Good morning, if you would turn in your Bibles to John chapter eight. Now we’ve been going through the book of Romans, and we’re going to take a week and we’re going to do something that’s going to help tie together part of what we’ve been learning in the book of Romans and title of today’s sermon is simply, “If You Abide In My Word,” and those are the words of Jesus Himself. So, we’re going to look at those words, especially in context. And here’s why it’s crucial for you to know about this statement, because it’s a condition that Jesus puts forward and the first question is, do you know how Jesus defines a disciple of Himself, what is the key characteristic? And second is, are you, in fact, a disciple of Jesus Christ? And third, there are next, depending upon how you answer question number two.
So, let’s read it in context. John 8:30-36, “And he (that’s Jesus) as he was speaking these things, many believed in him, and so Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s seed, and we and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’? Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly. I say to you that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin, and the slave does not remain in the house forever, for the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free, indeed.’” And so that’s a little more the context of this phrase, “If you abide in My word.”
And so, I want to push in a little bit to the audience that Jesus is speaking to John 8:30-31, “And He was speaking these things. Many believed Him.” Now, “many”, wow. Okay, that’s cool. That’s awesome. Church Growth experts would rejoice over that. Well, notice what He does then. “So Jesus was saying to these Jews who had believed Him.” And then He begins, and we’ll look at that statement in just a moment. But here’s the truth that is conveyed through this. Not everyone who says, “I believe in Jesus” is in fact a believer in Jesus. Not everyone who says “I’m a disciple of Jesus” is in fact a true disciple of Jesus. And why that’s so important for you to understand. Number one, it helps to make sense of the world in which we live in. And no doubt, you’ve had experience with so many so called Christians, and you couldn’t figure out what’s happening. Well, it could be that not everyone who says “I’m a Christian” is, in fact, a Christian, and we know that to be true, and we see this particularly in the book of John. You go to John chapter two and three, you’ll see that there were many people who believed, but based upon the signs and Jesus did not entrust Himself to them. Why? He knew what was in man. Nicodemus, in John three, is an example of someone who gave lip service to Jesus but actually did not believe.
And we see another example in John 6:66, it’s on the screen behind me, “as a result of this (what’s “this”? This is Him teaching) many of His disciples went away and were not walking with Him anymore.” Notice yet, there were many who were believing, but there are many who went away were no longer walking with Him. Why? They could not remain with Jesus. They did not continue with Jesus. They could not abide in His Word, and we see this true today. Paul characterized it in his letter to Timothy, 2 Timothy 4:3, when he says this, “For the time will come when they will not (notice) endure sound doctrine.” In other words, they can’t remain there. They can’t bear underneath it, simply sound doctrine. So here’s what they do instead. “But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires.” Do we not see that today? People who you could teach sound doctrine and to as you teach it, they say, “Yeah, no, I’m going to go to a place that will tell me what I want to hear.” Believe it or not, mankind wants to be lied to. They do. “Tell me what I want to hear. Lie to me. Please don’t tell me the truth if you do, heads up, but lie to me.” And so, we see this, even in our own county and across the nation and across the world, there are all kinds of gatherings of people that gather together, why? To hear someone else tell them what they want to hear. What do we call that? We call it fake church. John 20:31, now John is at the end of his gospel, and he’s telling us why he wrote what he wrote of, obviously under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. “But these have been written so that you may (what? you might) believe.” And this is true belief, this is the legitimate, the genuine that you believe that Jesus, who He is, is the Christ, in other words, the anointed one, the one described in the Old Testament. And He, in fact, is the Son of God. He is the pre-existent One, “And that by believing, you might have life in His name.” In other words, no condemnation. So again, John is laboring to make sure that those who are reading, they don’t just pass it off. “Oh, I believe.” No. Read it so that you actually know and believe the true Jesus of the scriptures.
