Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2191
“As He spoke these words, many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which had believed Him, If you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples, indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:30-32.
Our Lord, on this occasion, was surrounded by quibblers. We must not be astonished if the like should happen to us when declaring the Gospel. Our Lord went on preaching, all the same, and He did not conceal objectionable Truth because of opposition—say, rather, that He set it forth with greater boldness and decision when surrounded by His enemies! The more they opposed, the more He testified.
The Lord Jesus also told the contradicting sinners that the day would come when quibblers would be convicted. Observe how He put it—“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself.” Quibblers may have a fine time of it just now, but they will, one day, be convicted either to their conversion or their confusion! Let us hope that many will see the Truth before they die—early enough to seek and find a Savior. But many in our Lord’s day who discovered it after His uplifting on the Cross and His uplifting from the grave, came by their knowledge sadly late, for in the meantime they had crucified the Lord of Glory. Ah, how much of sin comes out of delayed faith! A far greater number of these Jews were convicted in their minds altogether too late, for when they were driven to feel, by the attendant circumstances of His Crucifixion and Resurrection, that He really was the Son of God, they still persevered in rebellion and sank into obstinate rejection of His claims. On such His blood rested to their eternal condemnation. Quibblers, you may riot for a little season, but your time is short! The hour will come when you shall behold and wonder—and perish. I pray that there may come an end to your unbelief by your being convicted in this life and led to repentance. But if it is not so, you will certainly be ashamed and confounded in the day when the Lord shall come in His Glory and you shall, in vain, beseech the mountains to fall upon you and hide you from His face!
Quibblers ought to be convinced even now—the Savior implies this when He adds, “He that sent Me is with Me: the Father has not left Me alone; for I always do those things that please Him.” The Character of Jesus should have convinced the Jews of His mission. His evident obedience to God and the equally evident witness of God to Him, would have led them to see His Messiahship if they had not been blinded by prejudice and pride. Any candid man at the present day, studying the life of Christ and observing His unique Character, should be convinced that He is the Son of God—and should come to believe in Him.
But, Beloved, though the Savior was thus surrounded with objectors and had so much to endure from their ignorance and their malice, yet His controversies with them were not without hopeful effects, for our text informs us, “As He spoke these words, many believed on Him.” Albeit we may be surrounded with general and virulent opposition, yet there will be fruit from the preaching of the Truth of God. The Word of the Lord shall not return unto Him void—it shall prosper in the thing whereto God has sent it. We may hope that not only a few, but many will accept the sacred testimony, since we see that, even in the midst of an exceedingly hot dispute, it happened that, “As He spoke these words, many believed on Him.”
I. These Believers were not all of one kind and upon that fact I shall enlarge in this beginning of my sermon. Let that stand as our first observation upon the text—OUR LORD HAD DIFFERENT KINDS OF BELIEVERS AROUND HIM. There were evidently two sorts of Believers who may be set forth to you by the differing expressions used in the Revised Version. We read in verse thirty, “Many believed on Him.” And then in the 31st verse we read of “those Jews which
had believed Him.” Mark the distinction between, “believed on Him” and, “had believed Him.” It is a singular expression, also, “Those Jews which had believed Him.” They were still Jews as to their traditional belief and connection— Jews first of all—whatever they might be in connection with their Judaism. The omission of the word, “on,” or, “in,” is a happy one, because it is exactly accurate, and it helps to bring out an important distinction while it also accounts for what seems so strange, that those who had believed Him should, almost immediately after, charge Him with being a Samaritan and having a devil, and should even take up stones to stone Him! There were two sorts of Believers and on these I will speak a while.
The first, “believed on Him.”” These are the right kind. What is it to believe on Christ? It means not only to accept what He says as true and to believe that He is the Messiah and the Son of God, but trustfully to rest in Him. To believe on Him is to take Him as the ground of our hope, as our Savior, upon whom we depend for salvation. When we believe in Him or on Him, we accept Him as God sets Him forth—and we make use of Him by trusting on Him to do for us what God has appointed Him to do. This trusting on Jesus is saving faith! “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life.” To believe Him may be a very different thing from believing on Him. Such belief may fall far short of saving faith. To believe on Him means heartily to give yourself up to Him and to follow Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life to you. Rejecting all rival confidences, the heart leans all its weight on Jesus and leaves all its burdens with Him. Believing in Him, we repose all our concerns, for time and for eternity, in His hands.