Now let's go back to John chapter
8. And the passage that I want to
mainly deal with is this phrase in verse 32. But this is in line
with what I've been preaching over the past few weeks concerning
Christ's disciples in deed. Remember he said here in verse
30 that As he spake these words, the Lord teaching, as Randy pointed
out, concerning the fact that he is the Messiah, he is the
Lord of glory, he is the Savior, he is God manifest in the flesh,
he is the only one who can save a sinner from their sins. Speaking
here to the Pharisees and to the Jews, He had told him, he
said in verse 24, he said, if you believe not that I am, you
mentioned that Randy, but when he said before Abraham was, I
am, that's the I am. That's God manifest in the flesh. The eternal I am has no beginning,
no end. And he said, if you believe not
that I am in verse 24, you shall die in your sins. The greatest
sin of all is rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory of
His person and in the power and accomplishment of His finished
work. Because to reject Him, to live
a life of unbelief and to die in unbelief simply relegates
your eternal soul into condemnation and perishing, dying in your
sins. When he speaks of committing
sin here, he says in verse 34, whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin. He's talking about a person who's
in the bondage and darkness of unbelief. That's who he's talking
about. He's not talking about the fact that we're all sinners,
which we are. We're all sinners. There's one
sense which we all commit sin in the sense that we always fall
short of the standard of perfection in God's law. Two types of people
on earth. Sinners lost in their sins. Sinners
saved by grace. That's what we are. I'm only
a sinner saved by grace. We sing that hymn. This is my
story. To God be the glory. I'm only
a sinner saved by grace. And while I'm on this earth,
while you're on this earth, if you're a saved person, you'll
never rise above singing that song, I'm only a sinner saved
by grace. That's right. The only perfection
that we will find in ourselves is not on this side of glory,
but on the other side. But when he talks about those
who commit sin, who are the servants of sin here, he's talking about
those who are lost Unregenerate, without Christ in their hearts. The natural man. So he says,
if you believe not that I am, you'll die in your sins. So when
he says, in verse 30, as he spake these words, many believed on
him. Verse 31, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed
on him. They had a profession of belief.
If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed.
That if there being an evidence of being a true disciple of Christ.
Am I a true disciple of Christ? Are you a true disciple? Do we
have more than just talk, just a statement, a profession? Do I really know, believe in,
rest in, and love Christ? He says, if you continue in my
word, and I've talked about that for several messages. Well, today
I want to conclude this with verse 32. The title of the message
is, the truth shall make you free. He says, you shall know
the truth and the truth shall make you free. Now, what is he
talking about, the truth shall make you free? Back in the 60s
and part of the 70s, people would shout that phrase, the truth
will make you free. And usually what they were talking
about was social freedom, economic freedom, political freedom. That's
not what Christ is speaking of here. What Christ is speaking
of here is the freedom and liberty of salvation by the grace of
God that comes through Him and Him alone as the great liberator
of His people. This is Christ the liberator. Over in the book of Luke, for
example, in chapter 4, we have an episode of the Lord when he
began his public ministry after his baptism and after his temptation
on the mount. He came into his hometown synagogue
and he sat down and they began reading from the book of Isaiah.
And this book of Isaiah, I believe it's chapter 61, the prophecy
of Isaiah of the coming Messiah. The Messiah will come. And listen
to what he said. He got up and he read these verses.
And verse 18, look here. Luke 4, he says, The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, that's the liberator,
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, that is fallen, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord,
and you remember what he did, he closed the book, and there
was a little bit of silence, and he stood and he said, today
this verse has been fulfilled before your eyes. What was he
saying? He said, I'm the liberator, I'm the healer, I'm the messiah,
I'm the savior, Christ is. And of course that didn't go
over too well. They wanted to take him outside
and throw him off a cliff. But he walked through them unharmed. You see what Christ is saying
when he says, the truth shall make you free. Actually, you
could look at it this way. There is a threefold liberation that could be included in it.
