We're gonna begin our second
service by standing and singing 298, God leads us along, 298. In shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet, God leads His dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bathes
the weary one's feet, God leads His dear children along. Some through the water, some
through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the
blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all in the night season and all the day long. Sometimes on a mount where the
sun shines so bright, God leads his dear children along. Sometimes in a valley in darkest
of night, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Though sorrows befall us and
Satan oppose, God leads his dear children alone. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes, God leads his dear children of old. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Away from the mire and away from
the clay, God leads his dear children along. Away, up in glory, eternity's
day, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water,
some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives the song. In the night season and all the
day long. Turn with me to Psalm 16. Psalm chapter 16. Preserve me,
O God, for in thee do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said
unto the Lord, thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to
thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the
excellent in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied
that hasten after another god. Their drink offerings of blood
will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. The
Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup thou maintainest
my lot. The lines are fallen unto me
in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless
the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in
the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before
me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore
my heart is glad and my heart in my glory rejoiceth My flesh
also shall rest in hope for that will not leave my soul in hell
neither without Suffer thy holy one to see corruption That will
show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy at
thy right hand. There are pleasures forevermore
Let's pray Father, we come to you this morning
thankful for our time together, and Father, for our time to fellowship
and to hear the gospel. And Father, we come to you as
always thankful for a place to come to hear the message, a place
that you provided for us and a pastor that you provided for
us. And Father, we just ask that you continue to watch over him
as he brings the message and give him the words that we would,
that we do need to hear. And father, we just ask that
you watch over and care for us in Christ's name. Our second hymn is going to be
283, Yesterday, Today, and Forever. Jesus is the same, 283. Oh, how sweet the glorious message
simple faith may claim. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. Still he loves to save the sinful,
heal the sick, and lay. ? Cheer the mourner, calm the
tempest ? ? Glory to his name ? ? Yesterday, today, forever,
Jesus is the same ? ? All may change, but Jesus never ? ? Glory
to his name ? ? Glory to his name ? ? Glory to his name ?
? All may change but Jesus never ? ? Glory to his name ? ? He
who pardoned herring Peter ? ? Never needs thou fear ? ? He who came
to faithless Thomas ? ? All thy doubt will clear ? He who led
the loved disciple on his bosom rest, Bids thee still with love
as tender lean upon his breast. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. He who mid the raging billows
walked upon the sea, still can hush our wildest tempest as on
Galilee. He who wept and prayed in anguish
in Gethsemane, Drinks with us, each cup of trembling in our
agony. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. ? Glory to his name ? ? All may
change but Jesus never ? ? Glory to his name ? ? As of old he
walked to may us with them to abide ? ? So through all life's
way he walketh ever near our side ? Soon again shall we behold
him, hasten, Lord, today. But we'll still be this same
Jesus as he went away. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus
is the same. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. All may change, but Jesus never. Glory to His name. Thank you. Take your Bibles and let's turn
to John chapter 8. John 8, and I want to cover verses
32 through 40. Today's text, our Lord makes
it clearly known that man is in bondage. Man is in spiritual
bondage. That is, he's a servant or a
slave to sin. to iniquity, to breaking the
law of God and rebellion against the Lord. And because he's a
slave of sin, because he's the servant of sin, and that willingly,
he must be freed or delivered by another. Another must set
him free. He can't just decide to be free
one day. He's a slave. He has no authority. No right to do that. And the
truth is, we have no ability to do that. We must be set free
by another. Now in John 8, our Lord is speaking
here with the Pharisees. We're seeing his speaking with
these men. And oftentimes when we look at
them, I know for many years in religion, I would look at these
men and think, what fools? How could they be so blind? How
could they not see this Christ? This is the Christ whom they're
speaking to. How could they not hear him and
believe his words? And so when we look at the Pharisees,
we think, that's not me. That's not me. I'm not like that.
