[0:00] Well, this morning I get the privilege to preach. It's a blessing for me to be back up here and open up the book of John and look to see what God has for us this morning.
[0:11] I would say this passage is fantastic, is great for the church and the message of this passage. But I would say this, if there's any there here who are still investigating the claims of Christ, who don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, this morning this is going to speak directly to you.
[0:30] So as we open the text, if you would turn with me to John chapter 10, we're going to start at verse 22. And I would ask if you can, in honor of God's word, would you stand with me as we read this section of his holy word?
[0:52] Starting at verse 22. At that time, the feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter. It was winter. And Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.
[1:05] So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe.
[1:21] The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you're not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
[1:33] I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.
[1:49] I and the father are one. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, I've shown you many good works from the father.
[2:00] For which of them are you going to stone me? The Jews answered him, it's not for a good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you being a man, make yourself God.
[2:13] Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law? I said you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into this world, you are blaspheming because I said, I am the son of God.
[2:34] If I'm not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works. That you may know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father.
[2:50] Again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first.
[3:01] And there he remained. And many came to him and they said, John did no sign. But everything that John said about this man was true.
[3:11] And many believed in him there. Pray with me. Father, as we open your word, I pray that you would open our minds that we might understand it.
[3:22] Father, you give us eyes to see and ears to hear. And Father, you would stir deeply in our heart that our affections would be for you, Father. That we would love your word and we would long for your truth, God.
[3:33] That we might be transformed and be made like Christ. I pray that you would do this work in our life. And this morning, I pray that you would lead this time. And I pray in Christ's name.
[3:44] Amen. And you can have a seat. I want to start with just a short story about when I was very young.
[3:55] My family, I have one sister, Tanika, and myself along with my parents were in Hilton Head for vacation. And we were at a campground that at that time back in 1970 or 71, whatever year it was, in Hilton Head, there was a marina that was at this area where the campground was located.
[4:15] If you go on the island and you drive on, it's very early on the left-hand side where that was. And I remember this is that my sister was a lot different than me. I tended to be quiet and not as talkative.
[4:30] She had never met a stranger. Easy for her to talk to people. And sure enough, she found a friend somewhere close to her age, a girl who was wandering around the same area. And she ended up with them on their boat.
[4:43] They had driven, driven. They had boated to Hilton Head and they had parked at the dock. It turns out that the boat they were in was quite a big boat. And she was invited to come on and eat.
[4:55] And she came back and she tells us a story. And she said, yeah, they were very friendly. This guy, Mr. Turner, invited us in. And we sat down and ate. And it was just really great. I enjoyed.
[5:06] Tanika said, I really enjoyed our time. Hopefully, I can go there tomorrow. Well, it turns out she didn't know who this guy was. To her, it was just another guy. She was friends with this little girl and they were playing.
[5:18] And she happened to be sitting on the boat that was owned by Ted Turner and was sitting at the table with Ted Turner's daughter at the time. You know, she didn't know who he was.
[5:30] All she knew was that he was nice and she enjoyed playing with his daughter. I tell that story just to illustrate this.
[5:40] Ted Turner's the founder of CNN.
[5:52] He's the founder of TBS. And he's the owner of the Atlanta Braves. At least he used to be. I don't know if he is now anymore. But he was influential in his own way.
[6:03] Now, I'm not touting him. I'm not giving him praise. I'm just sharing this story as an illustration that Tanika was with him but didn't really know who he was.
[6:15] You know us exactly where we find ourselves in this story this morning? If you will look at verse 24, you'll see that the Jews gathered around Jesus.
[6:28] They saw him walk into the temple area and they gathered around him. And I would say this is that they recognized him but they did not know him.
[6:41] They recognized him as Jesus but they had no idea who he really was. He, in truth, was the Messiah but they didn't understand that.
[6:52] They didn't see it that way. They didn't believe that he was the Messiah but he was. They thought that they knew him but they didn't know him.
[7:03] You know why it is that they didn't recognize him? Because they had a misconception of who the Christ truly was. Of who the Christ was going to be.
[7:15] Of what the Christ would do when he arrived. So we see their question. And their question is this. If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.
[7:28] Why do you speak in riddles and why do you use parables? Why do you deflect when we ask questions? Why don't you just straight out tell us? Are you the Christ?
[7:40] You know what he said? He said, I've already told you. I've told you many times that I'm the Christ. But you don't believe.
