How To Die In Our Sins part 2

Pastor Mike will be preaching on “How to die in our sins” part 2 He will begin in John 8:22-30

For you were created in the image of God, and sin has marred that image. But through the redemption and forgiveness that is in Christ and Christ alone, the image of God can be restored in your thoughts, in your heart, and one day, eventually, as we are glorified in the presence of God, our bodies will be fully restored.

And the Bible says, we shall be like him. Amen. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and this is Hope Worth Having. And I am so delighted that you could be with us today. And we know that today God’s word is gonna speak into our life.

And so I want you to get your Bible out. We’re gonna be back into the Gospel of John, John chapter eight, verse 22 through 30. And we’re still studying how to die in your sins. Not that I want you to die in your sins, but what are the attitudes and what are the characteristics of those who refuse to believe that leads to them dying in their sins?

And of course, we know that if we die in our sins, we’ll be separated from God in a place that is called hell. And we will live there in that place for eternity. But thank God Jesus Christ is calling us out of darkness and delight.

And he is inviting us to receive him as Lord and Savior. And I pray that today that your heart will be moved to be more repentant and have more faith in Jesus Christ. Let’s get into our study today as we learn about how to die in your sins.

We hear the words of the apostle Paul in Philippians three in verse 20. Our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Where are your thoughts today? where is your passion?

The Bible says that we should set our affections on the things that are above. God has called us to be mindful of Him and His truth in our life. And you see, when people say to me, I’m not sure if I’m really saved, I always tell them, look at your desires.

If your desires are for the world, then you’re probably not a believer. But if your desires are for Christ, then you truly have been born again. That’s why in 1 John he tells us to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, because your passions and your affections reveal where your heart really is this morning.

And this morning if you say, my heart is for God, my heart is to worship Him, my heart is to praise Him. Listen, you don’t need a card or a date to affirm your salvation. What you need to know is that your heart, your spirit bears witness with the Spirit of God, that you are truly a believer because your passions reveal that God is number one in your life, that your desires reveal that your affections are upon Him and not the things of this world.

The reason we want more is because we were not created for this world. And what I mean is this is that you were created to be in a loving and living relationship with Jesus Christ. You were created to live in a sinless world but sin has entered the world and has marred the image of God upon our minds and in our hearts and therefore we follow paths of selfishness and sinfulness.

But Jesus Christ is restoring us through the grace of God and through the Word of God He is changing us and the Spirit of God is transforming us into that beautiful image that God has intended for us and that only happens when we surrender our lives fully to Jesus Christ.

But if you’re worldly then you are letting the world mold your life. Remember what the Apostle Paul told us in Romans chapter 12. He said I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present yourselves as a living what?

Sacrifice which is holy and acceptable unto God. This is your reasonable service and then he says be not conform to this world. Yes the world is always trying to shape us. The world is trying to mold us into the image of the world.

But the Spirit of God. is shaping us and transforming us. And the distinction is this, to be transformed by the renewing of your mind is in direct contrast to being conformed. To be conformed is an outward pressure placed upon your life, but a transformation in the Greek, it’s the metamorphis, it’s the inward change that’s going on, and this is the power of the spirit, and this is the power of the word of God in my life that is transforming me into the image of Jesus Christ.

My friends, if you pursue the world, you will die in your sins, but if you pursue Christ, you will die in the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My third point that I want you to note this morning, how do we die in our sins?

Be unbelieving. We come back to our texts. And we look at verse 24 and we note that he says, I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins. Let me just help you that those of you that love to study the Bible.

When you see a word, when you see a phrase repeated in the Bible, God is trying to get your attention. It must be noted, there is a theme there that God is using. He is not being redundant. He is putting special emphasis.

Jesus already said, you shall die in your sins. The scriptures teach us that he already taught the disciples and he taught the Pharisees that they will die in their sins. We go back and we see in verse 21, he says you shall die in your sin.

He says in verse 24, you shall die in your sins. God wants to say something. Here’s what I want you to get. I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your what?

Again, he says it again. He’s repeating this because this is the theme of the text. This is why I could not escape the title. No matter how positive Mike wanted to be with you this morning, I could not escape the truth and the theme of the text that said how to die in your sins.

You’re going to die in your sins without Christ. If you let pride rule your heart, if you let worldliness rule your heart, you’re gonna die in your sins. But thirdly, if you’re an unbeliever, if you refuse, willingly refuse to believe.

Jesus Christ you will die in your sins. Go back to verse 24 if you believe not that I am he. I want you to underline that phrase I am he. The King James translation gets it correct when it puts the word he in italics which lets us know that it was not in the original Greek that it was added by the translators for clarification.

And here’s what the Greek really reads if you believe not that I am. What he is saying to the Jewish people you will die in your sins if you do not believe that I am. Why is that significant? Because that is.

The Old Testament name of God, Yahweh, it is the Old Testament name. You remember that name when God appeared to Moses in Exodus 3, 14. He said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you.

When the Bible uses the Yahweh name of God, the Jews consider this name so holy, so divine that they did not even want to write those words down. That when they use the phrase the Lord in capitals, capitalizing each letter, they would then the translators or the the Jewish scribes would go and they would wash their body from head to toe because they felt unclean for even mentioning the word Yahweh.

