It's John 837247. Earlier this year, a genetics company, 23andMe, announced that they were filing bankruptcy. I don't know how familiar you are with this company and other ones like MyHeritage and Ancestry.com, but the way they work is this. You send in a sample of your saliva, which they use to analyze and figure out your DNA and compare that DNA to others in their data bank. In so doing, they're able to figure out who your ancestors are, where they came from, and perhaps some of the people that you're related to even now. When your analysis comes back, you might find out that your genetic makeup indicates that you descended from people in Scotland, France, and maybe to a smaller degree in Eastern Europe. I have to say, I always thought you got 50% of your genes from your mom and 50% from your dad, but that's not actually the case. You could have inherited 27% from your father and 73% from your mother. That explains why some kids will look a lot more like their dad or a lot more like their mom. I saw a video of two twin girls. Their mother was white, their father was black. One of the girls had dark skin and kinky hair. Her sister was fair-skinned, freckled, and had bright red, really kind of orange hair. They were twins, but not exactly identical. Now, most of the people who use these services do so just out of curiosity. They want to find out where their ancestors came from. But for some, the results are actually life-changing. There's been a number of people who were adopted who were able to track down their birth parents or found that they had brothers and sisters that they didn't know exist. One person said that he had always been told by his father that they had descended from Russian royalty. He found out that not only did they not have any Russian royalty, they didn't even have peasants from Russia in their ancestry. Do you remember the actress Elizabeth Montgomery? She played in the television program Bewitched. Did you know she was the sixth cousin once removed from Lizzie Borden, the woman who axed her parents to death? Yikes. Well, there's privacy concerns about these services. I mean, the companies sell off the data to others without the knowledge of their customers. And the question that comes from the bankruptcy of 23andMe is, what are they going to do with their database after they close up? Now, sometimes the questions about your true heritage are more immediate. There are cases that end up in the court where the question is the paternity of the child. I mean, who's the father? Well, here, the true paternity of those listening to Jesus was at stake, and that was being debated. These people claimed that they were the children of Abraham, rather even the children of God, but Jesus said their true father was the devil, as evidenced by the fact that they were seeking to kill him. So let's pray. I'm going to read the text then, and we'll get into it. Our Father in God, I do pray for grace and mercy. Help us as we look at this. Speak to us through it. For we ask now, in Jesus' name. Amen. Now keep in mind where it's going on in the story. Jesus is claimed to be the light of the world. He also claimed to be the one who brings true freedom. He said, if the Son will make you free, you will be free indeed. And they were offended by the idea that they, as Abraham's descendants, needed to be set free. And so that brings us to the text, starting in verse 37, where it says this, I know that you are Abraham's descendants, yet you seek to kill me because my word has found no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with my father, therefore you also do the things which you've heard from your father. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you are Abraham's children, then do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you're seeking to kill me, a man who told you the truth, which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father. They said to him, we're not born of fornication. We have one father, God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me, for I proceed forth and have come from God. For I have not even come on my own initiative, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I'm saying? It's because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. Whenever he speaks, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them, because you're not of God." That brings us to our first point we want to look at and consider this morning, which is that we see in the text a shocking statement. That's going to be verses 37 to 38. By the way, have you ever received a shock from an electrical cord or outlet? I remember there was a number of years ago that there was a man in this area. Someone came and asked for prayer for him on a Wednesday night. I believe, if I remember correctly, he had a kite that got wrapped around an electric pole, the line up on top. And so what he did was he got out an aluminum ladder, climbed up and took a metal rake and tried to get it off on a rainy day. Yeah, that wasn't good. He lived through it, but he got the shock of his life. Well, Jesus' listeners that day got a shock when they heard his words, starting in verse 37. Look what he says again. I know that you're Abraham's descendants, yet you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak the things that I've seen from my father. Therefore, you also do the