 And the title of our sermon this morning is, Keep His Word, Keep His Word, and we are in John chapter 8 verses 48 through 59. We've come to this last paragraph, this last section of Scripture in John chapter 8. As we come to this paragraph, John chapter 8 verses 48 through 59, Keep His Word. We're exhorted to keep His Word for fairly obvious reasons. The subject of death comes up once again in John chapter 8 verses 48 through 59, and the subject of death for very obvious reasons is common throughout the Bible. The great narrative, the grand narrative of Scripture is that the Bible gives the history of how sin entered the world and how death entered through sin. The Bible displays the ravages of sin and death in this dark world, and in the midst of all that darkness, the Bible tells us of how God through Jesus Christ the Lord redeems sinful men from the penalty of sin, which is death, and reconciles men to himself. So it's no surprise at all to us as we come to John chapter 8 verses 48 through 59 to find that death along with revealing the Lord Jesus Christ again is an important theme of our text. In fact, John says that he writes these things that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have what? Life, not death, but life in His name. So death we know from experience, don't we, is a certain and terrifying fact. And so all people desperately want life. Because outside of Christ it is a certain fearful, terrifying fact, all people fear death. In fact, the Bible says that all people outside of Christ are in bondage to a fear of death, and I want to introduce this to you through another text. Keep your finger in John chapter 8 and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. All people outside of the grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ are in bondage to a slavish fear of death. In Hebrews chapter 2, beginning in verse 14, the Bible reads, inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself, who's that, Christ, he himself likewise shared in the same, shared in flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Now there in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14, the word for shared there that Christ likewise shared in the same, shared is a word that means that Christ there participated in something that was outside of himself. It was something that he did not naturally own to himself. It didn't naturally belong to his own essential nature. God the Son humbled himself and became a man. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ shared in or added to himself our humanity. He shared humanity with us in order to die a substitutionary death in our place. Now why did he do that? Verse 14, so that through his own death as the perfect God man, he might cut our ghetto, make useless or make powerless the devil, who holds the power of death, so to speak, through sin. He might make powerless the devil and therefore to release us then to share in the divine nature that does not naturally belong to us. He takes upon himself that which is not naturally a part of his essential nature, our humanity, to die in our place, to make powerless the devil, to release us to share in that divine nature that does not naturally belong to us, to release us from what? To release us from an enslaving fear of death. Consider for a moment, back in John chapter 8, consider for a moment, apart from the grace of God in Christ, everyone is in slavery to a fear of death. Now let that thought sink in for a moment, consider your slavery to a fear of death outside of Christ. Think about the occasions of life that reveal the reality of that fear. Psychology calls it death anxiety. Death anxiety shows up in a fear of heights, a fear of confined spaces, a fear of being alone, the sheer panic that ensues when you can't catch your breath, right or when you're choking on something. Think of the fear that can come from discovering an unusual spot on the skin or a pain in your chest, awaiting a diagnosis or even going to a funeral. If you think about it, your own fear of death is revealed in part in the fear that you have of losing a child or losing a loved one, losing a spouse. A fear of death is revealed in every children's story of monsters under the bed or someone in the closet, big dogs, right, danger in the dark and we carry those fears into adulthood. We carry those fears into adulthood through security systems and gun permits and owning big dogs and lights everywhere, right? The slave of fear of death is so prevalent that people spend a great portion of their life trying to avoid it or at least trying to prolong their life ahead of it. Much of exercise and eating right is motivated by trying to avoid a sudden or premature death or to extend our lives, regular checkups at the doctor, taking your Lipitor, dropping a smoking habit, wearing your seatbelt, profiling people with you on the airplane. All of it reveals in some part a slavish fear of death. More than that though, the reality of this slavish fear of death is revealed in the lengths to which people will go to suppress the truth of it, to deny the encroaching reality of it or to avoid it. They may say to themselves, I don't fear death at all and we call that denial, right? The actual experience of fear may seem imperceptible to them and yet fear, a fear of death, is revealed in their behavior. To avoid dealing with the onset of a fear of death, they'll avoid being alone. They'll spend time with friends, go out to have a good time, they'll take up drinking or drugs. They're uncomfortable even talking about it, so they use euphemisms like they passed away or they're in a better place for that one. They attempt to lower the threat level of death by using humorous euphemisms like they kick the bucket, but not with anyone close to us, right? Only when it's distant from us. This fear of death in large part lurks behind a disdain that people have for regret or guilt. God has planted eternity in the heart and then He gives man a conscience so he knows there's an accountability coming. So then some respond to this fear of death by being more generous, by being more giving, more loving, more philanthropic, sometimes more religious. World religions are created, these figments of man's imaginations outside of biblical Christianity are created in large part to deal with the fear of death and its onset in life through guilt, through the conscience. A fear of death subtly lying behind someone's motivation to make their life count for something. And so they build memorials, they buy life insurance, they give the hospitals. Fear of death pushes people to deal with guilt. Fear of death in part motivates someone maybe planning for retirement because they want to enjoy those last few fleeting years they have left before they die. Some deal with an eight fear of death by facing it in some way. Some face death through recklessness, taking risks, skydiving, right? Horror movies. Some face fear of death through cutting themselves. An atheistic Pulitzer Prize winning author once said, when the whole world doesn't believe in God, it'll be a great place. And he like everyone else in a slavish fear of death, it was the same Pulitzer Prize winning author that also said, in every calm and reasonable person there is a hidden second person scared witness about death. The truth is that people work hard to keep that second person hidden. They build up defense mechanisms, they put up walls, they create elaborate belief systems about death and they make up soothing fables to comfort themselves about it. They'll change their vocabulary, they'll change their behavior, they'll change their thinking, they'll change