Let's open up our Bibles to John chapter 12. John 12, we have been in John 12 for a number of months. This morning, we will finish up John chapter 12. In your Bible, it'll go Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. John 12 is roughly 85% of the way through your Bible. Our focus will be verses 44 through 50. So let's read this. John chapter 12, starting in verse 44, going to verse 50. The word of God, it says this. Then Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And he who sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him. The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak." In June of 2023, there was a big news story at the time, and this was a news story that basically gripped the entire world. And if you were like me, you were very much interested in this story and very much enthralled by it. It's talking, or I'm talking about the story of the Titanic underwater vehicle, otherwise known as the Titanic Submersible. If you're not aware of what kind of went down, just briefly explain it. There are these four people and they paid $250,000 to the owner of this submersible, of this like mini submarine, to go down 12,000 feet to the ocean floor to see the wreckage of the Titanic. And if you recall what happened, about 90 minutes after setting sail, you could say, down to the bottom of the ocean, this vehicle, it lost all communications. And then about a few hours after that, then the report went out that the people on this vehicle, they were lost. And the entire news world was very, very interested in this story. They ran with it. It was on every single news website you could think of, all the news channels. And there were basically two options given. Option number one was this, that the people on this vehicle, on this submersible, they were down all the way at the bottom of the ocean in the pitch blackness of the ocean with oxygen running out. The way it was presented was that they had 96 hours left of oxygen. So they were down. at the bottom of the ocean with 96 hours left of oxygen. The other option was that they had floated back up to the surface of the ocean and they were just hoping that a helicopter would spot them and that they would be rescued. And the reaction to both of these options from the world was basically the same. Everybody looked and everybody said, wow, how absolutely awful it must be. How horrible to be in this situation, whether it be on the bottom of the ocean, in the pitch blackness of the ocean, or whether it be on the surface of the ocean, just to be there in this confined space with the oxygen running down, it's just absolutely horrible. And the news channels, you'll recall that they even had a clock either at the bottom right or bottom left of the station, and it was saying, well, this is how much oxygen the people have left. And then what ended up happening was the clock ended up striking zero. And then everybody looked and said, oh, that's so terrible. They weren't able to be found. It was like a really small chance that they could be found anyway, but the world still held out hope. But that hope was gone once the clock hit zero. And the world was saddened and the world was horrified that these people died in such a horrific way, that they died by death of lack of oxygen. But then the report came out that actually what had happened was that when the submersible, when it lost communications about 90 minutes after descending into the ocean, 90 minutes after that, when it lost communications, what had actually happened was this vehicle imploded upon itself. You see, the ocean is such a powerful place that at certain levels, as you descend down into the ocean, it's so powerful that whatever vehicle you're in, it could just implode upon itself. And that's what happened. These five people who were on board this vehicle, as it imploded, they died in 1 1,000th of a second. 1 1,000th of a second is faster than it takes your eye to snap our fingers. 1 1,000th of a second is faster than it takes your eye to blink our eyes. And the world heard about this. And the world's reaction was basically something like this. Everybody looked and everybody said, well, you know, obviously the best thing that could have happened was that they would be found. But I guess that this is a nice alternative. This is a nice consolation prize, if you will, because it happened so quickly. It happened so quick, and at least these people didn't suffer. It happened in one one-thousandth of a second, and at least it happened so very quickly. And that was even my reaction as I heard about this at first. I said, wow, yeah. This is a really nice consolation. At least they didn't suffer at all. But then I started to think, and I said to myself, I said, that actually makes zero sense for me to come to that conclusion as a Christian. In fact, the absolute worst thing that could have happened is what happened. That in one one thousandth of a second that they were killed. That's the absolute worst thing that could have happened. Now you hear that and you say to yourself, you say, well, why is that the worst thing that could have happened? Well, let me ask you this question. What is it that happens to those who die in their sins apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? What happens to them? The Bible is very clear. Bible is so clear about this. Those who die in their sins, apart from faith in Jesus, they die and they immediately go to hell. If you think being at the bottom of the ocean in the pitch blackness of the