[0:00] I know Jesus says that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my words find no place in you.
[0:19] ! 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 Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. That is not what Abraham did.
[0:45] You are doing the works of your father. They said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here.
[1:03] I came not on 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 are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.
[1:20] 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.
[1:36] But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the word of God.
[1:49] The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. May you please be seated. One of the greatest plot twists of all time comes at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.
[2:09] If you remember, Luke Skywalker believed growing up that his father was a renowned Jedi knight who was murdered at the hands of the devious, murderous tyrant Darth Vader.
[2:30] Luke hated Vader and so did everyone else. Even those who served underneath him trembled in fear in his presence for the horrendous things that he had done and for the horrendous things that they knew that he was capable of carrying out.
[2:50] At the end of that movie, if you remember, Luke confronts and then battles the man who he believes slew his father. As they lock lightsabers, it is clear that Luke is no match for his formidable foe.
[3:07] And with a swift move, Vader severs his hand off of his arm and then backs him into a perilous situation where there is, it seems, no escape.
[3:19] Despite his injury, Luke clutches to a railing as he dangles over a large pit inside the newly constructed Death Star. And there, Vader extends an opportunity, an offer to Luke to join him, telling him that together we can rule the galaxy.
[3:42] Together we will become a power that will not be matched. Luke vehemently refuses. How could he join forces?
[3:54] How could he partner with the man whom he believed killed his father? He rejects Vader's advances, telling him, You killed my father.
[4:07] Now the twist. With hand extended, Vader reveals a hidden truth to this young, fatherless rebel, telling him, No, I am your father.
[4:28] The most hated man in the universe. This Hitler of a galaxy far, far away was Luke's dad.
[4:41] And he responds, No, no, it's not possible. Vader replies, Search your feelings, and you'll know it to be true.
[4:52] And with that, Luke screams, No, no! And lets go of that railing, plummeting into the abyss, willing to risk whatever fate awaited him down there, then face the reality that he was the son of such a wicked creature.
[5:12] Imagine that was you. Imagine that you realized that your father was a horrendously wicked man. A person so evil and so despised by so many.
[5:28] That news would astonish you, would confuse you, ultimately it would crush you. In our text today, Jesus unloads and unpacks a crushing truth, which serves as an explicit indictment against the religious leaders of Israel.
[5:48] These men who claim to be God's spokesmen, whom other Jews esteemed as being holy and righteous men of God, were in reality, Jesus reveals, the sons of the most vile creature in existence, Satan, the devil.
[6:11] Their conduct, their speech, their words, their beliefs, their character, resembled that, Jesus says, of their true father.
[6:23] And like their true father, they were murderous liars as well, separated from God, and doomed for the same destruction. This is a heavy passage.
[6:38] You know, we've been going through John 8, and we see that Jesus is engaged in this confrontation with the Jewish religious leaders. And so, you know, whenever we know there's about to be a confrontation, people might say something like, it's about to go down.
[6:52] Well, at this point, it is going down. It has gone down. We are entering into the midst of this very heated exchange. Uncomfortable things will be said.
[7:08] Things that would cause people to gasp uncontrollably in the crowd as they heard them. As Jesus locked up with his opponents in a conflict that would only increase their desire to bring his life to an end.
[7:24] As he revealed the true identity of their spiritual father. That it wasn't God as they had thought, but it was God's greatest enemy.
[7:39] Satan himself. And that as a result of that, they were enemies of God. Not his children.
[7:49] This was shocking news. How would you take such news? You know, the Bible says that all of us belong to either one father or another.
[8:09] That father is either God or Satan. In 1 John 3, 1-10, John compares the character traits of those who are children of God as opposed to those who are children of the devil.
[8:28] I want us to read that together this morning. 1 John 3, 1-10. See what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are.
[8:42] The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.
[8:57] And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.
[9:09] You know that he appeared in order to take away sin, speaking of Jesus, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.
[9:19] No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous.
