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?
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.