If you were listening last Sunday,
we were looking at John chapter 8. John chapter 8 in which the
Lord was speaking to some Jews. Now a Jew was someone who seemed
to be one of God's people. He was a a professor of religion,
someone who seemed to be one of God's people. Now, the Scripture
says he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. That is, God's
true people are not necessarily God's people because of the way
they look or what they wear or how they talk or their religious
habits and the things they seem to do. So the Lord was speaking
to these Jews, and verse 24 says, He said, I said therefore unto
you that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe not that
I am, ye shall die in your sin. As we said last week, now, if
someone does not believe that Jesus Christ is God Almighty,
Yes, God manifests in the flesh. There's a reason God became a
man. And because he was a man, men didn't think he was God.
And men still today can't understand how God could be a man, because
they can't understand it. And because he's called the Son
of God, that is the offspring of God, men think that's all
he is. And the Scriptures very clearly
tell us that that man who walked this planet was none other than
the mighty God, the everlasting Father. Because you can't understand
that doesn't mean it's not so. In Isaiah 25, Isaiah 25 is a
prophecy, a scripture that clearly tells who Christ is, why He came
and who He is. In verse 8 it says, He will swallow
up death in victory. In verse 9, it says, It shall
be said in that day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for
him, and he will save us. This is the Lord, meaning Jehovah. We have waited for him. We will
be glad and rejoice in his salvation. In verse 11, it speaks of him
spreading his hands to save his people as by crucifixion he spread
his arm. Why must we believe that Jesus
Christ is God? Because only God can put away
sin. Only God can satisfy His own
holy law. That's why He became a man. Man
cannot satisfy God's law. Man cannot establish righteousness. Man cannot get to heaven by what
he does, by keeping the law. So God came down here to do it
for many people. Only God is to be worshiped.
The Lord Jesus Christ allowed men to worship Him. It's blasphemy
to worship anyone else but God. The Lord allowed men to worship
Him. Well, that's what God, God's Word says that we are to do. Under the angels it says that
all the angels worship Him. Hebrews 1.6, verse 8, it says,
Thy throne under the sun, he saith, Thy throne, O God, is
for ever and ever. Just like the Old Testament story
of David bowing down before his son Solomon. If you've ever read
that, when he anointed Solomon king, he bowed himself to Solomon
the king, showing all that all must honor the son as they honor
the father. Why? Because he's equal. with
the Father. He is God. If you do not believe
that, you'll die in your sins. In verse 31, now, do you remember?
Verse 31 of John 8, it says, you shall know, or I'm sorry,
the Lord said to those Jews which believed on him. There's some
Jews that seemed to believe on him, professing believers, but
they didn't either. They didn't believe on him. They
believed on his miracles and his his he fed them and so forth. Our Lord said, if you continue
in my word, my word, then are you my disciples indeed? Last
week, we looked at what that means to continue in his word. Continue means to stay, to abide,
to tarry there, to linger, ponder, consider, meditate. If you continue. Stay in My Word in a given place. Stay where you're told to and
abide right there. Dwell, live right there in My
Word. We noted last week how that the
religious world chases after rabbits. They go after this and
that and the other like the Athenians of old who love nothing more
to hear it but to hear and tell of some new thing. And any new
fellow come along, a philosopher, a religious leader, they would
follow him. follow His new ways instead of the old paths wherein
is the good way and walk therein. And they turn away their ears
from the truth unto fables. Our Lord said, no, if you continue
in My Word, you abide, you live right in My Word, not men's Word,
nor men's interpretation of it. If you tarry, if you ponder,
you dwell there, you consider, you meditate in My Word. My Word. You hear, you heed,
you follow My Word. Not the words of another, but
My Word. Then are you My disciples indeed. You are My students indeed. And you, and if you do that,
if you stay right there on the sound of My Word, you shall know the truth. Verse
32, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free. Now, this is what I want to talk
to us about. a little bit this morning. He says, you shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Well, the truth
about what? Free from what? That's what the
Jews that seemed to believe on him said. They said, why, we,
verse 33, we be Abraham's seed. We're good Jews. We're good law
keepers. We're moral people. We go to,
we're Sabbath keepers. We're never in bondage to anybody.
We're not in bondage. What do you mean free? What do
you mean free? And our Lord answered, verse
34, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Lord said this often
in John's gospel, verily, verily, meaning this is the truth. This is the truth. You need to
sit up and listen when he says this twice, let alone once. Listen now, this is the truth.