[9:32] Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
[9:45] No one born of God makes a practice of sinning for God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. But this is evident, by this it is evident, who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
[10:05] Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. So you see here, either you are a child of God or a child of Satan.
[10:23] And John says that there is a clear distinction between the two. And so the question that we come to, that we think about as we have read this passage is who is your father?
[10:39] Who is your spiritual father? Scripture says that you right now are either a child of God or a child of the devil.
[10:50] If you haven't been born again by trusting in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then Scripture says, God declares, that means that you are a child of Satan.
[11:11] Now in hearing that news, some of you may want to take the Luke Skywalker route, screaming no, denying the truth of it, and dropping out of this message by either heading for an exit or if you're following us on our live stream, clicking the X there at the top to get this news out of your ears.
[11:37] But doing so won't make this message any less true. You can avoid it for now, but a day is coming when you won't be able to anymore.
[11:51] And so this is a message that you shouldn't avoid. Your salvation, the eternal destiny of your immortal soul is on the line.
[12:03] Which father do you belong to? Maybe you're unsure about that. Well, in this text, Jesus tells you how you can know.
[12:18] And so that brings us to the main idea for this morning's sermon. What you say, do, and believe reveal who your spiritual father is.
[12:33] What you say, do, and believe reveal who your true spiritual father is.
[12:44] Just as a child possesses characteristics of their biological parents, so those who have been born again exhibit in increasing measure the characteristics of their heavenly father.
[12:56] Though the sin nature remains, they are to be growing up in Christlikeness, a process that Scripture refers to as sanctification. As we saw two weeks ago in John chapter 8, verses 31 through 36, Jesus at that time put His listeners through a test to see if their claims to be His disciples were genuine.
[13:19] The tests, if you remember, centered around whether or not their actions matched their claims to be His followers. And so in today's text, we are confronted once again with another test.
[13:34] A test of spiritual paternity to identify who your true spiritual father is. My hope is that if you have been born again, that as you hear this message that you would be assured that God is your father and that in that assurance you will rejoice in that marvelous truth.
[13:59] for those who realize that God isn't their father as they hear this message, I pray that you will listen. And I've been praying for you this week.
[14:10] And my hope and prayer is that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes, that you would turn from your sin, that you would embrace your Savior, and that you would know God as your true father.
[14:24] and that with that you likewise will rejoice in that truth and we rejoice with you. So first, Jesus mentions the characteristics of a child of Satan.
[14:42] The characteristics of a child of Satan. And He brings those up in verses 37 through 41 and then in verses 43 through 46. I want to read verses 37 through 41 again.
[14:56] I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my words find no place in you. I speak of what I have seen in my father and you do what you have heard from your father.
[15:08] They answered him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.
[15:22] This is not what Abraham did. They said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality, we have one father, even God. And so the first characteristic of a child of Satan is hatred of God.
[15:39] Hatred of God. To this point in this confrontation, Jesus had told the Jewish religious leaders that all that they were trusting for, for salvation, was deficient.
[15:54] That he was the light of the world. That he is the only one capable of supplying what they lacked. But instead of acknowledging their need that only Christ could meet, they reacted defensively and violently towards him.
[16:16] Jesus knew how they felt about him. Twice in this passage that we've read, he points out the fact that he knows that they intend to kill him.
[16:27] That they want him dead. And they want him dead because they hated him. They hated what he had to say. They hated what he did. They hated what he was instructing them to do.
[16:39] And so these men countered Jesus' suggestions that they needed anything from him in regard to salvation by pointing to their ancestry. Saying, in effect, that they were children of God because Abraham was their father.
[16:59] They believed that the promises that God made to Abraham back in Genesis belonged to them as a result of their being descended physically from him.
[17:12] That salvation in some way in their minds passed through the bloodstream. However, Jesus made a number of penetrating statements rejecting their assumption of salvation by biology.
[17:28] He acknowledged that Abraham was their ancestor, but they weren't children of God. In fact, though they claimed to love God, their words, actions, and beliefs revealed that they truly hated him.
