The sermon explores John 8:21-25, focusing on the dialogue between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. It emphasizes that there are ultimately two ways to die: in sin or in Jesus Christ. The speaker warns against self-righteousness and the dangers of being too attached to worldly values. Despite overwhelming evidence of Jesus' divinity through miracles, unbelief remains inexcusable. The sermon underscores the necessity of genuine faith in Jesus for salvation and critiques the false security found in religious rituals. It argues that self-righteousness and worldly attachments can prevent people from accepting Jesus and highlights the importance of the Holy Spirit's role in transforming lives. The message also discusses the eternal consequences of rejecting Christ, illustrating the ongoing torment of unbelief.

The Greatest Showman Good morning family. So this morning we are going to continue in the book of John. John chapter 8 verses 21 through 25 will be in this morning. I struggled with it. I thought I could go 21 through 30 because it's just all kind of one chunk.

There's no way. I got from 21 to 25 and I said that I can't go past that. That's too much stuff there. So too much gold, not stuff. So let's start out by reading the text this morning.

And I want us to remember that this text is taking off the back end of his previous conversation. He was having a conversation with the scribes and Pharisees, the Jewish leaders in the treasury of the temple. And so in the treasury of the temple, He last said to them, they asked Him, where is your father? And Jesus answered and said to them, you know neither me nor my father. If you had known me, you would know my father also." That was the last thing that he said to them.

And then this morning we pick up in the text in John chapter 8 verses 21 through 25 where it reads, Then Jesus said to them again, I'm going away and you will seek me and will die in your sin Where I go you cannot come So the Jews said will he kill himself because he says where I go you cannot come 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 then he said to him then they said to him who are you and Jesus said to them just what I've been saying to you from the beginning. Father, this morning we thank you for your word, we thank you for the clarity of it Lord God and how it can speak to our lives today Father even in the culture we live The two thousand years separated from the writing of this until now We thank You for the work of Your Holy Spirit through Your Word in our hearts and our lives, Lord God.

I pray that it would change in shape and mold us, Lord God, into Your image. Father, that others would know You. I pray this this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. So, there's ultimately two ways to die.

Ultimately there's two ways to die. There's many ways that you can die. You can die from cancer. You can die from a stroke. You can die from a blood clot, we found that out.

You can die famous, you can die obscure, you can die poor, you can die extremely rich, you can die black, white, red, yellow, you can die happy, you can die angry, you can die empty, you can die beamingly, happily full, But ultimately there's two ways that you can die. You can die in your sin, or you can die in Jesus Christ. And when it all comes down, that's only two ways that matter. In this world, ever, that you will die either in your sin or you will die redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. There's only two ways.

And so, as I go into this text this morning, it's Jesus confronting these religious elites. And what I don't want anybody to make is this monumental mistake in your mind, in your life, to think that some kind of way, because Jesus is talking to these people, that this does not apply to you. That this does not somehow, you can get behind this and have it be in a way like it doesn't apply to me in this way because I'm not anything like those guys were. I gave my life to Jesus 20, 40, 60, 80 years ago. And so, I'm sitting just fine with Jesus.

And so, this text that is damning and convicting and condemning to these religious elites, it really has no practical application in my life. Don't make that mistake this morning. This speaks to everybody, it spoke to me, And I pray that the Word of God that's alive and living and sharper than any two-edged sword would have its its way this morning. And so I wonder how many times and And I can speak for myself, not many, but how many times have you ever told someone that they're going to die in their sins? Right?

It's like a lot of blank faces. There have been times where I have given the gospel to people and told them if they continued in their way that they would die in sin. That they are grabbing a hold of that. But That is an outreach platform that is not popular today. Right?

If you have this track that reads this text that we just read, and you go and you hit the neighborhood, and you say you're dying in your sins, you're dying in your sins, and you just give those out. That's not a very popular outreach. That message right here is not American, it's not culturally palatable, it is not correct, and it is correct, but it's not received. It's not well received. And so, this is a different view, but the importance of acknowledging this truth, allowing it to soak into our minds, our hearts, our lives, is extremely important because Jesus said it three times to these people that were at the time the religious elite.

