I Am That I Am

Why don't we turn to the book of John, John chapter 8. We're going to finish up chapter 8 here in John and go on to the story of this blind man next time in John chapter 9. We left off around verse number 48. And so I'd like to finish up the chapter here this morning. And I think there's something in here for everybody.

In John chapter 8, I'm going to read down through verse 48 to the end of the chapter and then we'll come back and consider here. Anybody remember why this book is written? These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing you might have life through His name. And so much of the gospel of John is written that you might know Him.

This is life eternal, that you might know Him. I'm all for theology. I'm all for practical living.

But eternal life is in knowing Him. This is eternal life. And because we know Him, out of knowing Him comes a life of obedience.

And so sometimes we have to spend time, and we'll probably two, two and a half years going through the book of John and learning to know Him. And that's important. I'm going to start here in verse 48.

Let's read. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil? And Jesus answered, I have not a devil, but I honor my Father, and you do dishonor me. And I seek not mine own glory, there is one that seeketh and judges.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets.

And thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth me, of whom you say that He is your God.

Yet you have not known Him. But I know Him, and if I should say I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know Him, and keep His saying.

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? And Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him.

But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. Let's pray and let's acknowledge the Lord before we consider these verses. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the Word of God, the truth, the inspired, the God-breathed Word that we have before us here.

And that Word is that which keeps us humble, Lord, and keeps us broken before You. It shows us who we really are, that we might remain as that man who was humbled before You and cried out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Lord, we thank You this morning that Your mercies are new every day.

And I pray that as we open up Your Word here, that You would speak to the hearts of those who are here and minister grace to each one and give instruction, Lord, and help me to communicate Your Word truthfully and faithfully. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, there's no doubt here that the Lord, as we follow Him here in the book of John, has many enemies.

They are trying to put Him to death at different places. It's no different here in the last part of chapter 8. They're trying to stone Him. But they use some pretty derogatory titles against the Lord Jesus.

They call Him two very derogatory terms, which in that day were the lowest of the low, especially if you call a religious person these two names. But they called the Lord a Samaritan and a devil. And these two titles were given to lower Him or to make Him look bad in the eyes of the people.

A Samaritan back then was a half-Jew, half-Syrian. They were a mixed blood, a mixed breed of people. And the pure Jewish people, the pure blood, those who had intermarried within the Jewish bloodline, they despised the Samaritans.

The Samaritans lived north, and the border on the north, up north, is Syria. And so these people were despised of the Jewish people. They were half-Jew, half-Syrian, a mixed race.

They had a contaminated bloodline, at least according to the Jews. And the Jews were very much concerned about the purity of the bloodline. And so Jesus here is given this derogatory title that He is a Samaritan.

And you go back here to verse number, I think it's interesting, verse 33. It says here in chapter 8, They answered Him, We be Abraham's seed. They rejoiced in the fact that they supposedly had a good bloodline, and Abraham was their father.

But as we've already learned, Abraham also had a father, and that father was Adam. And Adam was a fallen creature, and everyone that was born out of Adam and Eve's line were fallen creatures. And that would include Abraham.

That would include David, Moses, and all the prophets. All of them had a fallen nature to them, and that's why they needed to have a new nature. And the Jews were focused on the bloodline, but the Lord was not focused on the bloodline.

The Lord was focused on whether or not these people were children of God, children of Abraham, by faith in Jesus Christ. And that's all that really matters. Coming to God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

These people needed a new birth. They needed a new nature. They needed to become children of Abraham by faith.

Not follow Abraham's bloodline, but follow Abraham who is called in the Bible the father of faith. Galatians 4.26, let me read to you what Paul wrote. For you are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, and if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

So that's the kind of seed, Abraham's seed, that you really want to be a part of. You want to be a part of that seed, which is Abraham's seed according to the faith. So God does not deal with man on the basis of culture.

He does not deal with man on the basis of race. He does not deal with man on the basis of financial stature. He does not even deal with man on the basis of male and female.

As a matter of fact, Galatians chapter 4 says this, In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, that's culture, that's race. There is neither bond nor free, that's your social status. There is neither male nor female, that's your sex.

For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And so while they're boasting in the fact that they're Abraham's children, they're thinking on the line of the bloodline, but that bloodline is contaminated with the sin of Adam, down through history, and the Lord is calling them to a higher calling to be Abraham's children by faith in Jesus Christ. That they might receive a new nature, and put away the Adamic nature, that nature that is fleshly that Isaac was talking about here this morning, and take upon themselves a spiritual nature.

