FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, PART 3 (31 OF 75)
by Mike Stone
Scripture: John 8:51-59
This content is part of a series.
Free at Last, Free at Last, Part 3 (31 of 75)
Series: The Gospel of John
Mike Stone
John 8:51-59
2 weeks ago, we began a study of this section of Scripture and we have been taking our time. It’s been a sort of series within a series.
I heard about a man getting up in the middle of a sermon to leave church. His wife asked him, “Where are you going?” He said, “I’m leaving church to get a haircut.” She asked, “Why didn’t you get a haircut before church started?” He replied, “I didn’t need a haircut when church started.”
Well, from verse 30 through the end of the chapter we find a case study in people who believe in their head but not in their heart. Although some perhaps did sincerely believe, most were only temporary pretenders. They fooled others, even themselves, but they didn’t fool Jesus.
We’ve noted that in that way they are not unlike the hundreds of people who’ve “walked the aisle” in Baptist churches.
R. Kent Hughes comments on this passage and writes of how, “They were following their father the devil and their lives were characterized by deceit.” And he rightly states that for all their deceit, “The ultimate deception is to imagine you are a child of God when you are not.”
In pointing out why they were insincere, Jesus simultaneously reveals 3 ways to know you are really free and truly saved. That’s the purpose of a sermon or even a min-series calling us to examine our faith.
2 Peter 1:10 challenges us to make our “calling and election sure.”
2 Corinthians 13:5 admonishes us to “examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.”
If an emphasis like this causes you to wrestle with your own life, examining its ups and lows, scrutinizing your spiritual successes and failures, laying your life up beside the Word of God to see if you are really saved…that’s not a bad thing. In fact, that’s a very good thing. SO much so that I am intentionally slowing the pace and reviewing the material from the last several weeks.
I recognize ...
Series: The Gospel of John
Mike Stone
John 8:51-59
2 weeks ago, we began a study of this section of Scripture and we have been taking our time. It’s been a sort of series within a series.
I heard about a man getting up in the middle of a sermon to leave church. His wife asked him, “Where are you going?” He said, “I’m leaving church to get a haircut.” She asked, “Why didn’t you get a haircut before church started?” He replied, “I didn’t need a haircut when church started.”
Well, from verse 30 through the end of the chapter we find a case study in people who believe in their head but not in their heart. Although some perhaps did sincerely believe, most were only temporary pretenders. They fooled others, even themselves, but they didn’t fool Jesus.
We’ve noted that in that way they are not unlike the hundreds of people who’ve “walked the aisle” in Baptist churches.
R. Kent Hughes comments on this passage and writes of how, “They were following their father the devil and their lives were characterized by deceit.” And he rightly states that for all their deceit, “The ultimate deception is to imagine you are a child of God when you are not.”
In pointing out why they were insincere, Jesus simultaneously reveals 3 ways to know you are really free and truly saved. That’s the purpose of a sermon or even a min-series calling us to examine our faith.
2 Peter 1:10 challenges us to make our “calling and election sure.”
2 Corinthians 13:5 admonishes us to “examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.”
If an emphasis like this causes you to wrestle with your own life, examining its ups and lows, scrutinizing your spiritual successes and failures, laying your life up beside the Word of God to see if you are really saved…that’s not a bad thing. In fact, that’s a very good thing. SO much so that I am intentionally slowing the pace and reviewing the material from the last several weeks.
I recognize ...
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