Whoever is of God Hears the..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. John chapter 8, and we're going to be reading from verses, let's read from verse 39, actually my apologies, from 31. We'll go from 31 through to 47.

John chapter 8 from verse 31 to verse 47. This is the Word of God. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. slave to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free?

Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, You will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have heard from your father. They answered him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham or the works that Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.

You are doing the works of your father. You are doing the works your father did. And they said to him, we're not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God. And Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me.

For I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You're of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desire or desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is because, sorry, the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. Amen. This is the Word of God. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord remains forever.

Let's just quickly come to our Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your Word. We ask, Lord, right now, that you would be among us by your Holy Spirit, that you would open our hearts and our minds to receive your Word. Give us faith to receive. May your Spirit give us ears to hear.

But I pray that you would be with me to proclaim only that which corresponds to truth. And may your people be edified. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Beloved, we have before us an incredibly confronting passage here in this section in the Gospel according to John, the eighth chapter.

The truth statements of our Lord in this little section that we've just read are so piercing to the heart that everyone needs to take what He has to say with an incredible amount of seriousness. Because they're not only applicable to the first century Jews, the ones who are supposed believers of Him that are before Him in the temple in Jerusalem. But beloved, these words are just applicable to your heart and mine. We need to be hearing. We need to allow the Word of God take root in our hearts and hear what the Spirit of God has to say for us this evening.

Now, we know we started a section from verse 31, and we started it a couple of weeks ago. We know very much the emphasis in this little section in the eighth chapter is primarily on the topic of truth. You remember that? Truth. And I said last week, truth is objective truth.

So in other words, it doesn't really matter what I think about it, or what you think about it, or what everyone else outside these doors thinks about truth. Truth is truth because of where it is rooted. Truth is truth because of where it is rooted. And beloved, if that truth comes from God, from the very being, from the very heart of God, then that truth is the absolute truth, no matter what anyone else thinks. And since Jesus has already made it clear that everything he has done in the incarnation, all the words that he's spoken, all the actions that he's done, all the claims, his teachings, his doctrines, are not his own, but he's always said, that they are from the Father.

It's what he has seen and what he's heard from the Father. Therefore, the words of our Lord are supremely authoritative as the words of God and absolute truth. Absolute truth. Including the words we have before us here in John. Chapter 8.

His word is true. For those who profess to believe in Jesus, those in verse 31 of our passage, so Jesus said to the Jews who believed in Him, do they possess a saving faith? Is that what they have? Well, we have our doubts, don't we, already from what we've already gone through thus far. But the question is, has the truth of the Word of God, has the truth of the words and the doctrines of Christ made residence in their hearts?

Or has it just simply remained in their mind? Has it soaked into the very being of these people so that they would be disciples who are abiding in the Word of God? Or is it simply something they've come to know, some details, some facts about Christ. Maybe they're enamored with these miracles or whatever that may be, but if the truth hasn't settled in their hearts, beloved, they are going to fall away. In a matter of time, they will fall away.

Jesus says in verse 31, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. You are truly my disciples. Although these Jews are professing to have a type of faith in Christ, we're told, John tells us in verse 31. Beloved, it's not far into this section that we realize they're already taking offense of what Jesus has to say. They're already pushing back at his words.

They're already being offended at his words. that will begin to slur insults at our Lord. We may have seen one even today. And before long, they're gonna pick up stones because they've had enough. There is nothing in this text to suggest that these are anything other than the Jews who professed to believe in Him.

Nothing. And that's the scary thing. You can go from that point, where you follow after Christ, to a point where you just want him out of your life, even prepared to murder him in such little time. And that is beloved, because the truth had not sunken into their soul. So what was so offensive thus far?

Well, they didn't mind the words that if you abide in my word, you are my true disciples. That's okay. But when Jesus begins to say, and you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Hold on one moment, Jesus. What's this business about setting free?

I mean, you should be speaking to those who are enslaved. We've never been enslaved Christ. We are sons, we are offspring of Abraham. We've never been in bondage. What's this talk about you requiring us to be set free?

Jesus, do you not know who we are? Why is your word so offensive to us? We're already free. We don't need to be set free. They couldn't be so wrong.

These people were deceived. They were mixing the physical with the more realities. Being physical offspring of Abraham doesn't automatically make you, or make him, your spiritual father. This is the point that Jesus is making through our passage. Your lineage, your genealogy, your family tree has absolutely no bearing upon the answer to your question when you're asking, who is my spiritual father?

It doesn't matter if you're from the tribe of Judah or Benjamin or Gad or Naphtali. It doesn't matter if you're Abraham's offspring or if you're a Gentile. It doesn't matter. The question is one of faith, not family tree. And the Apostle Paul makes that argument throughout the New Testament, Romans 2 in particular, where he says a Jew is not merely one outwardly, but a Jew is one inwardly.

What's he talking about? What about when in Galatians chapter 3, the same apostle says, it is those of faith who are the true sons of Abraham. True Israel. Those who are truly the sons of Abraham, truly the sons of God. Who are they?

They're the people of faith. And that's the point that Jesus is making before us here up until verse 47 of our passage. Now, Lord progressively makes the Jews aware how wrong they really are in their thinking. Because in essence, what Christ will go on to say is all boils down to this. It all boils down to this, that there are two families in existence.

Only two. Only two. Either you're a child of God, on the one hand, or you're a child of the devil. On the other, that's it. No third family, no fourth.

There's only two families in existence. Only two. Only two. You belong to one of two fathers, Jesus is saying. And the sooner you figure out which one you belong to, the better, because there is real deception going on.