So, Samaritan. You're a Samaritan. You know, Jesus used the Samaritan.

He did a little digging into the Jews there when He told the story of the good Samaritan. You know, here's this man that falls into the ditch. A lawyer had asked the Lord, you know, what are the great commandments? And the Lord said, you know, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your neighbor as yourself, and this lawyer said, well, who is my neighbor? And then the Lord gives him a story about a Samaritan who went down and found a man in a ditch.

But before the Samaritan got there to help the man, there was a Jew and a priest and a Levite who came by and walked by on the other side and never helped this poor man in need. But, he said, a certain Samaritan came by that way and he sacrificed and he went down and he got his hands dirty and he helped this poor man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho who was attacked by thieves. And so the Samaritans were despised.

And so Jesus here is called a Samaritan. Another thing He was called here, He was called a person who has a devil. Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil.

I remember the worst name ever called me was I was called Satan back down in Florida. I was preaching at a Catholic church and some of the people came out of the church. It was a church service and I was preaching out in front of the church and some of the people came out.

Then the priest came out in his robe and everything and he looked at me and he said, You are Satan! I've never been called Satan before. But here the Lord Jesus Christ is called a devil. The Jews often accused Jesus of being of the devil.

And this is evidence of where their hearts were. Their hearts were almost beyond the reach of hope. Think about this for a minute.

They looked at Jesus who is the fullness of God bodily. They saw His powerful miracles. They saw that He had no sin.

If you look down in verse number 46 here it says, Which of you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? They could not convince Him of sin. He was the one who was the light of the world. And can you imagine God in a human body standing before you doing these miracles? Never sinning.

You couldn't convince Him of any wrong. And yet you would call Him of the devil in the very presence of Deity. Calling Him a devil.

Now I share with you this maybe two weeks ago. One of the primary reasons I believe that the angels have no opportunity for redemption, that they were not offered the blood of Jesus is because they sinned in the midst of the presence of God. They sinned and they rebelled and they left God's presence in the light.

They had all the light shown to them. They were in the very presence of God and they chose to rebel against the Lord. Here are people who have the light of the world in their very presence, who is doing miracles, who is showing them a sinless, perfect life.

And yet they are calling Him of the devil. Can you imagine that? The severity of that. Now there is in the Bible this thing called the unforgivable sin.

I don't believe the unforgivable sin is as much an act as a condition of the heart. That these people had such a blindness. How can you be redeemed when the very Savior of the world, God of the human body, who is sinless, living with power before you, what else can happen to bring you to the light when you call that the darkness? When you call that being of Beelzebub or the devil? Now I have ministered to many people throughout my life who believe they have committed the unforgivable sin.

Many of them are very troubled. And I've sat for many hours with people who believe those things. And oftentimes what it is, maybe it's a young lady who is very fearful and she has an anxiety problem and she might have a thought or a temptation might come to her to be upset at the Lord.

And she's very, very anxious and concerned. And she thinks she's done something awful and she has no hope. And there are a lot of people out there like that.

Very sensitive consciences. Listen to me. You're not even close to something like that, committing an unpardonable sin.

These people here that Jesus spoke those words to, that they were near committing an unpardonable sin, were those who were viewing the light of the world, viewing the Lord Jesus, seeing His miracles, and violently opposing Him and accusing Him of being of the devil. And the Lord warns them. And He says you're in danger of eternal damnation with your attitude.

And so, if you have a heart this morning, you want to please God, and you want to come to the Lord, Jesus said, all that come to Me, I will in no wise cast out. You ought not to be concerned about things like that. You ought to not let those things trouble you.

Let's keep reading here in verse 49. I'm going to get to something that Isaac shared. Jesus answered them after they said He's a Samaritan and has a devil.

Jesus answered, I have not a devil, but I honor My Father, and you do dishonor Me. And I seek not Mine own glory. There is One that seeketh and judges.

Now, Jesus here responds by showing them the reason why He does not have a devil. The devil is the one who honors himself and seeks his own glory. But Jesus says, I have not a devil, but I honor My Father.

In verse 50, and I seek not My own glory. You know, the devil and the spirit of Antichrist is that spirit that honors himself and seeks his own glory. And the spirit of Christ is that which honors his Father and does not seek his own glory.

And you see these two spirits at work. I want to read to you a little history of the devil himself back in the book of Isaiah. You don't have to turn there.

I'm going to read just a few verses in Isaiah chapter 14. This is the heart of the devil. Isaiah 14 verse 12.