[17:46] Jesus shed light on the discrepancy between what they professed and what their words and actions indicated to be the truth about them.
[18:00] On the one hand, they professed to be religious people. Abraham was a man approved by God. He walked with God. He was praised by God.
[18:11] Abraham trusted in God's word. He trusted in God's redemptive plan. He had faith, and God credited that faith to him as righteousness.
[18:24] And so, these men claimed that this was also true of them. Yet, as Jesus pointed out, they sought to kill him, the Son of God, God in the flesh.
[18:38] And thus, they demonstrated that his word, the truth, truly had no place within them. They hated him.
[18:50] And in hating him, they hated God, which wasn't true of Abraham. Jump in chapter 8 here, jump to verse 56.
[19:02] We'll eventually get there in Jesus' closing remarks here. But he says something about Abraham there. He says, Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.
[19:16] These men were not glad to see Jesus, and they certainly were not rejoicing in the truth that he had to share. Their natural birth into the Jewish nation, their claims to love and keep the law of God, which truthfully they didn't, was not sufficient to save them.
[19:36] In Galatians chapter 3 verses 6 through 14, Paul explains the folly of trusting in such things for your salvation. There he says, just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
[19:52] Verse 7, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, the Gentile being a non-Jew, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.
[20:11] So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
[20:23] For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.
[20:40] But the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by faith. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
[20:52] For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.
[21:08] See, I think part of what Paul is saying here as well is that God did not create man for the law, but the law for man. It serves to reveal our sinful condition, our inability to measure up to God's perfect standard and our utter futility to save ourselves.
[21:33] It points us then to Jesus as the answer. And then, as a result of the new birth in which the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of us, the law then serves us as a guide to protect us, to differentiate truth from falsehood, to conform us and to make us and to help us grow up into becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.
[22:06] Not something that we obey out of some kind of dutiful, begrudging obligation, but out of love and gratitude. attitude, wanting to become more like Jesus because we know who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us by atoning for our sins on the cross, dying in our place that we may have life eternally.
[22:35] These men that Jesus was speaking to were actively pursuing his death, a feat that they would eventually accomplish. So obviously they hated him.
[22:47] Now, you might hear that and you may think, I don't hate God. I don't hate him. But listen, if you claim to be a Christian, but your life indicates that your Christianity makes little difference, wouldn't it appear that not only is Christ not a part of your life, but you actively seek to keep him out of it.
[23:21] You might even believe that Jesus lived. You might even believe that Jesus died. Maybe you even believe that he rose again on the third day. But based upon your words, your actions, it's clear that what you claim to know has made little to no difference in the way that you live.
[23:45] Nothing in your life has changed as a result of your claim to know him. And so, what would that communicate more? Love or hatred?
[24:00] You think of a man who says that he loves his wife. However, as you get to know him, see how he lives, you realize that maybe he'll spend one day a week with his wife, maybe it'll be a couple times a month, maybe it'll only be once a month, maybe he'll just skip a month.
[24:24] And when he's with her, he only is with her for maybe a couple of hours. All the rest of his week he lives like a bachelor, breaking every vow that he made to his wife on their wedding day, dating other women, keeping his money to himself, never calling or writing her, yet he says and he declares, I love that woman.
[24:53] Would you believe him? Based upon his actions, wouldn't you be right to say, you don't love that woman, you hate her, what other conclusion could you come to?
[25:08] It's clear that you're not devoted to this woman. It seems that you don't want her in your life and you don't want to be a part of hers. That communicates hate more than it does love.
[25:21] Look again at verse 41 now. Jesus has presented this truth. These men were so blinded though by their hatred of God that not only were they unable to recognize God as he stood in their midst, but they developed and spread vulgar and disparaging lies to discredit him.
[25:44] There in verse 41, when they said, we were not born of sexual immorality, you have to understand that they are insinuating that Jesus' mother was promiscuous, and that is to say it as mildly as I can, because children are here.
[26:02] Do you understand what they were saying about Jesus and his mother? Okay? This was vile. This was sinister. They hated him.
