the manner in which they are acting toward the Lord Jesus Christ was not considered to be the works of Abraham at all. Our Lord's response was another declaration that they were Abraham's seed, that Abraham was not their father. You don't do the works of Abraham, which is proof that you are not the children of Abraham. Now, he's really putting them in their place here, and it's beginning to be a real strong argument that he's making.

In verse 40, our Lord lays down the gauntlet. He says, but now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. He told the Pharisees that they were doing what Abraham would never have done and indeed did not do. This is important. They sought to kill him because he told them the truth. He told them the truth. This is why men have died for the gospel said throughout the ages. Buy yourself a copy of Foxe's Book of Martyrs and read about the men who died because they told people the truth. Men like Zwingli and Huss and Tyndall who published the Bible in the English language, in the language of the people in the country they were at. The Roman church put them on the stake and killed them, said that only the priest can understand the scriptures. You can't understand them. You're not supposed to have them. And so they killed the man who changed them. And they killed people who had these scriptures in their possession.

They sought to kill him because he told them the truth. This is what angers people. Our Lord had told them the truth. What truth did he tell them? He told them they weren't free. He told them that they were Abraham's seed, but Abraham was not their father. He told them that they didn't love God. He told them that there's the scriptures But they thought that would make them have eternal life, but they wouldn't come to Him that they might have life. He's told them that all the Father gave to Him will come to Him. And He said that in the face of those who didn't believe in Him. He said, I know you don't believe in me. And all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me out of no wise cast out. He told them the truth time after time after time. He said, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood, but I'm not going to be here for you to do it. Things like that, over and over again. And for this they sought to kill him.

Now they will say that the reason they sought to kill him was that he raised up a man on the Sabbath day. But the reason for it really was that he told them the truth. Because he says, you sought to kill me, a man who told you the truth.

Then he makes an interesting statement, which he will later clarify in this very same chapter in verse 58. But he says that Abraham did not seek to kill him. He didn't say, does not. He said he did not seek to kill him. This did not Abraham.

Though the words went right over their heads, he was declaring that he was present in Abraham's day. You seek to kill me. Abraham didn't seek to kill me. Abraham's not living now. It's several centuries ago that that took place, and yet he said, Abraham didn't seek to kill me. Well, where were you? You must have been there if he didn't seek to kill you.

And even in Abraham's presence, we find time and time again this character showed up in Abraham's life, this one he called Lord. And the Lord spoke to him. If you read the theological commentaries, they'll say this is a Christophany. a pre-incarnate revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He even argued with the Lord. Yes, he was in the time of Abraham. Yes, he walked with Abraham. Yes, he was seen by Abraham. Yes, he talked to Abraham.

He's the one who was in the Garden of Eden talking to Adam. He walked in the Garden of Eden. He was the one who had hands that could actually take clay. and make it into a human being and blow the breath of life into his nostrils. He's the creator of all things. This is Jesus Christ, God Almighty. And he walked with Abraham.

Let me just give you an example of that. Look over at Genesis chapter 19. Our Lord is about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their evil. And Abraham's just hoping that there might be somebody in there who's Worth not killing. So he's talking with the Lord. And this is not a vision. Now he had a vision in verse chapter 15. It was a vision when the Lord took him out on the side of the mountain and showed him the stars of heaven. He said, can you count them? He said, no. He said, well I see, being he was speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ and Abraham believed in him. And it was accounted to him for righteousness.

But here, it's not a vision. He's talking to the Lord. Talking to the Lord Jehovah.

In Genesis chapter 19, verse 23. I've got the wrong one. Well, anyway, let me explain what happened. I can't remember exactly what it was. I'd have to do this at 19 now, but it was when he was getting ready to destroy Sodom in the morning. And the Lord was speaking with Abraham, and Abraham says, well, if there's 50 men there that are righteous, would you spare the city? And the Lord said, yeah, if there's 50 men there, I'll spare the city. And then Abraham thought about it and he says, I don't want a body in there. I feel like I shouldn't even be speaking to you, the Lord of glory, and I'm just nobody. I'm just the dust of the earth. But if there's like 25 men there, would you not destroy the city? And the Lord said, yeah. I won't destroy the city if there's 25 righteous men there. And he thought about it for a minute. He says, oh, please, Lord, forgive me. If there's ten men there that are righteous, would you not destroy the city? He said, yes, if there's ten men there, I will destroy the city.

They found Abraham and said, if there's five. He wanted to save Sodom, and the more I can't imagine why. I knew Lot had already come out. Lot's wife had already been. But he was talking to the Lord. Back then.

So he could say to the Pharisees, Abraham did not seek to kill me. Christ further declares that their father sought also to kill him. And they follow in his footsteps. Our Lord says, your father sought to kill him. He said, Abraham didn't. You say he's your father, but he's not your father, but your father did seek to kill him.