Now what he's speaking of specifically here is the liberation that we
can call the new birth, or sanctification by the spirit, and I wanna get
to that. But it's really a three, when you talk about the liberation
and the freedom, the liberty of salvation by God's grace through
Christ, you can really see three aspects of that liberty. And
that's what I wanna deal with. Mainly I'm gonna deal with the
first two, because the last one is another subject, But these
two go together. They all go together, actually,
because it's the whole complete salvation. But you can talk about
the liberty, the freedom of justification before God, and then you can
talk about the liberty, the freedom of sanctification by the Spirit,
and that's what he's talking about here, because it's in line
with the truth revealed. He says, you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. That's what he's talking
about, that second aspect. But then there's a third aspect
and that's the liberty and the freedom of glorification. Now
in the first one, the liberty of justification, that's how
sinners are made right with God based solely upon what Christ
accomplished on Calvary. He liberated us by justifying
us. And then the liberty and freedom
of sanctification of the spirit, that's when we experience that
liberty within ourselves, within our hearts, our minds, when we're
born again and brought to Christ by God-given faith and brought
to true repentance. The liberty of glorification
is when we're freed from the prison houses of this old body,
this dying body, and go to be with Christ. That's a liberation
too, isn't it? All right? But here's what I
want us to do. I want you to look at this in
the light of who he's talking to. But let's go to Romans chapter
6. Go to Romans chapter 6. And the first thing I want you
to understand is that Christ has legally liberated all of
his people, all of God's elect, all whom God has given him, had
given him, he legally liberated us when he died on that cross
and established the only ground of justification. Now look at
verse 3 of Romans 6. And of course you know Paul's
answering the objection here. that if salvation and all the
blessings of salvation is not conditioned on the works of men
then do we have any responsibility to work at all to obey at all
and of course he says well here's what you get here's the way you've
got a look at the first thing he brought adverse three look
at no you not that so many of us as were baptized into jesus
christ were baptized into his day The word baptized there, you've
got to keep it within its context. He's not speaking of the ordinance
of believers' baptism there. Now, how do you know that? Well,
the next verse shows us, but hold on. That word baptized. Now, there is the ordinance of
believers' baptism. He said, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel, teaching them all, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Believer's
baptism, the ordinance, which is immersion in water of a believer,
is a confession, a public confession of salvation. It's not salvation
itself. Nobody gets saved or washed from
their sins in the waters of baptism. There's no saving power. That's
why we don't call it... It has no salvific, as the old
writers would say, salvific power. That's why we call it an ordinance. It's a command. And so there's
no salvation in the waters of baptism. Salvation is by the
grace of God through the blood of Christ. The ordinance of water
baptism is a confession of that. That's the New Testament public
confession of our identification and our faith in Christ. That's
why we don't call it a sacrament. It's not a sacrament. Sacrament
means it has some saving power and it doesn't. But the word
baptized itself, it literally means placed into or immersed
into. And you could read it this way,
verse three, know ye not that so many of us as were placed
into or immersed into Jesus Christ were immersed into his death.
Now what does that mean? Well, look at verse four. Therefore,
we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. Now we often say it
this way, verse five says it, for if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. What does all that mean? It means
this, that when Christ died on that cross, He died for a people. He was the surety and the substitute
of those whom the Father had given Him. They're called the
elect. They're called His church. He
redeemed His church with the price of His own blood. They're
called His sheep. He said the Good Shepherd giveth
His life for the sheep. That's who he's talking about.
And that union, that's a union. It's a representative union.
