If you have a Bible with you this morning, then please turn with me to the 8th chapter of John's Gospel. And we'll read from verse 30 to 47. John chapter 8, reading from verse 30. As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed 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. The answer to 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 them. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are 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." They answered him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works of your father." They said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God. Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your Father the devil, And your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. The Gospel of John is an extended Gospel tract, 15,635 words long. And towards the end of his Gospel, at the end of chapter 20, John gives us a very specific, particular reason why he has written this Gospel, this Good News account of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says these things have been written in order that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that by believing you may have life in His name. John is telling us that there is a very specific reason why he has penned this account of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. He has written it not merely to provide us with interesting information about Jesus. He has written it in order that he might bring us to saving faith in Jesus. From beginning to end, John has a specific target. He is seeking to bring men and women and boys and girls to see in Jesus Christ, the Savior given by God for the life of the world. But actually, throughout the gospel, there are three distinct groups that John has in mind as he pens this gospel account. of our Lord Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection. He is writing very obviously, as I said, to persuade unbelievers to put their trust alone in Jesus Christ. He's seeking to show men and women that in Jesus Christ, God has come to seek and to save the lost. He's seeking to persuade men and women. He's not writing merely to inform them. He's looking to persuade them to win the approbation of their minds and hearts. He's looking to reach beyond the surface of their lives into the very depths of their being and bring them by the power of the truth and by the ministry of the Spirit of God to bow down and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and King. But there's a second group that John is clearly writing directly towards, and that is to believers themselves. When he writes, these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. I think we have to understand him to be saying, not only am I thinking about unbelievers who do not yet believe in Jesus, I'm writing to confirm believers and to establish them the more securely, the more steadfastly in their faith in Jesus Christ as the Son given by God for the life of the world. And so the Gospel of John, while yes, it is a very directly evangelistic tract, seeking to persuade unbelievers to put their hope and trust alone in Jesus Christ, no less, I think, is John seeking to confirm and establish believers. And there are few better ways to establish believing men and women in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ than by reminding them of the great glories of Christ and the mighty acts of Christ and the saving work of Christ. We cannot hear the gospel too often. The gospel should always be a wonder of wonders to us. And nothing more nourishes our faith and enriches our faith and deepens our faith than an increasing understanding of the height, the length, the depth and the breadth of the love of God in our Savior Jesus Christ. So John is writing to persuade unbelievers. He's writing to confirm and establish believers. But there is a third group that John is clearly thinking about throughout his gospel. And it's this third group that we encounter in these verses in John chapter 8. Because not only is John seeking to persuade unbelievers and to confirm believers, he's seeking to unmask false believers. John is well aware that there is a category of men and women, boys and girls, who say they believe in Jesus Christ, but actually the truth is that they are false-hearted in their profession. And this clearly is the group that John has in mind here in this eighth chapter of his gospel. Look how verse 30 reads, as he was saying these things, many believed in him. And you would read that and be wonderfully encouraged by it. It must have seemed that the ministry of Jesus was making this remarkable impact on the crowds who were following him. Many believed in him. And then verse 31 continues. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him. This is how it seemed. And yet, as you read on, you're struck by something that sounds very strange considering what we read in verse 30 and verse 31, because Jesus says to those who had believed in him, he says to them, you are of your father, the devil. And you read that and you think, this is very strange. Is it possible that people can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and yet have the devil as their father, the one who has given them birth? Is there such a hybrid being as a believer in Jesus? who simultaneously is a child of the devil? Or is it possible to be a believer and then at some later point in your life, abandon the faith and no longer be a believer, but become a child of the devil? Well, John is doing what the New Testament regularly does. He is writing phenomenologically, not theologically. That is to say, he is writing in the sense that people are saying that they are believers. They are professing to be believers. That's the phenomena that John is writing about. They are declaring themselves to be believers. John is not actually saying they really are believers, because actually in the verses that follow, we find our Lord Jesus Christ unmasking these believers, far from being true hearted believers in Him. They were men and women who at heart were the children of the devil. And Jesus is very well aware of this mixed multitude who were making such professions of faith in him earlier on in his gospel at the end of chapter 2. John tells us that Jesus knew what was in a man. And that immediately precedes the encounter that Jesus has with Nicodemus. Jesus knew what was in a man. Chapter 3 begins, Now there was a man named Nicodemus. And John is expecting us to make the