Verse 41 says, you do the deeds excuse me, of your father. You do the deeds of your father. So he's making this distinction that they follow him in their father's footsteps, but not Abraham's footsteps. Not Abraham's. And their response was, of course, from a natural mindset. They said that they were not bastards. They were not, they did not perceive for a proceed from the womb of a harlot. They were sons of God. Now they're no longer claiming to be the seed of Abraham. They're saying, we're sons of God. We're sons of God.

Now this was a common understanding among the Jews. The Lord actually called the Jews his son, or his sons, the nation, his son in one or two places. But they believed Many of the saints of old, at least, those in the Old Testament who really believed in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and looked to Him, they called God their Father. Let's do examples. Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32, verse 6. It says, Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not He thy Father that brought thee or that bought thee? hath he not made thee and established thee? So they called him their father, Isaiah. Look over at Isaiah chapter 62. Or Isaiah chapter 63. Verse 16 in Isaiah 62 says, Doubtless thou art our father. Though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou, O Lord, our Father, our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting. And then when Isaiah, in Isaiah 64, confesses his sin, that all his righteousness is in his heart's filthy rags, and there's nobody in the whole outfit that calls upon the Lord, that they all fade as a leaf, all their iniquities like the wind have taken them away. He then says in verse 8 of chapter 64, but now, oh Lord, thou art our father.

Now the Pharisees have said to the Lord in answer to his accusation, you do the works of your father. What works of that? They're trying to kill me. And you do the same works of your father. Your father tried to kill me. Tried to kill me, and that's what he's saying. The Lord says another undeniable truth, if God was indeed their father, they would love him. What a statement. What a powerful, powerful statement. He said, if God were your father, you would love me, for I proceed forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he said to me, if God were your father, you would love me. This is a profound statement. People say a lot of times they love God. The Jews say they love God. But they don't love Jesus Christ. So at the end of the day, God's not your father. That simple.

They say call, some call him father. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ call him father and say, they love the son but our lord says in first corinthians chapter 16 verse 22 let him that loves not the lord jesus christ be accursed when the lord comes be accursed over in first john chapter 5 it says if you love the one who begat you love the one begotten of him begotten of him He reiterates that the Father had sent Him and that He speaks the Father's words. That's what He said back in verse 38, I speak that which I have seen with my Father. And in the end of 42, it says, neither came I myself, but He has sent me. And in verse 43, our Lord tells them that they don't understand because they cannot hear what He's saying.

And you think about the dynamic. They're right up against Him in the temple. He's talking to them. sitting there teaching and they brought the woman in and they left and they came back and he's talking to them face to face. And this is what he says to them, why do you not understand my speech? That's the way it's worked. He said, you don't understand my speech. That's a rhetorical, what's called a rhetorical question. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear My words.

Were they not hearing what he was saying? With their natural ears, they were hearing everything he was saying. Because it made them mad enough to kill him. But he says, you cannot hear my speech. It must have seemed foolishness to them, as they heard the words that he spoke. And again, the natural man in the inability of the mind has stated, he did not say that they would not hear his speech, but they could not hear his speech.

He said to another who thought he knew something, and thought he knew something about God, and about the coming of the Messiah, and a man who was able to do such miracles as he did. He said, except verily, verily, I say unto you, except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. You cannot perceive it. You cannot grasp it. You cannot understand it.

We know in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, says the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit, their foolishness doeth. Neither can he know them, discern them, because they're spiritually discerned. These were the most learned and studied men in the world concerning the scriptures. And they could not understand what they had spent their time studying. Now when the author of the word, the word himself, speaks to them, they cannot hear what he's saying. They cannot hear what he means.

Why? These had not faith. What does faith have to do with it? The only way we understand the Word of God is by faith. We don't understand it because we study it. We don't understand it because we spend our life We understand this word because God has given us faith to believe it. And that's why we understand it.

Look over to Hebrews chapter 11, that great chapter on faith and the people who lived by faith and walked in faith. It starts out this way. And that's in opposition to what it says in verse 39 of chapter 10. But we are not of them who walk back into perdition, but of them that believe into the saving of the soul.

Now, faith is the substance of thing. That is the ground or the confidence of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. What is evidence? Well, if you're in a courtroom, there are two kinds of evidence, direct evidence and circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence is something you actually see. You can say, I saw that. That's direct evidence. or evidence that actually points to a single person, that's direct evidence. Circumstantial evidence is if somebody comes inside and they're soaking wet. You might assume, correctly so, that it's raining. That might be a correct assumption. That's circumstantial evidence. But evidence is something that's physically, how is faith an evidence? It's not direct. You can't see it. It's not circumstantial. You can't see the effects of something that caused it. You can't see it. And yet God says this is the evidence. And it's the only time the word evidence is used in the New Testament. The only time. This is the evidence. It's the evidence of things what? Hoped for. Evidence of things hoped for. More evidence of things not seen.

Our Lord said to the Corinthian church, we look on things that are not seen. We look on things that are not seen. How do we do that? We don't do it with ease. We do it by believing. And we believe because God has granted us this glorious and wonderful gift of faith.