Christ represented his people. It's a union of suretyship. He
was made sin. Christ had the debt of their
sins charged to him. That's what it means in 2 Corinthians
5.21, it says he was made sin. Our sins were imputed, charged,
accounted, reckoned to Christ. So that when he died, he didn't
die for himself, he died for his people. That's the suretyship
of Christ. He became accountable, responsible
for our debt which was given him before the foundation of
the world in the covenant of grace. And he actually, in paying
that debt, he substituted himself as the Lamb, worthy as the Lamb,
the sacrifice. The propitiation. He died, he
suffered, he bled, he died to pay that debt. To law and justice
for the sins of his people. So here's what I can say. If
I'm a believer, if I'm a true child of God, if I'm united to
him, one with him, when he died, he died for me. I was baptized
into him. When he was buried, I was baptized
into his death. When he was buried, he was buried
for me. When he arose again, he arose again for me. When he
died, I died as my substitute in charity. So he says in verse
six, now look at this, knowing this, that our old man is crucified
within. That old man is that connection
with Adam of sin and death. He took care, and what that's
saying is this, everything that was against me in sin and death,
Christ wiped it away. Christ took care of it all. He
didn't leave it for me to do. He didn't do like some preachers
say today. He did his part, now the rest is up to you. No. The
old man is crucified. I've heard people say, well,
that's the old nature and that means it's not dead, but it's
dying. No, that's not what that verse says. That's past tense.
Whatever he's talking about, it's dead, dead, dead. What is he talking about? He
said, my sin and my death in Adam, and he took care of it,
that the body of sin, that is the whole kit and caboodle, might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Be a slave to sin. That's what
he's talking about. Be in bondage to sin. And look
at verse seven. For he that is dead, when did
I die? I died when Christ died. He that
is dead is freed from sin. That word freed, if you've got
a concordance there, it means justified. I'm justified. What does that
mean? That means sin cannot be charged
to me. Well, Brother Parker, aren't
you a sinner? Yes, I am. I've never experienced a moment
of perfection. since I took my first breath.
And I won't experience a moment of perfection when I take my
last, and when I pass over, then it'll be perfect. I'm a sinner,
but God will not lay sin to my account in his books of law and
justice, in his court of justice. My sins, we sing a chorus, did
you hear what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you are free. They're all taken away.
They're forgiven. They're wiped away. They're washed
away. What does that mean? That's a
metaphor. It doesn't mean that I took a bath. It doesn't mean
that I jumped in this pool back here. It means that on the cross,
Christ paid the debt of all my sins. They're wiped off. They're
blotted out, the scripture says. So that God does not see them
in the sense of His justice. Now He knows I'm a sinner and
He sees what I do and what I don't do and what I think and what
I don't think. But He does not see them in the book of His justice
and judgment against me. They've been wiped clean. That's
freedom. No condemnation. The law cannot
hold me. Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus hath bled There's remission. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. Whose blood has to be shed? The
blood of one whom God appointed, the one who's willing, and the
one who's able, the Lord of glory. I'm washed in the blood of Christ.
What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That's it. That's justified. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God? I'm righteous in God's sight.
That's freedom. That's why the King James translators
translated that word as freed. The law cannot hold me. The law
cannot condemn me. There is no sin laid to my charge. My record is clean. Somebody
said, well, we've all got to stand before God and give an
account. You're exactly right. Here's my account. Christ died
for me. That's my account. His blood
washed away my sins. That's my account. I have a righteousness
that answers the demands of His law and justice. It's His righteousness
imputed. That's what's on the law books
for me and for all His people. Now, if you die without Christ,
remember Christ said, if you don't believe that I am, you'll
die in your sins. Your account without Christ is
nothing but sin. Isn't that right? Charged to
you, condemned. That's why David said, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
That's freedom. The law cannot put me in jail, keep me in jail,
or pronounce the death sentence on me, because in Christ there's
life. As sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 5.21. I deserve death in myself. I've earned it in myself. But
Christ took my place. I was baptized into him, into
his death. And now I'm justified before
God. And God made that pronouncement
before the foundation of the world in Christ. And in light
of what Christ would come and do on that cross. That's what
he did. But now here's the thing. As
God purposed it before the foundation of the world, and as it was so
in his mind and in his purpose, in the law books of God, in Christ,
always for me, there was a big part of my life that I didn't
know about. When I was born, naturally, as
a fallen, ruined sinner in Adam, I was born dead in trespasses
and sins. Now turn to Ephesians chapter
two. Born dead, spiritually speaking. Ignorant, darkness, and you could
say it this way, born in bondage, spiritually speaking. Look at
verse one of Ephesians chapter two. Now he starts out there, he says,
and you hath he quickened? To be quickened is to be born
again. Remember Christ told Nicodemus,
you must be born again or you cannot see or enter the kingdom
of heaven, kingdom of God. To be quickened means to be given
life. And you hath he quickened who
were dead, spiritually dead now, Dead in trespasses and sins.