And so, point number one is simply this,
#1 Distinguishing mark of a true disciple of Jesus
There is a way to tell, and how do we tell? Well, Jesus tells us exactly, and if you will, this is the acid test. This is the evidence of a true disciple of Jesus. And so going back to verse 31 John 8:31, “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him (in other words, they said they believed Him, this is what Jesus says), ‘If (there is the condition) If you abide in My word, then you are truly My disciples.’” And so, what is the characteristic of a true disciple of Jesus? They must abide in His Word. And so, when Jesus says, “My Word”, that’s a very narrow, that’s very exclusive word, He’s talking about, sure, His teaching His doctrine. But let me ask you this question, when Jesus taught, was His teaching gospel-centered? Yes or no? Yes, yes. Where else are we going to get gospel-centered teaching? From Jesus Himself. He is the author of the gospel. He is the sum and substance of it. He is the focus of it. It’s all pointing to Him, who He is and what He’s done. And He is, in fact, the teacher. This is why the church is to teach what? People, disciples to keep, obey, observe everything He commanded. It’s His Word that we teach, not man’s word. Now men proclaim it, but is, in fact, what they proclaim, is His Word of the gospel. And so, if I’d have a clean slide, and so the Jesus was saying to the Jews who had believed Him again, He knows what’s in man. He says, “If you abide.” And this word, “abide” simply means to remain, to stay in place, to not be moved off of and so what Jesus is saying is, if we could draw a diagram, His Word is here, the sphere of His Word. We remain right there. We remain there, we abide there, and we don’t go anywhere else. Why? Because He is the teacher. He is the Teacher of teachers. He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords. And so obviously, by definition, the disciple is one who will abide in His teaching. He is one who will remain there. He is one who is submitted to His teaching. We don’t go elsewhere for information to validate what Jesus is saying. He’s the Teacher. And we say, “Yes, teach us.” And so, when we abide, we obviously are hearing what Jesus is teaching. We’re understanding it. When He makes promises, we believe them. And when He makes and gives us commands, what do we do? We do them.
And please be careful that you don’t assume here something, because all too often people think to themselves, “Yeah, yeah, I’m a believer. I am a disciple of Jesus.” But this is the test. Do you, in fact, abide in His Word? Notice what he says in Matthew 13:23 and Jesus gave a parable of the soils. There were three of them that were not good, but here’s the one that was good, “And the one on whom the seed and (the seed is, in fact, the gospel) was sown on the good soil. This is a man who hears the word (the gospel) and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty.” And if you notice what the characteristics of this soil is, number one, it’s good. Point number one, of course, within that is you can’t make yourself good, by the way. All soil, if you will, all humans, as they are born in Adam, they’re not good soil. It. They can’t hear the Word of God, nor can Jesus’ word abide in them. He, Jesus, has to do something. He’s the active agent to make good soil. And notice the characteristics. Number one, they hear the Word. They hear His Word. They hear the Gospel. Two, they understand it. And three, that gospel bears fruit. It shows itself in that person’s life, and this good soil is a picture of regeneration, that that because our spirit is dead, that that God Himself, Jesus Christ, has to do something in us in order to bring us to life so that we actually hear, understand, and then do.