[26:16] Their hatred wasn't subtle. They spoke it. It was on their faces. It was on their lips. They hated God.
[26:27] They hated his son. They embraced religion. They embraced false religion and legalism. And those who do so, likewise, express that they hate God as well.
[26:44] Even in the language that you use, do you treasure the name of Jesus Christ? You know how often and how unfortunate you hear people who claim to be his followers use his name in vain.
[26:57] And it's not only followers, but we see it in the world, don't we? There is power in the name of Jesus. Nobody uses Muhammad's name as a curse word or Buddha's name as a curse word or anyone else.
[27:13] And so sometimes that hatred of God can be subtle and sometimes it's crystal clear in the way that you speak, in the way that you use that name.
[27:27] Hatred of God is a characteristic of a child of Satan. And so is rejection of truth. Rejection of truth. Verses 43-46 again.
[27:41] Jesus says, Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires.
[27:55] 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. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.
[28:08] Which one of you convicts me of sin? I tell you the truth. Why do you not believe me? And so Jesus asked his opponents a rhetorical question here to begin with.
[28:21] The obvious answer as he went on to point out was that they could not hear his word. As he had already pointed that out in verse 38, their inability to hear him proved that they weren't God's children.
[28:38] It wasn't that their ears instantly muted when he spoke, but that they totally rejected everything that he had to say. And so here, what Jesus implied in verses 38 through 41 is now blatantly stated in verses 43 through 46, that while physically his opponents were children of Abraham, spiritually and morally they were children of Satan.
[29:03] And as such, it came as no surprise to him that they desired to carry out the wicked wishes and desires of their father, the devil.
[29:16] The desires of these men bore a spiritual resemblance to Satan himself, just as the familiar adage goes, like father, like son.
[29:28] And that's what Jesus is saying here, like father, like son. Two particular motivations of those who reject the truth, though, are stated here by Jesus, and they are motivations, again, that characterize Satan, that he is a murderer, and that he is a liar.
[29:47] Jesus says of Satan there that he was a murderer from the beginning. This is a reference to the fall recorded in Genesis chapter 3, where there, if you'll remember, Satan tempted Adam and Eve to betray God, to doubt God's provision, to deny his goodness, and ultimately reject him as the source of truth in their life.
[30:11] And so, coming to temptation, they plunged themselves and the entire human race under the curse of sin. God had said to them that if they ate of the forbidden tree, that they would surely die.
[30:27] And though when they did, they did not die physically, in that instant, they did die spiritually. And all of us, descendants of Adam and Eve, are born spiritually dead.
[30:45] Born rejecters of the truth of God. Romans 8, 5 through 8, Paul speaks to this. For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.
[31:02] But those who live according to the Spirit, set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
[31:17] Now hear this, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot, those who are in the flesh, cannot please God.
[31:37] Satan is a murderer of the truth. He is a killer of truth. In Jesus' parable of the soil, Satan is symbolized by the birds who come and quickly snatch up the gospel seed on the path.
[31:56] His hatred of the truth and of mankind, Scripture says, has driven him to prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
[32:09] He loves no one but himself. He is the father who seeks the eternal torment of his children. He is motivated to kill. He is a liar and the father of lies.
[32:23] That is the other motivation for those who reject the truth. Lying. He speaks only lies and his lies are convincing.
[32:36] His children willingly exchange the truth of God for his lies. not only that but often he disguises himself, Scripture says, as an angel of light. By rejecting the truth incarnate Jesus Christ though, these leaders mark themselves as being just like Satan.
[32:58] A murderer and a liar. What about you? Have you rejected the truth found in God's word?
[33:12] The truth embodied in the word of God who took on flesh Jesus Christ. Look again chapter 8 verses 31 through 32.
[33:25] There it says, so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. That was the test. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
[33:37] So the question now as we come to this, have you, do you reject the truth, is does the word of God abide in you? And by that I don't mean have you read Scripture, have you heard Scripture, or even have you memorized Scripture?