[7:52] It helps us to understand the reason they would directly ask this question. By understanding what this feast is all about. This feast of dedication was a feast that recognized an event in the history of the Israeli nation.
[8:10] The Israelites. At the time frame around 165 BC. It was a time when the Greeks were in charge, if you will.
[8:21] They were the great power in that day. And the Greeks had abused the Jews.
[8:34] They had caused them to stop sacrificing at the temple. They had taken a pig into the temple. They had slaughtered the pig on the altar.
[8:45] And desecrated the altar. Desecrated the temple by doing this. And they were doing it for spite. Just to show that they were in charge. And what happened within the nation.
[8:57] There was an uprising of anger. They had been under the thumb of the Greeks for some time. And Judas Maccabee. You probably have heard his name. I don't know if you've ever read anything.
[9:08] He rose up in righteous anger. He gathered people around him. And the Jews resisted the Greeks.
[9:19] And conquered them in that area. And they had relief from the thumb of the Greeks. And they were able to start the sacrifices again. They were able to rededicate the temple.
[9:32] It was through the leadership of brave men to fight against the Greeks. And it is celebrated here this time. This feast of dedication is a remembrance of this leader who rallied the Jews.
[9:46] And they defeated the Greeks. And they rededicated the temple. And that's what's being celebrated. And so they asked Jesus this question. Tell us, are you the deliverer?
[9:58] Are you the one that's going to deliver us from the Romans? From this oppressive rule of these Romans? Do you know they had the story all wrong? They expected that Jesus was God.
[10:13] Excuse me. That the Christ was going to be this ruler. This physical king on earth. They misunderstood all of the prophecies that pointed to this coming king.
[10:25] This great king that was going to redeem Israel. In their mind, that meant that they were going to be their own nation. And they were going to be free from the oppression of these other ruling nations.
[10:38] They thought he was going to have a physical kingdom. You know the scripture never said that? It was talking about the kingdom of heaven. It was talking about a spiritual kingdom. And so they asked this question with glazed eyes.
[10:52] They're blind. They don't even understand who the Christ is or who the Christ is going to be. So when Christ says, I am he, they can't believe it.
[11:08] They have this expectation of what he should be doing if he's going to be the Christ. Will you deliver us like the feast that we're celebrating? Like this time when we were delivered from the Greeks.
[11:19] Are you going to do that now? Are you the Christ? Seeker. I know there's some here that perhaps you're not a Christian yet.
[11:31] It's a great question to consider. Is he the Christ? Jesus, tell us plainly, are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah?
[11:42] Are you the one that has been foretold in the ancient scriptures? Are you the one that's coming to deliver us from our sins? Are you the one that's coming to redeem? Are you the one that God is sending for his people?
[11:56] And that's a question that we should ask. Each of us should ask. This morning we're going to look at three witnesses that give evidence that Jesus is the Christ.
[12:12] And we're going to look at four truths about salvation that we find in our text this morning. Three witnesses that reveal, that give evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. And four truths about salvation.
[12:24] First, the witnesses. What does Jesus say when he answers them? Listen, he says, I told you and you don't believe. I've already told you.
[12:35] And it begs the question, Jesus, when did you tell them? Well, let me remind you of stuff we've already read in the book of John. Things that would have happened earlier before this event.
[12:48] He says, Jesus says, I am the bread of life. And the statement, I am, is a statement that I'm sent by God and I'm equal to God. He says it in the text earlier, I mean later.
[12:59] He says, I am the Father and one. But he said it before. He says, I am the bread of life. I am the one that God used to feed the people.
[13:14] I'm the true bread that's come down from heaven. I'm the true manna from heaven that if you eat, you live. He said, I am the light of the world. I am the one that comes to shed forth light, to reveal what is true, to point everyone to the Father.
[13:30] He says, I am the door of the sheep. None come in except through me. He is claiming openly that he is the Messiah.
[13:44] And he says again, I'm the good shepherd. I'm the one that gives my life for the sheep. He said it over and over and over again. And listen, if you're trying to investigate the claims of Christ here, understand what he's saying.
[14:00] He says, I and the Father am one or are one. He says, I am the Messiah. He says, I am the one that he sent from heaven to redeem.
[14:15] You can't get around this statement by Christ. He's telling these Jews that he is the Messiah. And they're not listening.
