Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles and the message that I'm going to preach today,
it'll be from the book of John chapter eight, John chapter eight. And I have a couple of messages
that I want to deal with the subject of the liberty of God's
grace, the liberty of God's grace. Now in this passage in John eight,
The Lord had been traveling through the land and preaching with his
disciples. He'd already confronted the Pharisees
quite a bit, and he would confront them even more, the legalists. And he'd been performing miracles,
and he had gained a following somewhat, and then there would
come more afterward. A lot of times the people would
follow him for the miracles, for the food, the loaves and
the fishes, you remember that, for physical healing, but they
didn't believe what he said. They didn't believe the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in the salvation of sinners by
the blood of Christ, the work of Christ, the obedience unto
death of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. They didn't believe
the gospel, the truth, in other words. And so a lot of times
when people would come and claim to believe on Him, now, and one
thing you have to understand about the Lord Himself, I mean,
He is God in human flesh. He had some limitations according
to the humanity, the sinless humanity, and it veiled his glory,
but he knew their hearts. And so a lot of times when people
would come and say, well, we believe in you, we follow you
and all of that, he would make some statements that would cause
them to think. And here's one of them. Look
at John chapter eight and verse 30. Now, as he was teaching,
he was teaching about himself being the light of the world.
Christ is the light of the world. John dealt with that over in
John chapter one. And then when John the Baptist
came along, he talked about Christ being the Messiah. He said, I'm
not the Messiah, Christ is, Jesus of Nazareth is. He's the light
of the world. Light meaning truth that reveals
and exposes the darkness. The gospel is a light, the gospel
light. Well, he'd been preaching about
that. In verse 30 it says, and as he
spoke these words, many believed on him. Now the context here
will show that what he's talking about here is that many claim
to believe in him. It's just like today, there are
millions of people who make a claim that they believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's okay if the claim
that you have, you may claim to believe in him, you may claim
to be a Christian. I claim to be a Christian. Understand,
I'm not saying that that's necessarily a negative thing. I wish the
whole world were Christians, but they're not. But it's common
as you go throughout scripture, you see many people make that
claim, but it's a false claim. Now, what makes it a false claim? Well, if it's a claim that you
believe on Jesus or believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but your
claim is based upon untruth, a lie, then it's a false claim. For example, who is Jesus Christ? Who is he? Now, I know some people
who claim to believe in Christ, But they don't believe He is
God. They deny His deity. Well, their claim is a false
claim because who is Jesus Christ? If you believe on Him, then you
have to believe He is who He says He is, who the Bible says
He is. The Bible says that Jesus which
is a name that indicates God, our salvation. And then His name,
in Matthew 1, 21, His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. And then later on in verse 23,
it says, His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted
is God with us. There are some, there were some
in the early New Testament days that the Apostle John dealt with,
and especially in 1 John chapter four, who denied his humanity. And the reason they denied his
humanity is they felt like that anything human or material or
fleshly, like a human body, was inherently sinful, which it is
not. Now, human beings are sinful.
We all fell in Adam, ruined by the fall. And we are sinful,
but the cause of that is not the
human body. In fact, the human body, the
sicknesses and the aging and the death process and death itself
is the result of our sinful human nature. So, this thing about
denying, claiming to believe in Jesus, claiming to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, but denying his person. He is God
in human flesh without sin. That's who he is. He's the second
person of the Trinity. So if your claim to believe in
Jesus is not supported by that biblical truth of who he is,
it's a false claim. And then there are others who
deny his substitutionary redemptive work, now listen to me, to secure
the salvation of his people. You know, millions of people
claim to believe in Jesus, but many of them say, well, the salvation
that God offers is conditioned on man and not on Christ alone.
And they claim, well, he died for everybody and now you seal
the deal. The rest is up to you. You make
the decision. Well, that's a false claim too.
And so the claim has to be backed up by biblical truth. Another
reason a claim may be a false claim is because of lack of sincerity,
lack of dedication. In other words, it's just, it's
hypocritical. It's words and it's not a commitment
to Christ and his word, to following Christ. And somebody says, well,
I made a profession when I was 12, but I never studied the Bible,
never prayed, I don't fight sin, all of these things. They expose
that a person is just a hypocrite. And so that's why the Bible tells
us to examine ourselves. Biblically. So he says in verse
30 of John 8, and as he spake these words, many believed on
him, but look at verse 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him, and they were Jewish people here, if you
continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. Verse
32, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
Now there's the liberty of God's grace. Well, Christ is saying
here that if your claim of faith in him is a real genuine claim,
that is, you're a disciple, a follower, a learner, that's what a disciple
is, under the discipline of Christ, under the headship of Christ. He's your master, he's your Lord.
And if you really are, a believer, a disciple indeed, not just a
hypocrite. He says, then here's the evidence
of that. You'll continue in his word.
Now that word if, I've often dealt with that on this program.
