Revealed (John 8:37-59) Myles Holmes | July 13, 2025

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

It's good to be together this morning.

I gotta say, I don't know if it's the lighting in here, but I'm seeing some incredibly tanned arms and faces, and I love to see it.

It is a good start to the summer indeed.

If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, you can take them out and open them up to John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

We're gonna be in verses 37 to 59 this morning.

If you don't have a copy of God's word, the ushers are making their way down the aisle right now.

I caught them mid-coffee drink, so it's gonna be a bit of a delay, but they are making their way down the aisle.

And you can flag one of them down.

They'd love to get a copy of God's Word into your hands.

You're gonna need it this morning, and you'd be blessed to read it.

So we'd love to give that as a gift to you.

I wonder if you've noticed as you maybe go on Instagram and receive are inundated with ads or maybe see commercials or just live in our society.

I wonder if you've ever noticed how obsessed our culture is with figuring out who we are.

I'm sure you've talked with people who are on that journey of self-discovery.

I'm just trying to discover who I am.

I'm sure you've seen teenagers who you can do nothing to explain their behavior or maybe even what they're wearing, but to just say, well, they're just trying to figure out who they are.

And maybe some of you, like me, have gone through phases like that.

You know, you'd be ashamed to see the pictures that unfortunately exist in that time of your life.

Scroll for five minutes on your phone, and you'll see all these promotions for personality tests, for therapy apps, for astrology charts, for influencers who are telling you to find yourself, to discover who you are.

And what we understand about human life is that each of us are on our are really on this journey to uncover our truest self.

But I want to suggest that as soon as we start that journey, that it is an important journey, but as soon as we start it, we face really two problems.

The one is that as you look inward, you begin to realize that who you thought you were may not be as impressive as you thought.

The other is what to do with yourself once you discover the real you.

Once you look inside, once you figure out who you are, what are you supposed to do?

Now, if you were to go on the best sellers right now on Amazon and look at books, you would find among the best sellers of all books really books that deal with this question.

What do you do with you?

How do you discover who you are?

And then once you discover who you are, what are you supposed to do?

You would find books like the Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, which tells you to stop trying to control what other think others think of you.

Just let them do it.

Just let them do whatever they want.

You just be you.

Another book called Beyond Anxiety, which tells you that the way you deal with anxiety is by recognizing that anxiety is just signals pointing inwards, showing you who you really are.

There is a bestseller that has sold millions and millions of copies, which the name of I cannot say from this pulpit, you understand what it's telling other people to do with their opinion of you.

Essentially, forget what people expect, care about what matters to you, just define your life.

Now, if you were to read these books, I think you'd probably find some, maybe some helpful nuggets.

I think if you you'd also probably find some pretty destructive things in them if you were to follow them wholly.

But what I want you to consider this morning is that all these books, millions and millions of copies sold of each of these books prove something, and that is that you and I are on a quest to discover ourselves, to have our inner being revealed, to know who we are, and then to figure out what to do with what we discover.

And in John chapter 8, Jesus gives us a better answer.

John 8 · chapter mention

What Jesus offers us this morning is not just a framework for discovering who we are, but it is a confrontation, and you'll know why I call it that as we read through the text.

It is a confrontation between you and Jesus this morning that acts like a mirror revealing who you are, and then after you are revealed, an invitation into rescue.

Jesus comes into your life and he doesn't ask, listen, who do you think you are?

Jesus comes into your ass and your life and he and he says, This, let me show you who you are.

And once we see who you are, I've got some incredibly good news for you.

That I not only want to reveal who you are, I want to rescue you from who you are becoming.

That's the main point I want you to see this morning.

That's the heart of the passage this morning.

This is what Jesus is getting at.

The main point of our morning, this is, in other words, you can fall asleep right now.

You've got the whole message right now, okay?

Ready?

Jesus came to reveal who you are and to rescue you from who you are becoming.

From who you've become.

Now, listen, loved one, that is good news.

Because you know what that means?

That means when you get come to Jesus, you no longer have to hide who you are.

You know that?

Because Jesus has seen your most inward life.

The things that you are most ashamed of, and he has accepted you there.

It means that you know you don't have to be careless about other people.

It means that to live this life, you don't have to put up this like thick-skinned wall and not let other people in and kind of be like, well, I don't care what they think.

They can have their opinion, let them do what they want.

It means you can genuinely care about other people, you can invite them in.

It means that you don't need to invent a new self to matter to God.

Listen, listen to this.

The gospel is where the love of God meets you in the fullness of your brokenness and makes you anew.

And the veils come off in the presence of Jesus.

