THE ROAD YOU MUST TAKE
John 8:21-30
There
is a great majority of people today who think they have JUST enough religion to
get them into Heaven! It’s
the old argument “all
paths lead to God” No
matter what you believe or who or what you worship, we will all be in Heaven one day! That’s
the culture around us today! I’m
not sure if you’re familiar with the wickedness that happened this past Sunday
at the Grammy’s? Well,
a group of well know celebrates got up to do a mass wedding celebration with 30
couples, most of which were same sex. A
well know [I guess] hip-hop artist Macklemore performed his song “Same Love” as
Queen Latifah presided over a “wedding” ceremony for these thirty couples. Sadly,
the whole point of the entire event was to show that there is no moral distinction
between same-sex marriage and traditional marriage. It’s all just the “same love.” Why?
Because a part of the song says this “Whatever
God you believe in, We come from the same one”
There is some truth to that statement in the last part! We do come from the “same God”! We
are all according to the scripture created in the image of God despite our sin! Sadly
though the world says it doesn’t matter what you believe we will all arrive and
be together. The
dangers of this type of thinking or so-called logic is that it goes against
EVERYTHING the Bible says and teaches against. See,
this ideology in our culture is EXTREMELY dangerous, because they believe you can
get to Heaven your way, on your terms and there are many different ways but we
will all end up in Heaven differently. The
argument is that the MODE doesn’t determine the end result to arriving in Heaven! For
example this way of thinking says……..
- You may decide to walk; a person may drive.
- You may want to swim; a person may take a boat.
- You may take a train; a person might take a plane.
- You may believe in Jesus; a person may believe in other gods.
David
Platt in his book “Radical” used a metaphor to
help explain this world philosophy! He
said “God is sitting on a mountain and
all the world’s religions are climbing that mount trying to get to God.” Think about it for a moment, because we really need to stop and think about the expression “all paths lead to God” What
is wrong with that picture? Who
initiates the relationship according to that picture? Who initiates the relationship according to the Gospel? What
is the danger of believing that salvation is a matter of climbing some
religious mountain of dos and don’ts to get to God? See
the world’s attitude is that their ok with this! Why?
We all arrive to Heaven differently, but we will still arrive no matter what! NOW,
there is truth to that statement! The
bible says “or it is written: "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL
BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS TO GOD." Romans 14:11
In
Revelation we read “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for
them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were
opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead
were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the
books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered
up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his
works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second
death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake
of fire.” Rev 20:11-15. I
want to warn you that this is dangerous for the soul and sadly many follow this
idea of thinking. This
is why Jesus said "Enter by the narrow gate; for
wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are
many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which
leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matt 7:13-14
We
come to a passage of scripture that brings all forms of transportation and
ideology to a halt to one simple truth that many today still ignore because of
their disbelief! Jesus said this statement! “Therefore I said to
you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you
will die in your sins." John
8:24. This
is WOW moment! Read this verse again. “…….you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that
I am He, you will die in your sins." What
is Jesus saying? Those who reject Jesus cannot be saved, but they will die in
their sins. One
writer put it this way “the sins of these men will destroy them by robbing them
of life eternal only if they refuse to believe in Jesus.” John
Gill said “They that die in faith, die in Christ: they that die in unbelief,
die in sin; and this is a dreadful dying.” The
Jewish leaders sought Heaven all their lives, but in the wrong place. Instead
of seeking it at the feet of Jesus, they sought for it in their own
self-righteousness, just as many people do today. The
reality of this passage is that there is only TWO PLACES TO SPEND ETERNITY! Heaven
or Hell! As
we look at the warning Jesus is giving this men about their ignorance of
disbelief; there is also something else we see in this passage of warning. We
see two promises to the “genuine
believer” found in what Jesus says to these ignorant men!
“I am not of this
world.” (v23) Here is the first promise! See
the promise is this! What is true of Jesus is also true of us “positionally”. Let me explain; Jesus
doesn’t belong to this world; the same is true of the Christian when they are
born again through the gospel. Paul
penned these words to affirm this promise “For
our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to
His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue
all things to Himself.” Phil 3:20-21. All
our affections and aspirations are pointed Heavenward, not here on earth. The
unsaved belong to this world and Heaven is not their home! The bible even calls
the unsaved “children of the world” Luke 16:8, and
Jesus is warning these men that they will die in their sins!
