John the 8th chapter, John chapter 8 beginning of verse 31, we have been moving along at a fairly decent clip in these verses. But here we find one of those places now where Jesus is going to bring some summary to the teaching that we have been covering over the past several weeks. And it is of such a nature that we dare not slip by it or slip over it very quickly. And so I have chosen to break this into two different parts. And so this week and leads into next week as we deal with these passages together. John chapter 8 beginning of verse 31, here for God speaks to us. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. They answered Him, we are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the sun remains forever. So if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are the offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have heard from your father. May the Lord bless the reading of his word to the comprehension of his people. My father told me a story actually, it's a humorous tale of a young college student many years ago who was taken to the woods as part of his hazing, which of course is no longer allowed in college to be a part of a fraternity. They took him to the woods, removed him or liberated him of his clothing, and tied him fastly to a tree. Blindfolded him, and the last he heard was the sounds of laughter as he heard car engines driving off. He labored with his bondages there for a hour, his binding, and he got loose, and he undid his blindfold only to find himself in deep woods without any sense of where he was or how to get out. On the ground next to him was a bag. He opened the bag and was relieved to find clothing material there, the only clothes that he had. He pulled it out, and what he found inside was a devil suit. It was cold night, and not warning to walk around in his present state. He slipped on the red outfit, put the hood on to cover his ears, and began his journey through the woods. Directly he heard music from a distance, and he began to make his way towards the music. It wasn't long before he recognized the sound of church music, an old gospel church located out in the countryside, clapped board, and obviously old school as it were. As he began to make his way towards the church, he became aware of his dress, and he knew that that would cause a commotion, and so he decided to wait by the front entrance, and just peek until it was over, and then he would very carefully walk up to the minister and explain his situation, and ask him if he could use a phone or a catch a ride. He stood at the door, and he thought he was in the shadows, but he didn't realize that without air conditioning, and it was an open air sanctuary, and the doors were open, that the light from inside was moving or going out the door. As he peeked inside the door, it wasn't long before the minister who was waxing eloquently about hellfire and brimstone saw him peeking in the door. The minister did what any responsible shepherd of God's flock would do, he immediately left the pulpit and ran out the back door. The congregation, which was in the midst of great revival, turned to see what apparition had so startled the minister, and what they saw standing in the doorway of their church was the devil. Immediately, brother and sister in Christ trampled each other, leaving through the back door following the minister, leaving one man sitting on the front pew. Well, the young man in the devil's suit began to make his way down the center aisle, wondering why this one fellow had stayed, and as he came to the front pew, and he looked he saw that the man was a double amputee, he had no legs, and all of his friends had left him there. On the front pew. And he walked up to the man and he started to speak, but before he could, the older man put his hand up and he said, before you say a word, I want you to know that I have been a member of this church for 67 years and have never missed a Sunday. And I have served like my father before me as a deacon in this church for well over 30 of those 67 years, faithfully, discharging the duties as chairman of the board of deacons for nearly 20 of those 30 years. But since we're here by ourself, I want to tell you straight up, I was on your side all alone. And it's a funny story, but it's meant to introduce to us a topic which is not so funny and is a sensitive one to deal with, and that is those who would profess to be believers, but are not. And among those who profess to be believers are those who sincerely believe they are believers, and yet they have no faith. And how is it that we are to discern them, or how is it that the church can help them discern for themselves, that even if it's been 67 years without missing a Sunday, if they are not in faith, Christian, just professors of the Christian faith, then their soul is at deep risk. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. These are Jews who had perhaps been following His ministry since Galilee, the exciting days of healings and turning water to wine and of feeding 5,000. They had seen the miracles and they had heard His teaching which we've been exploring where He calls Himself as the bread of life and says you must eat of Me, where He calls Himself living water and says you must drink of Me. We have seen them follow Him when He declares that He is the light of the world, and that He is God present with His people, and these people have heard this, and we are told in verse 30, as He was saying these things many believed in Him, on account of the testimony which He was speaking many believed. And so Jesus turns to the Jews who were believing in Him, believing in His person, believing in the ministry was performing, and He said to them, if He gives them a qualifier, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. The