John 7:16-18, “Jesus answered them and said, ‘My teaching (again, we’re focusing on His Word, here, He uses the word ‘teaching’ or ‘doctrine’, My doctrine) My teaching, is not mine (okay Jesus, where does it come from) but from Him who sent Me (that’s obviously the Father).’” He and the Father are One. Verse 17, “‘If anyone is willing to do His will, He will know about the teaching, whether it is of God or speak from myself.’” Please note here, unless you are willing to do the Father’s will, you will not know whether the teaching is legit from Jesus. This is a precondition. You have to be willing to do His will. And you’re thinking, “Well, hold on, if we’re born in Adam, that’s the last thing we want to do. We’re actually going in the opposite direction of obeying the Father, agreed? This is where God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, have to do something in our life so that we are willing. That’s called regeneration. And once you’re willing to do His will, you’ll know. Willing comes before knowing. And this is all pointing to what it means to abide in Christ. It means you are good soil. It means you’ve been regenerated. It means you’re actually willing to do what Jesus says. When He says, “Go here,” you go there. When He says, “Do this,” you do it. When He says, “Don’t do that,” you don’t do it. And you know that is, in fact, the Word of God, when Jesus speaks, and really to take pressure off of you, you can’t convince a person who doesn’t believe in Jesus that the Bible is true. You just can’t do it. Why? Because they’re not willing to do His will. Now, do you talk about the gospel? Yes. Do you talk about the truthfulness of the Bible? Sure, you just can’t convince them that is a work of God. Verse 18, “He who speaks from himself, seeks his own glory.” Now there are more than 5, 10, 15 people in this world today who are seeking their own glory. There are, trust me on that. Okay, let’s talk percentages. There is more than 5% of those who say they speak for God, who actually are seeking their own glory. And actually it’s more than 10%. And if you go to a Christian books or so called and you look at the top 20, it’s about 90% who are seeking their own glory. If you go to the so-called Christian worship music scene, oh, there are so many who are seeking their own glory. So-called pastors are seeking their own glory. This is the world we live in. This is how you make sense of the world we live in. Many say they believe in Jesus, but when truth comes, they walk away. They say, “Nope.” Now they still will say the same words, but they’ve shown themselves not to be a true disciple. But notice the contrast here, “But He (that’s Jesus speaking of Himself) He who is seeking the glory of the one He sent who sent Him (that’s the Father) He has (notice) this true and no unrighteousness in Him.” Yeah, that’s the person we want to listen to. That’s the person we want to hear from is the one who is true and no unrighteousness and actually speaking on the authority of the Father.
Now, how does this look in day to day? How does it look for a disciple who is abiding in the Word of God? What’s that look like? Here’s one example, 1 John 1:9, and it says this, “If we confess our sins,” you say, “Well, hold on. I thought believers aren’t supposed to sin.” Hang on. It says here, “If we confess our sins,” we talked about this earlier, about two weeks ago, “confess” means what? Same word. So, you’re reading the Word as a disciple, you’re abiding in the Word, you’re reading the Word, and the Holy Spirit convicts you and says, “You’ve sinned.” A disciple will say, “I agree with You. I’ve sinned.” And the Spirit convicts you of this, and you feel convicted. And the Spirit in essence is saying “You’ve broken that”, “You’ve transgressed here.” What do you say? “I agree. I confess I’ve sinned.” This is normal. This is routine. This is ordinary in the life of a believer. We’ve been in Romans seven, and we’ve learned that, yes, we’re a new creation. We desire to be perfect. But guess what lies close at hand? Your spouse, who is a sinner. Your spouse has sin in his or her members, they’re close, but guess who’s closer? Your own body. You have the law of sin. You want to do what is right and perfect, but the law of sin says this sin is in my members, and so even you with the day you were saved. Day one, you confessed your sin. You said, “Yup, I’m sinner. There’s a Savior. I believe in You, Jesus.” Day two, guess what? You sinned. What did you need to do? Confess your sins. And for a disciple who’s abiding in the Word, even on day 100 or day 10,000 what is happening? You will still be confessing your sins, because there’s not perfection here. Perfection is coming. The distinguishing mark of a disciple is not perfection now. It is they abide in the Word of God.
Now there are a lot of benefits. Oh, let’s talk about the benefits,
#2 The Benefits Of Being A True Disciple Of Jesus
In other words, one who in fact abides in the Word of God, because genuine disciples remain abide in the gospel, not only now, but in the future. Verse 32, John 8:32 and it’s really the second part of the sentence that we’ve been studying, and it says, “And you will know the truth (Know in the experiential sense) you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” I get it. This is a very popular saying. You hear it in many different places but we really need to understand it from Jesus’ perspective, right? He’s the one who said it. We don’t get to make up the meaning. The world loves to make up the meaning. We have to understand what Jesus means by what He says. And He says here, “You will know the truth.” Now, the Bible uses the word “truth” and “true” in many different ways, and so I want to just kind of capture some of that, so you have a clear understanding of what Jesus is saying here, earlier in John chapter eight. In the same situation, John 8:12, Jesus said this. “He spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world (He is the light, there is no other light. He is the light of the world) he who follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.’” And so, when He’s speaking, understand exactly what He means by the light. Understand this was a feast of tabernacles, which was a celebration of how Yahweh rescued the Israelites from Egypt, which we in fact know as Jesus, out of Egypt and the light was foreshadowed back then. How so? Because the angel of the Lord, i.e. Jesus, is in the pillar of cloud. And what did the pillar of cloud do? It guided the Israelites and protected them. The light guides and protects. And here Jesus is now saying, “I’m the fulfillment. I am the light.” Jesus the God who existed and then took on human nature, tabernacle among us. He dwelt among us, and He is the light. And what else is the light now is? Of course, the Word of God. It’s a lamp to our feet. And so, Jesus is the light. In other words, He is the truth, and if you are abiding in the light, there is no darkness.
