AM Gospel Service, London, November 9, 2008

This is 2005, the first time I had the privilege of being with you. I am in much better shape than I was in 2005. Some of you who are here know that the Lord's Providence, I wasn't feeling real well when I was with you that time, but thankfully that is not the case this time.

I would ask for your prayers for this week. I have pretty much given up on the opportunity of having any type of dialogue or debate here in the UK, but that door has opened now, and so I pray that the encounters that we have this coming week will be to the Lord's glory.

John 8 and the Danger of False Profession

Will you turn with me to John chapter 8? While you're turning there, I want to bring you the greetings of the elders and people of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. I don't run into a lot of people here in London who have been to Phoenix, Arizona, but it is about as different a place as London as you could possibly have, I would imagine.

We all use public transportation. We really don't have any. Everyone drives around in big, huge pickup trucks and wouldn't go down most of your streets, and it's also much warmer there, but we have good Christian folks in our fellowship, a small fellowship, so I'm very much at home amongst the people of God in this type of context.

So pray for us as we pray for you as well as we seek to hold forth the Lord's word. In a generation where to do so is very, very unusual. Indeed, that is what we look at today in John chapter 8. We've already read from verses 21 through 32.

I would like to continue reading in this eighth chapter of John and make some comments. I actually read through verse 36, so I'd like to pick up with verse 37 of John chapter 8 and make some comments on the encounter between the Lord and these who, as you recall from the reading, Jesus had been speaking about who He is and how if we do not believe that He is the I Am, when He says, I am He, that we will die in our sins.

And when He says this, verse 30 tells us, as He spoke these words, many believed in Him. But let me point something out to you, that the word believed in the original language that is used here is not the normal word used in the Gospel of John of an ongoing belief.

Instead, it's a different form of the word that refers to just a point action, a brief belief. And we see that this is important because these very same people who say they believe in Him, as soon as Jesus begins to bring His Gospel to bear upon them, as soon as He says, you shall know the truth, the truth shall make you free.

Notice what their response was. Their response was, free? Make us free? We've never been enslaved to anyone. Actually, these people were at this very point in time enslaved. They were under the heel of the Roman Empire.

Any Roman soldier that came along and said, you, pick up my pack and carry it, they had to stop what they were doing and pick up their pack and carry it for a mile. That was the law. They had no freedom at this time at all.

But as soon as Jesus brings that message to bear upon them, these people who in verse 30 say they believe, watch what they're doing by verse 59. Let's read the rest of this section beginning in verse 37.

I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have seen with your father. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father.

Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.

Then they said to him, we were not born of fornication. We have one father, God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of myself, but he sent me.

Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to my word. Literally, it's to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

He who is of God hears God's words. Therefore, you do not hear, because you are not of God. Then the Jews answered and said to him, Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me.

And I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death. Then the Jews said to him, Now we know that you have a demon.

Abraham is dead, and the prophets. And you say, If anyone keeps my word, he shall never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do you make yourself out to be?

Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you.

But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then the Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

Then they took up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going into the midst of them. And so passed by. Here we have an encounter between the Lord and would-be disciples.

The Nature of True Saving Faith

And I like to speak on this text because we live in a day where there are many would-be disciples. There are many who like to say the name of Jesus. They like to claim the name of Jesus. But like these people, they want to edit Jesus down to something that's a little bit more comfortable for them.

They want to have a Jesus that is not as demanding as the Jesus of the Bible. They want to have a Jesus that's a little bit more like me. A lesser Jesus. That's what they want. Now, if Jesus wanted disciples like that, then he did not handle this situation well.

Instead, he seems to do everything he can to press his truth upon them to expose their false discipleship. He does not allow them to continue on comfortably believing something less than the truth about him.

He seems to go out of his way to make sure that they understand who he is. Especially on the very points where they don't want to believe what he's saying about himself. So much so that in verse 30, you have people who believe in him.

In verse 59, they're picking up stones to stone him as a blasphemer. What has happened? What has changed in between those two verses? That's what I'd like us to think about this morning because there is grave danger, I think, in the sin of false profession.

Grave danger amongst those who would say, well, yes, I think I sort of believe in that Jesus. That's not saving faith. We don't sort of believe. We either cast ourselves completely upon him or we are not believing in him at all.

And the Lord Jesus, over and over again, read John chapter 8, hear John chapter 6, John chapter 8, John chapter 10. Jesus does not leave people in doubt about who he is, even when it results in some of them rejecting him.

False profession. What a terrible danger it is for someone to say, oh, yes, I believe in Jesus. And then you start pressing, you start asking, and they start expressing the fact that they really have no saving faith in Christ at all.

What a terrible thing it is to sit under the sound of the gospel and yet go into eternity not knowing who Jesus Christ is, not having faith in him. But look at what happens. Once Jesus has revealed who he is, and I'm going to spend some more time this evening, if you have the opportunity of being here this evening, I want to go through this self-revelation of Jesus, where he uses this phrase, I am.