You can be sincere in your belief. Sincere in your faith. Sincere in your understanding. But deception is real. And that's why on the last day they'll come and say, Lord, Lord, these men, these women will be surprised.

Why are you casting us out? And Jesus will say, I never knew you. The Jews, those who are supposed believers in Christ when the conversation started in verse 31, thought they were truly believing in Jesus. But here we have our Lord giving them the tools by grace. to be able to discern whether truly they are His disciples, whether the faith that they have used to trust in Christ, whether that's a faith that is saving faith, real faith, Spirit-wrought faith, faith from God, or whether it's just a man-made faith.

Beloved, I've heard it is terrifying. So this week we'll continue to consider the Lord's words from where we left off last week, from verse 37. And by God's grace, my intention is to get us to verse 47. So that's 37, 47, 11 jam-packed verses. And if you know me, you know that's very unusual.

I didn't want to split up the text because it has a great level of unity But that means that this evening we will be doing a high altitude flyover rather than getting down into the text and trying to plumb the depth as we normally do most times. These 11 verses means that we're just going to have to have a look at the text from a high view, but I trust that the Lord will bless our souls if we look at it from that point of view. Verse 37. I know that you are offspring of Abraham, Jesus says. Yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

I speak of what I've seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your Father. Now it's important from the very beginning that we get this thing straight. because it looks like Jesus is contradicting himself, doesn't it? When we see verse 37, and then what he'll go on to say in 39. On the one hand, Jesus acknowledges that the Jews that are before him are indeed the offspring of Abraham, and in the very next breath, he denies their claim to be the patriarch's children.

Now, to understand this, we need to realize that here in verse 37, our Lord is not contesting their physical genealogy, their lineage. Of course, their physical line is of Abraham. Jesus gives them that much, but that's not His concern moving forward. Yes, you are offspring of Abraham, Jesus says in verse 37. But from verse 37, he has something far deeper, far more spiritual realities to address in the hearts and in the lives of the people before him.

It's a spiritual sonship from 37b that Jesus has in mind, and it's not a physical one. So we need to get that clear. You are the sons of Abraham in the physical sense. Even from the loins of the free son, Isaac, you would be thinking, We know this much because that's the point he made last week. Remember that?

In verse 35. In 35, Jesus says, the slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son remains forever. You see, now he'll prove how this applies to the Jews that are before him. Because in the spiritual sense, these Jews aren't free like Isaac. They're not free at all.

They're more like slaves, like Ishmael. You see, Ishmael enjoyed the temporal privileges of being in Abraham's home. But beloved, the slave boy is never going to have the status of a son, ever. He'll enjoy it for a time, but it was never truly his home. A slave is temporal.

And just like Ishmael, one day they'll be cast out. Those privileges will come to an end. But the Son remains forever. Jesus has already said, in the Father's house, the Son remains forever. He enjoys in the inheritance of the Father.

There is no distinction between what the Father owns and that that belongs to the Father and that that belongs to the Son. They are one and the same. But we also know that Jesus goes on to say that that or he who the Son sets free will be free indeed, because Jesus himself is the true Son that is in question here before us. And he is the one who has the power to set slaves free. That's his declaration to these Jews.

that everyone who practices sin and that's that's the bondage he's speaking about verse 34 everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin but he who the son sets free is free indeed because the son remains in the father's house forever he's the one who can bring slaves in and bring them in as adopted sons into his father's house Now the Jews took offense to that language. They were adamant, as I said before, that they were already free, that they'd never been enslaved. So Jesus begins to tear down that thinking. He needs to break down the thoughts that they have in their mind of their ancestral privileges. That they simply being born in the line of Abraham made them somehow special in God's eyes in the spiritual sense.

We're okay, they thought. God's favor is on us. We are children of Abraham, children of the promise. We have the law. We have the temple.

Yahweh is on our side. We are not spiritually captive to anyone, nor have we ever been. We are free. Thank you for the offer, but we've never been in bondage. How sad.

deceived into thinking you're free, when in fact you are neck deep in the bondage of sin, and you cannot even see it. Beloved, deception is real, and the people before our Lord here on this day in the temple, they are experiencing utter deception. There's a reason, and our Lord will progressively reveal that reason for them as we work our way through the chapter, beginning with verse 37b. I know that you're the offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak truth, but your ears don't recognize it for what it is, is what Jesus is saying.

The truth of God? And what spiritual state would these people be in? These people who profess some sort of faith in Christ, when Jesus is speaking the truth that He received from God. Confronting them with the truth. And that truth has no place in their heart.

No residence in their heart. They have no place for truth in their heart. But there is room to plot, to kill him. Truth has no residence in their heart, but murder does. How does that speak about their spiritual state?

Are they really, as they think, spiritually free? How blind, yet they cannot see it. Deception is real. The Jews had no place for the teachings of Christ because their hearts were already occupied with a different type of teaching. But not with the truth of God.

They rejected the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and they'd proven already that their hearts are dull and dead spiritually. Jesus hasn't been speaking as though he is a rogue. All the while, I said earlier, whenever Jesus opened his mouth with these religious people in Jerusalem, and the Jews that are before our Lord, in some way, would have been the religious people. They're not quite the Pharisees that were antagonistic with our Lord, which the discussion began from verse 12 up to 30. But these Jews, whenever John uses the word Jews, I've said this often from the pulpit, whenever John uses that word Jew, he's normally meaning to speak about the Jerusalem locals who had some sort of affiliation with the religious leaders.

