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Well, good morning again. Take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. And if you look in your bulletin, you'll see that we're going to start at verse 48. And we've got printed all the way through 59. That is not how far we're actually going to go. But that text gives you the context. You'll see where we're headed for next week. Now, how long we're actually going to be in this section of scripture, I don't know. Maybe a little while. But you'll see where we're headed if you keep that and uh and refer back to it. John 8, beginning in verse 48, let's read together and we'll read through verse 51. The Jews answered him, Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is strong, that it's perfect, that it's living and active. We thank you, Lord, that it's sharper than any two-edged sword, that it can pierce even through the blackest heart. And it can bring life by the power of your spirit. And so, Lord, we pray this morning that your word would bring life. For those who do not know you, for those who are dead in sin, we pray that by the power of your spirit, working through your word, that you would bring life, that you would make a new creation this morning. Lord, for your children, that you would enliven us to all the more seek your faith, seek your glory, and live lives that magnify the name of our Lord Jesus. Lord, I pray that you would help me to preach and that you would help all of us to open our hearts and to listen to your word. We pray all this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Sometimes the clearest evidence of a hardened heart is not confusion. You see, there are times when being confused about the truth is a good thing. It's not bad to hear something and to wonder what it means. We saw an example of that really if you go all the way back to John chapter three. Nicodemus was confused about Christ. He was curious about Christ. He knew that there was something there, but he wanted more information. He wanted to be able to hear directly from the source. And so Nicodemus goes to Jesus by night, doesn't he? And he begins to ask some questions of Christ, and he's confused. And really, he leaves that conversation confused. All of his answers and all of his confusion and all the things that he was wondering about Jesus weren't necessarily for him cleared up in that conversation. But what we're going to see as we continue journeying through the Gospel of John is that God begins to soften the heart of Nicodemus. And Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, who was once confused about Christ, there is some clear evidence that Nicodemus may very well end up putting his faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Trusting in him, believing in him. We've already seen once again that Nicodemus is the one who stood up and spoke out really in defense of Christ. When the rest of the Pharisees were concerned about him, wanting to continue on their plan to kill him and to jail him. Nicodemus speaks out really for him. And so confusion about Jesus is not a bad thing, and it's not in and of itself a sign of a hardened heart. What is a sign of a hardened heart is pure contempt, hatred, reacting to the truth of Jesus in a way that displays that everything inside of you is opposed to him. And that's exactly how we see these crowd or these Pharisees reacting. Benny, somebody's trying to steal your car out there. Interesting. Well, we'll continue on preaching. If the babies don't bother me, if the babies don't bother me, surely the car alarm won't bother me. But what you all just saw is that was a lie because I can listen to a baby cry all day long. But the car alarm just I couldn't do it. And if Josh puts those sunglasses on that he walked in with, I really won't be able to do it. But what we see from these crowds is not confusion, we see hatred, contempt. They are unwilling to receive the words of Christ, and even more than that, what we see today in this text is that they display their contempt and what they said. They respond to Jesus with insults. What they should have done is they should have heard everything that he said and repented. Repented of their hardness of heart, repented of their sin. That they should have heard the words that he was saying and considered the signs that they saw from him and received him, but instead they grew in their anger and their hatred for him. They respond with contempt. They say to him, Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? They're not wrestling with Jesus' words. They're not confused about what he's saying, they're not asking any honest questions. They they go straight into attack mode, don't they? Because Jesus is standing in opposition to them, then he must have a demon. He must be possessed. And they say, you must be a Samaritan. They begin to attack Christ. Now we hear that. And it's easy for us to look at that and say, these Pharisees, they were jerks. Right? But I want you this morning to think for a moment. Apart from grace, how would you respond to Jesus? Apart from the grace of God, what would your response to Jesus be? You know, the Bible is very clear, isn't it? That we're dead in our sin. That left to ourselves, we are haters of God. You say, oh, Brother Jimmy, I've never been a hater of God. Oh yes, you have. Oh yes, you have. The heart that is bent on sin, the life that is living after the flesh, is absolutely one hundred percent in opposition to God. And opposition to God is hatred toward God. There is no middle ground, there is no neutrality. A hardened heart attacks the truth because it cannot refute it. Now I want you to let that sink in for a moment. These Pharisees, these crowds, they did not come to Jesus with clear evidence disputing what it was that he had to say. I want you to think about that for a second. Remember, these are people who would have understood