I would never be like that. But that's exactly how we are
by nature. We're in the same bondage that
these Pharisees are in. And we too need salvation by
another. We need salvation by another. Our Lord says in Isaiah 49 verse
9, It speaks of Christ, that He's
the one that speaks to the prisoners, saying to the prisoners, the
slaves, those in bondage, go forth. And to them that are in
darkness, come into the light. Show yourselves. We see the light
of Christ. We need His salvation. And that bondage that we are
in by nature is to sin, and to iniquity, it's to death, it's
to Satan. We're in bondage to this world,
we're in bondage to this flesh which cannot produce a salvation
for ourselves. And the natural man, the reason
why it takes the power and the glory of Christ to deliver us
from that bondage is because the natural man doesn't receive
the light of Christ. We don't receive the words of
Christ. We don't want to hear the words
of Christ. We're men in bondage, and we're
in sin and iniquity. And the last thing we want to
do is come into the light, lest our deed should be rebuked, lest
we should be reproved because of our sin and iniquity. We're proud people. We're proud
people. And like these Pharisees, we
too justify ourselves and contradict him, saying, we were never in
bondage to any man. We were never in bondage to any
man. I don't know what you're talking about. And Christ tells
them, I know you're not in bondage to a man. That's not what I'm
saying. I'm telling you, you're in bondage
to sin. is what he's saying. He's letting us know. He's telling
us, revealing to us plainly that we all, by nature, are children
of the bondwoman. We're children of Hagar. And
like Ishmael, we too shall be cast out except Christ deliver
us, except Christ make us born of his seed, the children of
promise like Isaac. And so by nature, we're all in
sin, and we must be born of the seed of Christ. And that's what
Christ does for his people. He covers their sin with his
own blood. He washes his people of their
sin. He sends his spirit and gives
us a new birth by his seed, and thereby in him. We are the children
of promise. We are the children of Isaac,
the spiritual Isaac, the Lord Jesus Christ. But at first we
appear as Ishmaels. We all appear as Tares. We all appear as Ishmaels and
those cast out. Romans 6, verse 16, Paul says,
no ye not. that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether
of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. And what
the Spirit teaches us in the Word, what he's showing us is
that we all, by nature, are dead in trespasses and sins. We all
are walking, in this nature, we walk according to the course
of this world, the fallen course, the fallen way of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the devil. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. And we're not going to come into
that light. We don't want to come before
Christ. We don't want to come into the light lest our deed
should be reproved. And we'd be exposed to be frauds
and to be sinners and to be rebels against the true and living God.
But only the Savior sets his people free from their sin. And that one who opens the door,
who opens the prison door and brings us out is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this he does. He does this
by a new and living way. He saves his people by a new
and living way. And what I mean by that is it's
not by the traditions of man and what men in religion teach
and have taught always, that it's by our works and by the
things that we do or don't do, by the things we say or don't
say, this is how God is pleased with us. No, that's the way of
man. That's according to the doctrines
and the way of man. That's self-righteousness. But
the new and living way is through the blood of Christ. It's through
His sacrifice. And by His death, He gives us
life, having obtained for us eternal redemption. And through
the new birth by His Spirit. We don't give ourselves life.
We don't make ourselves born again. Christ gives us life. We're birthed by the Spirit of
Christ. It's a new and living way. But
the natural man doesn't hear this. He just hears that and
just lays it aside. Says, that's not for me. I've
got strength. I've got righteousness. I've
got wisdom by which to save myself, by which to recommend myself
to the true and living God. So the natural man won't hear
it with the natural ear. There's got to be this birth.
There must be salvation brought in us by the Spirit of God. I've titled this message, Being
Made Free. Our Lord, let's begin in verse
31, John 8, 31 and 32. Jesus said to those Jews which
believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples
indeed. And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. Understand that Jesus Christ
himself is the truth. When Christ speaks of the truth,
he's speaking of himself. Jesus Christ is the truth. He would say to the disciples
a little bit later, almost the same conversation as he's having
with these Jews, he tells his disciples in John 14 verse 6,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. Christ himself is the
way of salvation, he is the truth of salvation by which we are
freed, and he is the life of his people. So knowing the truth
is to believe on the faith of Jesus Christ. It's to trust the
faithfulness of Christ. It's to trust his faithful work
that he obtained eternal redemption for you. And to believe Christ
is to know the truth that Christ speaks of here. To believe Christ
is to know the truth because to know the truth is to believe
Christ. That is the truth that he gives
us. You know, when Paul speaks of our, when he prays for the
church that we would grow in the knowledge and understanding
of these things, what he's praying that we do is that we come to
see that Christ is all. that Christ is all our salvation. Everything we have need of is
provided abundantly and freely for the people, His people, in
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's to know Christ. That's
to know and have an understanding of who the true and living God
is. That's to be set free. Otherwise, we're just like every
other religious man, right? We're just looking to our works,
and we're afraid because we've done this, and we're trying to
fix that, and we're trying to run here and there and make ourselves
acceptable to God. But knowledge and understanding
is to know Christ is all. Christ is all. He's finished
the work. It's all accomplished in Him.