things which you've heard from your father. In 1950, the Israeli government passed what was known as the Law of Return, which guarantees the right of any Jew anywhere in the world to emigrate to Israel and become a citizen. But afterwards, the question came up, which was, who is a Jew? I mean, is being Jewish a religious designation or an ethnic identity? What if you're a Jew, but you're actually an atheist? Or what if you're a Jew who practices Buddhism? Well, yes, you're still allowed to emigrate. On the other hand, if you have two Jewish parents, but you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, you're not granted the right to return. The issue had come up before the Israeli Supreme Court several times even since then. Now, according to Orthodox rabbis, you are Jewish if your mother was Jewish. According to the Karaite rabbis, you're Jewish if your father was Jewish. But you know, there's a lot of people who believe that most Jews living in Israel today are not actually descendants of those ancient tribes of Israel. They argue that those that are called Ashkenazi Jews, which are Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe and Germany, are actually descendants of the Khazars, an ethnic group related to the Turks. Historians know that at some time between 740 and 920 AD, the Khazar royal family and the nobility converted to Judaism, and evidently a large number of Khazars followed their leaders in this. So according to this theory, Ashkenazi Jews are not Jews at all, and they have no claim to the right to the land of Israel. Jesus doesn't call into question his listeners' ethnic identity. He said, I know that you're Abraham's descendants. What he calls into question is their spiritual paternity. For he says, yet you seek to kill me. Why? Because my word has no place in you. Now the word for place here that Jesus uses in the Greek is koreo, which can also be translated as progress. Now these people, we were told earlier, believed in Jesus, but evidently they weren't progressing in that truth that they had received about him. After World War II, the German city of Berlin was divided in half between the Russians and the Allies. To pass through from one side to the next, you had to go through checkpoints. One of the famous ones was known as Checkpoint Charlie. For these professed believers of Jesus, the truck hauling the freight of truth in Jesus' teaching was heading down the road, but it could only go so far. They dropped the gate, They put up their hand and yelled, halt. And because they held it back, they couldn't pass through to bring them freedom that Jesus promised. Now what they were refusing to allow to pass through and make progress was the truth that Jesus had been given by God the Father. He says in verse 38, I speak the words which I have seen with my Father. Therefore you also do the things which you have heard from your Father. Now, two times Jesus uses the word father here. The first time is in reference to his own father, God. He's the son of God. And the other time is a reference to their spiritual paternity. They picked up on this to some degree as evidenced by their reaction, which brings us to the next thing we see in the text. Their indignant response. This is verses 30. Now, by the way, the word indignant as an indignant response, as an adjective, which means to be angry or to be upset at a feeling of being wrong. You know, in the early years of our country, men of stature and even politicians would sometimes settle arguments that they had on the dueling field with pistols. Sir, you've offended my honor and you've besmirched my good name. I challenge you to a duel. On the field, standing back to back, each would take 10 paces, turn, and when given the signal, they would fire. Now you think the tension between the Democrats and the Republicans is high now? Aaron Burr was the third Vice President of the United States during Thomas Jefferson's first term. He had a rich spiritual heritage. He was actually the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, the greatest theologian this country has ever produced. Burr's political enemy was Alexander Hamilton. At one point, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duo, and Hamilton accepted. They met in the field in Weehawken in New Jersey. Both men shot, but Hamilton was hit in the hip. He bled to death. Do you know that Hamilton's oldest son, Philip, died in that same field in a duo a number of years earlier? As Peter, Paul, and Mary sang, where have all the young men gone? Gone to graveyards, everyone. When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? Well, killing Hamilton didn't restore Burr's honor, rather it destroyed his reputation and ended his political career. Well, Jesus' listeners that day were indignant when he hinted at their dark paternity. And so in verse 39, they said this, they answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. What you talking about, Willis? Abraham's our father. Well, Jesus said to them, if you are Abraham's children, then do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you're seeking to kill me, a man who told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham didn't do this. If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it. If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're Abraham's child and you know it, then your