And we we we come to understand that it doesn't matter how broken we are, it doesn't matter how many reasons for shame there are in our life, it doesn't matter all the ways that we have been disobedient, the gospel is where the love of God meets us at our lowest point and offers to make us anew.

Now you will not find that in any self-help book, but you find it here in John 8.

So would you stand with me as we read the words of Jesus?

And for context, I'm gonna begin in verse 31 so that we understand this confrontation that Jesus is having with a group of Jews who, on the surface level at least, believed in him.

This is the word of God, John 8, chapter 8, verse 31.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

They answered him, We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.

How is it that you say you will become free?

Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains free.

So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have heard from your father.

They answered him, Abraham's our father.

Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.

This is not what Abraham did.

You are doing the works your father did.

They said to him, We were not born of sexual immorality, we have one father, even God.

Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love me.

For I came from God and I am here.

I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.

Why do you not understand what I say?

It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.

You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desire.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar, the father of lies.

But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.

Which one of you convicts me of sin?

If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

Whoever is of God hears the word.

The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.

The Jews answered him, Are we not right in saying 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.

Yet I do not seek my own glory.

There is one who seeks it, and it and he is the judge.

Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

The Jews said to him, Now we know that you have a demon.

Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.

Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died, and the prophets died?

Who do you make yourself to be?

Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.

It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God.

But you have not known him, I know him.

If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.

He saw it and was glad.

So the Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?

Jesus said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

This is the word of the Lord.

You can grab your seat.

There is a lot to unpack here.

And I wrestled with the temptation not to make this into two sermons, but to make this into three or four, because there is so much good here.

And so I apologize at the beginning that you are gonna leave saying, I don't even know if he preached half that text, because I just feel it's so deep, it's hard to dig into the whole thing, but you'll forgive me as we move on and recognize that in this passage, Jesus is revealing us so that as he reveals us in all of our brokenness, he can extend his arm of rescue to us.

And the first thing I want you to see this morning is that what you do reveals what you want.

What you do reveals what you want.

Jesus is revealing us, and he's showing us that what we do in life is always revealing something inside of us, it's revealing our heart.

Now that might sound overwhelmingly simplistic, that you always do the thing that you desire to do.

And you may say, well, Pastor, you know, we came for something better than that, but I just want to suggest that we in the chaos of life forget this reality, that our reactions to things, that the arguments we make in life, that the habits we create in life, that everything we do, although they feel random in the moment, they are not.

They are a product of our desires.

You have, again, simplistic, I know, but this is the heart of what we need to understand.

You have never done anything you haven't wanted to do.

What you do is a window into what you want.

What your actions are the fruits of something deeper.

Now, James clearly saw this when he wrote to the church in James chapter 4, verse 1 and 2, all the chaos that was in the church.

James 4:1

I mean, if you're in this church, maybe you look around and you say, Oh, things are kind of a mess.

I mean, I don't, but maybe you see something different.

But in this church, people were murdering each other, okay?

So Redemption Church, we're doing all right.

I mean, there's a few people not here, so we don't have everyone accounted for.

But I think we're doing all right because James says this what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you, is it not this that your passions are at war within you?

You desire and do not have, so you murder.

You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

In other words, James looks at the chaos of human action and says, what you are doing is simply just a window into your heart.

It shows what you want.

You and I believe this.

You know, we say actions speak louder than words.

Jesus looks at our life with absolute clarity, and he wants you to understand.

Listen, it doesn't matter that this morning, you know, you you came to church and you're saying, Oh, I need you, God, I need you, God.

What matters is the week.

Did you live this week with dependence?

And listen, sometimes I understand, but when we sing these songs, we gotta sing them in confession.

Like there are times where I just I look at what I'm singing and I'm saying, you know, I lead you, God, but I'm looking at my morning.

It's like, have I done anything to display that dependence?

And so, God, I'm gonna sing this with a heart of repentance, with a heart of confession, because the reality is sometimes my words are very far away from my works.

At the end of the day, our actions tell the real story of what is going on inside.

And Jesus here in John 8 is saying the exact same thing.

These people are saying the right things, but their actions display the complete opposite.

They show the truth.

And so notice here in verse 37, look down at verse 37 with me.

Jesus here is responding to the objection that they, these Israelites cannot be enslaved because they're children of Abraham.

And notice what he says.

I know that you are offspring of Abraham.

I know that you're offspring of Abraham.

I know you're biologically descended from Abraham.

And sure you are ethnically in the right family tree, but I mean, we praise God that just because you are from your family doesn't mean that you're like your family, right?

I mean, on the negative sense, you have some conversations with your crazy uncle at Thanksgiving dinner.

