Jesus' Most Outrageous Sayings - You Are of Your Father the Devil - Part 11

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Well, I think probably most of us here know
who Alan Jackson is.
He was a well known countrysinger in the 1990s, but in
2001, his career soared to acompletely new level.
When he wrote and performed asong about the nine 11 terrorist
attacks, the song was entitled.
Where were you?

(00:24):
When the world stopped turningthis song?
One single of the year in onesong of the year, it won Alan
Jackson, a Grammy.
But the reason I bring AlanJackson's name up is because he
wrote another song that I wantto point out to you today.
The site, the title of this songthat he wrote is we are all
God's children.

(00:45):
And I'd like to read a littlebit of the verse to you here.
It comes.
I would sing it, but you don'twant that.
Here we go.
Here's how the song goes.
It says, here comes a Baptist.
Here comes the Jew.
There goes a Mormon and a Muslimtoo.
I see a Buddhist and a Hindutoo.
I see a Catholic and I see you.

(01:06):
We're all God's children.
We're all God's children.
We're all God's children.
So why can't we be one big happyfamily.
Now, you know, most of secularAmerica agrees with the theology
of mr.
Jackson as expressed in thissong.
For example, in an interview onMTV, then presidential

(01:28):
candidate, John Kerry said, andI quote, Americans have a right
to be who they are.
We're all God's children in aspeech on July 13, 2003,
president George W.
Bush said, and I quote, we basedour history and our decision
making our future on solidvalues.

(01:49):
The first value is we're allGod's children.
End of quote, in her New Yorktimes, bestseller embraced by
the light.
Betty Edy tells about her neardeath experience, where she met
Jesus, who told her to come backand to tell the human race that
we're all God's children, thatwe're all divine.

(02:09):
And that we're all going toheaven.
Speaking for the gay and lesbiancommunity.
Christopher Sellers said, and Iquote, I pray that one day
sooner or later, the church willremember that we're all God's
children gay or straight forbetter or for worse.
And finally, I turned to thateminent theologian, Jalen Rose

(02:32):
NBA player for the TorontoRaptors.
And I quote, the thing aboutlife is you've got to give the
next man his respect becausewe're all God's children.
End of quote.
Now the question is friends, isthat right?
The question is, are we allreally God's children?

(02:52):
And that's what we want to talkabout today.
Remember that we're in a seriesentitled Jesus's most outrageous
were going through the gospelaccounts and we're picking out
12 of the most radical thingsthat Jesus ever said.
And we're spending a week oneach one of them.
And we're asking the question,well, so what we've already done
10.

(03:12):
And if you missed any of the 10,I hope you'll go to the cook to
the bookstore and get the CD orthe tape today.
We're ready for number 11.
And for that, if you broughtyour Bible, I want to ask you to
open it to John chapter eight,Matthew Mark, Luke John fourth
book in the new Testament,chapter eight.
And if you did not bring a Biblehere in our main auditorium, we

(03:33):
have a copy of the Bible.
You can borrow right under thearm.
Rest next to you.
We're going to be on page seven58, page 758 in our copy of the
Bible, John chapter eight inyour coffee.
And while you're turning, let megive you a little bit of
background here in John chaptereight, the Lord Jesus is
involved in a heated argumentwith the rabbis.

(03:56):
The issue they're arguing aboutis whether Jesus is really the
Messiah and the way he claimedto be.
And as the argument grows,nastier, the rabbis make a crude
remark about Jesus's Virginbirth.
Here's what they say.
Look at verse 41.
They say to him, we are notillegitimate children.

(04:18):
The new American standardtranslates it.
We were not born a fornicator.
We have one father.
They say even God.
And this comment by the rabbisnow creates a whole new level of
discussion.
A new discussion about who isreally a child of God and who
isn't, who really has God fortheir father and who doesn't.

