In the sermon 'The Final Urgent Appeal', Jason Dohm focuses on Jesus's last public address in John 12:44-50, emphasizing its urgency and the critical nature of its message. The sermon underlines the dual aspect of believing in Jesus: assenting to His truth and consenting to His person. Dohm explains that Jesus's appeal is a final opportunity for the public to receive God's grace before it is withdrawn due to persistent unbelief. The address highlights three critical propositions: Jesus came as light into a world of darkness, His mission was to save, not to judge, and rejecting Him results in self-condemnation. Dohm stresses the unity between Jesus and God the Father, emphasizing that faith in Jesus extends to God. He warns that rejecting Jesus's teachings is a rejection of divine revelation, leading to judgment. The sermon also exhorts parents and believers to persist in teaching and instilling these truths with urgency and consistency, trusting that God will bring them to fruition.

Our sermon text is John 12 44 to the end of the chapter. For context, I'll back up a little bit to Genesis. Just to put it all in perspective for us. Verse 37. But Although he had done many signs before them, they did not believe in him that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke.

Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe because Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. These things Isaiah said when he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, even among the rulers, many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Then Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me believes not in me but in Him who sent me.

And He who sees me sees Him who sent me. I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him.

The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command What I should say and what I should speak and I know that his command is everlasting life therefore Whatever I speak just as the father has told me So I speak He who has ears to hear let him hear well that was quite shocking but it says that Jesus cried out. And so that was an excellent reading of the text. I appreciate that. The title of the sermon this morning is The Final urgent appeal.

Jesus is crying out to the public, the multitudes, this one last time in the Gospel of John. There will be no more public preaching after this text. All of the things that Jesus says through the end of the Gospel of John will be teaching to his disciples or statements that he makes before the courts as he is being tried. So this is the end of the public preaching. Last week our text had no red letters.

The red letters in a lot of Bibles are the direct words of Jesus Christ. Last week There were no direct words of Jesus Christ. It was John the Gospel writer's commentary on what Jesus said in verse 35. Jesus said, walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you." And so John the Gospel writer then offers his commentary on what Jesus had said about himself as the light and about the importance of walking in the light while you had the opportunity to walk in the light before darkness overtook you. And John in his commentary quotes Isaiah 53 and quotes Isaiah 6, prophecies that were written about 500 years before Jesus.

Isaiah 53, his quote was about unbelief of the report from Isaiah 53. Who has believed our report? The implications of that being not many, not many have believed the report of the coming of the Son of God to save sinners. The report has gone out, but not many people have believed it. And then from Isaiah chapter 6, we have the judgment of God on persistent unbelief.

That if God sends you prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet to give you warning after warning after warning after warning, and you won't hear and you won't hear and You won't hear and you won't hear and you won't hear and you won't hear what happens. Well, Isaiah chapter 6 says that when you abuse grace which has been extended by God, graciously given by God, meaning You didn't deserve it, you didn't do anything to earn it, you couldn't have gotten it on your own. God gave it to you as a gift of grace, but you abused it, then God reserves the right to withdraw it. There's nothing unjust about God withdrawing something that He offered to you. He never owed it to you and you abused it and He pulls it back.

And so now you find yourself with eyes not being able to see, ears not being able to hear, a heart not being able to understand and perceive the things that are coming, because you trampled on His grace. So that commentary of John the Gospel writer hangs over our text, which is Jesus' final public appeal. And what an urgent appeal it is. I'm so glad you read it like that. Jesus is crying out urgently, urgently pleading with the people to receive the grace of God while it is there for the having, lest they abuse that grace and God just pull it back, withdraw the grace.

As we come to our text, let's ask the Lord to help us. God we do come to you this morning praying for help. Help me to be able to preach in a way that is helpful, clear, faithful to your Word completely according to your text without anything being added to it that doesn't belong in an explanation of this text. Help me to be urgent in my appeals as Jesus was urgent in His. God, help the people who are listening today.

May it be that they have eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand what You're saying to us through your word. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. As we divide up our text, the first subdivision here will be to look at verses 44 and 45. Hopefully your finger is still in John chapter 12.

Let me reread those two verses. Verses 44 and 45. Then Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And he who sees me sees him who sent me. In these verses we have the great truth that to trust in Jesus is to trust in God.

