The sermon titled 'You Will Die in Your Sin' by Jason Dohm explores Jesus's declaration as the light of the world and the sole source of truth and righteousness. The sermon emphasizes that rejecting Jesus leads to spiritual destruction, as highlighted by the Pharisees' rejection of His claims. Jesus warns that a time will come when it will be too late to seek Him, drawing parallels to Proverbs 1 where wisdom's call is ignored. The sermon contrasts the worldly and godly realms, illustrating a 'bright line' or chasm between them, emphasizing the necessity of belief in Jesus for salvation. The sermon also touches on the importance of recognizing one's sins, accepting rebukes, and the urgency of separating oneself from sin through faith in Jesus Christ.

The title of the sermon this morning is simply, You Will Die in Your Sin. Something that's said in our text three times. And if you know of more terrifying words in Scripture, point them out to me. Last week the Pharisees challenged Jesus on his claim in verse 12. He says, I am the light of the world.

And in saying that, he lays claim to being the only source of truth and purity. If you want another source of truth, or if you want another source of righteousness, you can forget it. There isn't one. Truth only flows from the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness only comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no such thing as your truth and my truth. There is only the truth and it comes from Jesus. There is no righteousness of your own. There is only one who is righteous and that is Jesus. To be righteous is to have His righteousness.

Otherwise you are left with your own defilements. When you hear that truth, Jesus is the light of the world, He is the only source of truth and righteousness. Either you have to humble yourself and embrace that in truth, to bow before Him, and renounce all self-righteousness, and seek truth and righteousness in Him. Or you have to reject what he said, that he is the light of the world, and wage war against that assertion as falsehood. That is what the Pharisees choose to do.

They are waging war on what Jesus has claimed to be as falsehood. Throughout chapter 8, we have a few more weeks in chapter 8, this is going to continue to escalate. It escalated at the end of last week's text, in the second half of verse 19, when Jesus said, You know neither me nor my Father. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. Imagine these Pharisees to have someone point at them and say, you don't know God.

If you had known the Father, if you had known God, you would have recognized who I am. And so this week is really, in one way, just the next installment of the escalation that's happening between the Jewish leaders and the Lord Jesus. As we come to this tax, let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God, in the times when we are free from self-deceit and we catch a glimpse of you as you really are we see that you are so holy. What a thought that I would die in my sins.

They would be clinging to me and I would have to own them. And I would stand before you and all of your holiness knowing that I could not be allowed into heaven. I do thank you that you force us to contemplate such a moment. You force me in our text to contemplate such a moment that I would die in my sins and stand before you in all of your holiness and what that would mean. I do pray that you would help us to See the path that we're on and where it leads.

You would make us a wise people who consider our latter end. May it be so in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I'd like to look at the first verse of our text. At least begin by looking at this.

We only have four verses this week and I'm only breaking it into three sections. It's essentially taking it verse by verse. So let's take the first verse, John chapter 8 verse 21. Then Jesus said to them again, I am going away, and you will seek me, and will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.

In this verse, Jesus is skipping to the end. So if you are taking notes on the handout and filling in the blank, the blank is end. Skipping to the end. He is skipping to the end of his own life on earth and he is skipping to the end of his hearer's lives. When Jesus says, I am going away, he is clearly speaking of his death and his resurrection and his ascension.

He is accessible right now. He is standing there. He is right before them. They have access to him. But the time is coming, about six months away, when they'll no longer have access.

He's going to die and he's going to be raised from the dead and he is going to ascend to heaven to be glorified. They won't be able to find him then even when they seek him and they won't be able to go where he is. He has just said something similar. So let's review that. Just flip back to chapter 7.

In chapter 7 he said almost this same thing in verses 32-34. So look at chapter 7, follow along as I read verses 32-34. The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning him, so the people had been saying, is this the Christ? And the Pharisees catch wind that they are murmuring these things about Jesus possibly being the Christ. And the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him.

Then Jesus said to them, to these officers who had been sent, I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and not find me, and where I am you cannot come." Jesus again in that place is speaking of His death and His resurrection and His ascension. In our text He says, where I go you cannot come. Back in chapter 7 where I just read, He said, where I am, you cannot come. He's saying the same thing.

