Sermon Text: John 8:21-30

(21) Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.
(22) Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.
(23) And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.
(24) I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.
(25) Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.
(26) I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.
(27) They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.
(28) Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
(29) And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.
(30) As he spake these words, many believed on him.

What I want us to do this morning, for the few minutes that we will be in the Scripture today, is to look at John chapter 8 and see what I consider to be one of the most clear and most complete sermons on salvation that you will find in the entire Scripture. This, in my view, is one of the clearest presentations of God's simple plan of salvation. You see, you have to understand that the heart of God is for lost people to be saved. That's the heart of God and the sad thing I'm seeing in our fundamental independent "soul-winning" Baptist churches is the fact that we are losing sight of God's heartbeat.

Last night in our deacons meeting one of the deacons made the statement that he could remember many years ago that we would have a hundred people out for visitation and soul-winning. We don't come anywhere near a hundred people out for visitation and soul-winning any more. What's happened? Do we have fewer people going to hell now? Have more people been saved and going to heaven? No, we are losing the fight. We are losing the battle. Statistics tell us that we are losing by many percentage points every single year in comparison to world population growth and folks coming to know Jesus Christ as Saviour. We are told that the fastest growing religion in the world today is Moslim.

What's happened? Where are we at? Why are we not seeing that the heart of God has always been that lost people would come to know Jesus Christ as Saviour? I don't know that I would have the answer totally and completely but I do know the Word of God has the answer. What I would like us to do this morning is look into the Scripture and see what Christ really did teach about salvation. Do we really understand, beloved, what salvation is all about? Do we really think that salvation is walking down an aisle and shaking a preacher's hand and signing a card? Is salvation bowing our knee and saying some little prayer and that makes us a Christian? I'm fearful that there are going to be a number of people when they stand before God and they think that they have come to know Him who is to know life everlasting and they are going to hear those petrifying words that are quoted from Scripture, "Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you." And they will respond, "But Lord, did we not do this in Your name, did we not do this in Your name, did we not do this in Your name?" And God's reply will be, "Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you."

I submit to you that it is high time that people in Bible-preaching churches come to understand what the Lord Jesus Christ taught concerning salvation. We need to hear it and we need to understand it, because we are certainly never going to have a burden to give others the gospel if we do not know the gospel ourselves.

As you look with me at the Scripture we have read this morning you'll see the Lord Jesus Christ very clearly presenting His teaching on salvation. As I said at the outset of the message, this is probably one of the most clear and most complete sermons on salvation that you will find in the entire Scripture. Let's look at verse 24 and read what the Saviour said.

(John 8:24) I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

You can see that Jesus Christ certainly taught that salvation is needed. The Lord Jesus is very wisely, I believe, beginning where we must all begin when we talk about salvation. It is elementary that until a person acknowledges his or her need of accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour, that individual is never going to be saved. They need to understand that truth.

As you look here you'll see that there are three vital truths about the need of salvation in this one verse of Scripture. You'll see that Jesus very clearly is teaching that the need is universal. Any one of us here today is not better than any other individual. It doesn't matter what your bank account balance might be. It doesn't matter what your educational level might be. It doesn't matter what the color of your skin might be. The need of salvation is universal. Jesus is making that very clear here in verse 24.

You'll also notice that the need of salvation is rooted in sin. The sin is the sin of unbelief because He says there, "I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ... If you fail to believe that I am who I say I am, you are going to die in your sins." So, we need to understand that the need of salvation is rooted in the sin of unbelief. You say, "Well Pastor, why is the sin of unbelief so serious?" Beloved, the sin of unbelief actually rejects God's only plan of salvation. That's why it is so serious. It rejects what God says. It goes back to what I have been teaching in my Bible class from the book of Romans. It goes back to whether we are saved through works righteousness or whether we are saved through faith righteousness. You and I who know Jesus Christ as Saviour this morning know that we have been saved through faith righteousness, not works righteousness. Thank God that the Scripture teaches us that ...

(Ephesians 2:8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(Ephesians 2:9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.

So, we see here a very very vital truth in relationship to this matter of the need of salvation being rooted in the sin of unbelief.