You leave from, you say, Thank goodness I'm not like them, right?

Am I right?

Just me?

Okay, just me, all right.

Sorry to the uncle that I'm talking about.

All right, here we go.

Jesus, he's not looking at the family tree.

And so he continues, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

In other words, your bloodline proves nothing.

It doesn't prove what you want.

Your actions prove what you want.

You know, just because you have Christian parents does not mean that you love Christ.

You know, just because you attend redemption church, the greatest church in the world, right?

Right?

In fact, one of the kids once said that this church has the greatest pastor in the world.

And so I put that up on a plaque in my office, greatest, you know.

Just because you attend church does not mean that you worship.

Your background does not prove your desire.

Your life does.

And in verse 38, what Jesus is doing is looking into our life and making it crystal clear.

I speak of what I have seen with my father, and look at this loved one.

You do, you do, circle that in your Bible, underline that in your Bible, draw some arrows to that in your Bible.

You do what you have heard from your father.

They may be ethnic descendants of Abraham, but their behavior shows they are living out the desires of someone else entirely.

Now, what Jesus is saying here is so overwhelmingly offensive.

If you are in the text right now, which I'm praying you are, I'm praying you're in the text right now, you're feeling like kind of awkward.

Because Jesus is looking at these Israelites who believed in, I mean, they say they believe in him.

They're with Jesus because they're like, Jesus, we believe in you.

And Jesus is looking at them and saying, Listen, listen, ethnically, your father's Abraham, but spiritually, what he's about to say is, your father is the devil.

Mic drop, okay?

And we prepare our hearts because what's Jesus doing in this passage that we're trying to exposite and understand right now?

He is confronting us.

He's confronting us.

It is possible to say one thing and do another.

And when you do that, it is revealing what is really inside.

It's incredibly offensive, but loved one, I just want you to understand why Jesus says it.

Jesus is not trying to roast you this morning.

He's not trying to insult you this morning.

Jesus is saying these things so he can reveal who you are, so he can open up the inside and listen.

Say what our world is unwilling to say.

You're not enough.

To say what our, you know, therapy sessions are sometimes unwilling to say, you got some problems inside.

You know, you're a bit of a mess.

I mean, I just don't think you sit down with a therapist and that's the first thing they say to you.

But Jesus loves you too much.

He loves you too much.

And if we're listening, it's gonna offend us too because Jesus, uh, what he's cutting through here isn't just their lineage, it's the illusion that we can claim one thing with our mouths and then do an entirely different thing with our lives.

Loved one, we we can show up to church, but then shut shut Jesus out the rest of the week.

We can sing these worship songs and and we can clap, you know, and we can be present in the worship service and yet in our lives really be chasing comfort and success and idolatry.

I mean, I just can never I can never not pay attention to what the kids are doing in there and wonder if next week I should just uh enroll myself into that class anyways.

We can say that we trust God but but live self-reliant lives.

I mean, I mean we can claim that we need him.

It's easy to sing that song, isn't it?

But uh but how many of us acted this week as though we needed to rely on ourselves, like we couldn't depend on God?

You can call Jesus Lord, but you can keep him out of the decisions you make, you can keep him out of your schedule, you can keep him out of your budget.

I mean, it is easy to say one thing and do another, but but Jesus is looking at us and saying, What you do reveals what you want.

And that hits close to home when the Spirit drives that truth into our heart.

But the crowd misses it.

They double down and they say, Abraham's our father.

I mean, they just like it, it's you know, when someone says something so insulting that you gotta give them the benefit of the doubt, you're like, there's no way that Jesus is saying that to me.

So they they kind of like take a step back.

No, Abraham is our father.

And so in verse 39, what Jesus does is he speaks with the clarity of a friend who loves you too much to sit in air, and he has the scalpel of a surgeon who knows that before he gets to the disease that is inside of us, he must make an incision.

He must cut.

And so look what he says in verse 39 with crystal clear clarity.

If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.

But now you seek to kill me.

A man who told you the truth, I heard from God.

This is not what Abraham did.

You are doing the works your father did.

In other words, your works betray your wants.

Your wants expose your heart.

It is a direct line.

What you are doing is showing what you want, and what you are wanting reveals your heart.

It reveals who you really are.

And so listen, as we come before Jesus, we need to recognize this morning that Jesus is not fooled by your spiritual credentials.

He's not fooled by your religious appearance.

There are too many of us that are coming to Jesus with.

Sort of this fake ID.

Listen, Jesus, this is who I am.

And I just want you to know Jesus can look right through it and see you because your whole life is a resume.

