if you'd open your Bibles to
John chapter 8. And we'll pray here before we
read from John chapter 8. Our Father bless us this morning. We've gathered in the name of
your Son and it's from your son and about your son that we want
to learn this morning. Lord, inspire me with your spirit
that I may take from what is Christ's and at least tell it
to those who have come here. We know that showing these things
can be done only by your spirit. But Lord, enable me at least
to tell of those things of Christ. And then may your spirit bless
that telling by showing it to those who have gathered here
or who are watching online or who may later watch this as a
recording. Lord, it is your word that has
power and it has power to do whatever you send it to do. We
pray you'd send it for gracious purposes this morning. Forgive
our sins, we know that they are many, but you are a God that
delights in mercy, You are a God who pardons iniquity and passes
over the transgression of the remnant of your heritage. So
Lord, we are not hesitant to confess to you that we are sinners.
Sinners by nature, by birth, and by practice. But we are confident
that through Jesus Christ, you will forgive us. Remove from
our conscience any note of our sin. lest we be tempted to rely upon our own
works to remove the guilt. Wash us clean again in the blood
of Christ, and it's in his name we pray, amen. John chapter eight,
beginning of verse 31, to the Jews who had believed in him,
Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, You are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free. They answered him, we are Abraham's
descendants, and we have never been slaves of anyone. How can
you say that we shall be set free? Jesus replied, I tell you
the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave
has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to
it forever. So if the son sets you free,
you will be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's descendants,
yet you are ready to kill me because you have no room for
my word. I am telling you what I have
seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you have heard
from your father. Abraham is our father, they answered.
If you were Abraham's children, said Jesus, then you would do
the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined
to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from
God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your
own father does. We are not illegitimate children,
they protested. The only father we have is God
himself. Jesus said to them, if God were
your father, you would love me, for I came from God, and now
I am here. I have not come on my own, but
he sent me. Why is my language not clear
to you? Because you are unable to hear
what I say. You belong to your father, the
devil. and you want to carry out your father's desire. He
was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for
there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native
language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because
I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Can any one of you
prove me guilty of sin? If I'm telling the truth, why
don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what
God says. The reason you do not hear is
that you do not belong to God. Now, in the verses previous to
this, it was actually part of probably the same confrontation
with these people. But he said some remarkable things.
In verse 12, he says, I'm the light of the world. There are
many who had come before him who said, I have the light. But
he came and said, I am the light. And that's a remarkable distinction.
And one thing that that tells us is without him, the world
is simply darkness. Without Him coming into the world,
there is no light. So He is the light of the world.
Now, in another place, He calls us believers, the light of the
world. But while He uses similar language, He means something
else. We are the light of the world
only to the point that we set forth Christ, who is the true
light. And this is actually illustrated
rather well in the book of Revelation when it talks about the sun and
the moon. And in that case, or at least in one of the instances
in which the sun and moon are used as symbols, it is a symbol
of Christ and his church. And we know this, that at night,
The moon is the light of the world, is it not, physically?
And yet we understand that the light that the moon gives to
the world doesn't come from the moon, does it? It is actually
sunlight reflected off of the moon. Likewise, the light that
you and I bring to the world is simply the reflected light
that comes from Christ himself. Now, on a full moon, it's dark
outside, but the world is not in darkness. There's enough light
to walk around. There's enough light that you
can see and not stumble over things. And that's kind of like
it is at the present time. Christ himself is not here. That
is, he is not here in the full blaze of his sun-like light. Rather, he shines his light into
this world through people like you and me. But it's only a reflection,
and therefore the light while real is not so bright. But it is enough that if God
is pleased to bless it, a man can see by it, and walk by it,
and live by it. But he says, I am the light of
the world, and the one that follows me will never walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life. The light that he brings is not
simply the light of truth, though that is one aspect of it. It
is the actual life that enables us to see and understand and
believe the truth. The light of truth is preached
in nearly every place in the world. And certainly because the internet's
available nearly everywhere in the world, There's hardly anywhere
you can go that if you want to hear about light, you can. But
hearing about light is not the same thing as seeing it. And
the Bible makes it clear that by nature
