Our hope is not in the red, white,
and blue. Our hope is in the red, the sinless,
spotless, shed blood of the Lamb of God, God's dear Son. And for
all today, you know, who think, and this is what so many think
all around this country. Those who think that playing
church, it's worth something, they're badly mistaken. And for all who think that submitting
to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ in your heart and in your
life, if you think it's optional, you're badly mistaken. You don't bow to the Lord Jesus
Christ looking back and looking around at what am I willing to
give up or not give up? How far am I willing to go or
how far I won't go? Oh, no. Oh, no. That's not how
it works. When you go to someone's house,
you don't expect them to show you every room in the house.
Some doors will be closed. Some rooms will be locked. It'll
be private and off-limits to just everybody. But when the
Lord comes in, that's the end of your privacy. If you're His sooner or later,
you'll open every door and have nothing to hide from Him. He
knows anyhow. Now, I didn't say you won't have
anything to be ashamed of. We all do. And if you say you don't, you're
bound to be lying. But I'm saying if you follow
the Lord, you won't have anything to hide. Yesterday, Independence Day,
you don't hear that term much anymore. When I was young, that's
what it was called, Independence Day. In 1776, 239 years ago, we declared our independence
as a nation. And it has meant something all
these 239 years. The sad part, nowadays, so many,
so many have tried to declare independence of God, and it can
never be. It can never be. Now they don't
call it Independence Day, it's just the Fourth of July, just
the time to shoot firecrackers and party. People don't know
or even care what it means. There's no respect for our forefathers,
no remembrance of the war's fault, the bloodshed, no honor for our
past leaders and veterans, heroes, And even the military of our
present day. I met a fine young man this morning
in the Air Force. Spoke to him right out here.
He asked us if he could leave that truck and car right here
in the corner of the lot over the weekend. He'd just come out
of Fayetteville and he's on his way to Ohio. He's in the military. And I thanked him for his service
to our country. Fine young man, seemed to be.
But now it's just the Fourth of July, that's all. Holiday,
just a party day. So many don't know or even care
that freedom isn't free. It might be free to us, but it
costs so very much. In this passage we've read here
in John 8, there are two verses we read that speak clearly and
beautifully of spiritual freedom. Verse 32, and ye shall know the
truth and the truth shall make you free. And again, verse 36,
if the son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And with these two verses, as
they appear in the context of this passage, I want us to just
note four things I find here for a few minutes this morning.
Number one is believing. Believing. What is it to believe? Is all believing genuine? Is
all believing worth anything? Well, verse 30 said, as he spake
these words, many believed on him. But what kind of belief
was it? The word believe in the Bible
can be very misunderstood. True believers, even ourselves,
are sometimes full of unbelief. On the other hand, true unbelievers
can sometimes demonstrate, at least from a mental standpoint,
a measure of belief. And these had heard the Lord
speak in verse 28 of his crucifixion at their hands. He said, when
ye have lifted up the Son of Man, he says, talking about the
cross, when ye, not they, but he's charging these he's talking
to, when ye have lifted up the Son of Man, Then shall you know
that I am He. If you'll notice there, the He
is in italics, meaning that it was added by the English translators. What Christ really said was,
then shall you know that I am. The great I am. Same one who
talked to Moses back in the book of Exodus. Same one who led the
Israelites out of Egypt. cross the wilderness. I Am is
God in all His power and glory. He says some other things. Then
in verse 30, He said, as He spake these words, many believed on
Him. It was a mental belief. How they
believed, how much they believed, I don't know. But it was not
a heart belief unto salvation, because Christ would go on further
in the chapter to tell these very ones who believed, you seek
to kill me, verse 40. If God were your father, you'd
love me, verse 42. Ye are of your father the devil,
verse 44. You are not of God, verse 47. So this belief he's talking about
is not what we normally think about in believing. He says all
these things to those who back in verse 30 believed on him.
And he said all these things, verse 31, to those Jews which
believed on him. So what kind of belief was it?
It was a shallow, superficial, surface belief, insufficient.