ocean with oxygen running out, if you think that is terrible, let me tell you, that is like a five-star resort in light of just how awful and how terrible hell is. It's absolutely horrible. Not to mention, of course, that had the implosion of this submersible not happened, perhaps the people on board, perhaps they would have started to think about their eternity. Perhaps the people on board, had this not taken place how it went down, perhaps they would have started to contemplate the things of the Lord. Maybe even they would have believed that precious gospel message. Maybe in their last moments, they would have come to see their deep need for the Lord Jesus and they would have believed the gospel. You know that word gospel, I wonder if you know what it means. It means the good news. It's the good news, the good news that is set apart, that is far above any other news that you could possibly imagine. But the reason why it is called the good news, the good news that is set apart, is because there is bad news, right? That makes sense. If there wasn't any bad news, then we would just call this news. But this is the good news. So we want to know, what is the bad news? Well, the bad news is this. The bad news is that all of us are sinners. And we have all sinned against the perfect, holy, triune God of the universe. And this holy, perfect, triune God of the universe, you know what he hates more than anything we could imagine? He hates sin. He hates, absolutely despises sin. And we have sinned in so many ways against him. Just how many ways have we sinned against God? Well, none of us knows an exact number, but it is quite literally in the billions. Quite literally, in billions of ways, we have sinned against God. Now, someone hears that, says, well, that seems like you're being hyperbolic. That seems like kind of an exaggeration, but it is not an exaggeration. Consider the fact, what the word of God says, how even our own thoughts are sinful. And then you start to think to yourself and you say, wow, well, that being the case, then it's certainly the case that I've sinned in billions of ways against God. Listen to what our Baptist Shorter Catechism says about this, it says... That's what we do, we daily break the commandments of God in thought, word and deed. Indeed, this is bad news. This is bad news that we are sinners and in our love for sin, we have rebelled against God. And because of the fact that we're sinners who have embraced sin and love sin, we are justly under God's holy wrath. So that's the bad news. The bad news is that we are under his wrath because of our sin. But then what's the good news? Well, the good news is that God is so gracious and He's so merciful and He's so gracious and so merciful that He sent His Son into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus came here, He left heaven willingly, came down here, and He lived a perfect, faithful, obedient life. He never sinned, not even once. We were just saying how we all sin even in our thoughts. Jesus never even sinned in his thoughts. He never had one millisecond of a sinful thought. And then what happened to Jesus? Well, what happened to Jesus was he went to the cross. And on the cross, what happened was the wrath of almighty God, that those who had come to saving faith in Jesus, the wrath that they deserve for their sin was poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus, he bore the entirety of God's wrath upon himself, bearing it all for the sins of his people, and then he died on that cross. But he did not stay dead. No, three days later, he arose victoriously from the dead, showing to everybody that he is indeed the Messiah. proving every single thing that he said would happen to be true. And the Bible makes it so simple. The Bible says that if you would repent of your sins and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. You will be saved. What a simple and yet what a precious message. I want you to know today, I want you to know that the reason why this gospel, the reason why the gospel of John was written, is so that we would believe upon the Lord Jesus. That's the reason why this gospel was written. And you don't have to take my word for it. This is what John the Apostle says. And the thesis statement of the gospel of John, in John 20, verse 31, he starts to speak about all of these signs that Jesus did, all of these wonders and miracles, things like turning water into wine, things like walking on water, things like healing a lame man, healing a blind man of his blindness. Things like raising a dead man from the dead. All of these things are written down for us, why? Is it so that we would just look and say, wow, that's so cool that Jesus was able to do that. No, that's not the reason why these miracles and signs are recorded for us. They're recorded so that we would believe upon Jesus. That's what it says there, it says, these are written so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you would have life in heaven. That's the very reason why this gospel is written. And today here in our text, in verses 44 through 50, we are going to see seven basic truths as to the reality of who Jesus is. Seven basic and yet very, very precious truths about just how wonderful and how awesome the Lord Jesus Christ is. Now, before getting into our passage, Let's quickly recap what's going on here in John chapter 12. At the beginning of John chapter 12, it's Palm Sunday. So it's five days away from the cross. Palm Sunday, on that following Friday, the