their circumstances, they'll change their environment. They labor, they labor in their life to place some kind of buffer between them and the inevitable. It is an enslaving fear of death. The enslaving fear of death is often revealed when someone challenges or chips away at those buffers or the defenses that they put in place. They think I'm okay, I've got this all figured out and someone comes along and challenges those buffers, challenges those defenses that they put up. You see it in their response when the doctor comes in with a horrifying diagnosis, it's terminal. Right? And they respond, why me? This can't be happening to me, right? A slavish fear of death. You see their fear of death when someone tells you that your friend isn't expected to make it through the night and they just break down, lose all hope, can't handle it. And you see their fear of death when a loving Christian concerned for the eternal well-being of their soul confronts them in their sin or in their error. How do they respond often? With defensiveness and hostility, they tell you that Christian comes along for the good of your soul to tell you that those buffers that you've put in place, those soothing fables that you tell yourself, those defenses that you've built up, that concrete that you've packed around your heart are all false comforts, those ideas, those opinions, those thoughts, that false religion won't protect you when death comes for you. That excuse you say, that excuse won't fly when you face God in judgment. And they begin to chip away the defenses you've built for yourself against facing death. And then when they're chipping away at your defenses, your fight or flight response kicks in, right? And how do many respond? Many respond with fight. You lash out in anger. You lash out in hostility. You become unreasonably disagreeable all because your defenses are being broken down. By truth, you get offended. Maybe in flight you just want to put the conversation out of your mind all together. I just don't want to think about it anymore. You ask folks, do you ever think about what happens when you die? Where you go when you die? When you die? What happens in eternity? Will you be in heaven or will you be in hell? And they just don't want to think about it. Halfway through a conversation, listen, I don't want to talk about this anymore because they have no defense. Those walls have been broken down. And yet that situation, that conversation just teaches them to prepare harder the next time. They just pack in more concrete around their heart. They just build up more and more defenses. All because of a slavish fear of death. Preparing themselves for the next assault that comes. All the while telling themselves, listen, I know I'm a Christian. All due to an enslaving fear of death. Only too ready to accept false religion. Something else that's not in the Bible. Something else that's not God's word. True because some guy said it was true. But put all their faith in that. Because of an enslaving fear of death. Well folks, listen. The Lord Jesus Christ has come. The Lord Jesus Christ has come. And he says you don't have to be subject to that slavish fear of death any longer. He is the great and eternal I am who became a man so that he could die for sin and destroy in death the one who has the power of death and rise again in victory over sin and death to free us from a lifelong slavery to the fear of death. Praise the Lord. You don't have to die and go to hell forever. You don't have to die and go to hell forever. Jesus said in John chapter 8 verses 31 and 32 if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you what? Free. Free from a fear of death. Free from hell. Free from the wrath of God. He says in John chapter 8 verse 51 most assuredly I say to you if anyone keeps my word he shall never see death. It's an awesome thought isn't it? As I live says the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live. So how do you and I put behind us forever the enslaving fear of death this morning? How do you put behind the enslaving fear of death? One you keep his word and live. Two you keep his word and know. Three you keep his word and trust. You keep his word and live. You keep his word and know. You keep his word and trust. First you keep his word and live in verses 48 to 51. You keep his word as a fruit of faith and in the power of the Spirit of God and live eternally with him as a child of God. You keep his word and live. Secondly, you keep his word and know in verses 52 through 56. You keep his word and know him whose name alone is the Lord the most high over all the earth. John 17 3 says and this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent in that is eternal life. Thirdly you keep his word and trust verses 57 through 59. Keep his word and trust the one who is the eternal word for eternal life in him who was and is and is to come. The psalmist says in 119 verse 81 my soul faints for your salvation but I hope in your word. They'll put behind you this morning an enslaving fear of death. Put behind you death and live forever. First we want to keep his word and live. Look at verse 48 John chapter 8 verse 48. Then the Jews answered and said to him do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered. I do not have a demon but I honor my father and you dishonor me and I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Most assuredly I say to you if anyone keeps my word he shall never see death. So as we get into verse 48 the light of the Lord Jesus Christ just keeps shining brighter and brighter and brighter as we work through this chapter through this gospel and the darkness demonstrated by the opposition just keeps getting darker and darker and darker. The Jews here in verse 48 are responding to the Lord's statement in verse 47 that we looked at last week. He who is of God hears God's words. Therefore Jesus says you don't hear because you're not of God. Now if you put that in context in verse 37 the Lord said that his word has no place in them. In verse 43 he said they were not able to listen to my word. In verse 44 they're of their father the devil. In verse 45 because he tells them the truth in other words he gives them his word they do not believe in him and then in verse 47 they do not hear his word because they are not of God. Do you see the emphasis already through this section of scripture on hearing and believing and keeping his word right? We need to put that in place as we work through the text. By the time we get to verse 48 then the Jews have had enough of this right? They're at their wits end so to speak so they level against him the most severe insult that they can muster. You say we're not God's children? You say we don't hear because we're not of God? Well you're a demon possessed Samaritan and they insult him. Why do they do that? Why do they lash out this way? Because the Lord all the way through the chapter so far all along has been hammering away at their man-made defenses. He's been chipping away at their wall. He's challenging their buffers. He's systematically tearing down false deceptive walls that they built up for themselves and they can't successfully defend their error because the Lord Jesus Christ comes along and preaches truth to them. The truth here is synonymous with his word. They're ignorant of the truth. First yet they're pridefully and self-righteously ignorant and the Lord Jesus Christ comes and presents to them the truth. So what do they do? What do they do with that? They respond by lashing out in hostility. How many of you have seen that happen before? Like a cornered animal, right? They can't argue against the