Here it says in verse 36, John
8, 36. If the Son therefore shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. Free indeed. When our Lord Jesus
Christ spoke, Every time he spoke, his words had different effect
upon the hearts of men as they heard him. Didn't have the same
effect upon people. There in verse 30, it says this.
Back up here in verse 30, we'll start there. As he spake these
words, many believed on him. There were some that believed,
many. And this is what he said to those that believed on him.
To those Jews that believed on him, if you continue in my word,
he encouraged them to continue in his word. Stay in the word,
believe the word, listen to the word, study the word. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. Lord, to whom shall we
go? Thou hast the words of life. So encourage them to continue
in his word. And he says, by this, everybody
will know that you're my disciples, by continuing my word. That's
how we know we're believers. We believe the word. We listen
to the word. We hear what Christ has to say.
We believe him. And then he says, and as you
continue in my word, you shall know the truth. And as we continue
in the word, the truth doesn't come all at once. Truth is a
continuing revelation. And he says, as you continue
in my words, the truth will be made known to you. And that truth
will come to you, and that truth will set you free. As you hear
that truth, it will make you free. It will make you free from
traditions, opinions, fear of man, your conceptions of God,
your conceptions of sin, your conceptions of yourself. It will
make you free, and truth will come and start setting you free.
And it will make you free. It'll free you up like you've
never been free. And then, but he says, in verse
33, there were some that had a different effect on them. And
it says there in verse 33, And some, they answered him, said,
We'd be Abraham's seed. When he talked about being made
free, the true sentinel tree. They said, Well, we'd be Abraham's
seed. We know the truth. We're children of Abraham. We're
Abraham's seed, and we're never in bondage to any man. And how
sayest thou, ye shall be made free? We don't need to be made
free. We never was in bondage. And
oh my, and our Lord, when they heard this, what a proud boast
to say that we be Abraham's seed. We don't need anything you've
got. We don't need to hear the truth you're teaching. We already
know the Word. We don't need to be set free.
I got saved when I was 12. I made a profession when I was
14. My daddy was a preacher. My mother and father raised me
in a good Christian home. I don't need to be set free.
But oh, what a proud boast these folks to say we never had bondage
to any man. Well, our Lord reveals to them
and shows them two ways they were in bondage. And He says
here in verse... What do you mean, that we need
to be made free? And our Lord says, truly, truly,
in verse 3, I say unto you, whosoever commit a sin is the servant of
sin. That's one way they were in bondage. They were slaves
to sin. Wherever who commit a sin is
the servant of sin. Sin reigns over a servant. Sin
is their master. If you are a servant of sin,
that means sin is your master. Sin rules over you. Sin has dominion
over you. Sin abounds, sin reigns. There's
two sovereigns in this Scripture. God's sovereign, God's power,
to do as He will, and sins are sovereign. It rains over a man,
and there ain't nobody can break that rain except the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. And that's what it meant. Whosoever
the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed. Not only were
they in bondage to sin, but they were in bondage to men. They
were under Roman rule at this particular time and said, we
were never in bondage to anything. And at that very time, Caesar
ruled over them, the Roman emperor ruled over them, and told them
where to go, what to do, and how to do it. And oh, beloved,
so these men were in bondage to men, and were in bondage to
sin. And the very fact that they said,
why do you mean we need to be made free? What are you talking
about? We got the law, we got Abraham,
we got Moses, we got the Bible. And he said, who's committed
sin is the servant of sin. And this is what he said, and
the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever. And
what he's saying is the servants of sin, the slaves of sin, they
may enjoy sin, and they may enjoy the privileges of outwardly being
in the house, being in the church. But they can't abide in the church.
They will eventually be turned out. They will eventually, but
the Son, He's going to abide in that house forever. And I
tell you what, you've got to be in the Son to abide in this
house. And that's what our Lord went on to say next. He says
there, But if the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall
be free indeed, and then you stay in the house. Service don't get to stay in
the house, but the sons get to stay in the house. And that's
what he says, you know, he said, if we were sons, if these people
were sons by birth, by the new birth, by adoption, they would
abide forever. And beloved, we were born in
bondage. I know what it is to be in bondage.
