He That Follows Me
I.
John 8:32-Your response
to the truth will determine whether or not you get swallowed up by darkness or
walk in victory; The way to keep from being swallowed up in darkness is you say
yes to the truth and follow Jesus
A. 12-If you’ll follow Jesus
you won’t be swallowed up in darkness, but you’ll walk in the truth and walk in
the light
1.
Not he who understands
everything, but he who follows me
a. Can you follow the truth and not understand all of it or get
it? You can follow the truth whole hog no matter what
b. I don’t have to
understand it all or get it all I have to follow him
1)
If
he says I’m healed I am, if he say to sow my paycheck then I do it, I follow
him
c. Yes is the only proper response to the truth and it’ll keep
you from being deceived and in darkness
2.
Follow
means he says something and you agree and he says something and you yield
a. If you did this you
wouldn’t be deceived and in the dark and bound, but you’d be in the light, in
the truth and free
b. You walk in darkness when
you start agreeing with the enemy and believing his lies
3.
13-They
are not following him
a. They are calling the
truth a lie and saying that the truth is not true; They are telling the truth
that the truth is not the truth
b. They are deceived because
they believe that the truth is a lie
B. 15-They judge truth based
on what the see and feel and understand and that’s a quick way to be deceived;
They are judging what’s true based on their senses and carnal nature; what they
think and feel is true
1.
16-Jesus
is basing truth off what the Father says is truth and right
2.
Jesus
isn’t determining what’s truth; the father tells him what’s true and he agrees
3.
19,22,27-Their big
problem is their trying to understand when they should just be agreeing and
saying yes
C. 21-Sins-They are in error
and have wandered from the path of rightness and they are off and believe they
are right
1.
24-If
you don’t believe the truth you’ll die in your error and deception and your
deception will be your destruction
2.
26-Jesus
says I’m speaking the truth
D. 32-If you stick with his words
and his teachings and not leave you’ll begin to see the truth and the truth
will make free
1.
Why
is he talking about continuing and remaining in his word? There’s going to be
some truth you don’t get and you don’t understand and you don’t see it all, and
it might be unflattering to you and might put pressure on your flesh and be
uncomfortable for you flesh and you’re going to be tempted leave it, to let go
of it; But if you’ll stick with his words (which is the truth) at times like
these it won’t be long before you’ll see the truth and the truth will make you
free
a. But before there’s
freedom and before there’s seeing the truth there’s a time when you’re not free
and don’t see and when you don’t see you have to stay with the truth
2.
Something is happening to
cause that liberation and that freedom and it’s you perceiving, seeing,
receiving and believing the truth
a. Do you know, have you seen, are you
walking in all the truth that there is to see and know? No. Then you are not as
free as you can be
E. Always say yes to the
truth
1.
They are resisting what
they should be yielding to and yielding to what they should be resisting
a. 33-They don’t’ need to be
asking this and this is not how you respond to the truth
b. 39-They should have said
yes to verse 38, but instead they say this
c. 41-The should have said
yes, but instead they said this
2.
Matthew 15:22-Always say
yes to the truth
a. 22-23-When he didn’t answer
her she continued with him (the truth)
b. 26-When he called her a
dog she said that’s the truth
c. She doesn’t understand it
all, she just says yes to the truth
d. 28-She got free
F. *37-We have to make room
for the truth, yield to it, give place to it and give it an entrance into our
mind and heart
1.
They
are closing their eyes to the truth, their ears to the truth and hardening
their heart to the truth and that’s why it’s finding no entrance
a. His word, the truth has
no place in them – They are rejecting the truth
b. Place-Make room, give place, yield, have space or room for
receiving or holding something
2.
When
the truth has no place in you (has no entrance), you’re going to be easily
deceived and led astray
a. Because the truth has
found no place in them the deceiver is leading them around with lies trying to
get them to kill Jesus
3.
Does the truth have place
in you, in your life? Will you let it enter?
a. For the truth to have place in you, you have to make room for
it, give it place, yield to it and receive it
G. There response to the
truth was wrong; they are questioning it, challenging it and the truth is
finding no place in them, it has no entrance
1.
32-33-The
truth said you need to be made free and they said no we don’t
2.
38-Jesus
said, “You do that which have seen with your father,” they said, “Abraham is
our father,” and Jesus said, “No he’s not,” they said, “God’s our father,”
Jesus said, “No he’s not.”
3.
49,52-They
said to Jesus, “You have a devil,” Jesus said, “I don’t have a devil,” and they
said, “Now we know you have a devil.”
4.
51-52-Jesus
said, “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death,” and they said,
“That’s a lie.”
5.
56-Jesus
said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day,” and they said, “That
couldn’t be.”
6.
The truth kept coming,
kept coming, kept coming and it was finding no place in them and as a result
they end up swallowed up by darkness
a. Their problem is they won’t acknowledge and accept and
receive the truth
H. They apparently don’t
want the truth; they like what they think and what they believe more than they
love the truth
1.
40,45-Jesus
is telling them the truth and they don’t want it and they don’t want it to be
the truth; They don’t want it to be the truth because if it is the truth then
they are wrong and have been wrong and they don’t like that and they don’t want
to change
2.
The proud and unrepentant
will have the hardest time with the truth
a. Pride-They don’t want to look bad --- Unrepentant-They don’t want to change
I. *It’s not that they
didn’t hear the truth, they heard it and rejected it
1.
40-Jesus
told them the truth and they wanted to kill him
a. The truth is confrontational and exposes and that can stir
people up; they’re not mad at Jesus they’re mad that the truth is the truth
b. Galatians 4:16-The truth being manifested can make people
down right indignant because in their heart they don’t want that to be the
truth, but also in the heart they don’t want to change
2.
46-He’s
telling them the truth and what are they doing with it? They are completely
rejecting the truth so they are going to stay blind and they are going to stay
bound and be swallowed up in darkness
a. Jesus was preaching to
these people in John 8 and the truth is standing in front of them and they are
seeing light and life and truth manifested in the flesh and the words coming
out of his mouth are straight from the throne and they’d never hear anything
more true in their life and they rejected it and said no we’re not having it
that way and the result was them being swallowed up in darkness, bound
J. John 6:48
1.
60-They
said this is a hard saying – Offensive, intolerable, harsh, stiff, rough
a. This truth was offensive
and intolerable to them and the big question is how will you respond to the
truth when it’s hard to you; how will you respond to the truth when it doesn’t
look true to your senses and your feelings and your flesh
2.
66-Many
who once followed him when they heard this left the truth and didn’t receive
the truth because it was hard to them
3.
68-Certainly
they didn’t understand all of this but they knew this one thing he has the
words of truth and they stuck with the truth