Normally they're the religious leaders. So it'd be fair to say that these people were quite versed with religion. Jesus had made it very clear from the onset and throughout His discussion with these people that He's not a lone ranger, but He only speaks the words, as I said earlier, that God had given Him. Verse 38, He does it again. I speak of what I have seen with my Father.

And again, in verse 40, But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. The words of Christ are synonymous with the words of the Father. The Jews have that much in their mind, at least. There's something remarkable in the words of our Lord in verse 38. Did you get it when I read it?

I speak, hear this, I speak of what I have seen with my Father. I love that. Don't let the word seen, which is literal translation, seen or behold with the eyes, escape you. In verse 40, Jesus does say, I speak that which I heard from God. But in verse 38, I speak of what I have seen with the Father.

Behold, beloved, let those words, feel the weight of those words. Beyond His words being the very words of the Father, and that's certainly true, Why would Jesus say in verse 38, I speak of what I have seen and not what I have heard. Now every word that the Lord speaks is intentional. Every last word. And I believe it is a display of his uniqueness.

Jesus is setting himself apart from the rest. The Father, He's not saying here that I know the words that I speak are true because the Father God whispered them in my ears and now I proclaim exactly, word for word, what He told me to you. That's not what Jesus is saying. Now Jesus is a prophet sent by God to herald the words of God. But that's not what He's saying here either.

In verse 38, I believe Jesus is so boldly distinguishing Himself or differentiating Himself from all the prophets that came before Him. The prophets spoke what they may have heard with their ears or the ears of their heart. We don't really know from Yahweh. They proclaimed it in truth. And the final product that we have in the Scripture is the Word of God.

Unadulterated, infallible, inerrant. and God breathed, but the Son, Jesus Christ, is declaring what He has seen with His eyes. The Son was eternally in the presence of God the Father. Beloved, these words may have gone unnoticed when you and I read them, but not these men that are before our Lord. They would be all too familiar with the fact that up until now God Yahweh is the unseeable God.

Exodus 33 would probably be ringing in their ears if they understood what Jesus was saying. You remember after Moses intercedes for the people of Israel after the golden calf incident in Sinai. The rebellious people worship a golden calf and the Lord wants to destroy it. And Moses intercedes on behalf of the people. You remember what Moses does?

Bravely he comes before the Lord boldly and says, Yahweh, please show me your glory. You remember what happens next? Yahweh says, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and I will cover you until I have passed by And then, I will remove my hand so that you can see my backward paths. You can get a little glimpse of my glory, Moses. And do you know why?

Exodus 33 verse 20, quote, you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live. And here you have Jesus Christ, son of a carpenter, standing in the sacred grounds in the temple, declaring to these people that I have been there and here I am to declare of what I've seen with my own eyes. I live. I've been in the presence of God and I live to tell the story. Moses is the greatest of prophets.

No other prophet, of no other prophet is it said that God spoke to him face-to-face to describe the intimacy that he enjoyed with Yahweh. Yet Moses, whatever face-to-face meant, it doesn't mean full disclosure that the son enjoyed. Because Moses was forbidden to behold the full effulgence, the full glory of the one who lives in unapproachable light. Because if he did, we know what the result would have been. He would perish.

But this Jesus was face to face in the presence of the Almighty God, and he has come in flesh to tell of what he has seen. Don't tell me that's not glorious. He made it clear to the Galileans back in chapter 6, and he's making the same point clear here to the Jews in chapter 8. Who can behold, beloved, the fullness of the glory of God without instantly being incinerated under that glory? Who?

Who? I'll tell you, his own son, the one who shares in the exact divine nature with God himself. Like father, like son. That's the motto of what we have here. Like father, like son.

No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the father's side. He has made him known. This beloved is a claim to deity. Remember chapter 14? Philip, whoever has seen me, has seen the Father.

Now you can dismiss the words of Christ at your own peril, but let's get this clear. If what he says is true, and it is, These men that are before him are obligated to do one of two things. That's it. That's it. One of two things.

Either they believe, they believe the words of Jesus Christ because his meaning is clear and his truth is absolute. Either they believe in Him and fall on their knees and worship. And of course, we know they don't do that. Their eyes are too blind. Their ears are too deaf.

They are too bound in the bondage of slavery to sin. Oh, they can remain in their unbelief, which is what's happening now. And if they really understood what Jesus was saying, that he's seen with his eyes, and now proclaims what he's seen, then beloved, they should have picked up stones in that moment, not wait until verse 59, but right now, because what they would have in their own minds is a blasphemer. But this is clear evidence that because they don't pick up stones until verse 59, is they did not understand what Jesus was saying. They were still spiritually blind, spiritually deaf.

I speak of what I have seen from my father, Jesus says, and then he continues, and you do what you have heard from your father. You see, it's clear by now to the Jews that Jesus is distinguishing himself from them. He's distinguishing his father from their father. He's saying, they're two different beings. My father is not your father, and your father is not my father.

We belong to different families. That is so clear in the words of Christ, and it will become clearer as time goes on. Now, we know from previous debates that the Jews likely knew enough about our Lord to identify who he was, his family tree, to identify that he was indeed a Jew, and he is from the tribe of Judah, and he is from the offspring, of course, of Abraham. He would be a Jew, just like they are Jews. Very likely, these were from the tribe of Judah as well, possibly Benjamin, maybe the Levites, but most likely from Judah.

So when Jesus alludes to the fact that his father is not their father, I think these Jews would have got, at that point, somewhat agitated. Right? Like, we know your family tree. You belong to the same tribe as us. And now you're saying that your father is not our father.

Jesus, what are you doing? What are you doing? And then they're probably thinking, if we're both Jews and you say your father's not our father, okay, Jesus, whoever your father is, we're claiming Abraham. That's what we're going to do. We're going to claim it.

