I invite your attention to the
8th chapter of John's Gospel. The Gospel according to John,
chapter 8. The subject of my message is
the text in verse number 32 The truth shall make you free. Let me begin reading in verse number 21. Jesus said to them again. These
were a number of people who had come to listen to him preach. He had to tell them again. They
did not get it the first time. He says, I'm going away, and
you will seek Me, and you will die in your sin. Can you imagine? At last, you seek Him, but He's
gone, and you die in your sin. Can you imagine? And where I go, you cannot come.
So the Jews said, Will he kill himself as though he would commit
suicide? I mean, he said, where I go,
you cannot come. Is he going to kill himself?
And he said to them, you are from beneath. They knew what
that meant, meant what it sounds like. I'm from above. That meant what it sounded like. And you are of this world, and
I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you that
you will die in your sins. And if you're of the world, you
will. For if you do not believe that I am He, now watch this
very carefully in that verse. Look at the word He very carefully.
Is it in italics? That means that the translators
added it. It was not in the original text.
The translators added it in the hope that it might make better
sense to us. Perhaps this is one time they
should have left it out. Jesus says, if you do not believe
that I am, that's what he said, I am. You am what? I am who I am. I am what I am. Well, that's God's name. That's
right. I am. If you believe that, and
unless you do, you will die in your sins. Then they said to him, well,
who are you? And Jesus said to them, just
what I have been saying. And if you'd been listening,
you would not need to ask. I've been telling you from the
beginning who I am, and you still do not know. I have many things
to say and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true. And I speak to the world, and
you are of the world, those things which I heard from him. They
did not understand." Now, notice this. They could not understand. They did not know. These folks
are in ignorance, and they're Jews. They're not Gentiles. They're
Jews, probably some good doctors of the law in the congregation,
and they do not even understand. They did not understand that
He spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, when
you lift up the Son of Man, they did not know what that meant,
but it had to do with His crucifixion when they lift Him up on the
tree. He says, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to Myself,
He was lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
When you, and I'm speaking to you, when you lift up the Son
of Man, then you will know that I am and that I do nothing of
myself. But as my Father taught me, I
speak these things. And he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone,
for I always do those things that please Him." Now watch that
phrase, because I'm going to come back to it in a little bit.
I always, without fail, unceasingly do those things that please Him. As He spoke these words, and
evidently particularly those of verses 28 and 29, many believed
in Him. Then Jesus said to those Jews
who believed him, notice carefully now, they believed him. If you abide in my word, you
are my disciples indeed. And here's my text. You shall know the truth and
the truth shall make you free. So let's look at this subject
of the truth shall make you free. I'm going to ask some questions
tonight and hopefully give an answer to them. We're going to
ask an answer. What is the truth that makes
free? From what does this truth make
free? To what does this truth make
free? Whom does this truth make free? Who would object to having this
truth make them free? All these things are found in
my text. Question number one, what is
the truth that makes free? Well, it is not a political promise. I get rather amused when it comes
time for elections and politicians start talking about, if you elect
me, you will know the truth. Really? Sometimes I wonder if
they do. And then I really get concerned
when they say, and the truth will set you free. Well, I've
been voting for many years, but I have never yet found a politician
with the truth that would set me free. Never did. The truth
is not a revolutionary idea. When men overthrow governments,
they say, you've been oppressed, but now you shall know the truth
and the truth will make you free. Has not happened yet. Or some life-changing philosophy
or product. You want to lose weight? You've
been trying everything. Hasn't worked, has it? Try my
product. It is a truth that will make
you free. Really? Hasn't worked yet? You want to kick that habit you've
been trying to? Nothing works? Try my product. Try my philosophy. It is a truth
that will set you free. Has not worked yet. Has not. I'm going to tell you that the
truth is not a political promise, it is not a revolutionary idea,
it is not a life-changing product, it is not a life-altering philosophy,
none of those things. Rather, the truth is the Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. He himself has declared in John
chapter 14, I am the truth. When he says, I am the truth,
he means that I am the very embodiment of the truth. I am the very personification
of the truth. I am the truth in a person and
the person who is the truth. I am the truth of all the Old
Testament's tops and shadows of salvation, the Jew said God
gave our fathers manna, and Jesus said, true, but I'm the true
bread. I'm the truth of bread. I'm the
bread that is the truth. I'm the fulfillment of all the
tops and shadows. I'm the true Sabbath. I'm the
true Passover. I'm the truth of all these things.
Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of all the truths of the gospel.
Indeed, Paul in Galatians 2 verse 5 says that Christ is the truth
of the gospel. In saying He's the truth of all
the promises of the gospel, Jesus Christ is the true righteousness. the true holiness, the true peace,
the true sanctification, the true justification, the true
propitiation. He's a truth of all gospel truths,
the sum and substance of them all. He is the true God, according
to 1 John 5.20, and he is par excellence, The truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth. That's the Christ I preach to
you. He is the truth. Paul declares to us in Ephesians
4.21 that the truth is in Jesus. And John declares in the first
chapter, he is full of truth. So if the truth is in Jesus and
he's full of truth, that means that there is no room for lie
ever or anything contrary to the truth. He is devoid of a
lie because no lie is of the truth, as John elsewhere tells
us. When Jesus Christ here says,
if the Son makes you free, You shall be free indeed. What he
is saying is this. If you know me, I will set you
free because I am the truth that sets free. So what is the truth
that makes free? It's Christ. It's our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Second question, from what does
this truth make free? It makes us free from our native, inherent bondage to Satan and
to sin. Look in verse number 34. Jesus
answered them most assuredly, truly, truly, verily, verily,
I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. So who
is a slave of sin? Whoever commits sin is a slave. That's why he sins. He's a slave
of sin. The Holy Spirit in Romans chapter
6 calls such persons slaves of sin leading to death in verse
16, slaves of uncleanness in verse 19, and again in verse
19, slaves of lawlessness and iniquity leading to more lawlessness
and iniquity, and slaves of sin devoid of righteousness. That's
us in our native state. Jesus here does not speak of
one who merely commits sin because even those who are free commit
sin. Rather, Jesus here speaks of
one who sins deliberately, who sins habitually, and sins
unrepentantly, and he does it because He's a slave of sin. Sin is his nature, sin is his
master, and sin is his delight. One of the apostles spoke to
a man in Acts chapter 8 and said, you are bound by iniquity. Well, that's the condition of
everyone who's a slave of sin, in bondage to iniquity and bound
by it. You're in the bonds of iniquity. Paul says in Titus 3, 3 that
such slaves are serving various lusts and pleasures, serving
them, wanting to, serving their various lusts and pleasures,
and they cannot seize from sin according to 2 Peter 2, verse
14. Now, that's a slave of sin. Sends willfully, deliberately,
eyes wide open because he wants to. He's a slave to it. Furthermore, Jesus liberates
from Satan's bondage. Look in verses 41 and also verse
44. Because Jesus spoke of this bondage
to Satan when he told his truth denying hearers, you do the deeds
of your father. You are of your father, the devil,
and the desires of your father you want to do. And that, my
friend, is our state by nature and from birth. Paul declares
in 2 Timothy 2, verse 26, that we are from birth in the snare
of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. Satan has captured us. He did
it in the Garden of Eden, has captured us. We are in his snare,
and we do his will. We do his bidding. We do his
desire, because we are his slaves. And we do so by nature from birth. Paul writes to the Ephesians
in chapter 2 describing us, and he says that we walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, and that is Satan. We walked according to
him, according to what he said, according to what he dictated,
according to what he required. We walked according to the spirit
who now works in the sons of disobedience. among whom also
we all conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, the things
of our flesh that we desired, we conducted ourselves according
to them in order to satisfy them. We were fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind because we were his slaves. We are by nature under the power
of darkness. unless God delivers us from the
power of darkness and translates us into the kingdom of his dear
son. We're slaves of sin and slaves
of Satan. Now, I want you to note two important
truths regarding this bondage, particularly in the present instance. First, these slaves were willfully
in bondage. Our hearts may go out to people
in places who are slaves and desire to be free and are unable
to liberate themselves and have no one to liberate them. Our hearts go out to them. We
feel sorry, but these slaves are slaves willfully and deliberately
because they want to be slaves. A slave of sin, in verse 34,
commits sin deliberately. Jesus says in verse 44, the desires
of your father you want to do. You love to do it. I wish the building were full
tonight. I wish there were other buildings
in this place. like this one and that they were
full also. It is not the case because slaves
of sin and Satan are tonight somewhere else doing what they
