In his sermon titled 'The Love of Christ,' Pastor Jerry Zepnick explores the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees as depicted in John 8:24-30. He emphasizes the theme of belief in Jesus as essential for salvation, warning that those who do not believe will die in their sins. Zepnick highlights the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders, attributing their rejection to pride and self-righteousness. He interprets the act of Jesus being 'lifted up' as a reference to His crucifixion and ascension, events that would ultimately reveal His divine nature. The sermon underscores the idea that true purpose and fulfillment in life come from knowing and glorifying God, contrasting this with the emptiness of a life lived apart from Jesus. Zepnick encourages listeners to embrace the Gospel message now, as the opportunity for salvation is limited, and to live a life that reflects genuine belief in Christ.

P.S. The Lord gave us. Good morning, family. The glorious day the Lord gave us. So today we will be in the book of John chapter 8, verses 25-30.

I'm going to start on 24 and go through 30. And we will continue off the backside of what we went through last week. And so John 8 verses 24-30. Jesus said, 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 they said to Him, Who are you?

And Jesus answered them, Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true and I speak to the world those things which I heard from him. They did not understand that he spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. And he who sent me is with me.

The Father has not left me alone for I always do those things that please him. As he spoke these words many believed in him." Let's pray. Father, this morning we thank you for your word, your timeless word Lord God, and how this confrontation Lord God that you had a couple thousand years ago with those who rejected you Father God, that you're having that same conversation with us today. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be turned toward You, that our spirits would be lifted, that You would be glorified, Lord God, through the work of Your Holy Spirit in our hearts, in our lives, Lord, through Your Word, in Jesus' name, Amen. And so, off the backside of what we talked about last week, and that was Jesus telling the Pharisees four times that they will die in their sins.

If they do not believe in Jesus, that they will die in their sins. And so, we see in this whole discourse, there's a constant conflict going on between Jesus and those who were the messengers of God at the time. And so the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Jewish hierarchy were all there, and they didn't like Jesus. They didn't like the message that He brought. And they did not have the eyes to see.

And at the head of the problem was the pride and the conceit of these religious leaders to not believe Jesus is the Christ. That's what it came down to. Their self-righteousness got in the way. And so in today's passage we find ourselves in the temple again, in the treasury of the temple. And it's here that the people that came for the Feast of Booths have all come together and they bring their sacrifices, their offerings, and the first place they're going to go is into the part of the temple that is where they give their offerings, the treasury.

And there's these 12 big horns or 13 big horns made of metal. And they get to throw their stuff in there, their money in there, and it makes a big clanking sound. Everybody can tell how righteous they are. And so this is just perfectly set up for them. It reminds me of the religion I was in that I grew up in.

Every year they had a report that was printed out that showed exactly how much every person within the church donated to that church in that fiscal year. And so, never mind. But here we are, we're in this, the temple, and Jesus is there and He's preaching and teaching stuff that only the Son of God can do. Only the Son of Man, only the Messiah knows and can do and can preach. He's done signs and wonders that only He can do.

And here we have the religious elite of the day. And it is here that Jesus is... I typed out conversation in my notes with the religious leaders, but I changed it to a head-on confrontation. And that could almost be the name of the message. But they're having this head-on confrontation with These pillars of the religious community at the time, those who represented God, they were the spokesmen, they were the bickers of God within the Jewish community.

But they hated Jesus, because He was a threat to their power, He was a threat to their history, their traditions, He was a threat to all of it. And they wanted nothing to do with Him. Also because he taught as one with authority. And so when somebody is speaking the truth, and they teach as one with authority, those who don't want to hear the truth, they don't like that guy. And he taught as one with authority, not like the Pharisees did.

He knew what he was talking about and he spoke it loudly and boldly. They just weren't used to that. So they already had tried to arrest him. At the end of chapter 7 verse 46, they come back and they give this report. The officers answered, no man ever spoke like this man.

They were paralyzed when they went to do their assignment and arrest Jesus, they became paralyzed. They could not do it. His words, the way he spoke, it paralyzed them. They couldn't handle it. But when the officers sent them, they reported back and they said that.

No one ever spoke like that. They were very upset by this. They were not, they made fun of them. You guys got duped, you're pulled in like all the rest of the the pagans out here, the poor people, and now you're not fit to go and do it. They got upset.