truth. They certainly won't submit themselves to the truth and so the confrontation picks up and descends and devolves on their part. The name-calling here, you're a demon-possessed Samaritan and eventually to violence in verse 59, they pick up stones to kill him. We see this in this, don't we, their hatred exposed. He said in John chapter 7 verse 7 that the world hates him because he testifies of it that its deeds are evil, that its works are evil. When you speak with someone and you're sharing the gospel with them and as someone sharing the gospel as they should, you confront them with the law of God and their own sinfulness. This is a common reaction. It's fight or flight and people lash out when their defenses become, start being taken down. Now put all this confrontation that happens here in our context. Think about this in our context today. Let's say that this conversation happens at the park or on the campus, maybe over a family visit at Thanksgiving or a family reunion. Unbelievers and most professing Christians for that matter will come rushing to the defense of the hard-hearted. Have you seen it happen? The guy open air preaching in the park and professing Christians coming up saying, that's not the way you do this. That's unloving. You can't beat them over the head with it. Now wait a minute if you think about it. You're inditing here in John chapter 8 with that attitude, you're inditing the Prince of Preachers. This is a confrontation in John chapter 8 that had to take place and it's a confrontation fueled by their fear of death and this is the one who is love who is speaking to them. So be careful that you're not siding with the enemies of God. How do you know the enemies of God? The enemies of God are fighting against God's words and against God's works or against God's people. Incidentally, if you think about it, why do so many quote unquote professing Christians often rush to the defense of those who are on the receiving end of the rebuke or on the receiving end of the conviction? It's because they stand accused themselves. You realize that when you're preaching the gospel, that professing Christian unbeknownst to you is having their defenses chipped away at also. Their walls are being torn down. You're hammering away at their defenses. We have to understand that in the wisdom of God, in the wisdom of God, there is a time and there is a place for just this kind of rebuke, just this kind of confrontation. Sometimes it has to happen. This confrontation in John chapter 8 with the Lord Jesus Christ and these Jews is the grace of God to them. This is the grace of God of these hard-hearted, self-righteous, hostile God haters. It's that kind of confrontation. It's the only thing that will break through the concrete they've packed in around their heart. Something has to wake them up. He or C.H. Spurgeon once said, If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees. Well, that's what's going on here in this confrontation, the Lord Jesus Christ with his arms, so to speak, around their knees. And one day soon they're going to leap to hell over his dead crucified body. Now think about this for a moment. The Jews here in John chapter 8 begin in verse 48, basically respond to the only other option available to them. Either Jesus is who he says he is, or he's demonically influenced. He's either the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, who was with God and who is God, or he is demonically influenced as Samaritan and demon-possessed. So break down their response for a moment. They say, You are a Samaritan and have a demon. Now the Jews despised the Samaritans. The Samaritans were thought to be Jews who stayed behind during the Assyrian exile. They were left behind, so to speak, of the exile. And those Jews left behind in the land intermarried with foreign wives. And so the Jews saw them as traitors and saw them as half-breeds. On top of that now, the Samaritans then built their own temple in Mount Gerizim. So in addition to being traitorous half-breeds, they were also involved in false religion. The Jews despised the Samaritans. Then they called Jesus demon-possessed. In one dictionary it said of being demon-possessed, it was thought that demons entered a person and caused illness, especially of the mental variety. Basically calling him a madman, insane. In John chapter 10 verse 20, they actually call him a madman. So now listen, this place is the choice before us this morning. Jesus Christ is either who he claims to be. He is God incarnate, self-existent, creator of all things. The eternal Word with the power to give life. Or, Jesus Christ is a lying false teacher. At worst demon-possessed, at best a complete madman. And based on what he's claiming here, based on what is claimed in this text of scripture, you don't get any middle ground here. He is one or the other. C.S. Lewis in a book called Mere Christianity said this. C.S. Lewis said, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing, C.S. Lewis says, that we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says he's a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God or else he was a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He's not left that option open to us. He did not intend to. Amen. One day, you're going to be held accountable for the way that you responded to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God in the flesh, and so keep his word and live. Many, many just continue in their hard-hearted unbelief because they think, they think to themselves that when death comes for me, it's just somehow going to work out. These beliefs that I have no basis for, these opinions and ideas that are not grounded in anything but air, not grounded in anything but the figment of my own imagination or the figment of some other man's imagination, somehow they think it's all going to work out. And listen, it won't. Life in this world is like walking across a frail, brittle, fraying, broken down and breaking rope bridge across a deep gorge. As you take a step, one step after another on those creaking and cracked and rotting boards, as you're grasping on either side to fraying and moldy and deteriorating ropes, you could fall to moment's notice and you've got nothing to support you and you fall to your death. There's any number of ways that you can be taken out. And yet you're trusting in air, you're trusting in some man's opinions, trusting in some feeble creation of some ridiculous religion. Our faith is not a blind faith. Our faith is based in the truth of God's Word. You keep that Word and you live. The Lord Jesus Christ says, He who keeps my Word lives and lives forever. You'll never see death. So in John chapter eight, Jesus responds in verse 49 to their blasphemy once again. It's amazing to me the grace and long suffering of our Lord is truly immeasurable here. You think about their blasphemy and yet Jesus here so gracious, so patient. Verse 49, Jesus answered again, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me. And I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Now in verse 49, Jesus speaks very plainly again. He's not hostile, he's not lashing out at them like they lashed out at him. He's very cool, very collected. He simply gives them the truth. I'm not demon possessed, he says. Right, unlike you, the Lord says, I give honor where honor is due. I honor the father. And he says basically, when you dishonor me, you're dishonoring the father also. You're dishonoring God. In chapter five, verse 23, the Lord Jesus Christ said, He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. So when they respond here, when they respond with such pride