Jesus also says this, John 14:6. He said, “‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but through me.’” Yep, that’s restrictive, that’s narrow, that’s exclusive. He is the truth. Jesus, not only speaks the truth, He is the truth, and He is the light. 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who is shown in our hearts to give (what?) the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (where? of course) in the face of Jesus Christ.” In the context of this passage, is as people read the Word of God, as they read the scriptures. If you want to see the glory of God, what do you do? Go in your backyard? Well, you could, and in a sense to see what is common to everyone. But in order to really see the manifested characteristics of God. You look into the face of Jesus Christ. And how do you do that? You read His Word. This is what a disciple is. They abide in the Word. And what are they doing? They’re looking for the glory of God. They’re looking for His characteristics, His holiness, His righteousness, and they see it where? Iin the face of Jesus Christ, as they read the Word, that is why disciples remain there. And they stay in the Word of God, and they don’t allow others to move them aside.
John 17:17, “Sanctify them by truth. Your word is truth.” There you go. What is your word? It’s truth. It’s equated with truth. John 16:13-14. Notice we’ve talked about God to Father sending God the Son, and that Jesus is the truth. Notice now the Holy Spirit, Jesus is speaking, and He says, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into (what?) all the truth. For He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will disclose to you what is to come (notice who He glorifies) He will glorify (the Son) for He will take of Mine and disclose it to you.” This is what the Holy Spirit is doing. And the particular audience here is the apostles. And what Jesus is saying here is this the New Testament will be written and in fact, it will be my Word. It will be truth, for the Holy Spirit will make sure of it.
And so, if I can have a blank slide, we’re talking about truth here. And what we’ve seen is that, in fact, truth originates from the Father but the Father sent the Son. The Son is the one who reveals the Father, and the Father has also sent the Holy Spirit. And it’s also true that the Son sends the Holy Spirit. And what we have here is Jesus is teaching us about Himself. He’s teaching us about the Triune God, that there is a relationship. Now the external works of the Trinity, they’re not separable, but there are certain works that are apportioned to a person as is fitting. And what are they doing? They’re revealing truth. In other words, this is reality, and they’re revealing the reality in its most core essence. In other words, number one, this is who they’re revealing, themselves. The Triune God is revealing the Triune God who He is and what He does. And second, they reveal man. In the Word of God, we learn a whole bunch about who mankind is. Third, it reveals Jesus. Why Jesus? Why particularly? Well, because Jesus is the agent of revelation. He’s revealing the Father and the Holy Spirit takes what’s of the Son and brings illumination to us. Jesus is also the agent of creation. Jesus is the agent of providence. Jesus is the agent of redemption. Jesus is the agent of judgment. It’s coming. This is Jesus and the fruit of the gospel. In other words, that which comes based upon the work of Jesus. This we call the gospel.