I know what it is to be bound by sin. I know what it is to
be bound by tradition. I know what it is to be bound
by opinion. I know what it is to be bound
by the fear of man. I know what it is to be bound
by legalism and fundamentalism. I know what it is to be bound
to hand and foot by religion. But he said if they were sons,
by birth, by adoption, they would abide forever. But He said, if
the Son, if the Son therefore shall make you free, it's His
prerogative to set a man free. Now, there's some, He said, who
never was in bondage. He said, if the Son therefore
shall make you free, He's got the right, He's got the power,
and the only one who does it can set a man free. From that
bondage of sin, from that bondage of man, and it's His prerogative,
And he says, if I set you free, guess what? You know what'll
happen? You'll be free indeed. I mean, you'll be free. Indeed,
you'll be free. Absolutely, you'll be free. Now,
I want to talk about some things that we're not free from. We
as believers, we as God's people, we as God's blessed people that
Christ has set free. I want to tell you what we as
believers are not free from in this world before I tell you
what our freedom is. First and foremost, we're not free from
the word and will of God. That's our master. He says, know the truth and the
truth will make you free. If you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed. So we're not free as believers
from the word and the will of God. Now you keep John 8 and
look in Psalm 119 with me for a moment. Look in Psalm 119. Let me show you some things about
the word. You know, we're not free from
the will and word of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, continue
in my words, you're my disciples indeed. And the truth of, you
know, the truth of the truth will set you free. And he said,
he that is of God, heareth God's word. Look what it says here,
Psalm 119 and verse 9. Wherewith shall a young man cleanse
his way? By taking heed according to thy
word. Listen to your word. Listen to
my word. That's how you get clean. That's how you get clean. That's
how you get purified. Then look what he says down in
verse 11, Psalm 119. Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against you. Continue in my word. I hold your word. I want it in
my heart. If my word and your word's in
my heart, then I won't sin against you. I know your will. I know
your word. Look down at verse 89. Look what it says here. I've quoted
this so many times over the years. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. It's settled there. No other place to look, no other
place to believe, no other thing to do. Oh my. Then look at Psalm 105. Look
what it says about the word. See, we're not free as believers
from the Word and will of God in this world. Thy Word is a
lamp under my feet, a light under my path. Oh, as we go in this
world, that's what we're not free from. And this is what we
want. We want the Word of God. What
does God say? And I'll tell you something else
we're not free, not only from the Word and will of God, we're
not free from temptations and from the assaults of Satan in
this world. As long as we're in this world,
we're going to be tempted. We're going to have Satan's assaults.
We're going to have bombardments from him. Paul says, a messenger
of Satan was sent to bucket me. And if a messenger of Satan was
sent to bucket an apostle, imagine what he'd do to me and you. And
our Lord Jesus Christ says that God himself shall brew Satan
under your feet shortly. And you remember when Job went
up to worship, and Satan appeared with the sons of God, done it
in chapter 1 and chapter 2? You know, whenever we come to
worship, you know Satan shows up too. And you know what he
does? What he does is, when you're
hearing the word of what I preached here a while back on the parable
of the soils, he says, when it falls by the wayside, that wicked
one comes and snatches it up. And he comes and takes the Word
and snatches it away from you. You say, well, he takes your
mind, takes you here, takes you there, takes you everywhere else,
gets your mind on everything but on the Scriptures, but on
Christ. And the Word don't ever get into the heart because Satan's
there. The devil's there. He comes to
church. He comes right with us. Old John
Bunyan says that when he, often times, he had Diabolus sitting
on his shoulder, he said he didn't know if it was his mind or his
Diabolus that was speaking in his ear. You know, is it me or
is it the devil talking to me? And that's why Paul said, a messenger
of Satan was sent to buffet me. And I'll tell you, he'll come
and he'll buffet us. And we'll never be free from
that. That's why our Lord says, pray ye. Pray ye. Pray ye that you fall not into
temptations. Pray that your Father keep you
from falling into temptations. And let me say something else.