(04:41):
And I want you to see what Jesussays to them about that.
Look at verse 42, Jesus said tothem, if God were your father,
you would love me for, I camefrom God.
Now the key word in thissentence is the word word,
Jesus.
Didn't say, if I was, if God wasyour father indicative mood,

(05:04):
Jesus said, if God were yourfather subjunctive mood, now
just in case you forgot sinceyou were in high school English,
let me go back to the Americanheritage book of English usage
and remind you what thesubjunctive mood is all about in
that we find that we usequoting.

(05:24):
Now the subjunctive mood todescribe an occurrence that we
assume or presuppose to be falseor contrary to fact and of
quote.
So for example, we say, if hewere sorry, but he's not, he
would have apologized by now.
We say, if America worse, stilla British colony, but it isn't,

(05:48):
we'd all be drinking tea forlunch.
And Jesus said in the same way,if God were your father, but by
using the subjunctive, he makesit clear that God isn't their
father.
The point is that from the verybeginning of this discussion
Jesus's position is that theserabbis are not God's children.

(06:12):
God is not their father, whichis why he used the subjunctive
mood instead of the indicativemood.
And now having set that up,Jesus goes on to say one of the
most outrageous things that heever said.
He says, verse 43.
Why is it that you don'tunderstand what I'm saying?
Well, verse 44 here comes thisoutrageous saying it's because

(06:35):
you are of your father, thedevil now, wow.
Do you understand what's goingon here?
Jesus is speaking, not just toJewish people.
My friends, Jesus is speaking tothe religious elite of Israel,
the Pharisees, the Sadducees,the scribes, the teachers of the
law.
These guys would have been akintoday to the Pope and the

(06:57):
Cardinals in Israel.
And he says to them in public,you are not children of God.
You are children of your father,the devil verse 47.
Jesus goes on to say, he whobelongs to God, hears what God
says.
And the reason that you guys donot here is because you guys do

(07:19):
not belong to God.
Let's make sure we fully graspwhat Jesus is saying here.
He's saying to these guys, eventhough you're Jewish, and even
though you are the religiousleaders of Israel, and even
though you are dripping withreligious performance, even with
all of those kudos to yourcredit, Jesus says, verse 44.

(07:40):
God is not your father.
And verse 47.
He says, you do not belong toGod.
So here in John chapter eight,Jesus makes it clear that in
God's mind, all of the humanrace can be divided into two
categories.
You're in one category or theother.
You are either a child of God.

(08:02):
We're either children of God orelse we are children of the
devil.
This forms the basis for whatthe apostle John said in first,
John three, verse 10.
He said, this is how we know whothe children of God are and who
the children of the devil are.
And then he goes on to explainthe distinguishing marks between
the two and friends.

(08:22):
What this means is that AlanJackson is wrong.
What this means is that JohnKerry is wrong.
What this means is presidentGeorge W.
Bush was wrong.
What this means is that Betty edis wrong.
The gay and lesbian community iswrong.
Jalen Rose is wrong as humanbeings, we are God's creatures.
Yes.

(08:42):
As human beings, we are God'screation.
Yes, but every one of us are notGod's children.
I'm sorry to be a child of Godis a privilege that is reserved
exclusively for people whoplaced their personal faith and
trust in Jesus Christ and whathe did for them on the cross

(09:03):
it's then, and only then that weenter into a family relationship
with God it's then, and onlythen that we become God's
children.
And he becomes our heavenlyfather.
Now you might say lawn, are yousure you're not reading way too
much into the subjunctive moodhere?
I mean, really well, wait aminute.

(09:25):
The whole rest of the Bible saysthe same thing, John chapter
one, verse 12 to every personwho believes in Jesus Christ to
them.
And I might add to them only Godgives the rights.
God gives the authority tobecome children of God, writing
to followers of Christ in Glacia.