That His life is going to come to an end. He was sent from heaven. He's going to go back to heaven and people who die not having repented and believed in him will not be able to go where he is. In the context of chapter 8 and what he just said In last week's text, Jesus was sent from his father. He clearly says that.

He is returning to his father. He clearly says that. And this is what he is referencing here in verse 21. It is very clear. Now let's look at the middle part.

You will seek me and will die in your sin. Jesus says that His hearers, the Jews, will seek Him after He is gone and He is no longer accessible. They will seek Him and they will die in their sin. The commentators differ on exactly what Jesus means when He says that they will seek Him. Some of the commentators say that Jesus means that the Jews will continue to seek after a Messiah, and they'll be frustrated in that seeking because they miss the only Messiah.

Jesus is the only Messiah. In seeking him after the real Messiah has already come, they won't be able to find him. That is true, but I don't believe that's what Jesus is teaching here. I side with the commentators who point to Proverbs 1. So please turn to Proverbs 1.

Consider Jesus' audience. Consider those who are standing before Him and hearing what he is saying here. These are Jews, these are Hebrews of Hebrews, Jewish leaders, learned men. And they would have been very familiar with the Old Testament, but there are certain points in the Old Testament that they would have had all but memorized or maybe memorized, and Proverbs 1 would have certainly been one of those texts. It's the Book of Wisdom and it's the first chapter of the book of wisdom.

So I'm going to be reading Proverbs 1 verses 20 through 33. Proverbs 1, 20 through 33. Solomon writes, Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses at the openings of the gates in the city.

She speaks her words. How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you.

I will make my words known to you. Because I have called you and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer.

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my rebuke and despised my every rebuke. They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. 31. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies.

For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure without fear of evil. Jesus and these Jews are literally fulfilling Proverbs chapter 1. Jesus is literally calling aloud outside. He's in the most public of the public places in the temple courts.

He's right there at the treasury in the court of the women where anyone can come. There's a multitude that's gathered to hear his teaching. And he's teaching and he's actually delivering a very stern warning. He is delivering a rebuke to people who will not listen. Jesus is the voice of wisdom from Proverbs 1 rebuking them so that they will turn.

That's so clear in Proverbs 1. The reason why wisdom is calling aloud in the public places is not so that people will be destroyed, it's so that people will turn. Turn. Jesus is warning them by skipping to the end of a life that scorns the rebuke of wisdom and will not have wisdom. And a time comes when you have persisted in that, and persisted in that, and become hardened in that, because you loved your own ways, you would not be parted from them, when You seek but you can't find.

When you cry out that the time for help has passed. Look again at verse 28. Then they will call on Me, but I will not answer. They will seek Me diligently, but they will not find Me. I think this is exactly what Jesus is saying in John chapter 8.

He is showing them what it would be like to eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies. That's what Proverbs 131 says. Do you want to eat the fruit of your own way? Wisdom is calling aloud to you. If you won't hear wisdom, you get to eat the fruit of your own way.

You get filled full with your own fancies. Isaiah 55, I quoted a lot unapologetically. It says the same thing. Isaiah 55 begins with this, Oh, everyone who thirsts come to the waters, and you who have no money come buy and eat. Isaiah 55 starts with a full and free offer that the one who is thirsty can come and drink, that the one who is hungry can come and eat, even though you don't have any money to trade for what you thirst for and hunger for.

Come, it is a full and free offer. And then in Isaiah 55 verses 6 and 7 we read this, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." God calls out, turn from your wicked way, turn around.

Your feet are on the way of destruction. Turn around. God will have mercy on you. Wisdom cries aloud at the city gates that you would turn away from your wickedness and throw yourselves upon the mercies of God because He is a merciful God. He will hear your cries of mercy.

He will receive you. But if you hear and put off, if you hear and reject, it has a hardening effect. Seek the Lord while He may be found. We fancy that all these times are in our own hands as if we can receive or reject at will. And if we reject now, just another convenient time will be there later you presume much when you presume that.