the law, they would have understood the prophets, they had all kinds of training and learning and understanding. And if Jesus was a false Christ, if Jesus wasn't who he said he was, then of all people, they should have been able to open the scripture. They should have been able to come to him and present an argument as to why what he was saying was false. But instead, what do they do? You have a demon. You're a Samaritan. They began launching personal attacks against Christ. Have you ever been in an argument where that's kind of the way that it went? You know, I can think of times when I myself shamefully have resorted to attacking character rather than focusing on the argument itself. And why do you do that? If you're confronted with something that you don't like, why would you immediately jump to an attack of character? The answer is because you don't have any good thing to say to actually win the argument at hand, do you? You don't have anything to bring forth to actually win the argument that you're having. And so instead, what you do is you redirect. And you say, okay, if I can't get you here where it matters, then I'm just going to insult your character. I'm just going to defame you. I'm going to attack you personally. And that's what the Jews here did. Because a hardened heart attacks the truth because it cannot refute it. You see, Jesus could never be proven wrong because Jesus was never wrong. Jesus could never be made out to be a liar because Jesus never lied. Everything that he said was the word of God because he himself is the incarnate word of God. And so they said, You're a Samaritan. This is showing forth here their disdain for him. What they're saying is they're launching an insult at him. They're launching an insult. Samaritans in that time, and I won't go deep into this because we've talked about it a lot, but Samaritans were not loved by Jews. There was no love lost between Jews and Samaritans, either one. They didn't like each other. And so for a Jew to call someone a Samaritan who, quite frankly, is not a Samaritan, but for a Jew to use that slur or to use that insult, it was to simply say, you're beneath us. You're clearly not a covenant person of God. You're not one of us. You're a poser. You're a pretender. Now, listen, I find it interesting here because last week, and really the week before that, what did Jesus say to them? Now listen, when Jesus said this to them, that wasn't an insult, it was the truth. Jesus pointed out, you are not children of Abraham. Because if you were, you would do the things that Abraham did. You're not a covenant person of God. What did they say back to Jesus? Oh yeah? You're a Samaritan. What are they saying? You're not one of us. You don't meet the requirements. You don't fit the standard. False accusations and false truth. But they doubled down, didn't they? Not only did they say you're a Samaritan, they said you have a demon. You have a demon. Here they are looking at the sinless son of God, listening to the sinless son of God, and they are accusing him of being demon-possessed. You know, we often say we live in a culture that calls evil good and good evil. There's nothing new under the sun, is there? A heart that's hard toward God will always make that mistake. We live in a culture that looks at evil and says, Well, that's good. And we look at that which is good and holy and righteous, and we call it evil. And that's exactly what the Pharisees were doing here with Jesus. And that's exactly how blind unbelief can be. A hardened heart, a dead heart, can be in the very presence of the Son of God, can take into account all of the evidence that is there for the Son of God and everything that he said, can listen to his words, and they can say that's evil. That's wrong. That's how blind unbelief can be. And listen, I want to tell you again, before we judge these Pharisees too harshly, ask yourself the question: where would I be if not for grace? If not for grace, I would look at the sinless Son of God and call him evil too. If not for grace, I would reject the words of Christ too. The only difference this morning between me and these people who were rejecting and openly arguing and insulting the Son of God, the only difference is grace. You know, we are here in Holy Week leading up to the crucifixion of Christ. And this week, as you're meditating on scripture and you're thinking about this week as it played out in the life of Jesus, you'll be thinking about when Jesus was presented before the crowds. And what did the crowds say? Listen, mind you, this morning we we like to turn, and you know, again, my fault. We turn Palm Sunday into a cute Sunday. And it's fun, sweet to see the kids wave their branches. We like to remember this reception that Jesus got when he got to Jerusalem. Keeping in context with the story, what did Jesus do as soon as he arrived in Jerusalem? Do any of you know? He walked into the temple and he cleared it out a second time. He announced his presence by clearing the temple. And these crowds that were oh, so excited to see the Messiah, to see this prophet named Jesus ride into the city, were the very crowds that were saying, crucify him, were the very crowds that were calling for his execution. And we read that and we say, My goodness, how blind they were. Why, why I you know they'd heard about Jesus. Why would they be calling for his crucifixion? Because the unbelieving, blind, dead heart can look directly at the sinless Son of God, and in one breath praise his name, and in the other breath call out hatreds toward him. And where would you be if it weren't for grace? Be just like them. And so when we read this, listen, it is bewildering on this side of the uh of being redeemed. It is bewildering to look back and look at these interactions that people had with Jesus and think, my goodness, why didn't they see it? Listen, there was a time when you didn't