Abide In The Word of The Lord

[0:00] Do you remember the setting? Jesus is in the temple. The woman was drug in front of him, accused of adultery.

[0:11] And Jesus said, if anyone's without sin, let him throw the first stone. So they fade back into the crowd. And he continues teaching. He had said, I am the light of the world. And now they challenge him.

[0:21] Look at verse 31. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in 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.

[0:34] They answered him, We are the 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.

[0:52] 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 the offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my words find no place in you.

[1:10] I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have learned from your father. Verse 39. And they answered him, Abraham is our father.

[1:22] 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.

[1:35] This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did. And they said to him, We are not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God.

[1:46] 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.

[1:57] 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.

[2:09] 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.

[2:26] But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God.

[2:39] The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. Verse 48. The Jews answered him, Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?

[2:53] Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.

[3:04] Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. The Jews said to him, Now we know that you have a demon.

[3:15] Abraham died, as did the prophets. Yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham who died?

[3:26] And the prophets died? Who do you make yourself out to be? Verse 54. Therefore, Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.

[3:37] It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God. But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you.

[3:49] But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, You are not 50 years old.

[4:03] Have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am. So they picked up stones to throw at him.

[4:16] But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Let's pray.

[4:34] Speak, O Lord, as we come to you, To receive the food of your holy word. As we've sung, Take your truth, Plant it deep in us, Shape and fashion us in your likeness.

[4:48] Father, I just read a glorious passage from the Bible. And I know, Like always, The word of man, Even proclaiming, Will fall short.

[5:05] And I know there are going to be sentences that don't come out the way that you want them to. And I just ask, Father, That any words I speak that are just of man, That they'll fall to the dust, That they'll be forgotten.

[5:22] But I pray, Lord, That by the power of your Spirit, The truth of Jesus Will be clear.

[5:33] And that it'll be unforgettable. Amen. Beloved congregation, Of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus calls you to abide in the word of the Lord.

[5:59] That's my message for you today. Abide in the word of the Lord. What does it mean to abide? According to the dictionary, It means to dwell with, To embrace, To rest in, And to live in accordance with The word of the Lord.

[6:21] And in today's passage, First we see that Jesus has given his word. Picture that scene. Like we saw last week, They drag this woman To the middle of where Jesus is teaching In the court of women, The treasuries over here, The Sanhedrin's on the other side of that wall With an earshot.

[6:43] And he's been preaching. He's been giving them the word of God That the Father gave him, Preaching it to them. They drag the woman, The light of Christ Pushes back the darkness So those who were trying to kill this woman, They get pushed back into the crowd, They dissolve, They fade away.

[7:05] And now, Jesus continues preaching and teaching, And as he does that, They come back out of the woodwork At him. And in this passage, I hope you heard it, The tone, It's a fight.

[7:16] The fight is on. And you know what happens When there's a fight? More and more people come around To gather around this fight. That's what's going on In the temple setting. Jesus proclaims the gospel In verse 31.

[7:32] He says, Now notice, It distinguishes. Who is he talking to? Look in verse 31. To those who believed him, He's speaking the gospel. Listen, If you, You who believed, If you abide in my word, Then you are truly my disciples.

[7:52] And to my true disciples, Listen to the promise. Verse 32. You will know the truth, And the truth will set you free.

[8:04] The gospel went out. But the crowd in front of Jesus Is a mixed group. I told you last week, That's going to be important, That distinction. So who he's addressing, Who he's speaking to, That's important.

[8:15] I believe it's one big group. If you were standing there, You would not be able to tell Who's a true disciple, And who is, Like he just calls them, A son of the devil. But they're a big mixed group here. And our Lord Jesus says, If you are truly my disciple, Then my word will abide with you.

[8:33] Jesus can say that Because he comes from the Father. He is the Son of God himself. And he knows his Father's will. And he knows his Father Has not been silent. His Father has given his word.

[8:45] Deuteronomy 4.2 From the pen of Moses To the second generation, Right as they go into the promised land, You shall not add to the word That I commanded you, Nor take from it, That you may keep the commandments Of the Lord your God That I commanded you.

[9:03] Deuteronomy 11.8 You shall lay up these words of mine. See, God has given his word. The Bible. You shall lay up my words In your heart And in your soul.

[9:16] That's what it looks like To abide in the word of God. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, And they shall be always before your eyes. It's the same message Christ is declaring.

[9:27] It pleases the Lord. It has always pleased the Lord When his people abide in his word. The Bible is the word of God. Many will fight you on that point, Won't they?

