Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
i love this little exchange between jesus and the pharisees let's just read what he jesus speaking with the pharisees they had a little discussion got a little heated let's start reading at verse 12. people think christians shouldn't have heated discussions with messed up religious folks but it's going to happen verse 12 then speak jesus again unto them saying i am the light of the world he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life the pharisees therefore said unto him thou bearest record of thyself by record is not true so they are again with him now think about this think about standing before the judgment seat on the day of judgment and having this recall that you argued with the messiah that's what you call pride right there right a little religious pride but yeah just that's for free right there and jesus answered and said unto them though i bear record of myself yet my record is true for i know from whence i came and whether i go but you cannot tell once i come and whether i go you judge after the flesh i judge no man and yet if i judge my judgment is true for i am not alone but i am the father that sent me it is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true i am one that bear witness of myself and the father that sent me beareth witness of me then said they um of him where is your father unto him brother jesus answered you neither know me nor my father he said if you had known me you should have known my father also now these words spake jesus in the treasury as he taught in the temple and no man laid hands on him for his hour was not yet come and then said jesus again unto them i go my way and ye shall seek me and die in your sins whether i go you cannot come now where was jesus going jesus was going back to heaven he said well i'm going you can't come oh strong words people get upset when i say no you're not going to make it to heaven not not not believing that not saying that you're not going there you're not going where i'm going people get offended well i'm sorry get offended all right i know who it takes to get there and how it you get there right here's what he said where where were we 21 then said the jews well he killed himself because he says where whether i go you cannot come and he said unto them i love this jesus spoke plainly didn't he said you are from beneath i am from above you are of this world i am not of this world i said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins for if you believe not that i am
he you shall die in your sins then they said unto him who art thou and jesus said to them even the same that i said unto you from the beginning i have many things to say and to judge of you but he that sent me is true and i speak to the world those things which i have heard of him and they understood not that he spake to them of the father then said jesus unto them when you have lifted up the son of man then you shall know that i am he and that i do nothing of myself but as my father hath taught me i speak these things and he's and he that sent me is with me the father has not left me alone for i do always those things that please him so jesus is speaking this to the pharisees but there's also a bunch of people around he's speaking this in the treasury in the in the temple area and it says look at verse 30 as he spoke these words many believed on him and but listen what jesus said many believed that means to have faith in to have an inward revelation of who jesus is to know it and to believe it but then jesus said it's not enough to believe it oh don't shout me down because jesus said this to the jews that believed on him verse 31 then said jesus to those jews which believed on him if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed and you will know the truth and the truth shall make you free the moment you depart from the word of god the bible genesis to malachi matthew to revelation once you depart from the truth of the scriptures and i'm talking about sound doctrine rightly divided true sound foundational doctrines of christianity once you depart from the word you are not free you do not have the son of god you do not have the father you do not have life you have death and the only hope you have is of eternal death eternal damnation in the lake of fire there is no hope but continuing in the faith continuing in the word of god continuing in the truth continuing in a relationship with jesus right and in the context of this a lot of people don't even realize that he's talking about the context of sin he told them he said if you don't believe that i am he you're going to die in your sins now belief is more than just saying i believe jesus exists but i'm going to do what i want belief says i believe it and i'm going to act upon that faith and i'm going to do what god says for me to do there is no faith without obedience there is no salvation without repentance and change there is no relationship with jesus without turning from sin and evil and becoming a disciple there is nothing that's why most of the christian world
