This morning we come to chapter 8 of the Gospel according to John. And to yet another encounter between Jesus and those of the Jewish religious establishment who were opposed to Him. And who opposed Him in everything. And who ultimately were scheming to kill Him. Have Him put to death. So let us read the Word of God. John chapter 8, verse 12. John chapter 8, verse 12, Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to Him, You are testifying about Yourself. Your testimony is not true. Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I am not judging anyone, but even if I do judge, my judgment is true. For I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me. So they were saying to Him, Where is Your Father? Jesus answered, You know neither Me nor My Father. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also. these words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. And no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come. Well then he said again to them, I go away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come. So the Jews were saying, surely he will not kill himself, will he, since he says, Where I am going, you cannot come. And he was saying to them, You are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. So they were saying to Him, Who are You? Jesus said to them, What have I been saying to you from the beginning? How many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true. And the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world. They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. And I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me. He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. As He spoke these things, John writes, many came to believe in Him. Lord, we thank You that You have blessed us with Your Word. We thank You, Lord, that You speak to us, that You speak to our spirit, that You speak to us in the power of Your Spirit, that by this Word You've made us alive. That by this Word, You teach us and convict us, sanctify us. And so, Lord, as we look into Your Word this morning, we pray that Your Spirit will be at work in each and every one of us. In Christ's name, amen. When Jesus appeared in the temple during the Feast of Booths that week and began to teach, the Jewish religious leaders reacted to His teaching in their usual manner, with hostility, derision. Charged, He was simply giving His own personal opinions about religious matters, and they wanted Him dead. Jesus repeated what He had told them during an earlier visit to Jerusalem. He said, My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. He's standing there as a man, but He's also fully God. And He is speaking divine truth. Pharisees and the Sadducees, we may recall, were mortal enemies. They gathered together and they were united in their opposition to Christ. And so they sent temple police officers to arrest Jesus, intending to ultimately have Him put to death. And therefore Jesus said, verse 33, For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. 734, You will seek Me and will not find Me. And where I am you cannot come. I said this last Lord's Day. These are words we do not want to hear from God. Officers came to the chief priests, the Pharisees, and they said to the officers, why didn't you bring him? They said, never has a man spoken the way this man speaks. Well then, against the backdrop of a traditional temple lighting ritual that was apparently part of the Feast of Booths, Jesus made this stunning announcement in chapter 8, verse 12, I am the light of the world. Now recall, after feeding the 5,000 near the Sea of Galilee, Jesus had said, I am the bread of life, the source of all life, the one who gives spiritual life to all who come to him, the one who sustains life. Now he declared he's the light of the world, the source of all wisdom and righteousness and truth. And Jesus said that those who follow him will not walk in the darkness. Now the darkness is the fallen world, but will have the light of life. And for the sons of Jacob, we will recall, light was a symbol of Messiah. Prophecies of Isaiah spoke of the Messiah as light on several occasions. Just one, Isaiah 42, 6, I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from prison. Jesus is the light of the world. In Him are revealed all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Him. To all those who by God's sovereign grace are drawn to and come into His light, He imparts eternal heavenly blessings. And the light is an act of power that wars against and defeats the darkness. Darkness, marked by murder and greed. Idolatry, lust for power, hatred, immorality. Idolatry, the worship of false imaginary gods. It's a place where God's commands are ignored, ridiculed, mocked, disregarded. But Jesus has won the victory over the darkness. We need to know that. And if you're in Him, you share in that victory. If you're apart from Christ, if you're apart from Christ, if you're not following Him, you should know you are walking in darkness and you will die in your sins unless you repent and believe in Him. And that's His message here this morning. True followers of Jesus not only do not walk in the darkness of the moral and spiritual ignorance with which we came into the world, but they will live forever now in the glow of His light. And so Jesus calls us to come into His light and have eternal life. The Pharisees, they heard these things