[9:40] And I've come to the conclusion, You don't need to persuade them, But you need to pray for them. Here's how our catechism answers that. Same objection, same problem.

[9:52] And we should know all the answers. You know, we should know Like why we believe But at the same time, We can't change the heart. But we can have faith and pray. Here's how our catechism By Benjamin Keech In the 1600s answers the question, How do we know that the Bible Is the word of God?

[10:08] The Bible evidences itself To be God's word By the heavenliness of its doctrine, The unity of its parts, Its power to convert sinners And edify saints, By the spirit of God only Bearing witness by And with the scriptures In our hearts.

[10:27] Are we able to fully Be persuaded ourselves That the Bible is The word of God? So you see that?

[10:37] There's beauty in it. It's united. The doctrines are otherworldly. It's one gospel Story of redemption. But ultimately, It's the Holy Spirit Working with power To persuade you.

[10:49] This is the word of God. It's mysterious, isn't it? I was reminded of this Though, Friday night, We had our Bible study And just putting our eyes Together on Proverbs And understanding, Just seeing the truth.

[11:03] This is the word of God. The spirit teaches that And convinces us of that, Doesn't he? So that's the first observation. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, If you are truly my disciple, When you hear the word I have given From the Father, You will believe it's true.

[11:19] Second observation. How you respond To the word of God Reveals to whom you belong. The word of God goes out. The group in the temple Before Jesus is a mixed crowd.

[11:31] And he gets very different responses, Very different reactions From those that are there. Some want to kill him. And others will abide In the house of Jesus, His own Father's house forever.

[11:45] Two extremely different Groups of people. And I just, Before we point out How different they are, I just want to point out How hard it is to discern. Think about it. Even in the temple, To your and my eye, They would have all Looked very similar.

[12:00] Both groups Would have been born To religious parents. They're here as Jews Worshipping the true God In the temple. They were people Who routinely would come To the house of God.

[12:11] You know, This is after the Feast of Booths, The Feast of Nations. They're still there Hearing this teaching. They would have had Access to God's word And even in this setting, In chapter 8, They would have heard The gospel already proclaimed.

[12:25] God has given them the word. You and I would not be able To tell the difference. Jesus had told them already, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world.

[12:37] John, The apostle John, Has said that In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. John 1, For the word became flesh And dwelt, Abided among us.

[12:50] And we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only son Of the father, Full of grace and truth. They've heard the gospel. But yet there's two Very different groups Among them.

[13:03] Man can't tell the difference Most of the time. But God knows the heart. Jesus knows the heart. See, Some will respond In obedience By the end of this chapter. Look at verse 51.

[13:14] If anyone keeps my word, If anyone abides in my word, Jesus says, He will never see death. So he's still speaking To those in this mixed group That will believe. That will never see death.

[13:25] But listen to the opposite reaction In verse 32. Jesus says, My truth will set you free. It's a simple gospel pronouncement.

[13:36] But the reaction he gets Seems way out of bounds. So picture, As Christ is preaching the gospel, They're stepping forward And forming this inner circle now Of the Jewish religious elite Who want to kill him.

[13:51] And they take over the conversation. And Jesus looks even beyond These religious elite. He looks beyond them To the powers of darkness And the principalities That are behind them.

[14:02] Giving them these words of hatred And wanting to kill The very son of God. See, when they, When Jesus said, The truth will set you free, Most likely their pockets Were being lined by Rome.

[14:16] They said, We don't need freedom. We're children of Abraham. We got it made In the shade. We know what we have And what we don't need. And we don't need What you're trying to give us. Please leave our temple.

[14:28] That's their tone. Well, if they really knew The word of God, If they knew the book of Judges, They were, No, there were seven nations That have enslaved God's people. In the time of Judges, Even before there were kings.

[14:40] And tracing their history A bit further, By the time the northern tribes Get conquered by Assyria And the southern tribes By Judah, For a period of 70 years. Read the book of Daniel. 70 years they're in exile In slavery.

[14:53] So they don't even know Their own history well enough To deny that they Have been in bondage. On top of that, There's a spiritual curse. Deuteronomy 27 says, Cursed be anyone Who does not confirm The words of this law By doing all of them.

[15:13] And all the people Shall say amen. Galatians 3.10 Helps us to understand that. All who rely on works of the law Are under a curse.

[15:25] See, everyone Who has sinned Is under a curse. And Jesus says, You are sinners.

[15:37] You are slaves To your own sin. By the time we get down To verse 55, He's pointed out, You have not known God.