And this is the Triune God who announces the gospel, which is, what? It’s God personally getting involved in our salvation. Now, for a person who might say this, “I believe.” And they say, “I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ.” What happens is, when you begin teaching and really teaching the doctrine, for example, about God, who He is and what He’s done, eventually they might say, “No, nope, I don’t believe that. That’s not- I could never believe that God would elect a group of people before the foundation of the earth.” Okay, now you’ve shown yourself. You may say you believe, but you’re not believing who God has revealed Himself and what He has done. There are others. When you talk about mankind and you say they have a sin nature, and they sin. They can do nothing but sin. They’ll say, “Nope, that’s not true. Look at me, I’m nailing it.” No, I get it. They’re not going to say, “I’m nailing it.” But the religious person, you feel it, you understand it. They think they’re it. They think they’re doing it. They may claim, “I believe in Jesus,” but in due time. Once the doctrine, once they begin to hear the Word of God, it’s evident they’re not abiding in it, because if they abided in it, they would hear it and say, “I agree with You, Jesus.” And finally, when it comes to Jesus, you’ve run into people, right, who say, “Well, that’s not my Jesus. My Jesus would do this. My Jesus would do that.” This is why, in the worship ministry, or I’m not worship ministry, in the so-called worship industry, where they’re selling a whole bunch of music songs that are not very good, you had the “Jesus is my boyfriend genre”. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it. But those of you who know when a person is singing a song, you think, “Man, they’re singing like Jesus is their boyfriend.” They surely don’t understand that He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You don’t talk to Jesus that way. They actually don’t believe. Why? Because they’re not abiding in His Word and fruit. Fruit is simply repent and believe and all that comes with it. And so, for us as a church, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to say “Yes.” “Yes.” We’re going to remain right here. And this is all we’re going to teach. This is all we’re going to listen to. This is all we’re going to seek to understand.
And going back to John 8:32, I want to see it again, “And you will know the truth (experientially know the truth) and the truth will set you free.” Now, people quote this all the time, and they’ll use whatever they want to escape from as what Jesus means. Here, I’ve seen billboards where it says, “If you’re depressed, call this number you can talk to Jesus.” Okay, can Jesus bring you out of depression? Of course He can, but that’s not what He’s talking about here. We have to let Jesus tell us what He is making us free from. And He does so two verses later, John 8:34, “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly. I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.’” That’s our problem. And notice it’s not plural here, what Jesus is saying this is a present active participle, meaning it’s an ongoing this means that that a person who is ongoing sinning, that what are they doing? They’re sinning actually from their nature. They sin. Why? Because they have a sin nature. They are, in fact, a slave to sin. This is our problem. I get it. You might have financial woes, you may have boss problems, you may have kid problems, you may have parent problems. The real issue you are facing is this, you are a slave to sin, and you are headed to condemnation. You see, everyone born of Adam has a sin nature, and people talk all the time about free will. Free will! But the problem is this, free will is not the solution, it’s the problem because if you are a slave to sin, you freely sin. That’s what you do. Why? Because that is your nature. You don’t have right desires, you don’t have any abilities, and you are headed straight to condemnation. Verse 24 a bit earlier, Jesus is speaking, and He says this John 8:24, “‘Therefore I say to you that you will die in your sins (these are, then obviously what they commit) for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.’” And what is that? That’s condemnation. Condemnation: eternal, damnatory, separation and punishment. This is why it’s such good news as we’ve been studying Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” In other words, we’ve been rescued from our slavery to sin. And who are the those who dwell in Christ Jesus, you’ll know them. Why? Because they abide in His Word. There is no other way.