God never said that. God never promised that. God says seek me while I may be found. Draw near to Me or call upon Me while I am near." If you hear the full and free offer of peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ and you put it off until tomorrow, just know that this has a hardening effect and that you have refused to seek the Lord while He may be found, presuming that all of that will be available to you at another time. God has said no such thing.

Here's a final question about verse 21. Is Jesus pronouncing a final judgment on his hearers? It sort of sounds like it if you just look at 21 in isolation. And he certainly could be. Does the Son of God, of all the multitude that he's teaching in the temple courts, does the Son of God know who will be saved and not saved?

Yes, he does. So he could be pronouncing. And yet, Jesus is speaking to a mixed multitude. It doesn't explicitly say it in the text, but I bet his twelve disciples are there. Eleven of them are elect.

Eleven of them actually are going where Jesus will go. And as we work our way through the text in verse 31 we're going to see that there were Jews who believed. It's hard to tell whether they had saving faith or they just had some sort of intellectual assent to the things. You can't tell from the text, but there are probably other people who are hearing Jesus teach who are among the elect and will be saved. And clearly there are some who are becoming hardened in their opposition to Jesus, it is a mixed multitude.

And if we look at verse 24, verse 24 Jesus says, if you do not believe you will die in your sins. It actually comes with a contingency in verse 24. It is if you do not believe that you will die in your sins. He is showing them that they are on a road that leads to destruction. Sometimes that is the most helpful way to warn someone is to show them that their feet are on a path and where the path goes, where it ends.

People live in this life very carelessly. They don't consider where the well-worn path that they're on goes. You can look down the trajectory of everybody's life. And if you consider it dispassionately, if you take the emotions out of it, You just say, here's how they're thinking, here's how they're living. We've seen other people who thought and lived like that.

Where does that go? You can almost always predict unless there is a change in track, unless they turn around to go in a different direction, it's going here. You can do that with the righteous, with people who love the Lord, who have a pattern of repenting in their lives, trusting in the Lord, and they're trying to cultivate righteousness in their life. A lot of people have thought and lived that way. You can see where that goes.

And it's encouraging, it's a blessing. And the same is true with the broad road that leads to destruction. There are many who have walked that path. You can see where it goes. You can see the endpoint of it.

Jesus is taking them to the end point of it. He is allowing Proverbs 1 to play out in their minds so they can see, they might have hope that they can see that this is a pathway that leads to destruction so that they'll turn around. The whole intent of Jesus is that they'll turn around and flee the wrath to come. Now back to John chapter 8. Next verse, verse 22.

John 8, 22. So the Jews said to him, will he kill himself because he says, where I go you cannot come? In this verse we have mockery instead of consideration. So if you're filling in the blanks on the handout, it's mockery. Mockery instead of consideration.

These Jews actually continue to play their role in the Proverbs 1 drama. I believe that Jesus has set them in the Proverbs 1 drama. Him calling aloud in the public places like wisdom does in Proverbs 1 and being met with scorn. They are playing their part. They are scorning the rebukes of wisdom, scorning the rebukes of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They wonder aloud if Jesus saying, where I go you cannot come, means that he will commit suicide by taking his own life. In chapter 7, we just looked at that where he said almost the same thing, you will seek me but not be able to find me, where I am going you cannot follow. The very next verse in chapter 7, Chapter 7 verse 35 is this, Then the Jews said among themselves, Where does he intend to go that we shall not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? The thought was there in chapter 7 verse 35 that maybe Jesus is saying he is going to escape the Jewish leaders by doing something very distasteful to all good Jews.

What was that? To pursue a second rate ministry outside of Israel. Is he going to the dispersion? To live where none of us would want to live. To be where none of us would want to be.

He is afraid of the Jewish leaders and so he is going to leave Israel to pursue a second rate ministry. Isn't this just what his believing brother said right before the feast? They said, go to Jerusalem, do your miracles there. Who has ever heard of a backwoods messiah? So this is really sort of to the same point in chapter 7 verse 35.

Is he going beyond the borders of Israel to be a backwoods Messiah in the dispersion where you can find Jews, but they are not Jews like us. Not Jews in the promised land, not Jews in the homeland. Is he going to pursue a second rate Messiah ship outside of Israel? After all, Good Jews like us were within the borders of the promised land. And good Jews who are anybody are here in Jerusalem.