39. They answered him, Abraham is our father. We said it first. We know that much. If anyone's going to claim the great patriarch, it's going to be us.

We call dibs, Jesus. It almost feels like this is the childish behavior that is happening before our Lord here in chapter 7 and throughout chapter 8. So sad that they're like little children at sea. Sublime truths are being set upon the table from the mouth of the Son of God. Truths that pertain to freedom from sin.

Truths that pertain to eternal life being proclaimed to these men. And they're calling dibs on Abraham. They missed the point. And they missed it completely. Two fathers are in question.

You belong with one of two fathers. That's what's in the Lord's mind. And Abraham is the wrong answer for both. God. Devil.

That's what Jesus has in mind. He's going to get them there. But they're so spiritually blind that it's going to take Him some time. But eventually He will get them there. His father is God, he'll make that clear in verse 40, and then he'll go on to make clear that Abraham is not their father, but indeed, devil is their father, and what a shock that's going to be.

But in order to show them this, he'll need to tear down the Jews' notion that Abraham is their spiritual father, because he's so hung up on that. But he'll do it in a special way. He'll do it in a way that we have come to know as like father, like son. Or the concept that our Lord has already taught in the Sermon of the Mount, you remember the concept, the concept of the trees. A good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit.

The fruit, the fruit has a direct correlation with the tree. The fruit has a direct correlation with the tree. One's conduct is rooted in what is within. One's conduct is rooted in what is within. It's rooted in one's nature.

And one's nature is determined by whose father he or she is. There's a direct correlation. Verse 39, Jesus said to him, If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me. Emmanuel has told you the truth.

But the truth that I heard from God, this is not what Abraham did. You want to claim Abraham as your spiritual father? You can't do that, is what Jesus is saying. Because the apple never falls too far away from the tree. And your works are not like Abraham's works.

A son always bears some resemblance to his father. Is that true in the physical sense? You see a father and a son and they bear some resemblance. Maybe their eyes, their ears, their nose, their receiving hairline, their height, whatever it is. Some good, some not so good.

But if that's true in the physical, it is so much more true in the spiritual. Nature shows in the physical that the Father bears resemblance to the Son. And in the spiritual, The son must bear a resemblance to the father. And that's what Jesus is getting at. You're Jews, and you think that Abraham is your father.

But your works bears no resemblance. The work of your hand, the conduct of your life, the desires of your heart, they bear no resemblance to Abraham. If you were sons of Abraham, you would do what Abraham did. For starters, Abraham believed. Abraham believed in the promises of God.

He placed his trust in Yahweh, in the promises of God. And that faith accounted for him as righteous. That's how he was justified. By faith. He heard from God the promises and he believed.

But you don't believe, is what Jesus is saying. Now that's true. But we need to be more true to the text, because the text doesn't speak about Abraham's faith directly, but Abraham's work. If you were children of Abraham, it's not written, if you were children of Abraham, you would believe what Abraham believed. That might make some of us a little bit more comfortable, but that's not what we have.

What we have here is, but that's what, if you believe, my apologies, Jesus said, instead, if you were children of Abraham, you would be doing the works of Abraham. In other words, if Abraham was your father, your life and your conduct would resemble that of Abraham. If your life, if your spirit is rooted in the same place as Abraham's, if your heart was changed by the same God as Abraham's, then wouldn't it be fair to assume the fruit of your lives would bear some similarities? Below it, that's completely consistent with all our Lord's teaching. In fact, it's consistent with the whole teaching of the Bible.

In essence, the conduct of a person, as I said earlier, stems from what is within, from their nature. And here in chapter 8, we know either you are born of God through faith in Jesus Christ, a child of God, free from the dominating power of sin, free to live unto righteousness, or you belong to the devil. and you're still yet a slave to sin. Your nature will determine your conduct. That's biblical.

But as Reformed folk, we quite often speak about salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and absolutely I agree with that. We often say that we're not saved by works, but we're saved by the work of Jesus Christ applied to us by faith. And then we speak about the work of our hands, or the performance of our hands, or the intellect of our minds, and we say things like, all that, well, everything I can conjure up in and of myself, all my performance is corrupted, it's defiled, it's tainted with blood, it's filthy rags. And that's so true. So, so true until, until, until by grace, through faith, the Lord saves us.

Because when his mercy and his grace and his love floods into our heart, everything changes. Salvation is purely a work of God. And it's a work of God upon undeserving sinners. No one deserves salvation. No one.

Our right standing before God is based purely on the blood atonement and the perfect righteousness of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen to that. When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. But don't overlook one very significant reality when we become sons and daughters of God. Because when that happens, beloved, everything changes.

Including the thrust and the trajectory of our lives, our desires change. We heard it this afternoon. Our motivations to do things, they change. They're no longer really self, but in God, in Christ Jesus. And our works, the performance, that changes as well.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Everything changes, beloved. When we become Christian, we are a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come.

Set free from the dominating power of sin. No longer people to practice sin. Remember Jesus said, who you practice sin is what? A slave to sin. no longer slaves to sin.

Our lives are no longer stamped and defined by unrighteousness as they once were. But as I said last week, from 1 John 2 and 1 John 3, by faith those who are born of God become children of God in whom the Spirit of God dwells and He enables that person to produce real fruit of righteousness. real fruit of righteousness as john says to practice righteousness you in the flesh in adam we practice sin we are slaves to sin in christ we practice righteousness because the fruit is the spirit of god working and flowing through the Christian to produce fruit pleasing to God. How can we say we can please God if the Spirit of God is not in and through us working? Beloved, if we say as Christians that our fruit is still filthy rags, then we are blaspheming the work of the Spirit of God.

It produces in us a true righteousness. It's not the righteousness that we'll stand with on the last day. That's the righteousness of Christ. The perfect righteousness. But He is producing in us a righteousness to cleanse us and to purify us and to present us one day with our spot of blemish.

In Christ, everything changes. A new creation. new nature God becomes your father his spirit works in you beloved if you have come to know him in that way and he produces a godliness he produces a Christ likeness he makes a person who used to look like the devil he makes that person look like God A little later in chapter, in verse 44, Jesus says to the Jews that their will is to do the desire of their father. Of course, he's implying that their father is the devil, but that is true for us as well. Our will ought to be to do the desire of our own heavenly father.

I hope you see that as evident in your own life. I hope you see those righteous desires working in and through you. you shall know them by their fruit, we're told. Jesus says in Matthew 7, 20, he says, a healthy tree bears good fruit, but a diseased tree bears bad fruit. So what does the fruit give evidence of?

It gives evidence of whether it comes from a good tree or whether it comes from a bad tree. Or to use the language that is before us, it will be giving evidence of who your Father is. Do you belong to God? And are you producing fruits of righteousness? Or do you belong to the devil, and all you're capable of is works of unrighteousness?

Beloved, straight after Jesus says that about the trees, he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does, the one who does the will of the Father who is in heaven. Good fruit, good fruit is to do the will of the Father. It creates in us new desires, new longings to please Him, new longings to love Him, new longings to do as He has commanded. Here we go. This is the wonder of the new covenant.

He also empowers us to obey. Is it burdensome? Oh no, it's not burdensome. It's a joy. That should be the desire of our heart.

And in that case, Jesus is the perfect example of perpetual fruit production, is he not? Do you remember what he said? He said, For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. So 24-7 he was doing the will of the Father. That was John 6.

36. How about John 4.34 when he says, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Accomplishing the work that he was given by the Father in the incarnation was the desire of his soul. He satisfied his soul and it ought to be your desire, beloved, and it ought to be mine also.

Now Abraham wasn't perfect, but he had faith. We know that as we look through the book of Genesis. We know that as we read Hebrews 11. But unlike these men, he obeyed God. He obeyed God when God called him out and said, leave your father's kindred and go to a land that you know nothing about, a land that you've never been to before, and go and just trust me.

And what did Abraham do? He left everything and he followed. He obeyed. Abraham obeyed. Unlike these men, he warmly received those who came in the name of Yahweh.

You remember, he received them warmly, showed them hospitality. God was pleased with Abraham. He wasn't perfect, but he had a faith, and that faith was rooted in God. Abraham's father was God. In speaking to Isaac, God himself says of Abraham, listen to these words, they're quite remarkable.

Speaking to Isaac, he says, and in your offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. He's repeating the promise he gave to Abraham. And then he goes on saying, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commands, my statutes, and my laws. And now these dudes before our Lord are trying to claim Abraham as their father. And Jesus is saying, you're deluded.

You look nothing like Abraham. Nothing. Here I'm speaking to you the very words of Yahweh's lips. From Yahweh's lips. Only the words from Yahweh himself.

And you're in your heart plotting to kill me. Don't kid yourselves. You are nothing like Abraham. But you are definitely doing your father's will. You're definitely doing your father's will.

You're definitely doing the work of your father. But Abraham is not your father. But we can examine ourselves even now by that standard. What do our thoughts, what does our works, what do our actions, what do our desires say of us? For some of us to follow us through the week, would they think that we do belong to God?

That we are indeed Christian? Is our lives stamped and defined by righteousness or unrighteousness? Do we seek after God? Do we seek to obey him wholeheartedly and joyfully? Do we love him?

The text goes on and these men say, okay, you want to deny us Abraham? Sure, we'll go one better. We'll claim God this time. God is our father. Verse 31 of 41b, they said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality.

We have one father, even God. I'm not at all clear as to why the Jews would say that, to be honest. Why would they protect themselves from the charge of being born from sexual immorality? Maybe, if the common belief is maybe, this was a personal stab at Jesus Christ. It's a possibility.

I said earlier that the Jews would have done their homework. These aren't novice people. They're quite cluey. They had their ways to know about certain people, especially this rabbi who confounded their religious establishment. He absolutely baffled their theological elites.

They would have done their research about Jesus. It's likely that they heard the rumours whilst they did the research. Rumours about Mary. Rumours about her becoming pregnant outside of wedlock. Pregnant with him.

It may be on their mind, and it may be their way when they say, we weren't born of sexual immorality. They might be having a stab at Jesus in so far as saying, some nerve, Jesus. Who gives you the right to determine who our father is? We know about the shady circumstances around your death. You probably don't even know who your father is.

What gives you the right to say who our father is? We weren't born of fornication. You're probably thinking you were. evil hearts. It's a possibility, but I don't think that's the main point.

Because beyond that, these men have the nerve now, with the dullness of the heart, to say and claim that God is their father. They've gone from saying, Abraham is our father. Now they say, no, no, God is our father. With all that Jesus said earlier, like father, like son, and they failed that test. Right?

They failed that test. Jesus said, no, no, no, no, you're not like Abraham. You don't do the work of Abraham. Stop saying that. If you were the sons of Abraham, you would do as Abraham did.

How would they fare up now to say that God is our Father? If they failed the test with Abraham, what makes them think they're going to pass the test with God who is perfect and righteous? Now, they may have some warrant. The scripture does speak of Israel being his firstborn son. We know the text also in Jeremiah.

Yahweh says, I am a father to Israel. But these Jews fail to see something very important. They fail to see that the true spiritual sons and daughters of Yahweh are not born his children. They are made to become his children. And they're made through faith.

You see, every one of us, including these men, were born in sin. They may have been born into a covenant community, but they were born in sin. And until God grants faith, until regeneration, until there's salvation of that soul, they are in enmity with God, and they would be naturally sons and daughters of the devil. That's just how it works. That's the Bible teaching on our spiritual nature.

So God makes his children and his children are ones who have come to be placing their faith in him, a spirit raw faith in him. And just like Abraham, their work must bear resemblance to their father. Now this can be seen in many ways, but here it seems like our Lord is emphasising in these verses that the children of God have the heart of God. In other words, they hate what He hates and they love the things He loves, and namely, they would love the object of His love. His Son.

His eternal Son. Verse 42. If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I'm not of my own accord, but He sent me. How true are those words, beloved?

Like, think about it. Jesus is saying, if God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I come not of my own accord, but He sent me. In other words, God sent me, Yahweh sent me. You should love me, if you truly were sons of God.

Do you realize how you tend to love someone? If you tend to love someone, you tend to also love anyone associated with that person. Have you come to realize that? We've probably all had our experiences. I've spoken to some of you and I know that you know how this works.

You meet a random person, maybe in the park, maybe at the shops, or maybe on the train, or the bus, or whatever. And you don't know this person from a bar of soap. You don't know them from any other stranger. And then something happens that warms your heart to them, just like that. They pull a Bible out of their bag, for example, and they begin to read.

And your heart is warmed to them. or you get an opportunity to come alongside them and speak to them and you see a fervent zeal for Christ, a fervent love for Christ and your heart is warmed to them. Isn't it interesting? A few moments earlier you couldn't differentiate these people from every other stranger out there and now after coming to know that they're Christian just like you, you're prepared to give your arm over for them. How does that work?

Well, beloved, it's because they belong to the one that you love. By association, you love them also. How many times has Jesus said to these men that I've come from the Father? And these Jews claim to love Yahweh. And over and over, Jesus says, I speak the words of the Father.

I do the works of the Father. I am of the same nature as the Father. You look upon me, you see the Father. You should hear His voice. You should hear His love, feel His love.

feel His tender loving care. You should see it in and through me. I only do that which the Father has shown me and has told me. I only do these things. And the immediate response to someone who is indeed a son of God ought to be one of overflowing love to the Son of God Himself, the only begotten.

That would be evidence. That would be evidence that you're born from above, born born from God, that God is your Father. But instead, that's not what these people are doing, is it? Instead, they oppose Christ. They'll insult Him.

And with murderous intention, they'll pick up stones to kill Him. And all the while, they are still claiming to know God and to love God and claim that God is their Father. That is a contradiction of the truth. The profession from their lips doesn't correspond with their conduct. And that's the point Jesus is making.

If you claim that God is your father, then you need to act like God is your father. If you claim that Abraham is your father, then you need to do the work that Abraham did. Rooted in faith, of course. No one who denies a son has the father. Whoever confesses a son has the father also.

1 John 2.23. The faith of these Jews is proven to be counterfeit. They don't recognize Jesus for who He is, and therefore they don't love Him. And if they don't love Christ, how can they say they love God?

How can they say that they've been born of God if they don't love the Son of God? Is that even possible? No, it's not. Because the same apostle says in 1 John 5, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born or begotten of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born or begotten of God.

How can these Jews say they love God? How can they say that God is their Father? That they're born from God and they don't love the only begotten Son of the Father? No beating around the bush on this one. It's black and white.

Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. To love the Son is to love the Father also. I and the Father are one. That's true in Jesus' day, and that's true in our day also, no matter what religion. No matter what ideology, no matter what philosophical group you belong to, no matter what faith group you belong to, the only passage to the Father, the only way to salvation is through the Son.

If you don't love the Son, you don't know the Father, and you still belong to the other family. You still belong to the devil. I don't care who they are. If their faith doesn't have Christ at the very center, as the only door into the kingdom of God. It's a lie.

And they're living in deception just like these men before our Lord. Contrary to the world's vernacular, there is no such thing as a universal sonship of God. There's no such thing as all of us, every man, woman and child being sons and daughters of God. That's not true. True Israel are the ones who have come to believe in the only begotten Son and have placed their trust in Him and now love Him.

If you, if God is your father, Jesus is saying, then you would love his son, Jesus Christ. That is the thread that runs through this whole passage. It is like father, like son. If God is your father, you need to ask yourself this question, do I love what God loves? Because it's written, the father loves the son and has given all things into his hand.

If the father loves the son, do you love what God loves? Are God's desires your desires? And the things he hates, the things you hate, and the things he loves, they're things you love. So the question you need to ask yourself, and I need to ask myself, is do we love the son? What a lesson.

Because beloved, we can have in our minds the information to be able to articulate the gospel like an evangelist. We can utter deep theological truths. We can understand the tenets of the orthodox faith. We can do all these things. But if we don't have love for the Son, we deceive ourselves.

The test of a true child, according to our Lord in these verses, is this. Do you love me? That's what He's saying. Do you love me? Jesus is not a concept.

He's a person. Do we love Him as a person? He's not an abstract idea. He's a person. And the moment the Lord Jesus Christ saves you, the moment He plucks that heart of stone and puts it into your heart, a heart of flesh to receive from God, to see your sin and to embrace Him by faith.

The moment He does that, He places in you an absolute love for Him. You know Him. You know Him as Lord. You know Him as Saviour. You know Him as Redeemer.

You love Him. Do you love Christ? Yes, we can articulate the Gospel. Yes, we can say certain things, theological truths, and we can memorize the Bible. We can come along a non-Christian and be able to articulate the whole gospel.

We can articulate the doctrines of grace, the five souls, you name it. But the question that matters is this, do you love Jesus? And does your life prove it? Does your life prove it? 1 Peter 1.

8 says, though you have not seen him yet, you love him. 1 Corinthians 16, the Apostle Paul makes it so clear. If anyone has no love for the Lord, Let him be accursed. In powerful words. Let him be accursed.

Which means if you have love for the Lord, the curse has been lifted and the blessings that are found in the Son are available to you. It's a beautiful passage. The Jews, Christ has been alluding all along that they're Father. They do the will of the Father. They do the work of the Father.

But He hasn't revealed yet the mystery to them as to who their Father is. He hasn't told them patiently. Our Lord has been tearing down their preconceived presuppositions that they're children of Abraham. Because they're not. And He's breaking down that they're children of God and they're not because they don't love Him.

He's done that by proving and demonstrating that their outward profession doesn't correspond with the inward reality. Their outward actions, their outward work, which is rooted in the substance within, shows that they don't belong to either of the two. They don't share the nature, the spiritual nature, with either of the two. Because, as he's saying, like father, like son. And now, with absolute clarity, Jesus is ready to reveal the terrifying truth.

Verse 43. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of the Father, the devil, and your will is to do the Father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the Father of lies. So much there and we're not going to be able to go through it all. But what straightforwardness of our Lord towards these people. That is bold, isn't it? To look the eyes of these Jews who thought themselves as being the apple of God's eye and to say, you do not belong to the Father.

You don't belong to God. Your Father is the devil and you are just like him. What a difficult thing to listen to. Imagine, imagine how difficult it would have been for these Jews to actually receive the words from our Lord. Your father is the devil, the abloss, literally the slanderer.

Like father, like son. What are they doing right now? They're slandering our Lord. In a few moments you'll be possessed, you're a Samaritan. They're slandering our Lord.

That's exactly what they're doing. Your father is a murderer. He's the one who plunged all of humanity to death through his deception to our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the garden. His hands are stained with the blood of countless people because of his deceiving lies. That's your father, is what Jesus is saying.

He's a murderer. He's a liar. Father of lies. The father of lies. The truth of God is not found in him.

No truth is found in him. He speaks from his own character, and his own character is that of lying, deceit and deception. He's dishonest. His words don't correspond with truth. He cannot but lie.

If there's no truth found in him, then he cannot but lie. That's what he is, a liar. That's what he is, a murderer. That's what Jesus is saying. And looking at his audience, he's practically looking at them and saying, does that remind you of anyone?

And then he has that, like, maybe that awkward stare, as if, can you get it? I'm speaking about you. What difficult words to listen to. They've been plotting in their heart to murder Christ. Their spiritual father is a murderer.

And so are they. But beloved, let this warning be a warning for us also, because it's so easy to look back and to point our finger and say, it's all them, we're not that bad. It's very easy for us to do that, and I don't want us to think that way at all. This word is just as much for us as it is to them. Because although they are plotting murder in their heart, in six months' time, they will accomplish that murder, but by the definite plan of God.

But beloved, we may be sitting here thinking, I'm not a murderer, so I'm all good. But that doesn't get you quite off the hook. You see, the deception of the devil is so much more subtle than that. So much more subtle than that. Because it's not simply that you need to take a weapon in your hand and go and actually fulfill the act of taking someone's life.

That's just too obvious. Let's take the teaching of our Lord on the Sermon of the Mount. You remember back in chapter 5, Matthew 5 through 7? Did you know harboring anger in your heart? Did you know harboring hatred against another is akin to murder?

We know throughout the New Testament murderers do not inherit the kingdom of heaven. So my question to you, you may not be a murderer in the physical sense, but do you harbor hatred in your hearts? Is there unresolved, uncontrolled anger in your hearts? Is there resentment? Is there bitterness?

Is there unrepentant, habitual sin in those areas? Because beloved, These are warnings for us. We don't want to be deceived. And the deception of the devil is very subtle. We need to understand that our conduct stems from the nature within.

So the question is, what is our conduct? See, some of these questions only you can answer. What's your thought life like? What are your actions like? What do we do in our spare time?

What do we do when we know someone's in need? How do we carry each other's burdens? What do we do at all? How's my time occupied? Is it in self-ish endeavors, or am I myself less like Christ, like Father, like Son?

Christ did everything that the Father commanded Him in the Incarnation. He's our example. So let's stand alongside our Lord and our Saviour, the One in whom the Spirit of God is working and producing in us a likeness of, and ask ourselves, does our life resemble His? Or do we more resemble someone who has a hatred heart or an angry soul or a lying tongue? These are very confronting words, very confronting words.

Then our Lord says in verse 45, and I'm almost done, because I tell you truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell you truth, why do you not believe? In other words, your lives are so defined by lies and dishonesty. Sin has so gripped you.

Your nature is so much like your father that you reject my words precisely because they are true. If we had time to meditate upon these words, it would be incredible that Jesus is saying, because I tell truth, you don't believe me. In other words, Because there is no place for truth in your soul, when you hear it, it has no way of coming in. And that's why you don't hear it. It's like polar opposite on the magnets.