John 8:32b and John 8:36 I’m going to put these together to show something. In 32 we’ve already read this, “…And the truth will make you free.” Truth will make you free. But in verse 36 he says this, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free.” Indeed. Okay, which is it? Is Jesus talking out both sides of His mouth here? Of course not. Why Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the gospel. The gospel is the good news of who Jesus is and what He’s done. And so, when you say, “The truth will set you free.” It’s not just any truth that the Cowboys will never win the Super Bowl. That may be a truth. It’s not going to set you free. Oh, it may set you free from being a fan but it’s not going to set you free from being a slave to sin. The truth He’s talking about, of course, is the gospel. That’s the authoritative declaration of who He is and what He’s done. Now, how and why can the Son make you free? And that is a course, because He lived the perfect life, and on the cross He died. Number one is a sacrifice because you were a slave to sin and you sinned, you deserve condemnation. He, as a sacrifice, stood in your place. Number two, propitiation, fancy word, but you need to know this, that is God pouring His wrath out on the Son that you deserved. He received and satisfied the wrath of God. Three, reconciliation because our sin, because we are slaves of sin, we are in rebellion against God. We are at enmity with God and God with us. Jesus brought us together. He reconciled us. And fourth, redemption, what did He do? He redeemed us. That word means to buy back from the slave market. We were slaves to sin, and He bought us back. And fifth, conquest, Jesus conquered all of our enemies, sin, death, hell and Satan, and now He’s given us new desires, new attitudes. We have a new hope in Christ and the gospel is the one who sets us free. Let me repeat that, Christ in the gospel not, not any gospel, the gospel that is in the Word of God. Christ in the gospel sets you free, and it sets you free from sin. And you say, “Hold on, my experience in day to day is different.” Understand that Christ has set you free from the penalty of sin. Yes. He’s in the process of setting you free from the power of sin. One day He will set us free from the presence of sin. Already, not yet.
And third, do want to make this point, because we have to draw this out, is we want to look at the
#3 Root and fruit of False Disciples of Jesus
I want you to understand either yourself or those around you false disciples. In other words, those who say, “I’m a believer, I’m a disciple of Jesus,” but they are not true. We want to look at the root and the fruit, and one way to tell is if they one day say, “I believe,” and then later say, “Yeah, no, I don’t believe.”
So, John 8:33 let’s see this come to fruition. So, Jesus is speaking to these Jews who said, I believe. He says, “If you abide in My word,” and then notice what they say. “They answered him, ‘We are Abraham’s seed. We have never been enslaved.’” Think about that, Jesus is offering them to take them out of their slavery. And they say this, “I’m not enslaved. I’m not enslaved.” I know some of you guys watch Tiktok, and you’ve seen the videos where a mom comes to a child who has chocolate all over her face, and she asks the daughter, “Did you eat the chocolate bar?” And she says, “No, I didn’t. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jesus is looking at them and saying, “You are slaves.” Here is the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, telling them who they are, where they’re at and they say this, “Nope, we have never been enslaved.” You know what that’s called? It’s called lie. It’s called self-deception. Man loves to be lied to. The number one a person will lie to is themselves. The number one person you lie to is yourself. This is why we need to abide in the Word of God. You notice it didn’t last long. I know it’s just two verses, but Jesus gives them, this is what real belief looks like. And they say, “Yep, nope, don’t believe. it” Didn’t take long for them to reveal themselves. Notice verse 37 John 8:37, “‘I know (and Jesus is speaking) I know that you’re Abraham’s seed, yet you are seeking to kill Me. (Yeah, that’s not a true disciple of Jesus. If you are, in fact, then trying to kill Him. Notice the reason) because My word has no place in you.’” A real disciple has a place for the Word of Jesus. Why? Because Jesus has made a new creation of them, there is room for His Word. A non-believer, a person who is a false will say, “Nope, stay away. Stay away.” Oh they will sound and look good, but they actually don’t want Jesus’ word in them. John 8:43, a few verses later, Jesus again speaking, “‘Why do you not understand what I am saying? (Why don’t you understand? Here it is) because you cannot even hear My Word.’” They won’t let Jesus’ Word anywhere close to them. This is a false disciple. Now, why would false disciples be that way? Well, number one, they’re a hypocrite. Number two, they’re actually lawless. They don’t want the law. They don’t want to understand the law. They want to pretend like they are righteous, and they don’t want to rely on Christ. They don’t want to rely on His grace. They don’t want to recognize their need, and therefore they cannot hear His Word. Here’s the bombshell, John 8:44, “‘You are of your father the devil.’” And I let me, hey guys, I don’t know some of you are watching the Super Bowl today. Right before the start of the Super Bowl at 5:29 stand up and say to all your non-believing friends, “You are of your father the devil. Let’s watch some football.” Okay, understand what Jesus is doing here, He’s confronting people. He’s actually being gentle. He’s using the least amount of force required. And at this point, He has to tell them, “This is who you are. You are of your father of the devil.” And notice, “‘You want to do the desires of your father (they are lawless, they are completely against God). He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth (doesn’t remain) because there’s no truth in him. (truth and him are completely separate, and likewise, are false believers) because there’s no truth in him. Whenever he speaks, he speaks a lie. He speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.’” If you don’t abide in Christ, there is no truth in you. There is no freedom. Verse 48, John 8:48, “The Jews answered and said to Him, ‘Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’” Yep, if you don’t abide in Him, what do you got left? Yeah, I’m going to just start calling you names. Verse 53, John 8:53 “‘Surely you are not greater than our father, Abraham who died? The prophets died too, who do You make Yourself out to be?’” Notice they don’t know who Jesus is. If you don’t abide in His Word, you actually don’t know Jesus. Verse 59, John 8:59, “Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him. (There you go) But Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.” This is a heart and root and fruit of a false disciple. Why? Because they actually don’t abide in His Word.