But then the third thought that you see here as you look at verse 24 is simply that the need of salvation is emphasized by the penalty of sin. Look at verse 24 again and I think you'll notice that twice in that one verse of Scripture Jesus says "Ye shall die in your sins." What He is actually saying there is that you will die under the curse of your sins. That's what He is saying. You could illustrate it by using the analogy of a patient who needed surgery. The patient needs surgery and it is emphasized by what will happen if he does not receive the surgery. You could illustrate it by many different ways. My wife is a diabetic and insulin to her is life! She will die without insulin. What Jesus Christ is teaching you and me here today is simply that you will die in your sins unless you know Him by faith! It is not by works of righteousness which we have done. It is not by your good life! It's not what you give! It's by a faith you have placed in Him! Faith righteousness! That's what He is teaching us here in the Scripture and we need to see.

Let's move on to the second thought I want you to see. As you look at the Scripture which we have been reading here this morning, notice verse 26. You'll see a second thought there that is so vital and important. You'll see Christ also teaching about the object of salvation in the latter part of that verse.

(John 8:26) ... and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.

He's talking here about the world. He's talking about every individual. Christ taught that the object of salvation is the world. That's Jerusalem. That's Judea. That's Samaria. That's the uttermost parts of the world. I'm concerned today about the mindset of the average Christian and the average Baptist, if you please. I'm concerned about whether we understand what the Bible is actually teaching in relationship to men and women living in our country. Thank God we have a goal of $80,000 for faith-promise to reach foreign missions. Thank God for every nickel, every dime, every quarter, and every dollar being given. Thank God for the Brian Nibbes, the Lynette Nibbes, the Marcia Kittlesons, the Rita Burns, and the Floyd Lundes. Thank God for Jim Chambers who is in the country of Zambia with his wife and six kids while his mother is dying in Cederville, Iowa. I read the email message to our deacons last night and my heart just bled because here is this young man so burdened to reach a people in a foreign country for Jesus Christ that he has left his dying mother and gone back yonder to his ministry and to tell a people about Christ.

You and I who live in this country with all of our conveniences and with all of that which God has blessed us, will not go next door to tell our neighbor who's going to burn in the same hell. I don't understand people who say they love their family and they will not give them the gospel that Jesus saves. And you call yourself a Christian? You evidently don't understand what hell is like. You evidently don't understand what the Scripture says about hell, where the worm dieth not, where there is a man there who has been there for centuries crying out for one drop of water to touch his tongue and it still has not touched his tongue. Christian? Biblicist? God help us! God help us to understand and to see, beloved, that Christ taught the object of salvation is the world. And that does include your neighborhood. That does include your loved ones. That does include those who you work with and those you fellowship with who know not Jesus Christ as Saviour.

"Pastor, I wish you wouldn't preach like that. You put us under a guilt trip." No, I'm not preaching to put you under a guilt trip. I'm preaching the Word of God to wake you up to what the Scripture says Jesus taught about salvation! I'm not interested in putting anyone under a guilt trip. A guilt trip is not what we need. We need to come to grips with what the Scripture says, where the Spirit of God works through our hearts and lives. Thats the need of the hour in our sophisticated, comfortable, United States of America. Thank God for the Bible and for what He has given us in the Word of God.

Very quickly let me point out another thought that I want you to see and I think we need to look at. As you look at verse 28, you'll see a third thought that Jesus gives us.

(John 8:28) Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

What is He saying there? He is teaching us about the provision for salvation. You might be sitting here and you have never trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour. You might say "I know that I need to be saved, but how does God go about providing this salvation?" Well, that's why verse 28 is here. That's why verse 28 tells us what it says. God's provision is in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross as your substitute. My, I wish we had the time to go over to John 3 and see how Jesus explains God's provision there for Nicodemus. We simply don't have time to do that, but one verse of Scripture ought to clear it up once and for all when He says in John 3:14:

(John 3:14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

Jesus Christ is the provision for salvation. Beloved, you are never going to get to heaven by joining a church. You are never going to get to heaven by being baptized. You are never going to get to heaven by living a good life. You are never going to get to heaven on the basis of what you do. You are going to get to heaven on the basis of faith righteouness and coming to a place in your life where you realize you are helplessly lost and you cannot save yourself. "But Pastor, I have been in church since I was a baby. I have been in the nursery. I went through the beginner program. I went through the primary program. I went through the junior program and the youth program. I'm a graduate of a Christian school. I'm a graduate of a Christian college."