[33:56] What I mean to say and what I believe Jesus' point is in this is, is his word such a part of you that it affects every aspect of your life, every decision that you have to make?
[34:15] When someone insults you or harms you, do you plot and plan to get your revenge? Or do you hear the words of God ringing in your ears, echoing through your mind, telling you vengeance is mine?
[34:32] I will repay. When you come home and make degrading remarks to your spouse and snap at your children after a hard day of work, or do the same with your co-workers and your neighbors or your friends, does Christ's command convict you in those moments or soon afterwards that you are to love others as yourself?
[34:57] love? Does that ever enter into your thinking? Is there an inconsistency between the truth that you claim to believe and the way that you live your life?
[35:11] Does God's word orient your life? Or does what you say and do indicate that you are following a different course, a different master, that you believe a different truth?
[35:24] And scripture says there's only one truth. And Jesus said it clearly. John 14 6, Jesus said to him, I am the way.
[35:38] I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to Father except through me. Only the person who knows the word of God, who became flesh.
[35:53] Jesus Christ, who has trusted in them for their salvation, who has been indwelled by his spirit, whose path is oriented by the words of God, by their faith in Jesus Christ.
[36:08] Only they are the ones who truly know the truth, the truth that has set them free. You see, there is not your truth and my truth, there is capital T-H-E the truth.
[36:21] truth. And to reject Christ is to reject truth, which means that you are not a child of God, but a child of Satan.
[36:34] Now, I don't want you to get the wrong impression from this sermon. As Christians, we sin. As Christians, we fail constantly and consistently to measure up.
[36:46] We aren't perfect. We need Jesus always. We will unfortunately display at times attitudes. We will say things that are not in line with who we are as Christ's children, children of God, but those words and those attitudes should not characterize you.
[37:08] It happens occasionally, unfortunately, but it's not who you are. But if it is, if they do, it may be shocking to discover right now for you that you exemplify the traits that characterize the child of Satan.
[37:28] And if that's true, I want you to know that there is hope for you. There is a great hope for you. You can become a child of God.
[37:42] You can become His child. And I believe that that is God's desire for you, to become His child, to repent of your sins, to turn to Christ and trust in Him, His life, His atonement on the cross, His resurrection, His ascension to the right hand where He sits at the Father, where we anticipate His soon return.
[38:06] And if you do, you will be saved. You will be set free. You will have eternal life. And then you will begin to display the characteristics of a child of God.
[38:18] Let's look at those. The characteristics of a child of God. Verses 42 and 47. First of all, verse 42, Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love me.
[38:32] For I came from God and I am here. I came not on my own accord, but He sent me. So the first characteristic of a child of God is that they love Jesus.
[38:45] That they love Jesus. Those who are children of God, the Father love and cherish His Son. He's not just somebody else to us.
[39:01] He's everything. And He's everything because they know why He has come. They know what His coming has accomplished for them.
[39:13] as He died willingly, selflessly on the cross to atone for their sins.
[39:25] And they love the fact that He rose again. The truth that He's coming back. And so believers, children of God who love Jesus, life is hard.
[39:37] Life beats us down. But still, no matter how hard it gets, we always have this hope, this truth that for us the best is yet to come.
[39:50] Christ has overcome and we overcome through Him. We have this eternal hope. I know that, I know what Jesus did for me and the more I've grown to know Him, the more I realize that I didn't deserve it at all, in any way, totally unworthy.
[40:15] But He did, He did it, He saved me. He brought me from death to life. He made me once a child of Satan, now a child of God. And though sin is present within me, I want it less.
[40:32] As I know Him more, wanting to be more like the one who saved me. Can you say the same of yourself? Children of God love Jesus.
[40:45] And secondly, children of God, hear His word. Verse 47, whoever is of God hears the words of God. Again, He points out to them, the reason why you do not hear is that you are not of God.
[41:03] As a child of God, excuse me, you know that sometimes His words can be hard to hear, can't they? But we love it anyway.