and they said to Him, You're testifying about Yourself. What You're saying isn't true. Now here are these Jewish rulers. Eternal life, eternal blessing, eternal glory are being offered to them. But they respond in arrogance and ignorance and derision and unbelief. They had no valid basis to deny what Jesus was saying, but they hated Him. They saw Him as a threat to their influence and their power. They wanted Him dead. They sought to convince the people He was deserving of death. So they did what lawyers sometimes do. They didn't have any defense to what he was saying. They couldn't prove what he was saying wasn't true. When the evidence is against them, what's a lawyer do? He finds some procedural flaw, some technicality in the opponent's case. And the technicality they rested on here was this rule of Moses. You've got to have two witnesses. If what you're saying is true, then there'd be two witnesses to this. We saw it in Deuteronomy 17.6. Two witnesses in any capital murder case. Deuteronomy 19.15. The proof of any fact required two witnesses under the law of Moses. Now these Pharisees said to him, when you call yourself the light of the world, you're just boasting. There's no witness to this. You're standing there by yourself saying these things. No one's confirming your testimony. So it's not true. We are to deem it as false. Now, you may recall back in chapter 5, we saw that Jesus told them He had been sent by His Father in heaven. And that He only does what His Father wills. And that just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever He wishes. He said to them that He who does not honor Him, the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. And then in chapter 5, verse 31, Jesus said, If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. Now clearly Jesus wasn't saying that without corroborating testimony, His testimony was not true. If that were correct, He wouldn't be the sinless one. He would be a liar. He simply meant, if I'm testifying concerning myself, in your eyes my testimony is not true. In other words, I know you'll raise this objection. You're testifying about yourself without having a second witness. And we recall that after Jesus said that, He brought forward four witnesses who testified to the truth of His claims. John the Baptist, the works that He was doing in their very midst, Moses and the things written in the Scriptures, and the Father Himself in heaven. forewitnesses to His divinity and to the truth of all that He was saying. And now these arrogant Pharisees were either forgetting or intentionally disregarding what Jesus had told them concerning those forewitnesses to the truth. And they responded by saying, Hey, without some other testimony, your words must be deemed to be false. But verse 14, Jesus answered these men who purported to stand in authority over Him. He said, Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from. I know where I'm going. But you do not know where I came from, and you do not know where I'm going. Now this is kind of unfair, isn't it? Here's God Himself speaking to these men, these very sinful and wicked men. Son of God speaks only the words of God, so His words must be true. Titus 1-2, God cannot lie. Hebrews 6-18, it's impossible for God to lie. And the truth is, He does know where He came from. He knows where He will return to glory in heaven. The fact is that He and His Father and the Holy Spirit are the only actual witnesses to the things of which Jesus was speaking. We believe them on faith because He's opened our eyes to know the truth. He's given us the evidence. The things of which He spoke cannot be seen by earthly fallen eyes. They're not of the earthly realm. Divine truth is of heaven. They didn't know where He came from. They didn't want to believe that He is God in human flesh. Didn't want to believe He's their Messiah. Didn't want to believe He's the Savior of sinners from every nation. So what was hindering them from understanding? What was it? Well, we know self-righteousness, self-indulgence, self-importance, their love of their place, their position, their love of their sin. Their minds and their hearts were entirely earthbound. They weren't set on heavenly things. They weren't like Abraham, you know, who was looking for the heavenly city, a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. They were like the scientists of today who disregard all that is apart from the natural world. And Jesus said to them, you judge according to the flesh. You're only judging according to what you can see and touch. They saw him as just another man. He heard his words as merely as the words of another man and judged them according to earthly standards. And so like those so-called expert scientists of today, their judgment of him was limited. It was based only on what they could see and touch. It was superficial. And it was ultimately wrong. Without spiritual sight, a gift of God, they had no way of knowing Him truly. Couldn't know who He truly was. Couldn't know from where He came. Couldn't know where He was going. For believers, for believers it must be different. 