[15:48] You think you know God. You have never known God. You are slaves to sin. I looked it up.

[15:59] The latest number in the USA, According to the Cultural Center for Research, Is that 70% of Americans Believe they are Christian.

[16:10] But only 6% Believe that the Bible Is accurate And true. You see those numbers?

[16:22] So, Of all Americans, If we take out All the ones who think They're Christian, Just deal with that 70%, It's only 6% Then we're down to So 9% of those Actually believe That the Bible is true.

[16:36] So they think That they don't have to Abide in the word of the Lord. They can still be A cultural Christian. Jesus warned them Out of love That they will die In their sins.

[16:54] Look back at verse 24. I told you Unless you believe That I am He You will die In your sins.

[17:06] Jesus warns them And He warns all those Who think they can Call themselves Christian Get all the blessings Of Christ While rejecting Christ and His word.

[17:17] He says, You think you're In the holy temple The holy presence of God Near God Forgiven of your sins You are not here. You need to look over there.

[17:28] Look over those walls. Look east into the wilderness. That's where you go If you're banished If you're unclean. That's where you are Spiritually. You will die In your sins Away from God.

[17:40] You're dying. Now picture the vultures Flying above In the wilderness Where the carcasses are. Like the hands of a clock The shadows are circling them.

[17:52] He's warned them. What should our attitude Be toward those Who think they are Christians But they don't want The word of God? I've wrestled with that This week Preparing for this.

[18:03] What should my heart Be toward those Who think they are Christians And don't want The word of God? I was really helped By the words of Paul In chapter 10 of Romans.

[18:16] Paul describes These people. He said, They have Zeal for God But not according To knowledge. They are ignorant Of the righteousness Of God. They seek to establish Their own.

[18:27] They do not submit To God's righteousness. And here's how we should Have a heart Toward those people. Paul said, Brothers, My heart's desire And prayer to God For them Is that they May be saved.

[18:44] Paul comes to The same conclusion That is our Lord Christ. They need salvation. They will die In their sins. They've rejected Christ And his word.

[18:55] There is no False assurance Of salvation For them But pray for them And have a genuine Desire in the heart That the Lord Will save. Jesus says, If you are truly My disciple Then you will Respond By abiding In my word.

[19:13] Because how you respond It reveals What's the truth. It just pulls The blanket off Of what's already there. How you respond. What's truly In the heart. So, Who is A child Of the devil?

[19:30] Jesus Unmasks Those slaves Of sin And it turns out It's the religious Elite. See, They were Mixed into this Crowd in the temple But they were Really wolves In sheep's clothing.

[19:44] They pretended To be sheeps Following God As their shepherd. They got some Sharp teeth Underneath that. And Jesus Unmasks them. It's hard though, Isn't it?

[19:55] How can we tell Who is a true Disciple And who's not? What's a true Church and what's not? And as I've gotten To know Each family This is something We all have in common.

[20:07] I think it's actually In common for all True disciples Is that you will Go through in life Some deep Hurt. Some deep wounds From the fangs Of those who claim To be children Of God.

[20:22] I think that's one Thing we all have In common here. And I think that Will be true Of God's people Everywhere. They've claimed To be Christians They've claimed To be leaders And I'm going To call them Organizations Which claim To be the true Church but are not.

[20:37] And Jesus Doesn't leave us Wondering. I've tried to Trace out here Everything he says About these sons Of the devil. I've got nine of them. Number one They practice sin.

[20:49] He says they are Slaves to sin. Look at verse 34. Everyone who practices Sin Is a slave to sin. Now to practice sin In this sense It's ongoing Unrepentant Unconfessed Covering up sin Loving the sin.

[21:07] Number two Christ's words Find no place In them. Look at verse 37. You seek to kill me Because my word Finds no place In you. Number three They practice What they hear From Satan.

[21:21] See how he sees Even beyond these men. He sees the enemy Who seeks to destroy. Verse 38 You do what you have Heard from your father. You claim to be A Christian But really You're just a servant Upon a slave Of the great deceiver.

[21:38] Number four They think they are Sons of God still. Verse 41 They have They say We have one father Even God. Jesus says You are doing The works Your true father did And it's not God.

[21:52] Number five They cannot bear To hear Christ's word. You do not understand He says in verse 43 Because you cannot bear To hear My word.