So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's trust and trust. To trust in Jesus is one and the same thing as to trust in God. Now, I played with the words here. I almost never play with the words because it's best and most appropriate to have the words of the text be the words that make their way into the sermon. So I did something I normally don't do.

Jesus said, believe, he who believes in me. I said, Trust, to trust in Jesus is to trust in God. Why did I play with the words? Because the Greek word that is being translated here has two elements to it. To believe in Jesus has these two elements.

You can never separate them. They go together and they always are part of the meaning when you believe in Jesus. The first is assenting to the truth. Embracing the truth of what Jesus taught when he was on earth. Grabbing a hold of that and saying, that is true.

I own that as true. Ascending to the truth. But the second part, and as important, is consenting to the person. In other words saying, I embrace that as true because of the person who said it. So I not only say, yeah I buy that, but also I entrust myself to you as the teacher.

I trust you. That's why I believe this is true, because I trust you as the truth teller. Believing in Jesus is as much about your disposition towards the one who is teaching as it is your disposition toward what is being taught. Do you get that? Believing in Jesus is equal parts, I trust Jesus as it is I trust that what he says is true.

It's equal parts. It's both of those things. I want to make sure that belief in Jesus isn't being reduced in our minds to belief in Jesus. In other words, He says things, I believe the things. You cannot reduce believing in Jesus to just, I believe what he says is true.

Because it is his identity and his work that makes the truth. The heartbeat, the center of his truth is who he is. He is from God and He is God and what He has done. He went to the cross to die for sinners so that sinners could be washed from the stains of their sins. This is the centerpiece of His truth.

This is not just about facts. I put in the time, I learn the facts, I take the test, I pass the test. No, that is not believing in Jesus. That is not throwing yourself upon Jesus as one who is trustworthy to part yourself from your sins. That is believing in Jesus.

Yes, it is wrapped up in truth propositions, but it goes so much beyond truth propositions. So, to the text. It says that Jesus cried out. This is an urgent appeal. This is a final opportunity for His hearers.

A final opportunity for Jesus to appeal to them and for them to respond to his appeals. Jesus is calling out in a loud voice in order to be heard. Jesus wants to be heard. Jesus intends to come out in public this one last time as a final opportunity to say and to be heard and for the people to respond to the truth that he is teaching about his person and his work on behalf of sinners. And what is so important?

What is this that must be heard? That if you believe in Jesus, that trust does not terminate in Jesus. This is the great thing worth crying out about. That when you trust in Jesus, your trust does not terminate in a man. It extends to and beyond the man, the God-man, Jesus Christ.

To who? To the Father, yes. But The Jews don't have an understanding of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, though that is in their scriptures. You can tease that out of the New Testament, but you can hardly fault them for not having a clear and distinct view of the Holy Trinity. They don't and so Jesus doesn't speak to those terms.

Doesn't speak in those terms. Jesus wants His hearers to know that to believe in Him is actually to believe in God. Believing in Jesus is believing in God. Your faith does not terminate in the man Jesus Christ, it goes to and beyond to God the Father. Yes, faith in God the Father, but His immediate hearers aren't thinking in those terms.

So Jesus says, in Him who sent me. There is one in heaven who sent me, and when you believe in me, your faith doesn't end with me. It goes to me and extends beyond me to the God in heaven who sent me. It is impossible to believe in Jesus in and of himself without believing in Father and Spirit. God is triune.

It is a triunity. It is a three part unity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, if you truly believe in one, you truly believe in all three, they are inseparable. It is impossible to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ without believing in Father and Son. As Jesus said in John 10 verse 30, I and my Father are one.

Not two that get along well, not two that work together well. One, I and my Father are one. Any attempt to isolate Jesus creates a false Jesus. It is not Jesus. It is an idol.

If you wanted to worship Jesus in and of himself, apart from the Father, apart from the Spirit, that is impossible. The Jesus who is, is a Jesus who is one with Father and Spirit. This unity is so comprehensive, so complete, that whoever sees Jesus, sees the Father. Now this is remarkable because of what Scripture teaches. Scripture teaches that no man has seen God at any time.

This is where we began in the Gospel of John, John 1, 18. No man, no human being has seen God at any time. Not ever, not once in the history of the world has anyone seen God at any time? This is meaning God the Father. No one has ever seen God the Father.