great expositor of Scripture, one of our own denomination now deceased, Dr. James Montgomery Boys, said this, about preaching on Sundays. Across America, on any given Sunday, thousands of sermons will be preached to those who are Christians to urge them to live like Christians, and many thousands more will be preached to those who are not Christians to urge them to believe in Jesus. I doubt if many are preached to those who already believe the doctrines of Christianity, and who think they are Christians but who, nevertheless, have never come to the point of accepting the Lord Jesus Christ personally as their Savior. And boys further down goes on to say, most people who listen to Christian preaching are I am convinced in the last of these categories. Most Christian people, Dr. Boyce is convinced, is in a category which have heard and come to believe in the doctrines of Christ but have never received Christ as Lord and as Savior. The Southern Baptist Convention has completed a study recently, and I regret I don't have the statistics in front of me. My brother-in-law, who's a Southern Baptist minister, was talking to me about the conversation they had at their convention, where they have come to realize that most likely in their opinion, the majority of the people in their churches are not genuine believers. How? How could they say such a thing? Is it that hard to assess the spiritual health of the church? Is it that hard to recognize when people are truly committed and living for Christ? Is it that hard really for us to discern those who are abiding in His Word and are truly His disciples, who are selfless in their disposition, who are loving in their relations with all their brothers and sisters in Christ, who have truly repented and are transparent. Before the Lord, is it that hard for us to truly discern that among God's people? Certainly if the pews were filled with those who were abiding in His Word and were truly His disciples, the progress of the church and its march as the church militant in the world would be easy to see and the testimony would be strong. Boy, saying that most of those who are listening to Christian preaching are in the last of those categories, he's not saying that they don't believe the doctrines that are being taught. He's not saying that they're hostile to Christianity or that they're hostile to the cause of Christ. It's not implied that they are overtly enemies of the church, enemies of God's people or enemies of Christ. He's saying that they just aren't born again, that they aren't disciples even though they believe. They believe, the Jews believed in Him, and yet those same Jews in this conversation had we read down through the end of verse 40, down through the end of the chapter, you would see these same Jews claiming that Jesus has a demon that isn't possession of it. And yet they believed, 90% of the people in the United States in Britain at least up until recently claimed that they have a personal relationship with God but very few of them are very active in that at all, very few of them are pursuing anything that even begins to resemble transformation and discipleship, sanctification which we call it. They've made the claim, they profess the faith, and they're done, and their life has not moved forward. Catherine Marshall said, one can believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and fill no personal loyalty to Him at all, indeed, pay no attention whatever to His commandments and His will for one's life. One can believe intellectually in the efficacy of prayer and never do any praying. Let's ponder that one for just a moment, because that would certainly be a test that only us in our own heart in God in heaven would know. We would all sit here and say together that we believe that we are called to prayer and that prayer in fact is effective and effectual, that not only is it effectual means of God's people speaking to Him, but it is an effectual means of God transforming us as well. And then what value do we put on prayer? How much of a priority do we put on prayer, privately and in worship? What do we think prayer is all about? Something to be endured? A discipline that we must speak to, or is it where we speak to our Father? To ease the anxiety of our anxious soul because we are laboring still in the flesh of a broken and dying world, to help us to understand the issues of life because we are perplexed by all that is weighing in upon us in life. Are we praying to God our Father to be moving in the hearts of men that they would come to Christ? What are our prayers? Do we pray? Or do we just believe in prayer? Do you believe in prayer? Oh, I believe in prayer. Do you pray? I have, on occasion, I try to follow the pastor while he does what's traditionally called the long prayer.
Prayer perhaps is the most private test where while we may lie to ourselves and we may lie to the people around us, we know if we pray or not, let us not lie to ourselves about that. So we have now discerned there are two kinds of belief. There is an acknowledgement of the truths of Scripture and there is a trusting in Christ for salvation. There is an intellectual acknowledgement of what is being taught, that it's logical, it's historical, it's consistent, and it certainly is encouraging good morality and it is certainly a way for families who pray together to stick together. It is certainly a way to ease my anxieties through being assured that God loves me. It is a way for me to have friends that I can trust, there is good practical use to Christianity and I will affirm the truths of Scripture that there is a God after all the demons believe and shudder. So it doesn't take a leap of faith to believe that there is a God, the unsaved believe there is