now is a sham it's a deception they offer forgiveness without telling you you have to repent they say believe but they never define that belief means you have faith enough to change these are not new concepts truth and he goes on he says to the jews verse what was read again then said jesus to those jews which believed on him if if if if you continue in my word did he say if you continue in the catholic church did he say if you continue being a good person or trying to be a good person but telling people they can believe whatever they want and still go to heaven no no he said if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth why the truth is in the word of god listen folks i know there are people who have academic knowledge of the bible but don't know jesus i know that and yes you can have knowledge of the bible and not have a relationship with jesus christ and not be born again and not be saved not be ready to go to heaven but this other is true if you are born again if you want to stay in a relationship with jesus and make it then you have to continue in the word of god it's your only hope it's your only safeguard it is the anchor in the storm it is everything it is the foundation of our faith and if you move away from it your house will crumble and here's what's amazing you can just move away from one little part of it and the crumbling begins and he said that he said you shall know the truth look at verse 33 and they answered him we be abraham's seed and we're never in bondage to any man how sayest thou you shall be made free and jesus answered then said verily verily i say unto you whosoever committed sin now this is a present tense greek verb which means habitually practice and presently habitually practicing sin is the servant of sin or the slave of sin and a servant or a slave will not abide in the house forever oh boy jesus is saying right there if you are a servant or a slave to habitual sin
as a christian you will not abide in this house the house of god the kingdom of god heaven you won't abide there forever so the context jesus talked about being free are you getting free from sin are you getting free from habitual sin the practice of sin the lifestyles of sin are you getting free by continuing in the word of god are you becoming more and more in bondage to it see there's only two ways you can go you're either getting freer and closer to jesus and more obedient and more holy are you getting worse you're getting more and more in bondage you're getting more and more compromised and hear me folks this is why what you believe matters if you believe in some concept of universalism which really starts with what saved always saved i'm saved no matter how i live that's where universalism starts if you start there that belief system will eventually lead you down a path into more slavery to sin but if you believe what jesus said if i continue in the word of god in the truth of god in the ways of god if i continue then i will know the truth and the truth will start making me freer and freer and freer from practicing sin that will damn me and that's why jesus told these pharisees that you will die in your sins if you don't believe oh if you don't believe that i am he and continue in my word and there's no hope for you and what is this saying again very clearly i am the only way and can we make that any clearer flip to john 14. verse 5 thomas saith unto him lord we know not whether he thou goest how can we know the way and jesus said unto him i am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me no one's coming no one now i'm going to share something with you go to romans chapter 2.
romans chapter 2 this is what the closet universalists are twisting to their own destruction because once you go down this road at all that you can be saved whether you have faith in jesus or not you're in trouble and the problem is you're going to influence others right all right romans 2 oh let's read a few verses here let me see where we need to start says for there let's start at verse 11 for there is no respect to persons with god for as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law for not the hearers of the law are just before god but the doers of the law shall be justified for when the gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things content contained in the law these having not the law are aligned to themselves which show the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another in the day when god shall judge the secrets of men by jesus christ according to my gospel now this passage right here talks about the law of god being written in the heart of every person whether they've been taught the bible or not the bible is clear that the law of god has been written in the heart of every person meaning god gave us all the conscience to know instinctively what is right and what is wrong right that's why they've gone out you know missionaries have gone out and found these remote tribes that have had no bibles and no contact with with modern society and they found that they believed that adultery was wrong that murder was wrong that lying was wrong that stealing was wrong even though they still broke those commandments they believed that they were wrong and they actually had punishments in trying these tribes if you took another man's wife or oh they they and no bible no modern law right but hear me nowhere in this passage does it say that these people who have the law written in their hearts but not don't have knowledge of god nowhere does it say that they're going to go to heaven when they die it doesn't say that yet these people take this passage and that's where they say well they're going to be people who have never heard of jesus or they're going to be places you know people that never had a concept of jesus and but they're going to be saved god's going to save them listen to me y'all