God in heaven help us to see a truth this morning that the Bible is teaching here that Jesus is the provision for salvation. Whatever in the name of heaven you do, if you are a member of First Baptist Church of Rosemount, understand a truth that being a member of this church does not make you a Christian! I understand that you gave a testimony that you were a Christian because we believe in a regenerated church membership, Amen. But you have got to know that Jesus Christ is your provision for salvation, because God's provision for salvation is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. If you'll look at the 28th verse, you will see nothing less and nothing more being taught. God help us to see that today.

Look at verse 30 because He even goes on to a greater degree.

(John 8:30) As he spake these words, many believed on him.

Many believed. What are we being taught there? We're being taught, beloved, that salvation means that we have received Christ by believing, by receiving Him. Christ taught that the means of receiving salvation is belief. That's what He taught. That's how He taught. Saving faith, belief, involves repentance, acknowledgment of sin, sorrow for it, and an honest desire to be done with it. I've had this question asked me quite often. "Pastor, what about these people who say they are saved and they still live in sin and they still practice their sin. Do you believe that they are saved?" My answer is always the same. I don't know. I'm not God. On the basis of what the Scripture says, as far as saving faith is concerned, I can simply say that saving faith, belief, involves repentance, acknowledgment of sin, sorrow for it, and an honest desire to be done with it. That's what it basically involves. The object of belief is the fact that Christ has the power to save. But I don't know if that individual has accepted Christ any more than you do. But I do know this that the Scripture says:

(II Corinthians 5:17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

In other words, there is a change of mind, there is a change of heart that will take place. It doesn't say that you are going to grow into a mature Christian overnight, but there is that change of mind and change of heart. That's what the Scripture is teaching us here, because belief is a means of receiving salvation. Actually, when you stop and think about it, it goes far beyond the rational, because it is an experiential belief. Through that faith, through that belief, one becomes a child of God in the twinkling of an eye, in that moment when one takes that leap of faith. That's what we are talking about. That's what we call faith righteousness. When we understand that we cannot save ourselves, we will never be able to save ourselves, and we are willing to say to God, "God, I accept your plan. I accept Your way." When that is a sincere heart decision, when faith righteousness is honestly and sincerely being demonstrated, that individual is born again by the Spirit of the living God.

You have heard me say this, that on August 17, 1952, when Ed Johnson received Jesus Christ as Saviour, what I knew about the Bible you could put in a thimble and have room left over. But deep down inside where I lived as an individual and as a 20-year-old young man, I recognized that I could not save myself and I did not understand all of this business that that preacher was talking about and that my sister had been talking to me about, but I wanted what she had and if it was abandoning my old life and throwing myself in one leap of faith into the hands of Jesus, I was going to do it. And I did! And now for 45 years God has been building and growing, building and growing, building and growing, to where I know far more about that Book today than what I knew then. But that leap of faith I made on August 17, 1952 was a leap of faith into the arms of Jesus on the basis of faith righteousness. It wasn't on the basis of what I was able to do or what I was or who I was, because I was a lost sinner bound for an eternity in hell. We need to see that in the day and age in which we are living.

The church is losing its burden for lost people and it is losing its burden for evangelism. When we start having more teenagers out for soul-winning at First Baptist Church than we have adults, there is something wrong. There is something wrong when we have more teenagers coming out on Wednesday afternoon to go soul-winning than we have adults coming out on Thursday night. There is something wrong! We can sit here in our beautiful buildings. We can sit here with all of our property and we can sit here with all of our accolades, but there is still a world out there, beloved, that needs to be reached with the gospel.

Here then is my question. Do those who comprise First Baptist Church of Rosemount really know the Jesus of the Bible Whom we need to be taking to the world? As I study my Scripture, I find that He is the answer that our world needs to find and needs to hear about.