But this is a golden opportunity to talk about it again because
we're talking about the liberty of God's grace. He says, if you
continue in my word, verse 31, then are you my disciples indeed.
Now there's two ways to look at the word if in scripture. One way is to look at the word
if as a conditional situation, a condition. It'd be like this. Many of you have jobs. And here's
the if in a conditional situation. If you do your work, then as
a result of you doing your work, you will get the paycheck. That's
a conditional if. Many people look at salvation
that way. Now that's not the way to look
at salvation. Salvation is by grace. It's a
free gift. It's not conditioned on you or
me. If it were, it'd be a failure.
But one way to look at that is conditional, to look at the word
if. Now you'll find that in the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant,
for example, in 2 Chronicles, I believe it's chapter seven
and verse 14 says, if my people who are called by my name will
humble themselves and turn and repent, that was conditional. And of course, we see in that
conditional if under that conditional Old Covenant, Law Covenant, that
the people failed. All of us would fail under that.
Now, what we see there is bondage. Bondage. If salvation, or any
part of salvation, is conditioned on me, my doing, my deciding,
anything, do you know that's bondage? It's like being put
in jail. because I will fail, and you
would too if you knew yourself. But the other way to look at
the if in the Bible is in the context of salvation by God's
grace, where it's not a condition you must meet in order to attain
or maintain salvation, but where it is an evidence, now keep that
word in mind, an evidence of having been graced by God. And that's what this is here
in John chapter eight. It's not a condition that you
must meet in order to be a disciple indeed. It's an evidence that
you exhibit that proves you are a disciple indeed. And there's
a vast difference because the conditional if is bondage. The evidential if is liberty. Freedom. Look at what he says
again. He says, and you shall know the
truth, verse 32, and the truth shall make you free. Now, what
is that truth? Well, that truth is salvation by the grace of
God. Listen, the Bible teaches that
we're all sinners and we cannot cure that problem. That disease
of sin, we cannot cure. We're under the bondage of sin.
And being under the bondage of sin, we're also under the bondage
of the law. Now the law condemns sinners
where sin is charged. In other words, when the law
says that person is a sinner, then if that's true, which it
is in our case, then the law condemns. So we're under the
bondage of the law. But we're also under the bondage
of the sinful nature which keeps us deceived in darkness. You
ever been in a dark room that you could not see, pitch black? That's like being in bondage.
You're not free to move around without hindrance and without
harm. But when somebody turns the light on, then you're free
to move where you need to move. So that's the bondage. Well,
Christ here is talking about liberty, which comes by God's
grace. It's freedom. The truth shall
make you free. And that truth is not salvation conditioned
on you. It's not salvation conditioned
on the works of man. It's not salvation conditioned
on the will of man. That truth is salvation totally
conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as the surety
and substitute of His people. Christ who by himself for his
people fulfilled all the conditions that God requires to save them
and bring them into glory. Now that's freedom. And those
who continue in that word, those who continue in that truth, prove,
give evidence, that they are disciples indeed. They're true
believers. Their claim is real. Their claim
is the product of God's power, God's wisdom, and God's grace. They're not trying to establish
a righteousness of their own in order to be accepted with
God, because that's bondage. And you know why it's bondage?
Because you can't do it, and I can't do it. but they rest
in Christ as the Lord their righteousness. Listen, I have no righteousness
in myself, but I do have a righteousness that answers the demands of what
God requires at judgment. And you know what it is? It's
the righteousness of my substitute, my surety, my savior, my redeemer. It's the righteousness of Christ,
charged, accounted, imputed to me by God himself. That's why
Paul, in Romans chapter four and verse six, he makes this
statement. Now listen to this. Romans four
and verse six, he says, he's quoting David from Psalm 32.
where David in Psalm 32 in verse two said, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. God doesn't charge
them with iniquity. And Paul was led by the Holy
Spirit to expound upon that by saying this, even as David spoke,
he said, blessed, this is Romans 4, 6, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord imputeth righteousness without works, without our works. You see, righteousness is all
the work of Christ. And God has charged, accounted,
imputed Christ's righteousness, the merits of his obedience unto
death, his payment of the sin debt in full to all his people. And do you know what that means?
It means freedom. It's the freedom of being justified
before God based upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
righteousness imputed, accounted, reckoned to my account. My sin debt is paid in full and
I don't owe a debt to God's law and justice. I owe a debt of
love which can never be paid, but that's not a legal bondage
debt. That's the liberty of God's grace. And that's the issue. Now, as Christ spoke to these
Jewish legalists, they answered him. Look at verse 33 of John
chapter eight. It says, they answered him, we
be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest
thou you shall be made free? Now, they didn't understand,
and Christ is speaking in the terms of salvation, as I said
here. He's speaking in the terms of how a sinner is saved and
what recommends a person to God, what establishes a right relationship
with God. And the unbelieving Jews, they
had basically three things. I wanna emphasize this. Because it's so important, because
people today have all kinds of things that they express as being
something that they believe will recommend them unto God. And
they claim to be Christians. Now, some of these didn't even
claim to be Christians, but some did. But they answered him with
one of the main points that they would present as recommending
them unto God, and that is their physical connection with Abraham.