They went to the temple themselves. So they went to the temple to confront him. But in the end, they were, even though they were these heavy haters, the heaviest of all in that community, they had no control over Jesus. They could not arrest Him. Why?

His time had not yet come. God's divine purpose on your life, on my life, His timing on it, cannot be altered or hindered by the work of Satan until God says It's okay. If you are strong and steadfast in the faith, there's nothing that can throw you off that rail. And so, now as Christ confronts them, back in this account, He tells them that they're going to die in their sins. Now I'm still kind of backing up to last week a little bit.

He told them flat out you're gonna die in your sins And it becomes apparent that that they don't believe in Jesus that they are refusing they're rejecting him for the most part and So it becomes apparent that they don't believe in Jesus and they don't want to believe in Jesus. They don't want to know Him. It's not like Nicodemus who was searching and while he had doubt he may not have been a believer. He kept on searching and seeking. That's discipleship.

That is going after somebody that has interest and wanting them to know. And the reality is that the point of the text is that those who don't know Jesus cannot find purpose in life. This text that we've been going through and are going through today, those who don't know Jesus cannot find purpose in life. This text that we've been going through and are going through today, those who don't know Jesus cannot find purpose in life. God made man for Himself, Not for us, not for ourselves.

So we could search for purpose. We can know a lot of people that have a lot of money, they have a lot of things, they have everything lined up, they have their retirement all flattened out, they do what they want, They go on vacation when they want. They live this glorious life, right? Well, they have purpose in life, right? They're doing what they want to do.

They have happiness, right? No, I'm sorry, but they don't. I search for it, I can't find it in that stuff. The point is that we're created by God for God. We find purpose in Him.

And our purpose is to love God and to glorify Him. That's why we're made, that's what we're made for. We're not made to make ourselves happy. We're not made to make ourselves wealthy. We're made to glorify God in heaven.

And that's it. Period. The end of man is the glory of God. But apart from believing in and knowing Jesus, we walk in darkness. There is a perpetual darkness that we were walking in, we continue to walk in, apart from knowing Jesus.

20-31 says, for these things are recorded, these things are written, all these accounts of Jesus that John wrote down in the book of John, They're all recorded that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. And that believing you might have life in His name. Apart from Jesus, you don't have life. There is no life apart from Him. Our purpose is to glorify Him.

Apart from believing in Him and knowing Jesus, we walk in darkness. We walk in darkness. The reality is that those who don't know Jesus cannot find purpose in life Because God made man for himself. You could say, well my purpose is this, my purpose is that in the end you live long enough and you do what you think you like long enough, it's going to get old. That is not your purpose.

Your purpose in life is to glorify God. Again, our purpose for existing is to love God. Even enjoy Him as we serve Him and bring Him glory. Enjoy Him. The joyful Christian, what a strange concept, right?

A Christian that loves the Lord so much that in ministering to the Lord's and the Lord's people that He suffers and He has joy in it. He loves it. He'd rather do nothing else. See without Jesus, we're in darkness. We live in darkness and we are darkness.

I forget what verse it is. It says that you were darkness. Not living in darkness. We were darkness. We are owned by the prince in power of the air.

We are owned by Satan himself until we give our lives to Jesus. But he said in the temple in 812, a promise here, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. That is the light that only Jesus can give us. See, if you've received Jesus, if you've really received Jesus, this is what it looks like, and you really know Him.

You know why you were created, and you know what your destiny is, you know where you're headed, and you know that everything that comes onto your road that He has put you on, that narrow path that you walk between now and your faith becoming sight, walking with Jesus all the way, that you will have trouble, you'll have turbulence, you'll have death, loss, you'll have sickness, you'll have misery, and all the way you can have joy because you know that Jesus is with you the whole way. So that will bring you into His kingdom, into glory forever. This is what gives life meaning. And it's not like it gives life meaning. It's not like this is your life and some meaning is sprinkled on top of it.

This is the meaning of life. This is the meat and the bun. It's the cake and the frosting. It's everything. This is life.

It's all of it. So in verses 20-25, those who don't know Jesus will die in their sins. And hell awaits them. A real, literal, burning, fire, perpetual hell that will not devour your body, but will last for an eternity forever. It will never end.

Those who do not receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will spend an eternity in that literal hell. The Bible tells you so. And so hell awaits every unrepentant person and earth is a meaningless miserable existence without Jesus. And here is what is the call to believe, to know Jesus, to trust in Jesus, to jump off the side of that cliff and give your life entirely to Him. This is the call.