deeds will surely show it. If you're his children, stop seeking to kill me. But someone may well say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works." James 2.18. I mean, they can claim to be the physical descendants of Abraham. Jesus acknowledged they were. But he denied they were Abraham's spiritual descendants, because unlike Abraham, who believed the word of the Lord when it came to him, they didn't. And instead of believing the message, they were seeking to kill the messenger. And Abraham did not do this. Now, I can imagine that as his listeners heard these words, the men's faces turned red with rage, and the ladies clutched their pearls. How dare you? I've never been so insulted in my life." Well, stick with it, folks, because you're going to hear a lot more. What does it say in verse 41? It says, you are doing the deeds of your father. They said to him, we're not born of fornication. We have one father, God. Well, what did they mean by saying we were not born of fornication? Some of the commentators think that what they're doing is contrasting themselves as pure Jews from those they consider the half-breed Samaritans. They were true, full-blooded descendants of Abraham, and they had the true religion, not a bastardized form like the Samaritans did. Other commentators think that what they're contrasting themselves with as Jews are pagan idolaters. You know, in the Old Testament, again and again, idolatry is compared to adultery and spiritual fornication. Well, other commentators think that they're just simply taking a cheap shot at Jesus' paternity. I mean, when Grover Cleveland ran for president back in 1884, during the campaign it was revealed that he had fathered an illegitimate child by a woman who was a widow. And his political opponents made great hay out of that and put it in the form of a jingle. Ma, ma, where's my pa? Gone to the White House. Ha, ha, ha. Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. How many people in his day thought otherwise? In the Talmud, the Jewish writings, the rabbis assert that Mary was involved with some Roman soldier named Patera and that he's the real father of Jesus. Well, whatever motivated them to make this statement about not being born of fornication, they doubled down on their claim to spiritual paternity. They said, we have one father, God. You know, the liberals in generations past used to argue that the essence of Christianity, when you boil it all down, it's just two main teachings. The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Jesus taught no such thing. Look what we see in the next section, which we can label the horrible reality. This is 42-44. By the way, do they still run that comic strip, Hagar the Horrible? I don't know if they do or not. It's about a caveman. You know, there's a whole genre of movies known as horror films. Well, Jesus' listeners, when it came to their spiritual paternity, it wasn't funny. It was terrible. They claimed that they were the children of Abraham, the children of God, but Jesus goes on to state plainly what he had hinted at up until this point. Look what it says in 42. Jesus said to them, Why do you not understand what I'm saying? It's because you can't hear my words. You're of your father the devil, and you want to do the desire of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." Now, there's a ton of deep theological truth in this. I'm going to pull out just three things for you. First of all, the fact that they didn't love Jesus, but instead were seeking to kill him, proves that God was not their true spiritual father. Jesus is the Son of God who proceeds from God the Father and was sent as a spokesman and a representative. So to reject him is to reject God. The second truth that comes out of this part, though, is their failure to understand and appropriate the truth that was being given to them was not an intellectual problem, but a moral and a spiritual one. I mean, dogs can hear certain frequencies that we cannot. People who are deaf or partially deaf It's not that they don't want to hear you, it's that they simply can't. And it's not their fault unless they're refusing to use their hearing aids. But these people's inability to hear and appropriate the truth was not because their hearing was bad, but because their hearts were hard. And it's the same with the people that you witness to at your job and in your family. But here's the most terrifying truth that comes out of this section, when Jesus says, you are of your father, the devil. What's your name? Who's your daddy? They may have named themselves Abraham's children, but Jesus was saying their spiritual daddy was Satan himself. Whatever their claims, the proof that they were spawns of Satan is seen in this. You want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. Whenever he speaks, he speaks a lie from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Murder and lies. They all trace back to the devil. I mean, he lied to Eve and said, you will surely not die if you eat from that tree. When God said, you will certainly die. Now whose words stood in the end? And as for murder, think about it. Who are some of the mass murderers in history? Stalin? Hitler, Mao, did you know those three men lived at the same time? Pol Pot in Cambodia, he wiped out one third of the population of the country. He killed people who wore glasses