John 8:21-25

We will pick up here where we left off, no

telling how many Sundays ago, I can't even

remember.

We're going to start by reading verses 21 to

25.

Then he said again to them, "I go away.

And you will seek me, and will die in your sin

, where I am going, you cannot come."

So the Jews were saying, surely he will not

kill himself, will he?

Since he says, "Where I am going, you cannot

come."

And he was saying to them, "You are from below

, I am from above.

You are of this world, I am not of this world.

Therefore I said to you, that you will die in

your sins, for unless you believe that

I am he, you will die in your sins."

So they were saying to him, "Who are you?"

Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying

to you from the beginning?"

Have you ever said to somebody, particularly

that you're witnessing to, you will die in

your sins?

Have you ever said that to anybody?

Probably not.

That's what Jesus said three times in

succession, in this text, to people who

believe, you've

got to understand this.

This group he's talking to, believe that they

and they alone were the representatives of

God on the earth, that they were the agents of

his kingdom, that they were privileged

status above all the other Jews with the hope

of heaven.

It was to that group that Jesus said three

times, "You will die in your sins."

Now, what led up to this?

Well, we're going to do a quick broad review

here just to keep our focus and our bearings

straight here in our study off and on of John

's Gospel.

By the time this dialogue occurred, I want you

to get back in your thinking where we

are here in John 8 with the timeline of where

we are in Jesus' three-year ministry.

By this time, everybody in Israel was aware of

Jesus.

This is a three-year ministry.

I want you to think about it.

The ordinary everyday person didn't have a

whole lot going on.

There was no TV, there was no electricity, it

was just a really kind of humdrum amongst

the common people kind of life, just the daily

thing, the same things every day.

This survival mode to get your own food, there

was no grocery stores, whatever gardening,

whatever they were tending to, whatever trade

they had, it was just a everyday kind of hum

drum

exists and then this Jesus comes along and he

's doing some crazy stuff.

He's feeding 25,000 people, he's raising

people from the down, I mean just it's

unbelievable.

So you can imagine that there was no one in

Israel who didn't know who Jesus was or at

least had not heard about him and so at this

point you have to understand where we are

in the timeline we're only about six months

away from the cross.

This is right near the end of the three-year

ministry, the miracles are just, just think

about it.

I mean there was no newspaper, right, there

were no periodicals so what do you think,

especially

as we get near the end of this three-year

ministry, when people were out there at the

water well or whatever they were doing with

the goats and all of that, what do you think

the conversation was?

I'm telling you the conversation was about the

miracles of Jesus, alright, and by this

time he had covered, think about it, he had

gone from the south to the north and back down

to the south over three years from Judea to

Galilee in the north and then back to Judea

in these final months of his ministry,

everybody is talking about Jesus.

He, you talk about gone viral, he has gone

viral to the Mth degree in our, in our way

of thinking.

Matter of fact, he's been the common source of

conversation since the ministry of John

the Baptist because who was talking about

Jesus?

John the Baptist and the Bible says all of

Judea was going out to John the Baptist to

hear him preach and that was at the very

beginning of Jesus' ministry.

And then you had these amazing, undebatable,

never before witnessed miracles, daily basis,

people getting healed, blind people seeing,

just throughout the duration of his ministry.

Just think of how this must have been to these

people and in addition to that, when he sat

everybody down on the hillside, this unparall

eled teaching, words and phrases and metaphors

and parables, things that they had never heard

anything like it.

Remember, no man ever spoke like this.

All of this, all of this folks, they have to

understand this too, was far more than enough

evidence that Jesus was who he claimed to be,

far more than enough evidence that he was

indeed their Messiah, the Son of God.

John says later in his gospel, you know this,

that there are many, this is fascinating to

me to think about.

I hope when I get to heaven, we see all of

this.

John says, there's many, many other things

that Jesus did, which if they were written

in detail, I suppose even the world itself

could not contain the books that would be

written.

Just to summary folks, it's just all kind of

other stuff that Jesus did that we don't

even know about.

And so with all of this massive, overwhelming

evidence supporting undeniably the claim of

Jesus to be the Son of God, I submit to you

that unbelief in Jesus, here with six months

to go, left in his ministry, unbelief in Jesus

at this point in his three-year ministry is

absolutely unexcusable, really.

And that's why he says, you will die in your

sin unless you believe that I am he.

It wasn't that they didn't have the evidence.