It says this, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt My throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.

I will ascend. Everything is going up. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High. And so, the devil here, his heart is to exalt himself. His heart is to lift himself up and to be like the Most High God.

Paul said it this way in 2 Thessalonians 2. He speaks of the Antichrist. It says, he exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. And so if you have a little devil in you, your heart is going to be to exalt yourself and to seek honor for yourself.

But, I think Brother Elson shared two weeks ago about those stair steps downward, right? Philippians 2 says Jesus came and He humbled Himself. He came down to humanity. He came down to be a servant.

He came down to the cross. He came down to die and suffer. He kept coming down and down and down and down.

And so there are two spirits in the world today. The spirit of the Lord Jesus is propelling you to go down and down and down just like Isaac was sharing. The spirit of humility.

I need to go lower. I need to be a servant. I need to be more humble.

That is the spirit of God working in your heart. But the spirit of the enemy is trying to lift you up. He's trying to exalt you.

He's trying to make you think you're somebody special. He's trying to give you pride and arrogance. He's trying to push you up, up, up.

Now I know the Bible says if you'll humble yourself, then God will exalt you. But self-exaltation is not something that is of the spirit of God. The Bible says that Jesus humbled Himself.

He became obedient. The devil has always taught man to seek glory and to be lifted up. Do you know the first thing that the devil said to humanity back in the garden? He said, listen, you guys, you can be as God, knowing good and evil.

Don't you want to be lifted up? Don't you want to be somebody? And they thought, wow! If we eat of that fruit, we're going to be like God? Yes! I want you to be like God. Well, he tried to be like God, didn't he? So they went over, they ate of the fruit, and it caused them to fall. You know, that's a deception.

That's a deception when a spirit is saying to you, try to exalt you, lift you up, make you somebody. I want a higher position. Because the spirit of Jesus Christ is encouraging you to take a lower place.

I think of the temptation of Christ even when the devil tempted Jesus. What did he do? The Bible says he took Him to a high mountain. And he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world.

He said, listen, if you'll fall down and worship Me, I'll give you all these kingdoms and the glory of it. I mean, you can reign over the whole thing. I'll give it to you all, and you can have honor and glory.

Of course, the Lord didn't buy into it, did He? Praise the Lord that He didn't. God is always trying to humble man. And that's what ought to be a work that He is doing in our hearts, to humble us.

I want to read to you what's going to happen when the Lord returns. Isaiah 2 gives us a picture here. Just a brief one I want to read to you.

Isaiah 2.10, the Lord says, this is at His second coming, Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, for the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, for the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up, and He shall be brought low. That's what the return of Christ is going to bring upon humanity. They're going to be brought down.

Now, you have a choice here today to either voluntarily be brought down and to choose to follow Jesus down, down, down, down, or you can exalt yourself and face the Lord Jesus at His coming and be brought down by Him. And so I encourage us all to take that place of humility, of trying to seek the lower place. And so throughout the Bible, we're told to seek the lowest place, to esteem others better than ourselves, to not compare ourselves among ourselves.

Boy, that's an interesting one there, isn't it? Comparing ourselves among ourselves. You know when we compare ourselves among ourselves, how many of you notice that when humanity compares themselves among themselves, they are always better than the ones they're comparing themselves to? That's the nature of man is to say I am better, I am greater, I am bigger, I am richer, I am stronger. And so the idea of comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise.

You know, I was taught in school these comparative words. They usually end in the IER or the EST, you know? I am the richer. I am the more handsomer.

I am the stronger. I am the strongest. But when you come to church life and Christianity, it's oftentimes I am the holier.

I am the wiser. I am the better. I am the godlier.

And these are exaltations. They are self-exaltations. And there's not a place for that in the church of Jesus Christ.

We don't compare ourselves and esteem ourselves better than others. We are to be taking a lower place. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1. This is a general principle of the Bible, of the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 1 verse 22. Well, I'm going to jump down to verse 26 here to save a little time. This is written to the church at Corinth.

The church at Corinth were Greeks in large part. Greeks were wise. They relished in their wisdom.

In verse 26, Paul addresses some of these things when he says this, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh... These people who are really smart in Harvard and Yale. Not many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty.

Those who are in high positions. Not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, the things that are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence. Do you hear that? No human being will glory in his presence.

Verse 31, That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You know who God is looking for and wants to choose? This is totally against our minds because we're often times naturally thinking. We're carnally minded.

It says here, God has chosen the foolish things. You say, the world thinks I'm foolish. You're in a good place.