and self-righteousness, look at the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 50, I do not seek my own glory. Think about that for a moment. He comes not as the conquering king, but he comes as the suffering servant, lowly, lying in a manger, despised, rejected by men. Think of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, making himself of no reputation, taking the form of a slave, coming in the likeness of men, obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. He didn't come seeking his own glory, right? He left his glory to come and die to save sinners. He's not seeking his own glory, he left his glory. In fact, Jesus says in verse 50, there's someone else who's seeking his glory. And that's God the Father. Get this, this is inter-trinitarian love and devotion within the Godhead. Jesus comes, he comes to earth as a man, not seeking his own glory, but rather he comes seeking the glory of the Father who sent him, all right? The one who seeks the glory of the Son is not the Lord Jesus Christ, it's God the Father. The one whom Jesus seeks to glorify himself. So then how does, in thinking about this, how does Jesus then glorify God the Father? Well, if you look at verse 55, he glorifies God the Father by keeping his word. And I'll think about it, on what basis does God the Father then glorify God the Son? On the basis that God the Son keeps his word. It's on that basis that God the Father glorifies him. How do then believers in Jesus glorify both the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father who sent him by keeping his word? By keeping his word. They didn't keep his word, and so they did not honor the Son, and in not honoring the Son, they dishonored the Father who sent him. We keep his word, if you're in Christ, and through keeping his word, we glorify the Son. Look with me at John chapter 17. Couple of chapters to the right. John chapter 17, where this is spelled out for us a little more clearly, John chapter 17, and look there at verse one. John chapter 17, verse one says, Jesus spoke these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and he said, Father, the hour has come. This is the hour of his death, the hour of his crucifixion, right? The hour, so to speak, of his glorification. Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you. That's inter-Trinitarian devotion. A devotion on the part of God to glorify the Son. A devotion on the part of God the Son to glorify the Father, verse two. As you have given him authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth. In what way has he done that? I have finished the work which you have given me to do. He kept his word, kept his word. And now, verse five, oh, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. Look at verse six. I've manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me. And what does it say there? They kept your word, they kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you. For I have given them the words which you have given me and they have received them. Another way of saying they kept them. They put their faith and trust in him. They received them and have known surely that I came forth from you and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom you have given me for they are yours. And these that are yours that keep his word are all mine, are yours, and yours are mine. And I am glorified, the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am glorified in them. We glorify him by keeping his word. The Father glorifies the Son in that he kept his word perfectly. Glorious, isn't it? The promise of God, the promise of God. However, you have to remember here, God the Father who will both glorify the Son is also the one who will judge those who do not glorify the Son. In verse 50, back in John chapter eight verse 50, it says there is one who seeks and judges. The one who seeks the glory of the Son is God the Father. The one who judges is also God. So you can honor him now. You can glorify him now by keeping his word or you can face him in judgment. If you think about the judgment of God, for everyone here today, that judgment is still future. Judgment of God's still future. John chapter three, verse 17 says, for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And so the Lord graciously continues graciously and patiently extending the offer of salvation. And again, in verse chapter eight, verse 51, just a glorious promise in verse 51, most assuredly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death. This is a call to salvation, a call to discipleship, a call to abandon your life of sin, abandon living for yourself, and to follow him, to keep his word and never see death. Jesus alludes with this, He alludes to their judgment in verse 50. And then he implies here, what's implied for them is that their punishment here is for not adhering to his word, and their punishment in verse 51 is eternal death. If you don't keep his word, you're gonna face eternal death. But for those who keep his word, the one who turns from sin to trust Christ alone, will live forever. And I want you to see how carefully the Lord Jesus Christ words this wonderful promise. The Lord wants you to be free from death. And he wants that to be extremely clear. Verse 51 could not be said any more emphatically. The first way that he says this emphatically is with most assuredly, it's amen, amen. Truly, truly, the Lord says, truly, truly. The next way that it's emphatic, he says never, never see death is umay in the Greek. It's like saying no way ever. No way ever, no way, never will you see death. And then he ends it, he ends verse 51, with astanaona, astanaona, which means into forever. Truly, truly, no way, never, into forever, you will never see death. The Lord says truly, truly, believe me when I say. Believe me when I say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never ever, in no way ever. If you're listening to translation, it's no way Jose. Never ever, even into eternity, he will never experience death. The Lord just couldn't have said it any stronger. It couldn't be any more emphatic. This is something that the Lord wants you to hold onto. 25 other times in the Gospel of John, he uses that construction most assuredly to say something that's really important. Here, this is important for you to understand. If you keep his word, you will never face death. You will never see death. Praise God. What an awesome promise. How encouraging. What a comfort from that slavish fear of death. He sets us free to release us from that fear so that we will never see death. Now he's obviously not speaking here of physical death. We all die physically. And Jesus here, in just another six months, is gonna die physically. He's speaking here of spiritual death. In one sense, we don't experience spiritual death in our lives any longer when we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. When God causes us to be born again and then we put our faith and trust in him, we don't face spiritual death in this life any longer. Ephesians chapter two, verse one says, and you, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, were alive to Christ, alive to God in Christ. But in another sense, we'll never face the ultimate disaster of going into eternity without Christ to abide under the wrath of God in hell forever, which the Bible calls the second death. We'll never face that ultimate disaster. This is beautifully explained in John chapter 11. Look at John chapter 11. Just a couple of pages to the right and look down at verse 25. Saying to Martha here, ahead of rising Lazarus, raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus said to