John 3, 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. It's all in Christ. It's all
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you that believe him have
everything. You have the riches, eternal
riches in the Lord Jesus Christ. In another place he said, he
that hath the Son hath life. First John 5, 12, he that hath
the Son hath the light. And so Christ says, you shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. We could
say, you shall know Christ, and Christ shall make you free. He's the truth and he's the one
that makes us free. Now two of the ways that we see
Christ setting us free and making us free is first by his death
as the sacrifice, as the Lamb of God for his people there on
the cross when he died in our place and put away the sins of
his people. In that he made us free, he delivered
us from eternal death. He delivered us from eternal
death. We see another setting free, which is by His Spirit
and by the word of His truth, whereby He brings us, births
us, into the family of God by adoption. He brings us into the
family of God so that in that family, our God is pouring out
all the riches of his grace in his son. All spiritual blessings
are being poured out upon you in which he takes off that blindness
and the ignorance that we have in this nature so that we know
who Christ is. We know what he's done for us.
We know his love and his mercy. and his kindness and grace toward
us in Christ. And we'll see that second one
in a bit, but let me just say on that first deliverance, where
Christ delivers us from the bondage of spiritual death, he did that
when he came in the flesh. When he came to fulfill the will
and purpose of God, to redeem a people to himself by the blood
of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. He went to that cross faithfully. He went to do that work that
we could not do for ourselves. We would never have endured the
wrath of God. We'd be eternally cast out in
darkness and from the presence of holy God forever. But Christ
obtained life for us. He obtained our washing and our
cleansing of all sin and all that offends, and made us righteous
and holy to our God, so that we are accepted of Him and received
by Him in the blood of Christ. We are now justified by Christ's
blood, and we shall be saved from wrath through him. Romans
5, 9. We are the purchase of Christ's
blood redemption. He's obtained for himself a people
and has reconciled us to holy God. And so that now in Christ,
we don't have any part. Our inheritance is not in that
body of sin. When you look at Adam and you
look at all those who do not believe and don't look to Christ,
that's the body of sin. And what is their inheritance?
It's death. It's eternal death. That's what
they're coming to. That's what they're going to inherit. They're
going to perish in their sins. We've been delivered from that
body. We have no part in that body. That's why Paul emphasizes
over and over to us that the law is not made for a righteous
man. We don't answer to the law. We
don't look to the law for righteousness. We look to Christ, who is our
righteousness. And we're not under the law,
but under Grace. And that means we have no part
in the body of sin. And that's why he encourages
us, don't go on sinning because you have no part in it. That's not what you've been saved
unto. You're not called to live in
that body of sin. We live in Christ, unto Christ,
unto our God and the Lord Jesus Christ by grace, by grace. Romans
5.10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. And so we're saved by Christ.
That's the first deliverance we understand from that eternal
death. And then second, it's by the spirit and the word of
his truth. So that having obtained our eternal
redemption, having reconciled us to the father and obtained
our forgiveness, our Lord doesn't leave us in that darkness, doesn't
leave us in that ignorance. but he's pleased to open the
door, to shine that light in our hearts, that we should see
Christ. All right, as he says in 2 Thessalonians
4 verse 6, 2 Thessalonians 4 verse 6, for God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And that's why
we understand to know the truth is to know Christ. To know Christ
is to know the truth. It's to have knowledge and understanding
because we're seeing the glory of God in the face of Christ,
shining in our heart, showing us He's everything. He's all
you need. He's provided everything. You're
forgiven. He hath obtained your salvation,
your life. You are his even now by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he's pleased to make us
to know him. Ephesians 1.5 says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children, unto the adoption of children.