Lord Jesus would be crucified. And what does Jesus do on Palm Sunday? Well, he rides in to the city of Jerusalem triumphantly in what's known as the triumphal entry. And he comes in on a donkey. And by coming in on a donkey, he's making it crystal clear. By this action of coming in on the donkey, he's making it crystal clear that he is indeed the king. See kings in the Old Testament would ride in on donkeys. And Jesus riding in on a donkey is making it crystal clear that he's the king. And as he rides into the city of Jerusalem, he's met with fanfare and adoration. The people shout out as Jesus rides in, they shout out and say, Hosanna. So they are very, very excited that Jesus has just ridden into the city. But then Jesus, he starts to speak to them. And as Jesus starts to speak to them, they become very shocked. You see, because what the people thought, the people thought that their big problem was the Romans. They were under Roman oppression, and Roman oppression was certainly a problem, but they thought that this was their main problem. But Roman oppression was not their main problem. Their main problem happens to be our main problem, which is sin. Our main problem is our sin. Their main problem was their sin. And as Jesus starts to speak to them, and as he doesn't talk about the Romans, they become very shocked. And Jesus, he says so many significant things. As he's speaking, he says, for example, in John 12, verse 31, he says, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And what Jesus meant there was that in his death on the cross, he was actually victorious over Satan. In his death on the cross, he is victorious over the evil one. That Jesus defeated Satan at the cross. Yes, Satan is still active. Yes, he's still dangerous. But take great comfort in the fact that Satan is a defeated foe. He's a defeated foe. He is a decapitated snake with mere hours left of oxygen. And then Jesus also says something else very significant. In John 12, verse 32, where he says this, he says... He's telling us that in his crucifixion, when he's lifted up on the cross, he will draw all kinds of people to himself. A people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. All types of people without distinction, but not every single person without exemption. And then we've seen a lot of other significant things. We saw John the Apostle answer and address a very important question. And the question was this, that we would have as we come to this, as we see Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, and we see all of these Jews rejecting Jesus, Should we be surprised by that? And the answer to that is no. John the Apostle, he tells us that the word of God had prophesied that this is what would happen. And he went back to Isaiah 53, and he went actually a little before that, where it's talking about the Messiah, that he would be humiliated and he would be exalted. And then in Isaiah 53, verse one, it asks this question. It says, Lord, who has believed our report? A.K.A., will a lot of people believe this report about the Messiah? And the implied answer there is no. So we've seen that all of Isaiah 53 is about Jesus. We also saw in verse 41, we saw John the Apostle hearken back to what takes place at the beginning of Isaiah 6. Where the beginning of Isaiah 6, the prophet Isaiah, he has this glorious vision of Yahweh, of God on his throne. And one of the most marvelous visions that God has ever given to man. What we're told in John 12, verse 41, that Isaiah, who he actually saw, was he saw God the Son. He saw Yahweh the Son, he saw the Lord Jesus. He saw the pre-incarnate Christ, 740 years before the incarnation would actually happen. And we've also, as we've been journeying through this chapter, we've also seen exhortations to walk in the light and exhortations as well to not seek after the praises of sinful men. So lots and lots of significant things have happened here in John chapter 12. And now we come to verse 44. And in our passage today, in verses 44 through 50, we have an excellent summary. We have an excellent synopsis as to the reality of who Jesus is. An excellent synopsis as to what his earthly ministry was all about. And you'll see this in our passage. If you've been journeying with us, as we've been making our way through the gospel of John over the last two and a half years, you'll see that there's nothing new in our passage of scripture here today. There's nothing new. We've seen all of these things before. We've seen all of them before. Unbeliever. Before you here today is a tremendous summation as to who the biblical Jesus is. And believers, as we come to our passage of scripture today, let's be reminded just how awesome the Lord Jesus Christ is. Let's be reminded just how magnificent Jesus Christ is. Now in regards to what's about to happen here, I gotta tell you that verses 44 through 50, this is something, this is a passage where I changed my own thinking on as I was preparing for this message because I had always taken verses 44 through 50 in the same way that a lot of theologians like A.W. Pink have taken it, where they come to this and they see verses 44 through 50, not as Jesus speaking, but John the Apostle speaking and saying something along the lines of, these are the really, really important things that Jesus said during his earthly ministry. And the reasoning that some people have taken that view is because If you look back in your Bible to verse 36, it says, these things Jesus spoke and departed and was hidden from