He says, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. What does that mean? I think it's important for Christians to understand Jesus' own revelation about who he is. But leaving that aside for the moment, he has pressed forward upon the people his claims.

And when he says this, many believe in him. But as I said, it is a surface level faith. It is not an ongoing faith. It's the same kind of faith you saw back in John chapter two, where there are people who saw Jesus works and miracles, and they're very impressed by those miracles.

And yet it says they had the same kind of faith, not an ongoing faith, but they had this positive reaction to him. But interestingly enough, the scriptures say that Jesus did not entrust himself to them.

It's literally he did not believe to them because he knew what was in the heart of man. There are many people who in a flush of emotion say, I believe. But true and saving faith is the work of the spirit of God in the heart of the man or the woman.

And that saving faith abides. That saving faith is not just a emotional excitement, but it is a faith that continues on even after the emotional excitement has subsided. And so Jesus specifically speaks to those who had believed.

And he says to them, if you continue my word, then you're my disciples. Indeed, you shall know the truth and then become the most offensive word, the most offensive word. You want to know if a true work of grace has been done in someone's heart.

They will confess that it was God and God alone who set them free. A heart that does not recognize its own slavery to sin. A heart that does not recognize that we were totally helpless before a holy God.

It's a heart that has yet been touched to be touched by the Holy Spirit. There are so many who sit in pews today, still confident in their own self-righteousness. And what a dangerous place that is to be.

But Jesus says, you should know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And immediately there is a response. Immediately there is a demonstration that these people have not truly believed. They have not truly seen who Jesus is or their need of him.

Many in our society are willing to sort of attack Jesus on as a self-help methodology. Sort of a way to help improve yourself. Well, my life isn't going real well. I seem to have made many bad decisions.

And so maybe I'll try this Jesus thing for a while. That's not Christianity. And these people, I like what he's saying. I like how he's speaking. So I'll believe in him. And then he presses his truth upon them and says, you shall be set free.

What do you mean set free? They're offended. They're offended at this idea that they are slaves to sin. Jesus explains, he who commits sin is the slave of sin. It takes you into its grasp. It takes you into its control.

These people don't like what they hear. They don't like when the fullness of the gospel is proclaimed to them. There is rebellion. And immediately self-righteousness exposes itself. Because notice what they say in verse 37.

What Jesus said in verse 37. I know that you are Abraham's seed. These people were very proud of their religious heritage. They thought that, well, I'm related to Abraham. And Abraham was a friend of God.

And therefore, since Abraham was a friend of God, then I must be the friend of God as well. God looks more kindly upon me because of my race. Because of my genetics. That was one of the major problems that the people of that day had.

And Jesus' response is, I know that you're Abraham's seed. But that really doesn't matter. Unless you do what Abraham did. Unless you believe what Abraham believed. It matters not what your relationship to him is.

I know you're Abraham's seed. And yet, in your heart, you have hatred toward one who has spoken the truth to you. Abraham was not like that. So you can claim all the genetic relationship you want. If it doesn't result in a changed heart and a changed mind toward God, it makes no difference.

The same thing is true with us today. Many young people pride themselves on, well, you know, my parents were good churchgoers. My parents knew about Jesus. Well, that's good for your parents. But it doesn't change your heart.

What about your beliefs? What about your relationship to Jesus Christ? Have you bowed the knee before Him? Your parents cannot bow the knee before Christ for you. That must be something that you do yourself.

You cannot say, well, my people or my nation. There is no way that someone else can make your relationship right with God just simply because their relationship is right with God. Abraham, yes, he's a friend of God.

That doesn't mean that every single one of his offspring are going to walk in his footsteps. One of the grave dangers that has afflicted the church down through the ages, the development of this idea, I think we can look across your own land.

You can look across Europe, and you can see the danger of genealogical Christianity. That's not how the Holy Spirit works. It results in a dead externalism, and churches that these days are either boarded up or have been turned into hotels or places of entertainment.

That is not how the faith is passed on. Jesus knows what is in the hearts of these men. And so He begins to draw a contrast. It's a stark contrast that, let's face it, doesn't go over real well in our society today, does it?

Jesus doesn't say, well, you know, you have your opinion, and I have my opinion, and they're just opinions after all, and all opinions are equal to all other opinions. Isn't that how our society thinks today?

What foolishness. We don't live that way. I mean, when you go to the doctor, you want to make sure that the doctor, the physician, that his opinion is better than your auto mechanic's opinion in regards to why you're sick, in regards to what medicines you should take.

Not all opinions are equal opinions. We recognize that when it comes to medicine. We recognize that when it comes to science and how our automobile works, wherever else it might be. When it comes to religion, oh, well, that, all opinions are the same.