Because the other side of it is, and the last thing I want anybody to say at my funeral is, Jerry was a good person. That's not true. That's not true. I don't want people to say that at my funeral that you were a good person. I can't preach, and I've done a very unbalanced amount of funerals compared to weddings, but I can't preach anyone into heaven or out of hell.

It doesn't work. It doesn't matter what the preacher says at your funeral. It doesn't make a difference. Your destination is already determined. But to preach God's Word, it says that if a person doesn't believe in Jesus, you cannot go to heaven.

That there is no hope. Jesus will say in a few more chapters, He'll say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father but by Me. Jesus says that. Well, that sounds pretty narrow-minded, doesn't it?

Well, that's the Gospel. The Gospel is a very narrow road with a small gate. We hit that road, or you miss out on eternity altogether. So this is the truth. He said, no one comes to the Father but by Me.

And we read in verses 21-24 that they will seek Jesus. They will seek Jesus. Too late. It will be too late. Friend, nobody knows what your future holds.

Been witnessing to my mother for over 30 years and she took a fall yesterday and she could have died from that. She's 84 years old. And so you don't know. We know what happened with with Dave Castile. You don't know.

But one thing you can know, these things are written that you may know. You can know that you have eternal life in Jesus Christ. The time is not later. The time is now. And it says in 2 Corinthians 6.2, for he says, In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.

Behold, tomorrow or the day after, next week, next month, next year. Now, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." See, this invitation, while it seems like it's broad, and it really is, the time restriction on this invitation is very limited. The time for the invitation is right now. The invitation is given to you right now.

If God is talking to you, if the Spirit of the Lord is working on your heart, right Now is the time to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord. Not later. See, time's running out. All of our clocks are ticking. And we all have an end.

And Only Jesus can save you. Only Jesus can make you... There's one of my... I'm a builder, so I like to... I like this verse.

It's about building. John 14, 1 and 2. Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you." See, Only Jesus can save you and only Jesus can make you fit for that mansion that he has for you in glory. Only Jesus can do that. There's no one else. And So, how does He make us fit? How can this undeserved person, how can me as a sinner become deserved, can benefit to this?

What about our eternal souls? What can take place? What can we do to get this? Because we can't earn it. For by grace you have been saved through faith, not of works.

There's nothing you can do to earn this. No ritual, no works, no amount of soup kitchens or good deeds. Nothing can help you get it. It's only by grace or faith. It is unmerited favor of God to choose who He wants and to show us and offers us this gift of salvation through Jesus Christ alone, by the way.

It's by grace through faith. Romans 8, 1-4 reads, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

It's the power of the Holy Spirit in us when we are born again that allows us to walk with Christ. So now We come to 25 through 30 where the religious leaders in frustration, they ask, Who are you? Who are you? And all of us have to ask that question. Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus to us? What is he in my life? Just somebody I talk about, somebody I give a tract about to once in a while. What is Jesus in your life? And that is their frustration.

They, while confronting their disbelief, Jesus, they asked Jesus this, and yet today a person cannot know Jesus apart from believing who he said he is and trusting in that sacrificial death on the cross. There's no hope that we have. Not only believing that he existed, the demons believe, right? And so I was going to actually take this message and label it to believe. And then I came to Wednesday night study, and Pastor Rick had the whole study about believe.

What it is to truly believe. And if you were here, you got blessed. And if you weren't, you lost out. But it's still available online. But it was a huge blessing because it it narrowed down the truth of what it is to believe because I think everybody in in town would would say they believe in God a couple hundred thousand people everybody at the Packer game today everybody at the World Series last night, especially if they're team one, of course they believe in God, right?

And so today We have to define what the word believe means, because some believe he was a good person. Some believe that he was a prophet, a good teacher. But still, they don't believe he was the sinless son of God who died on the cross for their sins. See, we need to have our actions going behind what we say. If we say that we believe and then we walk away, it doesn't show that we believe.

If we believe that we can trade this dumpster full of our garbage and the life that we lived for the righteousness of God through His Son Jesus Christ and be draped in that robe of righteousness. Who would not make that trade? I made that trade. Best trade I ever made. And to tell others about this.