That describes the natural man. You remember the Bible says the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. He said in verse 2, wherein in time
past. Now what time past is he talking
about? Before you were quickened. in
time past you walked according to the course of this world now
when you talk about the course of this world don't always relegate
that to the immoral perverseness of the world that includes the
false religion of the world that would include for example
the Pharisees the unbelieving Pharisees to whom the Lord was
speaking in John chapter 8 worldly religion is sin in God's
sight He says, according to the prince
of the power of the air. Now you remember what Christ
said to the Pharisees over there about their father? He says in
verse 44, John 8, you're of your father the devil. These were
religious men, folks. Moral people. Sincere. Dedicated to their cause. Why
were they so hateful against Christians? Because they looked
at Christianity as being idolatry. They looked at it as false religion.
They looked at Jesus of Nazareth as being a charlatan. Wait a
minute, they said. You're talking about the truth
setting us free. We're not in bondage. We're Abraham's
seed. That means we're children of God. That's what they were
saying. We've never been in bondage to any man. Now that was something
because that just goes to show you human nature who won't admit
the obvious. They were under the Roman Empire
at that time. A captive nation. But they recognized
that he was speaking of spiritual matters there. And they're saying,
we're saved. And they said to him, wait a
minute, you're not even 50 years old and you say you saw Abraham? That's why they were so hateful
towards Christianity. It wasn't because they were all
just mean and hard and wanted to kill people. No, they looked
at it as idolatry. But in their religion, they were
walking according to the prince of the power there. That's Satan.
False religion, false Christianity, works-oriented, will-oriented
religion is satanic in the sight of God. He says, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience. In the Bible, the
children of disobedience are unbelievers. Verse three of Ephesians
two, among whom also we all had our conversation, our walk in
time past in the lust of our flesh. Remember he said over
in John 8, 44, the lust of your father you will do. What unlawful
desire does Satan inspire unbelievers to do? Well, I'll put it to you
this way, we'll just cover it all with one blanket here. Anything
but look to Christ alone for salvation. 2 Corinthians 4, 3,
If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom
the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not. Anything, I don't care what it
is, if He can have you bowing down to a shrine or are closeted
off in prayer, thinking that it makes you righteous, that
it exonerates you from your sins, or if it makes you right with
God, that's exactly where Satan will have you. In a false church,
listening to a false gospel, ensconced in a false refuge of
religious profession. Anything but look to Christ for
all righteousness, for all life. That's the lust of Satan. So he says in verse 3, he says,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature as naturally born the children of wrath even as others.
Now what it's saying is this, that the elect of God as born
naturally in this world are no different and no better than
those who are non-elect. We're born in sin, unbelievers. And so those who have been justified
by God through the righteousness of Christ legally, at some point
in time, they have to be liberated spiritually by the Holy Spirit. And that's what Christ is talking
about, the truth shall set you free. Now go back to Romans 6,
I want you to see this. Somebody said, well, Were God's elect ever under the
wrath of God? Well, here's the thing. It depends
on how you define the wrath of God. Now, I'll tell you how I
define the wrath of God. If you want to see the wrath
of God, look to the Lord Jesus Christ on that cross. That's
the wrath of God. I have allergies. That's the
consequences of sin and living in a sinful earth, but it's not
the wrath of God, folks. Somebody said, well, what if
it becomes more serious? Let's say you get cancer. Well, for
a believer, that's a way of passage into glory if he dies or she
dies. But it's not the wrath of God.