What's the only way that could be true? The only way that could be true is if there is no absolute truth. If God has not spoken, He has not revealed His truth, then all opinions would be the same because there is no truth by which an opinion can be judged.

But if, in reality, God has spoken, then all opinions are not the same. They're not equal. And Jesus' response to these men, yes, I realize that our society today is offensive to people because Jesus says, you are of your father the devil.

You want to do his desires. He is a liar from the beginning. That's why you bring false charges against me. And you want to kill a man who's told you the truth. But sadly, the history of this world demonstrates the truth of Jesus' words, does it not?

Look at even this day. This day, around this globe, there are believers in every country, speaking every language, and yet many of them suffer this day. I wrote just a few weeks ago, actually I think it was only last week that I think about it, about a man in Africa who was killed because he had converted to Christianity.

He was murdered. And this day, there are fellowships meeting where there are women and their husbands are in prison. Why? Because they will not deny the name of Christ. There are men and their wives are in prison because they will not deny the name of Christ.

Christians suffer around this world, and what's the primary reason they do so? Because of what Jesus says here. I am a man who has spoken the truth to you, and you want to kill me because I have done so.

Jesus will later on in this gospel say, do not be amazed that the world will hate you for this hated name. When we testify concerning the truth about the world, the world in its rebellion does not want to hear that testament.

And so Jesus says to these men, you may make certain claims, you may make certain religious claims, but when the truth comes to you, you respond in such a fashion as to demonstrate that you do not love the truth.

You are of your father, the devil, who was a liar from the beginning. And then notice what it says in verse 43. Notice these words, but don't let our traditions change these words as you hear them. Why do you not understand my speech?

Why do you not understand what I am saying to you? It is because you are not able, and the Greek word is to hear, you are not able to hear my word. What do you mean? They can certainly hear the sound waves coming forth from his mouth.

Follow sometime when you have the opportunity the word hear through the gospel of John. It is one of the themes that he weaves into the text. And he explains to us that there are those who need to have ears to hear.

There are those who hear, but they don't hear. And what Jesus says to these men, why don't you understand what I am saying to you? Because you cannot hear my word. And then look at verse 47, the one who is of God, the one who belongs to God, hears, responds to God's words.

You don't listen, you don't respond, you don't hear. Because you are not of God, you do not belong to God. See, in our society today, most people would turn that on its head. Many Christians reading this text, it's like they're wearing tradition glasses that move the words around on the page.

And they would look at verse 47 and say, well, you know, you don't hear because you choose not to. Everyone has the capacity to do so. You just don't choose. But Jesus says the one who belongs to God, he's the one who hears God's words.

The reason you don't hear, because you don't belong to God. These individuals are standing in front of the greatest preacher that has ever walked this earth. He is the incarnate Son of God. According to the book of Colossians, he's the one who gives you every breath that you breathe.

Every beat of your heart comes from his hand. That's why you can never be neutral about Jesus. You can't be neutral about the one who gives you your every breath. From whom you borrow every beat of your heart.

You can't be neutral about him. And that's the one who says in this text, the one who hears me, because I belong to God. In our society, we hear that and we go, no, no. It's just because everyone has the ability.

God's just waiting on me. You ever wonder why there's all those warnings in scripture? Don't let this opportunity pass by. Now is the day of salvation because you can't guarantee what's going to happen tomorrow.

Now when God calls to you, when Christ is offered to you, is the time to embrace him. Then it gets downright nasty at this point because for a Jewish person to say, aren't we correct in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?

To call someone a Samaritan was a real insult. The Samaritans were half-breeds. The Samaritans were the result of when the Assyrians came in. One of the things they tried to do to sort of dilute the possibility of rebellion was they would have people intermarry in the context of the defeated people.

And the Samaritans were the result of this. And so the purebred Jews looked at the Samaritans as not only traitors but less than themselves. And we see the results of this for example in John chapter 4 when the disciples were amazed that Jesus was talking to a Samaritan woman.

He broke down those stereotypes. And so they become insulting. You have a demon. You're a Samaritan. And Jesus' response is, I do not have a demon. I honor my father and yet you dishonor me. Jesus said earlier in John chapter 5, said that man must honor the son even as they honor the father.

Words that no mere prophet could ever say. How many times does Jesus say things that are just completely beyond what any mere creature would ever say? But notice what Jesus does. He says, I tell you the solemn truth.

Anyone who obeys my words, he will never see death. Verse 51. Truly, truly I say to you, I testify. He calls them his words. Anyone who believes what he says, keeps his words, will never taste or see death.

What a promise. What a promise. And he doesn't limit this to just that context. These are words for us today. Anyone who will believe in him, will never see death. And they don't understand. They're not listening.