What is being said now, will he kill himself, is just further down that road. It's really ratcheting up the insults. Josephus, the Jewish historian, says that suicide was a sin that would keep you from a public funeral. If you kill yourself, we're not having a public funeral for you because your life is not worthy of honor. Your dishonorable death is so dishonorable that we're not to have a public funeral to honor your life.

And that the Jews believed that there was a lowest region of hell reserved for those who committed suicides. Are you tracking with me? Josephus is a very famous Jewish historian that lived just in the decades right after Christ and of suicide he says that the Jews of his time believed that There was a lowest level of hell for suicides. This is the backdrop for what the Jews are saying. Is he going to a place where no good Jew would go?

When he says we can't follow him, we can't go where he is, is that what he means? Now let's analyze what has happened here. The Son of God whose doctrine and life were unassailable. There's nothing that Jesus teaches, preaches, brings before the people in the New Testament that is not comfortably merged with the Old Testament. His doctrine is unassailable.

There is nothing wrong. If Old Testament is to be the standard, there's nothing wrong with what Jesus is teaching. There's everything right about what Jesus is teaching. His doctrine is unassailable. His life is unassailable.

When he's put on trial, when he's finally put on trial, he'll say, who can convict me of sin? And they'll bring forth false witnesses and the false witnesses won't be able to agree. His life was unassailable and proves to be so even when tried by his enemies. And he's been doing very publicly the works of the Messiah. I keep saying this week after week.

The Old Testament says you'll know the Messiah because he'll be doing these things. And Jesus has been doing all of these things. One after the other, Jesus is doing the works of the Messiah very publicly. So he has doctrine and life that are unassailable, and he's been out in public doing the works of the Messiah, and he's saying, you will die in your sin. You will die in your sin.

And these hearers, instead of stopping and giving fair consideration to what Jesus is saying, they heap scorn on him instead. That's what's happening here in our text. Jesus has earned the right to be heard by his doctrine and his life and his works. But they won't stop for one second to give him a fair hearing. He just heaps scorn on what he is saying.

Now verses 23 and 24. John 8, 23 and 24. And he said to them, You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins.

For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." In these verses we have the brightest line in the world. If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks. It's brightest. The brightest line in the world. Before the sermon I was sitting there thinking, ooh it's wrong.

It's really the biggest chasm in the world. So you can think of it either way. It's either the brightest line in the world that we have in these two verses, or maybe even better, the biggest chasm in the world. Between the children of the world and the children of God there is a bright line. There is a great chasm.

Between the unbeliever, those who reject Christ, and between the believer, those who throw themselves upon Christ. There is a bright line. There is a great chasm between hell and heaven. There is a bright line and a great chasm. Again as with many weeks what Jesus said to Nicodemus shines light on our text.

I keep saying that week after week too. The things that Jesus says to Nicodemus are so foundational they keep helping us as we come across more texts. Let's go back to John chapter 3 and look at verses 5 and 6. John chapter 3, Jesus and Nicodemus, and I'll be reading verses 6 and 7. John 3, 6 and 7.

Jesus says to Nicodemus, that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again." When we are born, everybody in the room, when you are born, you were born flesh. None of us is special in that sense. We were born flesh. That's filled with meaning.

It means that you are a son or a daughter of Adam. You weren't born in isolation. You come from a long line who have all shared certain traits of your lineage. And in this case it means that we have a nature twisted by sin. God didn't make us that way, but when sin entered the world, our nature became very different.

It became bent against God. It became determined to serve self and love self and to be God. And the only way you can do that is you have to forsake loving God and serving God and honoring God as God. If you're going to be God you have to turn your back on those things. And So you weren't born a blank slate.

Not inclined to good, not inclined to evil, but then certain patterns develop in your life and so you either go one way or the other. No, no, no. That is completely contrary to Scripture. Scripture never teaches that. Scripture teaches that after Genesis 3, when sin came into the world, you came with a bent in your nature.

Not towards God, but away from God, towards yourself. Loving self, serving self, rejecting God so that you can be God. You were born like that. When you are born of flesh, you are flesh. And that's what it means.