Look in Romans 7 with me. Keep John 8 there in your left
hand. Look in Romans 7 with me. And I'll tell you something else
we're not free of in this world, as long as we as believers are
in this world. We're not free from ourselves. We're not free
from ourselves. Do you know who our biggest problem
is? It's ourselves. We're not free from ourselves,
from our old man. Look what Paul said here in verse
14, John 7, Romans 7, 14. He said, we know that the law
is spiritual. What do you mean spiritual? The
law demands obedience from the heart. He says, love God from
your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Honor your father and your mother. Don't lie. And all these things
come out of the heart. And he says, the law is spiritual,
but he says, but I'm fleshly, I'm carnal, and I'm sold under
sin. That's that bondage we was talking
about a minute ago. Sold under sin. Now watch what happens here. For that which I do, I allow
not to Oh, I wouldn't do that if I could
help it. But what I would, I do not. For what I would, I don't
do. But what I hate, that's what
I do. I abhor sin, but I do it. I abhor pride, but I'm proud. I abhor self-righteousness, but
I'm self-righteous. I abhor a cold heart, but I have
a cold heart. I abhor the fact that I can't
understand the Word of God the way I'd like to, but I can't. But I don't. They have this struggle,
oh, the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh, and they're contrary one to the other, and you cannot
do the things that you would. We come in here, oh God, I want
to listen. Oh God, I want to pay attention. Oh God, I want to hear from you.
And then we come in here, and next thing you know, this flesh
comes up in our face. And then look what he goes on
to say. If then I do that which I wouldn't do, I meant to sense
that the law is good. Because it's the law that makes
me know. It's the Spirit of God in me
that makes me know. Now then, it is no more I that
do it, but what's next? The sin. Sins in nature, sins
not what we do, sins what we are. Some of you ladies stay
at home all day long, you read your Bibles, you pray, you go
to your jobs and you want to honor God on your jobs and that, and yet you get aggravated, you
get frustrated. And you don't go anywhere, you
don't do anything, you don't cuss, you don't lie, you don't
steal, you don't cheat, and yet you go all day long, you've got
this struggle. You feel that sin. Huh? Watch this. And that's why he
says, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, while I'm
in this body, my old fallen nature. There's not a good thing that
dwells in me. Huh? For the will is present
with me. I've got the will to do it. Oh
God, I've got the will to do it. I've got the will to be holy. I've got the will to be sinless.
I've got the will to be perfect. I've got the will to humble myself. I've got the will to love God.
I've got the will to understand and love and do. I've got the
will. But how to perform it? That's
my problem. That's my problem. Huh? That's
my problem. Now, if I do that I would not,
it's not me that does it. It's sin that dwells in me. This
awful, awful principle of sin. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. Oh, how we love God's word. And
when he talks about the law, he's talking about all the word
of God. Oh, we delight in it. We find great joy in it. But
I see another law in my members, in my mind, in my eyes, in my
understanding, in my affections, warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
these members. And then he says, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body? That's what
he says, this old body of death. Well, how can you go to the livers?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we're not free from ourselves
and our old man. And I'll tell you something else
we're not free from. As long as we're believers and
we're in this world, we're not free from inward troubles on
account of sin. We're not free from inward troubles
on account of sin. Our Lord may let Satan loose
on us, may let him afflict our conscience, and it may even bring
terror to our souls. Let me show you something, what
I'm talking about. Look at Psalm 88. This happens to believers. I'll tell you what, this happens
to us, and it's a troubling thing. Psalm 88 and verse 14. Look at
this with me just a moment. Oh, we feel like that God has
left us, and that's why David said one time, Lord, is your
mercy clean gone? Have you cast me off forever?
And sometimes we get so assaulted by Satan, get so assaulted by
our flesh, that we sometimes think that God's forsook us.
Look what he says in verse 14 of Psalm 88. Lord, why castest
thou off my soul? I cast this off, thou my soul,
why hidest thou thy face from me? I am afflicted and ready to die
for my youth up, while I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted."
He says, God's doing this to me. God's bringing this affliction
on me. God's turned His face from me.
And look in Job. Back to your left. Back in Job,
chapter 7. Back to your left in Job, chapter
7. Job's right before Psalms. These are things, you know, the
Lord Jesus, whom the Son sets free, is free indeed. But as
believers, these are things we'll never be free from as long as
we're in this world, as long as we're in this body. He said
in Job 7.19, look what he says, How long wilt thou not depart
from me? nor let me alone till I swallow
down my spittle. I have sinned. What shall I do
unto thee, O thou preserver of me? And why hast thou set me
as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? God
does that. And I tell you what, a blessed
thing that God does that. with his children, he lets us
know. That's another thing we're not free from. Listen to it.
We're not free from chastisement. We're not free from chastisement.
You know, God says that when they sin, he says in Psalm 89
verse 32, he said, I will afflict them with my rod He won't let us get by. He's
got a rod, and He knows when to apply that rod. Huh? Oh, a sure mark of a slave is
to be without chastisement. But God says, you know, when
I see their iniquities and their sins, He said, I'll visit them
with the rod. I'll visit them with the rod.