The foolish things of the world. Why do we want to be like the world when God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. In other words, God is not looking for the mighty and the noble and the strong.

He's looking for those who are weak. He's looking for those who are base. He's looking for those who seem to be in the world foolish.

You know, the classic example of this, and it's all through the Old Testament, we ought to learn these lessons that here is a giant Goliath. Oh! Strong. Mighty.

With all this armor. He's got all the military armor, the modern missiles and everything. He's got everything militarily.

He's strong. Everybody thinks in the world's eyes that this guy is going to win the battle. And here comes little David.

And we sing these songs to our children. And the ridicule that comes David's way when he carries out this little swing and five stones and he comes to fight this giant. And you just have to know that God's in him just like, this is great! This is great because when I take that little David and I destroy that giant, everybody's going to know that David didn't do it, that God did it.

And who's going to get the glory in this battle? It's not going to be David. It's going to be the God that is behind David. I guarantee you if that giant would have taken down another strong military man in Israel, that the glory would have gone to that person, that giant.

And if Israel would have had a giant bigger than Goliath and they would have gone out and fought and that Israelite giant would have beat that Philistine giant, the glory would have gone to that man. But when little David stepped out and he said, I'm coming in the name of the Lord, when that giant went down, all the glory went to the God of Heaven. And you know, God is looking for people like that.

He's looking for people who are willing to be foolish, who are willing to be weak and base, and to be an R-naught so that He might exalt Himself. And so, humility. A call to humility.

That's the principle of Christianity. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Look back to John 8. John 8, verse 51.

In this context of humility, Jesus says in verse 51, Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. I don't know if you ever thought about this before, but all of the Christian life is bathed in humility. Salvation is a theology of humility.

If you come to the Lord Jesus, you have to come in humility. You have to come by saying this, I am a sinner! I am a sinner. I make confession of my sin.

It starts with an act of humility. It moves to another act of humility. I don't have any righteousness.

Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to the cross I cling. And it also goes on with more humility.

I'm looking to Jesus for my righteousness. I have no righteousness in myself. Salvation is a very humble experience.

Nothing about you. It's all about Him. But unfortunately people, after they come to that place, they lay aside humility.

The truth of the matter is, not only is salvation full of humility, but the Christian life is full of humility. And you come to Him on your knees and you ought to stay on your knees the whole way through. As a matter of fact, Jesus said to those who wanted to follow Him, if you want to follow Me, take up a cross and deny yourself.

And so not only is salvation bathed in humility, but also the Christian life. Humility. The Bible says, those of a man keep My saying, he shall never see death.

And certainly that refers to the Gospel. It's all about humility. Humble yourself.

Confess your sin. Throw away your righteousness. Embrace the righteousness of Christ.

But it also includes an obedient life. All about submission and humility. Look back to chapter 8. We went over these verses before.

Verse 30, And He spake these words. As He spake these words, many believed on Him. That's salvation.

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, if you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples indeed and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you or make you free. And so you come to Christ with deep humility and you get converted, but you stay in that deep humility as you come to the Word of God and the Word of God says, hey, you need to start changing your life. You need to start doing things in accordance to My Word.

And as you continue on in your Christian experience, you humble yourself. And you say, Lord, not my will but Thine be done. So in humility, we submit to the commands of Christ.

Would you agree with that? You know, someone says, well, I'm going to come to Jesus, confess my sin, put my trust in His righteousness, a very humble act. I'm going to humble myself, and then I'm going to get up off my knees and I'm going to take control of my life and do what I want. There's something desperately wrong with that.

Jesus said, if you continue in My Word, then you're My disciples indeed. There's fruit of humility throughout the Christian life. And so when you hear or when you see in the Bible that you should not love this world, your heart is humble.

Your heart is humbled and you avoid the things of this world. You avoid setting your affections on the things of this world because you're a humble person. When the Bible says we ought to be zealous of good works, we ought to want to do good works, we humble ourselves under the authority of God's Word and we listen and we obey.

When the Bible talks about modesty and dress, we humble ourselves under God's Word and we listen and we obey. When it talks about preaching the Gospel and not being ashamed of Jesus, we humble ourselves so we can go down through all the commandments of God, but we live a humble life. And that humble life leads to obedience.

Would you agree with me on that? It has to. Now, I realize some people say, well, I came to Jesus and I trusted in His righteousness and then I just put this book away. Well, that's not going to help you because it is through this book that God gives you direction, God shows you His commandments, and God breaks your heart and keeps your heart humble and you continue your walk of submitting and submitting and submitting and breaking your own will.