We're in the family of God by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. As it's pleased him, that's why
he's brought you here. That's why he's caused you to
hear the gospel. That's why he's caused you to
believe the word, to believe the word of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the very truth of God. Now, these Pharisees,
they picture all men. all men by nature, and we see
the enmity of God against God and against his Christ. And we
understand what we are by nature. Romans 3, if you want to turn
there, there's a few verses. Romans 3, verse 10 through 14. Paul shows us, he outlines this,
this is just a half of it. Paul says, As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher,
and with their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps
is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. And so our Lord's salvation includes
not simply us being made righteous, which is glorious and wonderful,
so that we're righteous in Christ and by Christ, But we also now
have an understanding and knowledge of what Christ wrought for us. We didn't seek God, but now we
do seek unto our God. He says we were out of the way.
He's brought us into the way, into the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the way, the truth, and the life. We weren't profitable or
good for anyone. but we were unprofitable and
no good. But now in Christ, we are made
profitable and good. How so? It seemed primarily,
and look at this, it speaks of the throat, the tongue, the lips,
the mouth. We use those things to speak
foolishness and to speak of death and to speak of things that could
not save or be profitable to anyone. But now in Christ, we
speak according to the words of truth. When we speak to one, who asks, how then can a man
be saved? How can a man be made righteous
and justified with God? We declare Christ. We speak of
Him. We use these lips and mouth and
tongue and throat. to speak of the glory of our
God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so by him were made new creatures,
new creatures, so that the old things are past, and behold,
all things are become new in Christ. Because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Second Thessalonians 2.13. And
so our Lord says, you shall know the truth and the truth shall
make you free. And what Christ is doing here
among these Pharisees, among these Jews, he's separating,
he's dividing by his grace and glory the Ishmael's from the
Isaac's. He's separating the Ishmael's
from the Isaac's, the wheat from the tare. So in that same order
would be the Isaacs from the Ishmaels. Isaac being the wheat
of the Lord and Ishmael being the tares. Now looking back in
the text, we see this darkness in man's heart just comes right
out at Christ and speaking against him. They say in verse 33, after
Christ says, I set my people free. They say, We be Abraham's
seed, and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou ye
shall be made free? Look at verse 37. Christ says,
I know you're Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me because
my word hath no place in you. And he's saying, I know that
physically you come forth from Abraham's lineage. I know that. I know that naturally you're
Abraham seed, but you're not like Abraham. You're not like
Abraham at all. Look down to verse 40. But now
you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which
I have heard of God. This did not Abraham." Abraham
didn't do these works that you're doing. So what's the difference
then between Abraham and these Pharisees? What did Abraham do? What's the
chief characteristic of Abraham? What do we always speak of regarding
Abraham? Abraham believed God. Abraham
believed the Word of God. Abraham had faith. And Romans
4 verse 3 says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto
him for righteousness. That's what we know of Abraham.
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. That is, the Word of God had
a place in Abraham's heart. The word of Christ, the truth
of Christ, the word of God, had a place in Abraham's heart, but
not so of these Pharisees. If you start to turn to Romans,
look at Romans 2. Go to Romans 2 and look there
at the end, verse 28 and 29. He's not a Jew, which is one
outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.
But he is a Jew which is won inwardly, and circumcision is
that of the heart and the spirit, and not in the letter, whose
praise is not of men, but of God." According to the letter,
these men, these Pharisees, were sons of Abraham. According to
the flesh, they were sons of Abraham, but not inwardly. Emberly,
there was no grace. Emberly, they had no place in
their heart for the word of Christ. And men and women in religion
will look to everything but Christ. And they look to church. They
look to catechisms, they look to confessions, they even look
to circumcision, right? Four C's. They look to all those
things, which in circumcision being a picture that they're
trusting in the law, but they never look to Christ. They never looked at Christ.
They looked at anything in religion but the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's because the word of
Christ has no place in their hearts. Christ does not dwell
in their hearts by faith as Christ dwells in the hearts by faith
of his people. He dwells in his people's hearts.