want to do and they're doing it because they are in bondage. Paul says, do you not know that
to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that
one slaves whom you obey. Here are people who present themselves
willfully and deliberately to sin and to Satan and say, it
is my pleasure to do what you tell me to do. That is the most pathetic slave
there is, the slave who loves his slavery, loves his master,
and willfully does what his master says, and that is every one of
us from birth and by nature, every one of us. Notice something
else. Not only were they willfully
in bondage, but they were also believers in Jesus. You did read
that, did you not? They were believers in Him. Because
Jesus here spoke to many people who believed in Him. You can
read it in verses 30 and 31. Now, this is not to say that
they trusted in Him for salvation. Not to say that. They did not
trust in Him for salvation. They were slaves. They could
not and would not. Rather, they believed in their
minds the testimony, to some degree at least, that he told
them about himself. They believed in their minds
his testimony that he was a man sent from the father, that the
father was with him, that the father had taught him, that he
spoke the Father's words and not his own, and that he pleased
the Father in all that he did." Indeed, when Nicodemus came to
Jesus the first time, he said, we know that you are a man sent
from God, for no man can do these things that you do unless God
is with him. And probably from that moment, Nicodemus became
a secret disciple of Jesus Christ. and yet was in bondage. Our Lord had many of these people
who intellectually believed in Him but would not trust in Him
for the salvation of their souls. If you'll look in verse 42, you'll
find that they were spiritually incapable of loving Him. In verse
43, you'll find they were spiritually incapable of understanding him. Again, in verse 43, you'll find
they were spiritually incapable of listening to him. And in verse
47, they were spiritually incapable of even hearing him. That is a slave. And such is man's native spiritual
bondage. Now, I've answered the question,
I hope, from what does the truth set free? Note now the third
question, to what does the truth make free? The truth makes free
and gives liberty to do that which pleases God. When Christ liberates a spiritual
slave, He does not, in the strictest
sense of the term, give that person a license to do whatever
he wants to do, although in a sense that's true as well. Rather, Jesus Christ gives you
freedom to do that which pleases God, and you cannot do anything
that pleases God unless Christ sets you free. Now, it just so
happens that what pleases God is what you will desire to do,
so In that sense, yes, you are at liberty to do that. Someone came to our brother Bruce
Crabtree, accused him of being an antinomian, saying that he was not following
the law and claiming he was lawless. And he said to Bruce, he said,
well, you think you've got liberty to do anything you wish to do?
And Bruce said, oh. I wish I could do what I wanted
to do. I wish I could. It grieves me that I do what
I should not do. I wish I could do what I want
to do because if I did, everything I do would please God. And that's
what Christ gives. It is not so much a license to
do as you will as much as it is the liberty to do that which
pleases God. We read in Luke 1, chapter 1,
verses 74 and 75, that we, being delivered from the hand of our
enemies, sin and Satan, might serve God without fear in holiness
and righteousness before him all the days of our life. That's
what I want to do. I want the liberty. to serve God without fear of
falling short and failing. I want the liberty to do what
is righteous because otherwise I cannot. I want the liberty
to do what is holy because otherwise I am in bondage. I cannot. Oh,
that Christ would give to me the liberty to do that which
pleases God. I want the truth that makes me
free. To do that what I otherwise cannot
do. Please God. Even Jesus, who was
never in bondage to sin and or Satan, himself declared, I do
not do what I want to do. He said in our passage, I do
what pleases the Father. Jesus was free. That's what freedom
is. I pleased the Father. He says
to his parents on one occasion at the tender age of 12 years
in the temple, they come looking for him. He says, do you not
know that I must be about my Father's business? What he means
is, I'm supposed to please the Father and this is where the
Father is pleased to have me and I'm saying what pleases the
Father. That's what Jesus did. He says, I do nothing of myself
in verse number 28. He elsewhere said, I can of myself
do nothing. I do not seek my own will, but
the will of the Father who sent me, John chapter 5, verse 30. And as for us, no one is liberated
from sin and Satan. and set at freedom to do that
which pleases God except those whom the truth has set free because
that is what, to what the truth sets us free. Now the fourth
question, whom does this truth make free? The truth makes free all whom
Jesus here identifies as my disciples indeed. Now, who are Jesus' disciples?