You have been building.

Everything you have done.

Jesus, when he meets you, if you want to meet him, when he meets you, he sees into it with crystal clear clarity.

His vision is the clearest vision imaginable.

He knows you.

I mean, you and I, we want to be known, right?

Everybody in this culture, we want to be known.

But the reality is we want to be known for the best 10% of ourselves, don't we?

I mean, isn't social media, doesn't social media prove that?

I mean, it's not a bad thing.

I don't I'm not saying go and you know, post your lowest moments of the week.

We don't need to see some of that, but but I'm saying like it's it's a reality that we just don't want to we want to be known for the things we think are good, but man, we sure want to hide the things that we aren't proud of.

We don't want to broadcast our failures, our bitterness, our addiction, our jealousy, our our compromise, our anxiety, our pride.

I mean, could you imagine for a moment?

If you didn't know it this week, but you know, like a documentary crew had been following you the whole week, and they assembled your, you know, like a YouTube compilation of your lowest moments, and it started playing on this screen.

Even like I'm just talking even from this week, you know, I feel like I would have to run out of the room.

I feel like I would be condemned.

You know, every every moment, every thought.

Could you imagine being exposed to that degree?

And loved one, you know Jesus knows you like that.

He's seen you in your lowest moments.

And he's seen that even some of your highest moments have been propped up by like selfishness and pride and jealousy and envy.

That even some of your highest moments aren't really as great as at the heart of it you think they are.

Now, what Jesus is doing is revealing us, right?

He's exposing us, and and in this moment we should feel this sense of like, I'm standing before Jesus and I am fully known by him.

I am fully revealed, I am naked in front of him.

And maybe in this moment there is this like shame rising up because you recognize like no one in this room knows you like Jesus knows you.

He can see through everything you do into your heart.

But listen, Jesus is not revealing us to reject us.

Jesus is not revealing our lowest moments to point to them and say, This is who you are, really?

You this is the best you could bring.

Jesus is revealing who we are so that he can rescue you.

He reveals to rescue.

And what I want you to see next is this that our wants, see, what we do shows what we want, but what we want shows who our heart ultimately belongs to, because our desires, what we want, doesn't just come out of nowhere.

It's always shaped by something or someone.

And so Jesus here is pressing in with compassion into you and I, and he's saying, What who's forming you?

Who is it who's creating these desires in your heart?

If what you do is what you want, reveals what you want, then the second thing I want you to see today is that what you want reveals who you belong to.

What you want reveals who you belong to.

Now in verses 40 to 44, Jesus is pointing out something that even our culture understands instinctively, and that is that your parents leave a mark on you.

Your parents shape you.

I mean, I've seen this in my family.

My brother, I've been pointing it out for like 20 years, has slowly been becoming my mom.

Now, I love my mom, she's in the front row, okay?

So it's it's great.

In a lot of ways, it's really good.

It's erasing some really negative things in his life and putting some really positive things in life.

But I say that to say you probably have the same experience.

That you see, maybe you have children, you see in your children that they kind of mimic the same things you do.

You know, I did youth ministry for over 10 years, and what I discovered was this that the kids would often have the same good traits that their parents had, and the reverse side of that is they are the things that their parents struggled with, the kids likewise would struggle with.

Why?

Because it doesn't matter how much Sunday school you do and youth ministry you do, you cannot outform the influence of a parent on a kid's life.

Therapy understands that.

And so much of therapy today is looking back.

Why am I like this?

How did my upbringing shape me like this?

What did my parents pass on to me?

So much so that sometimes in the chaotic moments of my household, I just start writing down what happened, I put it in an envelope, because I know in like 20 years a therapist is gonna be calling me and being like, what happened on that day?

And I'm like, I got cra I got it for you, okay?

I'm prepared.

Now Jesus points to what we see biologically, and he points out the spiritual reality and says that the influence of your lineage and parents cannot just ruin you or make you successful for life.

It can ruin you or set you up for success for eternity because this is not only a biological reality, it is a spiritual reality.

And so, look, uh in these in these verses, Jesus begins to contrast what it's like to be a child of the Father with what it's like to be a child of Satan.

Notice it in verse 42.

Look at this in the text, it's so crystal clear, and I say this for your comfort and for your encouragement.

Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would love me.

You would love me.

Loved one, can we apply this passage to our lives right now?

That the thing that cuts, the mark that cuts through all of the religious noise in our lives is this question.

Do you love Jesus?

The question is not just do you believe in him, not just do you serve at church, not just do you try to obey, but at the core of who you are, all those things pushed aside, as we put the microscope into your heart, is there a love for the Lord Jesus Christ?

