Psalm 22 is just so absolutely stunning that
of all people especially the Holy Spirit
inspires
King David himself to give a picture of what's
happening at Calvary down to the details of
the gambling of the clothing centuries before
it came to pass. There's no other religious
book that exists that could possibly come to
the level of that. That can only be explained
supernaturally. Well it's been one of those
weeks and so we're back in John. It's been
a minute since we've been in John. I asked you
to turn in your Bibles or look on the
screen with me. John chapter 8 verse 37 and
that brings us back to some of the hard say
ings
of Jesus and here we have yet another text
that a topical preacher would never pick
to preach on. There is just too much in your
face straight forward language that Jesus
uses here in characterizing the Jewish leaders
. Jesus time hopped to now and went on CNN and
said this thing about Jews. Wow with a
backlash that you would see in social media
would be
a firestorm. And many people probably feel
that the language that Jesus uses because
of thinking that way might offend people or
they may feel that it's too embarrassing what
he says because he's talking about the devil.
And in the 21st century who wants to discuss
a literal devil as we've been talking about in
the last verses in Ephesians chapter 6.
Whatever it is that would tend to make this
fly over country for many a preacher. We have
to understand that in studying the Bible it's
not like going to Piccadilly. You don't get
to pick and choose in the Bible. If you're
going to be a serious Christian and you're
going to claim that you believe that the Bible
is the actual Word of God then guess what?
You do not have the option of skipping over
the challenging verses. You don't have the
option of skipping over the difficult verses.
If we're going to be faithful to our
confession
right here at this church that the Bible is
the inherent infallible Word of the Living
God then we have to meet every verse that we
come to and we have to meet it head on
no matter how challenging the content may be.
So let's start today by reading our text
and then we're going to dig into dealing with
its content. Let's start in verse 37 and we're
going to read through verse 47. In verse 37
Jesus is continuing to speak from where we
left off last time. "I know that you are
Abraham's descendants, yet you seek to kill me
, because
my Word has no place in you. I speak the
things which I have seen with my Father.
Therefore,
you also do the things which you have heard
from your Father." They answered and said
to him, "Abraham is our Father." Jesus said to
them, "If you are Abraham's children, do
the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are
seeking to kill me." A man who has told you
the truth which I heard from God this Abraham
did not do. "You are doing the deeds of your
Father." They said to him, "We were not born
of fornication. We have one Father, God."
Jesus
said to them, "If God were your Father, you
would love me. For I proceed forth and have
come from God, for I have not even come on my
own initiative, but He sent me." Why do
you not understand what I am saying? It is
because you cannot hear my word. You are of
your Father, the devil, 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. But
because I speak the truth, you do not believe
me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If
I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?
He who is of God hears the words of God for
this reason you do not hear them because you
are not of God. What a text, man. What a text.
Now there are a whole lot of folks who would
profess to be Christians who would rather
not deal with the obvious ramifications of
this text because what is clear here is that
every single human being alive on planet earth
right now exists in one or two families.
You are either in God's family or you are in
the devil's family and it is that simple.
That is exactly what Jesus Christ is making
clear in this text right here. Oh brother
Philip,
come on bro. You can't talk like that. This is
2026. What's wrong with you? Man, people
are going to hear you say this on the internet
. You are going to look like a cookie snake
handling lunatic if you talk like this. I get
that, but I can't escape the fact that
this is what Jesus said. So if I just have to
go down as a kooky snake handling fanatic,
that's what you need to call me. Go ahead on.
This is the breakdown that Jesus gives
us about these two families. I happen to
believe this book is his word and therefore if
that
is true, then I have to believe everything
that is in it. Most people especially here
in America, if they say they believe in God,
and I promise you, you could go to Walmart,
you could go to the farmer's market at the
tractor supply, you could go to anywhere you
want especially out here in Central or in
Livingston and you just walk up to anybody
and say, hey, do you believe in God? I promise
you, especially God, thank God we are still
here living in the deep South. I would venture
to say 80-90% of the people tell you, yeah,
I believe in God. Now what that means may mean
something totally different, but just
as a generic, do you believe in God? Yes. And
then, if you had a follow-up question,
I think they would give a hearty yes as an
answer to this next question. Do you think
you're a child of God? Well, I certainly do. I
believe in God and yes, I think I'm a child
of God. And why is that? Well, most people
want to think the best about themselves, right
?