a God, they worship God that they don't know. But to surrender to Christ, to trust in Christ, to die to self and live to Christ, to be transformed after we are regenerated by a lifetime of walking with the Lord, that is unique to Christianity, that is unique to a trusting belief. The language of verses 30 and 31, we have to confess where he says that many believed in him and Jesus said that he was speaking to the Jews who believed in him, the verses here and the language it is used in 30 and 31 do not describe two different kinds of belief. It doesn't describe two different kinds of faith. We simply are looking at the passage and saying he is speaking to those who profess to believe and then they call him one filled with Satan. Jesus speaks to them as believers. How could they accuse him of having a demon? Billy Graham. Billy Graham recognizing the difficulties of making this careful discernment of belief said there is a vast difference between intellectual belief and the total conversion that saves the soul. Intellectual belief versus the total conversion that saves the soul. How many times are we simply content to say to someone, just tell me if you believe in Jesus and they go, I believe in Jesus and we go, well there is score one for me. Someone has come to Christ. No, they have just come to church. They have come to Christ. In verses 30 to 33 we have to ask them for these Jews who had believed in him, what was the constitution of their conviction? What was the makeup of their convictions? They had been following probably since the Galilean ministry, certainly they knew of it. They had heard of his teaching, they had intentionally followed him and now they were on the verge of falling away. Was there conviction, genuine faith? Is there a difference between mental acknowledgement and heartfelt faith? Is there a difference in being in love with the language of Scripture and being in love with the Christ of Scripture? There is a difference between faith and belief, William G.T. Shed who died in 1894. He was a professor at Union Theological Seminary and a great writer and a great system magician of theology. It means he studied his whole life and tried to write it down to help us understand and try to make sense of all the different strands of thought in the Scriptures. He said, there is a difference between belief and faith. Justifying faith not only a sense to the truth of the promise but receives and rests upon Christ for pardon. There may be belief without faith. A man may credit the statements made by Jesus Christ and yet not rest on him for salvation. All who are not skeptics believe the testimony of Christ in his apostles but not all who are not skeptics have faith. Faith is accompanied with love. The belief is not. The devil's belief in tremble. The natural man believes that God is merciful but does not trust in his mercy. In the Scriptures it reminds us of the rich young ruler who went striding confidently up to Jesus and he said, so what do I need to do to have salvation? Jesus says obey the law and he goes, done that since birth. I have got the Scriptures down. He believed Jesus could tell him the way of salvation and he believed that you had to obey the law to be saved. And so Jesus said, well then there's only one last thing. forsake all else and follow me. forsake everything else and follow me and you will be saved. And the rich young ruler was such an impressive resume and such a strong statement of belief and so much confidence in his religion who had come to Christ about his head in dejection, turned and left because he could not forsake all to follow Christ. Best illustration that I know of is of a 19th century French acrobat who became quite famous and his fame brought him to America. He was born in 1824 if that tells you how long ago it was. You probably have heard of him. His fame and being an acrobat led him to walk tight ropes and he crossed Niagara Falls on a tight rope. 1100 foot long and 160 foot over the water. He walked across the tight rope on Niagara Falls. It gained him such additional fame that he sought to improve upon that and so he took a wheelbarrow. And he rolled a wheelbarrow across a tight rope 1100 foot long and 160 foot above the waters of the Niagara Falls. Not to still not to be undone by that, he went to the middle of the tight rope and there cooked an omelette on his tight rope. But still not finished. He put a man on his back. He walked across the tight rope with a man on his back. He got to the end. He turned around and he walked back. And then as he emerged into the crowd that had gathered there and they were cheering and the man got off his back, he turned to look at one of the men who were clapping. And he said, do you believe that I could carry you across there and back? And the man said, believe it, of course I just saw you do it. And he said, well then why don't you get on my back? And the man said, they ain't no way. There ain't no way. That's the difference between a scent and active faith. That's the difference between having a faith that is not tested, that is not tried and never proven. A faith that is safe. Easy, believe is, cheap grace. Whatever the term is that's been coined and written about, however it is that we come to reassure ourselves that we are fine with God. But yet we have never taken the steps of someone who is truly given over to Christ and dealing with a sub-Christian belief, Jesus doesn't send them away. You would think that perhaps discerning their hearts, Jesus would say, you who say you believe, I know your hearts, you need to turn and leave and pray that God's judgment wouldn't fall upon you. But he doesn't do that. That is not Jesus's response to those who were there. C.H. Spurgeon, the great Baptist minister says, he deals