2 Corinthians 5.16, Paul wrote this, Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Yes, He was a man. He still is a man. He was on the earth. But now we know Him in a different way. Because believers are given spiritual understanding. Not just human eyes. Not just natural senses. But spiritual understanding. And so, believers' eyes are opened. And believers can see Jesus for who He truly is. Now, the Pharisees, they were not merely wicked and arrogant and prideful. They were spiritually dead, so there was no truth in them. They couldn't understand truth. This is the way it is for all unbelievers. They're spiritually dead. That's why they can't believe. Jesus said, I'm not judging anyone. And, you know, His first advent was not a mission of judgment. I didn't come to judge. I came to save. He has received authority to judge, and on the last day, judgment will be His mission and His purpose. And when He does judge, His judgment will be just, and it will be righteous. Because it's not a judgment according to the flesh, not according to human standards. It's a judgment according to God's righteousness. And He's not alone in that judgment. The triune God, including His Father and the Spirit, will be involved in that judgment, as they are in all things. He said in verse 16, Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone in it. I am the Father who sent Me. Even in your law, He said, it's been written, that the testimony of two men is true. I'm He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me, He testifies about Me. He reminds them of that fourth witness back in chapter 5. So the accusation here by the Pharisees is that Jesus was a liar. Think about what they're saying. They're saying, you have not come down from heaven. God the Father did not send you. You do not have life in yourself. You have no power to give spiritual life to the spiritually dead. You have no power to raise all the dead by your mere word. You're not the light of the world. Those who follow you will not walk in the light of life. You have no witness to corroborate your claims. Now whether there were other earthly witnesses to corroborate his testimony is irrelevant. His message came from heaven. His witness is in heaven. The truth of His words is not to be assessed by whether He can call some men to testify of His divinity, of His heavenly origin. The truth is the truth, no matter the number of human witnesses. Human witnesses can't not change the truth. In verse 18, as we just read, He again reminded them, The Father who sent Me, He testifies about Me. So they're saying to him, still with this earthly mindset. So where is your father? You know, as if he's maybe out there in the crowd. Almost as if to demand that Jesus produce this other witness. They're sitting there talking to him as though they are some judges on a platform and he's testifying, a witness, as though they are an authority over him. They demanded to know, where is your father? Get him over here. They had no understanding of who Jesus is or who his father is. And they did not know God. And that's what Jesus says to them. You know neither me nor my father. If you knew me, you would know my father. He would end up saying that to his disciples on the night before he died in the upper room. To know Jesus is to know God the Father. They are one. Because Father, Son, and Spirit are one God. Because Jesus is the revelation by God of Himself to humanity. Jesus and His Father, though distinct persons, are one. To know Jesus is to know the Father, and don't try to fit all of that into your feeble, fallen human mind. But don't ever disbelieve it. So here were the supposed experts in matters pertaining to God in Israel. Matters pertaining to His Word. And Jesus tells them, you don't even know God. How could they be leaders of the people of God when they didn't know God? They were arrogant, hateful, prideful men, and they would not repent and believe in Him. Wanted Him dead. And yet, verse 20, as Jesus taught in the treasury of the temple that day in Jerusalem, this is the place where the offerings were put. They had these thirteen shofars, trumpet-like receptacles, where they'd put the offerings. And that's where He is. Nobody seized Him. They wanted Him dead, but nobody seized Him because His hour had not yet come. God was in full control of events and remained in full control. And He said to them, I go away and you will seek Me and will die in your sin. Where I'm going you cannot come. This matter of dying in your sin is the most grim and serious matter there is. To die in sin is to die without repentance, without saving faith. To die in one's sin is to receive the eternal penalty of sin after death, forever cast into outer darkness, into misery. And this time, their response was a little different then, but it wasn't unlike their response the first time he'd spoken these words, where I'm going, you cannot come. First time, they wondered, maybe he's going out to the Greeks among the dispersion. But this time, they grasped the fact that he was speaking about his death. So they said to him, surely he will not kill himself, will he? Since he says, where I'm going, you cannot come. Now maybe this was because in the same breath, Jesus spoke of their deaths. You will die in your sins and of their eternal destinies. Now we know the Sadducees, the chief priests, did not believe in life after death, but the Pharisees did. And Jesus now delivered this news to them. And you don't want to hear these words, folks. You will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come. Seven out of eight, if we just hear the professions of faith in this world, are headed in that direction. Dying in their sins. Jesus was declaring that they, and