Life and judgement are throu..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the father does, that the son does likewise.

For the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing and greater works than these will he show him so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. And whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. But as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has given Him all of Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just. because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

Amen. This is the word of the Lord. The verses this evening that we'll be considering as a church will be from verses 24 through 30, because last week we've already looked and together we've meditated upon verses 19 through 23. And in those verses we've seen the glorious, unmistakable claims of our Lord and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. And we've recognised that He's not making any errors in His communication, that there's no mistake in His interpretation, just mind-blowing truth about the Son of God.

Brothers and sisters, if one is not prepared to accuse the Lord of being deceitful, dishonest, or blasphemous, then the verses we read last week, they must make us conclude that this Jesus is more than a mere man. Now the Jews understood the Lord's claims exactly and they resolved to kill him. That's how zealous Jews were taught to deal with blasphemers who claim to be God. And there's no mistake, that's exactly what Jesus is claiming to be in these verses. He's claiming to be equal with God, equal to God or with God in nature, equal in power, equal in authority, equal in omniscience, in His all-knowingness, all found in these verses that we've already examined.

And so with these divine attributes, he would make a perfect righteous judge. And that is what he is. But we didn't end last week on that note. The last verse we considered last week was verse 23, and where our Savior makes the bold statement and possibly sends the Jewish audience into a frenzy. What does he say?

Verse 23, all must honor the son just as they honor the father. Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. You see the same honor fitting of Yahweh is fitting of Jesus Christ. I told you it's a bold, a bold statement. What man can say these words?

That Jesus is worthy and deserving of the same honor as the Father? Yes, yes, that's that's what Jesus is saying. And furthermore, the father is honored when his son is honored. That's how we honor the father through honoring the son. So his son is to be trusted.

His son is to be obeyed. His son is to be worshipped in the same way and with the same attitude as the father. The son is to be loved. to love the Son as you would love the Father. And anything short of that type of love is dishonoring of the Father.

Imagine that. Already our Lord has shaken the incomplete religious beliefs of the day to pits. How are they now to harmonize what Jesus is claiming of himself with what they already know or what they perceive to be true religion? In the other week, we spoke about the Shema, the hero Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. How are they going to harmonize Jesus claiming to be God with their Shema, which they recited twice a day?

And furthermore, if Jesus's words are true, They have huge implications even to what comes after the so familiar text in Deuteronomy chapter 6. You see verse 4 tells us, Hero Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. But then in chapter 5 you have, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. What Jesus is claiming is true. He's looking these Jews in the eyes and he's telling them, that love is what I expect you to love me with.

Now that's a bold statement. That's a bold statement. And now in the verses that we have before us this evening, our Lord shines some more light, bringing further clarity on the sublime truths that He's already expressed in the previous verses. But more particular, He'll bring some more light, shed some more light for us on the theme of life, death, and judgment. That's where, it seems, the emphasis lies in the verses between verse 24 and 30 this evening.

You see, he begins with the emphatic, truly, truly, I say unto you, and we explained that last week, but simply said, he's saying, look, take very careful attention to what I'm about to say, because what I'm about to say is pivotal to your understanding of the thrust of what I'm about to teach you. This is what Jesus is saying in those words, and then he continues, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death life. If you remember last week we considered verse 21 which reads, for as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he wills. You see what seems to be emphasized in verse 21 is the parallel between the father and his ability to raise the dead and give life to whom he pleases, and the son who's able to do the same.

However, here in verse 24, it seems like what we have before us is Jesus shedding some light on who these people are that he gives life to. Whoever hears my word, he says, and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. We must be careful. We must be careful not to think that Jesus is saying simply that the audible hearing of his word or the audible hearing of the grammatical constructions that make sentences that come out of his mouth is what he's speaking about here. That's not the hearing that Jesus speaks to.

Eternal life is not transferred through sound waves. And it's not a matter of simply just reading the Bible or listening to sermons expanding the scripture. Jesus is speaking of a lot more than the act of receiving information, although it's not less than that. It's to hear with your heart, not so much with your ears, but with your heart. It's to acknowledge with your soul, by faith, that Christ's words are true and they are the very words of God himself.

But Jesus speaks only what he has heard of the Father. And God's words, God's words are life. As Yahweh says in Isaiah chapter 55, incline your ear and come to me, hear, why? That your soul may live. Whoever hears my word and believes.

