John, pt. 48 | John 8:31-32

The Call to Study John 8:31-32 and the Prayer for Help

If you will, at this time, take your copy of the scriptures. We will consider John chapter 8, verses 31 through 32. John chapter 8, verses 31 through 32. And this is our 48th message in this gospel.

Let me pray.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, we ask that you will fulfill the task that I am incapable of doing. Although I can read the words and recall to mind the things that I have learned, I cannot convict and I cannot sustain.

Lord, we, your people, need you to convict us of sin and righteousness, as well as to sustain us, Lord. Lord, help us to see the ever-pressing need of relying upon you and not of ourselves. And Lord, I cannot do this.

Please, by your Spirit, speak through me into the hearts of your people, whether they are here or listening online. We seek Christ. In his name we pray, amen. All right, so let's begin with the text, John chapter 8, verse 31 and 32.

Freedom in Christ and the Meaning of Abiding

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciple, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Our proposition for this Lord's day, those that abide in Christ are those that never.

Walk in darkness.

It is that because the theme is freedom in Christ. Freedom in Christ, and this will be part one. Again, our proposition, those that abide in Christ are those that never walk in darkness because of the freedom that we have in Christ.

The problem with the church today, that is church Catholic, right? This is universal, every one of us. For the most part, the people who claim Christianity, who claim to be Christians, who our churches are filled with these kind of people, are not abiding in Christ.

Now this is not something that's new to us. This is the way it's always been, sadly. Sadly, it's always been that way concerning Christianity and the church. We are never, listen, more like Judas. Who in here wants to be like Judas?

Haps looks at his wife. We are never more like Judas than when we walk away from following the light. Remember the analogy given to us is in scripture, is of the Hebrew people following the cloud by day and the fire by night.

If that cloud is or that fire is moving to somewhere else and you decide to stay in the camp that the fire previously was, that's Judas. We're never more like Judas than when we are not following the light.

In our outline today, we're going to attempt to answer three questions from the text. Question number one, what does it look like to abide in Christ? Question number two, who are the proper subjects for abiding in Christ?

And question number three, what are the benefits of abiding in Christ? Again, question number one, what does it look like to abide in Christ? Question number two, who are the proper subjects for abiding in Christ?

In question number three. What are the benefits for abiding in Christ? Now as we transition, this is still the next day after the great day of the Feast of Booths. We're going to be in this day a while.

Like this takes up a good portion of the Gospel of John. And on this day we have seen the scribes and Pharisees bring a woman caught in the very act of adultery, right? They catch this woman, they bring her to the court of the women, the temple, the treasury, and they bring her and they throw her down or they place her, however this looks like, in the center where Jesus is teaching, hoping to catch Jesus in a trap.

Jesus reverses this and he puts it on them. You remember the story. We walk through it. Also on this day Jesus has made the claim in verse 12 to be both God and Christ. Both the eternal God and the Messiah who would come into the world.

We see this in verse 12 which says,. Then Jesus again spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will never, I mean he who follows me will never walk in the darkness. The I am statement points to God and the light points to God.

The light of the world was a prophecy of the Messiah coming into the world. By him saying this statement he is professing himself to be both God, mighty God, very God, and Christ. And last week we saw where Jesus said in verse 24, where he said that, well in verse 24, that if you don't believe him or believe in him you will die in your sins.

Look at verse 24. Therefore I say to you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. Believe he is who? The light of the world. The great I am who entered into the world as the light of the world.

Abiding in Christ Means Remaining in His Word

So question number one, what does it look like to abide in Christ? Let's look at our text, verse 31. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who believed him, if, so what do they believe? What he was speaking previously, and we'll look at that a little bit.

If you abide in my word, then, so here they have statement, then you are truly my disciples. Abiding in Jesus is being a disciple of Christ. And disciples, guess what they do? They abide in Christ. He says truly my disciples.

Look back at it. If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples. The definition for abide is to accept or to act in accordance with a rule, a decision, or recommendation. The biblical meaning to abide is to remain or to stay.

To remain or to stay where? In Christ. Wherever this light goes, you are to remain and to stay with this light. For the Hebrews walking in the wilderness, for them to abide, they had to, wherever that light went, they followed, they remained, they stayed with the light.

That cloud, that fire. To go deeper into this conversation, we will need to look at some supporting text. And we're going to be in 1 John and 2 John quite a bit today. And I would suggest if you want to know more about abiding, go and read 1, 2, and 3 John.

And then read it again. And then read it some more. And then when you're tired of reading it, read it some more. And if you have any questions, you can call Pastor Gal and he'll take care of it. But turn with me to 2 John.

Let's look at verse 9. 2 John verse 9. It says, anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ and does not have God, the one who abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

So the question is, what is he speaking about? What does he mean by going too far from the teaching? What's going too far? And so for that, we're going to read the context. But understand this is the main thing that we're looking at.

If you go too far, you are not abiding in Christ. You are letting, you are not in the light. You have not stayed. You have not remained in the light. So for that, let's begin at verse 7, and we'll read to verse 11.

John writes,. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. See to yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you receive a full reward.

If anyone goes too far, does not abide in the teaching. So what's he speaking about? That Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Does not have God. If you say that Jesus did not come in the flesh, you do not have God.

The one who abides in this teaching, that Jesus came into the flesh, has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, speaking of Jesus in the flesh, do not receive him in your house.

So right here, this could be speaking about your private home, but I believe it's more so speaking about the church community. And do not, hold on, receive him in your house and do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

So just imagine if a Jehovah Witness or a Mormon or someone who teaches a false Jesus was to come in here and we give them the right hand of fellowship. We welcome them as Christian brothers. This is what that's speaking about.

You know that they're teaching a false Christ, and yet you are fellowshipping with them in a unique Christian fellowship. If you teach or welcome someone who teaches that Jesus did not come in the flesh, you are not abiding in Christ.

And at this time in history, there was a man by the name of Serenthes who taught that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh. He taught that as Jesus was baptized, the Christ left heaven and came upon Jesus.

And when Jesus was crucified, the Christ left him and went back to heaven, meaning Jesus had an actual earthly mother and father. And that his miracles that were performed by him were done only by the Christ, not by the man.

And that when he died, the Christ left him, meaning there was no resurrection. That's what John is speaking about. When he says this has come, he particularly is speaking on Serenthes. And he calls him an antichrist.

And if you welcome someone who teaches such a thing, you are not abiding in Christ. You have left. You have, instead of staying and remaining with the light, you, like if an Israelite was to let that cloud, that fire leave, and they remained in the previous camp.

That's what you're doing. This is very serious stuff. So one way to abide in Christ is to believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Do you believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh? Well, hallelujah, you're abiding in Christ.

That's one of the ways. Gnosticism, which, listen, there's a whole lot that can be said on Gnosticism, and it's different divisions, whatever. As far as I know, men has concluded there's three. I'm just going to touch on two.

And again, I'm just, this is just in passing. Just in passing. We don't, I don't have enough time to do anything like that. Maybe one day in the Sunday school class. Gnosticism teaches that mankind.