them. So it seems to imply that he left, but then in verse 44, he appears again. So people look at that and say, well, that kind of seems odd. And then not to mention that John 12 is the ending of Jesus's public ministry. So many have come. and taking that position that this is John the Apostle just saying these are the very important things that Jesus said about himself. And that was the view that I had taken, but I no longer take that view. I think that what's happening here is this is just Jesus coming back one more time, coming back one more time to plead with sinners to come to saving faith in him. But even if I'm wrong on that, it doesn't really matter either way because what we have here is still the infallible and inerrant word of Almighty God. Let's see what it says in verses 44 through 45. It says here, then Jesus cried out and said, he who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And he who sees me, sees him who sent me. You know, only a few times in scripture are we told that Jesus cried out. And when scripture says that, it doesn't mean that he's literally crying. What it's intending to get across is that this is something that Jesus, speaking very, very passionately about. He's very passionately speaking here. And he says here this, he says, he who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. The translation here is this, you cannot know God without knowing Christ. You cannot believe in God without believing in Jesus. To believe in God is indeed to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus said about himself. In John 14, verse six, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If somebody is saying that they believe in God, And then if they say that and yet they reject Christ, well, that person is not believing in God. That person is believing in a made up God, in a false God. God is the one who sent his son, the Lord Jesus. And if you love God, you will love the one that he sent on his behalf. God is the one who has done this. And if somebody professes to have faith in Christ, well, true, genuine faith in Christ, excuse me, true, genuine faith in God means true, genuine faith in Christ. And let me tell you, having true, genuine faith in Jesus is the greatest thing ever. It's the best thing ever. This is something that we like to bring out here a lot from the pulpit. We like to bring out the fact that being a Christian is the greatest thing on earth. There's nothing better in the entire world than being a Christian. There's nothing better than being a Christian. It is wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. Now, sometimes people hear that and say like, all right, is it really that great? I mean, surely, surely being a celebrity or being a billionaire, surely that's better than being a Christian. It is not. It is not better whatsoever. Being a Christian is the best thing ever. You know, this is one of the reasons as to why we go out and why we tell people the gospel, why we go out and why we evangelize. We go out, we do this, of course, because it's glorifying to God, right? It's glorifying to God to proclaim his son amongst those who do not know him. We also do this, we also go out and share the gospel because we're commanded in scripture to do that and as believers we want to obey what God says in his word. But you know why else we do this? We do it because we love our neighbor and we want our neighbors to be Christians. We want our neighbors to know the Lord Jesus Christ. We want our neighbors to be saved because being saved, being a Christian is indeed the greatest thing ever. The point here is this. The point here is to believe in God, one must believe in Jesus. And we could go one step further, and we could say that to believe in God is to believe in God the Holy Spirit as well. You see, because God is triune. As our Baptist Shorter Catechism says, there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in essence or substance or being, equal in power and in glory. This is a very good reminder for us, an excellent reminder, that just because somebody says they believe in God, if they reject the triune God of the Bible, they do not believe in the true and living God. Oh, we may both say God, but only one of us is speaking about worshiping the true God. I recall, and some of you may recall, about a year and a half or maybe two years ago, there was a man coming here to our church who was anti-Trinitarian. He rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. We told him that he was welcome to come here, but he was obviously not allowed to try to tell people that. about his anti-Trinitarian stances and things like that. But this man, what he often tried to do was he tried to get people to agree with him that it wasn't really that big of a deal. He tried to go around to about like 20 to 25 people and tried to do something like this, like, you know what? It's really not that big of a deal. Like, it's really just a small issue. Like, we're both believers. We're both Christians. And I'm very thankful for all the believers in here who rebuked this man and said, no, that is not the case. You have rejected the triune God of the scriptures, and therefore you are not a Christian. You are not whatsoever. Jesus also tells us here, he says this in the two verses that we just read. He says, and he who sees me, sees him who sent me. What does Jesus mean there? Well, he doesn't mean that he and his father are the same person. What he means is that he is the perfect representation of the