because he assumed they were intellectuals. Have you ever heard of Gary Ridgway? He was the one that was called the Green River Killer. who's the most prolific serial killer in American history. Between 1982 and 1990, he murdered some 70 women, prostitutes, and young girls. He pled guilty to killing 49 of them, giving information to the police so that he could plea bargain to help avoid the death penalty. And you know what's ironic? At the time that they caught him, he was a Sunday school teacher in a church. John tells us the reason the first murder in history happened. He said, this is the message that we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. Do not be surprised brethren, if the world hates you. What we saw on the screen was the evidence of the hatred for Christ's followers. So Satan stands behind and inspires all the murders that take place. And think of the murderous movements and how they're steeped in lies and euphemisms. The right to choose. Choose what? To end the life of my child growing in my womb? The final solution. What's the problem? What's the Jewish problem? The Nazis answered, you know, originally they wanted to send all the Jews to Madagascar off the coast of Africa. then they decided it was cheaper and quicker and more efficient to simply gas them and burn their bodies in crematoriums. Communism? That was all based on lies. The lie that appealed to envy in people saying that if you have something or your neighbor has something and you don't, he must have wronged you in order to get that. Isn't that what much of the politics on the left is based on even in America today? Transgenderism. What's the lie there? That a boy can become a girl or a girl can become a boy. All we need to do is cut off parts and rearrange. And the suicide rate for those who have the surgery is higher after they have the surgery than before. Lies, lies, lies, death, death, death. Listen to a couple of quotes from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian dissident who lived through the prison camps during the communist era. He said, violence can only be concealed by a lie. and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Think of Antifa and what they're doing. Here's another one. The simple step of a courageous individual is to not take part in the lie. In other words, just don't go along with it. And this one, one truth, one word of truth outweighs the entire world. Communism began its dramatic collapse in December of 1989. It started when the police came to arrest a pastor named Laszlo Toks. Normally they would just take him away and that would be the last you heard of him. But this time the people in his church surrounded him and said, we're not letting you take him. They got courage. And so the police decided they needed a few more people, and so they called in some reinforcements. And then the people in the church called in some of their neighbors. And then the police decided to call in the military. And then all of a sudden, the entire city of Bucharest came out. There were 200,000 people in the street. They had cut out the hammer and sickle from the Romanian flag, sewed in a cross, and were all shouting together, Tell the truth! Tell the truth! Tell the truth! All because a few Christians said we've had enough. If we live, we live to Christ. If we die, we die to Christ. So whether we live or die, we're Christ's. Jesus said, if you abide in my word, you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. These people were enslaved to Satan and had bought into his lies and reflected his murderous character. That brings us to our last point, the real problem. This is verse 45 to 47. Look what it says. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why don't you believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them, because you're not of God. These people rejected what Jesus said, not because it was false, but because it was true. I had an aunt who died after surgery a long time before I was born. It was just a routine surgery, but it wasn't the surgery that killed her. Instead, it was the penicillin they gave her afterwards. They didn't know she was allergic to it. Well, these professed followers of Jesus were in reality children of the devil, allergic to the truth that Jesus was giving to them. Lies they could handle, truth they could not. You want the truth? You can't handle the truth. Well, the religious leaders accused Jesus of being a whoremonger and a drunk and a deceiver and a liar. But Jesus challenged everyone that day in the crowd to either put up or shut up. He asked, which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why don't you believe me? I have a question for you. Would you be willing to stand up among all your friends and family and co-workers and ask the question, which one of you convicts me of sin? I mean, couldn't our enemies and even more our friends say, well, I saw him break this commandment or violate that law of God. I heard him use language he shouldn't have, make cutting remarks about fellow workers. And doesn't even our own conscience and memory, when we look back on our lives, even as believers, sadly cry out, thou art the man, thou are guilty. That's why we come to the cross, to have our guilt removed. You see, there Christ, the righteous one, took the punishment that we so richly deserve. There on the cross, Jesus