That's why the book of James says faith without works is dead. You say you have faith and you came to Christ in humility. Well, where is the humility in obedience? Should that humility continue? And James gives an interesting thing at the end of the chapter in James 2. He says this, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

So you go to the funeral and you see this man in the casket. And you look in that casket and you say there's a body. You know, there's Grandpa.

There's my dad. There's a body. There's only one problem with that body.

It has no spirit. The body just lays there. And as the body without the spirit is dead, it's a dead body, even so, faith... I have faith in Jesus.

Look at me laying in the casket. I have faith in Jesus. I believe in Jesus.

Even so, faith without works is dead. In other words, the Spirit of God that is in you ought to quicken you and make you obedient to His will and His purposes in life. Faith without works is dead.

In the very same way, as you look at that body in the casket, it has no spirit. It's got a body. You can see it.

There's no spirit. And so the Bible teaches us this. As you come to the Lord in humility and you ask Jesus to save your soul, He gives you His Spirit.

And as you remain in humility and in brokenness and submission to His will, He moves in your life and He changes your life. And in some cases I've seen, He changes it dramatically. You know why He can change it dramatically? Because you continued on in a life of humility and brokenness.

Well, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. You keep under the Word of God humility, humble heart. I wouldn't be the type of person who says I came to Jesus, I got saved, but now I'm going to run my own life.

Watch out for that one. Stay humble. You ought to come to this book every day and read a chapter or two and get on your knees and just humble yourself.

Lord, this is what You showed me today. I'm going to change my life. I'm going to live a life in obedience to Your Word.

Let's keep reading here in John 8, verse 52. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead and the prophets.

And thou sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? Now when Jesus says here that the many men keep My saying, He shall never see death, He's talking about spiritual death. He's not talking about physical death.

He's talking about that death in Revelation 20, verse 14, that second death, that lake of fire, which is the second death. But they thought He was talking about natural death. No, He was talking about spiritual death.

And so here is Abraham. He's a holy man. I'm sure he's not perfect.

But Abraham is dead. What do you mean talking about if a man keeps your saying, he shall never see death? Abraham was a great man. He was a holy man.

He's dead. His sepulcher is over there. David was a great man and he's dead.

Moses was a great man. He's dead. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, all the prophets, they're dead.

What do you mean? If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death. Well, we understand what he meant by that. If a man will humble himself unto the Gospel and walk out a humble life, that man will never die and go to hell and perish.

That man will live forever. He will have salvation. So they ask the question here of the Lord Jesus, do You think that You are greater than these men? These men who are dead.

And You are saying that if you keep My saying, you'll never see death. Well, this may come to a shock to some of you here today, but Jesus is greater than all of them. And the reason why He is greater is He's not a man.

He's not an angel. I'm going to tell you who He is. We'll see it in a little bit.

But look over to verse 58. And Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. We're going to see in just a minute that Jesus is claiming to be God incarnate.

He is claiming to be the Lord Himself. God manifested in a human body. You know, this is one of the truths.

A biblical truth that separates true Christianity from many false cults of our day. Though many people use the name of Jesus. By the way, the Jews saw Jesus.

The Muslims believe in Jesus. Many use the name of Jesus, but they do not acknowledge who He really is. And if you don't know and acknowledge who He is, then you cannot be right with Him.

Because you're believing a lie. Well, the Jews didn't believe who Jesus was. The Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe who Jesus was.

The Christian scientists don't believe who Jesus was. The Mormons don't believe who Jesus was. The Muslims don't believe who Jesus was.

And we're going to see here in just a minute Jesus claims to be God in a human body. I am that I am. And then verse 54, let's keep reading.

Jesus answered, If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father that honoreth Me of whom you say that He is your God. Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him.

And if I should say I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you, but I know Him and keep His saying. Now, the Jews confessed, if you look there in verse 54, If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father that honoreth Me of whom you say that He is your God.

You know, the Jews confessed to believe in God. It's amazing to think that they would have stood and said, yes, we believe in God. But they denied Jesus as the manifestation of God.

Many today believe in God, but they deny the deity of Jesus Christ. It is not enough to say, I believe in God. The book of James says the devils believe in God, and what? Tremble! It's not enough to believe in God.

Now you think about this. That God that the Jews said they believed in actually came to the earth and visited them and walked amongst them in a human body and did incredible things. The same God they believed in and they killed Him.

They killed Him. While they said, we believe in God. And then they killed Him.