That's human nature and for sure religious
people want to think the best about themselves
and for sure these extremely religious Jews in
our text today, they saw themselves as
the paragons of religious virtue. They saw
themselves as the only gatekeepers of God's
kingdom and so to be so straightforwardly told
that they are children of the devil would
be something, I promise you this, I promise
you this, I don't have to go back in the time
machine to check this out. I promise you this,
they never ever heard that coming from anybody
ever before to their face ever. Nobody ever
told them that. Since they were a little kid
and they were looking to the religious leaders
of their day when they were little kids, they
never heard anybody tell them that. And I can
guarantee you that if this very sermon
that I'm preaching here today and all that I'm
fixing to say to you about this text,
if somehow some way it could be broadcast
publicly on the most popular TV network that
we have, we would not be able to calculate the
uproar and the anger and the backlash that
would come at us as a result of saying that
there are many, many, many people in our
culture
here in America who are children of the devil.
But that is exactly what Jesus says and it's
most people. I wouldn't even be saying it
either unless he had said it. Unless he had
made it very clear. That's the thing people
don't get. That's not my opinion. I didn't
come up with this. Why are you saying things
like that? Jesus said this. I'm just telling
you what Jesus said, okay? And it's fair, I
think, to ask the question as we've been
reading through the Gospel of John and
studying it. Why is he so blunt here? Can you
get more
blunt than this? You're of your father, the
devil, right? I mean, really? Why is he so
severe? I mean, you get to this point. Why
doesn't he just stick with, "Come unto me,
tell you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I
will give you rest." Why doesn't he just
stay in that lane right here? Well, I got an
answer for you. That's why. Try to remember
where we are on the timeline here on John 8.
He's in Jerusalem now. He's six months
away from the end of his life. He has been
preaching in Israel for two and a half years.
He has been in direct confrontation with the
Jewish religious leaders for the entire time
of his ministry, starting all the way back
when he attacked the temple at the very start
of his ministry. He has witnessed the attitude
of the Jewish leaders hardened over the two
and a half years, and now it's just absolute
firm rejection. They hate his guts right now.
They hate him and they want to see him dead,
and that's their plan. In chapter 7, verse
1 of John, it says, "The Jews were seeking to
what? To kill him. They were seeking to
murder him." Later here in chapter 8, verse 59
, by the time this discussion we're in here
is over, what does it say? They picked up
stones to throw at him. They wanted to stone
him to death. So the stakes now are very high,
and that means this is no longer a time to
invite them in some gentle way to embrace the
blessings of salvation. Come to me, all
of you who are heavy laden, this now at this
point, this is a time to warn them. Because
of the conclusions they have made about Jesus,
they are now all in severe danger. And by
the way, one of the conclusions that they had
made up to this point was that Jesus himself
was from the devil. Remember that? We studied
that, and so he tells them, the truth is,
two of the devil's children. Now remember
again where we are in our study. He's been
in direct confrontation with these leaders
since the beginning of chapter 7, especially
remember when he showed up at the feast in
Jerusalem? And these conversations have been
ongoing throughout chapter 7 and 8 with the
Jewish leaders and with the people. Remember
there was always a crowd outside the perimeter
of the leaders. There were other people there
listening, and all the way through they have
completely, definitively, resolutely rejected
him all the way through. And as the antagonism
of these leaders continues to elevate, so
has the directness and the severity of Jesus'
statements to them increased. Why? Well,
because
the stakes are getting higher all the time.
And the more they show him hatred, the more
he strikes devastating blows at their hypocr
isy. This is no hippie Jesus that we see in the
modern day culture here. And although they don
't realize it, they don't realize it.