It's to be born with that nature. We are of the world unless and until Jesus reaches into that and saves us. Are you with me? We are of the world unless and until Jesus reaches into you and your worldly state and lays claim on you and cleanses you with His own blood. Listen to 1 John 5 19.

Not the Gospel of John, but the first letter of John, 1 John 5 verse 19. John writes, We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. So John, after writing his gospel, writes letters. And he's writing this letter to believers. And writing to believers, he says, believers, we know that we're of God.

We're Gods. And the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. So we see the bright line or the big chasm again. A chasm would be like a great gulf between, a great pit or great valley between two mountain peaks maybe, a great chasm between. There are those who are of God who are God's.

God claims them. And then there's the whole world which lies under the sway of the evil one and John doesn't put anything between them. It's of God or of the world meaning that you're under the sway of the evil one. You are given over to the influence of the enemy of men's souls, the devil. You are one or the other.

So to be of the world means you lie under the sway or under the influence of the wicked one. And to be freed from this desperate state you must be born again. You don't need to try to do better. That just makes you a more respectable person of the world. We're all familiar with New Year's resolutions and turning over a new leaf and promising to do better and all that.

That doesn't make anyone acceptable in the sight of God. Not one single person, not for all of human history. You must be born again. You don't turn over a new leaf. You have a heart of stone removed, and you are given a heart of flesh.

You become a new creation. The old passes away and the new comes. There is such a bright line. This is such a distinctive of Christianity. Outside of Christianity, the line is blurry and dim and no one really knows where it is.

And different people put it in different places. That is because outside of Christianity, the line is placed based on what you do. Everyone outside the Christian faith has a line between the unacceptable and going to hell and the acceptable and going to heaven and they are placing the line based on what you do. And they don't really know where that line is. They think they have an idea and different people are putting the line in different places.

If the line is based on what you do, How do I judge that for you? Or how do I even judge that for me? How do I know if I've done enough good versus the bad I've done? To know which side of the line that I'm on. And when you do that, we end up comparing ourselves and comforting ourselves.

Looking around, comparing ourselves, I'm a little better than him, I'm not quite as good as her. And So based on this comparison among ourselves, I think the line is here. And almost always I think I'm on the right side of the line. If you look at the studies on this, People think that Mother Teresa is here, and maybe Billy Graham is here, and they think they are here. This is how humans deceive ourselves.

We compare ourselves among ourselves, and then we take comfort from that. These are false comparisons and they are false comforts because the standard isn't me or you or anyone we know. The standard is Jesus and the line isn't good versus bad where we might wander back and forth over the line. If it's good or bad, if I have a good month, I might get over the line to the right side of the line where I'd be acceptable and then I have a bad month and I would cross back over the line. If I'm close to the line, a little thing could shift the balance.

But the line isn't good versus bad, it's guilty versus innocent. So this is incredibly important. Jesus is the standard. And the line isn't good versus bad, it's guilty versus innocent. So here's how you should think about the line, or the chasm.

Jesus is the only one on the other side of the line. So from now, for the rest of your life, there is a line between acceptable and unacceptable, between going to heaven and going to hell. And only Jesus Christ is on the other side of that line. He is the standard. And the determination isn't good versus bad, and which outweighs the other.

It is just guilty versus innocent. And you'll be judged against this standard. God's revealed truth. So Don't tell me how good you are and all the good things you've done. Just weigh yourself against this and render your own verdict.

Guilty or innocent. Only Jesus is on the other side of the chasm. Only Jesus is on the other side of the chasm. Only Jesus is on the other side of the bright line. The good news is you can be hidden in Him.

That's the only way to get across that line. So there isn't a blurry, dim line at all. There is a bold, distinct, bright line. And it is belief and faith. Belief.

Not what you do, what Jesus Christ has done. Belief. Laying hold of His merit. Laying hold of His position by faith, by throwing yourself upon Him. Because faith is the only thing that can take me from guilty to innocent.

Believe me, I know me. I've been inside this head. And I know that if you compared one hour of my life against this standard, any hour of my life, any single hour of my life against this standard, there could only be one verdict on me and that is guilty. So the only hope for me is to be able to get across that line where Jesus is the standard and we're not talking about good versus bad we're talking about guilty versus innocent is to be able to take up his position on the other side of the line. It's to be hidden in him.