God the Father dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see. This is 1 Timothy 6 verse 16. He dwells in unapproachable light. You would be consumed. No man has seen Him.

That's just what John said in John 1. No man has seen God at any time. No man has seen Him or can see Him. It's impossible. And Yet, Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

Colossians 1.15. So that's the Apostle Paul writing to the Colossians. And he's saying what John is teaching in his Gospel. That Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is saying Amen to the fact that God the Father dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see and yet Jesus is his image.

Or Jesus is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of God's person. That's Hebrews 1 verses 3. So you have these two things taught in the New Testament. One is you cannot see God. No one ever has and you can't.

He dwells in unapproachable light. And that Jesus is the express image of God. So that if you've seen Jesus, you've seen God. As our text puts it, he who sees me sees him who sent me. To see the sent one is to see the sender in this case.

Jason, explain that. Take the mystery out of that for us. What I can tell you is this. God is three in one. One person.

Three subsistences. That's what the confession writers like to use as the term, not persons, because then we start thinking in two distinctive terms. There are distinctions, and yet they are one. One God, three persons, or three subsistences. And the Word, Remember how John begins, in the beginning was the Word.

What in the world is the Word? It's not a what in the world, it's a who in the world, it's Jesus. In the beginning was the Word. Jesus has been eternally part of the triune Godhead for all eternity and the Word has been given the privilege to reveal God to man. It's an honor bestowed upon the Lord Jesus Christ that He is the one who gets to be the express image of this God so that mankind would know something about this God who made him.

And so when we want to know this God who made us, we can know Him by looking at Christ. Literally, for them, figuratively, for us. We can look at this Christ. We have Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, these remarkable accounts of the life and the teachings and the death and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ. We can look at Him and learn about this God who made us.

We can observe God by looking at Christ. These two verses are simply a powerful statement of the absolute unity between the Father and the Son. To trust in Jesus is to trust in the Father. Your faith in Jesus never terminates in Jesus. It extends to Jesus and it extends beyond Jesus to the Father and He is one with the Father.

They are one. They are God. So when you believe in Jesus you are building on rock. This is what we should take away from that. When you believe in Jesus you are building on rock because your faith rests on God, not in a man.

That's what Jesus wanted these people who were hearing Him cry out. That's what He wants them to know. To build on me is to build on rock. Your faith rests on God, not on a man. On the God-man.

You're building on rock. The next subsection, verses 46-48. Jim wants me to stop there, but I cannot stop there. You must continue. 46-48, follow along.

Jesus says, I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him. The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day." In these verses we have the great risk of the saving work of Jesus.

So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, it's risk. The great risk of the saving work of Jesus. You might ask, How can it be a risk? How can a saving work, work to save the world, how can there be risk wrapped up in that saving work? Well, listen on.

There are three tremendously significant propositions that Jesus states in these verses. What is a proposition? It's a truth statement. It's something set forward as being true. So there are three tremendously significant truth statements that Jesus gives us here.

Number one, he came as light into the world. He came as light into the world. Turn to Matthew chapter 4. I think there is something that Matthew says in Matthew chapter 4 that illuminates and expands on and explains what Jesus is teaching. Jesus came as light into the world.

Matthew the Gospel writer in Matthew chapter 4 verses 15 and 16 quotes two places in Isaiah also, Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 42. He strings these quotes from Isaiah, the prophet together, and he's pointing at Jesus and saying Jesus fulfilled that. Isaiah was talking about Jesus and Jesus and what he's come and done has fulfilled what Isaiah was talking about. Listen to Matthew 4 verses 15 and 16. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles." So he is locating on where Jesus came from, Galilee of the Gentiles.

Of the Gentiles. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned. Isaiah said all that and Matthew the Gospel writer says that was about Jesus. Jesus is here doing what Isaiah said the Messiah, the promised Savior would do.

So this is the world Jesus entered into. A world of darkness. Incapacitating darkness. Listen to this. The People who sat in darkness have seen a great light.

If you are in utter darkness long enough, you are really just left with just sitting still. You have no light to navigate by. You don't even know what you are looking for because light gives you that. After a while you are just sitting in darkness. Upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death.