And He says, if your son, who the Father loves, He chastises. He reproves, He rebukes. And
if you're bastards and not sons, you're without chastisement.
And a chastisement, now let me tell you something. People believe
all their lives that God, His chastisement is because He's
punishing them. Christ has done punish for our
sins. And we don't rip our children because we want to instruct them,
we want to teach them. You've done this wrong and I
told you if you do that again, I was going to get you. That's
the way God is. He chastises us to instruct us,
to keep us in line. And there's no punishment involved
in it. There's even no anger involved in it. Because Christ's already punished
for our sins. So God in chastisement is a teaching,
it's an instruction, it's an admonition. And sometimes all
you've got to do is withdraw His face. He's got all that sin
reigning in us, and the next thing you know, He's got us so
down, He's got us to have burdened ourselves, we feel the weight
of ourselves, and we cry out, Oh God, have mercy! Oh God, save
me! Your rod's so heavy on me, please
take it away! Huh? And I'll tell you something
else we're not free from. We're not free from our appointment
with Dad. Death is on our trail. And it's
hot on our trail. But you know the difference in
believers and unbelievers? We're not afraid for it to catch
us. You're not afraid for it to catch
us. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ
says it's appointed unto men. It wants to die. And all of us
are going to the house of all living, appointed for all living.
But thank God for this, that death for us is really life. It's a promotion. We ought not
even call it death. We ought to call it passing into
life, passing into joy, passing into happiness, passing to be
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And all beloved, now let me hurry
and tell you what we are. So those are things that we'll
deal with as long as we're in this place, as long as we're
in this world. Now let me tell you what we are
free from. Our Lord Jesus said, if the Son, if the Son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Have you heard
the truth? This is what I'm talking about. You know, He says, know
the truth and the truth will set you free. He said, continue
in my word, then are you my disciples in truth. And you'll know the
truth. The truth will come to you. As the truth come to you.
As the truth come to where you are. And then, then reveal to
you by degrees. A little here, a little there.
More and more truth comes. And it keeps coming, and it keeps
coming, and it keeps coming. Until one day you hear that truth.
And you say, I believe that. And you feel that weight, you
feel that bondage, you feel that sin, you feel that guilt, you
feel that condemnation. Go! The street does that for you.
Oh, my. Well, let me tell you what believers
are free from right now in this world. We're free from the curse
and the condemnation of God's holy law. The yoke of the law
has been broken off of us. You see, the law, you know, I
don't understand why people want to have the Ten Commandments
on the wall. I don't understand why they want them in their yard,
because all it says is this. When you look at that, all it
says is that you broke every single one of them. And you don't
have to do anything to break them. You know, if you don't do it
from the day you're born to the day you die, if you break one
of them, you're guilty of all of them. And once you break them,
you can't go back and undo that breaking. Ten. You can't undo it. If you look
to God's law today, God's ten commandments, the first one is,
thou shalt have no other gods before me. No other gods before me. Second is, love the Lord your
God. Third one is, don't make no image.
Don't make no image. Have you got an image of God,
an image of Christ in your house? He said, God is spirit. He says,
don't ever make no image of me of anything in heaven, earth,
or anything. I'm spirit. You don't know what
I look like. So don't make no images. If you
ever made an image, ever seen an image, you ever say, well,
when you say, well, what does Jesus look like? You close your
eyes, and automatically you see this long, blond-headed guy with
long hair, and people say all the time, he looks like Jesus. One fellow said, I saw Jesus
in a vision one day. He said, how do you know it was
Him? It looked just like the pictures I've seen of Him. And that's what I'm talking about.
So sin, then the second table of the law is love your neighbor as yourself.
Honor your father and your mother. Have you honored your father
and mother perfectly? Don't bear false witness. And
so we look at these things. And if you ever break one of
them, you can't go back and undo that. And here's the thing, if you
started right today, and you obeyed every single one of them
for the rest of your life, what are you going to do about up
to the time that you start to obey? You still got that broken
law over here. That's a sin that you committed,
breaking it over there. You see, the law requires doing
it. He that continueth in the deeds
of the law, he must continue them all the days of his life.
But I tell you what, And I tell you, if you failed at it, you
were under its curse, and there was no place for repentance.