What this is when he speaks like this to them
is mercy. Do you get that? He's already told
them, "You will die in your sins and where I
go, heaven, you can never come." He's already
told them that directly. And the reason he
never backs off as they continue to harden
against him and the reason why his words
continue to get more and more direct and
devastating,
why? It's because their eternal souls are at
stake. And that's why I say, really? If
you look at it, this is mercy coming from
Jesus when he's so direct with them. Why
do I say that? Well, he could have just left
them alone to their sins and their way of
thinking. He could have just left them alone
without any further warning. And he would
have not been wrong to do so, right? So, when
we understand this completely, this is a
merciful
reaction to their escalating hatred. And he
knows they're going to kill him. You
understand?
He knows Psalm 22. He knows what's coming from
them. And if you consider what we've
studied so far that he said that shocked them,
for sure, he has never said anything more
devastating than what we read in that opening
text. It is so shocking. And they are so angry
.
As I said, by the time you come to the end of
this chapter, they're picking up rocks
and just that just pelt him with rock. Can you
imagine being stoned to death? Can you
imagine dying like that? And so, the more
hardened they become with their rejection,
the more straightforward Jesus gets with his
warnings because eternity is a state for each
one of these people. And think about it.
Shouldn't that be our model in dealing with
people who
are resisting? But what do we normally do with
our own human nature? I mean, I'm right at
the top of the list. How quickly do we slink
away at the first hand of rejection? I mean,
I'm guilty as charged. Why? Why? Because you
got to get way outside of your comfort zone
to keep ramping up the warnings about the
consequences of rejecting the gospel, right?
That puts you outside your comfort zone when
you do that to tell people, hey, you have no
security in your religion. There's no security
in your good works. Hell is real. Judgment
is definite. Death is coming and you can't
stop it. You got to get outside your comfort
zone to tell people like that. It's hard. You
have to pray for that kind of courage.
It takes to be straightforward like Jesus.
Certainly doesn't come natural to us, does
it? I mean, let's just be honest. It doesn't.
Now, let's remember there's been a progression
that has led up to this current confrontation
that we're in with the Jewish leaders. And
for a long time, Jesus has been calling on
them to believe in, I mean, my goodness, how
many times have we been over this? They should
have believed because of his works. The
incredible,
undeniable, supernatural, jaw-dropping
miracles that he had been performing every
single day
for three, two and a half years at this point.
And then just remember the works that he did,
they never offended them. I mean, they love
being fed for free. They love getting some
free healthcare. I mean, they never denied at
all in one jotter title in the Bible that
these were the astounding miracles that they
were. But as we've seen, it wasn't his works
that offended them. It was what? His words.
Like when he said, "I came from heaven."
Isn't that Joseph's boy? They didn't like that
. They didn't accept that. Like when he
said, "He was the only source of spiritual
life and that it was necessary to believe
in him to go to heaven." Oh, they didn't like
that. When he told them that they needed
to repent and be forgiven, they denied and
refused that outrightly. When he made clear
that he was equal to God, well, they just
couldn't handle that. When he told them they
didn't know God, they didn't buy that. When he
told them they would die in their sins,
they just mocked him. And they laughed at that
. Religious people in false religions never
see themselves as they really are. I mean, I
can go down a long list of people I've
watched, too, in false religions. It's the
same with them. They're never really aware
of their need. Why? Because they think that
they're just fine with God or their
understanding
of who God is. And so finally, we come to this
text and it's reached a point where they're
so hard-hearted. Jesus equals their hardness
with these devastating statements of the
reality
of their condition. And remember, they're
holding on to this. They're holding on to
the fact that we are Jewish people. We're sons
of Abraham by physical descent. They
were sons of Abraham by religious descent. And
that alone made them the children of
God. And man, Jesus is just, he's going to
completely shatter those false securities
in this text. They really did bank on their
physical descent as their protection. Listen
to what one rabbi of the time wrote. He
actually wrote this. "Abraham himself sits
besides
the gates of hell and does not permit any
wicked Israelite to pass." So Abraham sitting
there and even if a wicked Jew, I can't come
by here and get on to heaven, you're a Jew.
