John

[0:00] The eighth chapter in John's Gospel and verse 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.

[0:22] If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. We are not to read into this word that proposition that is put by some, that it is the continuing in his word that makes us disciples.

[0:57] If we read this portion very carefully, we notice that the Lord Jesus does not deceive as to the hardness of the way, the difficulties that stand before those who would follow him.

[1:32] And also he does not hide unto them, hide from them, the difficulties that their natural mind and reason, and even their upbringing, can cause them when faced with the truth.

[2:02] And he says, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And while he never deceived them in respect of the hardness of the way, the difficulties that were before them, he never allowed them to deceive themselves that they were followers when they were not.

[2:28] There is one thing certain, that when confronted with the truth, that which is of God rejoices.

[2:48] That which is not bridles and objects and rebels. You see, there is not only a believing in the sense that they nod their head, or are taken up with the outward things, such as the miracles.

[3:16] But we have to prove, as these people soon proved, when he spoke unto them the truth, that which was of their own nature, rose up against the very things that he said.

[3:38] And it is for this reason that he says, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.

[3:50] the truth that is spoken, the truth of the way that he sets before them, all the truths that he speaks, will but confirm that they are his disciples by the effect that it has upon them.

[4:13] As we read the remainder of this chapter, we see that very soon, these to whom he spoke, bridled, because he said, The truth shall make you free.

[4:32] They said, We be Abraham's seed, and we're never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou? Ye shall be made free. They didn't like to feel that they were viewed and declared to be servants, bondsmen, slaves.

[4:51] Their old nature rose up against it. And they understood not the meaning of his words, because the Lord said unto them, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

[5:08] This word, continue, would set before us that thought that there must be a previous possession.

[5:27] You can't continue in something if you've never begun. And if we are begun in the way of life, it is the consequence that God himself hath dropped the word of life into us, because by his word we are begotten.

[5:55] and being begotten, we continue in his word. We don't leave it and go somewhere else and begin on something else.

[6:10] The life that is by his word, we continue in it. perhaps if we make this one observation, if a man prepares a field intending to sow in it a good seed, he does all that his wisdom and knowledge suggests, and when the time is ripe, he sows the seed.

[6:53] He would be said to be foolish if he merely spread stones in the field. I'm sure that we all know by experience if you put a stone and leave a stone any length of time, very soon from beneath it come the worms, the creeping things, the unseemly things, and the stone is but the same.

[7:30] It's the hiding place and the breeding place of worms and creeping things. But if a man plants seed, good seed, into a prepared field, the action of the earth and the sun and the rain causes it to take root.

[7:58] And if the Lord has dropped that word into our souls, it will take root. It isn't a stone.

[8:09] it is the word of life. And the Lord has prepared the heart. And the Lord gives all that is needful, both in warmth and in rain, to cause it to grow.

[8:28] He will not let it die. glory. And if we have that begetting word within us, it takes root, it takes hold upon us.

[8:45] And like the roots of a plant, it spreads. Its influence is spread. and they grow stronger as the plant is nourished.

[9:01] But not only does it put down roots ultimately, it puts forth and puts out shoots and evidences, so that that which has been done, hidden, from all sight is made manifest here a little and there a little.

[9:22] If you look back, is this your experience? Has the Lord dropped a word into your heart, which like the psalmist you can say, remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope?

[9:46] Because there are the evidences of the hold that that word has taken upon your soul and spirit, for it has caused hope to shoot forth, and hope doesn't shoot forth except there is a root, and except it hath grown.

[10:09] You may say, but my hopes are so feeble, those feeble desires, those wishes so weak, so weak, tis Jesus inspires, and bids thee still seek.

[10:32] Must you be a great tree in the sight of all other men, or can you be content to be a single stalk that brings forth fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred fold, or do you say, if I can't bring forth a hundred fold, I won't be anything.

[11:05] Well, I believe that where the Lord hath quickened by his word, that word takes root, its influence is spread, it grows, and ultimately there are outward evidences.

[11:33] Let me just mention one word here. the Lord has said, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?

[11:57] Now, there was a time when, like you, I'd heard that word many, many times, it was very familiar. And yet, while it was a solemn word, and we recognize the solemnity of it, there was no evidence that it was other than a stone, for it brought forth no evidence, it did not take hold.

[12:34] but in the fullness of God's purposes, I believe that that word, as it were, germinated.

[12:55] So that instead of repeating it, without feeling, without understanding, without sense, without effect, it was as though that very word spoke from within.

[13:16] It wasn't merely a question of repeating words, it was a question of knowledge, and understanding, and sense given, so that all that was within me, found an agreement with that which God hath said, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

[13:46] And I believe the truths that the Lord gives unto his people speak from within them, and they have their effect upon their conversation, and I don't mean the public conversation necessarily, but those private conversations particularly with him.

[14:14] sometimes the knowledge of the truth of that word has brought us into very low places, and I believe one of the consequences of its speaking from within has caused many to cry out, and the apostle knew himself the same very things, for he said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death.