her in verse 25, I, Jesus says, am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, those who believe in him keep his word. Do you see the connection? He who believes in me, though he may die physically, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me in this life shall never die. You see the connection between the two, physical death and spiritual death or spiritual life. And then he asked Martha a very important question. Do you believe this? Do you believe this? This is the basis of faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you take him at his word? The Lord Jesus Christ says, if you'll keep my word, if you'll believe in me, believe that I am the Christ, the Son of God. In believing, you may have a life in his name. Do you believe this? Flip back to John chapter five. We see the same concept. John chapter five, passage we've already looked at, in verse 24, what a glorious promise. A glorious truth. So let it sink in, never see death. John chapter five, look at verse 24. Most assuredly the Lord says, truly, truly again, amen, amen, I say to you, he who hears my word, that word there for hears incorporates obedience. Hears it and responds to it, right? It doesn't go in one ear and out the other. Hears, if anyone hears my word and believes in him who sent me, has present tense reality, has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. What a glorious truth, amen. Eternal life, you're given eternal life. Eternal life can't end. Eternal life can't end. It begins when you're born again and it never ends. You'll never see death because eternal life never ends. You'll never see the end of it. You'll never see the end of it. Eons and eons will pass and you will never see the end of eternal life. You'll never see death. Listen to the Lord's promise to those who keep his word, right? Listen to the Lord's promise to those who keep his word at the church of Philadelphia in Revelation chapter three, verse seven. Listen, these things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. Who's that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He says to them in verse eight there, I know your works. And the Lord commends them here because of their works. They keep his word. The church at Philadelphia, along with the church at Smyrna, one of the two churches there in Revelation chapter three, then aren't rebuked for their sin in some way. Here they keep his word. He says in verse eight, he commends them for their faithfulness. I know your works and see the Lord says, I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it. That's awesome. No one can shut it. Death will not shut that door. Listen, he says to them, for you have a little strength. Now it sounds like that may be a bit of a correction. It's not a correction to them. They have it when he says there for you have a little strength, it's not a negative comment about their weakness. It's a good comment. It's a commendation about their strength. He wasn't talking about their weakness. He's talking about their strength. They were a little church. Let this sink in for a moment. They're a little church. They were small in number, but they had a big impact for the kingdom. For you have a little strength. I've set before you an open door. No one can shut it. For you have a little strength. You small little church, but you've had a big impact in the kingdom and you have kept my word, the Lord says. They were marked by obedience to Christ's word. They have kept his word, the Lord says and have not denied my name. I've set before you an open door. No one can shut it. For you have a little strength. You have kept my word and have not denied my name. They persevered. They persevered in devotion to the Lord, despite tribulation. They persevered in faithfulness of the Lord, despite persecution. They persevered to the Lord in their obedience to him and their prayer to him and their works in keeping his word. They persevered. And they have a little strength. I'd love that to be said about us by the Lord. You've got a little strength that prays the Lord strictly by God's power, by God's graciousness to us that we persevered, right? Here, the Lord sets before us a door that no one shuts. And he shuts doors that no one opens and be warned. What a wonderful promise here from the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to avoid death? You want to be set free from the enslaving fear of death? Keep his word and live. Keep his word and live. That's a promise of God to you this morning. Secondly on your notes, keep his word and know. Verses 52 through 56. John 17 again says, this is eternal life. This is eternal life that they may know you. The only true God in Jesus Christ from you have sent. Verse 52, back in John chapter eight, verse 52. Then the Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon. If there was any doubt before, they're resolved in their minds now, right? Abraham is dead and the prophets and you say, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham who's dead and the prophets who are dead? Who do you make yourself out to be? Well, this glorious grace of God in verses 48 to 51, obviously has not gotten through to them. And they are masters at missing the point. And so they respond here, thinking only of physical death. Now we know you have a demon. They were so steeped in their error. Do you see? So steeped in their false thinking, their false religion, so enslaved to their deception that they simply will not listen to him. They will not hear. They won't listen to reason. It's beyond their ability to comprehend. This is spiritual truth that the Lord is giving here and listen, a natural man cannot receive the things of the spirit of God. They are spiritually discerned. So in verses 52 and 53, they basically say to him, who do you think you are? Abraham and the prophets are dead. Everybody dies and you think you have the power over death somehow? They don't know him. Do you see? They don't know him. So Jesus responds graciously and patiently again in verse 54. Jesus answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It's my father who honors me of whom you say that he is your God. Now think about it for a moment. How does God the father honor God the son? He honors him through the prophets. The Old Testament points to Christ. He honors him verbally at his baptism. This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. He honors him by sending the forerunner to go before him. He honors him in the miracles that Jesus performs, the words that he preaches. And the Lord Jesus Christ says here, if I honor myself, Jesus says if I honor myself, that's nothing to you. You don't care about that. But God, the one that you claim is your God, that's the same God who honors me. He honors me. So far from being self-seeking in any way here, God the father honors Christ through his perfect life in suffering, his perfect conduct. Him not reviling when he is reviled. He honors him through his shameful and sacrificial death on the cross. He honors the Lord Jesus Christ in his humiliation. He honors him through his resurrection from the dead. He honors him through his ascension back to the father from whence he came. God glorifies him. Do you see? And it proves here that they don't know him. There, God glorifies and honors the son. And it proves that they don't know him. Verse 55, the Lord points this out. Yet you have not known him. But I know him, the Lord says. And if I say I don't know him, I shall be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his word. One of the markers or distinctions of someone who knows him is that they keep his word. So important to understand