[22:05] I've shared With some of you In Brazil We did evangelism With soccer And it's so true The simple gospel message You know One of our Brothers in the Lord We're just going to Open up the Bible Read a verse And tell about How God saved him From his sin And the guys Would show up A little bit late To not have to hear that So they could just Play soccer And then he started Doing it at the end Well they would Leave before the game Was quite over So they did not Have to hear the gospel So we stop soccer Right in the middle Half time We're going to do the gospel And then they would Hear a little bit more But isn't that so true?

[22:39] The gospel You can't bear To hear the word Of Christ Until God gives you A new heart Number six The devil Is their father Look at verse 44 Your father The devil Has you as a slave And you do What he desires What a terrifying Reality See Satan Was a murderer From the beginning In Adam all die He hates the truth There is no truth In him Jesus calls Satan The father of lies Now pay attention here One scholar pointed out And this was so helpful To me Jesus is not saying That everyone Who is a lost sinner Is a child of the devil He doesn't say that He does say That the Pharisees The counterfeit Christians These people And these religious leaders The elite Claiming to be children of God But were really Hating Christ And hating Christ's word

[23:39] They are children Of the devil Because Satan Is a great imitator There's a difference Between being A lost lamb That Christ will rescue As the shepherd And being an imitator Of God To dispel And to turn many away From the true salvation Number seven They attack His person See they don't like His truth So they go after His person Nothing has changed Has it Every generation Look at verse 41 first They say Are we the children Of adultery That's probably a slur It's probably a jab At Christ's own birth Number four Verse 46 Jesus recognizes You dishonor me You're attacking me Personally now Not even about The truth I'm giving you And then in verse 48 They say You are a Samaritan And have a demon See they're going after

[24:40] His humanity By saying You're not even A pure blooded Child of Abraham You're not even A pure breed Jew You're a Samaritan You're a mixed race They're attacking His humanity Your humanity Is of a lower quality Than ours And you have a demon So they're attacking His divinity You're not of the Holy God Your divinity Is polluted You've got The influence Of Satan They go after His person Satan's obsession Has always been To kill The seed The promised Seed Of the woman Look at Verse 40 You seek To kill me Jesus says A man Who has told you The truth The truth I heard From God Now look down At verse 59 They picked up Stones To throw at him It was Satan Through Cain Trying to kill Abel The seed of the woman

[25:40] Through whom the promise Would come That would crush The serpent's head It was Satan Through Pharaoh To wipe out All the boys The seed That God would send To crush The serpent's head It was Jezebel Haman King Herod the Great Killing all the baby Boys in Israel When Christ was born It's always Satan Trying to kill The promised seed Of the woman The seed that would Crush the head Of the serpent And now it's The Pharisees Stones in their hands Ready to smash The head of this man In 2 Corinthians 11 We're told There are False Apostles There are Deceitful workmen Disguising themselves As apostles of Christ Paul wrote No wonder Even Satan Disguises himself As an angel Of light His servants Disguise themselves As servants Of righteousness Their end Will correspond To their deeds Leave the justice In the hands

[26:40] Of God Pray for them And know that God Will bring his justice Their end Will correspond With their deeds Misleading many In the name of Christ Jude 4 Points out this same problem As a caution To the true church He says Certain people Have crept in To the church Unnoticed What do they do?

[27:03] They pervert The grace of our God Into sensuality And deny Our only master And Lord Jesus Christ He calls them Hidden reefs He says They feast with you Without fear They are shepherds Feeding themselves Waterless clouds Swept along by winds Fruitless trees In late autumn Remember the feast of booze Celebrating the bountiful harvest But if they're in the middle Of that feast They are twice dead And uprooted They do not bear The fruit that keeps With repentance They are wild waves Of the sea Casting up the foam Of their own shame They are wandering stars For whom the gloom Of outer darkness Has been reserved Forever Such men Do not make room In their hearts For the word of God And there will be No room for them In the house Of God Forever How do you respond To the word of the Lord

[28:03] If you reject The word of Jesus Then you will die In your sins If you are truly My disciples Jesus says My word will Abide In you Well If those are the Sons of the devil How about the others Who do respond By faith Do we have any help To discern Or find encouragement If you are Not a son of the devil But you're a true Spiritual son Of Abraham Yes we do See their argument The argument of the Pharisees Is this Your nature Is determined By birth And birth Is determined By paternity This is their Jewish way of thinking So who I am Is based on my bloodline And it comes through The line of my fathers Verse 33 They say We are the offspring Of Abraham Now remember Jesus began this message He starts by saying If you're my disciple My word will abide in you But then come the hecklers And all those Trying to pull them Way off topic They're pulling in Abraham And the demons