We need to be alive in that. Some even come to church and sing about Jesus, but they say they know Him, but their life aside, it just doesn't reflect it. And so when we read verse 25, it says, then they said to him, who are you? And Jesus said to them, just what I have been saying to you from the beginning, just what I've been saying to you from the beginning. And you know what?

My mind started working and it's a rare thing I know but it was thinking about I was thinking about the visits that we had in the literature that we have yet at home from Jerry Benjamin the preeminence of Christ and When he says who just what I've been saying from the beginning it brought me back to Who he said in the beginning from the beginning from Genesis all the way up through Malachi There There is everything from the beginning that had happened in the Passover in Exodus 12. The Passover lamb in Numbers 21, 9. And recall in John 3, 14 and 15, Jesus compared Himself to the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. They're looking upon it, brought healing. And so the Levitical priesthood and its sacrifices, it's who He has been from the beginning.

They were supposed to be the experts on this. And they didn't get it. They were blinded. They just couldn't see it. They chose not to.

The tabernacle and later temple, the system of the temple offerings, their symbolic nature. They all pointed directly to Jesus. Jesus as the eternal high priest and the final sacrifice for sin in Hebrews 9-10. That's not it. But then in the New Testament, when you come into the New Testament, in the Gospel of John, He is the Bread of Life.

He said, I am the Bread of Life. Come down from heaven. He's recently said He's the light of the world. The living water. This is what He said He is from the beginning.

He's the one who speaks what the Father wants me to speak. That's what He's told them that He is. And now they say to Him, Who are you? Well, come on. Weren't they listening?

They wanted to hear it right from him. They were trying to set another trap. So why don't they understand this? Why do not they understand this? The reason is because they can't.

They're blinded. They're blinded by unbelief And the reason is so they can't know. They're filled with their own understanding of works. They're filled with their own understanding of the works that they have to do in the temple with the system. They're filled with their own self-righteousness.

They're filled with their own pride and they can't back off from that. Pride has become something that has created a wall that they can't get through. See, their own idea of who the Savior would be was nothing like Jesus. Jesus is definitely not that. So they had read the Old Testament, and they conjured up, in the Word of God, what this guy would look like.

And it didn't look anything like Jesus. And that wasn't okay for them. So these self-inflicted obstacles that they placed in the way became a stumbling block. They were tripping and tripping and falling on their faces, time after time. They could not see Jesus because of their own problems, their own self-righteousness, their own pride, their own ideals.

And so, their own disbelief that these leaders, they just could not get past. They could not see it. And brothers and sisters, today it's no different. We spend how much time witnessing to people, bringing the Gospel to people, and they don't see it. They don't want to.

They can't. Because they're blinded and they're tripping on their own self-righteousness, their own pride, what they perceive to be their own goodness. That will be some kind of miraculous way, wait in the end, and when it all balances out, they've done enough good works, and here they are, they're going to heaven. It doesn't work like that. That is anti-biblical.

And so in verse 26 it reads, and this perplexed me some, I have so many things to say and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true. And I speak to the world those things which I heard from him. See, again, they are full of pride and self-righteousness, being so heavy on them because it caused them to refuse to see Jesus as equal with God. And so, but why not judge in this text? Why not judge?

I thought Jesus would do that, right? Well, He came the first time as the Lamb of God. As when he comes back, he'll be the Lion of Judah. He will judge that. But it says in the back half of this that he only did what the Father wanted him to do.

He only spoke those things that the Father told him to speak. There were so many more things he could have said and judged concerning these unbelieving Jews behavior. He could look at any one of them there and he could have exposed the wicked thoughts and the motives of their hearts. He could have told them out loud, embarrassed them in front of everybody. And he could have told them exactly what they were thinking, what their motives were.

He could have verbally listed what they had been doing wrong according to God's laws. He could have embarrassed them. But That would have taken weeks. He didn't have that kind of time. But he could have called down angels to take care of him.

This is opposition, right? Why was it allowed? It was part of fulfilling the plan. He had to go to the cross in six months. These were the ones responsible for taking him to the cross, right?

There was a plan. So he could have called down angels. He could have done anything. He could have miraculously had them see who He really was. But they didn't believe His life and His miracles already.

So Jesus was obedient to speak only the things the Father had given him to speak. And he reminded these men of that. When he was done, he said, you know what, I could. I have so many things to say and to judge, but I speak only those things that the Father tells me to speak. And so in verse 27, we say, and they did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father of God.