all the wicked, will at length feel the great loss they've suffered by rejecting Him. It's not going to be some painless thing. The regret will be beyond what we can describe now. They will feel it. Jesus says, but it's going to be too late. There's a point where there's no more room for repentance. In their death they'll experience no comfort. People are going to laugh. Oh, my buddies are there. What a party we're going to have in hell. Go ahead. It's not going to be anything like that. Eternal fire out of darkness where the worm does not die. Eternal misery. One they have rejected will not be there to help them. Not at that time. Wrath of God will remain upon them forever. They cannot go where Jesus is going. They are going to the place of everlasting perdition, eternal destruction. Jesus was saying, and hear this, there comes a day for every person when it is too late. It's not a given that every man has until the day he dies to repent, turn to Christ, and believe. One's last opportunity may come long before the day of one's death. Calvin wrote this, commenting on this verse, when Christ knocks at our door, we ought to go immediately to meet him, lest he forever withdraw from us. And indeed, we have learned by many experiences in all ages how greatly this departure of Christ is to be dreaded. You don't want him to walk away from you. You better come to him. By these words, Christ is warning all unbelievers that all who reject the message of the gospel will be seized with a sense of great anguish. And they'll cry out to God. He will not hear them. Their howling will be of no avail. I hope we hear this. This isn't just somebody's opinion. Son and the Father both testify to this. The Spirit tells you that it's true. Verse 23, He says, You're from below. You're from the earth. I'm from above. You're of this world. I'm not of this world. He came down from heaven. They and all who are apart from Christ, who don't believe in Him, are of the world, the fallen world, Babylon, the city of man, the domain of darkness. Jesus is from above. He came down from heaven. And because they are of the world, as we all were when we came into the world, they will die in their sins unless they believe in Him and are brought into a spiritual union with Him. There's no other way apart from a union with Christ to escape this darkness. Jesus said he says it again in verse 24 therefore. I said to you that you will die in your sins For unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins Couldn't be any clearer For more than two years he had been revealing to them mysteries of eternity eternal truths Where did we come from? Where are we going? Why are we in this circumstance? What actually happens when we die? Why are we here in this darkness? And how do we escape it? How do we escape what we know will be the punishment of our sins? John has taught us that everything came into being through Jesus, the Son of God. Adam's sin had brought sin and death into the whole world, into all humans. It caused the separation of all mankind from God. And now the Son of God had come into the world, had become a man to save us from that sin and from its consequence. To restore all who believe in Him to fellowship with God. Look at Jesus' words here. Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. I wish the world could hear this and be moved to believe it. Belief in the gospel is the one and only means of salvation. And it divides. It divides those who believe from those who do not believe. It divides the saved from the unsaved. It divides the spiritually alive from those who remain spiritually dead. Calvin again, the gospel is not cast without purpose into the air, it is an aroma either of life or of death. 2 Corinthians 2 15, For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one an aroma from death to death, the other an aroma from life to life. 1 Corinthians 1.18, For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Verse 23, But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Romans 116. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the Greek. Those Pharisees had all the information they could possibly have needed for salvation. But they would not believe. Wouldn't humble themselves. Say, I need you Lord. Their response to Jesus was to attack Him with more scorn and ridicule. You? Who are you? That's what they said to Him. And the truth is that rejection of Him, failure to believe in Him, and obey Him will result in everlasting misery. Jesus said to them, What have I been saying to you from the beginning? You, who are you? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true. And the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world." Now this is the triune God speaking to the human nature of Christ. They didn't realize He was speaking to them about the Father, the one they called Yahweh. How could this be? How could this be after all Jesus had told them? Here we see the consequence of unbelief. It will lead to one staying and remaining in ignorance. Why is it that the so-called smart, intelligent people of this world cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God? Why can't they? It's because of unbelief. They cannot understand what we know to be true. The most important truths that there are Unbelief is like a wall that keeps truth from penetrating it and breaking through. Jewish religious leaders, teachers of the law, supposed experts in