[14:26] We'll get to that later. I'm going to skip to the second item here. The second witness that he really is the Christ.
[14:37] And it's down in verse 32. It says this, I've shown you many good works from the Father. The works witness. The works bear witness in verse 25.
[14:50] The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me. How do they bear witness, Christ? What do you mean they bear witness? Well, let me ask this question. Have you all ever watched Harry Houdini?
[15:03] Have you ever seen him do his stuff? Isn't it amazing? I can sit and stare at it. I know there's some trick somewhere. There's got to be a trick somewhere. But I can stare at it and I can't for the life of me figure out how that guy got free.
[15:16] Or how he was able to get out of the predicament he was in. It's hard for me to understand. But I do know something amazing just happened. When I was younger, there was a guy in my neighborhood whose name was Carlos.
[15:27] Turns out, by the way, he's Bert's brother. I used to live in the same neighborhood as Carlos. And I remember when I was a 10-year-old kid, or maybe I was 11, somewhere in that age, I would go around to Carlos' house.
[15:39] He was always very friendly to me, so I felt comfortable spending time with him. I remember sitting in his house at his kitchen's table, and he was wowing me with his ability to shuffle the deck of cards.
[15:52] And I could not figure out how he did it. He would shuffle the cards, and he would deal blackjack. So he'd deal himself, and he'd deal me. Every single time, he had blackjack.
[16:06] Every time. And then I said, no, no, you're doing it. These cards are, there's something funny about the cards. He flips the cards over, spreads them all out. They're just like any other deck of cards. There's nothing unusual about them.
[16:16] I said, you can't do it again. He did it again. He did it again. He did it. I said, you need to let me cut it so you can't stack the deck. I don't know how you're stacking it, but let me cut it. And he would let me cut it two, three, five times.
[16:29] He'd let me do all this stuff, and I'd do it around. He would shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. And he'd go poop, poop, poop, poop, poop. And guess what? He had blackjack again. I could not figure it out.
[16:41] How he did it to this day, I don't know. I haven't gone and researched online and tried to learn the trick. But I just want to say it was amazing that he was able to do that.
[16:52] Let me tell you something that's even more amazing here. Do you know what Christ has done? He's done things that are far and above amazing. I would say that Carlos was a card shark.
[17:05] He actually dealt in Vegas, by the way, is what I was told. Now, I don't know if that's true. Ask him when you see him, but he said he did. And the way he was able to do that, maybe he did. I don't know. But Christ, look what he did.
[17:17] Do you all remember some of the things that Christ did? That he turned water into wine? Do you know what any other person has done that? Do you know he had a nobleman come and said, Hurry, hurry, my son is sick.
[17:35] And he said, Please come, please come. Heal my son. And he said the word, and the son was healed. He didn't even have to go there. And then, when 5,000 followed him, they were in the wilderness, and they ended up with five loaves and two little fish.
[17:52] He fed 5,000 plus wives and children in the wilderness. Anybody else you know have done that with that little bit? And then, the blind man who'd been blind from birth, he healed the blind man that he might see.
[18:08] All of these spiritually teach us something about the Messiah. But I want us to recognize that all of these are signs. What is a sign?
[18:20] In order to hear it from the mouth of Moses, we can turn back to Numbers chapter 16, and I'll look at Exodus 4. I want you to hear what the Scripture says about signs.
[18:34] Because Christ has given them the second witness. He said, I've shown you these good works. Don't you see that I'm the Messiah? Don't you recognize these signs that I'm performing?
[18:46] They illustrate who I am. I'm the one that's been sent from God. Do you not see it? And Moses says this, in reference to a...
[19:01] What's the word? An uprising of people within the camp of Israel when they were in the wilderness. This one named Korah and his family and a couple of others rebelled against the leadership of Moses.
[19:16] And Moses said, as he's confronting these, he said, Hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me. The Lord is getting ready to do something that he's never done before.
[19:28] And if it doesn't happen, then you recognize I'm not from God. But if it does happen, then you know that there's no other way that this could possibly happen unless God is in it. And what happened?
[19:38] The ground opened up. Korah and his whole family descended, and the ground shut back up. It was a sign and evidence that Moses was sent from God. In Exodus chapter 4, you remember that time in the life of Moses, how he had run, he had fled from Egypt, he had lived 40 years in Midian, he had his sheep, and he was in the desert country, and this bush flamed, and out of the bush he heard a voice, Moses, take off your sandals, the place where you're standing is holy ground.
[20:13] And that whole encounter with God, God said to Moses, I want you to go to Egypt, and I want you to deliver my people. And what do you say? Oh, you got the wrong guy.
[20:25] I can't do that. I'm not able to. Do you know who I am? They won't trust me. They won't believe me. Nothing. And it said in chapter 4, it says this, and Moses answered, after he had said, no, no, no, no, no, he answered, Moses answered, but behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, the Lord didn't appear to you.
[20:48] And the Lord said to him, what's that in your hand? A staff? He said, throw it on the ground. He threw it on the ground. What happened? Turn to a serpent. He runs.
[20:59] And then the Lord says, go and touch it and pick it up and he touches the tail and what does it do? It turns into a staff again. What else did he tell him to do? Put his hand in his shirt. Take it out. What was his hand?
[21:09] It's leprous. He said, I'll take your hand and put it back in and pull it out and it's not leprous anymore. And then what did he tell him to do? He said, the water that you take from the Nile when you throw it down will become blood.
[21:25] He said to Moses, he said, you do these three signs and they'll believe that you're from God. No man can do these signs unless God be with him, unless God has sent him.
[21:39] The sign authenticates the messenger. You know what Christ is saying? Do you see the signs? Do you recognize that these signs are from God?
[21:52] Don't you see that no man can do these signs unless God is in it, unless he's the Messiah? He's the one. Don't you see? Why don't you believe? We'll speak about why they don't believe here in just a minute.
[22:10] But these signs... in John 6, it talks about a large crowd that followed him.
[22:24] They saw the signs he was doing to the sick. And also in verse 14, it talks about the feeding of the 5,000. And it says this, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.
[22:43] The common people saw it for what it really was. That he was, he had to be the Messiah. No man can do this unless they're the Messiah.
[22:55] You remember what Nicodemus said? You remember who Nicodemus is? Nicodemus is the Pharisee, one of the rulers, the teachers of the people, a part of the Sanhedrin, of the council.
[23:07] And he heard about and saw these miraculous things that Jesus was doing. And he went to him by night because it was already understood that if you believed this guy was the Messiah, you'd be kicked out of the Sanhedrin.
[23:21] You would lose everything that's associated with that prominent position. And so he went by night under the cover of darkness because he couldn't get over the evidence.
[23:31] the evidence that he really was the Messiah. And so he goes to him and listen to what Nicodemus says in chapter 3 of John. He says this, no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them.
[23:47] They have the fingerprint of God. They're impossible. They're miraculous. I don't understand them. They catch my eye. I can't help but see there's something supernatural going on.
[24:01] And I'm wanting to know what it is. How are you doing this? Why is it that the Jews can't see this?
[24:14] Why are they blind? Isn't it obvious to you and me, Christian? As we read this, we see the words of Christ. Never man spoke like this before.
[24:27] Never man did this thing before. Never is a man turned water to wine. Never is a man healed a blind man who was born blind. Never is a man fed 5,000 people from five loaves and two fishes.
[24:38] It's impossible. This has to be the Messiah. And he gives another sign, another witness is referred to at the end of this section in verse 41.
[24:53] It says, many came to him when he left and he went to the place where John baptized and those who were there, they came to him and they said, John did no sign but everything that John said about this guy has come true.
[25:08] What did John say? What did John say about this guy? Jesus. You remember what he said? Early?
[25:19] chapter 1 of John? Here's what he said.
[25:32] And you'll remember this. Behold the Lamb of God. You can see John beside the Jordan and he sees Jesus and he points to Jesus and behold the Lamb of God.
[25:45] What else did he say? And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I saw it.
[25:57] And when he's talking to his disciples he said, did you see it? Did you see it? It's like a dove. It descended and it rested on him. Never has that ever happened before. It's the validation.
[26:09] The Spirit told me that this was going to happen and whenever I saw it that's evidence that this is the one. That this is the Messiah. I myself did not know him but he who sent me that is the Father to baptize with water said to me he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
[26:32] Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit? There's only one. There's only one. The Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah. The one who was foretold.
[26:43] He goes on to say I've seen it I've borne witness that this is the Son of God. Behold the Lamb of God. And now I want to look at the four truths about salvation that are so evident and clear in this passage.
[27:03] Turn with me or look with me if you will at verse 26. It says the works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me but you do not believe why?
[27:14] See Jonathan stole this last week and I'm going to share it again because the way that he worded it is so powerful to consider. Notice the order which is extremely important here.
[27:29] Notice the reason why they didn't believe. We want a glimpse at the sovereignty of God here. I want you to see what the scripture says here. Notice it says you do not believe why?
[27:41] Because you're not among my sheep. That's why you don't believe. You're not one of my sheep. Remember earlier last week when Jonathan preached he preached about this parable he talked about that it was common for multiple shepherds to enclose their sheep together in one fold one door and the shepherd would walk in and would talk to him or whistle and all the sheep that were his knew his voice and they only followed him and so when he spoke he said come on let's go.
[28:13] What did the sheep do? Did all the sheep follow him? No. Just his sheep. And we see it here again you do not believe because you're not among my sheep.
[28:30] Isn't it interesting that word my connotates relationship doesn't it? And so it begs the question who are your sheep?
[28:43] I want you to hear what the word of God says about this. It says it in multiple ways in multiple places. I'm just going to look at three very quickly. Revelation twice and Ephesians once.
[28:55] Notice what it says in Revelation. Revelation. Revelation. Revelation. Revelation. Revelation. Revelation. Revelation. Revelation. Revelation. It's talking about the bottomless pit and destruction and it says the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will be cast there.
[29:17] Listen again. The dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life. What book of life? What are you talking about? Book of life. You mean there's a book with names in it?
[29:29] And that's going to dictate? Chapter 21 of Revelation says this.
[29:40] It talks about this new city. This glorified city and it says this. But nothing unclean will ever enter it nor anyone who does what is detestable or false but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
[29:56] Only those whose names are in the Lamb's book of life. Ephesians 1 says it this way. Paul when he's talking about those that are in Christ those that receive salvation notice what he says.
[30:16] Blessed be the God verse 3 of chapter 1 Ephesians blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
[30:26] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will.
[30:46] Paul is saying that before the foundation of the world God chose the believers. God chose his sheep. God had a plan and the plan was to give sheep to the son and the son would come for the purpose of gathering his sheep.
[31:07] John says this in chapter 17 of John the high priestly prayer here's what he says this is Christ speaking sorry John writing Christ speaking I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world I have manifested your name to a subset of people to my sheep only to my sheep this is hard to swallow isn't it it's hard to understand I openly confess that I don't understand the purpose and the reason behind it but what I see is it's clear in scripture that there's certain sheep that are called by his name that this took place before the foundation of the earth the names were written in the Lamb's book of life these sheep were given by the Father to the Son the Son came to redeem those sheep and to call them into his kingdom and we see it here it said I have given them the words that you gave me I've given them the truth and what was the result of these sheep hearing the truth listen it says
[32:14] I've given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I have come from you and they have believed let me paraphrase he's praying to the Father he said Father the ones whom you gave me the ones who are called by your name the ones who are my sheep I spoke the words to them the truth to them the truth to them and they all believed they all responded every one of them responded they heard it and they believed they understood and they believed and he goes on to say I'm praying for them the sheep I'm not praying for the world that is I'm not praying for every person that's ever been born in every city in every town in every country I'm praying for my sheep so we turn back to our passage this morning and I want you to see again you do not believe because you're not among my sheep and the way
[33:18] Jonathan put it last week is belonging precedes believing the order is important here the reason that they believed is because they already belonged the reason they believed is because their names were written in the Lamb's book of life the reason that they believed John 6 would say no man comes to the Father except the Father draws him you know when that drawing took place in the mind of God it took place in eternity past but it happened in real time here is that though I'm not a believer until personally until I'm 22 my name was written in the Lamb's book of life because God's done a work in my life to open up my ears and my eyes spiritually speaking that I might understand the reality of my sin that I might understand the separation that is between me and God because of my sin that I might understand the need for forgiveness from a holy God that I might understand that God sin is one and only as the perfect lamb that that lamb would be sacrificed and the blood of the lamb would cover my sins would purify and cleanse me from all sin and I would be saved
[34:31] I'm saved by the blood of the lamb and the only reason I ever knew that I needed to be saved is because God did a work in my life he opened up my mind and my ears and my eyes spiritually to understand my separation from him he gave me a longing for him he drew me to himself and he said you're my sheep do you hear me calling do you hear me calling listen I'm asking if anybody is investigating the truths of scripture to determine whether this be true let me just say to you this morning the Lord calls do you hear do you believe that he truly is the Messiah do you believe that he's the only way the truth and the life the only means by which you can be forgiven the pure and spotless lamb who laid willingly lay down his life and God said I accept that that offering and if you and I believe that he really is who the scriptures say he is when we also believe guess what we're given eternal life so we read a little further and I'm about done four truths about salvation
[35:46] God had a plan before the foundation of the world God chose many to be the sheep that Jesus would come to redeem verse 28 Jesus says I give them eternal life the source of eternal life is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ Jesus came as a Passover lamb to die that we might have life and we go on it says and they will never perish you know that is true for every believer let me let me say it this way what can separate you Christian from the love of God what if you go out tomorrow and you say something you shouldn't say you do something you shouldn't do are you going to be separated from God are you no longer going to be a Christian do you realize why you're in the kingdom Christian do you realize how you got into the kingdom because God did a work in your life because God gave you a longing for him because God brought you into the kingdom and he knew you were coming into the kingdom from eternity past because you're one of his one of the ones that he gave to
[36:46] Christ and Christ's work is effective and effectual those whose names are in the book of life will come to him why because he puts a longing in our heart for him he draws us to him it's his work not ours you know that you can't destroy his work if he's brought you into the kingdom you can't do anything to take yourself out of the kingdom if you're truly in if you're truly born again he gives us a new heart when you desire do you know it Christian have you experienced that do you think differently do you long for things different from the time before you were Christian he changes us he gives us this new heart and he tells us to walk in newness of life like children of light whom we are we're his he goes on to say no one is able to snatch them out of my hand do you understand the security that we have do you understand that you just can't make a mistake and mess it all up you know
[37:58] I was in Regina and I were riding bikes in Europe and we rode into Innsbruck Austria and by God's grace we had a chance to stay with different people in their houses or in their backyard or wherever I mean we've got a lot of stories we could tell but this particular time we ran up on this guy who happened to be a priest in training and he was at his education was happening in Innsbruck and we got in a long conversation I ended up staying in a place near where he was I think it was in the Regina help me out maybe this I don't think it was called seminary whatever it's called where he was getting his training and we had conversations and here's what I heard him say because I point blank asked him I said what happens if you're doing all the right things and you've confessed to whoever you need to confess to and you feel like you're clean because you've confessed and on the way home you say something you shouldn't have said you say a word that dishonors God is that sin yeah are you going to hell and he's he's like well yeah
[39:04] I'm like because you said a word you shouldn't say you're going to hell yeah so if you totally confess it all to your priest and then you on the way home do something that's sinful that one sin that means you're not going to heaven right yeah man what a brutal way to live you know what the word of God says nothing can separate you Christian from the love of God because you didn't earn it he's the one that did it he did it for you because he loved you and he called you from eternity past and he put a longing in your heart for him he drew you to himself and he did this work in your life that you might long for desire to know him and to bow your knee to surrender to him to understand the need and the place of Christ in your life he did it all it's beautiful he planned it he gave some to Christ he accomplished salvation he secures it for every believer amen amen let's pray lord for us who are in your kingdom for us who are
[40:19] Christians for us who are born again for us who have come to recognize our sin and our separation because of our sin that in a sense lord we could not be in your presence because of our filth and our dirtiness and our sin but you made a way through your son Jesus Christ that you would send him that he might die for his sheep that he might purchase life for his sheep lord I'm so thankful that you've helped us to see that it's through Christ we have life and you've drawn us into your kingdom god you've given us this great salvation greater than we could possibly understand father we see glimpses of it especially in revelation than you have in the new earth the beauty of being in your presence unhindered we will see you face to face god we celebrate the gift that you've given us as far beyond any value of anything this earth has to offer god we give you thanks father I'm thinking about the one here that's sitting here today who knows that they don't know you yet who knows truly in their heart of hearts that they have not yet totally understood this whole thing father I pray that this morning that you would open up their mind to understand they would father desire to know you I pray that you would give them eyes to see this truth and
[41:41] I pray god that you would draw them into your kingdom as a gift to them father help them to see this morning god we give you thanks this day for your great gift and we praise you in christ's name amen