Literally the reading here is hearing and believing. It's a continuing tense. There's a perpetual relationship between the almost always when we find the hear, want to hear, or someone's being called to hear words in scripture, it almost always signifies not only hearing with your ears and understanding with your mind, but more so the apprehension of what that person is saying. In this case, the apprehension of what Jesus is saying by faith, but also obedience to what he says. You see, hearing and obeying in Scripture, they go hand in hand.

You see, it's beyond the mental assent that Jesus speaks of. His words, properly heard, change the heart and they transform the mind. Actions are altered and the result is a transformed life. It's explained really well in John chapter 10 when our Lord says, my sheep hear my voice. I know them.

What do they do? And they follow me. They've heard my voice and now they follow me. Hearing the voice of the Lord is, it necessitates a desire and a willingness to follow him, to obey him. But believing in this verse is not in Jesus, it says, but in Him who sent me.

Now, Him who sent me is obviously speaking of the Father. Now, we've already worked our way through the gospel according to John, the first five chapters, and we know that throughout the gospel, the believing, the object of faith, ought to be in Jesus Christ. John 3, 16 comes to mind. We all know that verse. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, believe in who?

Who's the Him? It's the Son. Believing in the Son shall not perish but have everlasting life. So, are we to believe in the Father or the Son? What's necessary?

Trusting in the Father or the Son for eternal life? both. There's no contradiction here at all. The whole thrust of this passage is to show not only the equality of the Son with the Father, but also the unity of the Son with the Father. That the words and the works of the Son are the words and the works of the Father.

That to honour the Son is to honour the Father. And so here in verse 24, one would be well within his rights biblically to say that faith placed in the Son is faith placed in the Father. They're beautiful words. To believe upon the Son is to believe upon the Father. And for those who hear the words and believe in this way, they have nothing to fear the text is telling us.

Why? Because He does not come into judgment. The consequences of his or her sin will not be applied to that person. For those who believe like this, beloved, the judge will acquit them from all and any wrongdoing. How can this be?

How can a just judge not punish the guilty? We all know the wages of sin is death. Then how is it, I ask you, that a just judge would reward a sinner who is worthy of death with eternal life? The gospel is so sweet. It's because this judge, he knows all the sins and the iniquities of his people, has laid those, he's laid the guilt and the punishment upon his own shoulders.

and he bore the sins of his own in his body. He was condemned to the cross, so that we could say, whoever believes in him is not condemned. John 3, 18. Or said in another way, out of the mouth of the Apostle Paul in the glorious eighth chapter of the book of Romans in the first verse, there is therefore no condemnation. for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Why? Because the fatal consequences of their sin, the fatal consequences of their rebellion against God for those who are in Jesus Christ, they've been taken care of because the Incarnate Son of God bore them on that cross. Beloved, that's the gospel. That's the gospel. And the one who hears, and this is the last part of that verse, has passed from death to life.

Now, to better understand that phrase, we really need to understand verse 25, because verse 25 really sheds the light on verse 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. See, this verse speaks to the same truth as verse 24. In verse 24, it's through hearing the words of the Son of God, and in verse 25, it's hearing the voice. You see, a demonstration of the voice was already being given earlier in this chapter, right?

We remember the invalid of almost four decades who was sitting there in the pool of Bethesda, and when our Lord walks through in the colonnades there, and He sees him, and what does He say? He says, Get up! His voice, get up, pick up your bed and walk. And what does that man do? Immediately, immediately he gets up, he picks up the mat and walks.

The voice of Jesus Christ brings about wholeness to his body. He brings life to the limbs that haven't been working for 38 years. the tendons, the core, everything. He brings life to those members of that man's body. But here, in verse 25, the additional detail we're given, which is also expressed in the last portion in verse 24, is this.

The people hearing the voice of the Son of God, I want to hear this, I want you to recognize this, were in a state of being dead. So it's a resurrection that is in view here. But is it a physical resurrection? Or is it a spiritual resurrection that Jesus speaks of? And see, the answer comes in the timestamp that we have in the passage before us.

And it defines for us what theologians would call the already and the not yet. You see, later in verse 28, our Lord says, an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear my voice and come out. Now we'll get to that, but this is obviously speaking about a future time, a final resurrection. The hour is coming. Now that's the not yet.