offered himself up as a sacrifice for our sins. And when we believe in him, when you believe in him, your sin is removed. Your debt is canceled, and the charges against you are dropped. And Christ's righteousness is imputed, credited to your account, so you can stand justified, not guilty, before God. And all of this is free to anyone and everyone who hears the gospel and believes it. The reason these people would not and could not believe what Jesus was telling them was that despite the blood that ran through their veins and the genes they inherited from Abraham, they were not spiritual heirs. They were not children of God. Jesus said, he who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you don't hear them because you're not of God. Now later in this gospel, Jesus is going to tell us, my sheep hear my voice. These people were not among Jesus' sheep. They didn't belong to God, so they were unwilling and unable to hear the word of God. How about you? You know, a lot of times when Jesus was done teaching, he would call out and say, he who has ears, let him hear. Do you have ears? Do you hear? Have you heard and understood the truth about Jesus? Have you seen the beauty and the glory in the cross? Have you believed as a result? If not, what's holding you back? Is your darling sin worth clinging to and losing your soul? He who is of God hears the words of God. Let me tell you about an incident in my own life where this truth and reality was borne out. A couple of decades ago, I pastored a different church, and those there liked my preaching for the first 10 years, but then when I was preaching on the sovereignty of God and salvation, they didn't like that so much. Some concerned people contacted the conference leaders to intervene, and I, along with several of the elders of the church at that time, met with these leaders. We were in the process of this going on in the meeting, and they were considering stripping me of my lay minister's license. During this meeting, I asked one of them, who decides what the pastor is supposed to preach? And they said, well, of course, the pastor. We all agreed on that. But they said, you have the right to preach on the sovereignty of God and election as your own view, but you can't teach it as if it's the only correct view. Other pastors and theologians have different views. Now, at one point in the conversation, one of the higher-ups said, you know, you seem to be quoting the Apostle Paul. which, by the way, implies that he thinks there's a disagreement between Paul and, say, Jesus, and that the Bible is not a unity. I said, well, Jesus taught the same thing about the sovereign grace of God in election. Would you like me to show you where? And he didn't answer. Not at first. Not at all. And I knew that I had him. What if he had said, yes, please show me? Well, then I would have taken my Bible that was sitting in front of me, and I would have turned to Matthew 11, 25 to 27, where we read this. At this time, that time, Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. See what he praises him for. That you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed it to the infants. Yes, Father, for it was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and nobody knows the Son except for the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except for the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." Jesus prays God for revealing something to some and hiding it from others, and what's being revealed is the knowledge of who God really is so that they might be saved. Now, if this man would have said, yes, show me, I would have done just that. But what if when I asked him, he said, no, don't show me? Well, then it would have been crystal clear to everyone in that room that neither he nor anyone else there was going to take this teaching, even if it came from the lips of Jesus himself. So after a long pause, the district superintendent said, Doug, I think you're missing the point. But no, I wasn't missing the point. Despite the fact that they were professed Christians, all well-trained and highly educated and held positions of authority in the denomination. For this reason, they could not hear the word of God because they were not of God." What's ironic is the catchphrase motto for that denomination is, where is it written? When I offered to show them, they said, no, we don't want to see. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. But here's a question as we finish up. Do you see? Do you see? If you're a child of God, then hear and respond to the Word of God. And if you do, you'll be eternally glad that you did. Jesus said, my sheep, hear my voice. Are you his sheep? Let's pray. Oh, Father God, I do pray for grace and mercy. It comes down to that. The message is proclaimed and those whose hearts have been prepared, the good soil, believe it. Not because we're better than others, but because you've opened up our hearts. You've revealed it to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the word. Father God, I pray for each one here. Help us, those who don't know you, that you'd open their hearts soon to respond to the gospel. And for those of us who do, that we would give ourselves fully to the truth revealed in that word so that we can find joy and bring honor to your son, for we ask in his name now. Amen. All right. It's $2.61. Watch this.