So for them, being Jewish was a free pass. It
didn't matter. No matter what they believed,
they would never experience judgment when they
died just because of their Jewish physical
heritage. But Jesus disagrees. And as we come
to these verses, I want you to see three
claims
that they make. And they are progressive as
they go. First, they claim to be the physical
seed of Abraham. Now that's true. They are.
Secondly, they claim to be the spiritual
seed of Abraham, which is not true. They are
not, and I'm going to explain that in just
a minute. Thirdly, they claim to be the
children of God, which they are not also not
true.
Jesus agrees with the first and then he just
devastates the second two as we're fixing
to see. Let's start with number one. They
claim to be Abraham's physical children.
You go back to verse 33 in the prior of the
conversation we looked at last time when Jesus
remembered, and that in that section is
talking about truth and he's talking about
freedom
and he's talking about the truth will make you
free and he's talking about if you continue
in my word, then are you my disciples indeed?
And they say this in verse 33, we are Abraham
's
descendants. You know what they thought when
they said that? They thought, oh, that's a
might drop. They thought in their mind, that's
supposed to end the discussion, dude. You
don't have nothing else to say. What are you
talking about? We don't need you Nazarene.
We're Abraham's descendants, right? We've got
all the basis covered. So Jesus picks
up on the claim after what all we studied last
time in verse 37. Look there. How does
he start? I know you're Abraham's descendants.
I know that. And that's true. All the Jewish
people descended from the loins of Abraham and
then down him, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph
and all down through the Abrahamic line, all
the way down through history, all the way
down to today. Look, put your eschatology
aside and all those different views. You can't
escape the fact that no other people group has
continued to survive for so long, still
having the same identifiable language and now
incredibly back in their land. I don't care
whether you're email, postmail, premium, what
meal, I don't care what it is. That's pretty
incredible fact, but put that to the side.
That's another argument for another day. Jesus
acknowledges here for sure that they came from
Abraham physically at the Abrahamic
covenant promised in Genesis 12 from Abraham.
What will come a great nation? Remember, as
many as the sands of the sea and the stars of
the heaven. But then next Jesus says something
's
wrong here after he says, I know that you are
Abraham's descendants. Look in verses
37 to 39. Yet you seek to kill me because my
word has no place in you. I speak the things
which I have seen with my father. Therefore,
you also do the things which you have heard
from your father. 39. They answered and said
to him, Abraham is our father. So of course
this is a big issue for them. And that's what
Jesus is doing right here. He's in the process
of shifting them away from their thinking that
Abraham is their father to thinking somebody
else is their father. But notice he doesn't
say it just yet, right? So far he acknowledges
their physical descent from Abraham. And with
that, yes, it's true. As Paul says in Romans
chapter 9, they have the law and the prophets
and the covenants. And they have all the
privileges
of being physical Jewish people. You're the
stewards. You're the caretakers of the law.
But that doesn't do anything spiritually
because as Paul makes clear, no man can be
justified
by the deeds of the law. So that means,
spiritually speaking, that their physical
lineage means
absolutely nothing, zero nada. Now, you have
to understand when we hear that in 2026 on
this side of the cross with the New Testament
in our hand, when we hear that, we say, yeah,
that's right. Amen. Right. But for them, oh
brother, this is shocking. This is beyond
offensive because what it's saying to them is,
yeah, you are Abraham's physical descendants,
but you can't possibly claim Abraham descent
spiritually. You are not the true sons of
Abraham, which means you are not heirs of
salvation or are you possessors of the kingdom
?
Why go back to verse 37 where he says, yet you
seek to kill me because my word has no
place in you. Now, here's why that's important
because look what he says next in 38. I speak
the things which I have seen with my father.
Therefore, you also do the things which you
see and which you have heard from your father.
In other words, you don't have any interest
in what comes from my father who is God. You
only have interest in the things that come
from your father. So he continues to make this
distinction between his father and their
father, verse 39. They answered and said to
him, Abraham is our father. How does Jesus
of Islam live? Abraham, you're the children of
Abraham. Go on and do the deeds of Abraham.