[29:03] He does not lose sight Of his point My point to you Is that my word Will abide in you If you are truly saved But he uses Their same arguments He said okay We can talk about Abraham We can talk about Abraham Jesus uses Abraham In a way that That is going to be So helpful That all of the New Testament Apostles are going to Then pick up on Okay He says so You're trying to say You are holy and righteous Because you have The bloodline of Abraham He said I'll tell you What made Abraham special It was not his blood It was his faith He says there are the There are the physical Seed of Abraham The Jews The whole point in that Was to bring The Messiah But what you need To pay attention to Are the spiritual Sons of Abraham In verse 35 He says look Only it's the Spiritual son of Abraham Only the one who Truly belongs to God By faith Like Abraham In verse 35 That's the spiritual son That gets to stay In the land In the temple

[30:04] In the house Of the father The house of God Forever He says okay You want to talk About Abraham If Abraham's in view You are not Isaac Of the promised Line of blessing You are Ishmael You are the son Of the slave You are slaves To your sin You want to talk About the line Of blessing You are not Abel Or Seth You are Cain In verse 56 Jesus says If you're like Abraham You will bear The same fruit Your works will Correspond to the Works of Abraham What was Abraham's Work Look at verse 56 Abraham rejoiced That he would See my day And he saw it And he was glad Now how Did Abraham See the day Of the Lord What a great promise See he rejoiced In anticipation Of the salvation

[31:05] That would come But then he He actually Saw it And was satisfied In it Was glad God gave him That faith By what he Actually saw One commentator Summarized it this way How did Abraham See our Lord's day Verse 56 How did Abraham See the life And the ministry Of Jesus On earth The same way Abraham Saw that future city That future land Heaven itself It was by faith God did not give Abraham Some special vision Of our Lord's Life and ministry But he did give him The spiritual perception To see those future events Certainly Abraham saw The birth of the Messiah In the miraculous birth Of his own son And when Melchizedek The priest ministered To Abraham God used that To show Abraham The heavenly priesthood Of our Lord Jesus Christ And he certainly Saw Calvary When he offered Isaac To God

[32:05] In Genesis 22 Then when his son Grew up Isaac grew up And was married In Genesis 24 Abraham could see Even in that marriage A picture Of the marriage Of the Lamb Of God To his church Galatians 3 6-14 Explains this So clearly Abraham believed God And it was counted To him As righteousness Those of faith Who are the sons Of Abraham The scripture says Are those who Have that saving faith That God God foresaw That he would justify Not only the line Of Abraham But all the Gentiles As well And he preached The gospel to them Beforehand Even to Abraham Saying In you Shall all the nations Be blessed One last connection Think about Where they're standing Even this very moment A couple weeks ago We said As they would come To these feasts They would be singing The Psalms of Ascent And they would be singing These Psalms

[33:06] As they climbed up This mountain And now they're standing On the temple And the temple Is one peak Down the hill Is another hill Called the hill Of Calvary And it's all part Of this great mountain The mountain They're standing on Is Mount Moriah The same mountain Where God called Abraham to walk up With Isaac And to trust him And abide In the word of the Lord By faith That very mountain And Jesus says Before Abraham Was I am I am the one Who showed This shadow Of the gospel And gave Abraham A faith to believe And just as I did For Abraham To disciple him To grow him To show him My plan of salvation I do that For all my true disciples Who abide in me Today What does it mean To be a disciple See look at 31 Jesus says If you believe in me And abide in my word Then you are truly My disciples You must abide

[34:07] In the word of the Lord To be truly his disciple You will continue Learning You will continue Taking in his word And letting his word Change you A disciple Is a follower And adherent To a person It's someone Who puts themselves Under the teachings And practices Of someone else You give your full Personal loyalty And support To that person That's what it means To be a disciple And he says Those I adopt Those who get to live In my father's house Forever I disciple them In my word So if you are growing As a disciple Of Jesus If you are growing Through abiding In his word Then you can have Assurance That you have been Adopted Into his family 1 John Chapter 2 Verse 14 Jesus says You know him Who is from the beginning Before Abraham was I am And in him You are strong The word of God Abides in you

[35:08] And you have overcome The evil one Jesus says I will disciple you In my word And you will know My father Has adopted you By the evidence That my word Dwells in you It grows in you Because the Lord Disciplines Those he loves I traced out for you The portrait Of those who are Children of the devil I want to go through The same passage And look at now What does that look like To be a disciple Of Christ One who truly Abides in his word Number one It looks like this You love Jesus And you can call God Your father Look at verse 42 If God is your father You will Love me Number two You belong to God And you want To hear The word of God Verse 47 Whoever is of God Hears The words Of God