father. He is the one who declares the father perfectly to us. Let's turn in our Bibles to the left. Let's go to John chapter one. So just a few pages to your left. John 1, verse 18, it says this. It says, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has, referring to Jesus, He has declared Him. He has explained Him. He has exegeted Him perfectly. This is what Jesus does. Jesus is the one who perfectly declares the Father to us. So two main things we've seen here thus far. Number one, we've seen that to believe in Christ is to believe in the Father. Number two, we've seen that to see Jesus is to see the Father. Let's continue here back in John 12. John 12, verse 46. It says here this, it says, Jesus, he continues speaking, and he says, I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. Let's just stop here and let's see this little thing that Jesus says that is easy to kind of gloss over, but we don't want to gloss over it because it's so significant. Jesus says this, he says, I have come into the world. I have come into the world. Who speaks like this? Who says something like this? If you were ever having a conversation with somebody and they were to say to you, yeah, well, I've come into the world for this reason, you would immediately stop and you would say, that's really strange. That's really odd that this person would say that about himself. That would be the oddest thing ever for any mere man to say something like that. To say, I have come into the world. But Jesus isn't a mere man. Jesus is the God-man. And he knows exactly as to why it is that he came here. Something worth mentioning. Something worth mentioning is that Jesus in saying this, in saying, I have come into the world. You know what this shows us? This shows us Jesus' pre-existence. Shows us his pre-existence. It shows us that he has always existed. Which makes sense because he is God. He's God in the flesh. He's the Son of God. He's God the Son. He's the eternally begotten Son of God from all eternity. There has never been a time when Jesus has not existed. Hence the reason why he could say what he says when he says, I've come into the world for this reason. This shows us once again, that Jesus was fully aware of his task, fully aware of his mission. Perhaps, perhaps at your place of employment, perhaps there's somebody that you've been working with for a few years or perhaps, hopefully not, but perhaps I'm actually describing you. But perhaps there's somebody there and you've been working with this guy and you've thought to yourself, like, hey, you know, like this guy, I've been working with him for two, three years. I have no idea what he actually does here. So I'm just going to go and ask him. So you go and you ask him, you say, hey man, let's call him Jeff, right? You go to Jeff and you say, Jeff, what do you like actually do here? And then Jeff gets kind of flustered, doesn't really know how to respond and he gives a response and it's kind of awkward and you just say, oh, all right, thanks. And you walk away thinking to yourself, like, I don't think Jeff has any idea as to what he actually does here. Well, nobody could ever accuse the Lord Jesus Christ of that. Jesus knew full well what his mission was. And he tells us right here, he tells us what his mission was. He says that he has come into the world as a light. And this harkens back or makes us go back, makes us think about what Jesus said in John 8 verse 12. Where in John 8 verse 12, Jesus in one of these famous great I am statements, he says, I am the light of the world. He came here to be the light of the world so that whoever believes in him should not abide or remain in darkness. Believers, you and I, before God saved us by his grace, we were in the darkness. But praise God that he brought us out of the darkness and into his marvelous light. Unbeliever in here, you have to know this. You have to know that you are still in the darkness. You are still in the darkness. And that may sound harsh to hear that, but this is what the Bible says. The Bible says that you are still in the darkness. Don't remain in the darkness. Come out of the darkness. Come to the light. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know who it is that wants you to remain in the darkness? Do you know who it is that wants you so badly to remain in the darkness? It's Satan. It's the devil. He wants you so badly to stay in the darkness. Oh, doesn't it sound so simple to say it like this? Don't do what Satan wants. Don't do what the devil wants. Don't do what he wants. Instead, do what he doesn't want. What he doesn't want is for you to come to Jesus and be saved. Therefore, come to Jesus and be saved, come to Him and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers in here, let's do this. Let's continue to walk in the light. Let's continue to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's continue to trust Him and continue to obey Him. Let's continue to commune with Him. In the reading of His word, continue to strive for holiness by His grace and for His glory. Believer, are you doing that? Are you walking in the light? Or have you become too familiar to these things that I just mentioned? Have you become too familiar? Have you become over familiar? You know this happens sometimes doesn't it? It most certainly does. We become too familiar or over familiar with certain things and what I mean by that when I When I say we become too familiar or we become over familiar, what I mean is that something can be so frequently