we are dead. And there's one thing we know
about dead people. They don't see anything, do they? Out there
south of town, at the cemetery, sunrise and sunset looks all
the same to the people out there, doesn't it? They don't think
they can see anything. So this light that Christ brings is more
than simply a light of truth. It is also the life that enables
us to see the light of truth. And he is that light. He is that
life. And then he goes on to say in
verse 19, and you remember he's speaking to a religious group
of people. And as I recall, they're at the temple. You know, how much more religious
can you get? These are Jews. These are people
who, nationally speaking, are the chosen people of God. These
are the ones to whom God revealed the promises. These are the ones
to whom God had sent the prophets. These are the ones who had the
scriptures. And he's speaking to them, and
he's speaking plainly. And this is something that anyone
who wants to take up the business of declaring the Word of God, needs to have this attitude and
practice of our Lord, He met them at the very point of their
rebellion, or He instructed them at the very point of their greatest
ignorance. You know, we've got to be careful,
and I work at this, that as I preach, I studiously
avoid the phrases and terms that the religious world uses. Even
if the terms may be good, the world has twisted the meaning
so much, you can go out and use those terms with the world and
they think they understand what you're saying, but not. For example,
if I were to go out in the world and say, you know, you need to
to turn your life over to Jesus. Well, there's a sense in which
that's true. But they look at that, the world has taken that
phrase, and they look at that as a virtuous thing to do, which
should earn them a pat on the back and will result in God blessing
them. Phrases like, give your life
to Christ. You know you never do find anywhere
in the scripture anything like that. We read of Christ giving
His life for us and by His Spirit giving life to us, but we never
read anything about us giving our life to Him. What does He
need with our life? So, you studiously avoid these
things. Why? that people cannot misunderstand
what you're saying. You make it as clear and as plain
as possible. And so look how He addresses
these people. In verse 19 after He has spoken
of the Father they ask Him, where is Your Father? And notice what
He says, you do not know My Father. Now that's pretty clear language. He did not try to charm them
into believing him. He did not try to soften the
blow. Now, we don't want to add unnecessary
offense to the gospel. We don't want to add the offense
of our personality, though that happens, but we try not to. We
don't purposefully use words designed to offend, but we must
never hold back in plainness out of fear that they will be
offended by what we say. Henry used to say, if men will
not be saved by telling the truth, they certainly won't be saved
by telling lies. And we could expand that. If
they won't be saved by being bold with the truth, they're
not going to be saved by trying to hide the truth. People sometimes
treat the truth like they do in television shows. You know,
when they take one of these movies that in the theater had things
in it you shouldn't be going to see, and then they put it
on TV. It used to be they just cut that
stuff out, you know. Well, now they'll, the part that
they can't show over broadcast, they'll blur it, you know. So
you can tell what's going on behind there, but you can't really
see it. And some people preach the gospel like that. Or they
claim they're preaching the gospel, they blur it. So the people can
look at it and think, eh, what he's saying is such and such,
when that's really not what the gospel is saying at all. And
so our Lord says to these people, point blank, in no terms that
can be misunderstood, you do not know me or my father. Now, they thought they knew him. Well, this is Jesus, the son
of the carpenter. when he was in Nazareth in his
own hometown. And he began to preach and preach
with some boldness. And they say, well, isn't this
Jesus, son of the carpenter? And he's coming to us. And he's
talking to us in these strong terms. Who does he think he is? He thinks he's the son of God
and he's right. They didn't know that. Even though
he told them, they didn't know it. and they couldn't know it. They could know that He claimed
to be, but they couldn't believe it. You do not know me or my Father. See, if you don't know Jesus
Christ, you don't know the Father. I was talking to some people
that lived across from my parents, and They had moved in there after
I'd left home. So that's why I say a cross for
my parents. I wasn't living there anymore, but I lived in that
area. So I was, we were talking, they were friendly people, but
we were talking about the necessity of believing Christ in order
to be saved. And someone said, but what about
the Jews? They love the father. I said,
no, they don't. If they loved the father, they
would love the son. It's just that simple. If they
knew the father, they would know the son. And if they knew the
son, they would know the father. You see, the father and the son
are inseparable. The old southern phrase, they say, he's a spitting
image of his father, and that sounds, you know, what's spit
got to do with how a person looks. That's just the way the southerners
would say, Spirit and. You can hear, you know, he's
a spirit and image of his father. And that's just the way they
said spirit comes out sounding like spit. So our Lord is the
spit and image. He's the spirit and image of
his father. And if you knew the father, you
would know the son and you would know that he was the son of the
father. There's no mistake in it. So much so that when Philip, I believe it was, said
to the Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.