We're Abraham's seed. But the problem with that, as
I said, is that no physical generation, no physical heritage, no pedigree
physically that a person has can have anything to do with
their salvation, their forgiveness, their righteousness. Being one of Abraham's seed physically,
will do them absolutely no good as far as salvation, as far as
a right relationship with God. Now, to think or believe or rest
in the fact that you're a physical descendant of Abraham as recommending
you unto God, you know what that is? That's bondage. That's a
bondage that man, that they were under. The second thing that
the unbelieving Jews would present as recommending them unto God
was their circumcision, their physical circumcision. Now, the
physical circumcision of the males represented the whole family,
even the females. That was a representative thing. And they say, well, we're circumcised. We're children of God. That's
what they meant by that. We're right with God. But physical
circumcision can have absolutely nothing to do with salvation,
the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, eternal life, acceptance with
God. And to think that it does is
bondage. The Apostle Paul, before he was converted, he relished
in his circumcision. He boasted in it. And he said,
circumcised the eighth day. But when he was converted, here's
what he said in Galatians 6, 14. God forbid that I should
glory, boast, or have confidence. God forbid that I should glory,
save, or accept in the cross of Christ. So that's the freedom
of God's grace. That's the liberty. And so, And
the other thing, the third thing that the unbelieving Jews relished
in was their law-keeping. They said, we follow Moses. Well,
Christ had told them back in John chapter five that Moses
will be your judge. In other words, you claim to
keep the law, but you don't. The law reaches the heart, friend.
And because we're ruined by the fall, our law-keeping will not
cleanse us from sin. That's why we're ruined by the
fall. The only way we can be saved is to be redeemed by the
blood and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Well, he says in
verse 34, John 8, 34, Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto
you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Now, there's
several things you can glean from this. Why do we sin? Because we're in bondage to sin.
You know there's only two, I've said this often on this program,
there's only two types of people in this world. There is sinners
lost in their sins and there are sinners saved by grace. And here's the reality of it.
Now what I'm going to say may shock you. We just cannot stop
sinning. Now that's the fact of the matter.
The apostle Paul dealt with that in Romans 7, verses 14 through
25. And I know a lot of preachers
will tell you what he's talking about before he was converted.
Now understand what I'm saying here. And don't take me out of
context, please. I'm not saying that we cannot
stop being immoral people and become moral. People can stop
drinking, they can stop taking drugs, they can stop running
around doing this, doing that. People can improve their lives
on this earth. But you see, the issues of righteousness
and sin are much higher than what we think by nature. The Bible tells us that righteousness,
now what is righteousness? It's perfect satisfaction to
God's law and justice. Righteousness can only be found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible teaches.
And until we find by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, under
the preaching of the gospel, Until we find that righteousness
in Christ and in Him alone, His righteousness imputed to me as
my whole salvation, the ground of my salvation. And His righteousness
imputed is the ground of my salvation. It's the source of eternal life
and spiritual life. It's all in Christ. Until I find
and rest in Him, I'm in bondage. Now, when I say this, when I
say we can't stop sinning, in essence, here's what I mean.
Whatever it is you do that you think is holy or righteous, let
me ask you this. Would you set it up alongside
of what Christ did and what he did in holiness and righteousness?
In other words, you say, well, I just love God, okay. Do you love God as much as Christ
loved God? I hope you'd say no, but if you
say yes, you're just fooling yourself. His love was a perfect,
unhindered, unchanging love to his father. And he loved his
neighbor as himself. Do you love like that? Does your
love measure up to him? If it doesn't, it's sin. And
that's why we need the blood of Christ. for salvation, you
say, well, I'm doing my best to keep the law. Well, does your
law keeping measure up to his law keeping? If it doesn't, it
falls short for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. He is the standard of righteousness at the judgment. Acts 17 31,
God has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained in that
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead." You see, we should try to be as obedient,
as moral, as kind, as charitable, and as loving as we can. But all of our efforts to do
those things cannot wash away our sins, cannot make us righteous
before God. And as long as we think that
it can, were slaves to sin, were in bondage to sin. That's what
Christ means here. He that commit a sin is the servant
of sin. But the truth shall make you
free, he said. Look at verse 35. He said, and the servant abideth
not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever. The slave
in bondage, his position in the household of his master, is always
conditioned on him doing his duty. And therefore he doesn't
abide there forever. But the Son, that's Christ. He abides forever. And he says
in verse 36, now listen to this, here's the liberty of God's grace.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. To be a disciple indeed is to
be free indeed. And to be free indeed is to be
made free, not to make yourself free, but to be made free by
Christ, the Son of God. And how did He make me free?
He made me free by His death on the cross and His resurrection
from the dead. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.