of the school. Well, it's good to see you all out this evening. Remember those who requested prayer, I did a prayer list. Jack Cochran, who has liver cancer, is that right? And Nancy Rice, that's Teresa's sister, who's going to have surgery on her neck, joints, back there on the vertebrae. So remember her prayers also.

What's today? 21. It's on both. It must be true.

Hymn number 266.

Break every gender tie, Jesus is mine!
Dark is the wilderness, alone can bless, Jesus is mine.
To him of my soul away, Jesus is mine.
Here would I ever stay, Jesus is mine.
Perishing things have played, Lord God, for one weak day.
Passed from my heart away, Jesus is mine!
Farewell, ye dreams of night, Jesus is mine!
Lost in this dawning bright, Jesus is mine!
My soul has tried, lived but a dismal void.
Jesus has satisfied, Jesus is mine.
Farewell mortality, Jesus is mine.
Welcome, Eternity! Jesus is mine!
Welcome, full of embrace! Welcome, sweet scenes of rest!
Welcome, my Savior's breast! Jesus is mine!

And number 40, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God, my Father.
There is no shadow turning with Thee.
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not.
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.
All I am. Praise Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon, and stars in their portions above,
♪ Joined with all nature in manifold witness ♪
♪ To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love ♪
♪ Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness ♪
♪ Morning by morning new mercies I see ♪
I am
♪ We stand in your way ♪
♪ I know mere presence to cheer and to guide ♪
♪ Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow ♪
♪ Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside ♪
Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
All in my glory, to mercies I speak!
All I have needed, I have provided!
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Turn in your Bibles, please, to John chapter 8, verses 21 through 29.

Then said Jesus again unto them, that is, the Pharisees, I go my way, and ye shall seek me. and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, you cannot come. Then said the Jews, will he kill himself? Because he saith, whither I go, you cannot come. And he said unto them, ye are from beneath. I am from above. Ye are of this world. I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for ye believe not that I am he. Ye shall die in your sins. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I shall speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, when ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him,

let us pray.

Our Father in heaven, great and merciful God, slow to anger and plenteous in His mercy. As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. He remembers our frame and knows that we're dust. We are thankful that because of the work of Jesus Christ, He has separated our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. made us to be by Jesus Christ's righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. Accepted us as a beloved, all because of the work of Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, and we shall thank you forever for what you've done for us. We pray for those who are sick. These have been added to the prairies. Conqueror's rise, we ask for your help for them. We continue to pray for David's brother. We ask, Lord, you'll be merciful to him. The others who requested prayer, Lord, we ask your help for them and strengthen them. For those that are away from us for whatever reason tonight, we ask that you bring them safely home to us. And for us who are gathered here, Father, tonight, we pray that you would cause us in our hearts to worship you. to bow down under the dust where we belong, lift our eyes to see Him who's worthy of all praise and all honor, even He who sits at thy right hand, having purged our sins. Help us now, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

This chapter is a treatise on clear distinctions. Every word so far we've gone in this chapter, the Lord has distinguished Himself from the others that He's spoken to. distinguish those who believe from those who do not. And line upon line, our Lord, as the word draws a line in the sand concerning these religious men who are seeking to destroy him, they do not understand his words. And what they think they understand, they reject. And that is his claims of deity and his unity with God the Father.

He has made them one by one confess their sins. after catching the woman in adultery. He has informed them that they dwell in darkness and will remain so as they despise him who is the lion of the world. He has told them that they have no idea who he is and where he's from or where he's going. He has told them that they do not know and cannot know God or that God is his father. He has spoken of spiritual things and even in their imagination they cannot rise above the carnal mind that they have. They simply cannot get what he's saying. That's why he said to them, I'm going somewhere and you cannot come. You're not able. You have no power, no wherewithal to come where I'm going.

The carnal mind embraces the false notion of innate ability to change. to breach the gulf between the flesh and the spirit. Carnal religion believes that in the flesh they can attain to and understand spiritual things. In truth they hold that dead men can raise themselves to life by the exercise of their will. But the truth is they cannot even grasp, can even grasp the spiritual realm on any level and they will not accept that they cannot. With natural men, that which is spiritual is impossible. Simply that's true. It's impossible. The gulf that cannot be traversed is unbelief. And unbelief is the mother of all sin. The first thing, according to the Word of God in John 16, the first thing that the Holy Spirit convicts a man of and convinces a man of is his unbelief. That's the first thing.