And what we need to do is search our hearts and our lives to find if there's a trace in any capacity of this hurts attitude or of this culture of self-righteousness lying within us. Because this is important. We can't afford to have this continue in our hearts and lives if it is. Jesus had no tolerance for it. And we can't either.

We need to hate the things that He hates, love the things that He loves. So He said this three times in four verses here, but in a small time, He said it three times to those that were the representatives of God. They were the guards of the Kingdom of Heaven. These men were. And they didn't think that anybody could come close to them and their religiosity.

They were privileged with the hope of heaven. They were vickers of God, to God's people, so to speak. So a lot led to this, and now Jesus is six months away from being crucified at this time. So this has a... It's got to be so important for us to understand.

And so His miracles at this time, when you look back at it, his miracles are well known. Almost everybody has seen his miracles. He's covered a lot of ground. He came from south to north, back south again. And everybody is talking about Jesus.

This is a word that traveled like wildfire. It started with John the Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness, make way. And now he's here, he's done exactly what John said he would do. He is who he says he is, and everyone is talking about Jesus. So no one ever lived like Jesus.

No one ever performed the miracles like Jesus. No one ever talked like Jesus did. No one ever talked like He did. No one ever did what He did. And so there were amazing unheard of miracles going on on a daily basis during all of Jesus' ministry.

It never stopped. Profound teachings, they never heard the likes of before. More than sufficient evidence to prove that Jesus was who He claimed to be. He was the Messiah. He was the Son of God.

He was the promised one from the beginning of time. And now John in his purpose of giving us evidence, because in the beginning it becomes about belief, right? And chapter 20 verse 31 reads, These things are written that you may believe that He is the Savior and that believing you might have life in His name. That is all about belief. And now John in his purpose of giving us evidence only gives us samples of this ministry.

We're not given every miracle that Jesus performed. We're not given everything that He did and said. And so what we're told of this in John 20 chapter 30, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book. There's so many things that he did that are not written. These signs are just illustrations, the ones that are recorded, just illustrations of the countless miracles and teachings that Jesus did.

So this just scratches the surface. There's massive evidence that these people, first-hand account, saw supporting his claim to be the Messiah. So in light of all this overwhelming evidence that Jesus is who he said he is, unbelief in Jesus is inexcusable to these men. And I will submit to you today that unbelief in Jesus is inexcusable today as well. We have seen too much, we have heard too much.

Unbelief in Jesus is not okay, and it's exactly where we're at today. And that's why He said, you will die in your sins because you believe not on Me. It wasn't that they didn't have evidence. And today, it's not that people don't have evidence. Am I right?

We have evidence that Jesus is, that He is the Messiah. They never denied the evidence. They never said, well, you didn't heal that person, you didn't say that, you didn't do that. They never said that the evidence, for the most part, was wrong. They saw the evidence.

They couldn't deny the evidence. But this tells why they didn't receive that evidence. John 5.4 says, but you are not willing to come to me that you may have life." Right? Did you catch that? You're not willing.

It comes down to their will. Their self-will and their self-righteousness got in the way of them walking to Jesus and giving their hearts and their lives to Christ. That's what the problem was. They couldn't deny the evidence, but their will would not allow it. And so this tells us why.

And human will is, It needs to be moved to Christ for salvation. And so this is a parallel truth to divine sovereignty of God in the salvation of mankind that we need to submit. God always makes the first move. God always moves in the hearts of man first. But we need to surrender.

We need to die to ourselves. We need to submit. We need to be alive in Christ alone. There's also a general revelation and accountability for that. And people say, well, I haven't heard the gospel preached clearly until I heard it from you.