(09:46):
Paul said Galatians three 26 foryou are all children of God.
But notice how you are childrenof God.
Through faith in Jesus Christ.
Writing to the believers atEphesus, Paul said, God
predestined us to be adopted ashis children through Jesus
Christ, Ephesians one five,writing to the believers in

(10:09):
glacier.
Again, Paul said Galatians four,four, when the time had fully
come, God sent his son born of awoman to redeem us so that we
might be adopted as his childrenwriting to the believers in
Rome.
Paul says Romans eight 15.
So then you have not received aspirit of slavery, but you have

(10:33):
received the spirit of adoptionas children, by which you're
able to call God ABA, whichmeans in Hebrew father, friends,
you see nobody is born a childof God.
As a matter of fact, for thevery opposite is true.
Ephesians chapter two verse onesays every one of us is born
spiritually dead.

(10:53):
Every one of us is bornalienated from God, separated
from God, children of the devil,and to become one of God's
children.
We must be adopted by God.
And he adopts us when we put ourfaith in Jesus Christ.
Now, this is the great news ofthe Bible.
My friends, the great news ofthe Bible is that God loved me

(11:14):
so much.
He loved you so much.
He loved every human being inthe world so much that he came
to earth in the person of JesusChrist and died on the cross so
that the option would beavailable to us, that we could
be adopted into the family ofall mighty God.
And that's why John says firstJohn three one, how great is the

(11:34):
love that the father haslavished on us, that we should
be called the children of Godwhen we believe in Jesus Christ.
And that is exactly what we are.
John says.
Now, if you're here today, letme take a break and just say, if
you're here today and you'venever trusted Jesus, a real in
person away, then the friends,this is what God wants to do for

(11:57):
you.
He wants to adopt you into hisfamily.
He wants to make you his childand become your heavenly father.
And he will do that.
If you'll just give him theopportunity, there's a lot more,
that comes our way.
When we trust Jesus Christ thanjust go into heaven.
We get God as our personalheavenly father.

(12:17):
And you know, no matter how hardyou try any other way, there's
only one way to get adopted intothe family of God friend.
And that's through faith inChrist.
If these Jewish leaders, ifthese were, remember, these were
Jewish people by birth.
Most of you aren't, these wererabbis and religious leaders in
Israel.
Most of you aren't.
And if they were not children ofGod by their own human and

(12:39):
religious effort, certainly youGentiles.
Aren't going to be, youunderstand what I'm saying to
you?
I'm saying that if those guyscouldn't get it on their own to
be children of God, we'recertainly not going to make it,
but there is a way to make itthat has nothing to do with our
performance friends or ourreligious activity.
It's when we trust Christ, Godadopts us what a wonderful deal.

(13:01):
And if you're not an adoptedchild of God through faith in
Christ, and I'm here to ask youwhat in the world is holding you
up.
I don't understand why you turna deal like that down.
Well, I hope you'll think aboutthat.
Well, that's, as far as we wantto go in our passage right now,
because I want us to stop andask our most important question
and you know what our mostimportant question is to, are

(13:22):
you ready?
Are you ready?
All right, ready?
Here we go.
One, two, three.
Yeah.
You said long.
So why say, you know what?
I still don't understand thesubjunctive mood lawn.
I still don't think I could getit right in a sentence.
And frankly, I didn't come herefor an English lesson.

(13:42):
So what in the world differencesany of that make to me what you
just said?
Well, let me, let me try tobring it home to you.
Did you know, in the newTestament that God calls himself
our heavenly father as followersof Christ over 260 times, he
refers to us as his, as are ourheavenly father.
I believe the reason God repeatsthis so much is because he wants

(14:06):
us to understand that he'sserious about his role as being
our father.
And if you're a follower ofChrist here today, and you had
an earthly father that was notso good, and you're not so proud
to claim him, and maybe youdon't even know who he was.
He walked out on you.
Well, I got great news for you.
God wants to be the father thatyou never had.

(14:27):
And he's serious about that rolein your life.
And even if you're here today asa follower of Christ and you had
a pretty good father friends,when you gave your life to Jesus
Christ, you got another father,a new father who's wife who
wants to take the ministry ofbeing a father to a whole new
level in your life.
When we come into that kind offamily relationship with God,

(14:49):
where we're his children andhe's our man, the benefits come
all over the place.
And I want to tell you about afew of the benefits that come
from being a child of God, byfaith in Christ here, that
here's some of them benefit.
Number one, we get a father.
Number one who loves usunconditionally.
We get a father whose love isnot based on how we perform.