And so man is looking to his religion. He's looking to his
works, he's looking to his deeds, and he thinks, this is what God
is pleased with. We look to our constancy and
our consistency in those things and think, this is what God wants
of me. He wants me to try harder and
be consistent in it and just do good in these religious things
and God will be pleased with me. But according to the scriptures,
according to the word of Christ, that's not so at all. He's not
looking to the sinner. The sinner is a sinner and they're
vile and corrupt. God looks to the son and all
who trust him are seen of God because they're born of God.
They're born of the blood of Christ. And so our Lord back
in John 8, verse 34 and 35, He answers them, verily, verily,
I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever. You're not always going to be
in the house. The servant isn't going to stay. The servant's
going to be kicked out. But the son abideth ever. The son abideth ever. Scott always
has a place in your home, doesn't he, Johnny? He always has a place
in your home, because he's the son. It's his by inheritance. That's his. And the son always
has a place. The son abideth ever, but not
so the servant. If you have somebody come over
your house and do some work, they don't stay there forever.
They do their labor, and then they go. They get paid their
wages, and off they go. But the son abideth ever. The son abideth ever. And so
the servant in this life labors for their salvation. but he's
the servant of sin. What he's laboring for is just
heaping up the debt of sin more and more and he can never pay
that off because everything he does just adds to the pile, just
adds to the debt and the rebellion against God. So he has nothing
to purchase his freedom. He has nothing with which to
buy his freedom from his death. And so the Lord said to them
back in verse 24, you shall die. If you believe not that I am,
you shall die in your sins. You will perish in your sins.
And we know that those that perish, that have no part in him are
cast out into outer darkness. They're cast out. because the
servant has no inheritance in the house, that belongs to the
son and the son's children. That's theirs by inheritance.
That's theirs, it's the son's. And verse 35 and 36, the son
abideth ever, if the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall
be free indeed. And He makes us free by the new
birth, by that spiritual birth, by the Spirit of God giving us
life in Him, making us born of Christ's seed. We're His children
and therefore we receive the inheritance of the children. We receive the inheritance with
the Son. Now Christ told these men, my
word has no place in you. But if you do have, if it does,
it's because you are Christ and it's because he's called you
out of that darkness and given you light and life in the Son,
and therefore He removes that hard heart. He removes that enmity. He takes off that blindness.
He opens the eyes. He opens the ear so that we hear
and see Christ, and He opens, takes that dumb voice of ours
that can't speak the glories of God, that speaks only of itself
and boasts of self and its self-righteousness, takes that away and gives us
the voice that praises and glorifies and honors The Son, who is worthy
of all praise and adoration. In Ezekiel 11 verses 19 and 20,
our Lord says, I will give them one heart, and I will put a new
spirit within you. And I will take the stony heart
out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh, a soft
heart, a living heart, a beating heart that lives and feeds upon
Christ. That's the new birth. That's
that spiritual birth he gives. And the new birth, then, is followed
by a walk of faith. We follow Christ. Christ said,
I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. It's his promise. And that means what he's doing
is, we're not working to make that happen. Christ is saying,
I make that happen in all my people. all my people shall hear
and believe, that they may, and Ezekiel 11, 20 finishes, that
they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances and
do them. Meaning, right, because the legalist
says, oh, that's what I've been saying. You've got to now go
back to the law and do these things. That's not at all what
he's saying. He's saying, I'm giving you life,
life in Christ. And all those things, those statutes,
those ordinances that are kept and walked in is all fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all fulfilled in him. He
did it. And we look to Christ in whom
we fulfilled all righteousness. and we're accepted with God in
Christ. And they shall be my people and
I will be their God. Another way we see this is what
Paul wrote at the end of Galatians chapter two. Let me just get there. Skipping on
me. To verse 21. Paul said, I do
not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And so believe that
we do walk in the statutes and we keep all the ordinances looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we keep those perfectly
before our God. And we are his people in Christ. So these Jews were trusting in
what? They're trusting in their lineage.