See, their pride, it just laid so heavy on them. They couldn't get past it. It caused them to just refuse to see Jesus as equal with God. And this, even though they were the teachers of God and of all of Scripture to other people, it was of no good. And in verse 28, then Jesus said to them, when you lift up the Son of Man Then you will know that I am he and then I do nothing of myself But as my father taught me I speak these things See this obviously it speaks of lifting up Jesus, right?

And it's been universally translated as when He's lifted up on the cross. They'll nail Him on that beam on the ground, they'll lift Him up into the air. When he is lifted up, then they will know His coming crucifixion, but also His ascension into heaven. They will know by that as well. Then they will know that I am.

In the Bible it says he, but in the original text the he is not there. That I am. The great I am. That I am God, is what he's telling them. And so, John 3.14 tells us that as Jesus lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted.

So What Jesus is telling them is that they don't presently know that He is God. But they will know through His crucifixion. See Jesus knows what's going to happen at His crucifixion. And the things that happened at his crucifixion, it shook my memory back to when we were preaching through Mark. And I recalled what had happened in...

So there were five things that happened at his crucifixion that had to take and open people's eyes. And so this started in Matthew 27, 45. Now from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, There was darkness over all the land for three hours from noon until three o'clock. Black. Okay, they hang Jesus on the cross.

He dies. The sky grows black for three hours. That'd speak to you, wouldn't it? In the middle of the day, the sky is black for three hours. And then at 51, then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The veil of the temple is 60 feet high, four inches thick. From top to bottom, tore right down the middle. Not from the bottom to the top, from the top to the bottom. And the earth quaked and the rocks were split. The earth quaked, rocks split in half.

No wow. Right? This amazing stuff. The sky is black. The veil of the temple tears from top to bottom.

Rocks. The earth shakes and rocks split in half. And then continuing on in Matthew 27, 52 and 53, and the graves were opened. Graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many." Right?

There we go. We finally got it. There's a pulse. This is amazing stuff. This is the evidence.

This is not just for them, this is for us. Okay? This speaks to us today. This really happened. This speaks to us today.

Graves opened up. Dead people walked out of their graves and into town. Saved the best for last, right? It just blows me away. In verse 54, so when the centurion and those with Him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly saying, truly, This was the Son of Man.

That's something else. And so at this time, Jesus is telling them that they will know He is God. They will know He is God. They'll know He's the Messiah through the crucifixion when He is lifted up. And His death proves He does exactly what the Father tells Him to.

He does exactly what God wants him to and he is in complete obedience to his Father. Jesus came to earth according to the Father's will and it was God the Father's mission to save a people for himself and to give to Jesus an inheritance in a future kingdom. This was the assignment. Go to earth, die for the sins of the people, and I will give you a kingdom, and a people, and a title. And that title is Lord of all.

He is Lord of you, your heart, your life, everything you've done, everything you said. He is Lord of you. You can confess it now or you can confess it from your knees in hell. But He is Lord of all. Jesus tells them He will be lifted up on a cross as a criminal and he says, then you will know that I am, that I am the Son of Man.

Thirteen times in John's Gospel Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man, just as the Jewish leaders should have known from the Scriptures what he was talking about. Daniel 7, 13 and 14, it says, I was watching, this is what they should have known, what we should have memorized maybe. I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days, that's God, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed." And we're part of that kingdom, people. We are in that kingdom as true believers of Christ. We need to keep an eye on this. We need to walk and live and talk like this. Jesus tells them when you lift up the Son of Man, you will know.

Crucified, buried, resurrected, this is proof positive that Jesus is the Son of God. He was letting them know so they would recognize Him based on doing something no one has ever done. And Jesus has said to them, if you don't believe that, if you don't believe what I'm telling you, die in your sins. And He's telling us that today too. He's telling us you believe this and in believing you walk it.

You are rooted. Your life is different. You walk it. Or die in your sins. That's the options you have.

It's the same for us today. You don't really believe in Jesus if you don't believe all of this gospel. So some had already left before. They couldn't handle His teachings. And when Christ hung on the cross, they all abandoned him.

And Jesus experienced one thing. He experienced the abandonment that we all deserve as sinners. Jesus had never been alone until that moment when He cried out, Why have you forsaken Me, My God, My God? Because the Father and He were always together. But although He was on that cross in complete obedience to the Father, so sinners can be forgiven, like you and I, so that we could be forgiven.