[15:06] You know, it's not possible to say those words, from within, except the Lord hath begotten us into newness of life.

[15:20] We can say them with the tongue, we can utter them with the voice, but when they speak from within, it is a consequence that he hath begotten us by his word.

[15:36] word, now if the Lord hath begotten us by his word, then we continue in it.

[15:49] Dear friend, if you have said before you two things, and one is proved to be the truth, and another is proved to be a lie, having the truth, shall you then turn to a lie?

[16:08] are we tempted oftentimes, Satan comes with many wiles, and not only are there Satan's wiles, but there are many difficulties in the way.

[16:30] I want to remind you of Jehoshaphat in the book of Chronicles, the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and the children of Mount Seir, had come against Jehoshaphat to battle, and they were a great multitude, and Israel, Judah, was in no way able to withstand them, and they were terrified when they saw the multitude that opposed them, and there were many things hard to be understood, and Jehoshaphat stood in the court of the Lord, and we read that all Judah and Jerusalem came together with their wives and with their little ones, peace, such great fear was upon the whole people, how pleasant it would be, and I mean that in a right sense, and without any sense of criticism, no personal reference, but how pleasant it would be if in this solemn day the Lord should cause and move the hearts of the people of this nation to come with their wives and their little ones to the courts of the Lord to bid him undertake for them, and why is it not so?

[18:29] Why don't they continue in his word? Well, the Lord tells us very, very plainly, ye have not my word, nor my father's word.

[18:50] These are very solemn things, awful things, and yet the Lord doesn't hide or delude any to whom he speaks.

[19:06] Now, one of the most difficult things that Judah and Jerusalem had to face was this. when Jehoshaphat prayed before the Lord, he said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven?

[19:38] Now, I wonder how many times you and I have both read and perhaps repeated, our father, which art in heaven.

[19:52] And I wonder how many times we've heard and again perhaps repeated, and I will be a father unto them, and they shall be my sons and my daughters.

[20:07] Now, do you really believe that? And if you continue in that word, shall you not go with Jehoshaphat and Judah and Jerusalem and remind him, O Lord God of our fathers, art thou not God in heaven?

[20:33] And rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hands is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

[20:46] Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever?

[21:00] And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein, for thy name, saying, if, when evil cometh upon us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.

[21:29] Now consider how many of those things you have heard, and known, and repeated, and we might say believed, but do we continue in the word?

[21:49] Is our believing a true believing according to that which the Lord says? We say very often all things are ordered.

[22:06] In other words, all power is in his hand, and yet we begin to use our own. And very often it's the first thing that we do when we come into difficulty, when there's a trial, when there's affliction.

[22:27] But if we continue in his word, we shall take it to the Lord in prayer. We have the example of those that have gone before.

[22:38] If the matter is too hard for thee, bring it unto me. There are those matters that are too hard for us.

[22:50] We cannot fight and overcome Satan. And if the matter is too hard and we feel the heat and the burden and the trial, and the power of the enemy, shall we faint?

[23:06] Shall we run away? Shall we go over unto the enemy? Or shall we bring it to the Lord? Now there was another thing that it was hard to understand.

[23:22] man. And Jehoshaphat said, And now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and destroyed them not.

[23:44] And that was God's word unto Israel. people. And Jehoshaphat said, Behold, I say, how they reward us to come to cast us out of thy possession which thou has given us to inherit.

[24:03] And there are many circumstances in our lives and in our pathway that are comparable to that. There are many, many times that we seem to do and try to do that which is good and right according to God's word.

[24:20] And we seem to be ill-rewarded for it. And it causes us great distress, distress of mind and of heart. And Satan uses these very things to tempt us, to draw us aside, to be brought out of the way, so that we shall not continue, but use our own devices, follow our own persuasions, or suppose that the Lord taketh no knowledge of us.

[24:57] You know that in Isaiah the prophet said, speaking of Israel, why sayest thou, O Jacob, my way is hid from the Lord?

[25:10] It isn't hid from the Lord. His eye is upon all, and upon all them that fear him.

[25:21] And his love both upholds them and overshadows them. And no matter how things and circumstances may appear, no matter what fears your heart knows, there can be no alteration or change in him.

[25:44] He says, I will not alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth. So when Jehoshaphat had prayed unto the Lord, this is what he said, and perhaps it's one of the most well known in this particular record.

[26:05] O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee.

[26:24] Now I believe we have there, and in those circumstances and that prayer, a continuing in his word. in other words, a believing continually, a trusting and a committing unto his word.

[26:46] Now the Lord spoke by the prophet unto the people and bid them not to be dismayed, but that on the following day they should go down.

[27:00] And this is what the Lord says, ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you.

[27:12] O Judah and Jerusalem, fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you. dear friend, do we go out from day to day in that confidence that the Lord will be with you?

[27:39] And not only in the things that pertain unto this life, but each and every day that lies ahead, is it with the confidence that the Lord will fight our battle, that Satan and all the powers of sin and hell shall not have the victory, for they are conquered by his blood and by his death and resurrection.