He said, have I been with you so long? Anyone who's seen me
has seen the Father. He said, you don't know me. You
don't know my Father for all your zeal and religion For all
your careful observance of all those things that I and my father
said to you through Moses and all that, you still don't know
who we are. You don't recognize us. He spoke again and he says, I'm
going away and you will look for me. This is verse 21. And
you will die in your sins. Where I go, you cannot come. Now, once again, he is not pulling
any punches. He's not being harsh for harshness
sake. He's not trying to thunder from
the pulpit, you know, like some do, and pound their fist and
everything, as though it makes them look authoritative. He's
telling them the plain truth that they must hear if they are
ever to be saved from their sins. And he said, I'm going away.
He knew why he came. He knew what he was going to
do, and he knew what the result of that would be, that he would
ascend to the right hand of his father and be seated there not
only as the eternal word who has forever ruled this universe,
but also as the God-man. He'll be made Lord in Christ.
He knew where he was going. He said, you can't go there.
And they couldn't. And they dare not go there in
the condition they were in. But he says, I'm going away.
You can't go there. You'll look for me. Now, does he mean they're
going to be looking for Jesus? No. They're going to still be
looking for Messiah. Because they didn't recognize
him when he showed up. And they still are. They're still
looking for him. Well, he's already been found. He's already been revealed. My dad, he used to say some of
the most obvious things, and yet you'd be surprised how often
we're not following the most obvious things. I once said that
I couldn't find something. And he said, well, if you're
going to find something, you got to look where it is. That made perfect sense. That
told me, well, the reason you haven't found it, you haven't
looked where it is. If you'll just look where it is, you'll find
it. And so that meant keep on looking, you'll eventually find
that thing. I did. If you're looking for
Messiah, you're not going to find him till you look where
he is. Where is he? Right now, he's at the right
hand of the Father. He's in the pages of this book. And so if you want to find Messiah,
if you want to find Christ, open this book and read about Him.
Look for Him in here, but in your heart realize that in His
person, He is seated at the right hand of the Father, all power
and authority having been given to Him. And if you don't look
for Him there, you're not going to find Him. People look for
Him in a church. I realize He is in the church. As defined
by the body of Christ, he's in us, but they're not gonna see
him in us. People say, I want folks to see
Christ in me. Rolf Barnard said, they didn't
see Christ in Christ. Why do you think they're gonna
see Christ in you? But Christ is not in this building
any more than he's anywhere else. But people will go to the church
building. Oh, I feel close to God there. Really? I know what they mean. We're
psychological creatures. When we come here, our mind automatically
switches on to thinking more on the things pertaining to God.
I understand that concept, but that's just a psychological thing.
It's not necessarily a spiritual thing. But we don't have shrines because
there is no place on earth where God is more than he is at another
place. No, God's in Christ. Christ is at the right hand of
the Father. If you're going to find him, you got to look there.
But here's the thing that must have smacked him right in the
face, because as we find later, at least a prominent amount of
the people who were in this group our Lord was talking to, they
were Pharisees. Notice what he says to them,
and you will die in your sin. First of all, that's surprising
because they didn't think they had any. Do you remember Paul, even
as the apostle, describing his past life said, And as touching
that righteousness which comes by the law, I was blameless." If you had told Saul of Tarsus,
you're going to die in your sin, what sin? Later on, our Lord says, who
of you that find me guilty of sin." Well, that's what the Pharisees
would say, who are you? You can't point out any sin in
me. He just told them, I'm going
away and you're going to keep looking
for me, for Messiah. You won't find him because I'm
him and you won't look to me and you'll die in your sins. Now, The Lord Jesus Christ is not just good, useful, profitable,
a nice addition to what we already have. He is a vital necessity. And I like that adjective vital
right there because what the word vital means is necessary
to life. Remember, you know, if you're
laying there in the hospital bed, you know, somebody says,
well, what's his vital signs? And what they mean by that, what
are his signs of life? What's vital to life? Well, your
heart's got to be beating, you're, you know, got to be breathing,
those kind of things, and that's what they're looking for, life
signs. And Jesus Christ is a vital necessity. Without Him, there
is no life. Without Him is life into the
fall. Therefore, if someone dies without
Him, he dies in his sin, he has nothing that he needs. All of the righteousness that