Now we need to know what are the deeds of
Abraham, right? As we study the Bible. Abraham
's
faith was demonstrated through his obedience
to God. Now, I want you to look and listen,
read with me, James 2, verses 21 to 23. "Was
not Abraham our father justified by works
when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
He see that faith was working with his works."
Get that distinction, okay? Don't get out of
bounds. As a result of the works, faith
was what? Perfected and the scripture was
fulfilled, which says, "And Abraham believed
God and it was reckoned to him as
righteousness." It doesn't say, "Abraham did
works looking
to be reckoned as righteousness." No, his
belief, his faith alone, was reckoned to
him as righteousness and bound up in the
Abrahamic covenant was the promise of a seed
to come.
Abraham was looking ahead to the day when the
final, full and acceptable sacrifice would
come. And that's why if you skip down to verse
56 of John 8, oh man, this is a big one too.
He just had to make their eyelids flip up and
get stuck. Then when your kid used to make
your eyelid, I never could do that, do like
that. He must have done that naturally when
he said something like this. "Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it
and was
glad." What? Wow. And so, Jesus is saying to
them is this, "If you, if you folks, you
Jewish religious leaders, if you are Abraham's
children, do the deeds of Abraham." Abraham
received me. Abraham looked forward to me. I
mean, if you were Abraham's children, you
would act like Abraham. You would be obedient
to God. If you would, if you reject me, you
would reject me. I'm the Messiah. I'm the
promised one to come. You're not a spiritual
son of Abraham. Abraham rejoiced to see my day
and he saw it. And what are you doing
here in my day? You're rejecting me. What are
you saying? If you're Abraham's true children,
you'd act like Abraham towards me. Verse 40, "
But as it is, you are seeking to kill
me a man who has told you the truths which I
heard from God." And look what he adds
at the end. This Abraham did not do. That's
hilarious to me. When the word of God was
spoken to Abraham, Abraham listened. Jesus is
saying again, "Yes, you're children of
Abraham physically. I'll give you that, but no
way are you children of Abraham spiritually."
Now, let's make sure we understand what that
means to be a spiritual child of Abraham.
See, Galatians 3-6 gives us some insight into
this where it quotes. This is a quote directly
from Genesis 15 and we also just quoted it out
of James. And so the fact that we see
it here again in Galatians 3-6 tells me just a
simple student of the Bible that just must
be important. Galatians 3-6, "Even so, Abraham
believed God." And it was reckoned to him
as righteousness. That's say, "alone." And
next, here's the kicker. Galatians 3-7, "Who
are the spiritual sons of Abraham? Therefore,
be sure that it is those who are faith, a
saving
faith." Who are the sons of Abraham? The
people who have believed God like Abraham,
people
who have believed God's word. All people
listen to me. Jews and Gentiles who have exerc
ised
Bible repentance and true saving faith in
Christ alone. They are the spiritual
descendants
and sons and daughters of Abraham. Every
Christian in this room is a spiritual descend
ant of
Abraham. So they are insisting that Abraham is
their father. Again, verse 40, Jesus saying,
"Look, man, how can that be? You're trying to
kill me. Me! You're trying to kill me.
I'm the one who told you the truth straight
from God. Abraham would never be acting like
you are." And then, next, Jesus turns another
corner. Verse 41, "You are doing the deeds
of your father." And then, they have a very
interesting response. Look next. They said
to him, "We're not born of fornication. We
have one father, God." They're saying, "Not
only are we the physical children of Abraham,
we are the spiritual children of Abraham,
which makes us the spiritual children of God."
Why? And then they say something you don't
expect right here in verse 41, right? "We're
not born of fornication." What is that about?
To put it very simply, this is what they're
saying. "We're not pagans. We're not idolaters
.
Connected to every form of ancient idolatry in
the ancient world was fornication, sexual
perversion, religion with temple prostitutes."
We've studied that over and over. So they
are meaning what they're saying there with for
nication is spiritual fornication. We are
not pagan idol worshipers. And then next, they
say, "We have one father, God. We are
monotheist. We have one God." And it's true.