That's why I was never saved before. Or I never heard the gospel. Or what about the people that don't hear the gospel? What about the people that are all growing up in a religious cult that never had an opportunity to hear it. You know what?

God is going to sort that out. And not me, because I'm glad it's not me. I don't have the... I'm not remotely qualified. But there is what is called general revelation and accountability to that.

Those who are not told the Gospel, those who have not heard it clearly are still left without excuse. Romans 1, 19 and 20. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are...

So what, they just have a little excuse? Maybe there's a way they can slip under the door yet? No, there's no excuse. Flatline, no. There's no excuse.

And again, I want to reiterate, I'm not here to judge people one way or the other. I'm not going to tell somebody that for sure that person is a believer. I've had people tell that to me about other people. I don't agree with... Christ is the final judge and hope.

I like to encourage believers, but not to step beyond what? Condemning or affirming. But so we see if those who haven't heard the gospel are without excuse, then what about those who have heard the gospel? What about those who have known Hebrews 10.26, for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. I didn't write it.

I'm just reading it. There is no longer salvation. It has gone past that. You can trample on the blood of Christ and there is no salvation, no hope. There's no hope, There's only judgment.

Is there forgiveness of sin? Absolutely. Can you stray from the Lord? Absolutely. It's happened.

I've done it. Repentance follows. You get right with God. A person who has rejected Christ stands in condemnation. And so, let me see.

These men in the text today, they have no one to blame but themselves. And in John 3.16-18, it says, "'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, whoever, ' that's anybody, "'whoever believes in him, shnup, perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. It's His will that they would be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already.

Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And see, this is where the Jewish leaders are standing right now. They are standing condemned right now. And this is what Jesus is telling them. You see, if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, there's not a future judgment for you.

There's a past judgment. You think you will live your life and have all the good versus bad things and in the end you get them all weighed out and then there's going to be a judgment and you will go either to heaven or you won't at the end. And that's not what this is teaching. God will give judgment. That's not how it's going to be in that case.

The judgment isn't future. Your judgment, you're under that judgment now. If you are living in sin, if you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're living under that judgment at this point in time because you reject the person and the work of Jesus Christ. John 3.19, it reads, This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil." See, the light of Christ has been shining for about three years. Well, a couple thousand years since he's been gone, since his text.

But what happens in this case is that the light shined and when the light shined, men loved the darkness. They loved their deeds. They loved their ability to create their own religion, their own salvation. Because they had everything to do about it. They controlled it.

And that felt good to them. That self-righteousness, It felt really good to them. But when the light shined on them, when Jesus told them these words, they hated it. Like cockroaches running from a light, when the light goes on, they go under the cabinets or wherever cockroaches go when a light comes on. That's what was going on.

And it comes to our will as well. And it says in 540, it says, But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." And in 717, it says, If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority." So anyone seeing, anyone hearing, anyone experiencing the reality of Christ and still rejecting Him, they bear the guilt of that unbelief on themselves. See, earlier in the Gospel of John, they would accept Jesus. They wanted Jesus, right? They wanted Jesus if he healed the sick.

They loved that Jesus, right? They followed him. They fell all over him. They loved him when he cast out demons for people. They loved that, Jesus.

And when he created out of five loaves and two fishes, They loved that he fed the thousands and tens of thousands, most likely. They loved when he did that. They loved it so much they wanted to make him a king. They wanted to raise him up and put him as king. And they tried to force to make him one.

Why? Because this would be the perfect, the ultimate welfare state. Right? This would be ideal. This would be perfect.

To have everything that you want in this one man. We'll be healed, we won't be sick, we'll have all this amazing food to eat whenever we want it. This guy needs to be king. Does that sound familiar? Right?

And so this is what they wanted. And people still want that today. But when He demanded from them, He demanded spiritual cleansing. When He confronted their sin and the bankruptcy of their religiosity, and He spoke only of the spiritual blessings and the heavenly things, they started to fade away. It wasn't such a huge thing to them anymore.

And then when he talked about his own death, and he talked about them having to swallow his own death, in the sense where he said in John chapter 6, he says, unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no part in me. They understood what this meant. They weren't grossed out by it like people today think they have to make some kind of a transubstantial thing going on where they turn it into Him. They weren't thinking that. They understood it.

But when all of that started to happen, and he spoke boldly about it, here's what happened. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. And so it's no different today, people, honestly. When the true gospel is preached, people want nothing to do with it. And I have a note in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

It says, And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. This is the power of the Gospel. See, Jesus drew crowds everywhere, but when He began to ramp it up, when He began to sift through the mobs by presenting spiritual truth, and by demanding a confrontation of sin in their life, by condemning ritual and religiosity, false religion, and condemning their hypocrisy, the crowds began to fade away.

They began to leave. They became indifferent And the leaders became angry to the point where they wanted to murder him. They didn't want him around anymore. And in six months, they would get their wish. They would get their own way on that, which fulfills John's comment in John 1.11, where he said, He came unto his own and his own received him not.

The question is, how is he received in your heart and in your life today? He came unto his own, Are you His own? And how are you going to receive His Word in your heart and in your life? To the transforming power of it or not? And so to the point when on the day of Pentecost, It chiseled down to, and I've said this before, to about 120 that remained gathered in the upper room.

And so, he went from having massive crowds, tens and maybe even hundreds of thousands of people that couldn't wait to see Him and watch His miracles. Down to 120 people. So it's really hard to draw people with the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's got to be a work of the Holy Spirit in their heart and in their life. When they see the death to self, the sacrifice of life that it costs, people just don't want it.

They turn away like they did in the text. And in verse 21, He said again, and this is very telling in 21, then Jesus said to them again, I am going away and you will not see me, you will die in your sins." He said this before. He said this before multiple times. It's not recorded, but his ministry was to talk about the kingdom and to talk about salvation. But it was not missing This aspect of warning.

And that warning carries from then all the way through till today. You will die in your sins. You will die unforgiven. You will die and spend an eternity in hell." Jesus talked about where He was from and where He is going. See, in chapter 6, He said He was the bread come down from heaven.

He made it very obvious. And these people understood the bread that they were given in the desert, that it had come down from heaven. They knew what Jesus was saying. And so multiple times He said the same thing. And I go back to my father.

I return to the father. And then he said that you will seek Me. You will seek Me and not find Me. See, that's part of the horror of hell right there. You will seek Me and not find Me.

It's not while He's alive. It's when everyone of them is gone. They will seek Me. See, there's a lot of the components of suffering in hell that He alludes to in the beginning of this. And like the fact that you're still sinful in hell.

This is a reality. What is hell like? Because He's telling them, you will seek Me and not find Me. You will be in hell and you will be seeking Me and you will not be able to find me. You're still sinful, you're still wretched, and hell is forever because you're still sinful.

God sent you there and you have a resentment and a hatred for God who put you in this torment forever and you cry out in a hatred to Him for putting you there, and you continue to burn. It's a perpetual thing that goes on forever. It's a bitterness toward God for sending you there. And hell is also seeking for what you can't find. That's why there's conscious torment in hell.

That's why there's no daily routine. There's no idle leisure. Oh, I got my burn in for the day, so I'm going to go and play a round of golf, right? Mockery is perpetual. It does not stop.

It's deep, deep emotional and physical distress forever more. There's wailing, weeping, gnashing of teeth. Do you think people in hell seek salvation? Do you think they would want to be delivered? Do you think people in hell want to be delivered out of hell?

In Luke 16 24, very well known, then he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. The answer was nope. The answer was no. In today's text it shows a few realities that guarantee you're going to die in your sins. Almost like a guide on how to die in your sins.

So I'm just getting to the message now so we can start on that. No, I'm just kidding. I'm going to give you a few quick points on what it says about how to die in your sins. Where he said in verse 22, so the Jews said, will he kill himself because he says, where I go you cannot come? And you can say, how is this, the first point is self-righteousness.