Indeed, they are His adherents. They adhere to Him. There's a rather amusing commercial
in recent weeks, I've seen it, about a man trying to stick something
to this surface or to that, and he can't do it. gorilla comes
walking down the sidewalk with a special product. It is supposed
to be a, I mean, a sticky tape. It is such an adherent that I'm
told you can wrap it around leaking water pops and they stop leaking. I am told that there are products
that adhere so well You can put it around your ruptured radiator
hose and the problem is cured for the time being. It adheres
that well. Jesus does not have sticky note
disciples. They adhere. They're there. They're stuck on him, with him,
delightfully and willfully. When our Lord here speaks of
a disciple, he uses a word that means pupil, learner, one who
follows one's teaching. In Matthew 22, verse 16, we read
about the disciples of the Pharisees. Why? They followed the Pharisees. They did what the Pharisees said.
They acted like the Pharisees did. When Jesus speaks of disciples
indeed, He uses an adjective meaning truly, most certainly. Now, many of these people listening
to him, they were disciples. They believed in him. But they
were not adherents. They were, shall we call them,
sticky note disciples. They're not attached very well.
They're not going to adhere to him. very much longer. They said they believed in Him,
but they were merely professing disciples, like so many today. You find many people claiming
to be disciples of Christ and have no idea who He is. There
are denominations called disciples of Christ, have no idea who He
is. They most certainly do not adhere to Him. Our Lord has many
nominal disciples. disciples in name only. Our Lord has many temporary disciples. He had many in that day. They
followed him for a while, but when his doctrine contradicted
theirs, they were gone. They would not adhere. Jesus' disciples indeed adhere
to him and will not desert him when his teaching contradicts
their preconceived notions. When the Lord saved you, you
that are believers, you may have come from religion, been saved
out of religion. You therefore came with a bunch
of baggage, religious baggage and grave clothes. And your pastor probably told
you some things and said, are you sure that's right? That's
not the way that I believed. Well, the way you believed was
wrong. It's here in the scripture. And
if it's in the scripture and if the Lord said it, then my
preconceived notion is wrong. I'm sticking to Jesus and not
to my preconceived notion. That's a disciple indeed. And none but Jesus' disciples
indeed obey his requirement if you abide in my word. Notice,
disciples indeed must abide in his word. That is the requirement.
If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. Now,
what is it to abide in his word? His word is the gospel. To abide
in it is to continue in it. Brother Paul came, picked me
up this afternoon, took me to lunch, took me shopping. We drove around and he said,
want to come to my house? Sure I do. Let's go. So we did. Stayed about an hour. That was
not long enough to abide with him. I was only a visitor. I'm
staying in the comfortable provisions you have made for me in one of
your local hotels. But I'm a guest. It says so beside
my name. I'm a guest. I do not abide there. One of these days, I'm going
to go home, and home is where I abide. And now Christ is my
home because I abide in him. If you abide in my word, many
begin to be Jesus's disciples, but do not stay with him very
long. Jesus had many disciples in John
chapter 6. And he preached one of the strongest
messages on the doctrines of grace you'll find in Scripture.
And many of his hearers got offended. They got so offended, they walked
off and left him. Now, they were disciples. They
called themselves disciples. They said they believed him until
they heard what he said. And when Jesus found, when Jesus
perceived their thoughts and knew what it was that offended
them, do you suppose he toned it down? No. He applied more
torque and drove it home and they left him. Why? They did
not abide in his word. To abide in his word is to never
leave him. Jesus says of them in Revelation
3, verse 8, that these are those who have kept my word and have
not denied my name. That is a disciple indeed, and
that is what it is to abide in him, to keep his word and never
deny his name. And they are assured that you
shall know the truth. Now, this truth is the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. To know the truth is more than
to know what is true. When the Lord saved me, I was a five-point Calvinist sovereign
grace preacher. That may sound a little strange.