This is the condition of the world that Jesus entered into. Darkness. The shadow of death lingering over the earth and especially the Gentile world. This was Jesus' effect on that world. A world devoid of the truth that would tell them a way to be reconciled with a God who was utterly holy.

We think we're good enough. God says all your righteousness is his filthy rags, Isaiah 64. So we're very used to our defilements and our sins. We hopefully try to limit ourselves to the more respectable ones, our more respectable sins. And so To each other we seem acceptable enough.

So we start to think that we must be acceptable enough to this God. We have these things in our lives that we are proud of. We think it would be acceptable to offer to this God. But when we offer them to this utterly holy God, he says that's filthy. Wait, how can it be filthy?

I think well of these things. I'm proud of these things because I'm utterly holy and you're comfortable in your sins. You think that because you've limited yourself to the respectable sins, pride and self-righteousness, that these things that you offer have to be acceptable to me. You know nothing of me, says this holy God. You know nothing of me.

If you knew anything of me, you would not offer me this filth in your pride." This is the nature of the darkness that Jesus enters into, and he goes after that. He floods light on that. So that John 3 says, you didn't really want that light, you love darkness because you love sin. That's why you want to receive the light. Then immediately in Matthew chapter 4 talks about the people sitting in darkness seeing a great light.

Those sitting in the region in shadow of death, light dawns on them and then immediately in the next verse, verse 17, from that time Jesus began to preach and to say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent! He begins to throw light, throw light on the sin of man and to call him to turn around to take his feet off of the road of destruction that he is traveling down and doesn't even know it. Turn around So that we might throw ourselves on the mercy of God so that we can be right with this holy God. Our text says, in verse 46, I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness." The light comes into the world and all of a sudden you see who this God really is and you see who you really are.

All this time you thought well of yourself. When light comes you begin to see your defilements so that you will run to Christ to be free from the stain of sin. That was proposition number one. He came as light into the world. Proposition number two, his work in the world was saving work.

Look again at verse 47, and if anyone hears my words and does not believe I do not judge him For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world Jesus's work in the world was Saving work He didn't come to bring judgment and condemnation into the world when he came the first time. He came to save. He came to make a way so that sinners could be free and clean. He came to save. His work was saving work.

Turn to 2 Peter. I'm going to read a sizable chunk of this. I'm going to start by reading 2 Peter 1-9 and then I'm going to skip to 14 and I'll tell you when I do that so you can skip with me. Second Peter 3, 1-9. Peter writes, Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?

For Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. Let me pause there and comment. Peter is saying you are going to bump into scoffers who when you tell them all this about this Jesus who came and died and who is going to come again the next time, they are going to scoff at that and say, where is the promise of His coming? Hey listen, Everything proceeds like it always has been and it always will." He says that is what you are going to run into. Continuing in verse 5.

For this they willfully forget, that the scoffers willfully forget this, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." What does all that mean? He is saying that the scoffers who say, oh, he is never coming, Jesus is never coming back, they willfully forget this, the flood. They willfully forget that not all things have continued uninterrupted, but that from time to time God brings judgment on sin as a foreshadowing of a time to come. The first time the world was destroyed by water, the next time it will be fire.

So it's not true what they say, that all things have always continued uninterrupted. No, what God has done once is a foreshadowing of what He will do again. Judgment is coming. These scoffers are not right. They are willfully forgetting the flood.

Verse 8. But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Peter explains the delay. Why can the scoffer say he is not coming?

Well because it has been a long time. Why has it been a long time? Because God is patiently forbearing and giving opportunities for sinners to repent and run to Christ and be saved. That's why. It is the goodness and mercy and patience and long suffering of God bearing with the rebellion of mankind in order to give us opportunities to repent and be saved.

That's the delay. The scoffers have taken the data. It's been a long time and drawn the wrong conclusion. He's never coming. Peter says, I get the data.

It's been a long time. There's an alternate explanation that is actually the true explanation God is kind and patient and He is giving opportunities for sinners to be saved. And He picks this up again in verse 14 in the first part of 15 to drive that point home. Look at verses 14 and the first part of 15. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace without spot and blameless.

And consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation. The long suffering of God is salvation. People are getting saved because of God's patience. The people who are getting saved today are benefiting from the long suffering of God that He didn't come yesterday. Praise God that He is merciful and patient in giving us opportunities to turn to Christ.

Jesus came to go to the cross. He came to do a saving work, the great saving work, the only saving work. And He has suspended judgment in His patients to give sinners opportunities to repent. That's why he hasn't come back yet. The incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, Jesus leaving heaven to take on the form of a servant was about saving sinners.

It was not about condemnation. He is willing to hold back from condemnation. What does the Bible say? The wages of sin is death. When can he pay them?

As soon as you sin. He has the right to kill you as soon as you sin. He is forbearing because He is merciful. He is patient because He is gracious. The incarnation was about saving sinners, not condemning sinners.

The incarnation was for saving sinners, not for condemning sinners. So that's the second great proposition here. His work in the world was saving work. Proposition number three. Rejecting his person and his teachings brings on self-condemnation.

I'll say that again. Rejecting his person, Jesus' person, who he is, and his teachings, what he said was true. Rejecting him and what he said was true brings on self-condemnation. Brings on self-condemnation. Look again at verse 48.

He who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him. The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day Notice this is the exact opposite of saving faith the exact opposite of believing in Jesus remember I started the sermon there are two parts of that ascending to the truth Embracing what Jesus said is true. This is the exact opposite of that. This is not receiving his words in verse 48. And there was a second part of that, consenting to the person, entrusting yourself to the teacher so that your disposition towards the teacher is as important as your disposition towards what is taught.

So this is a rejection of the teacher and a rejection of the words of the teacher. It's the polar opposite of saving faith. It is a contradiction to the two elements of what it means to truly believe in Jesus. In Jesus. And Jesus teaches here, the Bible teaches in many places, that there will be a last day.

A final day. A final day. In thinking about this, it made me think of how I almost never think of this. How much time do you spend thinking about the last day of human history? We're sort of like the scoffers in 2 Peter 3.

It's been a long time, we just figure it will just keep on going forever. No, no! The Bible says there will be a last day. Day. And for the next day, business deals will be planned.

People will have plans for what they're going to buy or sell on the next day. They're going to wake up that day with plans for the next day. Tomorrow I'm going to buy this. Tomorrow I'm closing that deal and I'm selling that. Weddings will be planned.

Brides and grooms will wake up that morning thinking, tomorrow I marry. But those things are never going to be bought, and those things are never going to be sold, and those weddings are never going to be happening, because there is not a tomorrow. A last day is coming if the Bible is true. People will have thought, this is really going to matter tomorrow. I've got to make sure I remember this.

Because tomorrow, The things that need to happen can't happen unless I get to this. People will have a thought, that is really going to matter tomorrow. I got to get all this in place today so that tomorrow the right things happen. But that tomorrow will never happen because it's the last day. The only thing that will matter is today.

And my disposition towards this person, Jesus Christ, and towards the words that he taught. That's the only thing that's going to matter. All those plans are coming to nothing because it's the last day. And They woke up that morning and they thought, this is a day like every other day, but world history is coming to an end that day. And the only thing that's going to matter, with no other chance, as patient as God's been, He's exercised patience and forbearance now for 2, 000 years, there's going to be no more patience and forbearance and opportunities because it's the last day.

There is a sense in which Jesus will not be your judge. The Bible does teach that Jesus is going to be over the judgment. But there is a sense in which Jesus will not even need to judge you. It will be enough that He is not your mediator. It will be enough that He is not your mediator.

It will be enough that He is not your advocate, the one who stands before God the Father to say I plead my blood over this one because of faith. My blood to their account. It will be enough that Jesus is not there to plead His blood for you. That will be enough to condemn you. And He will not be your mediator, not because He was not willing to apply His blood to your sins, but because you would not come to Him that you might have life.

You rejected Him. You did not receive His words. And so you'll not be able to say, He was unwilling to be my advocate. He was unwilling to plead His blood for me. No!

Your conscience will know. You will know as you stand before the Judge that He is not your advocate because you rejected Him, because you would not receive his words. As Jesus said in John 3, 36, He who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. The wrath of God abides on sinners. The wrath of God abides on sinners.

The wrath of God abides on sinners. Your only hope is to be parted from your sins. He who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." He would have advocated for them. He would have been their mediator. He would have pleaded his own blood in their place, but they would not have him and they would not receive his words.