Now that's blindness there, isn't it? And you know, a lot of that blindness came because of their own arrogance, their own pride, their own self-righteousness. So they believed in God, but when God came to them and visited them in the person of Jesus Christ, they claimed He was of the devil. And they killed Him.

And you know why that is? And it happens all the time. Here's why. Because it is easy for us to say, I believe in God.

But if God would come here today, let's just pretend for a minute. I believe in Jesus. Yeah.

I'm a Christian. All right. Let's just have Jesus visit us like He visited the Jews.

Let's have Him visit us today. And let's have Him come here and stand before us. And I'm trying to preach His Word right now, but He stands before us and He says to us, just like He said to everyone else that followed Him, if any of you do not deny yourself and take up a cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple.

Right? You know, we're not any different than those people are. You say, well, Lord, what does that mean? Deny myself and take up a cross? Well, it certainly means that your life needs to be humble. You need to allow Me to be the Lord of your life.

When I say follow Me, I mean follow Me. And so here I'm going to be leaving. Follow Me.

Now you see, if Jesus were here, that would put us in a predicament, wouldn't it? Because then we would have to deal with Him in person. And we'd have to make choices. And when He would say to love your brother, we'd have to love our brother.

When He would say that we should pray without ceasing, we'd have to pray without ceasing. When He would say not to love this world, we'd have to not love this world. But as long as He's up in heaven and we don't have to deal with Him on a day-to-day basis, we can say we love Jesus.

We can say we're Christians and disobey His Word. Right? You see, the Jews didn't have that liberty. They had Him right in front of them.

And He called them to a life of obedience and a life of holiness. And so just because He's not here in person today doesn't mean things are different. And you know the way He wants to talk to you every day is through this book right here.

And the best way for you to live your Christian life is to get in this book and instead of having Jesus in a body talk to you and teach you, have Him teach you through this. And every time you see Him say something to you and you say, oh boy, I'm not doing well in that area, Lord, I'm going to humble myself. Amen? Lord, I'm going to humble myself.

I'm going to acknowledge I'm not doing good, Lord, in that area. Forgive me. I'm going to change my life.

That's the normal Christian experience! There's a good place for an amen right there. That's normal. That's how we live a Christian experience in humility.

We come to this Bible and we read it and it speaks to us and we humble ourselves and we submit ourselves to the will of God and we walk with God. And you'll prosper. And things will go well and you'll have peace and joy in your life will prosper and your family will prosper and whatsoever you do will prosper.

But the ungodly are not so. The ungodly are those who say, I believe in Jesus, and then they walk their own way. Well, people don't want to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

It's comforting. Let's be honest. It's comforting to say, I believe in Jesus, so I think I'm going to go to heaven.

So we got that issue addressed. But now as far as my day-to-day life, I'm going to live the way I want. Well, you're heading down a very difficult and very treacherous road.

Amen? I mean, you wouldn't do that if he were here in person. He would say, if you're going to follow me, let's go. You have to make a choice, okay? I've got to lead everything.

And go. And he would say, I want you to do this. And you'd say, well, I need to do this.

Well, because he's not here, he's left his Word, you need to live by faith in his Word. And I do too. And Jesus said, they worship me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Yes, we believe in God, but don't ask us to submit to his authority. You've got to remember that he created everything, right? He redeemed humanity with his own sacrifice, his own blood. Don't you think that we ought to obey him? Amen? Obedience.

And so God came to the Jews to visit them, but they wanted to kill him. The very people who said, we believe in God. God is our Father.

Well, if God is your Father, then why don't you listen to me? Why don't you honor me? God comes to visit you and I and calls you to deny yourself and take up a cross and follow Him. And so He's given us His Word. Maybe you've probably heard the story of the man who had a dream one night.

And in his dream, he saw Jesus. And Jesus said to him in his dream, I'm going to come to your house tomorrow. That was a very clear vision.

He got up. He said, the Lord is coming to my house to visit me. I saw it in a vision.

So he gets everything prepared. He gets his house all cleaned. He invites friends and family over and he's expecting the Lord to come.

And around noontime, there's a knock on the door. He opens the door and here's this poor man who's hungry. And this poor man says, sir, could you give me a little bit of money to feed my children? He says, no, don't bother me.

Jesus is coming to my house today. And he slams the door. And around 2 o'clock, there's a widow woman who comes.

She has needs. He doesn't have time for her. Go away! I'm expecting an important guest today.