he had worked so hard to to build up in order that by that righteousness
he might gain an entry into the presence of God in blessedness. All of that, you'll find out,
is filthy rags. It's worthlessness. He's brought
before the Lord that which disgusts the Lord. And that which he thought he
didn't have any of, sin, he's gonna find a mountain of it and
no way to hide it. And as I've heard, well, more
than one preacher say, better to die a thousand deaths than
to die in your sin. To die in your sin is to remain
forever in your sin. Sin in you and you in sin. And
therefore you are forever under the displeasure, under the wrath,
of a righteous and holy God. And they understood that. When
he said, die in your sin, they understood that he meant you
will die cut off from God. You will die just like a Gentile. They understood if a Gentile
died, you know, he perished forever. They knew that, never thought
about themselves. Well, He goes on and he says in verse
24, I told you you would die in your sins if you do not believe
that I am. And just leave off the rest of
the words that the translators added. If you do not believe
that I am. You will indeed die in your sins. Remember, he said, you do not
know me. Here's proof of it. They didn't know that he is the
one that spoke to Moses from the burning bush. And when Moses
said, who are you? Whom shall I say sent me? He
says, you tell them I am sent you. And here he is. I am is here. And they don't
know him. They don't recognize him. And because they do not recognize
him for who he is, they will indeed die in their sins. Well, it says in verse 30, even as
he spoke, many put their faith in him. Now, it is obvious that
when it says, many put your faith in him, that they were not actually
believing him in the sense that you and I claim to be believers. And how do we know that? Well,
it says in verse 31, to the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said,
and this is the portion we read earlier, And among the things
that he said to them is that they couldn't hear what he was
saying, and they do not believe what he is saying. So what is
meant here is these people heard the words he said, some of them
did, heard the words he said, thought they understood them,
and they said, inside themselves or maybe to the person, I believe
him. I believe him. James teaches us there's a big
difference between saying I have faith and really having faith. And this difference is revealed
in what a person does. And it's not works of morality
or works of charity that he's talking about. A person can say,
I believe him. And yet, if they're still trying
to establish their own righteousness, whether by moral works or religious
performances or whatever, they don't believe him. Doesn't matter
what they say, they're not believing him. They're not resting in him. If they're not willing, to withdraw
themselves from those religious institutions which preach a false
gospel. They say, oh, I believe in God's
free and sovereign grace. I believe that salvation is by
grace without works. Well, then why are you going
down to that church that teaches salvations by grace, but then
afterwards you got to do this and that and the other in order
to keep your salvation? How can we stand there? Well, they got
a good program for the kids. Well then you don't believe that
salvation is by grace without works. If you did, you wouldn't
sit still listening to someone who preaches something else.
You wouldn't support the preaching of a different message. That's
what James means. Well these people, they had plenty
of faith in their mouth, they didn't have any of it in their
heart. And so he says to them, if you hold to my teaching, I
notice that big word, if. Why does the Lord say if to these
people? Because he knows their hearts. And he knows this, that
those who begin to believe in a real and honest fashion will
continue to believe. He might have heard their words.
Maybe somebody said, well, Jesus, I believe you. Well, he heard
it. I said, well, if you really do, if you really do, if you hold to my teaching. Now,
that's a nice enough, good enough way to put it, but I kind of
like the way, you know, different languages describe things. And
what this actually says, if you dwell in my word, it says the word became flesh
and dwelt among us. That's in John chapter 1 verse
14, I believe it is. And now he who is the word turns
right around and says, if you dwell in my word, the word dwells
among us. And we who are his people dwell
in the word. The word speaks of a dwelling
place. Now, I got a dwelling place out
there northeast of town. Bonnie and I dwell there. Now,
it's not like every moment of our lives, we are in that house. But when we go home, that's where
we go. That's our dwelling place. And
the believer, he is not every moment of the day in his mind
thinking upon the things of God. We can only manage one or two
things at a time at most, and sometimes we have a hard time
just keeping our mind on one thing. And so when we're working,
when we've got our mind set on the things that need done for
our jobs, we're probably not thinking about God. If we're
watching television, it's pretty sure we're not thinking about
God. And I'm not saying this to make us feel bad about that.
