Sermon Tone Analysis

I invite your attention back into the Gospel of John, the eighth chapter.

Jesus has been contending, in our studies through John 8, with the Pharisees challenging Him on His claims of being the Son of God, of being divine Himself.

We have seen their objections to Him.

We have seen, really I think, His exasperation with them when He is asked again and again, "Now, who are You?"

He again and again explains in both picture form and in direct words that He is the Messiah.

We discovered at the very end of our study last week, which was John 8, verse 30 that many there did believe Him.

There in the court of the Gentiles as Jesus is teaching on that day as He is confronting these Pharisees that there were those in the crowd who believed Him.

Jesus is speaking to them today in a message I call The Secret That Sets Us Free because there is, in the words of Christ, a secret.

He tells us that the truth shall set you free.

There is a secret in that of what it means to be set free.

I hope that this message today challenges all of us.

The Bible tells us we need to examine ourselves to see whether we really be of the faith.

The Bible acknowledges there is a superficial faith as well as a genuine faith, and challenges us to examine our own hearts…a job only we can do to see whether or not we have that secret possessed even in our own lives.

So I want to invite your attention to John 8, beginning in verse 31, today as Jesus addresses those who had believed in Him.

In John 8:31, He begins by simply saying, /"Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.'"/

Many had accepted Jesus' claims.

Many acknowledged what He had done would only be done by someone who had come from God, and some even said, "What more could the Messiah do than what He has done?"

There were those who believed in Him, but notice that Jesus is not content with just the acknowledgement of who He is.

He challenges those who are claiming to believe Him by saying, "What kind of belief is it you have?

Is it a superficial, head-knowledge belief?

Or is it a genuine heart-felt belief?

Is it a saving faith or is it a superficial faith?"

You see there are both.

There is a superficial faith.

The Bible tells us in James that even the demons believe and tremble.

The demons believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

The demons believe that Jesus came and died on the Cross for sins.

The demons believe Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, that Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies.

The demons believe this and yet they're not saved because what they have is a head-knowledge, a superficial faith.

Oh, if you're here today and you have an acknowledgment and a sense to the things of God, if you have a head-knowledge of Christ, if you accept that He came to this earth, that He died on the Cross for sin, that He is the Son of God, you may have a superficial faith.

You may think that you believe all you need to believe, but you may, like the demons, simply have a dead faith.

James talks about a faith that's not real.

It's dead.

A dead faith is not an inactive faith.

A dead faith is not an un-zealous faith.

A dead faith is not a saving faith.

A dead faith is a faith you can take all the way to hell…a superficial faith.

There are countless church members…church members who don't understand this truth, who will die lost because of a dead faith.

It may be the Lord speaks to you today that the faith you lay claim to is this superficial head-knowledge, but not the heart-changing faith that Christ is looking for when He says to those who believed Him, /"If you abide in My words."/

You see saving faith in Jesus is far more than a shallow profession.

It's far more than a shallow profession many have made.

Our church roles and roles of churches are filled with many people who came in with a superficial profession of faith.

They came in.

They got wet in the baptistery.

They are on our church role, but they have a dead faith.

It's not a faith that causes them to be committed to Christ no matter what, that causes them to be a part of the Lord's church no matter what.

It's not a faith that causes them to stand for Christ, and bow before Christ and be willing to serve Christ no matter what.

It is perhaps a superficial faith, one that does well when things are going well, but feels excused when things are going badly.

Oh, my friends, of your faith in Christ is not enough to get you to church, I seriously doubt it's enough to get you to heaven.

If your faith in Christ is not strong enough to lead to you be committed to Him, to obey the most obvious of Scriptures, to be committed to serving Him in a local church, to be committed to learning His Word, I doubt it's a faith that will get you to heaven.

You may read a different Bible.

You may have come up in your own super brain with a different plan of salvation, but let me tell you Paul already tells you there is no other gospel.

You may have come up with a gospel that says, "I'm excused from serving God and I'm excused from coming to His church because of my personal likes and dislikes, because of my personal problems and challenges," but I'm afraid the Bible makes to allowances for that.

If your faith is a superficial faith, it will be a shallow faith.

It's one where you'll stand up and say, "Oh yes.

I believe in Jesus," but your life doesn't show it.

It gives no evidence of it.

You have a head-faith, but a head-faith alone is a dead faith.

It's not a saving faith.

True freedom…true freedom comes when we place our faith in Christ in such a way that it leads to a changed mind that leads to a changed heart that leads to a changed life.

A saving faith is always a faith that changes your life, that leads to a changed life.

I wouldn't give you two cents for your faith in Jesus if it hasn't changed your life.

I wouldn't give you a plugged nickel if it has made no impact on you, if it has not altered you.

A saving faith changes you.

You don't act the same way again.

You're not with the same temper you had before salvation.

You don't treat your marriage the same way you did before salvation.

You don't react to your job the same way you did before salvation.

You don't talk to your parents the same way you did before salvation.

You don't relate as the leader in your home the way you did before salvation.

If salvation has not changed your habits, has not changed your temper, has not changed your outlook, has not changed your countenance, has not changed your witness in the world, you have a head-faith.

You don't have a saving faith.

I want to tell you a saving faith changes your life.

It changes how you act.

It changes how you approach things.

It changes how you look at the future.

It changes how you measure the present.

If you go through life the same, you haven't been saved.

You haven't received Christ as your Savior.

You are depending on the things of the world.

You're depending on emotion.

You're depending on your peers.

You're depending on yourself, but you're not depending on God if you haven't changed your life.

Not only does it take believing in Jesus to know true freedom, but notice it also involves abiding in Jesus' Word.

Look in John 8:31 again, /"Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.'"/

If you abide in My Word… Jesus here is speaking of a consistency of life.

He is not talking about just reading the Bible Sunday morning.

He is talking about dwelling in it.

To abide in means to remain in, to let it be what courses through the veins of your life.

Jesus used this word later on in John 15:5 in the upper room when He was speaking to His disciples.

He says, /"I am the vine, you are the branches.

He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."/

Jesus says here that He who remains in Me is going to exhibit the fruit that is always exhibited in the Christian life.

He's going to exhibit the outgrowth of the Christian life if he abides in Me.

Because if you don't abide in Christ, if you don't remain in His Word, you can do nothing.

You begin to see religion as religion.

You begin to see church as Sunday.

You don't see…because your life hasn't changed…you don't see the transformation because you've not abided in His Word.

You've not made it a part of you.

You know it's not enough to start well.