And so it is that Jesus Christ boldly declares unto them, I am. If you don’t believe that I am the I am, you will die in your sins. You see, my friends, the Jews were not confused about what Jesus was proclaiming to be or who he was claiming to be.

He was claiming to be the God of Abraham. He was claiming to be the God of Israel, the God of Jacob. He was claiming to be Yahweh to them. And when he says to them, if you believe not that I am, meaning that I am Yahweh, I am the God of your fathers, I am manifested in the flesh, I am the son Son of God, I am Yahweh, the Yahweh of the Old Testament.

Jesus says, you will die in your sins. It’s not that we believe that he was a great teacher. It’s not that we believe he was a great religious leader. It’s not that we believe that somehow he had this amazing religious movement and we’re so thankful for his wonderful life and he started this movement to change the world, but rather he is God.

He’s God. That is what is before you today. Do you believe that he is who he claims to be? When Jesus said, I am, he was claiming deity. He was claiming to be Yahweh to the Jewish people and he was saying, You must believe that I am the God of your forefathers.

That’s why they struggled. Take your Bible and go back to John chapter three. I told you that John is the gospel of belief. Over and over again, Jesus reiterates, you must believe in me, he is God. If not, look at verse 15 of John chapter three, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.

If you believe in Christ, who is Yahweh, if you believe that he is the God who created this world, who created you, you will have eternal life. But if you believe not, you’re gonna perish. Look at John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting what?

Verse 17, for God sent not a son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.

When the Bible uses the phrase begotten or the one and only, it is referring to his equality with the father, Jesus is God himself. You do not just believe he is a wonderful man and a wonderful teacher and a wonderful religious leader, you believe that he is God himself.

That is the only way that you have eternal life. Verse 36 of chapter three. He that believeth on the son has everlasting life. He that believeth not the son shall not… see life but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Go to John chapter 6.

John chapter 6 verse 40. Great to hear all these Bibles ruffling. We’re a Bible church. We believe in the Bible. We teach from the Bible. I have a lot of opinions but none of them matter to anything or anybody.

Only my poor family has to listen to all my opinions. This morning we stand and teach God’s Word to you. John chapter 6 verse 40. And this is the will of him that sent me. This is God’s will. That everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life.

And I will raise him up at the last day. Jump down to verse 47. Barely, barely I say unto you. He that believeth on me hath everlasting what? My friends, what I’m trying to tell you is this, that real faith is that which focuses on a real Jesus.

Not the Jesus of your mind, not the Jesus of a pluralistic society, not the Jesus that people want Him to be, but the Jesus that is revealed in the Bible. And the Jesus that is revealed in the Bible is that He is the great I Am.

And we’re going to, as we go through, as we go through the Gospel of John, and you can go ahead and get ahead of me if you want in your own personal time, but we’re gonna learn about all the I Am’s of the Gospel of John.

It’s all throughout the Gospel. But what we must understand is that we must believe in this real Jesus of the Bible, that our faith must not be in a conjured up God, a faith of the world or a faith of religion, a faith of something that we want in our selfish hearts, but rather it must be a faith that is truly revealed in the Scripture.

You say, well, I don’t like that Jesus. My friends, I don’t understand everything about the Bible, but I believe it. And however God chooses to reveal Jesus through His word, I trust and I am convinced that God will reveal Jesus as He truly is in His word.

I don’t look to other books. I don’t look to experience. I don’t look to my emotions, but I look to God’s word to see the real Jesus. Jesus. John Stott said this, if to believe in Him is our first duty, not to believe in Him is our chief sin.

How true that is. People say to me, Pastor, what is the unpardonable sin? It is to not believe. It is the chief sin that Christ cannot forgive. It is to not believe. People say, have I committed the unpardonable sin, Pastor?

Absolutely not unless you refuse to believe in Jesus Christ. But my friends, when Christ went to that cross and died for your sins and my sins, there was not a sin that He excluded out and said, I’ll save them up to this point, but rather all of our sins is covered under the blood of Jesus Christ for those who believe in Him.

We are responsible this morning. for what we do with this gospel. We are responsible this morning for what we do with Jesus. I only cast this warning out to you because the scriptures do. And I remind you that if you choose to not believe, if you willingly refuse to believe in Him, remember the words of our Savior in Revelation 21a, which said, the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters,

and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. There are two deaths. There is a physical death, and there is a spiritual death. Those who are born again, who are born twice, physically and spiritually, die once.

But those who are born once, only physically, they die twice. They die physically, and they die spiritually, my friend. Do not be among the unbelieving. God is not playing mind games with you this morning.

He is not messing with your heart. He is being clear to you that if you do not believe in Him, you will die in your sins. So there are two questions before you about Jesus. Do you believe He is God, and what will you do with Him?

Do you believe He is God, and what will you do with Him? My final point this morning, as we contemplate and reflect upon how to die in your sins, number four, be ignorant. In verse 25, the Scripture says this, then they said unto Him, Who art thou?