You say, well, the only reason disease is on this earth is because
of sin. Well, sin has its consequences now. If you go out here and run
a stop sign and they give you a ticket, that's the consequences
of your sin. But let me tell you something,
that's not the wrath of God. You want to see the wrath of
God? Look to Christ on the cross. And if you're in Him, there is
no wrath of God upon you. If you're not in Him, the wrath
of God abides on you, John 3, 36. But you see, we're still born
dead and trespassing. We're sinners. We're born unbelievers. Where the natural man receiveth
not. You must be born again. Why?
Because your first birth was dead in trespasses and sin. Isn't
that right? And so Christ, when he says that,
he said, if you continue my word, you're my disciples indeed, and
you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Well, what's he talking about? He's talking about the new birth.
He's talking about sanctification of the spirit. Now look at verse
17 of Romans 6. Now remember, he started out
talking about our legal freedom, liberation in Christ as he died
on that cross. We're justified, not condemned. The law cannot hold us. The law
can't put us in jail, you might say, because we're free, justified. But look at verse 17. But God
bethanked that as you were the servants of sin, now understand
a servant of sin here is an unbeliever, unregenerate, but you have obeyed
from the heart. That's the mind, the affections,
the will, that's the new heart, the regenerated heart. That form
of doctrine, teaching, the gospel, which was delivered to you, some
translations say this, which you were delivered to. The truth is both. God brought
you under, God brings his sheep under the preaching of the gospel.
He said that, he said, my sheep hear my voice. And he brings them to believe
it. And look at verse 18. Being then made free from sin. Now the word free over in verse
7 was justified. The word free here in verse 18
is liberated. Being liberated from sin, you
became the servants of righteousness, servants of Christ. That's the
new birth. You're liberated from sin. In
what sense? Well, you're liberated from sin's
power to keep you in the darkness of unbelief that keeps you from
seeing the glory of God in Christ. That's what you're delivered
from. You're not delivered from the power of sin to influence
you. It still influences you, doesn't
it? You're not delivered from sin's power to contaminate you. No, you still have that contamination. Oh, wretched man that I am. My friend, now you see, as 2
Corinthians 4, 6 says, the glory of God revealed in the face of
Jesus Christ, and you've been brought by the power and grace
and goodness of God to see that Christ is your only hope, and
you have no other. Faith in Christ, repentance of
dead works. That's how God brings a sinner
to become a servant of righteousness. He brings that sinner to submit
to Christ as their righteousness. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. That's liberation.
Whereas before you were in darkness, believing that something other
than Christ and His righteousness made you right with God, recommended
you to God. You were in the bondage of legalism,
thinking that what you do or what you don't do or try to do
or try not to do would save you or keep you or bless you. That's
bondage. You've been liberated from that.
You've been liberated from the guilt of condemnation. You see
now there's therefore now no condemnation in Christ. You've
been liberated in the court of conscience. Because the conscience
has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Whereas in false
religion you were made to feel guilty for not doing this, for
trying to do that, not showing up enough, not giving enough,
not being enough. You've been liberated from that. And whenever false preachers
try to bring into bondage, here's what the Bible says. This is
Galatians chapter five. Listen to this, verse one. Stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be
not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. That yoke of
bondage there is false, legalistic, materialistic religion. that makes one not a willing,
loving bondservant of Christ, but a mercenary for hire. Somebody said, well, I'm just
trying to earn my reward. That's bondage. Did you know
that? Had a fella tell me last week
he'd worked for Armco Steel for 40 years, and he said, I hated
every minute of it. He said, I felt like I was in
bondage to the company. Well, you were. You're working
for your wage. But aren't you glad salvation
isn't like that? You're not working for the wage.
The wages of sin is death. Christ earned everything that
I enjoy in my freedom and liberation. And why do you serve him then?
Paul said the love of Christ constrains us. The grace of God
motivates us. Don't you want to say thank you,
Lord? Well, that's more than just looking up in the sky and
saying thank you. That means serving him out of
love, grace, and gratitude. That's what it means. That's
what a willing, loving, bond-serving of Christ, we're bond slaves
of Christ, free at last. Free at last. That's right. Thank
God Almighty I'm free at last. Really free in Christ. All right.