It was not the operation of God-given faith that really embraces Christ
to the saving of the soul. But it was some kind of believing
that we read. And that's why it's important
to know what believing really is. Not only believing, but the
second thought here, blindness. Blindness. when Christ makes
this beautiful statement in verse 32, and you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. They respond in verse 33
by saying, we be Abraham's seed and were
never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou you shall be
made free? Why are you talking to us about
being free? We're Abraham's seed, we were never in bondage to any
man. Now how very blinding, how very
deceitful sinful depravity is. How defensive sinful flesh is. We could look back to the very
first view of Israel as a nation. Coming out of hard bondage in
Egypt, they were slaves. And then, coming through the
Old Testament, seven times in the book of Judges, they fell
prey to the Canaanites for numerous years of captivity and bondage,
and God would raise up a judge. And then coming on through history,
there was the 70 years in Babylon. They were in bondage, slavery
again. And then right here, as the Lord
Jesus spake these words to them, they were in bondage, they were
burdened, they were bound under the cruel arm of Rome. How dare
that they should say, we were never in bondage to any man. That would be as foolish as a
working man saying, I've never gotten my hands dirty. He ain't
much of a working man. We were never in bondage to any
man. So much of their history was bondage. So what a false
statement that is. And it speaks of the deceitfulness
of sinful depravity, which is present with all of us. We overlook the preciousness
of this hour. We overlook the preciousness
of the gospel of Christ. And men see the whole business
as optional. Take it or leave it. Come to
church or don't. Be diligent to live in a way
that honors God or don't. Doesn't really matter. It's my
business. Oh, no, dear friend. or for a
conviction that we would care. Sin and all the effects of it
are so blinding, bringing such a spirit of apathy and unconcern
in our day and hour, even among God's children. So many think,
well, if I just go to church just about every time the doors
are open, I'll be fine. But oh, the blinding of sin. And then the third thing here
that I talk about a moment would be bondage, the awful bondage
of sin. The Jews in this passage were
blind to their bondage. And so is the human race as a
whole in our generation. People don't realize that they're
bound. They say, well, you know, I'm free to do as I please. And,
of course, false religion, Armenian religion all around this country,
has told them, you know, God's at your disposal. I mean, He's
at your mercy. You can choose Him or not choose
Him. And, you know, you can accept Him or not accept Him. It's in
your power to do this or not do this. You're your own person. You can do it. No. There is a bondage. The condition
of the natural man is far worse than we imagine. Isaiah said, the whole head is
sick. No matter how full of information
it is, the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint from
the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness
in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that have
not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. The condition is so awful, Isaiah
says. It's so sickening to God. It's as if somebody would come
in here this morning to meet with us in public with big open
sores all over their arms, oozing blood, and just very ugly and
offensive and stinking. Not even bandaged, not even covered. Ugly. Awful. A stench in the nostrils
of God. Man can't see himself in bondage
to sin, but God sees it. Peter says men cannot cease from
sin. Paul said the natural man is
in the snare of the devil, taken captive at his will. Ephesians 2.2 says he walks according
to the course of this world. according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience. And Colossians 1.13 refers to
him as dominated by the power of darkness. These Jews our Lord
is talking to, they denied their bondage. And they said, we were
never in bondage to any man. Well, they were no worse off.
than people today who feel like and are being told that your
destiny is your decision. And anytime you're ready, God
is at your mercy. But it's the other way around.
We're at God's mercy. And the sad truth is most don't
even sense their need of God's mercy. Well, I've been a pretty good
person. You hadn't been that good. Well, I'm better than so-and-so
I know. Well, if so-and-so is going to hell, you're not much
better than them. I wouldn't chance that. I wouldn't base
anything on that. Bondage to sin. But the fourth
thing is the blessedness of having been made free in Christ. He said back in chapter 3 that
men loved darkness. rather than light. And that's
just a fact. It is such a condition as requires
God's purposeful and active and diligent invasion of our wills
and our hearts. Note the terminology in verse
36. It's not if the Son allow you to go free. In other words,
He just opens the prison door And you walk out. No, you wouldn't
walk out. There's something in here. This
sinful nature loves sin like a hog loves slop. And you're
not ready to do anything about it. You can't do anything about
it. You can't just walk out. But
what he says, if the Son therefore make you free. Salvation involves
God's making. Christ was made sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God or the righteousness which
God requires in Him. Ephesians 1, 6, we were made
accepted in the beloved. You didn't do anything to get
accepted in the beloved. You were made by Him on the cross,
accepted in the beloved. By the disobedience of one, Paul
said, we were made sinners. And by the obedience of one,
Jesus Christ, were many made righteous. None of us were born
free. We were born in slavery to sin. And contrary to popular religion,
none of us have broken free. We don't have the power to break
free. Oh, no. But God's children are
made free in His Son. If the Son therefore shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. It's a problem with our nature.
Many years ago, our former pastor Preacher Huntley, he had horses
and his barn caught fire. I can remember this. And his face was burned in an
effort to rescue them. Seven horses, I believe it was.
It was a very traumatic experience for him. The nature of a horse could not
do the right thing. It wasn't a matter of just opening
the doors of the stalls and let them run out. They wouldn't run out. But in
fear, those horses just backed up to the back of the stall,
pressed against the wall, they wouldn't come out. Even with
all the doors open. And Preacher Huntley was burned
pretty much on his face and other parts of his body going in trying
to pull the horses out. He was unsuccessful. The barn
burned to the ground with the horses inside. And such is the
bondage of sinful humanity. To open the door is not enough. God has to come in Pull us out. He has to make us free. He has to conquer this stubborn
will, this sinful heart. There's a little more to it than
some sissified preacher saying, won't you accept Jesus today?
Why, no, I don't believe I will. Maybe later. That's the answer. But Christ makes men free. Has He come your way? Aren't you glad for the hour
when the Holy Spirit took hold of your heart, brought great conviction of sin,
made you feel lower than a dog, lower than a skunk? And we were,
and by nature are. Men do things dogs don't do. The Spirit of God brought us
to that nothingness, to that worthlessness, brought great conviction of sin,
and then pointed us to the cross where His Son hung and bled and
died and took your place. And He said, there's the answer. There's the answer. And so today
we look back to that cross and we're saying, oh, happy day,
happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away. Not when I made
that decision, but no, he did the redeeming work then. It's this matter of faith that
she's saying in one pair of hands. One pair of hands. Yes! Put all
your eggs in one basket. His basket. That one pair of
hands. Romans 3.24, being justified
freely by the grace, by His grace, through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Are you free this morning? Oh,
I know you can come and go as you please. You can go to the
store. You can go to town. But are you
free in your heart? Are you free, as the old song
says, from the burden of sin? Do you even want to be free?
If you don't, may God have mercy on your soul. There's but one place to look.
the bleeding lamb and trust him that what he did satisfied God
for your sin once and forever. There is salvation in no other.
There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. And all these other religions,
all these cults, All these Eastern religions and heathen religions,
they won't have that verse. But I believe it's Acts 4.12.
There is none of the name under heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved, the Lord Jesus Christ. The old song said, you've
no other friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. If the Son therefore shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. Amen. Let's stand together. Thank
you for you being here today.