Remember I've told you this many times, there

's no word in this New Testament or in these

Gospels especially where you will ever find

that the Pharisees denied the evidence of

Jesus's miracles being authentic.

They couldn't say that.

They couldn't because they were too

unbelievably real.

You couldn't fake what he was doing.

We saw the best explanation of this back in

John 5.

Remember he said, you are unwilling to come to

me so that you may have life.

You know anybody like that in your life right

now?

They are just unwilling to come to Jesus,

Jesus's way.

Oh, I believe in Jesus, brother Philip, but I

just believe he's like this.

That's not coming to Jesus.

That's a Jesus you made up in your own brain.

You're unwilling to come to the Jesus of the

Bible is what your problem is.

Human will, human volition has to be exercised

, activated toward Christ for salvation.

No question about it.

It is a matter of your will, of my will,

activated.

You have to believe.

You have to exercise faith and the wildest

thing of course is that there is that parallel

truth alongside of that and it's divine

sovereignty and those two things run together

and how they

interlock is incomprehensible to you and I.

We're quit trying to figure that out.

Just understand they're both true.

But folks for me, I'm just a simple minded

person.

I'm a very simple person.

I live a very simple life.

I don't do a whole lot of different stuff and

I just understand this very simply.

We folks are not responsible to do God's part

in salvation.

That's his issue.

That's his dealings.

We are responsible to do our part, which is to

believe.

So yes, I believe God is sovereign.

Yes, I believe he calls whoever he wants to

call.

Yes, I believe he elects who he wants to.

That's his business.

It's my job though to say to everybody, repent

and believe.

That's our part and that's what we are

responsible to do and the people of Israel

during that

time that Jesus was here.

I want you to think about these people, this

group of people, and we would be no different.

Don't look down your nose at the people of

Israel and all that.

Come on, man.

Think about this.

They had number one what all humanity has

always had since the fall in the garden and

still will have until the very end, the

reality of God manifested in creation.

All human beings have that.

And the word tells us also in the conscience,

the law of God written on every heart, the

knowledge that there is a God and that there

is a right and a wrong.

They had that, but guess what else they had?

They had the witness of the Old Testament.

They had the true God and his whole Old

Testament, but not only that, this particular

group of

people in Israel that Jesus is talking to and

the rest of the crowds in Israel.

They had Jesus live and living color standing

right in front of them.

Amazing.

And what did Jesus say?

You will not come to me that you might have

life.

Think of how brightly the light had shown in

Israel for those three years when the God

man was walking through Galilee, performing

miracles, teaching like no one had ever heard.

But sadly, look what John said in John three

and verse 19.

This is the judgment that the light has come

into the world and men love darkness rather

than light for their deeds or evil.

Along the way in the ministry of Jesus, there

were some people who believed, but compar

atively

speaking in Israel, there wasn't many.

I mean, there was tens of thousands.

There be hundreds of thousands who were

subjected to Jesus, who were in his vicinity

and rejected

and here in our text.

This is where we are.

We are right in the middle and again, right

towards the end of this, this continual escal

ating

animosity towards Jesus that's going to drive

Jesus to say what he says, starting in verse

21.

And let's go back and start there for today.

Verse 21, then he said again to them, I go

away and you will seek me and will die in

your sin and where I am going, you cannot come

.

What is about as blunt as you can get with an

unbeliever right there?

Notice please, it starts out by saying, then

he said to them, what again?

And so it certainly seems that this is a very

routine thing that he had been saying to them

back in chapter seven of John's gospel in

verse 34.

As he said, you will seek me and will not find

me and where I am, you cannot come.

And if you remember back, we covered that.

They took issue with that and look down in

verse 24.

He's going to say twice in this verse, you

will die in your sins.

It seems they heard that a lot of Jesus.

The primary thrust of the ministry of Jesus

was what?

To talk about the kingdom, to talk about

salvation.

But it was not without a warning component.

This is about as stern and direct as a warning

can get, you will die.

I mean, right now, if you just walk up

somebody in the grocery store and you strike

up a conversation

with them and you just say, hey, I need to

remind you, you're going to die.

I mean, would you do that?

Right?

How?

How?

What a wake up call reminder.

Right?

Just to tell somebody that.

But to say you will die in your sins, oh boy,

that means you will die unforgiving of your

sins where I am going, you cannot come.

He's also made clear over and over that he

came from heaven and he even said many times

I returned to the father, but where he was

going, they would never go.