this. So important to understand it. Keeping his word is actually a fruit of knowing him. Jesus says, I do know him and keep his word. John, first John chapter two, beginning in verse three says this. Listen carefully. Now by this we know that we know him. How? If we keep his commandments. Let that sink in. Listen. Now by this we know that we know him. If we keep his commandments. He who says I know him. No matter what means through which you say it. You can say it through the means of Mormonism or the means of being a Jehovah's Witness or any number of false religions. You can think to yourself I know him. But the Lord says by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. If you say you know him and you don't keep his commandments, you are a liar. And the truth is not in you. Listen. But whoever keeps his word, speaking of obeying his commandments. Whoever keeps his word truly the love of God is perfected in him. And by this we know that we are in him. It's by this that we know that we are in him. By this that we know that we know him. It's that we keep his word, keep his commandments. Very interesting to note here back in John chapter eight that the Lord uses two different words for know in this little verse. Two different words for know here. And you wouldn't see that in the English. It comes out in the Greek. To the Jews he says, you have not known him. Ginosko, known him. That word for knowledge is a knowledge that's acquired through personal relationship or personal experience, right? It's acquired knowledge. They come to know him or they come to know here. They don't come to know him. They don't have that knowledge. Of himself, the Lord Jesus Christ says, I know him, Oida, I know him. It's a different word. That word for Oida there for know means direct knowledge. Knowledge essential to his nature. Knowledge that's characteristic of who he is, right? It's a different kind of knowledge. This isn't acquired knowledge. This is knowledge that exists within him. So now it points out a couple of things. One, it points out the difference between the way that we would come to know God and the way that Jesus Christ knows God. And it's another implied claim to his deity. The way that the Lord Jesus Christ knows God, he knows God in the sense that he is God. He is in direct relationship with God the Father. He is God the Son. It's another implied claim to his deity. But also the distinction between the two words or the difference here between no gives us an implication. For us, the implication is also clear. We come to know God as we experience him and keep his word. One, apart from Christ, we don't know God. You don't know him. You can say you know him, you don't know him. We must be born again. We must be bloodbought by the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be granted repentance and faith. We must enter into a justified, reconciled, redeemed relationship with him and then by virtue of his spirit within us and by virtue of him forgiving us of all of our sins and setting us into heavenly places with Christ and adopting us into his family, we come to know him and we know him through a personal experience, how? Through a personal experience of keeping his word. He knows us. He chooses us before the foundation of the world. He draws us to himself. He grants us eternal life and then he teaches us through his spirit. And as we live and as we keep his word, we come to know him more and more. We come to be conformed to him more and more. Listen to Paul's desire. This knowledge, this knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, this knowledge of God worth everything. He who keeps his word will never see death. Listen to Paul's desire for this knowledge of God in Philippians chapter three, beginning in verse seven. Just listen. But what things were gained to me, Paul says, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. He says that in order that I may know him, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, that I may not never ever even into eternity forever will never see death. As we go back to John chapter eight, Abraham knew him. Abraham knew him. They didn't know him. The Lord Jesus Christ knows him. Abraham knew him. The Lord says in verse 56, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. Abraham kept his word. Abraham knew him. The word there in verse 56 for rejoiced is a strong word. Just that doesn't mean just this sheer happiness, this fleeting happiness. This word for rejoice, one dictionary defined it as involving verbal expression with the appropriate body movement. In other words, Abraham jumped for joy. You know, he's like, yes, you know, joyful. He knew him. He rejoiced to see his day. And in response to their question in verse 53, Abraham's rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ here shows clearly that Jesus is greater than Abraham and that they're not really children of Abraham like they think. Abraham was given a promise by God beginning in Genesis 12. We call that promise of God in Genesis 12 beginning there the Abrahamic covenant. It's extended in Genesis 15, other places. As a part of that Abrahamic covenant, that promise that God gave Abraham, God promises Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 verse 18 that in his seed, all the nations of the world would be blessed. Makes a promise to Abraham that in his seed, all the nations of the world would be blessed. Paul says in Galatians chapter three, he draws out the point. He did not say and in his seeds as in plural, as in all his descendants, he said as in seed singular, meaning one. Who is that? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Abraham believed the promise of God and it was credited to him. It was accounted to him as a righteousness, the righteousness that Abraham needed to be reconciled with God through faith in that coming seed, right? Abraham believed the promise and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Now as a fruit of faith, Abraham obeyed God. Abraham kept his word. When God said come out of that country, Abraham went. When God said take your son, your only son up to Mount Moriah, Abraham went, right? He believed that through his line, there would one day come a Messiah sent by God to be the savior of the world. There was just one problem at this point in the whole scenario and the problem was that Abraham didn't have a son and Abraham and Sarah both very old in age. So in their elder years, old age, in their old age when that child of promise was born, when Isaac was born, Abraham saw the promise of God to him fulfilled in the birth of Isaac. God is true to his word, Isaac is born. In that sense, Abraham saw through the generations that would come after him, saw that through that line, through the child of promise that a Messiah would come to be savior of the world and he believed God and he rejoiced in seeing that day that would come and he jumped for joy. So do you wanna be free from the fear of death this morning? Do you wanna have the joy that Abraham had and exercise the faith of Abraham and trust in his son? Point three in your notes, not only keep his word, but keep his word and trust in the one who gives it verses 57 through 59. Abraham kept his word and knew God. The Lord Jesus Christ kept his word, knew God. You can keep his word and know God. Here keep his word and trust verses 57 through 59. You trust him because of who he is. He is God in the flesh, God incarnate who came to give his life a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Who he is is clearly revealed in verses 57 through 59. Now things again here get very tense. They get very tense and they don't get tense here because Abraham said, because Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see a messianic day. That wasn't what caused the tension. What caused the tension here is because Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see his day. The day of the Lord becomes his day. The Lord Jesus Christ, his day. And that's what causes the tension. Jesus identifies himself here as the ultimate fulfillment of all of Abraham's joys, all of Abraham's hopes. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I'm the fulfillment of all of that. So the Jews in verse 57 respond in hostility again. They said to him, you're not yet 50 years old. Have you seen Abraham? They're incredulous. To them, his claim is absurd, but it's about to be extremely clear who Jesus Christ is making himself out to be. Jesus said to them, verse 58, most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Before Abraham came into existence, Jesus says, I was. No, it's not what he says. He says, I am. You see it would be easier, right? It'd be a more normal construction, even in the Greek, to say before Abraham was, I was. That would be easier to say in their context the way they would think. That might make more sense to them. That's not what the Lord says here. Before Abraham was, I am. Truly, truly again, before Abraham was even born, I always existed. The word there for was, speaking of Abraham, means that Abraham came into existence. He came into existence. The word for I am, ego-a-me, speaking of Jesus, means that he always is. He always is. Two different words again. It's the very same distinction. It's communicated by the Psalmist in Psalm chapter 90, verse two. Listen to this. Before the mountains were brought forth, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, before Abraham was, right? From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Lord Jesus Christ is saying, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, I am. From everlasting to everlasting, I am. And he's saying, I am God. I am God in the flesh. Now we've talked about this I am statement before. And in this I am statement, our minds immediately drawn back to Exodus chapter three, verse 14, where God uses this name for himself. And God said to Moses at that point on the mountain, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Now, in addition to this though, very interesting here, in the same way that that points to the statement that Lord Jesus Christ is making, you also have the prophet Isaiah. And in the servant songs of Isaiah, Isaiah the prophet pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are, as you would expect, several references in the prophet Isaiah that point to this very statement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look with me in Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah chapter 43. This is a title that the Lord Jesus Christ takes for himself before Abraham was, I am. This obviously in Isaiah 43, doesn't show up as clearly in the Hebrew, but at the time of Christ, there was a Greek translation of the Old Testament that they use. It was called the Septuagint. And in the Greek Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this ego, a me construction, very clear in the prophet Isaiah, beginning in chapter 43. Look down with me, beginning at verse eight. Now, in verses one through seven, God does a host of wonderful things, wondrous things, wondrous works for the people of God. God shows himself to the people in his works and he shows them that they are his people, okay? So in verse eight, with all of that background behind it, verse eight, God says this, bring out the blind people who have eyes and the deaf who have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together and let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring out their witnesses that they may be justified or let them hear and say it is truth. God is saying they are his witnesses, his people. If you look at verse seven, look at verse seven, everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory, I have formed him. Yes, I have made him. It's all of these that are my witnesses. Look at verse 10. God says, you are my witnesses, says the Lord. And my servant whom I have chosen, who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ, my servant, the suffering servant. And my servant whom I have chosen, Lord Jesus Christ, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. And the Septuagint, Ego, Am I. You may believe that I am. Here, God says in Isaiah 43, verse 10, he says, I am the incomparable and redeeming and creating God. Doesn't John chapter one, verse three say of Jesus, that all things were made through him and in him was life. Same thing, as incomparable as God is in creating and redeeming, Jesus Christ is incomparable in creating and redeeming. Look at verse, the second part there, verse 10. Before me, there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me. He is eternally God. That doesn't Paul say of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the eternally blessed God. In Romans chapter nine, verse five. That he is our great God and savior in Titus chapter two, verse 13. That he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one who was and is and is to come in Revelation chapter one, verse eight. Look at verse 11. I, even I am, Ego, Am I, I am the Lord. Besides me, there is no savior. Now that's said of God in Isaiah chapter 43, but doesn't the Bible also say of Jesus in Acts chapter four, verse 12. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Incomparable, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 12. I have declared and saved. I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign God among you. Therefore you are my witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God. Indeed, before the day was, I am, Ego, Am I, and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I work and who will reverse it? Drop down to verse 25. Drop down to verse 25. Here I, even I am, Ego, Am I, I am, who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins. Doesn't John chapter one, verse 29, say of Jesus, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As incomparable as God is, the Lord Jesus Christ is because Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. There is no other world religious leader. There is no other world religion that can claim. It doesn't even attempt to make this kind of a claim. The Lord Jesus Christ is alone in this incomparable. He is God. Muhammad can't make that claim. Buddha can't make that claim. Krishna can't make that claim. The Lord Jesus Christ of the Mormons doesn't make that claim. The Lord Jesus Christ of the Jehovah's Witnesses doesn't make that claim. The only one raised from the dead, the only one who saved from sin, he is incomparable that is God and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you put these examples in Isaiah. They would have known their Old Testament. They would have been very familiar with prophet Isaiah. You put these examples in Isaiah. Together with what we see in Exodus chapter three, verse 14, and then the clear testimony of the New Testament about the Lord Jesus Christ and it is exceedingly clear exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ is claiming here in John chapter eight, verse 58. Now this isn't new to the Jews, by the way. This claim isn't new. They had an idea of this back in John chapter five, verse 18, Jesus said, back in John chapter five, my father has been working until now and I am working. And then in verse 18, therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, he healed