particular area that our Lord confronts these Pharisees with is this thing. They're listening to it. They haven't killed him yet. The officers they sent out to capture him didn't capture him because no man spake like this man. They haven't done what they want to do yet. It's because he keeps talking and he keeps holding them in suspense. They can't seem to get what he's saying because they cannot. And in this passage, the Lord again declares the error of their notions of the purpose of the Messiah's coming. The Jews believed that when the Messiah come came, he would improve the circumstances of their worldly existence. They thought that his arrival would be the restoration of the nation Israel and the destruction of this pagan nation who rules them. In short, they believe that he will make their life better. And that is the erroneous message of all natural religion. That is the health and wealth gospel. Listen to what men say. Jesus Christ, if you invite him into your life, your life will be better. That's the promise. That's the way men talk.

The fact is, you can't invite him into your life because you don't have one. Not one he will enter into, for you are dead in trespasses and sin, and he's not going to touch an unclean and dead thing. He's going to have to make you new all over again. Men are dead to the truth, and there is no way to improve death. You can't be a little dead, better off dead. You can't be any of those things. If you're dead, that's it for you. That's the end of things.

Our Lord came to die, and this is what He's declaring as He begins speaking again to these Pharisees in verse 21. He said, I go my way. And ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, you cannot come." Our Lord came to this world to die as a substitute for His elect. He came to this world to be buried and raised again on the third day and finally ascend to glory to sit at the right hand of the Father, having purged our sins. And those, He addresses, cannot come. He says, I'm going, and where I'm going, you cannot come.

I think He was talking about the end of His work. When he finally ascended to heaven, he said to these folks, you can't come. Now, they believed they were heaven's people. He said, you cannot come. As they remain in unbelief, they will never be with Christ in glory. They cannot. I know in this day and age, everybody goes to heaven. I think it was Henry May, I told the story of a funeral director, was talking to him when he was attending a funeral. And the funeral director told Henry that I'm never buried, he lost me. It's because everybody believes they're going to heaven.

Our Lord told the best of the best. The very people who say, accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, you can in no case enter heaven. He said to the Pharisees, who had the very best righteousness you could attain as human beings, but it was not enough. And it never will be enough. The very best righteousness of men is as filthy rags. But he said to these men, You can't come where I'm going. You cannot. And their response to this statement proves their incapability to understand these things.

Verse 22, they said this, Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? Will he kill himself? Because he saith, Whither I go ye cannot come. Now I don't know whether this was said sarcastically or sincerely. We can't tell. But we can perceive that it was born of utter ignorance. They had heard all that he had said and understood none of what he said. Now he's spent since the sixth chapter speaking to these people about who he is, that he's going somewhere they cannot go, that he's going to be lifted up. All these things he's told them over and over again, and they still haven't got a hold of it. They've heard all he's said, but they haven't understood anything he's said.

His answer to the ridiculous statement is a distinction that sells He says this in verse 23 and 24, ye are from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for you believe not that I am. You'll notice the word he is in italics. That means it was added by the translators. It was not in the original text. He said, because you will not believe that I am. Ego I may. I am that I am, the same one that dwelt in the bush.

To those who firmly believed that they were heaven's representation on this earth, Christ told them that they were from beneath. They were of the world. And he was from above and not of this world.

Our Lord said to his people, Since ye be risen in Christ, seek those things that are above, not those things that are below or beneath. If it's of this world, it will perish. All that's in the world and all that's of the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life will perish with this world. These are temporal things.

This was the religion they had. This was the old covenant. It promised not eternal life, He didn't talk about heaven. He talked about Israel and Canaan, about possessing lands and having a so-called blessed life here on earth, having fruits and labors and cattle and such. This was the promise. Had nothing to do with eternity. And they couldn't get past that. And natural man can't get past that either. Natural man cannot get past that.

This world is nothing. It's nothing. It will pass away. This is further declaration that separation is impassable. To say to the Pharisee that he was of the world was to group him in with every Gentile in the world, because that's what the world was to the Pharisee. That's what it meant to the Pharisee.

When our Lord told Nicodemus, for God so loved the world, that was a shocking statement to the Pharisee. A shocking statement to a Jew. The world was the Gentile world. That's what they called the world. And they were chosen out of the world, they believed, by God.

This is much more than an indictment. They were born of Adam. That's what he's saying. You're of the world. You're of the world. You're born of Adam and you're a recipient of his nature. A recipient of his nature. Remember what our Lord said to Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. These two are not, cannot ever come together.