matters pertaining to God, had taken the truth of God that was given through Moses and the prophets to their ancestors and they had modified it. They modified it to create their own idolatrous religion. And that's what it was by then. And so when their Messiah came, they were without understanding, as far too many still are today. You wonder why some who profess to be Christians are still lost in unbelief? Unbelief is why even some who profess to be Christians feel free to ignore the Word of God. Those who ignore the Word of God today and who modify the Word of God to fit with some modern Babylonian ways and morals. These are not churches of Christ at all. These are synagogues of Satan. Only where the truth of Christ is proclaimed is He there. As long as one does not believe, he cannot know the truth. We are not free to disregard the Word of God in any respect. If one doesn't believe the Word of God, the Word of Christ, he cannot know the truth and he will remain in ignorance. He will remain in darkness. We all need a Savior. We all need one to rescue us from that domain of darkness. And only when one is rescued from the darkness and brought into the light, then he can know and believe the truth. This requires the work of God. But the long and the short of Jesus' words here, and the ones we do not want to miss, is that if you do not accept His words and believe in Him, you will die in your sins. Will you die in your sins? Will you die in your sins? You can call yourself a Pharisee, priest, bishop, rabbi, imam, pope, preacher, whatever. It doesn't make any difference. All have sinned, all fall short of His glory, and the wages of every single sin is death. And the only hope for any sinner is genuine belief and trust in Christ's offering of Himself on the cross. And Jesus knew they were soon going to kill Him according to His flesh. But they would gain nothing by it. Their wickedness would not accomplish their desired end. Christ would rise on the third day. Not only would He rise, He would be exalted to the right hand of the Father. Death would be conquered and Christ would be glorified. He would turn their wicked plan into the very means by which we are saved. They're killing Him. His offering of Himself is how we were saved. They were doing His bidding all along. They were doing our bidding all along. Verse 28, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. Now we don't see clear sign of this. Maybe in Acts chapter 15 we see some Pharisees who believed. Jesus was saying to them, the time will come when you will know that I am who I say I am, but it will be too late. And again Jesus said to them, I do nothing on my own initiative. I'm speaking the words of God here. I speak the things the Father taught me, and He who sent me is with me. He's not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. This is Christ in His humanity, pleasing the divine will. He spoke of His consciousness, of His Father's constant presence. His Father was always with Him. His Spirit was always with Him, even in His saving mission. Father and Spirit were not incarnate. Again, don't try to understand it all. Our minds are not equipped to grasp all these divine truths. But you know who else is with him? All of those who have become joined to him. All who are in Christ, in union with him, are with him. What a blessed truth. And then John tells his readers, verse 30, as he spoke these things, many came to believe in him. Well, we've seen this kind of language before at another Jerusalem feast back in chapter 2 in response to Jesus' miracles. They believed in His power, but that faith had turned out to be spurious. What about these many who came to believe in Him? Was this genuine saving faith? Well, we're going to see as we work through the rest of chapter 8 that those who are here described as having believed in Him actually fell short of saving faith. But this morning for us, the question is, what about us? What about you? Truth is, every word Jesus spoke is true. Truth is, we're all sinners and our only way our sin could be atoned for was by the offering of an unblemished, sinless offering in death. That was it. It was the only way to be reconciled to God. And only the incarnate Son of God could be that sinless, unblemished offering. And He did. Yes, there's great news here for believers. But He's talking to unbelievers here. He did offer Himself on the cross. He conquered death rising from the grave. And only those who believe in those truths and believe in Him and serve Him as Lord are saved from dying in their sins. He's not unclear, folks. This is the gospel. And the question that He poses for us this morning, will you believe or will you die in your sins? calls us to believe in Him, to serve Him in gratitude in response to the love He has shown us for His kingdom and for His glory. And I pray that every one of us will hear these words He spoke to us this morning. Let's now take a moment and meditate on this word that Jesus has spoken to us this morning. And then let us examine ourselves and then we will gather at His table. Lord, I hope we've all heard you this morning. I pray that these words don't fall on dry ground, that all of our hearts have been moved, that no one leaves here in an unbelieving state, that no one would have a destiny of dying in their sins. I pray, Lord, Your Spirit would be at work, would bring this word to our hearts, and I ask it in Christ's name.