connection. Jesus knew what was in a man. He saw beyond the surface of people's lives and professions and protestations of faith. And along comes this man, Nicodemus. And John wants us to understand that this man who has come to Jesus is a man that Jesus understands. Jesus can see beyond the surface of this man's life. Jesus can penetrate into the very heart of this man's life because Jesus knew what was in a man. And far from being self-congratulatory, that multitudes were professing their faith in Him and confessing their trust in Him to be the sent one of God. Jesus pauses in the midst of the crowd's acclamation to say to the Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. Jesus is seeking to puncture the acclamations. He's seeking to probe into the heart of those men and women who were saying so volubly and so enthusiastically, it would seem, we also believe in you. You are the sent one of God. You are the long promised Messiah. They've been following Jesus for some time. Perhaps they had become greatly enamored with the character of his life and by the quality of his teaching, never man spoke like this man. He speaks with authority, not as the scribes and the Pharisees. And they will have witnessed Him doing great things, even raising the dead. And they have come to believe in Him. But Jesus knew what was in a man, what was in a woman. He could see beyond the surface to penetrate into the heart. And the last thing Jesus wants are men and women whose professions of faith are false. What Jesus is looking for are men and women who have come to see what it means truly to believe in Him as the sent one of the Heavenly Father. And so what Jesus does in verse 31 is to provide For these men and women who are professing to believe in him, he provides them with a test, with a barometer. And he says to them, if you truly are my disciples. If truly and really you have come to place your hope and trust in me alone as the sent one of God who has come into the world to seek and to save the loss. If you truly have come to abandon all self-righteousness and place your confidence before God alone and wholly and exclusively in me, then this will be true of you. You will abide or continue or remain in my word. And I want, in the time left to us this morning, is to simply ask the question, what does it mean to abide in Jesus' word and thereby show that I truly am not a false hearted professor, but a true hearted professor? And we need to know that, don't we? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We can deceive ourselves, self-deception is a reality that we are all confronted with. And we need to have this barometer, this test by which we can examine our lives. And by the grace of God, come to conclude, Lord. Truly, I am one of yours because I abide in your word. Or perhaps the conclusion may be, Lord, I doubt if I really am one of yours. Because I'm not abiding in your word. So the question I want to ask this morning is this, what does it mean to abide in Jesus word, to remain in his word, to continue in his word? and so thereby show, give evidence that I truly am one of his disciples. There are four things I want to notice with you. First of all, and very obviously from the context, to abide in Jesus' word is to believe the truth of his word. to abide in Jesus' Word is to believe and embrace the truth of His Word. And it's very striking in the verses that follow that this crowd of men and women who were professing to be believers in Jesus become unmasked because they refuse to believe the truth. of Jesus' word. Jesus says to them, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth. The truth will set you free. And that this they say, but we are Abraham's offspring. We have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it you can say you will become free? And then Jesus says, and here's the crux. Truly, truly, I say to you, Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. And these Jews become infuriated. What is this man saying? Now, if Jesus had simply said to them, you are a sinner, they would have all agreed. Don't we all? Who is perfect? God alone. But Jesus says, if you sin and sin is the practice of your life, then you are enslaved to sin. Jesus is telling them that sin is not an occasional blemish that is marring their life. Sin is a pervasive, controlling, enslaving reality that dominates our lives. And these men are infuriated. Why? Because they are men and women who think that by their racial, religious heritage, they have a standing with God. We are Abraham's children. We are the covenant people of God. Their trust was in their covenant identity. and not in the God of mercy and of grace. Their trust was in covenant privilege, not in the God who gave them their covenant privileges. And so when Jesus begins to speak into the reality of their lives, They begin inwardly to rebel against his word. Slaves to sin? Who does this man think he is? Of course we sin, don't we all? But slaves to sin? If you believe in me, you'll become free. Free? We're not enslaved to anything or anyone. They were resisting and rebelling against Jesus' Word. Now, the Word of God in its entirety is humbling. It's a humbling thing, especially if you've been raised in a religious community, in a community that confesses the living God. It's a deeply humbling thing to realize that before God, Before God, I am altogether wrong. My problem is not that there are blemishes here and blemishes there. My problem is profounder than that. That there is none righteous, no, not one. That I cannot come to God with anything. I have to come with empty hands, crying out to him for mercy. You see the same kind of thing in Luke 18 in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee prays and says, God, I thank you. I'm not like other men. I do this. I do that. I do the next thing. And this publican won't even lift up his eyes to heaven, which is the normal posture for prayer, isn't it? And he just says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I'm undone before you. I haven't a leg to stand on. Your word convicts me. It convinces me that there is no health in me from the top of my head to the sole of my foot. I'm rottenness to the core. God, have mercy on me, the sinner. The biblical doctrine of total depravity, which doesn't mean that we're as bad as we could be because God is gracious in his mercies towards us. It means that sin has infected and affected every particle of our being. It's deeply humbling. It's deeply humbling to