Paul spent great time in Colossians and Galatians teaching that very thing over and over again. The flesh and the spirit are always separate, always contrary to each other, always affected one another to not be able to do what a person would want to do. Whether it be toward evil or toward good, there's always this contrariness that goes on.

To say to a Pharisee that he was of the world was to embarrass him, because they were saying he was of Adam. Our Lord said that in several places in Scripture, considering the world, or the earth, you're of the world. Look over in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. In verse 22, it says this, for as in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive. Everyone whom Adam represents died, and everyone whom Christ represents shall be made alive.

Look over verse 47 and 48, this summed up what our Lord said to the Pharisees. It says, how be it, excuse me, verse, the first man, that is Adam, is earthy. He's of the world. Earthy, the second man is Lord of heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. And as the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly. These things are just absolutely diametrically opposed to one another. And this is what our Lord has said to these people. Remember it says in Romans chapter five and verse 12, sin entered the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men because all men sinned in Adam.

When he said to these Pharisees, you're the world, you're not from above, you're from the earth, I'm not of the world, I'm not of the world, he said, so he's making that distinction.

The only hope for men is that somehow in the great scheme of God's purpose and grace, predestination and election, God gives men faith to believe on Christ. That's the only way they do it, if God gives them faith. If that does not occur, our Lord makes it clear to these Pharisees, they will die in their sins. That will be the end of them. There is no other way. Men, as they are born in this world, cannot bridge this chasm. God alone can raise men from the dead.

He said to his elect, who were dead naturally in trespasses and sins. He said, you have thee quicker made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Like that little child in Ezekiel 16 that was cast aside and thrown out and left for dead and finally died. It was the Lord came beside her and had pity upon her and cried unto her, live and she lived. That's what it takes.

Natural man thinks that He's not dead, fully dead. He thinks that there are degrees of deadness. There's just a little spark of life in that dead old carcass. And they believe if it's spanned right with the right kind of words and the right kind of music and so forth, it'll come to life. But dead is dead. Our Lord described it as twice dead, plucked up by the roots. There's nothing to be grounded in whatsoever. The spirit does not apply to the flesh. It never does. And the flesh cannot apply to the spirit. God and man cannot abide together. God and man cannot abide together unless there is a mediator. A mediator who is both God and man. And there's only one character that's ever lived that's filled that view. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth, Jesus Christ. Great is the mystery of God, and it's God manifest in the flesh. And there's one mediator between men and God, the man Christ Jesus, according to 1 Timothy 2, verse 5.

After our Lord has, for all practical purposes, condemned these men, they asked and wondered, who are you? Who are you? That's what it says in verse 25. Then they said unto him, who art thou? And Jesus said unto him, even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.

Who art thou? I wonder if their question considering what they just heard was more along the lines of, who do you think you are? That seems more reasonable after he said, what is it, you're gonna die in your sins to the most holy men that walk upon the face of the earth. You're going to die in your sins. Who do you think you are? They were adamant about their standing with God. They had no doubt about their standing with God.

Let me show you just in this chapter a few verses. Verse 33. And they answered him, we be Abraham's seed. We're sons of Abraham, the father of the faithful. We were never in bondage to any man who now says he shall be made free. Don't tell us we're going to be made free. We've never been in bondage. They're holy. They're righteous. Look at verse 39. They answered and said, Abraham is our father. Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. Then in verse 41, our Lord says, you do the deeds of your father. They said to him, we are not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. So they know where their standing is. And our Lord said to these people who are saying this kind of language, You're going to die in your sins because you don't believe I am. Don't believe I am. I am the one that dwelt in the bush that burned, yet was not consumed. I am. That's what Moses said, who shall I say sent me? And the Lord God is telling them, I am has sent thee. I am has sent thee.

Every time you see the two words, I am, in chapter 18 of this book, when they came to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ with their scribes and their pharisees, and they brought their lanterns and their swords, and all their lawmen to come and get the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he said. He said, whom are you looking for? And they said, we're looking for Jesus now. And he said, I am. And they fell away backwards. I am. You don't believe that he's the great I am, the God of heaven and earth. If you don't believe in Him, you'll die in your sins.