Our Lord, you know, it says, Christ was made a curse for us. To do what? To redeem us out
from under that curse. Law can't curse me anymore. Why?
Because Christ already cursed for me, to banish me. There is
therefore now, right now, no condemnation to them that what?
That are in Christ Jesus. Huh? And that Christ is the end
of the law, the fulfillment of the law. When you get to the
end of something, you're there. And Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness, not to the man that does, but to the
man that believes. Faith is not doing, faith is
believing. And oh beloved, I tell you what,
not only are we free from the curse and condemnation of the
law, And I tell you, nobody's going to bring me under that.
I'm not going back under law, weight, no way, shape, form or
fashion. You need to tell us how to live. Well, if you're
a believer, you know how to live. You live the same way you're
saved, by grace. You live by grace through faith.
Ain't that right? If somebody wants to be told
how to live, that's an evidence that they don't know what grace
is. I mean, if we're saved by grace, grace will teach us how
to live. Christ is the shepherd responsible for the sheep. Is
that not right? Wouldn't the church be a sight? Running around here telling everybody,
you can do this and you can't do that. You can dress this way,
but you can't dress that way. You can go to this place, but
you can't go there. You can have this kind of dog, but you can't
have that kind of dog. You have to put this much money in the
church if you don't put that much money in the church, and did
you understand? Wouldn't it be a sight for us to run around
and sell people like that? When the Lord Jesus Christ said,
if the Son sets you free, not the church, if the Son sets you
free, then you're free indeed. It's the truth that sets you
free. It's the truth that brings freedom to you. It's the truth
that does things for you. It's not the church. It's the
truth. It's Christ. And if Christ can set you free,
He can keep you free. If Christ can teach you the truth,
He'll keep you in the truth. I'm a firm believer in that.
If you've got to wait for me or some church to tell you what
to do, you're a day late and a dollar short, and you need
to hear the truth. Oh my. And then we're not only
free from the law, but we're free from the guilt of sin. Oh,
listen to me now. It may trouble us, but sin can't
condemn us. Look over in Romans 8. 33 with
me just a moment. We're free from the guilt of
sin. Like I said, you know, we have this problem with this flesh
and our own nature. And I tell you, once Christ sets
you free, the guilt of sin before God is gone, it may trouble us,
but it cannot condemn us. Look what he said in Romans 8.33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Oh, my. Well, a whole lot of
folks could if they wanted to. But look what it says here. It's
God that justified it. I'll see you do this. You did. God did. I know you this way, I know it
too, but God don't know it. God said, you know that He justified
me, cleared me, declared me righteous, put away all my sins by the sacrifice
of Himself. Now watch this, who is He that's
going to condemn us? It is Christ that died. What? It's Christ that died. Christ
died. Why did he die? To bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. To put away our sins by the sacrifice
of himself. Not only did he die, but he's
risen again! Where's he at now? He's at the
right hand of God. What's he doing there? He's making
intercession for us. Taking up our case and calls
before God. And learn Romans 1 says this,
8-1 says there is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment
to them that are in Christ. That's why Paul's story says,
men, you men, brethren of Israel said, I preach unto you that
through this man, Jesus Christ, you will be justified from all
things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Uh-huh. I'll tell you something else
we're free from. We're free from the dominion of sin. We talked
about sin reigning. Said, we're never in bondage.
He that commit a sin is a servant of sin. We're free from the dominion
of sin. Look in Romans 6, 14. We're free. Sin does not reign over us. We
have this trouble. But sin's not our master. Christ's
our master. Christ our Lord. He said in Romans
6.14, For sin shall not have dominion over you. Why won't
sin have dominion over you? It has, you know, it reigns.
It's an awful taskmaster. Why won't sin have dominion over
you? Because he says you're not under the law. Now let me ask
you something. If you want to start a fight,
and I've used this before. If you want to start a fight,
you go home this afternoon. And lay down the law to your
wife. Say, I want breakfast at seven
o'clock in the morning. I want sausage and eggs and biscuits
and gravy. And I want my lunch packed a
certain, certain way. I want this on my sandwich. I
want it this way and that way. When I get home, if I separate
on the table, I said, we're going to have real trouble. And you
know how long you all going to have, you know what's going to
happen when you have that? I mean that purse going to fly.