seen, heard, or experienced that it seems dull and it seems unoriginal. So you think about it like this, just a few examples. Let's say there's a family member who lives on the other side of the country. And that family member, he comes here or she comes here to Long Island. And what do they want to do? Well, they want to go to New York City. Are you excited to go to New York City? Probably not. Probably not. And there's probably like a thousand reasons that you could list off as to why you're not excited. But number one or near the top would be, like, it's right there. It's right there. Like, I've already been there. I'm very familiar with it. It's not that special to me because I've already been there multiple times. Or think about it something like this, and this may not be the best illustration, but it's an illustration I was thinking of. I have three daughters and one day there's going to be a man who, let's say when my oldest daughter's in her 20s, there's gonna be a man who's gonna come to me and say, sir, I wanna date your daughter. Right? That's probably going to happen, which is okay. I pray that the Lord would bring godly men one day into the lives of my children. So let's say this man, he comes to me and he says, sir, I really desire to date your daughter. Would you give me your blessing? Would you give me your permission? And I know that this man is a Christian, I've met him quite a number of times, and I say yes. So they start dating, he starts coming around a little bit more, and now all of a sudden, when he comes to the home, now it's no longer sir, instead it's bro. Or instead it's guy. Or instead it's pal. And now when he comes into the house, now he kind of just like throws his keys on the dining room table. He sits on the couch. He puts up the recliner. He opens up the fridge without asking. You know what I would do? I would go to my wife, May, and I would say, you know what? Doesn't seem like this is going to work out. And if she says why, I would say because this guy is becoming too familiar. He is becoming over familiar, and I do not like it. Now that may or may not be a very good illustration, but I'm sure you get the point here. We never wanna be like that proverbial guy when it comes to the Lord. No, we never want to be like that. No, we wanna come and see what God says, and we wanna hear these exhortations, and we wanna press in to do these things. You know, there's a great temptation for every believer in here to come to our passage today and to kind of tune out, because as I mentioned earlier, we've seen all of these things before, but let's not do that. Let's not do that at all. The temptation has become too familiar. The temptation when we hear about these exhortations to read the Bible, to press in, to know the Lord, The temptation is to say, I already know all that, but do not do that. Realize there is a reason and a great reason as to why we're constantly reminded of these things. Not to mention that the reminders are biblical. They're absolutely biblical. And you probably noticed this in your reading of the word of God. God is constantly doing this. He is constantly reminding us of things over and over again, because we need to be reminded. And we certainly need to be reminded of just how awesome Jesus is. So we've seen three things thus far. Three precious truths about the Lord Jesus. To believe in Jesus is to believe in the Father. To see Jesus is to see the Father. And the third thing we just saw is that Jesus came to take sinners out of their darkness. Fourth precious truth, we'll see in verse 47. Verse 47, it says this, Jesus, he says, and if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. Fourth precious truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. He came here to save the world. He came here to provide the means by which people could be saved, which is by faith alone in him alone. Jesus did not come here the first time to judge and condemn the world. That's not the reason why he came here the first time. If that is what he wanted to do, well, he wouldn't have had to come here. Because if you remember what we were talking about earlier on in this message, we're all born under condemnation because we're sinners. If Jesus's goal was to just come here and to judge people because of their sin, well, it would have been a complete waste of his time for him to come here. He wouldn't have had to come here because we are already condemned. If the goal was to do that, it would have been a massive waste of time. And I gotta tell you, the Lord Jesus Christ is certainly not in the business of wasting His time. He is not. He came here to offer the world the means by which it could be saved, which is by faith alone in Him alone. And those who reject, those who reject what it is that Jesus has done, those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ, they do so because of their own doing, and they do so to their own peril and destruction. Look at what it says in verse 48. It says in verse 48, Jesus says, Here's the reality of the situation. The reality of the situation is this, that those who reject, Those who refuse to come to Christ, those who refuse to humble themselves and bow the knee to Jesus, the reality is, for those individuals, judgment is a certainty. It is a certainty for those who refuse to come to Jesus. Why? Was because they have rejected God. They have rejected God, the son. You know, in this verse, Jesus is also doing something really, really amazing. In this verse, Jesus is