Illegitimate Birth
Notes
Transcript
Let’s walk it back a little bit to get back to where we are today to catch back up. What we need to see is these arguments were getting more and more intense. They were starting to get more and more mad at the things that Jesus was saying and his claims, as you can see in the verses today you see Jesus telling them they are going to attempt to kill him. And so we pick it up in verse 39-41.
1 (8:41) Man, Depravity—Profession, False: the fact is stated most emphatically. Man sins by doing the deeds of and following after a father other than God.
39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,
40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.
41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.”
And Jesus is telling them that sin and evil are not from the father in Heaven, so they must have a different father, because if they were following the father, even God they wouldn’t be doing these evil things.
And they are trying to call their attention to their natural lineage as a people, not their hope in actual God, and they are saying don’t you know that we are the selected ones, dont you know that we are the ones chosen from the beginning?
And we do this sometimes, we try to cling to the works of those before us, one of the best examples of this is in the lineage of Jonathon and Sarah Edwards. Who is often thought of as one of the greatest theologians in American history, from that lineage there were 13 college presidents, sixty-five professors, three united state senators, three mayors of large cities, three governors, and a vice president of the United states, and you could suggest that people could assume that if you were in their family line you would have a great career ahead, and When his grandson Aaron Burr was born they knew he was an amazing child, and he even became vice president of the united states however, he rejected the christian faith and killed Alexander Hamilton, and wanted to crown himself emperor of Mexico.
A Poet once said, Eight lines of Clergymen converged to meet in Aaron Burr, but Aaron Was Beelzebub in mocking miniature.
And these Jewish leaders were denying the fact that they had a father that was not of God, they were sure they were doing the right thing, which is surprisingly similar to those that don’t know Jesus today. Most people have believed the lie they are good people and aren’t doing anything that is wrong, so they have no reason to believe that they are in need of anythinG.
They said about themselves…
• they believed in and professed the God of the Bible
• they worshipped the true God
• they followed the true God
• they did enough good to be accepted by God
• they had not done enough evil deeds to be rejected by God
• they had done the best they could to please God
• they had enough righteousness to be acceptable to God
Same today
But lots of people today are in pursuit of their own truths and their own morals, and if you just do you it is good enough, but what we see here is that if we aren’t following our Father in Heaven, then we will see we are following the enemy, there is not in between, and what this shows us is that we have what we in the christian world call a depraved nature… and what that means is we cannot keep from sinning on our own no matter how hard we try. And this is what Paul talked about in Romans 3..
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
And so because of our sinful nature, we see a few verses later that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God so we need something to make us right with the Father, and this is what Jesus was talking about his work was to do.
And what Jesus is trying to do in these verses is get them to see they needed to turn away from their sin to him.
6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
And Now Jesus is going to give us some proof of the situation of mans heart and who we really are.
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.
43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
And he is telling us the reason we can see we are in this state, is because God sent his son to die for us, but we didn’t recognize him, or his words or his works
And he is telling them the same thing as us, if we are his followers, we know him, we know his works, we recognize him for who he is, and this is what happens after we give our lives to Jesus, we start to realize how good he is and who he is and we can clearly see his works in our lives.
Look at what we will see in John 14:7-10
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
And the reason people don’t know his teachings and understand them is because they are not following him. and that means the converse to this is also true, if a man is not following Jesus teaching and his word then they are not following Jesus…
If we haven’t given our lives to follow Jesus, it is impossible for us to do good works or Good things because everything that is good comes from him.. SO if we want nothing to do with Jesus, we are of the father the devil.
This is a hard place and hard truth to hear, because it allows us to know what some people we love are going through, but it also shows us why we need so deeply to understand the gospel and how to share with our friends and family… and not just them, because Jesus loves us all the same, so we have to get to a place where we can see the whole world the way Jesus does…
Not only that it should help us and change our hearts to realize that when we are in the world with people that don’t know Jesus we aren’t fighting against flesh and blood but we are fighting against their father the devil…
Look again at verse 43
43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
Note the word cannot. It is strong. They could have understood and heard His Word, but they would not; that is, they refused His Word, for it repelled them. They rejected it, deliberately willed to turn from it.
Jesus gives us a second proof of the depravity of man’s soul
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
And he is telling us that it is our works that prove who our father is and its a harsh statement, but I think that was the point he wanted to say something to them that was so harsh they realized they had to make a change in life and turn from their ways to something that was better. For many of us, that is what it takes to come to Jesus as well, we have to be so repulsed by our sins that we have to turn to Jesus and this is what he was trying to do to them and to us.
The point is this: man’s sinful behavior and evil works prove that his father is not the Father of Jesus. Sinful behavior and evil deeds are not of the Father in heaven; they are of the father in hell. The sins and evil mentioned by Jesus show this.
a. Satan and men lust (see Deeper Study # 1, Lust—Jn. 8:44; Deeper Study # 1—Js. 4:1–3; note—4:2 for discussion).
b. Satan and men murder. Satan is a murderer in three senses.
1) He was behind the first murder: Cain’s killing his brother Abel (Ge. 4:8).
2) He was behind the sin of Adam, which brought death to the whole human race. He is the murderer, the one who caused the death of men.
3) He is behind the murder of human life and behind the loss of man’s experiencing real life here on earth. The devil destroys life and all abundant living when he can: all love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, discipline.
The other thing this shows us is there IS a devil. Contrary to many popular beliefs in today’s society that there is no devil or no hell Jesus is showing us for certain that there is.
Jesus was saying that one thing is certain: God is not the father of murder—the devil is. They who commit murder are children of the devil. But note the real meaning of murder revealed by Jesus (see note 2—Mt. 5:22 for discussion). Murder starts within it isn’t just an outward act that ends in death its something that begins from the heart and not being able to follow Jesus.
22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Jesus also tells us c. Satan and men abide not in the truth. Both reject the truth (see Deeper Study # 1—Jn. 8:32).
8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
HE also tells us that
d. Satan and men lie and deceive. It is their nature to lie and to protect and to look after themselves. This is the meaning of the phrase, “he speaketh of his own”; that is, he is at ease and comfortable in lying. It is man’s nature to lie; he lies out of his own being. This hurts the pride of man, but it is his nature …
• to look after himself even if he has to lie (cheat, steal, maneuver, whatever) to get
• to protect himself by misleading, deceiving, and twisting the truth
eJesus goes on to explain our depravity by pointing out his sinlessness.
45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
Jesus makes the most amazing claim here, he is saying there is no one that can prove that I have sinned. I am sinless and perfect… and that is why we need him.
Note the all important question: Since He was sinless, why do men not believe Him? He was telling the truth. Therefore, men should believe Him. Jesus answered His own question.
⇒ He that is “of God” hears God’s Words.
⇒ He that is “not of God” does not hear God’s Words. The person who is not of God does not hear and believe because he is not a child of God. He is a child of the father of lies, the devil.