[28:12] Now if we continue in his word, we shall be in no way overawed and overwhelmed by the power, the frightening power, or the subtle allurements of Satan.

[28:29] Though we may fear, though we may tremble, yet we shall pray and we shall trust and if the Lord says go, we shall go.

[28:40] Now on the following morning we read that they went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established.

[29:14] Oh what sound advice that is. What seasonable words they were to Judah and to Jerusalem. Just as sound to you and me, just as seasonable in the day in which we live and the circumstances in which we live, just as seasonable when because of Satan's power and influences, not only in the world but in our own hearts, cause us to wonder whether we are his or whether we are not.

[29:55] You know, through the ages, this has ever been the ploy of Satan, to bring and cause doubts as to whether we are the Lord's or not.

[30:13] He comes and he suggests that if we were, then our evidences would be clear and strong. If we were, we should know that contemptment, that assurance, and that continual comfort.

[30:31] comfort. And he suggests that if we were his, our love would burn bright every day. And we should have the satisfaction of these things in our own hearts and understanding.

[30:47] And nothing would trouble us then. But you know, it isn't a matter of whether our love burns bright continually that is the measure of salvation.

[31:14] Our salvation is in this. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness have I drawn thee.

[31:29] And if we continue in that word, we shall believe upon the Lord our God, and so shall we be established.

[31:42] Establishment isn't in what you feel, but in what God has said and what God has done. Our foundation is not according to our capacity to receive and to understand.

[32:00] The foundation that God has laid is Christ. Christ. And he declares him to be elect, precious, tried, and that whosoever believeth on him shall never be confounded.

[32:27] Our foundation lies upon the disposition of God's heart unto sinners in the covenant of grace. Not upon what we feel, not upon what we can understand, but upon what he is.

[32:49] Now when Jehoshaphat said to Israel, believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established, it appeared that their very existence nations as a nation in this land was threatened.

[33:08] It seems as though all the benefits and the blessings that the Lord had both promised and given unto them were in danger of being taken away. They had no strength and no power in themselves to prevent it.

[33:23] and they were likely to be turned out of their homes, made refugees, killed, made slaves.

[33:43] Possibly the last thing that they could understand was that as a consequence of these evidences before their eyes, that they should be more firmly established as a consequence of the day that lay ahead of them.

[34:00] And yet it was so. This great multitude that could have slain them all and turned them out of their inheritance, taken all their blessing as a consequence of the Lord's dealings, that day.

[34:23] All the nations round about heard that the Lord fought for Judah and Jerusalem. And he gave them peace.

[34:36] As a consequence of that fear of the Lord upon the other nations, they left Israel, they left Judah in peace. And Jehoi had reigned his reign in quietness.

[34:50] the people were established, the kingdom was established, the prosperity of the land increased, and the people were more greatly blessed.

[35:04] blessed. Now what is it to be established spiritually? Well, the Lord speaks very, very personally to some and he says, oh, thou afflicted, tossed with tempers, and not comforted.

[35:27] that would seem to describe one that, like Judah in that day, was not certain of anything in the days that lie ahead.

[35:47] No ground of confidence that they should live in peace, and enjoy the blessings and the prosperity that were promised in the covenant.

[36:01] But think of what the Lord says, I will lay thy foundation with sapphires. love. Oh, what a wonderful word if the Lord apply it with power and sweetness to our heart, to rest upon, to be established upon, to live upon, to die upon.

[36:33] You see, to have a word as the psalmist had, that he could come and plead and say, remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope.

[36:45] It was the ground of every hope and every aspiration, every expectation, the word of God. And the Lord says, if ye continue in my word, hold fast.

[37:04] You know when he spoke to the churches from heaven by the apostle John, so many times, hold fast that which thou hast received.

[37:19] And how prone we are to leave those things at the first sign of trouble and begin to look around instead of looking unto the Lord.

[37:33] Jehoshaphat was an example for every one of us. He didn't merely make a pretense.

[37:45] He put all his fears into words, the things that he couldn't understand, the promises, the understanding, the knowledge that he had of God and his relationship with his people.

[37:58] he brought all these forward and then he put the matter in the Lord's hand. And I trust that these sound words of Jehoshaphat might be an encouragement to us.

[38:19] For surely they are at one with those things that the Lord Jesus himself spoke. If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.

[38:38] Disciples are those who learn and follow the example of. And did not our Lord in all things both delight in and were subject to the word of the Father?

[39:00] Now if we continue then it is manifest that we are his disciples indeed.

[39:11] Well may we walk this way and with joy and with willingness. May he add his blessing. 890 tune 71 890 tune 71 890 tune 71 a wondrous wine there is none can it with compare creating most exalted bliss which God and man will cheer 890 share.

[40:19] Him nucleus The power of peace which God and man will cheer.

[40:31] It is the Lord, O Lord, that precious love divine, which gives the joy to the world and grace the grace that shines.

[41:02] The river's glory stays, and guidance that you stand.

[41:17] And when the heart of ease concerning one riesоту may define, it is the glory of truth Oh