(15:12):
We get a father who loves us andvalues us and treasures us just
for who we are, who loves us ina way that sets us free and
heals us to be healthy people.
Romans chapter five, verseeight, God demonstrated the kind
of love he has for us in thatwhile we were yet sinners, while
our performance really stunkChrist died for us because God

(15:36):
doesn't love us because of ourperformance friends.
He loves us just cause we're us.
Number two, second benefit weget is we get a father who
promised us never to abandon orforsake us to desert us.
Hebrews 13, five, Jesus said, Iwill never leave you nor will I
ever forsake you.
What that means is no matter howbad it gets, no matter how thick

(15:56):
the bullets are flying, nomatter how deep the black hole
is that we feel we're in JesusChrist.
Our heavenly father is standingthere right beside us every
single moment of every singleday, because that's his
commitment to us as our father.
Number three, benefit.
Number three, we get a fatherwho promised this to meet all of
our earthly needs.
Matthew chapter seven, verse 11.

(16:18):
If you then know how to givegood gifts to your children, how
much more will your father inheaven give what is good to his
children?
Number four, we get a fatherbenefit.
Number four, who is tender andpatient with us Psalm one Oh
three, verse 13, just as afather has compassion on his

(16:38):
children.
So the Lord has compassion onthose who fear him.
Number five, we get a fatherwho's more merciful and more
forgiving than you and I deservePsalm one Oh three continues.
The Lord does not treat us asour sins deserve.
Stop for a minute.
Is that good news or what?

(16:59):
The Lord does not treat us theway our sins deserve.
Please don't ever tell God youwant what you deserve, because
if he gave it to you, you'd bevery sad about him giving it to
you.
You want from God, which youdon't deserve.
You want mercy.
You want grace, you wantkindness.
And the beautiful thing about itis when we have God as our

(17:21):
heavenly father, that's what weget the verse continues nor does
he repay us according to ourwrongdoings.
Thank God for that benefit.
Number six, we get a fatherwho's emotionally available to
us.
The father that we can go towith our pain and our suffering
and our hurt, who will connectwith us in that pain, who will
comfort us and sucker us in thatpain.

(17:44):
Hebrews four, verse 15, we havea high priest, Jesus Christ, who
can sympathize with ourweaknesses for he when he was
here on earth was tempted in allways as we are yet without sin.
Therefore let us approach histhrone of grace with confidence
that we may receive mercy andgrace in our time of need.

(18:09):
And finally benefit.
Number seven, we get a fatherwho cares about us and takes a
genuine interest in our lives.
Peter says first Peter, five,seven cast, all of your cares on
him.
Why?
Because he cares for you.
You know, I think maybe some ofus are around the Christianity

(18:32):
and the Christian faith and theBible so much that we begin to
take simple truths for granted.
Sometimes this is a simpletruth.
He cares for you and me, butfriends, God help us never to
take that for granted.
Think about that.
The God of the universe who madeevery atom, every molecule who
keeps them all stickingtogether, the God of the

(18:53):
universe who keeps Pluto frombumping in the Neptune out there
somewhere, the God of theuniverse cares about you and me
and the little tiny trivialthings that go on in our lives.
He cares about that.
I'll tell you that is an amazingtruth.
That in 35 years of walking withJesus Christ, I have never

(19:16):
gotten over that.
He cares about me, the God ofthe universe.
You know, I didn't have a dadlike that growing up, maybe why,
maybe this that's why this is soamazing to me.
My dad growing up, took nointerest in my life at all.
I was like a picture on the wallin my house.
I was like a piece of furniturein my house.