there is no salvation outside of faith in jesus christ and that's why in romans 10 he said how shall they hear without a preacher right romans 10 is very plain how shall they hear without a preacher i mean somebody's got to go to them right now hear what i'm saying here's the argument that she comes up all the time in the issue that comes up all the time what about those people who've never heard the gospel see i'm going to just go ahead and tell you if you're asking that question what you're trying to do is accuse god almighty of being unfair and whenever you start trying to accuse god the all-knowing omnipotent who knows the end from the beginning who knows everything how it's going to go before it ever happens when you start saying you know better than him you're in trouble already proverbs i can't remember where it is y'all can look it up there is no counsel or wisdom against the lord all right but the first thing is i was i got asked this question one time but by a good christian brother he said what about those who've never heard the gospel well they still go to hell and i said well my bible says if you don't confess jesus christ as lord and turn from sin and have faith in him and the blood of jesus cleanses you you are not saved and if you are not saved then you are condemned you are damned i said so that's the truth it's hard it sounds hard but here's something you got to understand as i was as i was preparing to give this young man a young young preacher an answer that he's going to preach the rest of his life probably right i said god how do you want me to answer him and and the lord just dropped this down in me and i'm going to give it to you and it's just bottom line i mean it's something i you know i it's not new i don't guess it's just something that i hadn't really contemplated in much depth but here's the thing this is what i had the lord just revealed to me you know we look at a billion plus muslims almost two billion muslims you say well they grew up many of them grew up and that's what they were taught and now they're out running around killing people and doing all their crazy stuff and strapping bombs on themselves and walking into restaurants and blowing people up they just don't know any better so god's gonna have mercy on them because they never heard about jesus see that's where you go if you go down this road but i've got another answer
no it's not a matter of god being unfair here's the thing god let's do this before we do that go go to go to isaiah 46. let me give you this before i give it to you just so uses isaiah 46. y'all there yet verse 8 god says this through the prophet isaiah he said remember this and show yourselves men bring it again to mine oh ye transgressors remember the former things of old for i am god and there is none else i am god and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and i will do all my pleasure god before anything ever happens he declares the end from the beginning now hear what i'm about to say to you god in his foreknowledge he knows everything ahead of time right so listen to me closely god knows before you're ever born or before a person's ever born he knows whether they are going to accept him and his ways are rejected everybody agree with that i mean the prophet jeremiah god said before you were formed in the womb i sanctified you and ordained you to be a prophet to the nations before you were ever even conceived he tells jeremiah right now here's hear me out i don't believe god created any person or allowed any person to be born or created that he didn't want and desire to be saved right but you got to remember and here's what blows my mind just a little side note what blows my mind is that god gives human beings the freedom to choose if they want to make other human beings isn't that amazing i mean i thought about that after you know i have grown kids and nancy has grown kids and we decided we wanted to have another child that was a decision we prayed about we could have said no and not had another child or had another child but do you see
that god gave to two human beings the ability to choose freely choose to create an eternal spirit soul and body now god knew in eternity past that nancy and i would make that decision to have faith so he knew faith would come into the world so it's us involved you see what i'm saying free will god's foreknowledge we had free will to choose right but god knew what we would choose see this is the difference between armenians and calvinists calvinist thinks that god predestined it said this is what's gonna happen and i'm gonna make it happen whether you don't have any choice in the map no we have free will we make the choices god just knows the choices we're going to make right so then he'll formulate a plan for those who are going to make right choices and do his will right now he also knows on the flip side of that coin he also knows those who are going to be born through somebody's free will to a man and a woman's free will and sometimes not even free will even through rape god knows who's going to come so he knows but he knows of those people who are going to be born and created he knows who are going to choose to curse him reject him all right now hear me out on this stand up here jason and use jason as an example this morning let's say that god knows that before jason is born that jason is going to reject him all of his life and never get saved but god's not going to violate the the free will of his mom and daddy and his mom and daddy get together and create jason so jason god knows jason's going to reject jesus and actually become a god-hater and a christian hater and an atheist and and then become you know evil if god knows that is god somehow obligated to send people to witness to him no see that's that's what the lord revealed to me god knows who is going to reject him and never believe no matter how many people he sends to them so what i believe is god has chosen to some of those people out there who he knows no matter how many prophets no matter how many missionaries no matter how many people he sent to them they would reject them and kill that missionary i believe that god said i'm
