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Women's Conference SMBC Part 1 By J. Young

It is in the presence of God's people as we sit together and then as we talk and relate to each other
that we are reminded of the invaluable treasures that are ours in the freedom we have in our own land
and the freedom of access we have to come into the presence of God
and the opportunity that's provided as we relate with one another to do it meaningfully and helpfully
and I trust that that's been your experience today that God has moved you one step closer to himself
in your devotion as a result of our meeting together, hearing God's word, talking face to face with one another
because of the face to faceness of God toward us in Christ.
Therefore let's pray together before we turn to his word.
Almighty God, you alone are the creator of the ends of the earth,
the God who in eternity chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world
to walk before the holy and blameless in love.
We thank you that you in time have set your hand upon us
and brought us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of your dear son.
Thank you that in Christ we are enriched in all things and we are complete in Christ.
We thank you for the light that you have shone, the light of your own glory which is seen in the face of Christ.
You've shone into our hearts and we now discover that in relationship with you
we have this treasure in earthen vessels so the glory might not be of ourselves but of thee.
We thank you for your excellent greatness. You demonstrate it daily.
We see it personally. We enjoy it in one another's company
and ultimately Father as we meet together with you and the whole hosts of heaven and earth joined together
we shall evermore praise you, bowing before you, worshiping you, our Father, our King, the lover of our souls.
Grant Father this afternoon that you and you alone should make us captives again of your will, of your word.
Lead us to Jesus Christ that in him we might find the hunger of our souls being fed, our thirst quenched,
our hearts warmed and our feet moved in the way of obedience,
that we might declare your excellent greatness and show forth your marvelous deeds to those who are yet in darkness.
Hear our prayer and feed us as hungry, needy women, that we might live as godly women in your world.
For Christ's sake, Amen.
Would you open your Bibles please to John chapter 8.
We have had quite a feast today, quite a feast, and I realize that you've had a good lunch.
The kitchen looked after you well and I realize that very few of you had caffeine
and that means that most of you within 10 or 15 minutes will be where I would like to be too, but we happen to be here.
We had a speaker at college a few weeks ago and he said that one of the comments that was made to him as a young fellow starting out in the ministry was,
Frank, wherever you are, be there.
And I really do hope that will be true of you this afternoon.
This morning we've caught a game so fresh at the greatness of our God, that God has created men and women to know him.
And since he created us to know him, it is possible for everyone to know him.
And we've seen that God who created us to know him has made it possible for us to know him because he speaks to us.
He speaks the truth, he speaks it clearly, he speaks it through his son.
And Jesus Christ is the one who stands and identifies himself as the one who is together with the father, the one whom the father loves.
And the father shows him all things and he sees what the father shows him and he declares to us that which the father shows him, which he sees and shows to us.
Why does he do this? So that we might have life and escape the judgment.
God speaks so that we can know him.
He speaks through his son, whom he has appointed as the giver of life and the judge of all men.
But the giver of life makes it possible for us to escape, meeting him face to face as the judge who condemns.
So that now the giver of life makes it possible for us to stand before God, the father, as our father.
And we stand before him as sons who have been set free.
And wonderfully we've seen again in chapter 9, an acting out of that which Jesus has said in chapter 8, he is the light of the world.
Chapter 9 is a demonstration.
So his words and his works go together and they declare to us that this man, Jesus, is God in flesh coming to men.
In order that man might through him come to the father.
He comes from God, he has been in the bosom of the father, he comes from that face to face company, in that rich fellowship of relationship into our world.
So that the God-man relating to us would then take us through the death of himself back into the presence of the father.
So that now no longer do we stand before God as sinners condemned by the judge, but we've escaped the judgment of God for Christ bore it for us.
He carried the penalty in order that now we come as sons to the father because in the son is life.
And he who believes in the son, who hears the words of the son, Jesus, and believes in the father who sent him, he has life.
So this day it's possible for us as we encounter the words of Jesus and we hear what he says and believe the father who sent him, we shall have life and enjoy it now and from now until eternity.
But come with me in John chapter 8 and I want to read from verses 21 and following.
In chapter 8 and verse 21, Jesus is saying to his listeners he is going away, he is leaving this world, he is leaving the world soon, he is leaving where they are on this plane of living.
He is leaving the earth and he is returning to the father and he is telling them that he is leaving this earth, returning to the father from whose presence he has come and as he is leaving and he is going unto the father will be via the cross.
John uses a little expression, he will be lifted up and he is saying I was with the father but I have come to you and I am going back to the father but the way back to the father opens up the door for you so that you can come back to the father through the door that I open up for you because I am the door, I am the way.