Never discount the wonder and the beauty of the fact That you are able to look at this book and say, yes indeed, that's true. Yes indeed, I'll live by this because it's worth living by. There's nothing greater in this world for a person to have on the face of this earth than for him to have faith. Have faith. This is the singular ground.

So I don't believe God created the world. Well, if you look at the natural evidence and all these scientists and everything, you say, well, you know, that might cause me doubt, too. Well, that ain't how we understand that. Look at what it said. Verse 3. Through faith, we understand that the world, worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made, but things which do appear. That's how we understand.

How do we understand the creation? Is it because we can write a book on creationism? We can write a book on science that proves the Bible? Science don't prove the Bible. In fact, if you look back at the great scientists, the early scientists, the one that pursued science, pursued to understand the natural world, hydrodynamics, electricity, static electricity, these things, look at the lives of these men and you'll find this.

Every one of them said, I want to see what's going on, to see the glory of God in his creation. Until the 30s, when they started having these thinking contests about rationalization and so forth, that's when it all started to come apart in men's thinking. But up until that point, when men saw something, they said, we want to see what? We want to understand the glory of what this is. We don't want to look at animals and see the beauty of their distinctiveness. We don't want to look at the flowers. We don't want to look at the trees. We don't want to look at the stars and understand God, have some concept of God. So that was the pursuit of science.

But even in all their efforts, they didn't prove God. And you can't either. But if you got faith, you know, we understand God. We understand what a wondrous thing that is. They didn't have faith, so they couldn't hear. They didn't know what he was talking about. The most learned man, now he speaks to them and tells them they don't understand. That's the singular thing, friends.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, don't look at anything else. If you understand the scripture, it ain't cause you're smart. Because God's given you faith to believe it. Believe it.

The next words of our Savior may fall in the category of no more nice guy. Our Lord says that ye are of your father. Wait a minute. It ain't God. It ain't Abraham. You are of your father the devil. and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he abode not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. He said, my word finds no place in you either. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar, and he's the father of lies. The first lie told in the Bible, the scripture, he told. Genesis chapter 3. Well, God said you shouldn't. Didn't God say you shouldn't eat of every tree? He said, well, you need to eat of every tree but that one. He said, well, God knows if you eat that one, that one, you'll be like Him. What a lie. But you know people believe it still today.

But He's the Father of lies. Your Father is the devil. I think of this, I think, I was sitting in a group of preachers and they were all legalists or all free willers and I said this, your father's a devil, they probably want to kill me. Well, these want to kill Christ, after he said it. This is no small indictment. This is not the general opinion of what religion applies to demon possession for sure. But this is a very accurate description.

Religion talks about A creature with horns and a forked tail and looks like a goat and things like that. You know, all this stuff. They like to talk about pentagrams and rituals of satanic rituals and things. This is the accurate description. Somebody who does not believe. Barnard, you say, give me somebody that believes the Bible? I'll show you a Christian. I'll show you a Christian. These were demon-possessed. Any and all who believe, and this is what they believe, that they can be found in God's favor by their merited righteousness. These are the sons of Satan.

Except that don't always sound right. is a bright and shining creature. Satan is not an ugly, scary thing. Satan is beautiful. Satan is enticing. Satan will tell you, and he will build up your ego to make you believe that if you do enough, work hard enough, and try hard enough, and pray hard enough, that God will accept you on that basis. and you'll go to hell off a church pew with the Bible in your hand. This is what he did. These men believed that they were God's people and they went by the book. They went by the law. They claimed to be men of light and bringers of light while they dwelt in spiritual darkness. This is a map description.

Our Lord said to these men, your father is the devil. Over in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 it talks about these false teachers that come in who are of the devil and how and what they do. They don't come in and tell people to go out and get drunk. They don't go out and tell people to do debauchery, though today we're getting some that are starting to sound like that. But in chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians In verse 13, he says, for such are false apostles. They claim to have been with Christ. False apostles, they're deceitful workers. They transform themselves into apostles of Christ. They're not apostles of Christ, but they do whatever it takes to make people think they are.

And no marvel Don't be amazed at this, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. You know what the word Lucifer means? Bright one. Bright one. That's what was in the Garden of Eden. And therefore it is no great thing if his minister is also transformed. ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works. They lie to themselves and to others because their father is a liar and the father of lies.

This being the case that our Lord spoke in this manner to these men, he gives them the reason why they can't hear his speech. He says in verse 45, and because, because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. There can be no stronger rejection or reason for the rejection of the gospel than this, it's the truth. And because it's the truth, None but the elect of the church will ever believe it. Men will reject it because it's the truth. I've said many times that these preachers in churches that reject the truth of God's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ do so and are afraid of it because deep It is the truth. And since it's the truth, they'll have to quit everything they're doing in the name of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord says, you don't believe me because I tell you the truth. Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.