[41:15] We treasure it even still. It isn't pleasant to hear prior to salvation that you are a child of Satan, but when the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to see and your ears to hear and to understand, you see the depravity of your spiritual condition, and you're pointed to Jesus Christ as your only hope.
[41:41] You learn to rejoice in that word that declared and clarified what you once were, and pointed you to the truth that you now possess and know through Jesus Christ.
[41:58] That word that convicted your heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh. I'm so thankful to see what the Lord is doing in our church.
[42:09] I'm so thankful for those who have been here, those who are coming, and the one thing I knew and the thing that I rejoice as I continue to hear in those who come and want to join is how much they treasure and value the word of God.
[42:25] And they know that here at this church we treasure and we value the word of God and we hold it in high esteem. And that's so comforting for me to know that as I work on these sermons throughout the week that they're going to be heard by people who love to hear the word of God.
[42:44] They don't want it sugar-coated, they don't want it dumbed down, they want to hear it. They want to know it because they love it. They know how good it is.
[42:54] They want to eat it and chew it and devour it. They want it to abide within them. A child of God hears his word and rejoices in it.
[43:08] I was trying to figure out how to end this sermon and thought of a couple of different things. One thing that stuck out in my mind this past week is a picture that maybe you saw of Jack and I in the tunnel at Cowboy Stadium and where Danny is sneaky and she took that picture from behind without us knowing it.
[43:38] And most of my sermon illustrations are self-deprecating so I don't want you to think in any way, in any form whatsoever that I'm trying to praise myself with this because I am not as good of a father as I could be.
[43:52] And you know you may have had it and I had a wonderful godly father who I'm so thankful for.
[44:06] The thing that I think I'm so thankful for is that I had such a good earthly father I can fathom how great my heavenly father is. And I want to be the same for my son.
[44:19] But I realize that that's not the case for everybody. Your earthly father may have wounded you deeply and hurt you. And it's hard for you to imagine that a father can be so good.
[44:34] And I'm telling you that God wants to be your father. He will heal you of those wounds. And he will be the type of father that you should have had but you didn't.
[44:51] But anyhow as I was looking in that picture didn't even realize what we were doing but his shoulder pads were off all of his gear was off and his water bottle and I'm holding it all while he's walking free as can be you know and I didn't even think about it.
[45:07] But I stopped and look at that picture and what what stuck out to me is that's the kind of father that God is. taking our sin taking our burden willingly carrying it for you his child because he loves you.
[45:31] Because he loves you. He doesn't want you to be crushed by sin. He doesn't want you to have to bear that burden. If you turn to Jesus Christ if you repent of your sins you will be saved.
[45:47] You will be God's child. You'll be a rebellious child at times but God is a good father who disciplines the one that he loves. Who never casts his children away.
[46:00] He will save you and you will be saved to the end. What you say what you do and what you believe reveals who your true spiritual father is.
[46:16] Who is your spiritual father? Let's look at our final three questions of application. There's some homework assigned with this.
[46:27] Of course we'll do these tonight when we gather together here at 630. First of all read James 2.14-16 How does this text apply to the passage that we've just read that we've just gone over today?
[46:42] John 8.37-47 If ever you have any questions how does it apply? I would love to talk with you about that as well. So read James 2.14-26 Secondly, read Matthew 7.15-20 And how does that text apply to this message on John 8.37-47 Read Matthew 7.15-20 And then finally in modeling Jesus' example in John 8.37-47 How should believers address those who claim to be children of God but whose words and actions indicate that they are not?
[47:22] That would be a good question for us to discuss tonight. In a minute I'm going to pray and I encourage you if you're here this morning and you realize I was a child of the devil but the Lord has revealed to me my sin and I've repented of it and I am a child of God.
[47:46] We want to know that. So if that's you you could come forward during this invitation I know that's not uncomfortable all the time. Just find me just tell me some way or another because that's something that we want to rejoice in and we have a responsibility to disciple you and we want to know that and we want to continue to teach you that you would grow more like Jesus Christ.
[48:06]