So he has come from the father down to us to reveal the father to us and he says I am leaving and going back, it is via the cross. John uses the expression I if I be lifted up will draw all men to myself.
Jesus is about to be lifted up and he speaks but again as he says I am leaving, going back to the father, he warns his listeners, he warns his listeners, you cannot encounter the light without responding to it.
You cannot meet Jesus and hear his words and see his works without responding negatively or positively, heartily or rejectively.
In friendship or in hostility you either move towards him or you moved away from him and it is a natural thing and the scriptures present that to us that the light hates the darkness and the darkness hates the light.
The two are incompatible, mutually exclusive and here again we meet Jesus saying he is going to the father but he warns his listeners once again that they would not be able to follow him where he is going.
Come with me then and in verse 21 let me read.
Once more Jesus said to them I am going away and you will look for me and you will die in your sin, where I go you cannot come.
This made the Jews ask will he kill himself, you mean he is suicidal at this point?
Because you see they imagine, they understood that since life was so precious that if a man committed suicide, killed himself, took his own life that then he would go to the place of judgement.
So they are hearing Jesus saying oh he is suicidal, that means because he is suicidal, takes his own life, he goes to the place of judgement.
And Jesus said, oh no it is exactly the opposite, the opposite is true, they are going to the place of judgement, they are dying in their sins.
You see they were wasting their God given opportunities and this is what Jesus is constantly confronting men and women with,
while ever the light is there we must respond, while ever God given opportunities are here we must hear and obey, while you have the light walk in the light, if you hear respond.
And they have been wasting their God given opportunities, you had a vivid portrayal of that in chapter 9 as we looked at the God rejecting unbelieving Jews.
They had opportunity after opportunity, appeal after appeal, light after light but they chose to walk in the darkness because the darkness hates the light and will not come to the light lest its evil deeds be exposed.
But Jesus is moving and the light keeps coming and coming and coming and the unbeliever retreats and retreats and retreats until ultimately darkness consumes him.
But Jesus is giving appeal after appeal after appeal and he warns again that he is going but where he is going they cannot come and they think he is suicidal.
He is going to the place of judgement but the opposite is true, he is going back to the bosom of the Father from whence he has come.
He is going back to the immediacy of that communion with the Father that he had in eternity, he is going back to glory.
His hostile listeners respond but the amazing thing is Jesus portrays that there comes a cut off point.
Today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the day of provocation.
Today is the hour to see the light and walk in the light.
Today is the day to see the Son and seek the Son and live and live forever.
All through his ministry, if you look at the life of Christ, every day of his ministry, in his actions, in his speaking, he has endeavoured to penetrate their darkened, unbelieving hearts.
Oh what a merciful God is our God.
Study the life of Christ.
As you behold him you are transformed into the image of Christ.
Look at him, he daily in his ministry endeavoured to penetrate the darkness of men's minds and hearts.
He held out before them the light of life.
He moved, he continually moved towards men in order to bring unbelieving men into a relationship of confident trust in the living God that they might there have their needs met.
But what do we see? They stubbornly refuse to believe.
So Jesus says the rebel who stubbornly refuses to believe will what? Die in his sins.
He will die but he dies in his sins.
You see the big difference between the Jews and Jesus is this.
Well there are three differences that I've pointed out, that I've noticed.
The difference, the big massive difference between Jesus and the Jews.
They were going in different directions.
They therefore had different destinations because they came from different origins.
So they had, they were going in a different direction.
Jesus was going in the father's direction, they were going in Satan's direction.
He later in chapter 8 reminds them that their father is, they thought, Abraham.
We really are God's kids.
He says no, no, your father is the devil, the father of lies.
He was a liar from the beginning.
So he says no, no, no, we're going in different directions.
You're going in the way of darkness, I am the light, going in the light.
Therefore different destinations, one to the bosom of the father,
one to the total absolute eternal alienation from the father, absent from love, from light, from life.
Why were they going in the opposite direction?
Because they had a different origin.
Their father was the devil, his father was God the father in heaven, the holy, just, right and true.
Different directions, why are people going in different directions today?
In your street, perhaps in your own family.
Why are people going in different directions?
Why are some going in the way of darkness and some in the way of light?
Why is it that ultimately there are two destinations, two poles and there's a great gulf and chasm fixed?
Why is it that some shall die in their sins and others shall die in the Lord?
Because God the father sent the son in order that we might escape going in the way of darkness
and find in the son the way of life, the way of life, the way of truth,
the life of everlasting joy in the presence of the father.
So it is now possible because God spoke to us and he spoke truly and he spoke in his son,
it is now possible to come with Jesus back into the presence of the father and the bosom of the father
and there face to face endure the loving relationship from now to eternity.
It is now possible for men to escape dying in their sins and now die in the Lord.
Blessed are those who die in the Lord.
So Jesus says he's the resurrection and the life and he who believes in him though he die yet shall he live.
So you and I will anticipate our bodies going far, we shall die physically and as Christ returns before our death.
But either way we shall be together with him for we die in the Lord.
You either die in Adam as your father or you die in Jesus.
Where are you? In Jesus? In the Lord?
Or are you still in unbelief, in rebellion and in your sins you shall die?
For the scriptures make it clear, light darkness, a great gulf fixed, a chasm that cannot be overcome
apart from Jesus Christ who the God-man has stepped in to make it possible to come from darkness into light.
Praise God if he's brought you from darkness into light.
How was it that these men could not see? How was it that they would be so blind?
I found myself asking the question, you know when Jesus says when the Son of Man is lifted up
he'll draw all men to himself and wonderfully he says in chapter 8 and verse 28
When the Son of Man, you see the Son of Man lifted up, you will know that I am, I am he.
I am the one who was eternally with the Father, the self-existent unchangeable God.
So when Jesus dies, is raised and ascends to the Father then they would know who he is.
Son of God, eternal, King, Creator, ruler of all means, the Saviour of the world.
They would then at his death, his resurrection, his ascension be given recognition that this is the Son of God.
And you look at men such as Peter, Paul, James, Andrew, they all and the thousands who were converted at Pentecost and beyond
recognised in this one who was lifted up, he is the God, the man whom God has appointed as judge of all men.
The one appointed by God who through his death and resurrection has been declared as God's man.
He is God, he is the giver of life and the judge of all men.
They would recognise this in his death, his resurrection and his ascension unto the Father.
I found myself thinking what a paradox, what almost an enigma, what a puzzle comes at this point
that in their very attempt to get rid of Jesus and get rid of the light, at that very point
these angry men will end up discovering that he is in fact the God sent one to save men from darkness and bring them into light.
So while all the ways they pursue him and the hostility grows in chapters 7 through to 12
and you see it growing and the animosity, it becomes open and it's an aggressive working towards Jesus
until ultimately in chapters 18 and 19 his life is taken and they imagine they've done a good thing
and Jesus said no, when they do that it will be recognisable to all that I am the Son of God,
the God sent one, the giver of life and the judge of all men.
And down through the years you and I have had the glorious privilege of coming to see that this one
who was lifted up was lifted up for our sake to take us from darkness and degradation into the light
and the welcome company of God our Creator who in Christ has become our Father.
Now what were people doing as Jesus is saying these words, look I'm going back to the Father,
you can't come where I'm going, you're from the low, I'm from above.
How are they responding to him? Listen, when you see the Son of Man lifted up
then you will know that he is God's anointed one to save his people from their sins.
Then you will know that God has been in Jesus reconciling people to himself.
Then you will know that God has been at work to put you right with God.
How did they respond? Well come with me in verse 30.
Even as he spoke, isn't this beautiful, even as he spoke many put their faith in him.
Opponents yes, aggressive and hostile yes, but even as he spoke many put their faith in him.
And now come with me and let me take you on a little journey how Jesus encourages those
who have put their faith in him and what does he teach them?
He teaches them now how to grow. He teaches them what it is to have faith in Jesus,
that is to live as a disciple. And come with me and let me, I suppose I'm asking the question,
how do you know, this was the question I asked myself, Joan how do you know
whether you've put your faith in him? How do you know whether you are a disciple of him?
If it is such an imperative that you escape from darkness lest you die in your sins
and you come to the son lest you find life and die in the Lord and live with him forever.
If that is going to bring such a rich significance to your daily living,
how do you really know whether you know God? How do you know whether you're one of the kids of the king?
How do you know whether you're a son and a child in the family?
Do you ever long to know that question, have that question answered?
Beloved if you don't, may God have mercy upon you and soften your hearts.
And for those of us who are so sluggish and indolent and scarcely ever consider,
am I really a child? How do you know if you're a son of the Son of God?
Well then come with me and let us see whether we can discover afresh with like those who heard Jesus,
some of them put their faith in him. And Jesus turned in verse 31 to the Jews who had believed in him,
Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching you are really my disciples.
How do you know whether you're one of his sons? Do you hold to his teaching?
So simple isn't it? You hold to his teaching. You abide in his word.
They not only hear what he teaches, they sit at his feet, they live under his authority,
they feel at home in his word. They are at home in his word even though it makes them feel uncomfortable.
They're at home in his word. You can be uncomfortable at home, can't you, sitting in a chair.
Depends which one. It's not your chair, you're just not comfortable.
