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The Gospel of John, The Period of Conflict - The Clash of Belief and Unbelief, Continuing discourse after the feast, Jesus as the Light of the World, Part XVIII, John 8:43-45 - Lesson 65
Read Verses John 8:37-42, for review: I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
John 8:43, Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Why do you not recognize what I say?
It is because you do not hear my word.
You claim to be the children of the Father and my language is the language of the Father.
Why then do you not understand my speech?
Jesus asks a question and he provides the answer.
Those who are truly children of God will recognize the Father's message from the lips of Jesus.
This is true today!
If you are a child of God you can discern who speaks the Father's message.
But Jesus tells them they are incapable of understanding him because they do not hear him.
Their ear picked up what he said but but their heart did not apprehend it.
Their hearts were dead.
They were enslaved in sin and sin has no light to shine on truth.
John 8:44, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
This is the climax, the peak that the Lord was climbing.
He had found nothing to their claim that they were the children of Abraham.
He had demonstrated that God was not their Father.
Now he tells them plainly, without softening the message, that they are of their father the devil.
He makes them face truth about themselves.
It was obvious to Jesus Christ who their father was by their character.
It was not obvious to the Jews who were under the influence of wicked hearts, of deceitful hearts.
You oppose the truth, you uphold the Lie, you are therefore kin to the father of lies.
Wasn't it the devil who planted the first seed of lies in the Garden?
"Ye shall be as gods!"
Isn't he the father of lies?
You are controlled by that one who was a murderer from the beginning, the one who brought death into the world in the Garden.
All death on the earth is laid at your father's door.
He is a mass murderer, the murderer of the human race, the reason for every graveyard.
These religious Jews loved darkness instead of light and therefore they love to operate in the realm of the Prince of darkness.
In this realm the devil blinds their minds, he directs their daily walk, he works in them his will to do evil, to walk independent of the Father, to walk dependant upon the devil.
Jesus knew without a doubt that they were of the devil because the lusts of their father they were doing.
Their fruit revealed the kind of tree from which they came!
They were the tares that always followed the true wheat, they are the counterfeits, the children of the apostasy, enemies of the true gospel, purveyors of the false gospel, religious but lost.
John 8:45, And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
This is the nature of the unregenerate!
This is a principle you can count on.
They refuse to believe the Son of God simply because he tells the truth.
How could they know truth when their father was the father of lies.
Children of the father of lies only know lies and cannot know truth.
Lost people do not know Jesus Christ!
Therefore they cannot know truth.
If they cannot know truth then the only thing left for them is to know error.
The only thing left for them is to believe the lie.
That is why man will give heed to the most absurd and ridiculous propositions and arguments.
Why does man believe he evolved from apes?
Why does man believe in himself as God?
Why does man believe that there is no such thing as sin?
Why does man believe he can purchase status with God by his works? Because he is not of God!
Psalm 58:3, The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Psalm 62:4, They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.
Isaiah 28:15, Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
2 Timothy 3:7, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Only if Jesus were to be false then they would believe him.
When truth comes about and shines light on their lies it only arouses murder and hatred in their heart.
Why do lost people so easily believe the Lie.
Because that is what their father is.
There is no truth in him and there is no truth in them.
Like father, like son.
Again Jesus knows their character.
And the character of children of the devil is to refuse to accept the truth. |