I think they're called polar opposites, I'm not sure. They'll never want to touch because they keep repelling from each other. And that is the child of the devil who has no truth in him, who is the father of lies. And like father, like son, the lies and deceit and dishonesty and sin is manifested in the lives of his own children when truth is confronting that person. that person repels and just goes away because there's no place in the heart for truth.

I said we're going to skim over these so we're not going to spend too much time but then Jesus says these incredible words, which one of you convicts me of sin? Which one of you convinced me of sin? Now, in a sense, these words have... Jesus is issuing a challenge that not anyone just stand up and say, we think you've wronged us, or we think you're a blasphemer. But which one can prove?

That's the sense he's saying. Which one of you can actually prove me to have sinned? Which one of you can prove that anything I've said, anything I've done, anything that I've acted upon is unrighteous before the Lord? No one. No one.

No one puts up their hand. But do you know what that means? If no one comes forward and declares that Jesus, we can tell you that you have sinned, no one can. No one can convict him of a sin. That means everything he has spoken is true.

So the question that begs to be answered is, why don't you believe? If everything Jesus is saying is true, if everything He says has been spoken or He heard or saw from the Father, then why don't you believe? Because anything other than believing when you recognize everything He says is true is evil. The only response is to believe. And if you hear speaking the words of the Father and everything he says, it's supremely authoritative over your life.

And Jesus says, unless you believe that I am here, you'll die in your sins. So why is it that you do not believe? Why is it that you do not believe? Why is it for a time and a season you've been following after me? You declare that you believe me.

Jesus, we will follow after you. Jesus, we believe in you. Jesus, we will do what you want us to do. And then when you listen and you hear some difficult doctrines, you turn away and say, it's too much for us. Because as we heard this evening, they are too much.

Because if you don't have the heart of God, If there hasn't been regenerating work from God in your soul, the Spirit of God has not done a regenerating work of giving you faith to believe in Him, that your sins are forgiven, that your desires have changed. Now you love the Son and you desire to walk in His way, to remain in His light, then His commands are burdensome. They are too hard. You may be able to follow for a season or two, but then they become too hard because you're too confronting. They're too difficult.

They're too burdensome. They reveal my sin. They tell me I'm not good. They tell me I'm not good enough. They tell me that I'm wretched apart from Him.

I can't keep up that life. It's too difficult. I can't keep up the life that the Bible speaks of. I can't completely fulfill all the requests and the requirements and the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's too hard.

And they turn away and they walk away. But those who remain are only those who have been changed. Those who have been born from above. And that's why Jesus says in verse 37 or 47, whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not from God.

That's the heart of the matter. That is absolutely the heart of the matter because here you have a group of men who are absolutely dumbfounded, mouth open and saying, yeah, well, who can convict me of a single sin? Like a nothing. Then believe! Oh no, I don't want to believe.

If he's sinless, and every word he has spoken is the word of God, then what's stopping you from believing? We don't know, but we're going to turn away and walk away. We're not going to believe in Jesus. And Jesus says, I'm going to tell you why. Because you are not born from love.

You're not born from God. Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. It's like the rain falling on a stony ground. It absorbs none because the soil is not there.

Beloved, unless God does a supernatural, divine work on the soul of a man or a woman to take the wickedness and the evil and the depravity out and replace it with goodness, his own goodness, a new heart that receives his word, that loves him and his son, a heart that can declare with the psalmist, oh how I meditate upon your Lord day and night, a heart that says your work or your commands are not burdensome, Unless God does that work, you and I and these people and everyone out there cannot and will not receive the words of Christ. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. This is the prologue of John. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Beloved, if you have come to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, if you have come to love Him, The Lord has given you a life that is looking more and more like the Son, Jesus Christ.

If you can see evidence in your life that the Spirit of God is at work in and through you. That your eyes are fixed upon Him. But you're seeing the work of the Spirit produce in you a fruit that is acceptable to God. Nothing you can boast about. That is the Spirit of God working in and through you.

If your desires are Christ's desires, if your love is for Him and for His people, if you're seeing this evidence, if your heart, if the Lord has testified to your heart, Abba, Father, I belong to you. That is because God has done a work in you. We ought to be on our knees every day. to thank Him. There's nothing we could have done to make that happen.

Mercy and mercy alone brought that about because He loved us and we're reunited in His Son before the creation of the world. Does that leave those who have not been united in Him in despair? No it doesn't. Because on the one side we see things from the point of view of God and that point of view is that God is sovereign That point of view is he is free to elect whom he elects for his own glory and for his own purposes. But on the other, we have scripture and the words of Christ.

Wherever he went, he was calling people to... He wasn't asking them. Are you elect? Simply come. Believe and come.

Come to the fountain of life. Come to the Son of God. Come to the only one who is able to forgive your sins. Come to the only one who can reconcile you to the Father. Come to the only one who laid down his life willingly upon that cross, shed his blood to atone for the sins of whoever comes.

Whoever comes. Come. If you come in faith, I will never, ever, ever cast you out. Salvation is of the Lord. Those who do not hear the words of Christ don't hear because they were not born of God.

But everyone who comes, everyone who comes in faith will be saved. That's a promise. Hold them together and believe. Will you believe? I hope we believe.

I hope today we've seen, we've examined our hearts to see who we belong to, who is our Father. And I hope, I hope that we have come to see that it is indeed God who is our Father and not the devil. But if there are any who are not sure, If there are any who don't know, if there are any who are doubting, there's no secret formula, there's no secret prayer, there's no set words that you need to do, any rites or rituals, none of that simply. Come before Christ, wherever you are, come before Christ in faith and say, forgive me, save me, because only you can. And beloved, we stand upon the Word of God and we say, He can be trusted.

Let's pray.