see it. There was a time when you didn't care. There was a time when you would have looked at Jesus and you would have said, He's a demon. You say, Oh no, I never would have. You wouldn't have until his word confronted you, until his word hit you where it hurt. Until his word showed you that you couldn't have him, you couldn't have God and still live in opposition to him. The difference between us and them is one thing. It's grace. It's not merit. It's not intelligence. It's not that we understand the scripture better. It's not that we have better eyes to see. It's not that we were born to a different family. It's not that we were raised differently. You know what the difference is? It's grace. These Pharisees show us, listen. You can be very religious. And you can still be wrong about Jesus. They had the scripture. They honored Abraham. Oh Abraham. They honored the prophets. Oh, the prophets. And what did Jesus say? You're the very ones who killed the prophets. They honored God in their own mind. They thought they were honoring God. But when God stood in front of him, they rejected God. Oh, how blind. Oh, I love God. I love everything about God. Oh, me and God are buddies. I don't want Jesus, though. And friends, it doesn't work that way. That's right. Amen. If you honor God, you must honor the Son. That ought to be sobering to us today because listen, I want to tell you, the same thing can happen today. We can come every Sunday to church. We can come every Sunday and hear sermons. We can speak Christian ease. You say, what's Christian ease? That's that weird language that every Christian speaks. You know what I'm talking about? I'm praying on it. God moves my heart that direction, then that's what I'll do. We can do all those things. And we can still have a heart that rejects Christ. We can still have a heart that rejects truth. How does Jesus respond to them? Well, Jesus does not take the conversation where they want it to go. And we see that all through the Gospel of John, don't we? I've told you when we see these conversations between Jesus and other people in the Gospels, that rarely ever does Jesus go where the person having the conversation is wanting to lead it to go. He takes it where they need it to go. He does that same thing for us, doesn't he? Take our burden to the Lord, and we want God to do exactly what we want him to do, and God says, no, no, listen, my ways are better. And so in this conversation, Jesus doesn't become defensive. Jesus focuses back on the truth. Jesus says, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me. Remember what Jesus has been saying to them. You are not of Abraham. If you were, you'd be doing the things that Abraham did, right? And so Jesus is bringing them right back to the truth. I honor my father, but you dishonor me. Jesus here doesn't even address the Samaritan comment. Jesus doesn't say, now listen, I'm not a Samaritan, and here's the reasons why. Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't go down the rabbit hole that they're trying to create for him here. He focuses them back on the truth. He brings them directly to the real issue. He says, I honor my father, you dishonor me. That's a weighty thing for them to hear. Because in their minds, if anybody honored God, it was them. Oh, if anybody is glorifying the Father, it's us. We're the Pharisees. We are the epitome of what it looks like to be a Jew. We are the epitome of what it looks like to be the children of Abraham. But Jesus says, if you dishonor me, you're dishonoring the Father. There is no category where you can say, I love God, but I don't love Jesus. Jesus taught, and we're going to see this even more as we go through the Gospel of John. But what did Jesus teach about those who were the true covenant people of God? When they heard his voice, they followed him, right? The true sheep of God's fold in Israel, when they heard Christ, they followed him. Why? Because he is the truth incarnate. These are people who already love the truth. And so when they saw Jesus, the living word of God, the very truth of God incarnate, they couldn't help but to follow him. To dishonor the Son is to dishonor the Father. Jesus says here, I do not seek my own glory. Jesus is the only one who deserves glory. Think about that for a second. I want you to think about the character of Jesus. Jesus deserves all the glory. But when Jesus, listen, I want you to get this. He deserves all the glory. But when Jesus laid his glory aside, when he veiled his glory with human flesh and he came to earth, what did he come to do? He came to serve. He didn't come to chase glory. He came to serve. And the only one who deserves glory is here, not chasing it. There is one who seeks my glory, and it is the Father. Right? And he is the judge. Jesus here is essentially saying to them, listen, I don't vindicate myself. I don't have to stand here and refute every argument. There is one who's going to handle that, and he is the judge. And one day you will stand before him, and you'll have to give an account of what you did with me. And so this morning, again, listen, I'll ask you the same question I've been asking you as we've been walking through the Gospel of John. What are you going to do with Jesus? Because one day you too will stand before the Father. And the Father is seeking to glorify the Son. And if you've rejected the Son, you will not be received by the Father. There is a promise here. Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, and what do we do if we're good students of the Bible? What do we do when we hear Jesus say, truly, truly, I say to you? We lean in a little bit, don't we? Everything he said was true and weighty. But when the Son of God says, Truly, truly, I say to you, you better listen up. You better put your listening ears on. You better pay attention to what it is that he's going to say. He says, if anyone keeps my word, now we've been talking about this a lot on Sunday nights, haven't we? It's one thing to hear the word, it's another thing to obey it. Amen. We can listen to it all day. Hearing only is not going to do anything. We've got to obey what we hear. And so Jesus says, whoever keeps it, what do you do with treasure? You keep it, don't you? Oh, I just pick it up, look at it, throw it away. I don't care what happens to it. That ain't true. Every one of you women, I guarantee you, you've got, except maybe my wife, I'll be honest with you, she's lost so much jewelry, I don't even want to talk about it. She's the exception to the rule. Most of you women in the room, you've got a special drawer in your jewelry cabinet. And ain't nobody allowed to mess with that drawer. Or at least my mom and grandmother did. You can go in there and mess with other stuff, but if you open that drawer that's got the real expensive jewelry in it, you're gonna get your head slapped. Because we don't care if we lose the earrings we bought on clearance at Walmart so much. But we care if we lose this family heirloom that's been that's studded with diamonds and that's been passed down through five generations. We care about that one, right? Let me repeat, at least most of you do. Jennifer Hazlet, I'm not sure. I don't know if she does. Why is that? Because for you, that's a treasure, isn't it? It's a treasure, it's something that you value. It's something that when you received it, you were so grateful for it, and you said, I want to hold on to this. I want to keep this, I want to pass it down to my children. And I want my children to pass it down to their children, and I want their children to pass it down to their children, and I want all everybody in my family tree. I want them to be blessed by this treasure that's been given to me. Now, listen to me, why don't we do that with the word of God? Why don't we do that with the word? You see, the word of God is a treasure, and it's the most valuable treasure that we could ever have. And when we receive it, we ought to want to keep it. We ought to want to cling to it. We ought to want to hold on to that thing, and we ought to want to pass that down to our kids. And we ought to want our kids to pass it down to their kids and their kids to pass it down to their kids so that when we look down through our family tree, we've seen that this word of God is spread all throughout it. Why? Because it's a valuable treasure. And Jesus says, if you hear my word and you what? Keep it, value it, treasure it. Don't just hear it and nod your head in agreement and throw it away. I love to watch this channel on YouTube. My wife makes fun of me. But it's a guy who restores, and it's it's incredible. If you ever sit down and watch it, it's incredible. I don't remember the name. But it's a watch restoration guy. And he'll get these old Rolexes from like the 40s and the 50s or whatever it was, and he'll take them apart, he'll clean them, he'll replace parts that need to be replaced. And this this watch could could look terrible when you get it, but by the time he's done with it, it's restored, it's in working order, and it's absolutely stunning to see the transformation of those things. The restoration of those things. Now, if I got one of those things and I brought it to church and I said, Brother Jesse, listen, I love you, and I have this thing that I want to give you that I hope is going to be valuable to you. And I hand it to him. And he says, Oh, yeah, Brother Jimmy. Thank you. Amen, brother Jimmy. Amen. And then he gets up. And as I'm walking out of here, when we finish the service, I look on the floor, and that Rolex is just laying there on the floor. What am I gonna think? He didn't care about that. I mean, he he seemed to like it. He wanted to admire it, but I gave it to him. It was his to keep, and he left it, it's on the floor. It's already been cracked again. Listen to me. Jesus says, if you hear my word and you keep my word. Anybody can hear it. Anybody can sit there like a robot every five seconds. Amen. Amen. Are you hearing it and keeping it? That's who the promise is to. It's those who hear and keep. But the promise is that he will never see death. He will never see death. If you hear the word and you keep the word, you will not see death. Not may not see death, not probably won't see death, will not see death. Jesus here is not denying physical death. Every one of us are gonna die until the Lord returns. We're all gonna die. What death is he talking about? Spiritual death. We will not taste the wrath of God. Why? Because Jesus tasted it for us. Listen, what did Jesus do on the cross? Well, you had the nails, you had the crown of thorns, you he hung there. Yes, he did, but listen, it was far more than what your eyes could see. On the cross, Jesus drank the full cup of God's wrath down to the bitter dreads. On the cross, Jesus tasted death for us. What are we going to remember on Friday when we gather here together? We're going to remember the day that the sinless Son of God laid his life down for us sinners. We're going to remember the day that the sinless Son of God hung on a tree and tasted the wrath of God for us. We will not see death because Christ saw death in our place. That's the promise. So this morning, if you've heard that promise, the Bible says, keep that promise. Cling to that promise. Not keep as in you fulfill your end. Christ fulfilled the promise. If you've heard it this morning, keep cling to that promise. Put your hope in that promise. Trust in that promise. Jesus says, if you hear my word and you keep my word, you will not see death. Let's pray together this morning. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the gospel. I thank you for every brother and sister in Christ that's gathered here today. Lord, may we respond to your word in obedience. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.