And it is so important that we consider that this morning because some of us have this battle with assurance where we just don't feel like we are children of God.

And so often the reason is because we look at the wrong things.

Instead of looking at the heart, we look at the actions.

We ask, Am I really a child of God?

And we look at our lives and we see weakness and we see inconsistency and we see struggle and we see sin that we just we just cannot get rid of, and we see prayers that have just not been answered, and we see feelings that can just never really get revved up for the Lord.

And we wonder, like, could I really be a child of God?

And we start to question everything.

But Jesus is not asking if your life is perfect.

Jesus is not even looking here at your works, he's looking at your heart.

Do you love him?

Is your heart his?

Loved one, notice what he does not say, okay?

Because Satan will come at you with this temptation, as though Jesus said, if God were your father, you would perform perfectly.

You see what he says in verse 42?

If God were your father, you would love me.

I mean, we need we need to look no farther than the example of Peter.

Was not Peter at almost every scenario in his life a complete failure?

He denied Jesus three times.

When he stood, should have stood in strength and conviction, he fled the scene of the cross.

He constantly got it wrong.

And yet at the end of his life, when Jesus is erected, uh is resurrected, he appears to Peter, and what does he say?

Peter, do you love me?

Peter.

Do you love me?

Peter.

Do you love me?

Love me when Jesus meets with you.

And the question he has for you will not be, why did you why didn't you do more for me?

Why didn't you do this?

Why are you such a failure?

Why are you like this?

His question will be this do you love me?

That's what Jesus is after.

This is what shows that your heart belongs to the Father.

Does your heart long for the Son?

And you know, you know, in Galatians 1, verse 6, Paul says to the church, I am astonished.

Galatians 1:6

I am shocked at how quickly you fall away from the gospel.

And you know, I look at my own life, and and you know, having been a pastor for so many years now, just look at the lives of so many Christians, and I and I cannot help but to share the astonishment with him at how fast Christians will fall away from the gospel.

It is so fast.

I mean, you come into Christ, you come to Christ and you're like, of course, it's it's all faith alone.

It's not my works.

Like my works could never save me.

They could never, you know, do anything to give me righteousness.

I need the work of Jesus Christ, I need the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

But then you get into the kingdom of Christ, and all of a sudden the script changes, and you think, if I'm gonna be loved by God, well, I better start to prove myself.

I better start to serve, I better start to do this, I better start to read like this, I better start to pray like this.

And all of a sudden, like, sure, I wasn't saved by works, but I better prove myself by works.

It's not the gospel we started with.

It's not the gospel Jesus preached.

He never said that you are prove yourself to be a child of God through your spotless works.

He said, if God were your father, you would love me.

And so, can I say this to you, loved one?

In my prayer is that this either comforts you or convicts you to the core where you you see in the mirror that you just are not a child of God.

The question you need to be asking yourself is not, have I done enough?

Do I love him?

Do I love him?

And if the answer to that is yes, even like a even like a trembling, like a weak yes, I love Jesus, then take heart because that is evidence that you are a child of God.

It is evidence that something supernatural has happened in you because that does not happen in a heart of flesh.

It does not happen if your father is Satan.

It can only happen if your father is God.

That love is a mark of the true child of God.

Now, what if you don't love him?

That's what Jesus is pressing in here.

And he gets to the heart of it in verse 43.

Look at what he says in verse 43 with me.

Why do you not understand what I say, he says to these supposedly believing Israelites?

It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.

It's the opposite.

I mean, it's not just that they don't understand.

There are times where they just don't understand.

And man, if you don't understand, Jesus is so willing to sit with you patiently.

But the problem, Jesus looks past that, it's not an information problem.

It is an affection problem.

Now, this is so practical that at the heart of our rebellion against God is not a lack of information, it is a lack of affection.

Jesus will say, if you love me, you will hear my word.

That the heart that loves always follows with a heart that obeys.

It is as simple as that.

And so we come to understand that the heart of rebellion is not information.

It's not a lack of information.

The heart of rebellion is a lack of affection for the Lord.

It is inside.

Now, this is so practical for us.

As we seek to evangelize and reach the lost, it is so practical that we know that ultimately what God will use to save is not information.

So often we make it about information, don't we?

Well, you know, I'm gonna have to present the gospel, and maybe I just won't present it well enough.

And you know, if I could have presented, and then we have the conversation, we think, ah, if I could have just said it this way, maybe it would have changed things.

Absolutely not.

You've misunderstood what the rebellion's about.

The rebellious heart is not rebellious because it just hasn't had like a clear presentation.