with little faith as we used to do with spark in the tender. You remember when you were little and there would be a little spark of fire and you would watch that little spark of fire and you would guard that little spark of fire and then you would try to blow it a little bit and you were fascinated to see if that little spark would burst into flame. And Jesus does the same, the Jews that were gathered there believed, but yet the Holy Spirit had not been given. And so Jesus is in essence telling them to patiently persevere, abide in my word and be my disciples. You say you believe in me, that's good. Now abide in what I say, stay with what I am saying even when the spark is tiny. It may yet burst into flame. Matthew 12-20, a bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench. Whatever your state is this morning, whether at this moment you are affirmed again because you know that you have given your life to Christ and there is no question in your mind that he has been doing a work in your life and you have become more Christ-like with each passing day. Or if now you are wondering, hating me and hating the word that is preached because you realize that for however long you have held to a false hope and that all those around you believe in what you yourself now do not believe. Do not despair for you have not yet reached the judgment and there is yet time to give yourself to Christ. And like a spark in the tender, perhaps the spirit of Christ is blowing even now that you might burst into flame and belong to Christ. It's not a small faith that Jesus is disparaging. It's a belief that speaks of faith but as a heart that is unsurrendered. Repeating Isaiah in Matthew 15-8, Jesus said these people, they honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me. Jesus understood intellectual ascent. He understood the life of the Pharisees who followed after the Scriptures but never followed God. Verse 31, the second half, if you abide in my word, what is the word? His teaching. If you abide in my teaching, that word abide as in a tense that is called the ericist subjunctive. It's not necessary you know the verb tense unless you are familiar with it already. Simply it says that it is an imperative to begin. That's what that tense communicates to us. He is saying it is imperative that you begin to abide in my word. Do not delay. Do not put it off. It is imperative that at this moment you begin to obey my word. We've seen this before in the apostles' teaching. When we started it studied 1 John together. In 1 John chapter 2, verses 3 and verse 6, by this we know we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments, isn't that an interesting way to phrase that by this we know that we come to know him. You say you know him. Well, this is how you know that you know him. If you keep his commandments, whoever says he abides in him, the walk in the same way which he walked. Jesus is showing here that belief which is born of genuine faith is the result of actual conversion. Jesus is pressing those that are impressed by him. He is pressing them to say they believe and finish the course and live a godly life as he has taught them to. He has shown them that the godliness he speaks of is not available to those who are still in the flesh but only to the spirit by eating and drinking of him. By coming to him is the light by taking of him. Francis Turton and defines this actual conversion. Another great writer. As the exercise of those good habits in which the acts of faith and repentance are both granted by God and called forth for man. So assurance then comes to those who have genuine faith. And genuine faith is the result of two actions. Regeneration we call it rebirth or being born again and conversion. What is conversion? Conversion is a state of transformation and at that we might call sanctification or the reform of our life but it is the abiding in his teaching, being sanctified and becoming Christ like over all of our lives. Verse 31, if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples. Those who have followed Christ are full time Christians. He said follow me Abraham was commanded to follow God. He left his home. He left all that was there in earth and he followed God. Peter was called by Christ to follow me so Peter dropped his net and he followed Christ. Those who have followed Christ are full time Christians. Those who have followed Christ have had the law of God written on their hearts and it can be seen by the one word that summarizes the ten words of the commandments and that is love. You will know truth Jesus said and the truth will set you free. What does this mean? It means you'll have a certainty that Christ words are true. You'll have a peace in your soul without being plagued by doubt concerning your salvation. It means that you will not just wish or even hope that Jesus is for real. You'll know that he is for real and you'll know that the hope you have is an expectation that all will come to pass just as he has said. You will your mind will be at rest in Christ because your heart is at rest in Christ. Your life will be converted more and more with each passing day to look like his life and you will know that while Christianity begins by profession of faith it's your regeneration. It is lived and progression sanctification becoming like Christ and when you come to the Lord's table as we will in a few moments you'll know what it means that Christ gave his body to take God's wrath for your sin. You'll know what it means that it took his blood to seal the covenant of grace. You'll understand what it means that Christ gave himself for you. You'll know that he is for real and you'll know that the hope you have is an expectation that Christ gave his body to take God's wrath for your sin.