That's just the way things are. But here's the thing about the
believer. When he goes home, his dwelling place is the Word
of God. He who is the Word of God is
where the believer dwells. The Lord Jesus says in John 14,
in my Father's house are many dwelling places and unfortunately King James
put the word mansions which in that day would have people wouldn't
have thought of big fancy houses but now that's what we mean when
we say mansion so people think they're going to get to heaven
and this you know big huge palace is going to be waiting for every
believer well the Lord told us not to look for that stuff here
why would he describe the blessings of heaven
and the very things he told us not to look for here. It just
means a place to live, a home. It could be one room in a big
building. It could be a tent, but it doesn't
matter what kind of place it is. The glory of that dwelling
place is not the place itself. It's the fact that it's in the
Father's house. That's the glory of it. And who
is in the Father's house? The Lord Jesus. Who is the dwelling
place of God? The Lord Jesus. We dwell in him. He said, if
you dwell in my word, really my disciples." Now He was speaking
to a bunch of people but His disciples were right there with
Him and they heard this. Our Lord already knew that among
those 12 there was one who wasn't really His disciple. The Lord had said some things
that caught the ear of Judas. I don't think we have a record
in the scriptures of our Lord calling Judas to himself, but
it must have happened somewhere along the line. And I can imagine
Judas heard him and thought, well, I like that. Can I follow
you? Sure. Come on. The Lord knew
his heart. And so he says to those who have
claimed to believe him and to those who've been literally following
him around from city to city as he preached. He said, if you
dwell, if you find your home and your constant point of reference,
as it were, in my word, then you're really
my disciple. When we go on trips, we stay
in motels from time to time. But they are not our dwelling
place. We never make a change of address to that place. We don't redecorate. We go, we lay down our money,
we go in and hope that it's a nice room, but no matter how good
that room is, Shortly, we're going to leave it. Home is where
we always come back. If you dwell in my word, you
are really my disciples, then you will know the truth and the
truth will set you free. Now, this business of knowing
the truth, is not merely a matter of learning a set of proper answers
to some questions. Now, don't misunderstand me.
I'm not saying that the question-and-answer method of catechism and things
like that is a bad way to teach. It's just a method of teaching
the doctrines. But just because a person knows
the right answer doesn't mean He knows the truth. There's a difference between
facts and truth. Truth is always made up of facts,
but quite often, facts are used to tell lies. And people make a mistake if
they think that by comprehending or memorizing understanding,
at least in a mental way, the proper answers to questions regarding
spiritual things, that they, by that process, have come to
know the truth. The knowledge of the truth is
a thing that only the spiritual living can have. The spiritually
dead can be mentally instructed in all those things, and they
should be. We should do all we can to instruct our children
in what the truth is, But we also understand when we're done
instructing just because they learned our instruction doesn't
mean they know what the truth is in that saving way, in that
personal and living way. How can we know if someone knows
the truth? They live in it. One of the things that has blessed
me through the years that I've been here is that on occasion,
you know, when you're away or something or have to go to a
funeral or marriage or something, you hear other preaching. And right away, you know, that
isn't it. That isn't it. Can't live there. And I'm quite certain that if
I change my tune, You'd quit dancing. You'd quit listening. And I'm glad. I'm glad. I don't want you to follow me.
I want you to know the truth. And if I prove in the end to
be a phony, if somewhere along the line, I get a fever of legalism
or whatever, and begin telling that which is contrary, then it would be your responsibility
to say, one of us is going to go. We can't live in the same
place. You're determined to dwell in
the Word of Christ. And that's why I have confidence
that you truly believe. That's in some way that gives
me confidence that I truly believe. Because despite whatever fleshly
temptations come my way, to abandon this word and go with something
that's more popular and likely to attract more people, I can't
do it. I just can't do it. You think on it for a minute,
like a fancy Christmas ornament that looks so pretty, but then
all at once, that's not where I live. It's not where I dwell. I dwell
in the word of Christ, which is entirely taken up with the
truth about him, who he is and what he's done. And if you hold
to that teaching, if you dwell in that word, then you prove
that you truly are a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are some, and it always
baffles me when I see it happen, There's some that will go many
years listening to the gospel, I mean the gospel, and claim
to believe it and seem to rejoice in it, but then many years later
they just leave. And I don't mean they leave and go to another
church that preaches the gospel because they were kind of upset
that something that went on at that church, that happens with
believers. I'm talking about they leave
where the gospel is faithfully preached, as purely as humans
can preach it. And they go to something else
that, like Paul said, is another gospel. But in truth, it's really
not a gospel at all. And they start to dwell there,
and they're happy there. And I go, how did that happen? They weren't really disciples.
The faith existed in their mouth, not in their heart. But when you hold and dwell in
the Lord's teaching, His Word, then you come to know His Word,
His truth, more and more. It captivates your thinking more
and more. When you first heard about the
grace of God in Christ, it thrilled your soul. I was here when it
happened to some of you, and I saw how happy it made you.