This word reject means to set aside, to disregard, to set aside, to disregard, to slight, to cast off, to despise, to bring to nothing. He came to save, but you treated him with contempt. You would not have him to be your king and your savior. You would not have his words. Think about that.

Just think about that for a second. Let your mind rest on this. He came to save. He laid down his life, but you treated all of that with contempt. What will it be like to stand before an utterly holy judge knowing that he sent an advocate to do saving work, but you treated him and his work and his words with contempt." The last two verses.

Verses 49 and 50. Verse 49 and 50. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak." In these verses, we see that every word of Jesus is a word of God.

If you are taking notes on handouts, there are two blanks and they are both filled in by word. Every word of Jesus is a word of God. Hopefully you can see by now that everything Jesus is saying in this final urgent appeal or things that he has already said many times in his public teaching. Have you noticed that? Believe in me is not new.

It's been said many times already in the Gospel of John. I am one with the Father is not new it's already been said many times in the Gospel of John I am the Light of the world is not new it's already been said many times in the Gospel of John I did not come to judge but to save is not new. It's already been said many times in the Gospel of John. Jesus is making one last final urgent appeal of these great truths of the Gospel. He's driving them home one more time.

Things that He's already said many times. And Jesus has already said this many times, I am saying what I have been sent to say. What you are hearing from Jesus is what He was sent to say and only what He was sent to say. The prophets throughout the centuries, sometimes they spoke out of themselves and sometimes God inspired them with words directly from heaven. Jesus is not like that.

Every word that He said, Jesus is God. Every word of Jesus is a word of God. He was sent to say those things. He only said those things. He exclusively said those things.

He was carrying out a commission from heaven. He had a commission from heaven, and he only acted and said and spoke according to his commission from heaven. There are two things I would like to say. First, Peter said it in this way in John 6, 68. What did Peter say?

Do you remember? You have the words of eternal life. The masses are leaving Jesus. They were happy because he was doing miracles, but then he started in on the hard sayings and they said, we didn't sign up for this and they left. Jesus says, do you want to leave too?

Peter says, where in the world will we go? You have the words of eternal life, we are not going anywhere. Jesus was sent by his Father to reveal the way of eternal life. Jesus has the words of eternal life, no one else has them. The commandment of God is that Jesus should reveal salvation to mankind.

Now think about that for a minute. The command of God, What does God the Father insist on? That mankind have the way of salvation revealed to them. This is the heart of God. God's heart isn't that sinners die in their unbelief with the wrath of God abiding on them and hurdle into eternal torment.

That is not God's heart. The command of God is that Jesus should be sent from heaven to reveal salvation to mankind. If mankind will not have this man and if mankind will not have His words, they are self-condemned. Second, this has implications for the unbeliever and for the believer. For the unbeliever, to reject the words of Jesus is to reject revelation from heaven.

Telling you how you can be saved and made right before this utterly holy God. To reject Jesus' words are to reject the revelation from heaven. Only heaven can tell you how to be saved. Only heaven can tell you how to be saved. Only heaven can tell you how to be made right with this utterly holy God.

And heaven has sent the messenger, God the Father has sent the messenger from heaven to tell you the way. If you reject it, you've rejected the revelation from heaven. Where is the Court of Appeal then? If you've rejected the words from heaven, where is the Court of Appeal? There is none.

There is none. The highest court sent you this revelation. If you reject it, there's nowhere to go to plead your case. For the believer, to have received the words of Jesus is to build on rock. The certainty of the truth comes from the origin of the message.

This message came from heaven. This message came from the God maker of heaven and earth. If heaven sends you this word, you can know that it is true. You can build your life on it. You are building on rock.

I know I've already said that, but it belongs here too. It bears being said a second time. Think about the Jews, think about the unbelieving Jews who are hearing this. Jesus wants them to know that there's no way to say the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is my God, but to reject His words. There's no way to say that.

I am saying what I was sent to say. I'm only saying what I was sent to say by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of your fathers sent me to say these things to reject me is to reject the God of your fathers who you say you are clinging to. Not true. Turn to Deuteronomy 18 and we'll finish there.

Deuteronomy 18. And listen to Moses and God. What Jesus is teaching in John chapter 12 is what is taught by the words of Moses and God in Deuteronomy 18. Jesus Christ is not bringing some new doctrine to us in John chapter 12. Listen to Moses and God in Deuteronomy 18, I'll be reading verses 15 through 19.