He is going to die.

But where he went when that happened was a

place they would never see and still have

it.

Folks, it really is.

I fail to be able to convey with words what

all that I have in my mind about the horrific

components of the reality of hell.

I never feel as if I can explain what is all

in my thinking about that subject.

We talked about one aspect of it a few Sundays

back.

If you remember, I said, hell is a seeking for

what you cannot find.

You're there and then instantly you get who it

was that you desperately needed in your

life and if you move to seek after him, he's

no longer there.

He's no longer available to you as he was

during your life and also as many have spec

ulated

still being unregenerate when if you seek him

there and you don't find him, your reaction

will not be to repent.

Your reaction will be utter hatred.

You will hate him because of where you are.

You will have unparalleled bitterness and

anger.

That's why Jesus describes hell as the place

of weeping and gnashing of teeth because

you will be so bitter and evil toward Jesus,

toward God for the fact that you were there.

You will not be looking to repent.

That just overloads my senses to think about

that for people, people that I know, people

that I love who right now refuse to bend the

knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

It's beyond my ability to fully take in.

We don't like to think about that.

It's so, it's so huge and yet I want you to

pay attention to this.

Jesus himself makes that reality as clear as

he does anything else in the New Testament.

If we had to line up a top 10 of the things

that Jesus made clear in the New Testament,

that reality of hell and eternal punishment

would be number one.

It'd be right at the top.

Now let's consider how.

How does a person die in their sin?

How does this happen?

Well, here in verses 22 to 25, Jesus is going

to give us four realities.

Okay, you ready?

These are four guarantees that you will die in

your sins.

The seriousness of this, seriousness of this

cannot be over exaggerated by me because we're

talking about eternity for souls, conscious

souls forever.

When we talk about this subject, this should

never be taken lightly.

Think about it.

It's wild to me.

The only two possibilities that exist for

every single human being are heaven or hell.

It's it.

And once you get where you're going, you have

no shot at all to go anywhere else or to the

other side.

And it lasts forever.

That is so mind boggling to me, the thought of

that is so mind boggling that I understand

completely why unbelievers mock that and why

they don't believe it because I was once that

way.

You got to be kidding me just because somebody

's a different religion, that's what's going

to happen to them.

That's all I used to think.

So let's start with the first way you can

guarantee you will die in your sins.

Be self-righteous.

Look at verse 22.

So the Jews and remember so often when when

John uses that phrase, the Jews, he's talking

about the Jewish leaders because that's who's

standing around Jesus right here at this

conversation.

So the Jews were saying, surely he will not

kill himself.

Will he?

Since he says, where I am going, you cannot

come.

Now, now why would they say that kind of

strange, isn't it that they put that in there?

Well, I can tell you exactly why.

You have to understand Jewish culture.

Josephus, the well-known Jewish historian,

tells us that among the Jews, the number one

worst sin in their eyes by far was suicide.

For them, that was numeral uno, big time.

According to Josephus, they believe that a

person who committed suicide didn't just go

to Hades, the place for the dead who don't

know God, but the person who commits suicide,

they go to the lowest, darkest point of Hades.

They go to the lowest, darkest corner, the

worst place to be within the worst place to

be.

That's what the rabbis taught.

So think about what's happening here.

This is why they say it.

Jesus gives them this most severe warning that

can be given to any human being.

Hey, Jewish leaders, every single one of you

is going to die in your sins.

That's what he tells them in their face

directly.

And of course, they are highly offended

because they don't see themselves as sinners,

right?

They see themselves as what, righteous.

And remember, Jesus said, "Look, man, I didn't

come to call the righteous.

I can't deal with you guys.

I'm here for the sinners.

I'm here for the people who know that they are

sinners."

That's who I'm here for.

And that was always the issue with these

religious leaders here.

In this text, they refused, as they always did

, to recognize their true condition as

sinners before a holy God.

And so what do they do?

They mock the king of glory to his face.

They say, "Oh, he's going to kill himself and

he's going to go to the deepest, darkest

corner of Haiti.

He's completely and forever removed from where

we're going because we're going to the

presence

of Abraham.

We're going where all the righteous people go,

so it must be he's going to kill himself

because we're not going there, of course."

It's truly amazing how deaf to this warning

these self-righteous people are.

That they mock God in human flesh.

The Son of God, they mock him.

It's frightening for them.

And it's such an ignorant mocking, right?

They are laughing about this, actually.

You can hear them laughing as they say, "Oh,

he's going to kill himself."

And they should have been crying.

And they kept on laughing until one day for

each of them they died.

And then when they die, and you want to know

what's fascinating to me, they're still crying

right now, today, at this very moment.

There's a spiritual existence of a place

called hell that they're still crying in.

Right this very moment, right now, there's no

way that every moment they're not thinking

of this interaction right here that they had

with the God-man and what they said to him,

and they're still thinking about it right now

in hell.

They're mocking here the very idea of a Savior

.

They're mocking the very idea sinners.

Are you kidding?

Are you really saying to us that we're going

to die in our sins?

That's ridiculous.

Self-righteousness is very deadly, folks.

It's a guarantee, guarantee that you will die

in your sins and stay in that infinitely

dreadful condition forever.

Now let's make sure we nail down this phrase

self-righteous, okay?

It comes in many different forms.

It's the idea, it's the idea that somehow,

some way, you are good enough for heaven on

your own.

Then you're trusting something other than

Christ and His gospel for salvation.

And whatever it is, your own religion, your

own rituals and sacraments and ceremonies,

spirituality, goodness, the big one is, I'm

just going to believe Jesus how I want to

believe Him.

And I think at the end of the day, I'm going

to be all right because my goodness is going

to outweigh my bad.

Whatever, that's the prevailing belief in

America today, but whatever it is, if it's

a part from saving faith in the person and

work of Christ alone, it's self-righteousness.

The apostles certainly got this message, I

mean, go read your Bible, go read Acts, go

read through all the epistles and it's very

clear that they understood that nobody would

ever, ever, ever be saved by their works, that

nobody would be saved by their faith

in Christ plus their works together.

That's so clear, go just read Romans alone.

They understood, they taught it over and over

and over, that salvation is a matter of grace

alone through faith alone in Christ alone and

that God in His grace and mercy grants

His very righteousness to undeserving

believers.

That's the message of the gospel, the message

of the New Testament.

Paul wrote, "By the deeds of the law, no human

being will be justified."

That means by doing any amount of the Ten

Commandments and following them to the best

of your ability counts for zero zip, not a.

In fact, he said to the Galaxians, "If you

break one law, one time you destroy the whole

law and you're cursed."

That tells us right there, God has a standard,

you want to get to heaven, be perfect.

That's the standard.

Be perfect.

Anybody who is delusional on the left to think

that they can be perfect in this life is going

to go straight to hell when they die.

Your only hope is Jesus Christ, who became a

curse for us.

Now, you've heard me say this before and you

're going to hear me say it again and again and

again as long as you keep coming to our church

.

There is one very striking in your face

reality that should, that should at the very

least

make every single person stop and think about

how they understand God and how they

understand

Christianity and it is the fact that every

religion, I don't care what the name of the

religion is, I don't care what the title of

the religion is, I don't care how much Jesus

it has in the name of the title, I don't care

what form it comes in, every single solitary

religion in the history of this world that

ever has been is now or ever more will be

is a religion of human achievement and some

kind of works to one degree or another except

for uno, except for one.

And that's biblical Christianity.

Now somebody ought to stop and say, hmm, isn't

that something, isn't that unique?

All religions, folks, except one says your

works in some way, your morality, your

goodness

contributes something to your salvation, to

your getting to heaven, to your relationship

to God.

I'm here to tell you that is the devil's

greatest lie and he is behind the scenes

informing

every form of religion, including the one that

America's have in their own minds.

Well, I'm just going to have a God the way I

want him to be, including that one, that

he's behind to foment some kind of works to

get right with God, some kind of good outwe

ighing

your bad.

Only biblical Christianity says, for by grace

are you safe through faith and that not of

yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any

man should boast as Ephesians 2, 8, 9.

Why does he put that in there?

Why does he say lest any man should boast?

Because he knows man is naturally bent to

boast, I'm here in heaven and God, because

I did these things.

That's why he says it, that right there, that

those verses alone tell you that your works

play no role.

Works is an issue.

It is an issue.

It's one that we should talk about, but it has

nothing to do with your justification.

It is the product of your justification,

created in Christ Jesus for good works, right?

As the evidence that you have been justified

by faith alone.

And these Jews here in our text, not only

believe they could earn salvation, let me tell

you

what, they believe they already had it, just

by their bloodline.

They believe they already had it.

At the end of his ministry, during the Passion

Week, and we're going to get here at some

point, and John, what a crazy preacher you

have, jumping all around.

Jesus called them this, white painted tombs

full of dead men's bones.

Can you imagine what they thought when they

heard that?

And then he just went on to explain it, just

in case you idiots didn't understand what

I mean.

You're bright and clean on the outside in the

external things, but on the inside, you

are full of death.

You are full of spiritual death.

You just shot it straight to them.

Jesus says to them, "You will die in your sins

, but me, I'm going back to heaven."

And that's a place where you will never go.

John McArthur tells the story of a very sad

letter to the editor from a Melbourne,

Australia

newspaper some years back.

Someone wrote this letter to the newspaper

right after Billy Graham had preached in

Melbourne.

And I've told you this before, in my childhood

in the '70s, when Billy Graham was on

television

at my grandfather's house, my mom's dad, you

better believe it wasn't nothing else

on that TV going to be but Billy Graham.

I mean, and that was in so many television

sets in America when Billy Graham came on.

I mean, he was America's pastor, right?

He wrote this letter after Billy came through

preaching in Melbourne.

He said this, "After hearing Billy Graham and

viewing him on television and seeing reports

and letters concerning his mission here, I am

heartily sick of the type of religion that

insists my soul and everyone else's needs

saving whatever that means.

I have never felt that I was lost, nor do I

feel that I daily wallow in the mire of

sin, although repetitious preaching insists

that I do.

Have me a practical religion that teaches gent

leness and tolerance that acknowledges

no barriers of color or creed that remembers

the aged and teaches children goodness and

not sin.

If in order to save my soul I must accept such

a philosophy as I have recently heard preached

,

I prefer to remain forever damned."

And he signed his name.

And if he died with that viewpoint, guess what

, folks?

He got his wish.

How frightening is that?

That frightening?

And let me tell you something.

Just as an aside out of this quote, I'm just

thinking about this right now.

You want to know what the main line denomin

ations in America, their philosophy has become

just

what this man says.

Give me a practical religion that teaches gent

leness and tolerance, acknowledges no barriers

of

color or creed, remembers the aged and teaches

children goodness and not sin.

That's your main line denominations right now.

You will die in your sins.

Look next in verse 23, Jesus answers to what

they said to him in verse 22, and here comes

his answer in 23.

And he was saying to them, "You are from below

.

I am from above."

And the contrast here is between the realm of

God above and the fallen sinful world below.

That's the contrast he's making.

"None of us existed before time up in heaven.

Only God did, and then he created humans."

Here down in verses 45, 44 to 45, without

holding anything back.

He's looking at these leaders, "You are of

your father the devil."

Just picture their faces, right?

And you want to do the desires of your father,

he was a murderer from the beginning and does

not stand in the truth because there is no

truth in him whenever he speaks a lie.

He speaks from his own nature for he is a liar

and the father of lies.

I particularly think that's the most

frightening description of Satan that there is

, the father

of lies.

Because I speak the truth, you do not believe

me.

You are from below in this fallen central

world and it's so crazy, which means you're

under the power of Satan, your father, the

devil.

Look with me, Ephesians 2, we studied this one

to two.

This describes every unconverted person that

has never come to faith in Jesus Christ and

you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

He's actually describing those that was their

state before they came to Christ.

But this describes every person in their state

now who hasn't come to Christ.

You were dead in your trespasses and sins in

which you formerly walked according to

the course of this world, according to the

prince of the power of the air of the Spirit

that is now working in the sons of disobed

ience.

Choose the sons of disobedience that's every

unconverted person that exists, exists under

the power of Satan.

Isn't that wild?

Don't you find that wild?

Look at 1 John 519.

We know that we are of God and that this whole

world lies in the power of the evil one.

That's the devil.

This is the world we live in and every uncon

verted person lives under the control of the

father

of lies.

And they buy his lies every day.

It's wild.

No matter what you think of Tucker Carlson and

he's under assault right now because of

stuff he said and there's all kind of turmoil

on conservative social media about Tucker.

One of the things he gets right is that he

definitely understands, I just heard an

interview

about this last week, that there is a

spiritual unseen realm and there are good

angels and

there are Satan and demons and there's a war

going on where we can't see and it's working

out itself through us with them.

All of that is really, is that not wild?

I mean, would you just think about that for a

minute?

That's just so crazy to me.

You know, and if you can't buy into the

supernatural reality of the Bible, you just

can't buy into

the Bible.

You can't do like Thomas Jefferson and cut all

of the supernatural parts out with your

scissors.

It's all or nothing.

On the other hand, Jesus says, I am from above

.

And that is also a distinguishing mark between

Christians and unbelievers.

Let me tell you what I mean by that.

We are also from above, not that we started

above before we came to this world, but we

are also from above in the sense that we are

citizens of the heavenly kingdom right now.

Did you know that?

Right now.

That's where your citizenship is.

This world is not our home.

We are just passing through this little

hundred year, for most of us, less than a

hundred

year sojourned to where our actual citizenship

lies.

Apart from Christ, though, you're just from

down here, you're just from below.

And the origin, the origin of your worldview

and your religion, even if it's atheism, which

is a religion unto itself, it comes from

further below than here.

So basically, if you want to die in your sin,

don't trust in the Bible.

Just trust in yourself or pick parts out the

Bible you like, like pick a dilly when you

go to get a meal and then leave the parts you

don't like and set them to the side pretend

like they're not there.

That's just trusting in yourself.

That's not trusting in the Scripture.

Just go in and trust in your good works and

your morality and see how that works out for

you when your oxygen stops.

See how it works out.

So the first way to die in your sins is to be

self-righteous.

Secondly, it's to be worldly.

Now what does this really mean?

Verse 23, Jesus says, "You are not of this

world."

No, I'm sorry, Jesus says, "You are of this

world.

I am not of this world."

Well, there's another guarantee that a person

will die in their sin.

Be consumed by the world, loving and embracing

this world, drawing all of your satisfaction

out of this world, and we need to nail down

what is meant by world here because the

English

word world can be used in multiple different

ways in Scripture.

But right here, the Greek word is cosmos.

What is that?

Well, for one thing, it's the opposite of

chaos.

Chaos is disorder, confusion, cosmos is order

and structure.

This word here is not talking about the

physical planet.

It's not talking about the world geograph

ically or geologically.

This refers to this world system that we're

living in right now.

It's ideologies.

It's patterns of thinking.

It is that invisible, intelligent system that

runs the whole human race, and we've already

seen who the boss of that is, and it leads

everyone right into the broad way that Jesus

talked about that leads to destruction, and it

's religious in all its different ways.

The cosmos, the world system, is that which

suppresses the truth constantly just as Romans

1 teaches us, and it exchanges the truth for a

lie.

It is an absolute spiritual system of evil.

We use the term world that way ourselves in

our thinking.

Think about it.

We talk about the world of sports.

Remember when you was a kid, the wild world of

sports would come on Saturdays, and the

world of politics, or the world of education,

or the world of entertainment.

What do we mean when we say that?

We're talking about the complex of those

things, the ideology of those things, the

structure

of it, the system itself.

It manifests itself in many different ways,

this world system, Marxism, Communism, Islam,

any system of thought that is anti-Christ, in

his truest understanding, is this world

system, this cosmos, and all unconverted

people are in that system.

Now we're in the system, but not of the system

, right?

But it's hostile to God.

It's hostile to the Bible.

Go ask the Nigerians how hostile it is to

Christians.

They can tell you.

It promotes all kinds of things, materialism,

humanism, carnality, fleshly ambition, pride,

greed, selfishness, false religion.

Its opinions are always wrong.

Its aims are selfish, its pleasures are sinful

, its politics are corrupt, its honor is empty,

its smiles are fake, and its love is fickle.

That's the world system that we're talking

about.

And one day, it'll totally be destroyed.

Wiped out with the brightness of the coming of

the King.

And this system is not going to exist any more

forever.

When 1st John 2.15 says, "Do not love the

world, nor the things in the world," it also

uses that Greek word, cosmos.

And again, we're not talking about Niagara

Falls or Yellowstone National Park.

We're not talking about sunrises or sunsets.

We're not even talking about a great meal or

our close friendship.

We're talking about the system, the complex,

the corrupted cosmos orchestrated run by God

allows Satan to run this evil corrupt system

Satan and his minions.

Don't love that.

It says next in 1st John 2.15, "If anyone

loves the world, the cosmos, the love of the

Father is not in him."

And James 4.4, it tells us, "Whoever wishes to

be a friend of the world," there's the

word again in the Greek, the cosmos makes

himself an enemy of God.

You love this world system, you're an enemy of

God.

So if you're clinging to this world system,

you're an enemy of God.

That's just clear, strong, effective language

that leaves absolutely no wiggle room for

anybody, right?

So if you want to die in your sins, be world,

be self-righteous, cling with all your might

to this system, run your life according to its

ways, make the American dream be the be-all

and end-all of your life, the lust of the

flesh and lust of the eyes and pride of life.

Be dominated by all of that, and you will be

guaranteed to die in your sins.

And then there's a third way, be faithless.

Look next in verse 24, Jesus said, "Therefore

I said to you that you will die in your sins,

for unless you believe that I am He, you will

die in your sins."

Somebody doesn't believe Jesus is God, take

them to that verse.

That's the I am right there.

That's the I am, the name of God right there.

You don't believe Jesus is God?

Well, guess what he said, you don't believe he

's God, you're going to die in your sins,

period.

It is truly an amazing reality to consider.

This just blows my mind when I think about

this, that there is only one thing that

prevents

you from dying and going into outer darkness

forever in an unforgiven condition.

One thing, and that is faith in the person and

work of Jesus Christ.

It's the only thing that prevents you, not

some kind of accumulated morality, not some

kind of religion.

Since verse 21, Jesus has now said to them, "

Three times you will die in your sins and

less," as it says here in verse 24, "you

believe that I am He."

Again, the I am who I am claiming to be, God.

The I am who I am, remember?

God told that to Moses.

It's amazing, amazing.

Eternal destiny comes down to a decision about

one person who lived 2,000 years ago.

That's crazy to me.

Why do we preach Christ?

Because he's the one person.

That's why.

Neither is there salvation in any other.

And Jesus is to identify himself when he uses

I am in John.

That's the Old Testament name for God, Yahweh,

the I am that I am.

All throughout the Gospel of John, he applies

the I am to himself.

He could not be making a clear reclaim about

his deity as the God man.

One way to escape judgment, to believe in the

person and work of Jesus Christ.

Want to die in your sins, then just be unbel

ieving like the man in Australia who would

rather

be damned than believed.

Balling all down is really pretty simple.

I just think about that against the backdrop

of all the complexity of all the different

religions in the world.

Think about Hinduism and all the gods they

have and all the stuff they have to do.

Buddhism and reincarnation coming back in

another life.

All these people are trying to do all this

crazy stuff because they know they're going

to die and they're trying to get to heaven or

they're trying to get to Nirvana or whatever

their deal is where we're all better off.

Boy, have I heard that at every funeral I've

ever been to, of every unbeliever, every

single

solitary without exception, funeral of every

single unbeliever I have ever attended, they

're

in a better place really.

Really are they now?

How do you know that?

Upon what basis do you make the claim that

they're okay, they're in a better place?

Amazing and really all comes down to one

person.

If you want to die in your sins, just refuse

to believe in Jesus.

Just refuse to believe that he is who he

claimed to be.

And then lastly, beat obstinate and we'll

close with this one.

Just keep up the rejection.

Look at verse 25, so they were saying to him,

"Who are you?"

And after all we've studied here in John so

far, you just want to respond, "Are you

kidding?

Are you kidding me with that question?"

Let me tell you, let me put the right point of

emphasis on this.

What they mean by this, they're not saying, "

Who are you?"

They are saying, "Who are you?"

See the little nuance difference?

In other words, "Who in the world do you think

you are?"

That's how they're saying this.

You just told us that we're sinners.

You just now told us that we're going to die

in our sins and go to hell.

Who do you think you are?

I mean, and I get why they say it, I mean they

really did think they were the citizens of

heaven, the kingdom of God, the

representatives of God.

These people were the most proud religious on

the planet.

You just told us that we are going to hell?

Who are you to tell us something like that?

And really what a ridiculous thing for them to

say, all the three year evidence that was

in it.

They knew and they knew and they asked, "Who

are you?"

It makes me think of that man born blind when

they're asking him, "Who is that guy?"

He said, "Well, here's an amazing thing that

you don't know where he's from."

Yet he opened my eyes.

Eyes that have been blind from birth and you

don't know, well, Jesus responds to their

question next, verse 25.

What have I been saying to you from the

beginning, guys?

Haven't you been listening?

Are you deaf maybe?

I've been telling you again and again and

again who I am.

Here back in John 5 where he's telling them so

clearly, "I work the way the Father works.

I'm one in nature with the Father.

I'm one in honor with the Father.

If you honor the Father, you honor me.