And so, as we talk about abide in His Word, let me summarize a few things and really give you direction for your next.
“Abide in my word” (Your NEXT)
If today you thought, “Yep, nope, I’m not a disciple of Jesus. I don’t abide in His Word. I don’t want to read His Word. I don’t believe it.” Your next is to keep coming, keep coming to hear the Word proclaimed. Our prayer for you is that you would hear it, and who knows, one day you might find yourself believing as a gift from our great God, and if, in fact, you have found yourself and you believing, and you say, “Yeah, I think I am a disciple of Jesus.” Why? “Because I’m abiding in His Word.”
Your next is,
Receive His Word every Sunday
Receive His Word every Sunday, and you’re saying, “Oh, I did that today. Whoop, whoop.” Yep, you did. There’s award as you leave today. We’ll pin it on you as you leave. Now you are listening to me for about 45 minutes, and don’t say a thing. I know some of you it’s like, “It’s 90 minutes.” No, it’s not. It’s 45 just hang there. We’re almost done. To receive the Word, are you done in 45 minutes? Question? Answer is whatever you’ve heard today, you need to think about, pray, about, read again 24/7. This is what we do as a church. We remain in the Word. Remain under it. We stay there. Think about this, that Jesus is building His church. He’s given us His Word. He has set up qualified elders to lead a local church, and the qualified eldership says this, we’re going to study the book of Romans. So, what do we do as disciples? “Yeah, no, I’m going to go study something else.” No, this is what our church is doing. And so, what do you do? You study the book of Romans. You come every week, hear the Word and then 24/7 think on it, digest that which has been taught. And how can we help you in that?
Here’s your next second next,
Participate in the D-group
Oh, I get it right. Now, you’re thinking, “I’ve got an excuse for you.” I know you do. Let’s just talk about a few of them. Some of you are saying, “I don’t have time.” Yeah, I got it. But Who died and made time boss, right? Let’s go to Jesus. Let Him tell us what we should do. And maybe you’re thinking, “Yeah, I don’t really like people.” Okay, let’s go back to the basics. If you’re truly His disciple, you’re going to abide in His Word, His love is poured out in your heart, and you will love other people. And you’re saying, “No, no, no, I can, in 45 minutes, digest all that’s taught.” Let me give you an example in our education system, which is thriving in America, our education system, what do we do? There’s a lecture, they may show a video, and then there’s class notes, and then there’s a textbook, and then there’s study groups, there is homework, and there are labs. Now, why would they go to that great effort? Because we know in a lecture, in a class, the student can’t capture all of it. It’s impossible, and if that’s true in a field of study under the sun. Who are we to think we can understand God’s Word as it’s taught in here? And so yes, you’re here today. Awesome. You are receiving the Word of God. Awesome. But that’s a 24/7 endeavor, and here’s how we help you through D-groups. As you go out throughout the week, we gather in small groups. And what do we do? Do we talk about our problems? Do we complain about our spouse? Do we complain about bosses? No, here’s what we do. We study the Word that was taught. Why? Because we can’t capture all of it. We can’t understand it all in 45 minutes. We need to review the Word of God. We need to meditate upon the Word of God. We need to talk about the Word of God. You need to be in gospel-centered community. Think about that. You think you know what you’re talking about, and then you’re in the D-group, and you hear it expressed another way, and you think, “Uh, oh, I was wrong.” Or you say something and you realize that people compare that to the Word of God, yeah, you’re wrong. That’s a blessing. Gospel-centered community is