Jesus is coming to my house. And around 5 o'clock, another knock at the door and another paralyzed man seeking medical help. And he sends this paralyzed man away and he's sitting there with his friends and family waiting for Jesus to come and he never comes! And he lays in bed that night and he dreams another dream.

And the Lord says, I came to you three times in different people. The poor man, the widow, and the paralyzed man. I came to you.

You didn't see Me. You didn't recognize Me. And oftentimes, you know, we don't realize it, but the Lord is coming to us.

As a matter of fact, each message on Sunday morning that the Lord speaks from His Word, He's coming to us. He's coming. And He's saying, I'm trying to talk with you.

I'm trying to visit you. I'm trying to get you to move in the right direction. I'm trying to get you to believe the Gospel.

I'm trying to get you to walk a life of obedience. I've been coming to you on a regular basis and knocking at your door. I don't know where you're at.

I don't see you anywhere, Lord. Well, God is visiting you. Look at verse 47 in chapter 8. He that is of God heareth God's words.

You therefore hear them not because you are not of God. That sums it up pretty good, doesn't it? If you're of God truly, then you want to hear His Word. And I believe that when it says hear His Word, it not only means just hear it in the ear, but also be willing to follow it and obey it.

And I'll say this, someday you're going to meet Him. I'm going to meet Him. We're going to meet Him.

The Bible says we're going to bow before Him. And I hope that all of us when we actually meet Him are going to be able to say, my faith actually had works. My faith was real.

And that you don't stand before God someday and thinking that you were a Christian and you come to realize it was all a sham. All a sham. Well, these Jews found that their belief in God was truly a sham.

Let's look at verse 56 and keep reading. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day and he saw it and was glad. Now what does that mean? Abraham saw Christ's day.

Yes, he did. Abraham saw the cross of Jesus Christ by faith. Abraham looked ahead to the Messiah.

He saw the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and he embraced it by faith and that brought him great joy and gladness. And I know that because in Genesis 22, in verse number 8, when Isaac was taken up to the top of that mountain, you know, Isaac had an interesting question for his dad Abraham. Abraham told Isaac, we're going to go up and make a sacrifice.

They're walking up toward the mountain and Isaac says, good question from his son. Dad, you forgot the lamb. Where is the lamb for the offering? He's walking up, dad and son.

There's no animal. Dad, we forgot the lamb. And you know what Abraham says to Isaac? God will provide a lamb.

And that's Abraham's faith. It's not going to cost me my son. God will provide something.

He believed that all the way up the mountain. And he believed that God will provide a lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. That he doesn't have to die and be separated from God forever.

That he'll provide a lamb. Good news for all of you today, God has provided a lamb. And you don't have to sacrifice your son or your own soul.

God has provided a lamb for you. Verse 57, Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old. He didn't look like he was fifty years old.

And hast thou seen Abraham? You know, they thought from verse 56 when Jesus said, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day and he saw it and was glad. They thought that Jesus was testifying that He was a contemporary of Abraham. That He lived in Abraham's day and that He knew Abraham and that He actually experienced the joy that Abraham had in witnessing His day.

What do you mean? What do you mean? Who are you? How do you know Abraham saw your day and was glad? Abraham lived 3,000 years ago. Who are you? You're not even yet fifty years old. And have you seen Abraham? Come on.

And now the Lord makes an amazing statement here in verse 58. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Now that I am is a very important phrase because in Exodus 3.14 when Moses asked God, God, I'm going to go down to Pharaoh.

I'm going to deliver your people. But they're going to ask me, Who sent you down here? Pharaoh's going to ask me. What should I tell him? What did God say? Tell him, I am that I am.

That's my name. Tell him I am that I am sent you. Notice it's the present tense.

I am. It's always I am. I am.

I am. It's never I was. It's never I will be.

It's always I am. Now Abraham was. Jesus is in their present time.

And their future is a will be. But God is always I am. I think I've drawn that picture on the board.

You can put the past over here, Abraham. The present, the Jews and Jesus. And way out here in the future.

But there's a big umbrella over it all and God sits and transcends time. I don't know how this all works. When God created the world, He made this world in a bubble called time.

And He set stars and sun to be the watch and the timekeeper for this system. But He sits outside of it. He sits outside of it.

He transcends time. And God is as much in Abraham's day right now as He is in the Jews' day in Jesus' time as He is in our day right now. He transcends it.

It's hard for our minds to understand. Whether it's the past, whether it's the present, or whether it's the future, He still is I am. Well, the Jews had a great respect for this I am name, the name of God.