Here
is the second promise! “you will die in
your sins; for unless you believe that I am He” (v24) The
Christian doesn’t die in their sins….they die “in the Lord” because we live “in
the Lord”. Rev
14:13 says “Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Write:
'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'….." See
to believe that Jesus is who claimed to be is everything when it comes to the
gospel! See, to be a Christian one must [you must] believe. The
complete and full biblical revelation about Jesus......
- Jesus is the eternal SECOND PERSON of the Trinity.
- He entered space and time as God incarnate [in human form].
- He was born of a virgin.
- He lived a perfect sinless life when He walked among the earth.
- His death on the cross is the ONLY sufficient, substitutionary sacrifice for our sins.
- He rose from the dead on the 3rd day and ascended to the Father in Heaven.
- He now and continues to intercede on our behalf, his sanctified children who are set apart from this world.
- He will one day return in all His glory as His rules and judges this world according to His sovereign will.
To reject this truth is to bring future judgement upon your eternal soul. Again
as Jesus said “you
will die in your sins” and you will be lost forever facing the wrath
of God [the very wrath that Christ endured for your sin] for all eternity. Sadly
though, the unregenerate WILL die in his or her sins because they are of this
world and they live for this world system. The
ignorance of man only leads to disbelief and lack of care or concern for their
own lives. Look
what they said to Jesus “Who are you?” (v25). What
ignorance, the same ignorance we see today when the name Jesus is mentioned. Sadly
if they only listened and observed the works that Jesus did, they would know
who He is, but this goes along with what Jesus said previously! "You know
neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father
also." (v19) But
as scripture says “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Cor 1:18
Do
you hear the warning call from Jesus…………….Not only to these men, but maybe to you this morning? See,
Hell, is where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for all eternity;
and Heaven, is where you shine as the sun because Jesus is the Light of life. This
is a clear warning! This is a fearful warning to the ignorant man or woman. Reason
being the bible declares some will seek Him when it’s too late! Prov
1:28-29 says "Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will
seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge And
did not choose the fear of the LORD,” They
wasted their God given opportunity by arguing with Him instead of trusting Him,
and embracing Him not only as a man, as Saviour, but as Lord. In
the end it would cost them their eternal souls to be punished in hell for all
eternity. Just
as Jesus said “And then I will declare to them, 'I
never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Matt 7:23
You
can't always preach the positives; sometimes you have to preach the negatives,
because the negatives are needed to bring some to Christ. Please
don’t waste your God given opportunity by fighting this truth found in the
message that can save your soul. Instead
trust in Him, embrace Him not only as some man who seemed crazy to the religious
ignorant, but as a loving Saviour who cares for your soul. Remember
the hymn song “Heaven
came down and glory filled my soul”
“Heaven
came down and glory filled my soul,
When
at the cross the Saviour made me whole;
My
sins were washed away -
And
my night was turned to day -
Heaven
came down and glory filled my soul!”
Remember those promises that we are not of this world and that Christ died for my sins so that i wouldn't have to face the wrath of the Father! All because you believed in the Only begotten SON........JESUS CHRIST our Lord. SO,
HEAR THE WARNING from Jesus this morning and embrace the truth found in the
ONLY Son of God who came to die a sinner’s death so that we can live and have
our sins forgiven. Passages
like this will either make you humble for the grace that He gave each and every
one of us for our sin; or it will make you angry and more resentful towards the
God of the bible. The
foundational truth in this passage is that there is a REAL HELL and that there
is a REAL HEAVEN. What
you believe will determine the statement Jesus made to these men and to
millions of people today! Embrace the gospel before its to late, start believing! J.C
Ryle said it best “let us never forget that unbelief is a special sin that
ruins men’s souls. Had the Jews believed on our Lord, all manner of sin and
blasphemy might have been forgiven them. But unbelief bars the doors of mercy’s
face, and cuts off hope. Let us watch and pray hard against it. Immorality
slays thousands, but unbelief its tens of thousands. One of the strongest
sayings ever used by our Lord was this, ‘He that believeth not shall be
damned.’” As the Apostle Paul penned these words in 2 Thess 1:8 clearly says “in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not
know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Embrace
the promises found in the gospel and live otherwise the only other option is
death!
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