They're trusting that whatever Abraham had promised to him according
to inheritance, that's mine. That's mine because I'm a physical
son of Abraham. They're the natural seed, and
therefore they said, well, I'm entitled then to all the promises
of God so long as I keep this law. And they answered in verse
39, John 8, 39, They answered and said unto him, Abraham is
our father. Abraham's our father. Turn over
to Romans nine. I want you to see this. Romans
nine and go to the second half of verse six. And we're gonna read down to
verse eight together. For they are not all Israel which are
of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham, that
physical seed of Abraham, are they all children. But in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. Well hold on a minute, couldn't
these in Israel born of Judah. Couldn't these people say, well,
wait a minute, I am a son of Isaac. I'm a child born of Isaac's
seed. I'm not born of Ishmael's seed. I'm born of Isaac's seed. I'm
a physical descendant of Isaac. But look at what verse eight
says. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, which
these men were, these are not the children of God, but the
children of the promise are counted for the seed. Abraham had many
sons and daughters born of him. Even after Ishmael and Isaac,
I think it was Kendra or there was another woman that he had
other sons with as well. So Abraham had a lot of sons
born of him. But only those born of the promise
are counted for the seed. In other words, it's not the
physical lineage at all. but those that are born of the
promise, those that are born of faith, of the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ, so that in Isaac means all who are of faith,
they are sons of Abraham, because when God promised Abraham a seed,
Abraham believed God. has nothing to do with the physical
seed of Isaac or any of Abraham's physical seed. It's those born
of faith in whom the Spirit reveals life and faith and hope and joy
and the Holy Ghost and the Lord Jesus Christ trusting him. And
Jesus said unto them, if ye were Abraham's children, if that were
true, you would do the works of Abraham. You'd believe God. You'd believe my word, just like
Abraham believed my word. You would be children of promise. You'd be born of that promise,
born of faith. You'd believe me, as Abraham
believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. So then, regarding the house
and the inheritance, Paul says over in Galatians 4.31, So then,
brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the
free. And that word confirms what our
Lord said. Nevertheless, what saith the
scripture, cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the
bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. And
these men can lay claim to being physical sons of Isaac even,
And yet they had no part because they were not children of the
promise. They had no faith, no trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ. So to those that would stay in
the house, to those that would know life and fellowship and
peace with the true and living God, Know this, the Son abideth
ever. If the Son therefore shall make
you free, ye shall be free indeed. Because there's never a casting
away in Christ. Isaac's not driven away, Ishmael's
driven away. And all those who do not believe
but trust their own works, they prove that they are Ishmael's.
They prove they have no part with the Son in his house but
are a servant. I'll close with reading Romans
8, verses 14 through 17. Romans 8, verse 14 through 17. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, But ye have received the
spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."
And so you trust Christ. You believe him. He's the son.
and you have your inheritance with God in the Son. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for the inheritance you give to us who have rebelled
against you and fought against you and Adam and were unbelieving
and there was nothing but enmity in our hearts for you. But Lord,
how merciful and how gracious you are to your people and your
son, Jesus Christ, who has died and put away our sin forever
and has brought us into the adoption of the family of God by your
spirit, by your seed, and revealing the hope of sinners, the Lord
Jesus Christ. who is alive and ruling and reigning
and gives life to us, whereby we believe and trust him. Lord,
we thank you for this. We pray for our brethren that
you would bless your word in our hearts, that we would know
Christ and be settled in him. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray these things. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, The Lily of the Valley, 447. The Lily of the Valley. I've found a friend in Jesus,
he's everything to me, he's the fairest of ten thousand to my
soul. The lily of the valley, in him
alone I see, all I need to cleanse and make me fully whole. In sorrow
he's my comfort, in trouble he's my stay, he tells me every care
on him to roll. He's the lily of the valley,
the bright and morning star, he's the fairest of ten thousand
to my soul. He all my griefs has taken, and
all my sorrows borne. In temptation he's my strong
and mighty tower. I have all for Him forsaken,
and all my idols torn from my heart, and now He keeps me by
His power. Though all the world forsake
me, and Satan tempt me sore, through Jesus I shall safely
reach the goal. He's the lily of the valley,
the bright and morning star. He's the fairest of ten thousand
to my soul. He will never, never leave me,
nor yet forsake me here, while I live by faith and do His blessed
will. A wall of fire about me I've
nothing now to fear, with His manna He my hungry soul shall
fill. Then, sweeping up to glory, I'll
see his blessed face, where rivers of delight shall ever roll. He's the lily of the valley,
the bright and morning star. He's the fairest of ten thousand
to my soul. Thank you.