Moses says to the people, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. This is all about Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy that God is going to raise up a prophet like Moses. Moses is the type or the shadow and Jesus is the fulfillment or the reality of this. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren.

Him you shall hear according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see his great fire anymore, lest I die." What's Moses talking about? He's talking about when the Ten Commandments were given off of a mountain where there was smoke and fire and thunderings and the people were terrified by the manifestation of God on the mountain and so they said, you go up for us Moses. Now Moses is saying, According to you wanting someone not like fire and smoke and thunder but a man, God will send a prophet. Like that. This is the incarnation.

This is Jesus coming in the flesh, leaving heaven and taking on the form of a servant. Where did I leave off? 17. And the Lord said to me, What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him." How was this not John chapter 12 and exactly what Jesus is teaching? He's saying, I'm the prophet that Moses told you from God that would be raised up from among his brethren. Here I am an Israelite raised up from among you. God has put His words in my mouth. I am saying the things that He commands you and now God will require it from you whether you will hear me or whether you will not hear me.

This is the great dividing line between heaven and hell. Will you hear Christ? God raised him up. God commanded him what to say. He said everything that God sent him to say, and now this is the great dividing line.

Will you hear him or will you not hear him? Applications. I have two. I have two. Number one, Jesus is God.

He has come as a light into the world. Without Jesus, we would be sitting in darkness in the land and shadow of death with no way to know how to be made right with this utterly holy God. Nations existed in that state for centuries. Jesus came into the world as a light. Light has dawned on this world.

We know. We know how to be made right with this God. I want to say to you, the door of heaven is open today. The door of heaven is open. The way is made clear by the words of Jesus Christ.

Yes, there is another side of the coin, the rejection and condemnation. But why should we even need to speak of these things? The door of heaven is open. The offer of pardon is freely given to you today. Forsake every other hope and cling to Christ and you will be saved.

To all who come to Him, He casts none out. None! All who come to Him, He receives graciously. And He takes them as His own. And they are cleansed by His blood.

All of the rebellion is swept away and it is made as if you had lived the life that Jesus did live in perfect, cheerful, thankful obedience to God. It's As if you had lived like he had lived. That is given to you and all your sins are placed upon him. Moses in his last address to the people. We are in John chapter 12.

Jesus' last address to the people. Moses, in his last address to the people at the end of Deuteronomy says, I set before you today life and death. Jesus is doing exactly the same thing. The prophet like Moses, Jesus, is doing what Moses did in his last address. He is setting life and death before the people, pleading with them that they would choose life.

Life is offered to them freely. To them freely. Number two, parents. There's a lot of parents in this room. A few grandparents.

Consider the example of Jesus in this way. He's saying the things that he's said a bunch of times. Jesus seems to have never wearied of saying the important things over and over and over again to the people. He never lost his earnestness, his urgency in the appeals. In fact, maybe this final appeal was the most earnest urgent of them all.

Maybe it was. Saying the same old thing. Parents, you ever feel like you're saying the same old thing? Not only is it not, Not only is it okay to say the important things over and over again, it's necessary. We need it.

We should do it. And we should never drop off in our earnestness and urgency in pressing on the most important things to those given to our charge. Jesus did that again and again. He seems to have never tired of it. You might think, why would I bother?

They've heard this a thousand times. We'll say it a thousand and first time. You don't know which time God brings it home to the heart by His Spirit. You don't know. So we continue being earnest about the things that matter in this life.

And we bring the urgency as if we were saying it for the first and only time. And we pray that God will bless it and bring it home to the heart by His Spirit. God, thank you for this text. Thank you for truth. May we be a people who ascent to the truths.

We embrace all of these things as words from heaven With the full authority of God out of your mouth, God may we consent to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, forsake every other hope, and throw ourselves upon Him. If He will not save us, we cannot be saved. We turn our back on every other hope to throw ourselves upon Your mercy, to plead with You that You would plead Your blood for us on the last day. That you have stood in our place. That your blood has been shed because the wages of our sin deserve death.

That you are willing, substitute, you are willing to take our place. We praise you for the goodness of the gospel. In Jesus name, Amen.