Christ did teach about the evidence of salvation. We didn't read it, but look at verse 31.

(John 8:31) Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

It is on the basis of continuing in the Word of God as I read that verse of Scripture. Profession of faith, as such, is not evidence of salvation. It simply is not. Verse 31 is very clearly teaching that. They had made their belief known for some kind of profession. However, was it genuine? As a matter of fact, when you read on there, verse 32 says:

(John 8:32) And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
(John 8:33) They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

They became angry, just like I saw some of you a little bit ago when I said what I said in relationship to more teenagers coming out for soul-winning than adults. I saw some of you out there starting to bristle. Bristle on, but it doesn't change the truth of it! You can bristle all day long. Matter of fact, when you are bristling, that's conviction. That's what they did. They got a little bent out of shape with it here. See, what that is saying is that mere profession of faith, beloved, is simply a preliminary outward announcement of your intent and it can be false. Persistence in Christian living is the evidence of salvation Christ is talking about here in this passage of Scripture. God knows this to be true, if we have ever lived in a day and age where we need to see some consistent Christian living, it is today. It is today!

Our time is getting away from us, but I want to show you one more truth. Look at verse 36. Verse 36 is a key verse. You'll like this verse, because you haven't liked too much of what I've said this morning. But you know, sometimes the medicine that the doctor gives us to get well we didn't like either, but it got us well. Sometimes the medicine that God gives us in this Book we don't like, but if we'll take it, it makes us well. And all God's people said, "Amen".

Let me say this to set the record straight. If there were more preachers preaching the message I'm preaching this morning, we'd have a better country to live in. But the problem we've got today is we've got a gutless ministry. We've got a ministry today that is professional. We've got a ministry today that is on easy street and they like being on easy street. They are not going to ruffle anybody's feathers and they are not going to make any waves. They are just going to let the thing rock right along. You see, what they are forgetting is Romans 14:12:

(Romans 14:12) So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

I'm much more concerned about the account I'm going to give to God than the account I'm going to give to you. That's where I am. The older folks who have been around here and listening to me shell corn for 30 years, when I preach a message like this, they are smiling and having a time of their life. I look at some of you younger folks and you look like you have been sucking on lemons for a month. "I don't like what he is saying today. Who does he think he is, God?" No, but I am God's man for this ministry. If I didn't love you so much, I wouldn't be preaching like I am this morning. Let me show you one more thing and we've got to go because they won't hold my airplane for me. I've already tried that program. I don't want anything to do with that. Look at verse 36, a key verse.

(John 8:36) If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Now what is that teaching? Here is Christ and His final teaching about the blessing of salvation. What is it? Freedom. Isn't that great? Thank God I am free in Christ! I'm free in Jesus. I don't need to bow down to any pope. I don't have to kiss any rings. I don't have to crawl up any steps. I don't have to do any penance. I don't have to do any "hail Marys." I'm free in Christ, Amen! Why? Because of faith righteousness. Because of a simple leap of faith into the arms of Jesus, one Sunday night, a young 20-year-old kid had his life changed forever. That's what Christ is telling us, beloved. That's what He is talking about here. We are free from the guilt of sin. We are free from the past sin. We are free from death and free from fear of hell. Oh, thank God, I'm free! Not because of what I am, but because of who I am; a child of God by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Oh, I trust you know Him this morning. I trust you know Him. But if you don't know Him, beloved, I beg you in Jesus name to come today and let someone take the Bible and show you from the Word of God how you can come to know Him Who is to know life everlasting. Then, for the hundreds of you here this morning who do know Him as Saviour, what about those who do not know Him? Maybe some of you need to walk down an aisle this morning and you need to get on your knees before God and you need to say, "Oh God, forgive me for the lack of concern and the lack of compassion that I have had for lost people. God, restore and rebuild in my life a burden and a zeal to reach that lost loved one, to reach that lost neighbor, that lost co-worker, that lost one who I know needs Christ." May God speak to our hearts.

Follow this link for a presentation of the Plan of Salvation.