that lame man on the Sabbath. They sought to kill him not only because he broke the Sabbath but also said that God was his father making himself to be equal with God. And Paul says in Philippians, he thought equality with God was not something that he had to grasp for. He's equal to God. There's simply no doubt whatsoever here what the Lord Jesus Christ was claiming. He is claiming to be eternally existent incarnate God. And the Jews knew it too. They knew it because in verse 59, when they heard this, when they heard this, they took up stones to throw at him with the intent to kill him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by. Now according to Leviticus chapter 24, verse 16, the penalty for blasphemy was death by stoning. They believed that the Lord Jesus Christ here in claiming to be God was committing blasphemy. They thought that the use of the divine name, I am, they thought the use of that divine name was sufficient for them to carry out this command in Leviticus chapter 24, verse 16. And so the Jews interpreted the use of that name as blasphemy. They understood that he was claiming to be God and so they picked up stones to kill him. Now this was not a judicious act on their part in sort of in keeping with the law being thoughtful. Well, Leviticus says, and then we should do, wasn't like that at all. This was mob violence, basically. Divine truth, divine truth had jumped up and down on their last nerve and so now they're responding to it. Their entire belief system, their entire system of this by this point in time in Judaism, their entire system of false religion had been rocked and so they rushed at him to pick up stones to kill him, just like they rushed at Stephen. At the response of divine truth, they gnashed their teeth at Stephen and here they're gnashing their teeth so to speak at the Lord Jesus Christ. Really, if you think about it, the truth that has been presented to this point really only leaves them with two options. The truth that has been presented to them by this point, the truth that's been presented to you and I by this point really only leaves you with two options. You're either gonna keep his word and trust him and worship him or stone him to death. Stone him to death for blasphemy. He's God or he's not. Our text in this glorious chapter, I love chapter eight. This glorious chapter, sometimes very tragic chapter, right? Ends with this statement on the part of the Lord saying that he went through them, through the midst of them and so passed by. Literally it means there that he was hidden, he was hidden from them. That's passive, it's a divine passive meaning who is the one who is doing the hiding? God, God hid him. God concealed him, God concealed him because his time hasn't yet come. St. Augustine once said, woe to those from whose heart of stone God flees. So not unlike this audience in the first century, you and I here today left with really only one option. What will you do with the Lord Jesus Christ? What will you do with these claims? What will you do with his word that he claims as truth? This is an exceedingly good. It's an exceedingly gracious, an exceedingly glorious offer of eternal life. Maybe like these Jews, you have felt antagonized before. Maybe you've been antagonized this morning. You get confronted in your sin. You see the walls of your false religion, your false belief system just sort of crumbling down around you, your defenses just coming down. The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Don't get angry. Submit to the word of God. Submit to the word of God. Flee death, flee the wrath of God. You don't ever, forever and ever into eternity ever have to see death. He's the God of the living in that what the Bible says. He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Physical death for the believer is just a doorway. It's a doorway into eternity. It's a doorway into pleasures at his right hand forevermore. You'll one day soon face him. One day soon, one day soon, you're gonna face him as father or you're gonna face him as judge. If you face him as judge, you're going to hear a certain verdict, an undeniable fact, a verdict of eternal torment in hell for all eternity. You see when Christ came and he came to earth and he himself likewise shared in our humanity that through his substitutionary death on the cross for sinners so that he might destroy him who had the power of death. That is the devil. He did that to release those who through fear were all their life subject to bondage. Won't you cry out to him now for his mercy in that? Won't you cry out to him for the mercy of making you alive in Christ, for the mercy of eternal life? Put your faith in him, trust him at his word. He is the eternal I am. Follow him, follow him, keep his word. What are you doing living life for yourself? You were created, follow him, keep his word. Turn from your sin, trust him and trust yourself to him. When you truly repent and believe, when you truly repent and believe, you will know him, you will keep his word and you will live for eternity. You will never ever, forever, you will never see death. When you truly repent and believe, you will keep his word and you will know him. You'll know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. When you truly repent, turn from your sin and put your faith in him, you will keep his word and you'll trust him because of who he is and because of what glorious things he has done. What does it mean to keep his word? What does it mean to keep his word? To cherish it as your treasure? To cherish it as your treasure? To obey it, to live according to all that is contained in it with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength all the time. Eternal life, the Bible says, comes to those who humbly and obediently believe his word and follow him. Amen? Amen, let's pray. Just take a few moments of silent prayer. And just ask the Lord, ask God to be merciful to you, to reveal himself and his word to you. Ask him that he would apply these truths to your heart. Ask him that he would break down the defenses that you've built up for yourself against the knowledge of God. Ask that he would be pleased to glorify himself by being merciful to you this morning and granting you repentance and faith. Believe upon him, let's pray. Father in heaven, I praise be to you, God, for your indescribable gift. How glorious, how wondrous, I thank you that you have freely given your own life to die on Calvary's cross for us, Lord, who are unlovely. There's no redeeming quality in us and yet you laid your life down to redeem sinners to yourself that we might be set free, released from the fear of death, from the penalty of sin, from the curse of the law. I thank you for your gracious offer of salvation, this great salvation that you've provided. I pray, God, that there wouldn't be a single person here this morning that does not turn from their sin at the revelation of that glorious truth and follow you, keep your words, putting their faith in you for the rest of their days, that, Lord, you wouldn't save. I pray that you would save them for your glory. God, I pray that there wouldn't be a single brother, a single sister here, not a single saint that wouldn't, in the light of that glorious truth, just abandon all of their foolish hindrances, that sin which so easily ensnares us and run the race with diligence in light of that glorious truth, looking forward to your glorious appearing, our great God and Savior. We praise you and we thank you for this text of scripture for all that it's taught us. God, may we live in light of your truth. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.