Who are you? And Jesus said unto them, even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I want you to think about that because I think that sometimes we rush through the Bible. We want to hurry up and get done, right?

Well, we got a checkbox. We got a mark on our little booklet we’re keeping of reading through the Bible or getting our devotions done. And you’re more passionate about getting that check done than you are about what God needs to say to you.

And you say, Mike, how do you know that? Because I’m just as guilty. What I’m trying to tell you is this, after all that Christ has said to them already in this conversation, about He has repeatedly said you’re going to die in your sins, what is their response to Him?

Who are you? After already declaring that He is Yahweh, that He is the God of Abraham and Moses and Jacob and Israel, they had the audacity to say, Who are you? Who are you? And Jesus said, I’m the same guy that I said unto you from the beginning.

You see, as if Jesus had not already given them overwhelming evidence. We’ve been studying the gospel of John. Those of you that have been consistently with me as we’ve studied this gospel, you know that he turned the water into wine.

We witnessed him feed the 5 ,000 and some scholars believe 20 ,000. We witnessed him walk on the waters. We saw the amazing miracles of healing a man withered hand and arm in the temple. These were not everyday occurrences.

Jesus gave overwhelming evidence. Even the Pharisee, Nicodemus said, we know you’re a teacher from God. Because of the signs and the wonders. Jesus from the beginning of his ministry had manifested that he truly was God, sent from above, that he was in step with the father, that he only did what the father wanted, that he lived in union with the father, that he was the son of God.

This would be important to a Jew. Because anybody out there claiming to be the Messiah, if they were acting on their own, if they were speaking their own message and it was not consistent with what the father said in the Old Testament, then they would know to reject him.

But Jesus reminds them in verse 26, I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he, referring to the father, that sent me is true. They already knew that. And I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.

Jesus’ ministry, Jesus’ teaching never contradicted the revealed Word of God. Who are you, Jesus? They knew His message was in line with the Word of God. They knew His life was in line with the Word of God.

They knew that His miracles displayed that He truly sent from God. Look at verse 28, when you have lifted up the Son of man, then you shall know that I am. There it is again. When you put me on that cross, you’re going to know that I am Yahweh.

Yahweh. How will they know? Matthew tells us that when Christ was crucified, that there were people who rose out of the grave. The Bible tells us that the Son darkened its faith. that the earth shook.

The Bible teaches us that the Centurion stood at the foot of the cross and said, truly, this is the Son of God. And yet people choose to be ignorant. You are not ignorant of who Christ is because He has failed to give you enough evidence.

You are not ignorant of who He is because He has slacked off in presenting to you who He truly is. People that are ignorant are willfully ignorant of who Christ is. It is because they choose to be ignorant.

For the truth that is found in Christ is available for all who will seek it. Today. Take your Bible and go back to chapter seven. Hang in there with me. Chapter seven, verse 28. Jesus is in the temple.

The Bible says He cried, then cried Jesus in the temple as He taught, saying, you both know me. And you know whence I am. And I am not come of myself, but He that sent me is true, whom you know not. But I know Him, for I am from Him and He has sent me.

Go over to chapter eight, verse 14. Jesus answered and said unto them, though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I come and whether I go, but you cannot tell when I come and whether I go.

Why, why? It wasn’t because there wasn’t enough evidence. It was because they willfully chose not. to know. They were ignorant in their sin. They were blinded by their sin, blinded by their pride. They chose not to accept Christ.

They were blind to the source of his miracles. They were blind to the significance of his miracles. They refused to believe what he said even though they knew what he taught lined up with the Word of God.

They just refused. That’s why Peter what he stood before thousands on the day of Pentecost said this in Acts 2 22 you men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you as you yourselves also what no and yet they had the audacity to say who are you who are you they knew they knew the truth they knew that he was god himself and jesus said i always pleased the father i always pleased the father jesus lived in submission to the father and he did that because he chose to do that even though he was equal with the father he stands as a model for all believers but jesus did that supremely to show the jews that he was in submission and he was in sync with the god of abraham and that everything he had to say was not in contradiction but in fulfillment of what the bible teaches us and so it is let us not be ignorant my friends let us not willfully be ignorant of the truth that is before us because through salvation god is restoring his beautiful image in our lives for you were created in the image of god and sin has marred that image but through the redemption and forgiveness that is in christ and christ alone the image of god can be restored in your thoughts in your heart and one day eventually as we are glorified in the presence of god our bodies will be fully restored and the bible says we shall be like him amen it’s gonna be perfect each and every one of us is responsible for what we do with the gospel we cannot say well i didn’t fully understand because god has spoken through his word and so what will we do with christ And what will we do with His truth,

the good news of eternal life through Jesus Christ? Even to be indifferent is a decision. And so it is, friends, that if you choose not to believe, you will die in your sins. But this is not God’s will for your life.

He’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And I hope it is in your heart that you would be granted the gift of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. We invite you to trust Christ as your Lord.

And I hope that you will certainly understand the truths of the gospel and come to the grips of the reality that we are sinners in need of a Savior. And that Savior is Jesus Christ. And I hope that today you will trust Him as your Savior and Lord.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. Thank you.