But in verse 25 we have the same phrase with an addition. An hour is coming, there's the same phrase, but here's the addition, and is now here. This is the already. This is the now. This is the here and now.

It speaks of not a future physical resurrection, but a present spiritual one. So passing from death to life in verse 24, and those who hear the voice of the Son of God and live in 25, is a reality that every believer in Jesus Christ, he who trusts in the Son of God, will enjoy until the final resurrection. So there's two things I want to see in this passage, two things I want us to realize, two glorious truths. And the first is that there's only two categories that our Lord gives of all humanity, only two. There's the living and there's the dead.

Now we know we're speaking spiritually here. So he's speaking spiritually of the living and the dead, only two groups. But here's the thing. Everyone, every last person who has ever existed on this planet, apart from our Lord, starts in the state of the dead. That's the category He begins in.

It's in the state of being dead. Verse 24b, He does not come into judgment, but has passed from where? From death. to life. Verse 25, speaking of the same reality, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

So the question we must be thinking about right now is this, how do dead people hear the word of the Son of God, or the voice of the Son of God? How do dead people hear? The simple answer is this, in and of themselves, They can't. They cannot. Beloved, I can go to the local cemetery, a place where many have been buried, and we see many tombstones that represent the buried, and I can preach my heart out for hours.

What sort of response will I get? I guarantee I will get no response because dead people are doing what they do best. Nothing. They cannot hear. They cannot see.

They cannot respond. I will get no response. However, there is only one possibility. The only way I will get a response, apart from maybe the security guard who will kick me out of the place, the only place I can get a response from any of the buried is if something supernatural was to occur. If a miracle was to occur.

If somehow, The dead became alive. have ears to hear what I'm saying, and eyes to see. That would be the only way that this could work. And that's exactly what's happening in our verses. In verses 24 and 25 before us, this is what's happening, that the dead are becoming alive.

And this is a teaching and a reality that the Bible teaches throughout, that the natural state of all human beings is that they are indeed spiritually dead. Paul calls this state to be dead in our transgressions, dead in our sin. Ephesians chapter 2. The natural man cannot respond to the good news of the gospel. Why?

Because they are unable to do so. Just like the dead people in the cemetery, they cannot respond. And hear this now, because this here is grace. That in this state of deadness, in the state of spiritual helplessness, The Spirit of God quickens a dead man or woman's soul to life. He speaks His Word, and He says, live, and the dead come to life.

Just as in Ezekiel chapter 37, if you remember the scattered, dry, dead bones, when they came to life, how did they come to life? At the Word of God, when He was prophesied, at the Word of God. This is regeneration. This is the spiritual life that's spoken here. And beloved, we must realize it's not merited.

It's not earned, it's not achieved, because as I said earlier, dead people cannot do anything to achieve it. It is by grace and by grace alone. Now with eyes that can see, now with ears that can hear, the depravity of the heart and the desperate need for a savior. is now identified, it's evident to a person. He's heard the voice, the life, the soul has been quickened, and now he sees his desperate state, his dire state in his or her sin, and the desperate need, the desperate need for a Savior, and through the instrument of faith, Jesus is believed upon as Lord and as Savior, and this sinner, hear this, is justified and gifted with eternal life.

Beloved, this is the spiritual resurrection. This is salvation. Can you see how God deserves all the glory and man deserves none? This is incredible. Now with ears to hear, one can recognize the voice of the Savior.

It makes sense that Jesus says that my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. It's because he's given them life to hear. He's resurrected them spiritually from the dead. And now they can hear. Now they can see.

Now they can follow the Savior. Now they belong to God. It's as simple as that. Listen to how the Lord puts it when he's speaking to the religious leaders in John chapter 8. He says, whoever is of God hears the words of God.

The reason, and he's speaking to them, the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. That means those who hear the voice of God belong to God. Beloved, if you have effectually heard his voice, If his word has transformed your heart, then you know, then you know that the spirit of God has made you born again. He's made you born from above and you have eternal life. This is what Jesus is saying.

If you hear my voice and you believe upon him who sent me, you have eternal life. This is a glorious, glorious truth. the ones who are listening, I couldn't understand that. How could they if they were spiritually dead? And a sinner doesn't understand this because he is spiritually dead.

He doesn't hear the voice of God, nor does he desire the things of God, because God is spirit. How can one desire the things of the spirit if they're dead spiritually? But those, for those who are trusting in Jesus Christ, those who believe upon Him, His voice, His words, they hear, they know, and they are so sweet to the ear. The second thing I want you to see is that this life, beloved, is given, or the life that is given to those who believe, is immediate. I want you to see that.

You don't need to wait until you die to enjoy eternal life. You don't need to wait until Christ comes back to enjoy this eternal life. Listen to what he says. Go back to verse 24. He says, "...

truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." He has past, this is in the perfect tense, it signifies a completed action that has consequences in the now. He has eternal life. If you've believed in this way, then you have already entered into that life.

Not only is the richness of the life in its longevity, not only in its never-endingness, but the richness of the eternal life is the quality of life in Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is something we need to fathom. That the eternal fellowship, rooted in the timeless love of the Trinity, and very specifically in this text, it speaks about the first member, the Father, and the Son, and their eternal relationship, is the life that we enter into by faith. You see, we pass from death to life, from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the sun, Colossians 1.13.

The question is, do we believe this? Because, beloved, if we believe these truths, it should create in us a joy that surpasses all understanding. despite the hardships and trials of this life, and there are many, there are many, our lives are hid in Christ. Nothing, nothing can take that away. It's eternal.

It's eternal. And the life we've entered into, this eternal life, is as, I want you to hear this, is as secure as the Lord that we have believed in. That's how secure that eternal life because we're united into His life. The life we're given and when the life of Jesus Christ. This is why Paul can say in Colossians chapter 3, when Christ who is your life appears, when Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.

This eternal life is the life of Jesus Christ. He is the source and the substance of that life. He is the spring and the fountain of life. And that's the next divine truth that we find in our text here in verse 26. For as the father has life in himself, so he's granted the son also to have life in himself.

It's an incredible statement. Verse 21 tells us of the authority that Jesus has to give life to whom he will, but this verse, it takes it a step further, because this verse is telling us that the life he gives is sourced in himself. The life he gives is sourced in himself. As the father has life that is underrived and self-existent, so too is the son. His life is underrived and self-existent.

This can only be said of God, beloved. You see, no man can speak this way. No man can say, I have life in myself. No one. No one can say these words.

You and I cannot say these words. We are dependent upon God for life, and He can just as easily take our life as He does give us life. But in Christ, but Christ. Christ, His life is life in Himself, and it's identical to the life in Himself of the Father. He doesn't depend on anything or anyone.

Life is found in himself. Now it's important that we get this part right. This is not a privilege that was given to Christ in the incarnation, as though Jesus was given this life in himself by the Father upon the incarnation. No, this is an eternal divine attribute of the second member of the Trinity, the Son of God. He always, always had life.

in himself from eternity past. The Apostle John has already explained that to us. In the prologue, in the very first verse of the prologue, he says, in the beginning was the Word. Before time, before space, before there was anything, before Adam was created, was the Word. And we know the Word is the Son of God.

In the beginning was the Word. And then verse 4, he says, in him was life. That life was in the Word from the beginning. That's not the beginning of our time and space, that is from all eternity past, because he was face to face with the Father in the eternal love fellowship he had with the Father and the Holy Spirit. No, no, Jesus always, his life was always underrived.

His eternal life is inherent to who he is. And because he is the source and the fountain of life, it's his to give. You hear that? Because he is the source and the fountain of life, it's his to give. And this is why he can say, only a chapter earlier, to the Samaritan woman at the well, the water I give is a spring that wells up into eternal life.

Beloved, if he's the source, means you can get that life from nowhere else. He's exclusive. That life can be found in no one else but through Jesus Christ. And that's why we need to take the verses of Scripture very seriously. Because when Jesus does say, I am the way, the truth, and the life, definite article, the life, he means the life.

He means there is no way to eternal life but through him. And this is why he can so closely associate himself with life as he does in the very next chapter, in chapter six, when he says, and our brother referenced this passage early on, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh. And the Apostle Paul in his first letter, my apologies, the Apostle John in his first letter, he gives Jesus the title, the eternal life.