And you did know it then. You know it better now. You've held to that teaching
for so long, it's quite obvious. that that word is part and parcel
of who you are. It's not just a set of beliefs to which you cling out of some
sense of religious obligation. It's become part of the definition
of you. And the more that that is true
of you, the freer you are. For you see, truth always sets
free. Now, here's the thing. We never
in this life perfectly lay hold of the word of Christ. And that's
because we're not perfect. We are flesh and spirit. In our
spirit, we've laid hold of it. In our flesh, we don't believe
it at all. And the two compete for attention
within our consciousness, and it kind of goes back and forth.
And there's times we wonder if we believe at all, and there's
other times we think we believe a whole lot. And I'm not for
sure which, you know, it could be both of those thoughts are
lies. When we think we're not believing
at all is when we're really most trusting in Him, and when we
think we're really doing a good job of believing, you know, that
our faith is on the wane. But over time, we've become more
and more stable. in the things of Christ, less
bowled over by those that oppose us. Less troubled, and let me explain
this, less troubled by our sin. I don't mean that we're not troubled
by the fact that we sin. I mean we're less legally troubled
by it. It used to be when we'd sin right
away, God first thought, oh, God's gonna cast me off for this. As time goes by and we dwell
in the word of Christ, the word of Christ begins to dwell in
us much more richly. And more quickly does it rise
up and say, no, no. You think you sinned worse now
than you did before. Believe me, yesterday you're
just as bad as you were today. Didn't cast you off then, not
casting you off today. If I was marking your iniquity,
I could have killed you yesterday. become freer, less bound by needless
religious sensitivities, much less bound by the feelings of
condemnation. You are free indeed. The truth will set you free.
And then in verse 36, and if the Son sets you free, you are
really free. These people were the disciples
of Moses, and as such they were in bondage and did not even realize
it. But he says to them, anyone who
is a slave to sin, this is verse 34, anyone who is a slave or
anyone who sins is a slave to sin. You say, well, I sin. No,
you don't. You can't sin unless you're under
the law. But I commit sins. I realize
what you're talking about. Historically speaking, you commit
sins. But in the presence of God, you don't sin. You cannot be condemned for sin
because you are not part of that system that takes note of and
judges and condemns sin. It says, sin shall not have dominion. That means authority. Sin won't
have any authority over you. Why? Because you're not under
law. You're under grace. These people
were living under law. They were disciples of Moses.
Therefore, they were sinners and slaves to sin because they
were slaves to the law. He says, and the slave has no
permanent place in the family. The Jews thought they had the
permanent place. He said, no. You don't. And they didn't. Everybody keeps
looking over to Israel now. Many of you are evangelical Christians.
They're scared to death sometimes that America is going to say
something mean about Israel and then God's wrath is going to
fall on us. The Israel that God loves and about whom He said,
He that blesses you, I will bless. And he that curses you, I will
curse. That's you and me who believe in Christ Jesus. That's
the Israelis talking about. And he's saying to these people,
you're slaves and you don't have a permanent place in the household
of God. But I'm the son. If I set you free, you're really
free. And you're a son. And you're
in a house forever. And you're an heir, join the
heir with me. I'm the firstborn, he says, you
know. I'm the firstborn, I get the double portion. But you're
my brethren, and I'm not ashamed to call you brothers. If I set
you free, you're my brothers. And you are indeed free. And
no one in heaven is gonna try to bind you. And no one on earth
or in hell will be able to bind you. And even if your old fleshly
conscience rises up and makes you fear, as it will do, and
it takes some time before your spirit can rise up and put down
that fear, put down that sense of legal bondage, even during
that time that you felt in bondage, you were free. We're kind of
like those children that are taken out of abusive homes and
put into a loving home. And it doesn't matter how often
you tell them, you're our child now. This is your home. You will
never be put out. There will be food for you here
every day. No one's going to abuse you. We cherish you. And no matter how Often, you
tell them that. It takes a long time before they
actually feel that way. And it might be that they never completely get over that sense
of the abusive home they came from. The household of the law
is, in some ways, like an abusive home. And when the Father brings
us into His household and tells us He loves us. And when our Lord assures us
He'll never leave us or forsake us. When He stands there with
scars in His hands, and His feet, and a wound in His side, as undeniable
testimony of His heart for us. So long as we're in our flesh,
it's going to be hard to believe it and not feel that if we step
out of line, God's going to come across and backhand us. Or the
Lord Jesus is going to say, well, I guess you're not my brother
after all. But brethren, dwell there. make
his word of grace your spiritual address. And in time, you'll feel at home, and you'll
feel like a child. And it may not come in fullness
until you're dead, but it will come. May the Lord make us free
through the knowledge of his truth and the testimony of his
son.