That's true right up to today. The Jews don't
have any idols, but that doesn't mean they
worship the true God in the true way. They
worship in the name of the true God in a
totally unacceptable way. They were not
engaged in
spiritual fornication in the sense that they
were worshiping pagan idols or having temple
prostitutes. And so they reason, "Well, golly,
how can you say Abraham's not our father?
We acknowledge God as our father and he was
Abraham's father." And then next, Jesus hits
them with the inescapable truth in verse 42.
Jesus said to them, "If God were your father,
you would love me. If God were really your
father, you would love me. You would embrace
me. You would welcome me. You would believe in
me. I am the ancient of days standing right
in your face." That's what he's saying. How do
we know when somebody, God is somebody's
father when they embrace his son? And they
have an eagerness to hear his word. The main
problem, Jesus, again, I got to go back to
this in verse 37, the main problem, "My word
has no place in you." And that phrase has no
place in the Greek means to move, to leave.
It could be to depart. We could put it this
way, "My word goes no place with you." It
makes no progress. My word does not advance
with you. It goes nowhere with you. You can't
possibly have the same father as Abraham
because we done read it three times in
Scripture.
He believed God's words to such a complete
degree that it was counted to him as
righteousness.
God's word, God's not your father because
unlike Abraham, you want to kill the Messiah.
You want to kill the messenger sent from God
back to verse 42, "Jesus said to them, 'If
God were your father, you would love me, for I
have proceeded forth and have come from
God, for I have not even come on my own
initiative, but he sent me.'" You know what
that is? It's
a complete shattering of all their confidence
in their religion. And for their sake, Jesus
has to do this at this point. Because as long
as they're trusting in their false hopes
of Judaism, they are doomed eternally. So they
had two main problems. They don't receive
the Word of God and they hate the Son of God.
Boy, those are two of the biggest problems
you could possibly have as a human being. And
you can use that same evaluation on people
today. How can you know when somebody's a true
child of God and has God as their father
when they love the truth? They love the Word
of God. They love the Savior. Why are you here
today? Why are you listening to me stand
behind this pulpit and talk for 45 minutes
straight
without interruption? Why are you doing that?
Why do you keep coming back to hear me talk
for 45 minutes straight week after week? Is
there any other subject that somebody could
talk on like this weekly that would keep you
coming back to this building if it was another
subject other than this one? Now maybe if it
was required for some reason for your work
or maybe if you had some kind of personal fasc
ination with the subject, maybe for a few weeks
I guess.
And even when the group is small, we have a
lot of diversity. We have different interests.
We have different hobbies and jobs and
backgrounds. And yet, you all keep coming back
every Sunday
to listen to me rattle on them out of this
Bible. Why? Well, there's good evidence as
with all of God's people is because you come
here and I hope to hear from God. Not from
me. You want to hear from me? You want to hear
from God? I'm just delivering the mail, God's
mail. That's all I'm trying to do here. You
believe the book is His Word is why you keep
coming back here week after week. This is
where He speaks. You believe His Son is who
He claimed to be. You love the truth. You love
God's Word and the reason for why right
now, right this very minute, probably 80% of
the people that live in this community are
sleeping in or laying on the couch, watching
TV, scrolling through the channels or doing
anything else but going to church on Sunday
morning. And the reason why is because those
two things about them are not true. They don't
love the truth. They don't love the Word.
They don't love really the Savior. I don't
care what they say. I'm American. I love Jesus
.
You can say that all day long. Prove it. What
are you doing about it? But if you go out
and ask them, "Are you a child of God?" Well,
of course I'm a child of God. Everybody's
a child of God when the reality is all people
are God's creatures. But not everybody is
a true child of God. Only those who love the
truth of the Word of God and embrace Jesus
as substitute Savior and King. Those are the
only children of God adopted by grace into
His family. Look next in verse 43. Jesus poses
a question. Why? Why do you not understand
what I'm saying? Because you cannot hear my
work. What prevented them from hearing? Well,
that's 1 Corinthians 2, 14, "But a natural man
does not accept the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to him, and
he cannot understand them because they are
spiritually appraised." That's a fact, Jack.