The rebellious heart, even with Jesus, who like can we just say doesn't get clearer than standing with Jesus.

The problem is a rebellious heart.

You cannot bear to hear my word.

You don't want to hear it.

And so we get into these conversations, and you know what we need is not like information is good.

We need to learn how to present the gospel a hundred percent.

I'm not saying we don't need that, but I am saying this the thing that will make a difference is the prayer that you offer to God in that moment and say, God, change their heart because just like me, uh they're a rebel against you.

I was like that, and my heart was changed.

God, do that work in them.

Jesus here, Jesus is going farther, though, with the Israelites.

He's already given the diagnosis, he's already shown that the sinful fallen condition, in our sinful fallen conditions, our hearts don't just ignore Jesus.

They hate Jesus, they cannot bear to hear his words.

But now he's showing us why we are like this in our rebellion.

Look at verse 44.

This is the mic drop moment of clearest defense, perhaps one of the most sobering moments in Jesus' ministry, where he says this, you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

Love ones, recognize who Jesus is talking to here.

Jesus is talking to a group of Israelites who are with him because in verse 31, John tells us that they believed him.

And Jesus is looking past their actions into their heart to say that you belong to the devil.

And the problem that Jesus is exposing is this problem that the one you obey most consistently is the one you are becoming like.

That your desires are not neutral, they are not without impact.

Everything that you desire either forms you into the image of God or into the image of his enemy.

Everything.

There's no neutral decision, there's no neutral thought.

There is no neutral habit.

Everything you do, loved one, everything you think, every habit that forms your life either shapes you more into a child of God, Jesus says here.

I mean, this is not my psychology, this is the word of Christ being applied to our souls.

It is all formative, it is shaping you.

I don't know how you respond to that.

I'm terrified by it.

Because I often think, you know, of course, like my Bible time, you know, when the birds are chirping outside and the coffee's got the steam rising from it, and the mug says, be still and know that I am God.

Of course, in my quiet time I'm being formed.

But I don't ever think about what's happening that evening when I'm laying on the couch and looking for something to watch on Netflix.

Or that moment when I you know pull out my phone for that hit of dopamine.

And, you know, I've taken Instagram and Netflix off, so I go to the weather network and I look for tick videos because I just want to I just want to feel something, you know.

You guys are gonna go, you guys are gonna go this afternoon to the weather network to look for tick videos, I promise you.

I don't I don't think that those moments are formative.

But Jesus is looking here and saying, listen, it's all forming you into one thing or the other.

I mean, we get that when it comes to parenting, right?

The illustration Jesus is using here is of parents.

And so we understand that in our parent, like there's kind of like this, you know, pact that my wife and I have of like there's just certain things you don't say in front of your kids.

You're especially aware of it as a pastor, you know, where you have PKs, pastors' kids in the house.

There are just certain things you don't say because like kids are just like sponges, and they will say it to someone in the church on Sunday morning.

And so it's like, okay, you know, private conversation here, because the sponge is right there.

They are consistently being shaped according to you.

So I mean, sometimes like you see them get angry, and you it's like it's like this moment of shock, right?

Because you're like, oh man, that is how I get angry.

Your kids are constantly being formed, whether you know it or not.

Every little thing in your house, every habit, every routine, it's all, I mean, there's so much instruction in there for parents, but it is all forming and shaping your child.

Now, Jesus is holding up a mirror and saying, it's the same with your soul.

The more you follow a voice, the more you resemble its source.

And this is the terrifying truth he's drawing out.

There is no choice we make in a day, there's no habit we instill in our life, there's no choice that we make for our family that is not shaping us.

Every compromise, every indulgence, every ignored conviction, every uh retreat into leisure and entertainment, it's not just a moment, it is formation.

And so, loved one, what we need to do here is apply God's truth and see really the horror of what Christ is saying is that the things that will lead us away from Him are often small things.

You know, I've been in ministry long enough to see a lot of people shipwreck their lives.

You know what I've I've always noticed?

It's it's rarely a it's rarely like one big thing at one time that shipwrecks them.

When big things happen in people's lives, they often they often begin to walk in obedience to God.

You know, suffering comes and it just makes them cling on to God with like this adrenaline they wouldn't otherwise have.

You know what leads people astray?

It's these tiny little decisions that they don't know are actually shaping their soul.

It is a it is a quiet decision to neglect the word, just thinking it might be just for a little while, but it but it shapes you.

It is a slow drift from community.

I mean, I'll be back, but just for this season, I just can't be a part of this community.

It's a secret sin that they keep hidden, that they are unwilling for a time to share, believing they have it under control.