You know why the purse going to fly? Because you put her under
laws. And that's the first thing whenever
you start trying to go back under works, Go back under doing something
to get obedience from God? That's when sin has dominion
over you. But sin don't reign over us. Why? Because here's
what we do. You're not under law. Honey, I sure do appreciate
that breakfast. I sure do appreciate that good
supper. You didn't tell her that she had to do it? But you're
not under law. You're under grace. Grace rains over you now. You
don't have to do anything. You're here because you want
to be here. Law didn't bring you here this morning. Did it? Law ain't going to keep you here.
Law ain't going to keep you loving Christ. Law ain't going to keep
you in His work. Grace is going to do that. Grace is going to
keep you believing. Grace is going to keep you trusting.
Grace is going to keep you looking. Ain't it? Oh, bless His holy
name. And I'll tell you what, if the
Son therefore shall make you free, we're under grace, blessed
grace, free grace, sovereign grace, grace that came by Jesus
Christ. And I'll tell you something else
we're free from. We're free from the power of
Satan himself. We were held captive by him.
You know, our Lord Jesus says this, Paul says, you know, we're
bound to give thanks to God because He hath delivered you from the
power of darkness and hath translated you into the kingdom of His dear
Son. Now you look in Romans, I mean, excuse me, Luke chapter
11. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Luke 11. Talking about El Capitan and
Christ come and set us free. The devil's got power, but he
ain't got power that God's got. And you know, he said here in
Luke 11, verse 21, he said, When a strong man armed keeps his
palace, his goods are in peace. Now, the strong man armed here
is the devil. If you read the context, by Beelzebub. Beelzebub. When a strong man
armed keeps his palace, his goods are in peace. We're his goods. But when a stronger than he shall
come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted, and divided it to his foes. What was the armor that he used
to help us and hold us? lies, deceit, self-righteousness,
hypocrisy, pride, tradition, sin. And Christ came a strong
man and whipped him, took his armory away from him, and brought
the truth and put it in his place. Oh, my. He bought us by price
and by power. And then let me give you this.
And oh, you've got to see this in 1 Corinthians 15. Let me show
you this. I hope I'm not preaching too
long. I hope I'm not rearing you. But
1 Corinthians 15. We're freed from the awful sting
of death. We're freed from the awful sting
of death. We've seen a lot of folks be
called home, be called to be with the Lord. Some of them went
suddenly, and they wasn't expecting it. And it was a shock. Some, they was expecting it,
and they faced it. Went to be with the Lord with
great joy and peace. And look what He said in 1 Corinthians
15, 55. Thy we will. We're going to. I mean, that's just, we're just
going to happen. We will. But he says here in
verse 55, oh death, where is thy sting? You know what, down in verse
56 says the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin
is the law. I just got to assure you, we're
not under law, we're under grace. And we don't have any sin, so
sin cannot sting us, cannot sting us. So, O grave, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Now we will, but it can't hurt
us. To hurt us it cannot do. There is no hurt in death. There
is no harm in death. Look what our Lord said here.
But thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We have seen some folks go to
face with smiles on their face and peace in their eyes and peace
in their heart. But what did our Lord say? He
said, except you believe that I am He, you shall die in your
sins. There's not a person in this
building today that wants to do that. not a soul in this building
that wants to die in their sin. Huh? If you are my disciples, you'll
continue in my Word, and you'll know the truth. How? By continuing in that Word, listening
to that Word, believing that Word, listening to that Word,
searching that Word. And the truth shall make you
free. Oh, we don't need to be made
free. If you're serving the sin, you
do. He said the servant won't abide
in the house. Sin can't abide in the house. But the Son, He
abides in the house. And if the Son, therefore, shall
make you free, free from sin, then you'll be free indeed. May God set you free, free, free. Our Father, O gracious God in
heaven, thank You for Your Gospel, thank You for the truth as it
is in Christ our Lord. God bless the Gospel today, bless
it to our hearts, bless it to our understanding. Oh, Lord, we thank you for this
freedom we have in Christ, this liberty we have in Christ. We're
going to stand fast in this liberty we have in Christ. We're going
to stand fast. We're not going to be brought
under bondage. We thank you for this freedom. Thank you for this
liberty. And thank you, Lord Jesus, that
sin shall not reign over us in this world. And that when you
call us home, Lord, we are waiting for that voice, waiting for that
blessed call. We thank you. Save your people.
God calls the gospel to find fruit, bring forth fruit to your
glory and the glory of your blessed Son. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.