That's what he calls him, the eternal life. Beloved, Christ's divinity, His deity, His Godness, is all over John chapter 5. It's all over the text here, but something interesting happens in verse 27, because it seems like His humanity is now being put on display. The Father has entrusted Him to execute judgment, and we're told why, because we have that because there in verse 27, and it's because He is the Son of man. Now the son of man title speaks of much more than a man, it's also an allusion to Daniel chapter 7.

there that the Son of Man meets is with the Ancient of Days, the Father, and He is given a kingdom, an everlasting kingdom, and servants who will serve Him forevermore. Glorious, glorious passage. And then the Jews in this day may have may have put the pieces together, they may have understood the illusion, most likely they did, but it's interesting because in this passage We don't have that definite article. We don't have the Son of Man. We just have Son of Man.

Now, if you remember, and this has been a while ago, probably a year ago, when we looked at John 1, the last verse, or the last two verses, we see that heaven opens, and then we see the angels descend and ascend on the Son of Man. We have the definite article there, so it's a definite allusion to Daniel 7. But here, he may be But we cannot be sure. We cannot be sure. And this is why commentators are not in agreement to why Jesus used the Son of Man here.

But he doesn't. I mean, we can't be sure. But nonetheless, it seems to me that the reason why Jesus has placed it here before us is the same reason that it makes him the perfect mediator between God and man. Hear me out. I think the reasons that make him the perfect mediator between God and man are the same reasons that makes him the perfect judge of all men.

See, as a mediator, to perfectly obey the Father's plan of redemption, it was necessary for the Son of God to be both God, that He is, and our human representative before God. Up until now, in our passage, his deity has been emphasized, his godness has been emphasized. It's clear that the one who will determine the final state of every single person who has ever lived is the all-knowing Son of God, who will execute his judgment based on his omniscience, on his all-knowingness. It is because only God can know every deed, every word, every thought, the heart. But I think the Son of Man is also a reminder that He is not only God, but He's also man.

He's also man. He fully understands in an experiential way what it means to be human. He can identify without humanness. Born of a woman, born under the law, He weary, he understood, he was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin, beloved, he fully understands the human experience. So I ask you, who is more fitting to judge man before God than the God-man himself, Jesus Christ.

All-knowing, he sees it all. Every secret of your heart and mine is exposed before him. Everything is laid bare on the table, and he's one who has experienced the true human experience. It's incredible. The God-man will judge the living and the dead.

And at this point, I believe that those who are standing before the Lord, there may have been many scoffers before him. And they're probably thinking, what audacity, what audacity does this man have to claim all the divine attributes for himself? Probably knowing their thoughts, our Lord says, do not marvel at this. In other words, don't be surprised at what you hear. They're probably very surprised at this point.

Why? Because it's clear that many, many were still dead spiritually. Many didn't have the ears to hear. They couldn't understand. All they wanted to do is rebuke and get this blasphemer out of there.

They were among the dead and not the living. They hadn't heard the effectual life giving voice of Jesus. But even then, Jesus says, don't be amazed. Why? Because a day is coming.

A day is coming, he says, when your ears and everyone else's with no exceptions will hear my voice and experience its creative life-giving power. Everyone with no exceptions. And the voice that is powerful enough to bring to bring life physically, because here in verses 28 and 29 it is the physical resurrection. It is the final resurrection that is in mind. All will rise from their tombs, he says, and they will stand before me and I will judge them all according to their deeds.

The sobering truth. No one, beloved, no one will escape that judgment. There's nowhere to hide. No matter how badly one died at the sound of his voice, all will be resurrected. Now, when you think about that, that's extraordinary.

Because think of the possibilities. We know of many in history who have suffered some horrific deaths. Many were burnt and their bodies became ash. They will be restored and they'll be back in the resurrection. Many have been devoured by animals and have become part of the animal's anatomy.

They will be resurrected. From ancient days many have been buried in the ground and their bodies has fertilized the ground or we may be using, and I don't mean to be crude, but we may be using fuel in our cars that their bodies have made part of. They will also be resurrected in the last day. There is no exception. Everyone, the Bible says here, all, which means all will come to life at the sound of His voice.

And they will stand in judgment. And the person who will judge is the Son of Man. He is our Lord Jesus Christ. He will search their every deed. And as verse 30 tells us, He will judge in perfect unity to the will of the Father, because that's what He's concerned to do, to obey the Father's will.

I'm not sure if you realized, but just in case you didn't, when He's spoken of the judgment throughout our passage, He always referred to the third person, the Son of Man, the Son of Man. But in verse 30, He brings it to a personal pronoun, I, I will. I will be handing out the fitting sentence to every individual. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Beloved, both have eternal consequences based on deeds.