intellectuals, to religious men and women. It's deeply humbling to have to come and acknowledge before God, I have nothing to give you. I have nothing to give you. All I can give you is my sin that I need redeemed from and rescued from. The gospel comes to humble us before it can help us. Now, something similar to this had happened earlier in John's gospel, in John chapter six. Crowds had been following Jesus. They had seen him feed the multitude and they were astonished. They wanted to come and make him king by force. And then Jesus begins to teach them about the bread of life. He tells them that they could not come to him unless the Father draws them. He tells them in chapter six, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me. And then we read, when many of his disciples heard it, his disciples, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can bear it? Who can believe it? Who can accept it? Who could listen to it? What's this man saying? That we cannot come to him unless the Father brings us to him. What kind of a doctrine is that? It's telling me that in myself, I'm helpless. I can take no steps towards God unless he comes first to take steps towards me. And after this, we read many of his disciples, his professing, believing followers. Turned back for him. And followed him no longer. They were offended by Jesus' teaching on the sovereignty of God and on human culpability before God. They were offended by his teaching. What possibly could it mean? Could he mean by saying, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me? What does that mean? This is simply all to say that to abide in Jesus' Word is to believe its truth, however humbling, however soul crushing that truth may be. And I think especially for religious men and women like this, and for many others, perhaps some here this morning, it's deeply, deeply wounding to hear from the words of the Son of God that sin has enslaved you. You may not think it has. That's its deception. You may not feel it has, but it has, says Jesus. And one of the marks of a true-hearted Christian is that we believe Jesus' word. Interesting, he doesn't say, whoever believes my words or abides in my words, but in my word, because his doctrine is a unity. It's a coherent whole. It's one of the great defining marks of a true-hearted Christian. is that they bow before and embrace heart and soul every word that God has spoken. But then secondly, to abide in Jesus' word very obviously means that we will obey its commandments. One of the great conflicts in the early church, and we read about it in the first letter of John, were people who were saying that they had become believers, that they were followers of Jesus, but they were living lightly and loosely to God's commandments. They were saying that you can be a true Christian believer and yet not really fuss about God's commandments because God forgives. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. And what a great truth that is. Let us then continue in sin that grace may abound. Let's give God all the opportunity he needs to show forth his grace because we now belong to Jesus Christ. We have already access to the forgiveness of God. And there's an almost a specious plausibility to that, isn't there? If God is rich in mercy, if he is kind to sinners, let's give him every opportunity to show forth his kindness, to demonstrate his mercy. The Apostle John writes, whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, In him truly, the love of God is perfected. Or think of the words of our Lord Jesus later on in John 14, if you love me, keep my commandments. That's what Augustine meant when someone asked him, what does it mean to be a Christian? And he says, love God and do what you like. Because when you love someone truly, your heart's desire is to please them. And what is it that pleases our God? That we delightfully, joyfully keep his commandments. That we honor his fatherhood and his saviorhood by delighting in his commandments, but having his commandments shape and style the contours of our believing lives. And so Jesus is saying to abide in my word, to continue in my word, to remain in my word will necessarily involve you in keeping that word demonstrably in your life. Not only embracing its truth, but practicing its precepts. keeping his commandments, not because we think his commandments are a ladder that we climb. And the higher we climb, the more we find our way or win our way into his affections. But his commandments become the delight of our hearts. Oh, how I love your law. They are my meditation day and night because the commandments of God are the commandments of the one who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. To abide in Jesus' word is to believe its truth. Secondly, it is to obey and keep its commandments. And thirdly, to abide in Jesus' words means to live out in our lives its transforming truth. I find it very striking in Colossians chapter 3, where Paul says, let the word of Christ dwell richly within you. Well, what happens after that? If the word of Christ is dwelling richly within me, how will that evidence itself? What does that mean for the word of the Lord to dwell richly in my life? Well, says Paul, it will mean that you will teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. When the Word of God is abiding, dwelling richly within us, it comes with a transformative power into our lives. And Paul says this transformative power will show itself in the people of God teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. One of the primary marks of someone who has truly come to believe in Jesus Christ and whose life is being impacted signally and savingly and sanctifyingly by the word of Christ, is that they are living out the life of faith in community with other believers. Recognizing that the gospel brings us not only into saving union with Jesus Christ, it brings us into corporate fellowship with the people of Jesus Christ. And we recognize we have a responsibility to one another. And so we teach and admonish one another. We don't simply let one another cavalierly go about each other's business in our own individualistic ways because we are now members of the one body of Christ. We are organically united one to the other. We are brothers and sisters in the same family. We belong to the same bride, the one bride of Jesus Christ. And, says Paul, you will teach and admonish one another. We will have a care and a concern and a love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Word