[36:08] Number three You keep the word Of Christ And will never See death Look at verse 51 Truly truly I say to you If anyone Keeps my word He will never See death As you abide In his word He gives you That assurance When you're laying On the deathbed One day It could be here Very soon For any one of us You have God's word In your heart You have the truth Of the promises From scripture Sealed to you By faith Through the Holy Spirit And even Even though Your sanctification Will be gradual And painful And you will Continue sinning Because of the flesh John says If anyone thinks He's without sin He deceives himself What you will be able To see is this pattern Though I used to not Love God's word Like I do now And I want to love It even more I used to not Abide in the word Of God The way I do now And I hope to Abide in it Fully and perfectly And when your soul Leaves your body

[37:08] You will abide In the word of God Jesus Christ himself You will dwell with him Perfectly And forever Number four You see Jesus Glorified by his Father In heaven Look at verse 54 It is my Father Our God Who glorifies Jesus Christ When you hear The word of God You see Jesus And the spirit Stirs your heart And God once again Glorifies his son In your eyes Number five He teaches you To read his whole word All the Bible In the light of Christ Look at verse 58 Truly truly I say to you Before Abraham was I am Paul picks up on this In Galatians 3 He says The promises were made To Abraham And his offspring Saying It's not to all the Jews It's to the one offspring In the singular It's to Jesus And Jesus wants you

[38:08] To read your whole Bible That same way He says Before Abraham was I am Abraham saw the gospel He saw my kingdom coming And if you're in Christ If you're abiding in his word You will learn to read The whole Bible The whole word of God As the redemptive plan Of salvation Fulfilled in Christ All of God's promises Find their yes And amen In Jesus The last one Number six Is that your good works Will flow From rejoicing In the kingdom Of Christ Look at verse 39 He says If you were Abraham's children You would be doing What Abraham did Then look at verse 56 And this can be An encouragement to you If you are Adopted into the family Of God A true spiritual Child of God Like Abraham You will also rejoice At seeing that coming day When Jesus will return In glory And you will also Now see it And find satisfaction And be glad right now Spiritually

[39:08] I see the day I see the kingdom The rule of God Over my life And that's my Encouragement to you today Abide in the word Of the Lord He says that You belong to him You get to live In the house of God Now And forever Jesus standing in the temple They pick up stones They want to kill him Right there On temple grounds And again I don't know If Jesus Looked But he would be Very aware On the hill of Calvary The edge of the wilderness Where the jackals And the demons And the goats That had the sins Of the nation Put on them On the day of atonement That were sent out That's where they roam around In the wilderness That's where he would die Not here Not in their hands By stones He would willfully Lay down his life In the wilderness

[40:09] He would say My God Why have you forsaken me Knowing that by being Forsaken spiritually It's so that People could be welcomed Into the house Of his father He would be forsaken So they could be accepted And his gospel goes out If you receive his word And abide in his truth You are in the house Of God the father And he did not have his life Taken from him He laid it down willfully To accomplish the mission That the father promised the son Sealed by the spirit And applied to you The plan of redemption Before time was even created Is now being applied In your life And the purpose Of your life now Is for the word of the Lord To abide in you Let the word of God Abide in you Let the spirit Reform you Change you Transform you By the renewing Of your minds A lifetime is too short

[41:09] Isn't it? Let me try to pull it together The Lord has given his word How you respond To the word of the Lord Reveals To whom you belong Christ came with one mission Give his life For your life And if you are ransomed By Jesus You're washed in his blood You are his disciple His word abides in you He will train you To abide in his word More and more He will grow you Into his likeness Forever My prayer for you Has been That everything else In your life That has caused you pain Every other thing That currently causes you stress And makes you want to doubt

[42:11] The goodness and kindness of God My prayer has simply been That he will show you A little bit more today Abide in his word Jesus came so that you can be Near the father Trust him And grow as his disciple Let's pray From Isaiah 41 Oh God Oh God you chose us In Christ And you promised To never cast us off Thank you for sending Jesus your son The offspring of Abraham Your servant Thank you for calling us From the farthest corners Of the world Thank you for how you have Taken us Into your family Train us Lord To abide in your word To fear not But to trust that you are with us You have not left us as orphans

[43:12] We are not dismayed Because you strengthen us You help us You uphold us With your righteous right hand Our Lord Jesus Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen