ONE who's for us = nothing else matters

John 8: 31-32 is a very famous passage people go back to and make a mess of, says Jordan. It reads: [31] Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

[32] And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

“When they’re to continue in His Word, they’re to continue in the doctrines, the things He’s communicated to them and taught to them. That’s a plural thing.

“But when Jesus says in verse 51, ‘If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death,’ He uses ‘my saying’ singular. What is that one thing they needed to believe and keep and hold onto in order to be free from death?

“Verse 24-25: [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.

“The ‘saying’ they needed to believe is, ‘I am he.’ Believe that Jesus is Jehovah God in human flesh, come to be their Messiah. They had to keep that understanding of who He was.

“He says in Revelation 3:8, [8] I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

“They’ve governed themselves based upon their understanding and faith in the fact of who He is; who Christ is for them. He is Jehovah, He is the one ‘I Am . . . fill in the blank.' ‘I Am the one who is anything and everything you need. I Am your provider. I’m your defender. I’m your healer. I’m your righteousness. I’m your peace.’

“All the things that make up the Jehovahness of God, those Jehovah names, were to identify God as being FOR them. He is the ONE who will fulfill all mandates, all of the requirements, all of the benefits of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants to the nation Israel.

“They understand Him. John 1:12 says, [12] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

“That’s the issue in John 8. It was receiving Him for who He is that liberated the nation Israel to be the nation God chose them to be. Their activities and keeping of His sayings, His words, and obeying Him, was simply to be the outward expression of their faith’s confidence.

*****

“So it isn’t hard to understand why in the rest of John 8 the emphasis turns immediately to Christ being Jehovah. In fact, the great statement in verse 58 about I AM, all of that’s introduced because of the fundamental spiritual requirement of understanding, having light about who He is.

“Verse 52-53: [52] Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. [53] Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?

“It’s, ‘Just who do you really think you are anyhow?! You think you’re greater than Abraham?!' Well, in Matthew 12 He says ‘a greater than David is here. A greater than Solomon is here. A greater than Jonah is here. A greater than the temple is here. A greater king, a greater prophet, a greater priest.’

“Matthew 12 is a critical point in the ministry of Christ where the religious leaders of Israel are concluded in unbelief. In Matthew 13, He goes outside of the house and sits by the seashore. The house is a type of the nation Israel and the seashore is a type of the Gentiles. And He begins to speak to the ‘little flock’ the mystery parables of the kingdom, telling them things about the kingdom He didn’t previously make known.

“A tremendous pivot begins in Matthew 12; Jesus is no longer ministering to the mass of the nation. He withdraws Himself and begins to minister primarily to the ‘little flock.’ In Matthew 16 and 17 He begins to say, ‘Don’t tell anybody what you just learned.’ He goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration, comes down and tells Peter, James and John, ‘Don’t tell anybody what you saw.’

*****

“That would be an interesting passage for all the people interested in soul-winning, preaching the gospel to every creature. Why don’t you take Matthew 12, Matthew 16 when Christ the living Son of God says, ‘Don’t tell anybody what you just learned?’

“There’s a period of time there where He’s withdrawing, the nation having refused Him, and training the ‘little flock’ in view of the ministry they’re going to have after His resurrection. If you don’t study your Bible dispensationally and understand the dispensational distinctions going along you’re going to wind up in absolute confusion.

“All those parables Jesus speaks, the key to them is the fact they’re demonstrating the delay in the program, that it isn’t immediately going to appear. Not only is He going to be crucified but He’s going to go away and there’s going to be a period of delay before He returns. There’s a delay in order to give the nation another opportunity of repentance.

“Well, these guys demonstrate right here they need that opportunity because they’re blind as a bat flying backward in a dark cave. ‘I mean, just who do you think you really are?!’ They illustrate the spiritual blindness that they’re filled with. They’re void of any understanding. They have no spiritual discernment. They’re completely without any capacity for light, spiritual truth to have an impact on them. They’re spiritually blind.

“By the way, notice how they misquote what Christ said in verse 52. He didn’t say they wouldn’t taste death. He said they would never see death. You might think that’s a splitting-hair kind of a thing but it really isn’t.

"I mean, they’re obsessed with this mad desire to kill Him. That bloodlust for murder from the beginning that’s in the heart of their father and they’re willing to distort His words and use them as a weapon against Him.

"It’s sort of like what Romans 3:8 says about Paul. Paul writes, [8] And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

*****

“Unbelief is never as confident as when it’s completely wrong and these guys are right there. ‘Who makest thou thyself?’

"Jesus answered, and if you want to watch somebody as cool as a cucumber under pressure, look at verses 54-55: [54] Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God:
[55] Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.

“Oh man, you talk about sticking a hot knife right in the butter and getting ’em. The Lord is just quietly but convincingly destroying them.

“Think back over the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here He is, He’s God the Son, He leaves heaven’s glory and comes down, He humbles Himself, takes upon Himself the form of a man.

“Paul said in Philippians 2: [6] Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
[7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
[8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

“He doesn’t even take upon Himself the form of an angel. He’s ‘made a little lower than the angels.’ He takes on the form of a creature made of dirt. The lowest of the low.

“What does the Father do? He sends angels to announce and to herald His birth. When He’s an infant He’s at the house of Mary and Joseph, and just as a little toddler the Lord sends wise men to worship Him. The Father did that.

“When He’s at His baptism, the Father opens the heavens and proclaims to all who stand about, ‘This is my beloved son in whom I’m well-pleased.’ In His ministry, in the Book of Acts, Paul says, ‘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 ye yourselves also know:’

“God honored Him. When He was on the Mount of Transfiguration, the voice comes from the Father, ‘This is my beloved son, hear ye him.’ When He’s on the Cross in His death, Peter quotes the prophet that the Father would not allow His flesh to see corruption in death. He wouldn’t even let His body . . .

“Paul said he was raised by the glory of the Father: ‘Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.’ The privileged position in the heavens. Revelation 5 says the Father looks all through the universe for one who’s worthy and He finds him in the Son.

*****

“The Father’s always honoring the Son and Christ took great comfort in that. ‘It is my Father that honoureth me. I’m not worried.’

“You know, there’s a lesson in that for you and me. When we have our confidence, not on what other people think about us, and that’s easy to do . . . It’s easy to feel good when people say good things about you. It’s easy to feel bad when they say bad things about you and let what others say be the determining factor in our activities.

“You need to grow up and come to the place where it’s what God the Father thinks of you that’s the most important thing. And if God is for us, Paul says, who can be against us? Well, a lot of people can be, but who cares who’s against us? What really matters is who’s FOR us.

“The capacity you and I have is not measured by the Adversary against us. Our resources are measured by the ONE who is with us and for us. Not by the enemy but by the Savior. It’s a wonderful thing to have the privilege of having exactly the same attitude that the Lord Jesus Christ had in the face of religious tyranny.”