of Christ as it dwells richly in us, as we abide in it, will evidence itself. transformationally in the way we look at one another and treat one another. We will look at one another and the first thing we will see is not, here is a brother and sister who is a little different from me, but here is a brother and sister in whom Jesus Christ dwells by His Spirit. I think the Christian church would be transformed overnight if we could look at one another and see in you, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory dwells. I better handle you with care. I better treat you with kindness and generosity because the Lord of glory has come to indwell you. And I think it's actually very As a Scot, I would think this very striking that he actually says, teaching and admonishing one another in wisdom, singing Psalms. I sometimes will say to my students, what's the first mark of the Spirit-filled life? And they sort of look at you. Hopefully not many of them know their Bibles as well as they should, but they look a little puzzled. What's the first mark of the Spirit-filled life, according to Paul in Ephesians 5? Be filled with the Spirit. Singing Psalms. Hymns and spiritual songs. When the word of Christ comes to indwell us richly, when we abide in that word, when our lives are sunk into the fabric, the wart and the woof, the marrow and the nourishment of that word. It will evidence itself transformingly in the way we treat one another, in the way we look at one another. And then just briefly, fourthly, to abide in Jesus word surely means in this context to continue faithfully in that word, no matter what. You and I know well enough that the great issue is not how well do you begin, but how well do you end. It's been well said that continuance is the test of reality. One of the dearest friends I have and one of the greatest Christian men I've ever known is Eric Alexander. He ministered for 40 plus years in Scotland, still alive, I think he's 88 now. Sinclair Ferguson was his assistant. He probably is the finest preacher I've ever heard. I say that because he's one of the finest men I've ever known. And I remember him many years ago telling me that a friend had taken him to hear Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel in London. Actually, Westminster Chapel called Eric Alexander after Lloyd-Jones retired, but he said, no, God's called me to stay in Scotland. But the friend who took him to Westminster Chapel knew Dr. Lloyd-Jones, and the doctor preached, and he was one of the most remarkable men. I heard him preach once in the flesh, as a very young Christian, and an hour passed like that. I was just gripped from the moment he opened his mouth. And so he preached the sermon, and there was always a lengthy queue. There would be about maybe a thousand people in the church, and there was always a queue of people waiting to talk to the doctor after the sermon to thank him. And Eric Alexander said to me, he said, Ian, as we got nearer the doctor, I realized he said the same thing to every person. The same thing, two words, go on. And as we got nearer, I was thinking, is that all the great man's got to say to these people? They've waited behind. They want to thank him for the way God has blessed their lives through his preaching. And all he says to them is, And then he said, Ian, I thought, what better thing could he say? Go on. You see, one of the great marks of true hearted faith in Jesus Christ is that by the grace of God, we go on. We may go on at times falteringly. We may go on at times having fallen badly. Isn't it a blessing that the Lord does not hide from us some of the most egregious failures of His eminent saints? To tell us that even the best of God's believing people can fall and fall badly. And maybe you're here this morning, you're thinking, well, you know, Ian, I'm looking at this and measuring my life against it and thinking, goodness me, am I a false hearted professor? If you were to read the latter verses of Romans 7, where Paul says, the good that I would, I do not, the evil that I would not, that I do. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? You'd say, well, what kind of a man is that? He's a man in Christ. He was going on, but at times he faltered. He failed. He fell. But brothers and sisters, the issue is not, are we going on falteringly? But are we going on? You know, it's not great faith. that takes you to glory. It's Jesus Christ who takes you to glory and weak faith, little faith is as attached to Jesus Christ as strong faith. That's not to excuse weak faith. That's not to say we ought not to repent of it and ask the Lord every day to increase it and develop it and strengthen it and expand it. It's not Weak faith that condemns us. It's no faith. And it's not strong faith that justifies us. It's faith, however faltering. And so Jesus says to these men and women who said they believed in him. If you really are my disciples. You will abide in my word. So, let me ask you this morning, as I ask myself, are you believing the truth of Jesus' word, however humbling? Are you obeying his commandments? Are you allowing his truth to dwell richly within you and to transform how you treat other believers in the body of Christ? And by the grace of God, are you going on? Are you going on? It's a great thing to see brothers and sisters as old as I am and older going on. We had two sisters in my congregation in Cambridge. I'll close with this. Two sisters, both in their 90s. They said, you know, Ian, they come morning and evening, every Lord's Day. One's 93, one's 91. They say, you know, we really can't do very much. And I often say to them, you just don't know how much you're doing. As these young whippersnappers students in Cambridge see ladies like yourself setting apart the Lord's Day for his worship still going on. Oh, it's a great thing. It's a great thing to see brothers and sisters in their 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s going on. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, go on. Let the word of Christ dwell richly within you, abide in that word and thereby show that you truly are his disciples. Let us pray. Lord, grant us the grace of faithfulness. May your word dwell richly, powerfully, transformingly within us. May our professions of faith be true. May our lives show that we are yours, not simply by the words that we speak. But by the way that we live, shape and style our lives, by your word, O Lord, and we ask it in our Savior's name. Amen.