They're not hearing. Just as we will see in John chapter 11 when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Even though these people, the Pharisees, believed in the resurrection. They believed there was a day coming when the dead would be raised up.

For them, that was always just in the future. They didn't see their own spiritual death. They only saw the physical death at the end of life, and then there would be the resurrection to come. But Jesus is talking about something different.

He's talking about spiritual realities. And even though, yes, he raises Lazarus to physical life again, Lazarus is not still with us, is he? Lazarus died again. But it is spiritual resurrection. It is spiritual life that is in view.

And so when Jesus says, if anyone keeps my words, he will never taste death. He's talking about spiritual life. The life that no one in this world can ever touch, can ever take from us. The Jewish response is to be expected.

They want to get stronger. Who do you make yourself out to be? And that really is a question that we have to answer as well. Who is this Jesus? Is this Jesus just the do-good Galilean prophet so commonly taught in many churches today?

He doesn't really ask anything of you. He makes no demands of you. You can take him or leave him, whatever. You can take parts of him, leave other parts off, whatever you're comfortable with. The designer Jesus.

That's not the Jesus that we find in the New Testament. So many places Jesus could have avoided the end of this chapter. So many times he could have avoided the conflict. But you see, even though our society tells us, avoid conflict at all costs.

Never offend anyone. Offense is the unpardonable sin. Our society has forgotten something called truth. But there is something called truth. Truth is value. And that to not love the truth is to not love the one who is the author and source of truth.

How many times do we worry about offending God? Offending God because we do not honor his truth. Jesus cannot follow the modern paradigm of avoiding offense at all costs. Nowhere does Jesus here stop and say, Oh, you don't understand me.

You're taking me all wrong. I'm not planning to be greater than Abraham or the prophets. Can't we all just get along? He doesn't do that. They are being led inevitably to a recognition of who he is. And so the conversation goes on.

Abraham died. The prophets died. How can you say that the one who believes your words will never die? Jesus' response then is very clear. It says your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Verse 56. He saw it and was glad.

How could Abraham see Jesus' day? Well, we don't have time this morning, but I'd suggest that you look at John chapter 12. At the very end of Jesus' public ministry, there's this incident where the gospel writer tells us in verses 39 through 41 that Isaiah saw Jesus and spoke about him.

And if you look back at the text that the gospel writer is quoting, it's from Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1, where Isaiah saw Yahweh himself sitting upon the throne. When you ask Isaiah, Isaiah, who did you see sitting upon the throne?

I saw God. You ask John, who did Isaiah see sitting upon the throne? His answer is Jesus, the pre-incarnate Son. And so Abraham saw his day because Abraham walked with Yahweh. He knew who he was. He saw his day and rejoiced.

And so they recognize that there's something going on here, and so they say, you're not yet 50 years old, and you have seen Abraham? Jesus' response is brave, straightforward, and uncompromising. I solemnly testify to you, truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham came into existence, I am.

It uses the very words that are used in the name of God in the Old Testament. They understand, they see, they grasp, and what is the penalty for blasphemy? Stoned. And so they pick up stones to cast one.

Remember, these are the same people who believed. But once Jesus has pressed the gospel, you need to be set free. And pressed who he is, I am the I am upon them. What's their response? They reject. It will not happen.

True Disciples Know and Confess the Lord Jesus Christ

And so I say to you this morning, when we speak of faith in Jesus Christ, we are speaking of true, repentant faith in the true and living Jesus Christ. You may say, you know, you could have a much larger congregation if you just weren't so dogmatic.

If you just weren't so insistent about people knowing the truth about Jesus, why don't you just sort of let people, you know, come up with their own Jesus? That's very popular these days, isn't it? Spiritualism all around.

He walks every page, and on these pages he exhorts us, we need to know who he is. We do not want to be in the position of these who claim faith and then the truth is presented to them. Rejected that truth.

So much so, that in anger and hatred they would pick up stones to stone the very sinless Son of God. This is not the only place where this happens. It is a reoccurring theme in the gospel. Jesus wants true disciples.

And the only way to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ is to know him, for who he truly is. Don't try to edit him down to fit what you desire. Instead, by God's Spirit, we pray that we will all bow the knee to the one true and living Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. Indeed, it is in the name of that living Lord Jesus Christ that we come before you, Father, and once again ask that by your Spirit you would work that miracle, where you would take your word and you would cause it to come alive in the hearts and minds of your people.

And Father, if there be any here this day who have not bowed the knee to the Creator, to the one who eternally existed, through whom all things were made, and yet, out of his great love, condescended to enter into humanity as Jesus Christ, that you would reveal the glory of Jesus Christ even now to that person, that you would open the eyes, that you would grant spiritual life, faith and repentance.

You draw your people unto yourself. For those here that already know you, may they be encouraged, once again, to stand firm in the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And may these truths guide us as we seek to serve you in this coming week, we pray in Christ's name.