If you honor me, you honor the Father.

What in the world have I been saying to you

from the beginning?"

This is not just obstinate or stubborn.

This is plain old hard-heartedness on their

part and I want to close by taking you to

something that we're going to look at in

detail later down in John 12, maybe in 2028,

starting

in verse 35 and here Jesus is in another

conversation right near the end of his life,

verse 35 starting

in John 12.

So Jesus said to them, "For a little while

longer, the light is among you.

Walk while you have the light, though the

darkness will not overtake you.

He who walks in the darkness does not know

where he goes.

While you have the light, believe in the light

so that you may become sons of light."

Can you just hear him pleading?

He's just pleading with them right there.

"Believe in the light.

I'm right here in front of you.

You're looking at me.

You've seen the evidence.

Believe in the light while you have me.

I'm right here."

Then it says, "These things Jesus spoke and he

went away and hid himself."

He never commits to their unbelief.

He just wouldn't believe, a stubborn refusal

to believe.

Then the New Testament ramps it up, Jack.

Here comes some flyover country for a lot of

preachers, but you know me.

I don't even fly in third class.

I just drive in the car, verse 37.

But though he had performed so many signs

before them, yet they were not believing.

And then look next in verses 38 to 40.

This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah, the

prophet, which he spoke, "Lord, who has

believed

our report, and to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed for this reason they could

not be."

Or Isaiah says again, "He has blinded their

eyes and he hardened their heart so that they

would not see with their eyes and perceive

with their heart and be converted from him."

They would not believe.

So then what happened?

They could not.

The light was there.

He just got finished telling them, "Believe in

the light while I'm still here.

I'm standing right in front of you."

He refused the light that was being offered.

Folks, in your family, in your circle of loved

ones, you're offering them the light.

Here's the light, but you've got to come his

way.

You can't have him your way.

It's not how it works.

Isn't it interesting in this text, as a result

, the very light that he was offering then

became

blinding to them.

And they couldn't see.

They couldn't see at that point if they wanted

to.

And so in effect, what did they do?

They turned out the light.

They couldn't see it.

So how do you die in your sins?

You be self-righteous, you be worldly, you be

faithless, and you be obstinate.

There's another alternative.

We find it down in verse 30 of this 8th

chapter of John.

This is encouraging.

As he spoke these things, many came to believe

in him.

Now, but isn't it interesting, here's where

the works come into play.

Verse 31, very next verse, he says, "So Jesus

was saying to those Jews who had believed in

him, if you continue in my word, then you are

truly disciples of mine."

That's where the works come into play, you see

?

That's it.

There have been many, we've seen this in John

already, there have been many who started

out strong, but then at some point they fell

away and so Jesus is going to bring some

clarity

to the situation, only if you continue,

continue in my word, then you prove yourself

to be disciples

of mine.

Folks, this is a serious warning that is

serious as it gets for those who profess with

their

lips salvation in Christ, but not with their

actions.

As always, there's no gray area, man, there

just isn't a gray area.

If you're here today and you've come to Christ

on his terms, then the greatest evidence

that you truly have is if, right now, today,

you are continuing in his word.

You are continuing, not in perfection, not in

the perfection of your life, but in the

direction of your life, right?

Again, it's sovereignty and responsibility.

Let God take care of the sovereignty part, we

take care of the responsibility part by

continuing to live in his word and striving to

live daily for the glory of God.

Your desire to do that and you're striving to

do that, folks, be happy, be glad, be full

of joy today because that gives great evidence

of your redemption.

And only you and God know if that's true about

you, I can't tell.

I can't see in you and if you're here today

and you have not come to Christ on his terms

of repentance and faith, guess what, today is

the day of salvation, repent and believe

the gospel and come see me.

I'm always available to talk about that

subject.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this wonderful,

wonderful gospel of John.

We thank you for transporting us back 2,000

years ago to this amazing, this amazing

conversation

that Jesus had.

How fortunate we are that the Bible allows us

to take this trip back to the life of Jesus

and the very conversations that he had, and I

pray, Lord, as we leave here today, we will

have a deeper understanding of the person of

Christ.

If any has not bowed the knee to him, Lord,

please draw them, that they might repent and

believe it for all of us, Lord, who are

continuing in his word.

Lord, help us to walk out of here full of joy

that we give evidence that though this

world is not our home, our citizenship is in

heaven where we will one day.

Jesus' name, we pray, amen.