It's a relationship that they know isn't godly, but they're unwilling to rip off the band-aid and cut themselves off from the person.

It is a growing bitterness, a refusal to forgive someone in your life that hardens your heart.

They seem like small things in the moment.

They seem like you can still be obedient and hold on to this thing, but slowly it seeps out inside and corrupts everything.

Jesus in verse 44 is absolutely condemning.

And read with me the words of Jesus in verse 44.

You are of your father, the devil.

And your will is to do your father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Jesus is pulling back the curtain on Satan.

And you know, I had a I had a whole sermon here with three points, you know, Satan's character, his craft, his children.

It all started with the same letter, and so, you know, it's as a pastor and a preacher, you know how hard it is for me to let go of this.

But there is so much for us here to learn about Satan and his ways, and so much theology that we can draw from God's word in this passage.

And we could apply so much here, unveiling the ways of Satan, recognizing that our sanctification essentially boils down to a battle of truth.

Whether you believe the word of God or the lies Satan tells, lies like I'm just too broken to be used by God.

I'll always struggle.

You know, this sin has such a hold on me that it's it's stronger than grace is.

That God could never love you.

But right now, what we need to see is how the crowd responds to everything Jesus has just said.

And that brings us to our third point.

Who you are reveals how you respond.

What you do reveals what you want.

What you want reveals who you are, and who you belong to, and who you belong to reveals how you respond.

And so now, love, when Jesus has revealed us, he has exposed us, we stand in front of him, completely revealed, and there are only two responses.

It is fight or flight.

Jesus packs no punches.

Listen, when you do life with Jesus, he will not take some of you.

He's not looking for your best presentation of yourself.

He's not looking for the top 10% of you.

He is wanting all of you.

The lowest lows, the weakness, the sin that you bear, the inadequacy.

He wants it all.

He demands all of us.

But as he demands this, as we stand before him revealed, there is really only two responses.

And unfortunately for these Israelites, the way they respond reveals who they are.

I'm rubber.

You are glue.

Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.

Did you guys say this, or is this me?

Is the fact that I still know it concerning at all?

Essentially, they boiled down to this tactic.

No, I'm not.

You are.

You see it here in verse 48?

You see it?

Look what they say.

Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?

You think our father is the devil?

Well, you have a demon, Jesus.

Now in verses 49 to 57, the conversation, it spirals into a work, like increasingly hurtful insults against Jesus.

But I want you to see the grace of Jesus this morning that stands there and bears with him.

What do you do when someone insults you?

I'll tell you what I do.

I just leave.

But Jesus will not do that.

As our life insults him in rebellion to him, he is unwilling because of his love to leave.

He will stay until they pick up stones.

Jesus will not back down.

It's not until they're done with the insults.

Now they're picking up stones.

And his time has not yet come because there is a day where they will do the equivalent of what they wanted to do there.

They will put him on the cross.

Not till that moment will Jesus stop staying with those who have lived in enmity against him, preaching the good news that he came not only to reveal them, but to rescue them.

And so he continues to expose them.

He says to them, I don't have a demon, I honor my father, and you dishonor me.

And yet, loved one, notice, even in the midst of their insults, he is inviting them.

He's inviting them into life, into his word, into the faith that Abraham once had.

The Israelites, their spiritual DNA has been exposed.

They are children of the devil, and Jesus keeps going after them.

He endures the insults, he keeps speaking truth, and he will do it until he is on the cross, where even on the cross, his heart is for them, where he says, asked for the forgiveness of his enemies because they know not what he said.

It's all grace.

It's all grace that Jesus meets us with this morning.

And he's showing us a picture of our reality.

He's showing us that this world that we live in is a confusing world because we have two parents.

In this age between when Christ came and when he returns, you and I have two parents that are telling us contradicting things.

That can, I mean, really wreak some havoc in a home, can't it?

I mean, my kids are constantly trying to create this tension of they ask their mother something, and then they come to me and they ask the same thing.

And what do I say?

Go ask your mother.

Why?

Because I'm trying to create harmony in the house.

I gotta make sure we're on the same page because it's incredibly confusing for children when one parent says one thing and the other parent says another thing.

And loved one, I want you to know where you are right now is in a home with two parents.

There is God who is calling you so clearly to himself to obedience, and there is Satan who is working through the world calling you to himself.

And what Jesus is calling you to hear is to follow his voice, to let his truth shape your desires, to let his word form your instincts.

And so the way that we apply this is we look at our lives and we ask ourselves, who is forming us?

Love one, if you are in Christ, who are you letting form you?