And He went through all that ordeal of God's wrath, poured on Him, all of our sins poured on Him alone. And people still reject what Jesus said. Verse 29 reads, "...He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." Do we always do those things that please the Father? I don't.

See, this claim was just for Jesus, right? Well, obedience ought to be the attitude and the heart of every child of God, right? To walk in obedience to God's calling for our lives. To walk that walk and talk that talk. See, then we can also enjoy the benefit to not die in our sins, but have the righteousness of Christ covering us.

Have that righteousness on us. Philippians 3.9, it reads, and be found in Him. Be found in Him at the return of Christ. Be found in Christ. Be found in Him.

Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. We don't go there by our own righteousness. We wouldn't have a chance. We have never always obeyed the Father, but Jesus has. And when He took our place on the cross, when He swallowed that cup of wrath from God, He cried out to the Father, "'Why have you forsaken Me?' See, it's because God was treating Jesus like we deserve to be treated.

We deserved that wrath, and Jesus took it for us. He took our punishment, And now through faith, we don't have to do all those Old Testament laws. I don't have to track down a sheep or a goat and sacrifice it for my sins. Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. See, we are in Christ and by His grace, He has accounted to us all His righteousness on us.

We have not always done the things that please God. But Jesus has imputed to us this righteousness because He always pleased the Father. And He looks at us, this filthy sheep, and He puts His robe on us. He robs us in His righteousness. We deserve nothing.

And as sinners we get everything. It just amazes me. St. Corinthians 521, For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We have the righteousness of God Because Jesus became sin for us.

See, we're secure in that righteousness, saved till the end. When I got saved, I got saved forever. God is not going to let me go. We are secure in that righteousness of Christ. Hebrews 13, 5b says, For He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

See, this isn't just until we sin the next time or until we have a rough day, but for all of eternity. Remember John 8.12. John 8.12, it reads, Then Jesus spoke to them again saying I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life. See all because he lived a sinless life and He died our death.

He was raised from the dead to give us life beyond the grave. He was raised from the dead that we might be raised from the dead. And if you believe in Him, we have eternal life. See, do you believe this? If so, you'll never live in darkness.

If you are a true child of God, you will have hard days, you will have good days, but you will never live in darkness. These Jewish leaders refuse to believe Jesus enough to see their own sin and put their trust in Him. And I pray that that's not anyone here today. So looking at the last verse, it fittingly says, and as he spoke these words, many believed in Him. And that's amazing.

Many believed in Him. This has happened before when you look at chapter 2 verse 23. It's wonderful. But how many would continue believing in Jesus unto salvation? God alone knows that.

And for us today, if you already believe in Jesus, I mean really believe like Pastor Rick had talked about Wednesday night, like we're talking about last weekend this morning, if you really believe in Jesus, if you have repented and placed your faith in Christ, your trust is in Him alone and in His finished work on the cross, Continue. Continue to walk. Stay rooted. Stay steadfast. Stay in the faith.

Keep walking. Keep serving. Keep loving. Keep trusting. Keep serving in Jesus' name.

Romans 12, 1 and 2. One of my favorite, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This is a transformation of our lives. This is the work of God perfecting us until the day we die.

And I have another favorite couple of verses, Philippians 3, 13 and 14. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do for getting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That's my prayer, that that would be our future, that that would be our lives, that we press on toward that goal, forgetting what lies behind, forgetting anything that had happened, that Satan can throw in the hopper to discourage us. And the last verse that I have today is Galatians 5.16. It reads, I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

You want to walk in Jesus? Walk in Jesus. Walk in the Spirit. The Spirit lives in you. Feed that Spirit.

Read the Word of God. Spend time in prayer. Spend time in the fellowship with believers. And feed that and grow in it. If you're living for Jesus, stay strong.

Run that race right to the end. Father, this morning we thank you, Father God, for your Word in us, Lord. I thank you for this fundamental gospel, Father God, that you have blessed us with. And I pray for our hearts and our minds and our lives, Lord, to be pricked this morning, to be lifted up. Father, to see in a clear way Your call for our hearts, for our lives, to be subject to You, not ourselves, Lord, I thank You for Your love for us and giving us this, Lord, for that great sacrifice In Jesus' name, Amen.