Can you get around it?
So it's very simple. If you don't believe, you
are still in a state of being a natural
man and your unbelief equals ignorance in the
area of spiritual things. You don't understand
because you won't believe. But once you
believe, everything gets clear, right? And you
start
understanding. I still can't get over that. So
Jesus is saying you don't understand what
I'm saying because you can't hear my words.
You don't have the capacity because you refuse
to believe. You're unable, you're unwilling,
you're incapacitated by your unbelief. These
Jews, of course, they think, hey, we're in
good standing. We have one God, we have one
Father, and then Jesus drops the atom bomb.
Verse 44, "You are of your Father the devil."
Now, I just wish that the Bible gave us a
little bit of something more about their
reaction
to what he said because it was not without
reaction. "You are of your Father the devil."
The only thing I can liken to that is if he
had had a stick of dynamite and he lit it
and he just threw it right up in the middle of
them. That's the only thing I can kind
of liken it to, right? "In the parable of the
wheat and the tares, Jesus is described
in church folk," right? And he teaches us
there that the wheat and the tares grow
together
in the New Testament age and he describes the
wheat as the sons of the kingdom and the
tares as the sons of the evil one and the
language is unavoidable. But it comes straight
from Jesus himself. And he keeps going, man,
in verse 44, "And you want to do the desires
of your Father." He was a murderer from the
beginning and he 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. What
a name for Satan, the father of lies. That's
intense. That's Jesus telling us about Satan.
Now let me tell you something, folks, it's
just real simple. Either you believe him or
you don't. It's really that simple. If you
believe Jesus is who he says he is and when he
talks about the devil, you either believe
him or you don't. But if you're wrong, let me
tell you something, you're really, really
wrong and you will be in for a rude awakening
when God stops your heart and takes you out
of here. So Satan is a murderer and a liar.
And you don't go very far in the Bible before
you find that out because he shows up in the
garden and what's the very first thing that
he does, he lies because Jesus said he's a
liar. He's the father of lies. And the second
thing he does is kill. And I'm not talking
about King. I'm talking about the whole human
race. We saw last time, Hebrews says he has
the power of death. We talked a little bit
about that. That's a vile thing. I'm still
exploring all the nuances of that. But for
one thing, in one sense, he exercised it in
one act in the garden when he did what he
did that literally plunged the whole human
race into being born in a state of spiritual
death and corruption. That's murder, man. Now,
there's a very interesting book that
John MacArthur comments on called The Emperor
of All Maladies. It's a book written on the
history of cancer and it's written by a
brilliant scientist. He was a medical doctor.
Now, some
of you in here may not agree with his
conclusions. I know Daryl is going to have an
eyebrow at
this and I do too because I see, I just kind
of feel very strongly that they do have a
cure for cancer, but they're just not letting
us know because they're making a lot of money,
but that's another story for another day. But
after hundreds of pages, but his bottom
line overall premise, everybody's going to
agree with this. He writes this though, after
hundreds of pages of well-written material,
his bottom line conclusion is this, you can't
cure cancer. He says, because cancer is just
being human. Listen to what he says and you
can apply this to cancer, heart disease,
anything that's wrong with us. He says this,
and I
want you to remember this is a secular doctor,
a very brilliant doctor. This is not a
Christian
at all. He says this, there is something in us
. He says that is corrupting us. It's not
a virus. It's not some germ. It's not a
bacteria. It doesn't happen accidentally. It's
not some
kind of congenital defect. It's just there in
us. Remember, this is a secular book and
he is right about that, no matter how you get
to it. There is something in us that's
corrupting us. We can't sustain the original
body, the perfection of certainly the body
that was in the garden. There is a great high
degree that none of us, chance that none
of us in this room is going to make it past a
hundred. You might, some of you might get
to a hundred, but let's be real. Ain't very
many of us going to live much past that. And
in the grand scale of time and even eternity,
what's a hundred? It's a hundred years, a
hundred trips or outside. Done. And what we've
got, how we got this way, how we got this
way with our natural depravity, our natural
condition, the moment that we're born
physically
in the earth, not only are we spiritually dead
, we begin to die physically. That's why
my hair is getting gray and I got the bald
spot happening in the back, man. It's because
I'm decaying right in front of you. It's a, it
's a result of what happened in the garden
and we got this way because there was a
murderer in the garden in the beginning. He's
the
father of lies. That's how we got here. And
what he did brought the whole human race into
a state of corruption and radical depravity
and he hates our guts. You have to understand
that. You have to understand how much he hates
you, Christian. He wants to cause as much
chaos in your life as he possibly can because
he knows, as I told you last week in Ephesians
six, he can't have you. And he knows you win
in the end and he loses and he hates that.