And it's God's grace right now, if the Holy Spirit is giving you clarity as you look at your life and recognize that maybe it's not Jesus, maybe it's the world and ultimately the one who in Scripture is called the Prince of the Power of Air.

Satan.

And so we just pause for a moment right now and we just ask ourselves this question.

How have you spent your time this week?

The way that you spent your time this week, how has it formed your heart for eternity?

I'm convinced that Satan doesn't need his name on the credits of every Netflix show we've watched that has formed us into worldliness.

And I'm not saying there's never a time, you know, for leisure and entertainment, but I am saying we are certainly in a culture that is a little too obsessed with it.

I don't think Satan needs you to know that, you know, behind so much of what you're looking for on social media that keeps you scrolling is him.

He's perfectly content with the victory that he wins when we choose endless entertainment instead of time with God.

And so we we look at our time.

What about your treasures?

What about the way that you've used your treasures?

How has your generosity or your grip on money shaped your soul?

How has your home, your schedule, your money, how has it formed you?

There's Jesus who said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus understood this principle that the way that you use your treasures, whether it's your money, your schedule, your whatever it is, your house, your hospitality, the way that you use your treasures dictates where your heart will be.

It shapes you, it forms you.

And Jesus is calling us.

He's calling us, not just the Israelites, he's calling us.

And the problem is, loved one, don't shake this off.

It is what the Israelites do.

You see him do it in verse 57.

Look what they say, sort of in mockery.

You're not yet 50 years old.

And have you seen Abraham?

Like you can tell this, Jesus, what to do?

Loved one, press into this.

Hear Jesus because of what Jesus says.

Look at verse 58 with me.

It's the nail in the coffin.

Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

You know, loved one, don't ever let someone tell you that the Bible doesn't say that Jesus is God.

I've heard that claim thrown around, and it is bringing sort of a modern desire for understanding to an ancient text.

What Jesus says here is more than if he were to say in the words plainly that so often our modern society is looking for I am God.

He doesn't just say that he's God, he he uses God's name before Abraham was I am.

It is the name that Moses heard from the burning bush.

It is the name that up until this point people had thought was too holy to even say, to even write.

And the people, they know exactly what he means.

Because as soon as he says that, what happens?

They pick up stones to hurl at him.

And this is what happens when you're confronted with Jesus.

Either you bow before him and you worship him, or you try to silence him.

Jesus says, Before Abraham, I am.

He's not just claiming to be older than Abraham, he is claiming to be God himself.

He is claiming to be the one who can lead you back to him.

And he is revealing that to us this morning, not to intimidate us, but to invite us into eternal life with him.

To stop living with divided loyalties, stop being formed by the world that is shaping us at every moment, to stop running after the things that leave you empty, to come and to hear his voice, to know that he sees everything in you and he still calls your name so that you do not need to hide with Jesus.

Loved one, this is such good news.

You don't need to go to the self-help books to learn how to hide who you are, you don't need to go to the self-help books to learn how to not care about what other people think you are.

You need to go to Jesus and to bring the real you that will be exposed in his sight and rescued by his grace.

And so I ask you one more time.

Who's forming you?

There are only two fathers.

There are only two destinies.

There is one voice where today, this week, in your life, one voice will flatter and the other one will set you to freedom.

Right now, Jesus is calling you.

He came to reveal you.

He came to rescue you.

And he came to ask you, will you come?

Will you stop hiding behind your history, behind your family, behind the things that you do and have accomplished?

Will you come?

You bow to him.

It's for that very reason that I ask you to, as we as we sing this song in response to him, to not just sing it, but to pray it.

As a response, God, I'm setting my heart on you.

God, I want you.

In this world where there are so many options and so many of them are not you, Jesus, I want you.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the gospel message and for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

We thank you that every time he confronts us in our sin, he invites us to grace, to life, to hope.

Week after week, the message never gets old and it's never unnecessary.

Because we are constantly facing this battle in this world where two fathers are exerting their spiritual influence over us and forming us to two eternally different destinies.

God, we need to hear this truth again and again that whoever hears the word of Christ will be set free, and whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

And so, Father, we stand and respond to you to say, Lord, this is where I find freedom.

This is where I find hope.

This is where I find life.

This is where I find peace, being fully revealed before you, knowing that you know us better than we even know ourselves, knowing that you know our sin, which is deeper than we could ever possibly imagine.

And yet, Lord, that you offer a mercy that is always deeper than our sin.

God, we give you praise and we give you thanks.

That's in response to you that we sing.

That Lord, we want to set our heart on you.

So, God, help us to sing now.

We pray in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Would you stand with me and respond?