(19:36):
My dad would pass me in thehallway, but he wouldn't stop
and relate to me anymore thanhe'd relate to a piece of
furniture.
And you know, I would lay in bedat night as a child.
I can still remember this.
And I would fantasize about whatit would be like to have a dad
who really cared for me what itwould be like to have a dad that
I could talk to about myproblems in school, my

(19:58):
struggles, my dreams, my hopes,what I wanted to grow up and be.
And a dad who cared enough thathe would partner with me to say,
son, let's see if we can helpyou reach that goal in your
life.
I laid there in bed and thoughtabout it, but you know what?
I, I, um, I knew that was nevergoing to happen with my dad and
you know what it never did.

(20:20):
And because I had a dad likethis, I turned out to be a very
sick human being.
I mean, at 21 years old and atage, I was so dysfunctional that
if they were giving out trophiesfor dysfunctionality, I would
have won the Heisman.
That's all I got to tell you.
But when I gave my life to JesusChrist in 1971, I found that my

(20:40):
new heavenly father came into mylife and he began to go back and
repair some of that damage thatI had suffered from having such
an imperfect earthly father andGod's re fathering of me over
the last 35 years has been themost healing and the most
restorative and the mostwonderful experience I've ever
had in my life.

(21:01):
Now how healthy I am today mightbe a matter of debate, but I'm
definitely better than I was 35years ago.
When the Lord picked me up fact,I'm a lot better.
And this is what the Bible says.
Psalm 68, verse five.
It says, God is a father to thefatherless and friends.
That's what I was.
I was a fatherless human beingand God says, come on over here,

(21:25):
son, I'll follow the you now.
And maybe that's you.
Maybe you came from a home whereyou had a day of like I had, or
maybe you came from a home whereyou had no dad, but friends.
I got great news for you.
Your heavenly father will startrepairing that damage.
He will start offloading thatbaggage.
He will heal your life andfather you as no one else can

(21:49):
father you.
If you'll just give him theopportunity to do that, let's
summarize being a follower ofChrist involves a lot more than
just getting a ticket to heaven.
We've seen, we've seen, it meansbeing adopted into God's very
own family.
It means being loved by thegreatest father in the universe.
It means being cared for perhapsfor the very first time in your

(22:13):
life, just because you're you,but I've got one more aspect of
God's fatherhood.
I want to give you before wequit this morning and it's found
in Romans chapter five, verseone, therefore the verse says,
since we have peace with God,through our Lord Jesus Christ,
we have been granted access byour faith in Christ to this

(22:35):
gracious position with God inwhich we now stay in.
You say, what does that meanfriends?
What that means is when you giveyour life to Christ, God gives
you access.
He gives you entry into a wholenew position in God's sight,
into a whole new standing inGod's sight.
When we become adopted childrenof God, God grants us this

(22:57):
special position that he calls agracious position, meaning that
the position we have with Godalways enjoys God's grace.
It always enjoys God's kindnessand his mercy.
It means that everything thathappens in our life, we can be
sure God will always treat uswith mercy, with tenderness and

(23:18):
with undeserved kindness,because we have a new standing
in his sight.
We are now as children.
He said, well, I'm not sure Iunderstand exactly how this
works.
Can you kind of put some handleson it practically for me, love
to, you know, I have three sons,my middle son, Justin, who is
just a wonderful son.
I love him to death.
He's 24, uh, entering his thirdyear of law school up at the

(23:40):
university of Michigan.
And I just couldn't be moreproud of him.
When first got his driver'slicense at 16, he had four
accidents in the first year,four, count them.
In fact, he had so many that Iactually had the claims
department of my insurancecompany on speed, dial on my
telephone at home.

(24:02):
And he would always come in withan excuse.
He always had an explanation whywasn't his fault that he had
this accident.
He even left the scene of anaccident once and told me the
other kid had left.
The other kid did leave.
After he left.
I called the father up andthreatened the father that he
needed to pay for all of thedamages.
I was going to turn his kid intothe police.