Listen to what John the Baptist said in John chapter 3. John chapter 3, John the Baptist, verse 36. John the Baptist said, He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him." A line! A chasm that there is no getting across.

If you believe in the sun, you have eternal life. If you do not believe in the sun, the wrath of God abides on you because your sins are clinging to you. You can't get any separation from your sins. God will not overlook our sins. His anger burns against our sins.

And as long as your sins are clinging to you, as long as you can't get separation between you and your sins, as long as you have to own your sins, every thought that falls short of God's standard, every word, every action that falls short of God's standard clinging to you, growing every day. Is the mountain of your sins growing or shrinking every day? If you do not believe in Jesus Christ, then his work means nothing to you and every sin that you've ever sinned and are going to sin clings to you. It is inseparable from you. The wrath of God burns against that sin.

A final few points. Sin versus sins. Verse 21, Jesus says, you will die in your sins singular in verse 21 and twice he says you will die in your sins plural. The context to me, to me the context makes it so clear, The sin of rejecting Jesus causes your sins to cling to you. In other words, there is a master sin.

Every single sin deserves hell. Every single sin is rebellion against a good and great God. Any one of them is sufficient to cause Him to cast you from His presence. But only one leaves you under the penalty of that sin. And that is rejecting Jesus.

God has sent Jesus into the world. He has shed His blood. And it was a sacrifice that is sufficient for all. It is sufficient for all. It is enough that if you go to Him, you'll be clean and free.

The thing that will keep you from participating in His sacrifice is the rejection of Him. The offer is full and free. It is for you. It is given to you today. If you receive the offer, if you repent and believe the Gospel, you will be clean and free.

You will leave here today clean and free. But if you reject the offer, your sins cling to you. Belief is the master sin that brings the weight of every other sin upon you because you've rejected the remedy. It's a sin against the remedy. God has sent medicine to heal you.

You said, I will not have the medicine so you'll die from your disease. Sin versus sins. I am in verse 24. Go ahead, Jesus says in verse 24. For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." If you have one of those Bibles where any word that has been added by the translator is in italics, then you will see that He is in italics.

If you do not believe that I am in italics, He, it means a translator, in order to preserve what they believe is the right meaning, added that word. If you literally just render it word for word, you end up with, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins. It's an unusual Greek construction. It points back to Exodus chapter 3, the burning bush passage, and Isaiah 40-55, Jesus is laying claim to being God by saying this in the way that he says it. In fact, we're going to get a hint of that in the very next verse.

They're going to say, who are you? I am just going to lay this aside for now because in verse 58 it will be right in our face. I think 58 is a better place. So I'm just going to just barely touch on it to say that this is an unusual way for Jesus to say this in the Greek. It's an unusual Greek construction that just begs these Jews to understand that he's pointing to the burning bush passage where God announces himself as I AM who I AM, the self-existent God.

More, A lot more on that in verse 58. Finally, there's a text which hangs over this whole encounter and it sets it in its proper place. It's Exodus chapter 33. Place and it's Exodus 33. So I ask you to turn there.

Exodus chapter 33. By the way, did I say Exodus? Ezekiel. Another e-book. Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel.

Chapter 33. By the way, I could have just as easily gone to Ezekiel chapter 3, almost exactly the same thing said in Ezekiel chapter 3. I found Ezekiel 33 just a smidgen more helpful, so we're going there. The point I'm making while we turn is just anytime God repeats things almost word for word, multiple times, We should stand up and pay attention. Every word of God is profitable, but when God starts repeating the same words, we should sit up and take notice that really important things are being said.

Ezekiel chapter 3 and Ezekiel chapter 33, really important things are being said. I'll be reading Ezekiel 33 verses 7 through 11 where God is speaking to the prophet Ezekiel. So you son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them from me. When I say to the wicked, oh wicked man you shall surely die and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way.

That wicked man shall die in his iniquity." So I'm going to stop right there. You got it? You see, Jesus is using these same words, you'll die in your sin. God is saying to Ezekiel that those wicked people will die in their iniquity, they will die in their sin. But His blood I will require at your hand.

Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from His way and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul. Therefore, you O Son of Man, say to the house of Israel, Thus you say, if our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live? Say to them, as I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But did the wicked turn from his way and live? Turn, turn from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?

Jesus is doing what God calls Ezekiel to do in Ezekiel chapter 3 and Ezekiel chapter 33. God has sent watchmen to look for danger and to sound the alarm. Jesus is sounding the alarm. And The principle is when God sets you as a watchman and you see the danger but you keep quiet and you won't say, wicked man you are going to die in your sins. He will die in His sins.

The guilt of His sins will be upon Him, but you will share in the guilt if you hold silent. Because God sent you to warn him that he might turn. But if you're a watchman appointed by God and you speak what God has told you to speak to tell the wicked man he'll die in his sins and if he doesn't turn then he will die in his sins, but you will have freed yourself from the blood guilt that will be upon you for not doing your duty. In John chapter 8, Jesus is delivering himself from guilt by warning these Jews that they will die in their sins. This is a great act of mercy.

Do you think Jesus sounds hard in this text? Jesus is pouring out mercy on sinners in this text. The cruelest thing you can do for someone who has their feet that leads to an endpoint of destruction is to keep your mouth shut. That is cruel because you can see it and you know it, but you won't say a word. You don't care enough to warn them about the road that they're traveling, where it goes.

The people of God are given this function in the world to stand on behalf of God and say, wicked man, you will die in your sins. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, turn and live to offer peace with God. Do you remember what the serpent said in Genesis chapter 3 verse 4? Do you remember what he said? You will not surely die.

Think of how many voices are out there now saying that to the wicked, You will not surely die. Words of peace to people who are hurling towards hell, an eternity of torment and separation from God. They're racing there and people are standing all along the way saying, you will not surely die, contradicting God. It is for the people of God to stand there too and say, Oh wicked man, you'll die in your iniquity. And if we keep silent, we share the guilt.

Applications. As if that wasn't one, but other applications. I have two. Urgent, please for you. Number one, become good at receiving rebuke.

Hone this as a skill. Become good at receiving rebuke. There is a very unhealthy, but very natural instinct that causes us to deflect rebuke. You can actually become expert at it. So that none of the punches ever land.

God puts people in your life to help you with your sins. But you've become so expert at deflecting rebuke that the punches never land and so you never change. It's a defense mechanism because we don't like being confronted in sin. Are people who come to rebuke you always right? No.

But they should always get a hearing with you. They should always get a fair hearing with you without your defense mechanisms being set on high so that you can deflect anything and stay clear of conviction of sin. Stop. Be thankful that God would send someone in your life that at least says they care enough to speak to you about something that they're worried about and give it a fair consideration. Become good at receiving rebuke.

Just be, half the battle is just being aware. I have a defense mechanism. It is unhealthy but it's very natural and I've been honing my skills at deflecting rebuke and I don't want to do that anymore. Number two, don't sleep until you are sure you have been separated from your sins as far as the east is from the west. Don't go to bed tonight.

Don't let your head hit the pillow until you are separated from your sins. Until you're sure that your sins aren't clinging to you. I'm drawing on the language of Psalm 103 verse 12, the psalmist talks about the Lord's people and he says that their sins have been separated from them as far as the east is from the west. How far is that? Talk about a great chasm.

If east is that way, as far as east is from west, it is infinity that way to infinity that way. You are separated from your sins, Never to be joined again. God offers peace fully and freely to you today. All you have to do is repent and believe the gospel. All you have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Throw yourself upon Him and trust in His work and you'll be clean and you'll be free forever. No wandering back and forth, over the line one day, back over the line another day. No. When He's dealt with your sins, your sins have gone, your sins past, present, future have been dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Let's pray.

God, don't let us die in our sins. Have mercy on us. Let your Holy Spirit bother us. Don't leave us alone. Don't be so provoked at our stubbornness that you leave us alone.

Oh God, break our hearts. Let us flee from the wrath to come to Christ. Let the law be a tutor to drive us to Christ. Let the law convince us that we are guilty so that we will seek the remedy. Pray that your spirit will be working freely here in our hearts.

We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.