But then again, I have met many five-point Calvinists Sovereign
grace preachers whom I am rather convinced are like I was and
do not know who the truth is. I'm convinced of it. I know they
don't preach it, or they preach things that are true, but to
preach the truth is not the same as preaching things that are
true. It is more than knowing what
is true. It is to know Him who is the
truth. To know the truth is to know Him and not merely about
Him. To know the truth is to know
Him personally and experientially in your heart. And this is much
more than to know Him intellectually, mentally in your head. You may
know a lot of things about Jesus Christ. You may have a great
head knowledge about Him. Your intellect and your Mental
knowledge may have many facts about Jesus Christ, but that's
not the same as knowing him. In the biblical sense of knowing
a person on this earth, I'm acquainted with every one of you, but there's
only one person I know, only one, my wife. I know her. And in that same way, I know
Jesus Christ. I know the truth. I'm not merely
acquainted with him. I know him. Do you? Jesus says, or John tells us
that, now by this we know him if we keep his commandments.
If a man says, I know him and does not keep his commandments,
he's a liar and the truth is not in him. So therefore, I ask
you, do you know the truth? Do you abide in it? Are you a
disciple indeed? Only his disciples will indeed
will never desert him, never will. I was speaking with your
pastor a few moments before the Lord's service tonight. Lord saved him over half a century
ago. I am rather confident that he's
a disciple indeed. He's not deserted yet. He still
keeps the word. The Lord says, if you keep my
word, you'll know my truth and the truth will make you free. Only Jesus' disciples indeed
will abide in His Word and never deserting. Only those who abide
in His Word should be blessed to know the truth. Only those
who know the truth should be set free from their spiritual
bondage. And these knowers of the truth
are set free from their spiritual bondage from the very moment
they begin to abide in Him. I began abiding in Christ in
the year of our Lord 1975, been abiding ever since. I'm rather
confident I'm a disciple indeed. Now, last question. Who would
object to this truth that makes free? Look in verse 33 and I'll
point them out to you. It is those who deny their spiritual
bondage. They answered him saying, we
are Abraham's descendants and we have never been in bondage
to anyone. And they're lying straight through
their teeth because at that very moment they wanted Jesus to liberate
them from the Romans. But we have never been in bondage. Spiritual slaves will never admit
they're in bondage. They say they're free. And they're
lying through their teeth and they know it. They know it. How can you say you will be made
free? Now, you can almost visualize
and hear the conversation going on between these nominal professing
disciples believing in Christ. You can just almost hear it. One says to the other, Gamaliel. Did he just say we may be free? We may become free? Did he just
say we may be set free? Yes, Hillel, that's what he said. He does not think we are free.
He thinks we need to be free. He thinks we are in bondage and
he thinks that we need him to set us free. I tell you this,
Hillel, we have never been in bondage to anyone. We are free
to do as we will. We have free will. So that doctrine was not invented
just a few years ago. It's been around from the dawn
of creation. Slaves of sin and Satan boasting of their free
will. Now, what will people with free
will freely and willingly do? They cannot do that which pleases
God. You have to be free to do that.
They are free and willing to do that which pleases Satan. because they're bound to do so. Look in verse number 45. You do not believe me. Look in
verse 49. You dishonor me. Look in verses
37 and 40. You seek to kill me. He said
it twice. You seek to kill me. And that
is exactly what these free willers did. A few days later, when Pilate
came out and delivered Jesus, the Scripture says, he delivered
Jesus to their will. That's what it says. Pilate delivered
Jesus to the will of those who boast of free will. And what
did boasters of free will do? They said crucify him and they
nailed him to a cross. Free willers did it. People boasting
of free will crucified him on a tree because that's what free
will does. No man ever came to Christ of
his free will, not a single solitary one, because he said to them,
You are not willing to come. Well, Lord, we have free will. If you did, you'd come to me.
If you're willing. No one comes to Christ and except
the slave. Whom Christ sets free. And makes
him willing. In the day of his power. Oh. Lord, do so tonight. Do so tonight. I have one other
question. Will the truth make you free? You were born in bondage, in
sin, to Satan. You're in the snare of the devil
from the day of your birth. taken captive by Him to do His
will. It pleases you to please your
Father the Devil by your nature, that old Adamic nature. But I've
got good news for you. If you abide in Christ's Word,
His Gospel, if you abide in it, you are His disciple indeed. And if you are His disciples
indeed, you will know the truth. And if you know the truth, the
truth will set you free. Do you believe that? If you know it, sing it with
me.