not sending them anybody and i'm going to let that apparent unfairness of what looks to be unfair be a stumbling block for those who want to accuse me of being unfair oh did y'all catch all that see god is amazing at leaving just enough room for you to hang yourself folks he's smarter than us he's been around a lot longer enough and when you know everything the end from the beginning you can make decisions that other people couldn't make right see and i said this if god knows it's going to take all these thousands of dollars to train a missionary to to speak arabic and do to to send that missionary overseas and and everything it's going to take for that missionary to go to this to you know to to pakistan or iran but god knows that the second he gets there and speaks that jesus is the way muhammad's not and allah is not that they're going to cut his head off does god have to send that man now here's the thing does he send some sometimes yes but he doesn't have to you hear me if he knows you're going to be a rebel here's what's so and that's what we find in romans 1 when he talks about those who give themselves over to homosexuality and they give themselves over to these things to lasciviousness he says god said he said i i i give him up i give up on him i turn him over he knows what decision they're gonna make that they're never gonna he knows who's never gonna turn so god gives up on them and to the unsaved world they think that that makes god sound mean no he just knows what they're going to do so he's not obligated to do anything for them oh and when you know this listen to me when you know that you've been privileged listen to me to even hear the gospel of jesus christ once you better count that one of the highest privileges god could ever give you because he doesn't have to give it to you and he doesn't have to give it to you 10 times or 15 times i think about the people who have heard the gospel of jesus christ the truth of the bible again and again and again and again and again have gone to church again and again and again and they never they never really get it right with god that's why hell is going to be worse for those who knew god at one point and walked away than it will be for those who never knew him oh yes there's degrees of punishment
hell so listen you go to hell by either what you choose to do or don't do or what god knows you will choose to do amen oh god didn't predetermine anybody to heaven and predetermine anybody to hell it's still a free choice whosoever will the offer is there just because god knows that me he pre-ordained some to heaven and preordains some to hell that's a lie from john calvin in augustine no he didn't predetermine anybody he just knows what decision they would make and some of them like pharaoh knowing the decisions they would make he said i'm going to use that heathen for my purpose so therefore he said he raised up pharaoh for that very purpose to show his strong hand see god will even use the wicked's rejection for his glory oh boy see this greatest rebellion that's coming with the the united nations and the one world government and the antichrist and the false prophet and the whole roman catholic church and the great falling away and this whole uprising this whole movement of satan to to rise the world up against the lord and against his anointing and try to do away with christians in christianity this great evil is going to reveal one of god's greatest glories because he's going to split the eastern skies he's going to come back when it's dark and evil and the devils gain the greatest power and authority in the world he's ever had and jesus is going to come and smash it in a day he's going to smash everything the devil has spent thousands of years building he's going to smash it in a day and show his glory amen and you can be on jesus side or you can be on satan's side you're going to be on one of the two choose you this day whom you will serve amen let's pray father in heaven we thank you for your holy spirit we thank you for your word we thank you for truth we thank you that you gave us a written word from prophets from thousands of years down to hundreds of years or you've given us just powerful powerful prophecies truth the true
living god gave us his true written book and by that we can know the truth and have fellowship with the savior the messiah jesus christ father i pray that everyone that hears this today in this place by internet radio by podcast however they may hear they'll understand they've been given a great great opportunity they have heard the gospel of jesus that he died on the cross for their sin rose from the dead that they must believe and turn from sin and be saved and they can have eternal life with their creator lord i pray that everyone that hears this will do that before it's too late lord we thank you for truth in a time of lies and deception we still we have truth and we thank you for it and i thank you that we have jesus to follow and we don't have to follow muhammad or buddha or krishna or kali or all the other false gods and demons in the world thank you lord we pray in jesus name let's stand this morning before we before we dismiss and take up the offering and do whatever y'all got planned back here i want to do this song again if you have never truly given your life to the lord or you are away from him you've walked away living in a lifestyle of sin and not seeking after him i'm going to give you an opportunity this morning to just come forward and accept jesus publicly because jesus said if you confess me before men in front of other people i will confess you if you deny me in front of it i will deny you so being a christian is a public thing there's no secret christians no secret service in christianity right so if you need that prayer time we're going to do this song before we take up the offering and close i want you to just step forward quick and don't be ashamed of the gospel so let's do this song one more time before we dismiss and if you need prayer and you need the lord this morning i want you to come forward