So while he's got the time and opportunity, he
's the father of lies and you want to know
one of, one of his biggest lies is everybody's
a child of God. Go ahead and sleep in on
Sunday.
You don't even have to go to church. That's
nothing but a bunch of hypocrites down there
at that church. Well, you need to go down
there. You can just have church in your living
room, right? So Jesus told these Jews, you,
you're a, you're a father of the devil. And
then next, first 45, Jesus says, but because I
speak the truth, you do not believe. Child
of God loves the truth. A child of the devil
doesn't believe the truth. Simply put, next,
Jesus says in verse 46, what's one of you conv
icts me of sin? In other words, it's been
something
not done that makes you not believe me. Do you
know something about me that I'm not aware
of? Do you know something about me that, that
calls my credibility into question or my
integrity?
But you know what? Nobody from their group
ever brought up anything like that. Do you
know why? Because there was never anything to
bring up ever. If they had anything, do
you think they would have used it? You better
believe it. The mock trials, there was nothing
of evidence in those mock trials. And finally,
what they had to do, they had to bribe some
false witnesses to make things up. Remember,
there was no record at all of any misdoing
on the part of Jesus ever and you can believe
they looked because he was living the perfect
life that you and I can as our substitute. Don
't forget that. He says next in verse 46,
if I speak the truth, why do you not believe
me? Answer, because you're of your father,
the devil. That's why. That's the desperate
reality of the natural human condition. Let
me tell you something. I don't even have words
to explain how, how shocking the words of,
that Jesus are giving in this text. And we got
to deal with them because they're here.
Verse 47, and we're fixing to close. He says,
"He who is of God hears the word of God. For
this reason, you do not hear them because you
are not of God." Wow. Like I said when
we started, everybody in the world is either
in one family or the other. I hope you
understand
that a little better today after this message.
So if you want to go to Ancestry.com or 23and
me
and check your Ancestry, go ahead, check it
all out. That's fine. Not only do you get
to part of the way to go all the way, you got
to dig a little deeper. And the big picture,
it's interesting, but your family in the past
is not what matters. It's your family in the
present. That's the issue. What family are you
in? There's only two. That's the ultimate
spiritual question. And we all only get a very
certain ordained by God number of heartbeats
and breaths to get that question answered.
What family are you in? If you don't have
the answer, get it answered. And get it
answered today because today, folks, today is
the day
of salvation. Let's pray. How do we thank you
for this word? I feel like a little bug.
I feel like a little worm preaching the words
of Jesus. And I am. But you have to have
somebody
to do this to proclaim, this is what you've
ordained, that the word be preached. And so
I thank you for that privilege that I don't
deserve to preach your word to your people
on your day behind your pulpit. This ain't my
pulpit. It's yours. I'm just a steward.
And so I pray I've been a faithful steward
today to deliver your word. And I pray, Lord,
that you would burn it into our souls, the
realities of who Jesus is and what family
it is that we're in. And for all who rejoice,
being in the family of God, we'll be doing
that rejoicing forever. But if anybody's here
who is not or is not sure and don't have
it straight, please, Lord, we pray, draw them
to yourself. Use the word preached and the
power of the Spirit to bring another to
yourself. All for your glory. In Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.