And so you can say, how is this self-righteousness? See, the statement shows of the Jews, the leaders and all that follow in that pattern in their religious stamped out system, their mockery is obvious here. Because the Jews believe that a person that committed suicide went to the deepest, darkest part of hell, that there's no salvation for them. And so their mockery is obvious. They felt they didn't need a Redeemer.

They thought they were good already. So they thought they didn't need a Savior, and they hated His attacks on their hypocrisy. See, these leaders resented Jesus' accusations that they were common sinners that needed a Savior. They were above that in their own mind. This is the essence of self-righteousness.

They thought he was going to kill himself, go to the deepest, darkest part of hell, we'll never see him, We won't find Him. That's what their mockery was at the time. So it looks at a Savior and mocks that whole idea. And Jesus, in His mercy, He's telling them, look, I didn't come to call the righteous. I came to save sinners.

I can't deal with you. I can't deal with you. And there's some people today that are no different. We have to search our own hearts and lives and we have to say, where am I in that? He didn't call the healthy, He didn't call the righteous, He called the sinners, but needy sinners.

See that was always the issue with these proud leaders. They refused to recognize any sin, any true condition. So they mocked Jesus by saying, well, he's going to kill himself, and he's going to be gone. We won't be able to follow him where he's going. Romans 10.3 reads, for they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God." Isn't that just the perfect explanation of religiosity today?

It's amazing how deaf to this warning self-righteous people can be. It's amazing how deaf they can be to a calling from God. And by their own willful righteousness, these people mock the Son of God. This is absolutely frightening. These leaders laughed when they should have been crying.

And they'll be crying when they should be laughing. In reality, instead of trusting in Jesus for righteousness, they trusted in what was their own way, their own rituals, their own ceremonies, their own morality, their own goodness. As long as They clung to these and not to Jesus. Their true self-righteousness would cause them to die in their sins. And that's what Jesus is telling them.

The apostles understood their assignment really well when it came to this. When they wrote Scripture, this message when they wrote the New Testament, and they were strong on this message. It's not of you. This is God's work in you. You can't do this by yourself.

All of your works is filthy rags. The devil's lie is that you can do it on your own or even have a part in your own salvation. That's a lie right from the pit of hell. But that's not what Scripture teaches. In fact, at the end of his ministry, Jesus said to these same people in Matthew 23, 27, 28, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Wow, that's powerful. That's a hard line to use when you're evangelizing, isn't it? You think your religion is good, but you're whitewashed, tombs, you're full of dead man's bones. Your religion is useless, it's garbage.

It's a stench in the nostrils of the God of heaven. You don't win many people by saying that, do you? I think it needs to be said more though. See, anyone not trusting in Christ is trusting in his own efforts, his own works, your own goodness, your own morality, religion, and it's actually a tool of Satan. And It's headed forever to the very hell that it came from.

There's religions that came from the pit of hell, and people that go to these religions and have faith in their own self-righteousness. And the whole ball of wax is heading right to the same hell that it all came from. There is no salvation. And Jesus says, I am from above. That's the difference between Christians, between true believers and non-believers.

Christ is from above and is preparing a place for His own there. So when a person is saved and truly in Christ, that person is from above. Our home is not here. When you got truly born again, your home became heaven. Everything that you have became God's.

It belongs to the Lord. It doesn't belong to you anymore. Everything that we do is for His glory, not for us. Why? Because God in His mercy and grace has given us an understanding that we are sojourners here.

We are pilgrims. We are visitors to this planet, and our ultimate destination is with Jesus. And the only way there is in Jesus. Without that we have no hope. Our citizenship is with Christ And Jesus is in heaven.

These self-righteous ones are from below. They're established on earth. And if you want to die in your sin, just trust in yourself. Trust in your self-righteousness. The world, I'm getting to that next.

The second reality is to be worldly. And that's verse 23. And He said to them, You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. This world will perpetually grab a hold of you and drag you down with it.

There are so many allurements to this world that will tell you you need to get this, you need to get that. Some of the most beautiful people, some of the most godly, wonderful people I know want nothing to do with this world. They just want Jesus. They don't care about being more wealthy. They don't care about having more things.

They want Jesus and they want to walk with Him. And He's telling them, you are of this world. This is another guarantee that a person is going to die in their sin. Being of the world means living in a world that you love, embracing the world. And so it comes down to, well boss, what's your definition of the word world?

Because we all live in this world, right? It talks about embracing the world and the ways of the world. About being consumed with the pull and the allurements of the world. Its demands, drawing satisfaction out of the world as you look to things in the world for fulfillment, that fulfillment that you'll only get in Jesus Christ. But what does the word world really mean in this verse?

Kosmos is the world in Greek, in order, in structure. Not the planet Earth physically. It's talking about the system. In this text, it's talking about the ideologies, the world system, the thought pattern, the flow of it, like a river if you get a picture is always going in one direction. You're in that river, if you just sit there it's going to take you with it.

The flow of it, the world is pulling everything in one direction. And it ends up in hell. And we need to stand against the cultural attitudes, the cultural thought patterns. It's the invisible spiritual system of evil that is opposed to God. And so Romans 1.25, it says, "'Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen." This is taking so many chameleon-like forms today in our culture, we need to be extremely careful of what true worship really is, about what God's true will for our hearts and lives is, because there's a thousand churches nearby. And how many of them are preaching the truth of the gospel and a sacrifice of your life, death to self, and living for Jesus. That doesn't draw people. It really doesn't. And so, We have to look at it, and it's sad to say all unconverted people are in that system.

It's hostile to God, it's hostile to godliness, It deeply promotes materialism, being of the world, fleshly ambitions, pride, greed, self-desire, and things like that. Its aims are selfish. Its pleasures are sinful. That's the system. And it will be destroyed.

1 John 2.15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It's one or the other. You can't have one foot in the world and one foot in Christ. You need to make up your mind.

It's got to be one side or the other. So, this is not talking about the things. Do not love the things of the world. I took a trip with my wife to all over the place. Canada, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, back home.

I've seen some amazing things. God's creation is outstanding. And I'm not talking about the beauty of nature. I'm not talking about we can't love the world. I can love my wife.

Right? We love people. We have relationships. A delicious meal. Oh man, I brisk it last night, I got to tell you.

And there is something in us that's not wrong to have. A good meal, a happy friendship. But it's talking about the corruption orchestrated by Satan and his minions. If we could really see the spiritual battle, If we had eyes that were able to see the battles going on everywhere, as we walked around, we'd seen the demons at work, we would be horrified. That would be something else.

And to know that at the name of Jesus, they flee. I think we'd be talking about Jesus a lot more. And so, all that opposes God, His glory and His goodness and His holiness. Don't love that stuff it's talking about. We got Halloween coming up here in a short time and my wife was in a store the other day and there was a lady holding a little boy and the boy was just screaming, just screaming.

And the father had this scary costume mask thing that he was waving in front of his kid. And he wouldn't stop. The mother was laughing and the boy was screaming. And my wife said to her, why are you doing that? And the lady said, well, what's it to you?

Well, your son, look at him, you're horrifying him. And the husband kept doing it and laughing. And she just told them that that was not okay. She led them to understand that Halloween is a horrible celebration of paganism. But they didn't want to hear it when she walked away.

She went to a back part of the store, a different area, and a lady came up to her and said, thank you for saying that. She said what? She said, for confronting that, what was going on. That was terrible. See, we're put here to confront things like that.

We don't have the option and the convenience, the luxury to not confront what evil is going on in this world today. And that's what part of our job is. We don't love those things. We hate them like Christ hates them. James 4 4 says adulterers and adulteresses Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. It's that simple So if you want to die in your sins, be worldly. Take hold of these things of this world. Don't let them go. Whatever makes you happy.