Now they believed a whole lot about God. They had the Bible. They had the oracles. They had the priesthood. They had ceremonies and all that stuff. They had the temple. They had the temple. At this time, the temple was still standing. The most holy place was still there, though the Ark of Covenant probably wasn't there. They'd been captured by the Calvin Chaldeans about 150 years prior to that. But nonetheless, the curtain was still there. and did the holy of holies, and the brazen ladle was still there, and the brazen altar was still there, and the table of showbread was still there, and the candlestick was still there. All that was still there. The priesthood ministered every day, 24 hours a day. They kept things going. They were slaying lambs, and spreading blood, and all that stuff. They had all that stuff.

They didn't know Jesus Christ was God. Why? Because they couldn't. They couldn't know. They're unaware of what He has said of Himself. They could not believe Him, though He repeated it time and time again. This is how they acted and how they spoke in John chapter 10, verse 24 and 25. It said, Then came the Jews round about him, and he was teaching on Solomon's porch, where they debated things. Then came the Jews round about him and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell them plainly. I was plainly. He was told them plainly over and over again. They couldn't get it. They couldn't get it. The chasm was never more evident than when he spoke to these Pharisees.

Sinners, ruin, vile harlots, Publicans, the worst of the lot, they gathered around Christ. Hung on every word they said. Believed on Him. These were the worst of the bunch. But the very best could not believe on Him. Religion is a wall of brass that only the power of grace can penetrate. We preach the gospel knowing full well that it alone is the power of God and the salvation. The words of Christ, they are spirit and they are life. We don't begin to understand that. But it's our commission to do it. Not to understand it, not to have anything with the results of it, but simply to do it.

In verse 26, Christ informs these men that he has many things to say to them and to judge them. He said, I have many things to say unto you and to judge you. Two chapters after this one, and the remainder of this chapter, you're gonna see how he does judge you. He's not nice to you. My mama used to say, well, you're too hard. I tell her, I ain't near as hard as Christ was on her. That's the point of religion. The next two chapters will bring heavy judgment to them and further distinguish them as unbelievers. He declares that his judgments are true because the one who has sinned him is true. That's what our Lord said about his doctrine when he said, ìStill is the due.î Back in Deuteronomy chapter 32, he talks about his judgments being true.

Deuteronomy 32, verse 2, it says, my doctrine shall drop as the rain in my speech. My word shall be still as the dew. That means they're from heaven as the small rain upon the tender earth and as the showers upon the grass. Because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe to you greatness to our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect, for all his ways are judgments, a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right. is he. His father's truth. My words are true because the father who sent me, his words are true. What the Lord speaks is what he has heard from his father. Those who are hearing him do not understand that he spoke with the father. He was talking about who sent him. I didn't come on myself to say I was sent here. I was sent here on a mission. of the debt that he should accomplish according to the law of the prophets that visited him on the Mount of Transfiguration. But they didn't get it, that that's what he was talking about.

In verse 27 it says, they understood not that he spake to them of the law. They understood not. Again, I hear what he is saying. It seems astounding that those who have the scriptures instead of them have no idea of what our Lord is saying. But as I was reading this and thinking, well, these crazy people are not remembering the Palm Caves. Years and years of this religion. Free will, lost as a goose in a snowstorm. Cared not for Christ, knew not for Christ, liked it. Religion somewhat. When I first heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, I didn't like it because it was against everything I'd been taught when I first heard it. But I only heard it with my natural hearing ears. So I can't be too hard on these Pharisees because I was steeped in religion myself. And I could not hear until the Lord opened my ears. They cannot hear what He's saying. They're in darkness. They have not the light of life. He's going to the cross. That's what He's talking about. He can't know where I'm going.

Verse 28. Then Jesus says, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He, or that I am. And that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father hath taught me, I speak these things. On the cross, he will be lifted up to die. There will be many convinced that he is the Son of God. The soldiers who divided his reign, said this man truly is a righteous man. He's the Son of God. The thief on the cross called him Lord. Remember me when thou comest into our kingdom. He came voluntarily to die. It was not forced upon him. This mission was a voluntary mission from heaven. He said, I, if I be led to death, will draw men to myself. And even among these Pharisees, there will be many converts. In days to come, in weeks to come, after his resurrection, that death will be the propitiation for sin. the pleasing of God the Father for justice and righteousness. For he said, I do everything to please the Father. And one of the words for propitiation is to please.

Our Lord and Savior, when our Lord was raised out of the waters of baptism, a voice came from heaven and said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. He said the same thing on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus Christ did not come to make your life better. He came to die and to give you life. Give life to His elect, and that He did, and He did it for one reason, to please the Father. To please the Father. Father, let's just understand and pray Christ's name. Amen. All right, God bless you.