(24:23):
Finally, when we got the story,right?
Guess who paid for all thedamages anyway, in those days,
let me tell you what I did.
I kept listening to hisexplanations with patients.
I kept forgiving him.
I kept fixing his automobile andI kept paying for his insurance,

(24:46):
which went up and up and up.
And I just want you to know ifany of you here had done this to
me.
I would have cut your insuranceoff in a heartbeat, but let me
tell you why I didn't cut myson's true insurance off.
It was real simple because myson has a special relationship
with me that you don't have.

(25:07):
He has a special standing withme that you don't have.
He is my child.
And as a result, he gets moregrace for me, he gets more mercy
for me.
He gets more kindness for me.
He gets more understanding forme and he gets more patience for
me than you do, because he has aspecial position with me.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Now that's the whole point of what God's trying to
tell us in Romans chapter five,that because you are God's trial
through faith in Christ, you getmore grace, you get more mercy,
you get more kindness, you getmore patience and you get more
understanding from God than therest of the human race does
because you have a specialrelationship with him that the

(25:50):
rest of the human race does nothave.
And I don't know how it gets anybetter than that.
I don't, I don't know how Ican't.
I don't know how to deliver yourbetter news than that.
Remind, let me remind you whatJohn said.
First, John chapter three, verseone, he said, how great is the
love?
The father has lavished on usthat we shouldn't be called the

(26:14):
children of God.
And that is exactly what we arefriends.
God wants you to understandwithout equivocation that when
you embrace Jesus Christ, asyour personal Lord and savior,
you entered into a radically newrelationship with God, a
relationship that the rest ofthe world does not have with
God.
We are not all God's children.

(26:36):
Don't you ever believe we areall God's children.
Don't you ever go out please andsay to anybody, we are all God's
because the Bible says that isnot true, but if you're a
follower of Christ, you areGod's child.
Now, what does God want you todo with that friends?
First of all, he wants you toknow it.
And second of all, he wants youto treasure it.

(26:59):
And last of all, he wants you toenjoy it.
He wants you to enjoy thespecial standing that you have
with him.
Now, is this an excuse forlicense is having a gracious
standing with God.
Does that mean that we can goout and live any way we want to
live?
Because we're his children?
No, it doesn't.

(27:19):
Hebrews chapter 12 says Godspanks his children too.
And you know, I spanked my son,Justin, a lot.
In fact, when he was 16, Iactually thought about restoring
that whole process in ourfamily.
Please don't think that as hischildren, this gives us license
to go out and disobeyed God andlive any way we want to live.

(27:42):
That is not what the Bible istelling us.
But what the Bible is telling usis that even when we try hard to
obey God, which we should as ourfather, even when we seek to do
those things that please him,the most, which we should try to
do as our father friends, we'restill gonna fall short because
we're human.
And when we fall short, isn't itwonderful to know that we have a

(28:04):
special standing with God thatensures us.
We will always be treated withcompassion.
We will always be treated withmercy.
We will always be treated withkindness and tenderness in spite
of the mistakes that we make.
I think that's the balance ofthe Bible and that's great news.

(28:25):
And I hope not only will, youknow it and treasure it, but
friend, I hope you'll enjoy it.
Enjoy having that kind of saferelationship with almighty God
let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, thanks for talkingto us today about who's a child
of God and who isn't thanks forgiving us accurate information
to counter the propaganda thatwe face every day out there in

(28:50):
our world, propaganda that wouldseek to lump us all in together
in the mind of God.
When the Bible says that we'renot all lumped in together.
And Lord, thank you so much foryour love for us, that you would
come to earth and make a way forus to be adopted as the children
of God, through faith in Christand as your children, Lord, may

(29:11):
we seek to honor, you may weseek to please, you may, we seek
to obey you in every area of ourlife, but Lord, thank you for
the wonderful news that when wefall short, we can be confident
of your mercy and your untoldkindness because we have a
special standing with you thatthe rest of the world does not

(29:32):
enjoy or thanks for telling usthat today, may that bring just
a solid feeling and a standingto our life.
And we pray these things inJesus name and God's people
said.