And I read a little history about it, but they would not speak it. When they would read the Old Testament and they would come to the place where God uses the name I am, they would skip over it. They would not even speak it.

When the scribe would write it out, he would get to that word and he would put a new pen in and not use the old pen. He would use a new pen to write that word. And in the synagogue, I'm told in history that when they would come to that word, they would not speak it, and every member of the synagogue would bow their head.

Very, very reverent toward I am that I am. Now here's Jesus. These who are calling Him a devil, He says, I am.

Claiming to be the very God that Moses... or the very God that sent Moses to Pharaoh. And that is a very startling statement to the Jewish mind. So much so that in verse 59 it says, Then took they up stones to cast at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them and so passed by.

Now, chapter 8 starts with the desire to stone an adulterous woman and it finishes with the desire to stone the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do they want to stone Him? Because the book of Leviticus says when you blaspheme God, you are worthy of being stoned. And so these Jews felt like when Jesus said, I am, and took the place of God, that that was worthy of stoning.

Turn over a few pages to John 10. We'll have a look at two verses and we'll finish here. In John 10, verse 30, here Jesus makes a similar statement in John 10, verse 30, I and My Father are one.

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. And Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me? The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

You who are a man are claiming to be God. Now the Jews understood what Jesus was saying. It's unfortunate that many people don't understand it.

But those who heard Him say it with their own ears, they knew that Jesus was claiming to be the God of the Old Testament in a human body. I'd like you to look at one more verse. Go to Revelation chapter 1 and we'll close here.

The Lord uses this phrase many times here in Revelation chapter 1. I'm going to read down through this. I think it's used five times. John sees a vision of Jesus in verse number 7. Behold, He cometh with clouds and every eye shall see Him and they also which pierced Him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.

Even so, Amen. Here's our first one. I am Alpha and Omega.

The shrocks are not here, but Alpha and Omega are A and Z. And I think it's the Greek alphabet. Alpha, Omega. In other words, I am A and I am Z at the same time.

I am the beginning and I am the ending. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending. Saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty.

Verse 10, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a great voice as a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Verse 12, I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. In the midst of the seven candlesticks one likened to the Son of Man.

It's a picture of Jesus. Clothed with a garment down to the foot. Girt about with a pass of golden girdle.

His hairs were white like wool as white as snow. By the way, if you want to know the Jesus that you're going to meet on the Day of Judgment, right here's a description of Him. His feet like a fine brass as if they burned in a furnace.

His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars and out of His mouth one a sharp two-edged sword. Do you know what that is? You say when I leave this world, I can leave the Bible behind.

I've got news for you. When you leave this world, you're going to face it. The Lord's going to judge you and out of His mouth there's going to be a two-edged sword and this book is going to come back.

The Bible says My Word will judge you in the last day. His countenance was as the sun shining in His strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead and He laid His right hand upon me saying unto me, fear not, I AM! The first and the last.

I AM! He that liveth and was dead and behold, I AM! Alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death.

This I AM was dead and is alive again. Who do you think that is? That's Jesus Christ. And so folks, Jesus is God.

And because He is, then you need to submit to Him. He is your Creator. He is your Redeemer.

You need to submit to His plan of salvation. You need to submit to His walk of life. Not only is the gate narrow, but the way is narrow.

He is much wiser than you are. Would you agree with me on that? You need to submit to His wisdom. Say, I don't understand it.

Just submit to it. You say to your children, you don't understand right now. Just submit.

You'll understand later. God says to you, maybe you'll understand. Just submit.

You'll understand later. I'm 60 years old. I'm glad I've learned in many ways to submit because I've finally understood some of these things.

Submit. Submit to the authority of His Word. He's wiser.

And so we're dealing with the great I AM. The God of heaven came to this earth and He redeemed us through His own death. And now He calls us to take up a cross and follow Him.

May we not here in this congregation have people who have a faith that is dead. They lay in a spiritual casket and they say that they are a Christian, but there is no spirit life. There is no life in the body.

Brothers and sisters, examine yourselves. Amen. Whether you be in the faith.

Prove your own selves. Know you not that Jesus Christ is in you. And that Spirit should motivate you and energize you and we'll see in John 12-16 all the things that the Holy Spirit is going to do when He comes.

So don't be like the Jews who said they had a belief in God. And yet they killed Him. In the very same way today we can say we believe in God and yet live in rebellion against Him.

Let's close and we'll have a word of prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Lord, may You try each one of our hearts here that we would truly learn to be humble.