This is the truth. I say unto you, whosoever committeth
sin is a servant of sin. Whosoever committeth sin is a
servant of sin. Anybody out there listening commit
sin? Why, of course you do. Someone,
if some ignorant person out there, religious person, says that they
are without sin, oh my, they're in the bondage of ignorance. John said in his first epistle,
chapter 1, verse 8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us. The truth. And our Lord said
to the people at Laodicea, in that church there in Revelation
3, He said, knowest not, you don't know that you're wretched,
miserable, poor, and blind, and naked. Most folks don't know
that. Certainly, irreligious people
don't know that anything's wrong with them, but religious people
don't know. And I contend, from God's Word,
that most people are in the bondage of ignorance. They're ignorant
of who God is, the true God. They're made up of God, but they're
ignorant of the true God. They're ignorant of God's law.
They're ignorant of the strict requirements of God's law. Paul
said that to some people, some professors. He said, you that
desire to be under the law, you that think you're keeping the
law, you that think you are keeping the Sabbath or any of God's law,
do you not hear the law? He wrote to the Romans in chapter
3 of Romans. He said, Whatsoever things the
law saith, it saith to them that are under the law. Why? What
does the law say? That every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty before the law. The law was written
to expose sin, to tell us that we're sinners. Not to tell us
how to get to God. The law doesn't give life. Only Christ gives life, but people
are ignorant of God's law, trying to go on about to establish their
own righteousness by keeping the law when they've broken it.
Hands down. James even said to offend at
one point to be guilty of it all. Laws you don't even know. Men
and women are in the bondage of ignorance, ignorant to Satan,
to his devices. He's wily, crafty, subtle. And his ministers, Satan has
ministers, which Scripture says have transformed themselves into
angels of light, ministers of righteousness. Oh, they look
good, and they sound good. Sure they do. They wouldn't trick
people if they didn't. Well, that's Satan's ministers,
and people are ignorant to their devices, ignorant to the fact
that these are crooks, and they follow them by the thousands.
Men and women are in bondage to superstition because they're
ignorant. Because they're ignorant of the
true God, God's law. Satan's devices and the ministers
of Satan, they are ignorant or bound by all the superstitions
they hear from these men and women. Superstitions being things
not in God's word, but things made up by these by these men
and women, to keep people in bondage to them, to keep people
sending them their money and following them. Oh, men and women are in bondage
to sin. And I don't expect very many
people at all will understand this statement. But people are
in bondage to sin because they are under the law. Because the
Scripture says the strength of sin is the law. Now, you go and
learn what that means. Now, the Lord said, you shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The truth.
Free from what? I just told you what we are in
bondage to. Well, the truth will make you
free, the Lord said. The truth of God. The truth of
who God really is. It must start there. God of truth.
The true and living God. reigns and rules among the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand. The God who worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will, the God who orders all
things, it must be so. God must be God, or this world
is in chaos, or you yourself are on shaky ground. Salvation belongs to God, the
truth, when God reveals the truth that salvation belongs to Him.
You know the true God and this will
make you free. Now listen, these things go together
here. You can't know this one truth
without knowing the rest. Half the truth is a lie. This
is all the counsel of God, the truth. You know the truth of
God will show you the truth of yourself, the truth of man. To
know the true God, that is, holy, just, sovereign, reigning, ruling,
will tell you the truth about man. All of this comes from God's
Word. Now, that's the truth. But you
know the truth of God will tell you the truth about yourself.
That since God reigns, you don't. Since God is holy, we are not. We are sinful. Since God is all-powerful,
that means we're powerless. We're helpless. We're poor, needy,
blind, halt, and lame. And the truth is, now, men say
things like this, God helps those who help themselves. That's not
true. The truth is, God helps those
who cannot help themselves. How? Well, He makes them free
by the truth. If you know you cannot help yourself,
then God will show you Christ. Who is your only help? Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The way. Not to
show you how to get there, but to get you there myself. To put
away your sin by the sacrifice of myself. To give you His righteousness,
which He Himself worked out. He is the way. As a ship going
across one ocean in order to get to one place. That's the
way you're going to get there. You don't get yourself there.
You don't swim. You don't pilot the ship. He's
the captain of salvation. He's the ship, the ark, and he's
the way. May the Lord be pleased through
His Word and His truth to make you free, free from religious
bondage, free from these evil men who promise deliverance,
free from the law, free from sin. It's reigning power. That
is my prayer. Amen.