necessary. Why is that? Because this is the way Jesus has set it up. He’s given us teachers. Necessary. He’s given us the church body. Necessary. Please don’t be the person who says, “Yeah, I don’t need gospel-centered teaching, and I don’t need the church body.” Yep, you’ve just shown yourself not to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, because the disciple of Jesus Christ is going to abide in His Word, and it’s going to know these are the ways of Jesus, and he’s going to say, “Yes, yes.” Now let me be clear, D-groups, discipleship groups don’t make disciples. And you’re thinking, “Okay, then why do we spend so much energy on D-groups?” Okay, hold on, D-groups don’t make disciples. God does through churches who have individuals who talk about, proclaim and discuss the gospel. Please note, it is God who does all the growth, but He does so through creaturely means. And if you say, “Yeah, I’m not sure about the effectiveness of this.” Okay, what about Jesus? How many did He have in His discipleship group? Let me answer it, 12. If you look at Acts chapter two, the early church met in a large group, and they met home to home. Think about Paul, the things that were entrusted to him by Jesus Himself. He entrusted to other men, faithful men, who could teach others also. This is the way of God. And I know you may have 1,000,001 excuses, submit them to the Master and say, “Jesus, I got 101 excuses but You know what? You’ve told me to do this. I’m going to do it. I am going to hear Your Word, and I’m going to be involved in a group of people who are responding to Your Word in gospel-centered worship, and a group that’s gospel-centered, gospel-centered community.” There is no other way. You can’t get around this. And if you don’t, what happens in your life is this, there will be a lid on your growth. You think all I need to do is go and listen to a sermon every week. There is a lid on your growth. If you are, in fact, a real disciple, there is a lid on you. If you are not then talking about the gospel among other people, there is a lid on top of you. You will not be able to grow much further. Why? Faith comes from hearing, hearing the Word of Christ, and we hear it from one another. We speak the truth in love, building up the body.
And third, you know this, and I’m not putting it third as in limited importance, but you’ve heard it and you’re going to hear it again in just a moment. We each must,
Personally read the Word of God
Read it front to back and start all over again. Let me tell you when you can stop. Okay? Write this down. “The day you die!” There you go. So, do it. Read the Word of God.
And finally,
Meditate on His Word
Meditate. In other words, you think on it, run it through your mind, “Lord Jesus, am I properly understanding You? Holy Spirit, help me to properly understand.” And then you go to D-group, you talk about it. You see, you get some confidence. Yeah, this is what God means by what He says, and this is how it’s been fulfilled in Jesus. And this is how I take my next. It is you digesting the Word of God. This is the way of God.
“Abide in my word” (Your NEXT)
Receive His Word every Sunday
Participate in the D-group
Personally read the Word of God
Meditate on His Word
John 8:31-32, “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you truly are My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’”
KEYWORDS
Discipleship, Abide, Word, Scripture, Bible, Hearing, Understanding, Confess, True Disciple, Jesus’ Teaching, Gospel-Centered, Gospel, Disciple, D-Group, Regeneration, Sin Nature, False Disciple, Lie, Self-Deception, Devil, Gentle, Holy Spirit, Truth, Freedom, Free, Church Growth, Sound Doctrine, Community, Personal Reading, Soil, Confess, Slave, Free Will, Jesus, Condemnation, Providence, Judgment, Creation, Revelation, Sacrifice, Propitiation, Reconciliation, Redeem, Redemption, Conquer, Conquest, Bible Church, Online Sermon, Grayson County, Texas
Speaker
Jeff Wideman