I can remember working on a job site one time when I was young. My dad said, hey, if it feels good, do it. Then he turned over and he seen me and he goes, not you. And that is the lust of the world. That is just where it's at.

And so the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and living by desires. If you want to spend eternity in hell, if you want to die in your sins, grab ahold of them as much as that as you can. Find your satisfaction. Find your place and your peace in things that are of this world and grab ahold of them and just hold on to them. When you lay your head on the pillow at night, be thinking about the satisfaction of things that you own and the satisfaction of things that you've accomplished or that you're going to buy.

That's one way. The third reality is having religion and not saving faith, verse 24. 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. There's only one thing that prevents you from dying and going to hell forever. It's an unforgiven condition and that is saving faith in Jesus Christ.

It's not an accumulated morality, truckload of good deeds or man-made religion. There's only one thing. One thing that will save your soul from eternal damnation. And that is to believe in Jesus, to have faith in Jesus Christ. It's not all the good deeds that it can do.

It's not anything that we can do, but it's to have a faulty, the condition of damnation would be to have a faulty faith in any capacity. To put your faith in anything else. To have a fractured faith or a faulty faith or misdirected faith is same as having no faith at all. And that's damning faith. And there's only one thing that rescues you from hell.

Just one thing. It's faith in Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ alone. And that's why Jesus is telling them so boldly, He doesn't have to. He could turn around and walk away and let them go to hell, right?

And then they wouldn't hate him, and they would not persecute him. It would be the easy thing to do. But Christ in His love for humanity, He records this for us. And it's why Jesus is pleading with them. Do you think we could plead a little bit more sometime?

We know people that are faithless. We know people that have faith in the wrong places. But he said to them, you will die in your sins, you will die in your sins, you will die in your sins. Three times he told them, and he said, unless you believe that I am who I claim to be. That I am who I am.

Eternal destiny comes down to a decision about one person in your life. In any man's life, Eternal destiny comes down to the decision of one person. And that is the work of Jesus Christ. And why do I preach Christ? Because He's the one person.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the only one. That thing I can't use, never mind. Jesus said to him in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

There's one way. There's not many ways. There's one way. At the feet of the cross, to repent of your sins and give your life all wholeheartedly to Jesus Christ. Not hang on to a piece of it, but to give it all to Him.

Acts 4-12 says, "...nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Jesus Christ. See, that's pretty simple to understand. Just think about that against the backdrop of the world that we live in, about the complexity of multiple religions across the world. All these people doing all these kinds of crazy things going on now.

We're watching a world literally falling apart. And we see people doing these things, trying to get to heaven, or to get to whatever they think they're going to be at, this nirvana state or good place, or He's at the happy whatever you want to call it, golf course in the sky, reincarnation, whatever. It all comes down to one person. And that's Jesus. That's Jesus.

And again another song hit me as I was going through this. And it is what it says, Jesus, only Jesus who has the power to raise the dead. This is written, it's sung most famously by by Matt Redmond, Mark Redmond, Chris Tomlin, but it was written, this is a newer one, in 2013, and it reads, Who has the power to raise the dead? Who can save us from our sin? He is our hope and righteousness, Jesus, only Jesus.

Who can make the blind to see who holds the keys that set us free he paid it all to bring us peace the Jesus only Jesus holy king Almighty Lord, Saints and angels all adore. I join them. I join with them and bow before Jesus. Only Jesus. Father, this morning we thank you for your word.

We thank you for your work. Lord, we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, Lord. I pray, Father God, for every soul here to be broken, to give unreservedly, Lord God, hearts, lives, all to You, Lord. I pray for boldness to walk in that as we go and share this glorious gospel that You have blessed us with, Lord. The only hope that we have with those who are dying, Lord, in this lost world.

In Jesus' name, Amen.