going back to what happens in Deuteronomy chapter 18. And you'll see that Deuteronomy 18 is a cross-reference for John 12, verse 48. So let's turn in our Bibles to Deuteronomy 18 so we could see what's going on there. in Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18, this is near the beginning of your Bibles. Deuteronomy 18, this is what Brother Stephen Totter, he read earlier on in the service today. Deuteronomy 18, the last part of it, verses 15 to 22. And typically, as Christians, we come to Deuteronomy 18, and we tend to focus on verse 18, because verse 18 is a great verse. It's a tremendous verse. It says in verse 18, God says, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And who is that pointing forward to? Well, it's pointing forward to Jesus, the one who is the prophet, the one who speaks the word of God, and the one who literally is the word God. Verse 18 is a great verse and it's very obviously about Jesus. But then look at what it says in verse 19. In verse 19 of Deuteronomy 18 it says, And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words which he speaks in my name I will require it of him. AKA, whoever rejects this message, I will require it of him, which means that God will hold that one who rejects, he will hold that one personally responsible for rejecting. He will hold them personally responsible. He will require it of them. There will be no good excuse that anyone can come up with as for why they did not submit and accept the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be zero good excuses. There are no good excuses. You have to know that today. Sometimes people think, well, I'll have this excuse and it will be acceptable before God, but it will not be. It will not be acceptable whatsoever. Let's continue back in John 12. Back in John 12, we'll see the sixth thing that Jesus does. Verse 49, it says this. Jesus says in verse 49, for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. Who is the one that is behind the authoritativeness of Jesus's words? Who is the one behind this all? Well, it's the Father. It is God the Father. He's the one behind all of this. And then verse 50. Verse 50 of John 12. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak." It's so perfect that this chapter would end like this. What's the takeaway here? What's the takeaway? Well, the takeaway is that to hear the words of God the Son is to hear the words of God the Father. That's what Jesus means when he says, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak. That's what he means there. Seven precious truths about the Lord Jesus in our text. Number one, to believe in Jesus is to believe in the Father. Number two, to see Jesus is to see the Father. Number three, Jesus came to take sinners out of their darkness. Number four, he came to save the world, to provide the means by which the world would be saved. Number five, Jesus speaks authoritatively and those who reject are personally responsible for rejecting. Number six, the father is the one who is behind all of this. And number seven, to hear the words of Jesus is to hear the words of God the father. Seven, pray. precious and great truths that we've seen in this passage. And so the question here is this. The question is, what will you do with these seven precious truths? What will you do? Will you embrace what Jesus has said or will you reject to your own destruction and to your own peril? Look at the beginning of verse 50 once again, the beginning of verse 50. Jesus, he says, and I know that his command is everlasting life. What is this command? What is the command that Jesus is speaking about there at the beginning of verse 50? It's the command of the gospel. That's what it is. It's the command of the good news. God commands all men everywhere to repent of their sins and believe the gospel. That's what God commands and that's what God demands from all men everywhere. He commands and demands that all men everywhere would repent of their sins and believe the gospel. unbeliever in here, do what God commands, do what He demands. Come to Jesus, come to Him and be saved. Come to Him today and be saved. Consider here, just consider at how incredibly gracious the Lord Jesus Christ is. This is the last public thing that He says in His earthly ministry. After this, starting in John 13, everything that's gonna take place is private. This is the last public thing that he says. And in his last public address, he bids sinners to come to him and be saved. That's what he does. What a gracious and precious Savior the Lord Jesus Christ is. Unbeliever, come to Jesus. Come to Jesus and know just how awesome and just how wonderful the Lord Jesus is. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for how wonderful and how precious your son is. Thank you, God, for these precious truths that we've seen here in this passage. Just this wonderful summation, this wonderful synopsis of how gracious you are in sending Jesus for us, and this wonderful synopsis and summation, just how incredible our Lord is. God, we're so thankful for what you've done for us in Christ. We're so thankful, Lord, for everything that's taken place here today. Thank you, Lord, for our brother Jack being baptized. Just what a great blessing that was. And we thank you, Lord, so much for the singing that's taking place here today. And we thank you, Lord, as well, for what you've told us in your word. God, we pray you would bless this message to your people. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.