But Jesus is saying, those who truly believe, those who are the disciples of Jesus,
take hold of his word and they're at home with it and they live under its authority and they go where it leads them.
Cost what it may. They read, they obey. But listen what he goes on and says.
Then, alright, you hold my teaching, then you're really my disciples.
Then what happens? If you hold to the teaching of the word of God, what happens?
What happens? You know. You grow in your knowing. You grow in your knowing.
You see, if you hold the word of God and you live under its authority
and you love it and you read it and you hear it and you obey it, he says, you know.
But what do you know? Well, look what he says. You know the truth.
Well, that's not some body of doctrine. That's not some sort of little essay assignment you fill in at SMBC.
No, he says, if you study and live according to the word, you will know, but what will you know?
You will know the truth. Not A grade, B grade, C grade. You know perfection.
And where is perfection? Truth found. Well, Jesus said, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth.
You abide in his word and who will you know? The person. You'll know him who is the truth.
Do you sometimes walk home after you've had a discussion with a non-Christian friend and think,
I wonder, yeah, who really is right? Like, what is the truth?
And Jesus stands and says, I am the truth. Do you want to know with one of my disciples?
Hold my teaching. Hold my teaching. Stick to the word and you will know the truth,
the person about whom the word speaks. And then what happens? You see, if you hold his teaching,
that means you will know. You will know what? The truth, a person. And what happens?
What does the truth do? Well, look at it. The truth will what? Set you free.
Does that mean you were in bondage? Yes. And you read chapter 8 and you meet two groups of people.
Those who are in bondage, slaves of sin. Anyone who commits sin, slave of sin.
So you will hold his truth so that you will know. What will you know? The truth.
Not that you'll be able to answer 60 questions quickly.
Not that you'll really have the answer to everyone who sits across the coffee table from you.
No, you will know a person. And knowing Jesus liberates. What does it liberate and free you from?
It frees you from bondage to sin. It frees you from the penalty of sin and the power of sin.
So the darkness no longer dominates in your mind and heart. Yes, it frees you from bondage to sin.
Both its power and its penalty. Jesus paid the penalty for you. You are free. No penalty to pay. Thank God.
But no longer do you not have a penalty. Not only do you not have a penalty to pay.
You now are free to live as a son of the son of the father. You can actually live like one of God's kids.
My question is why didn't you live like one yesterday when he came up against a few problems?
Because you chose not to. Not because you couldn't. You can. That's the gospel. That is good news.
It is now possible for me to live as a godly wife in my home.
It is now possible for me to say I'm sorry when I've wronged someone in relationship.
It is now possible for me to be kind and tender-hearted and forgiving.
You think I haven't got it in me. No, of course you haven't got it in you. That's why Jesus died for you.
That's why I sent the Holy Spirit to produce in you that which you never had and never could have.
Isn't that good news? You see, you'll never change by yourself.
But the good news is God did something about it. He sent Jesus to pay the price.
He sent Jesus to set you free and now the father and the son have sent the Spirit to enable you to live like one of God's children.
So you're not a slave of sin anymore. You've been set free.
Well, if you're not a slave, what are you? A son. A son, a child. Once a child, always a child.
How do you know whether you're really one of his disciples? How do you know?
Well, let me ask you. Are you holding the truth? Because then you'll know.
Who will you know? A person. And knowing the person sets you free. Not then, but now.
Not yesterday, but today. There is an ongoing he sets you free.
And daily that can be for us the most refreshing knowledge that will come to us.
He is saying in life you struggle. You do struggle. It is hard and tough.
But the son sets you free. You don't have to pay the penalty.
You're not dominated by any other power but God, the Holy Spirit, whom the father and the son have sent.
So now the father and the son sending the Spirit strengthen me daily to do what the sons do, not what the slaves do.
Well, I ask the question, are you a disciple? Here's an easy way to check. Do you hold the truth?
Are you holding the word? Then you'll know. And you'll know the truth.
And knowing the truth, Jesus, disciples are people who have been set free.
What disciples? Who are disciples? Well, disciples are those who hold the word, they know the truth,
they're set free and they're beautifully the sons of God. No longer slaves of sin, but sons of God.
You see, the slave may live in the house and have many benefits for many days, but he's not part of the family.
And that's what John 8 is saying. Those unbelieving Jews are not part of the family.
They're exposed to many privileges, great benefits, but they didn't last forever. They weren't part of the family.
They didn't have the future guaranteed for them because they were not sons of the father.
Disciples of Jesus are sons of God, children of Abraham, friends of God and heirs of the promises of God.
What change does that mean you're going to have to make in your thinking and in your behaviour?
Let's spend 10 minutes thinking about the changes you must make in view of having heard the word of God this afternoon.
Let's pray before you do.
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