Now that's interesting. You see, contrary to common belief, death is not the end. Some have tried to impose some form of annihilationism, that is to say that when one dies, he ceases to exist. There are some circles within Christianity that believe that that is the final state of those who are not in Christ, those who are in the category of evildoers, as the Bible would say, that they cease to exist. But that's not the Bible's teaching at all.

The consequences of one who sins before the Lord, and that is every human being who has sinned before the Lord, is an infinite offense to an infinitely holy God. Undealt with, those sins are worthy of eternal punishment. And in the resurrection, both the good and evil will rise to an eternal existence. On the one hand, eternal life and bliss and glory with the triune God. On the other hand, it'd be a resurrection unto judgment and an eternal torment in the lake of fire.

But there's no questioning that the Bible teaches that the consequences are eternal. Jesus makes it really clear in Matthew 25, 46, where he says, the wicked will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. He uses that word in both, in the same breath, eternal, eternal, it means the same. Like our life is eternal existence with the Lord, the punishment is an eternal punishment under his condemnation. No one will escape.

No one will escape the final resurrection. And the question that should be asked is this, how can I make sure? How can I make sure I am among the resurrected unto life? We see, we know that those who are spoken of, those who have done evil, who are resurrected unto judgment. In chapter three, we've dealt with the passage that speaks to that, and why it is that they continue to do evil.

In John chapter three, verse 19, he says, and this is Jesus' words to Nicodemus, and this is the judgment. Here we go, this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, that's Christ, and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. You see, these love their sins, and they will be condemned accordingly. But there's an interesting question here.

If they're condemned based on their evil deeds, does that mean we are saved based on our good deeds? It's a question we need to ask. Is that what gives us eternal life, our good deeds? Is that what this passage is suggesting? Is there a parallel somehow there?

Of course not. The whole section, and indeed throughout this Gospel, and throughout the Gospels, and throughout the New Testament, it's so clear, and the Old, that salvation is not at all by works. It is by faith, and faith alone, and the Son of God alone. Faith in the Son of God is faith in God Himself. But the final judgment, beloved, is actually based on deeds done.

This is what this text is saying, and this is what the text throughout Scripture teaches. Paul teaches this exact same thing in 2 Corinthians 5-10. He says, So here's the thing. We know it's not our works, not our good works, that saves us. But faith in Jesus, true, saving faith in Jesus, genuine faith that has apprehended Him, those who have heard His voice and followed the Saviour and have apprehended Him for all He is and claims to be, that faith will always produce good work.

Always. Because it's no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me. There's a glorious truth in this. must originate from belief in the Son. Faith in the Son of God is the source of the good work that we produce, because it's His work, not ours.

This is important, we remember this. Work that is acceptable to God, work that is deemed by God as good and righteous, has to be rooted in the Son of God. And through the power of the Spirit that He has given us, We produce good work. See, this is the point that Jesus makes in the very next chapter, and I want to end with this. He says, Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

That's glorious. For on him God the Father has set his seal. And then he said this, listen to this, then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? What must we do to do those things that are acceptable before God? What must we do to do the things that are righteous before the Father?

What must we do, Jesus, to be claimed or to be categorized in the category here that is before us as those who have done good, who rise into the resurrection of life? What must we do? And then Jesus answered them, this is the work of God. This is the work that is acceptable to God. This is the work that God deems good, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

I wanna hear that again. This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. You want to be sure that you're on the right side of the resurrection. Believe in the Son of God. Trust in His work.

Believe that He is all He claims to be. A perfect Savior that can save not only sinners from their sin, but can save you from your sins. Because in the resurrection, all will hear his voice, no exception, and all will rise. But those who hear his voice, listen to this, this is terrifying. Those who hear his voice for the first time, that voice will strike terror.

indescribable terror into the heart of those people. But if you've heard that voice before, if you hear that voice even today as we look through scripture and as you pray and as you read the word, then it's the sweetest sound to your ears because you know that voice. And that voice on the final day means that your salvation will be consummated and you will rise bodily, bodily to the resurrection of life to enjoy the glory with our Lord and our Triune God forever. and ever, and that is glorious. Beloved, I pray.

My prayer is that we will find, that all of us find ourselves in that category, in the resurrection to life. Amen, let's pray.