Let me read a few verses to you.
John 8, beginning with verse 25. Then said they unto him, Who
art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even
the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have many
things to say and to judge of you, But He that sent Me is true. And I speak to the world those
things which I have heard of Him. They understood not that
He spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When
ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that
I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father hath
taught Me, I speak these things. And He that sent me is with me.
The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things
that please Him. And as He spake these words,
many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on Him, If you continue in My Word, then are
you My disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free." My prayer to God and my hope
and my expectation, and I say these things by the
grace of God, is that in these studies, the Lord will cause
you to hear the truth. You can go and do what we call
going to church. Actually, you don't go to church. This building is not the church.
People make up the church of the living God, the body of Christ,
His bride. This is just a building that
we meet in, that the church meets in. But you can come and you
can come to these meetings and you can hear men preach and you
can do all of these things and not hear the truth. If this Bible demonstrates anything
in these chapters that we've been studying, these men who
were religious all their lives, who knew this Book inside out,
they didn't yet have a New Testament. But He that would reveal what
goes into the New Testament was standing before them, the Word
of God, incarnate, impersonal, talking to them for chapter after
chapter after chapter to these men, and yet they didn't hear
the truth. He was the truth. And the lesson this morning has
to do with the truth. You shall know the truth, and
the truth shall set you free. Now, is it not at least hinted
in that statement that men are in bondage? You can't set free
a free man. If he's free, he don't need to
be set free. But he's not free, he's in bondage. He's in bondage. And all through
these studies here in the book of John, I've labored to show
you the difference between the natural and the spiritual. There
are things that go on around us every day that are in the
natural realm, and there are things that go on around us every
day in the spiritual realm. And the natural cannot perceive
the spiritual. These are two different things.
There is a natural Israel, and there is a spiritual Israel. Over there in the Middle East,
there is a nation over there we call the nation of Israel.
And rightly so, they are a nation chosen of God. You can go back
in the Old Testament and you can read about them. But these
natural people are not what makes up the church of the living God.
These natural people are not the elect of God spoken of in
the Scripture. But He has a spiritual Israel.
And He says that over and over and over throughout the New Testament. There's the light of religion
and there's the light of God. There's an old nature and there's
a new man. There's religious tradition and
there's the true gospel. There's self-righteousness and
there's the righteousness of God. There's fleshly motives
and there's true conviction. There's law and grace. These
things differ greatly. They differ. In Luke chapter
4, the Lord stood up in the synagogue and He read The first three verses
of Isaiah's prophecy in the 61st chapter is where he's quoting
from of Isaiah. And in Luke 4.18, he stands up
to read, and these are the words he read. He said, The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted
and to preach deliverance to the captives. Men are captive. They don't understand it. They
don't see it. They won't bow to it. And they
won't acknowledge it. But the very fact that they don't
acknowledge it is the biggest evidence of their captivity.
We're bound by sin. Bound. Well, people look for
blinders. They look, well, I'm not blind.
I have a mind. I can think. What do you mean
I can't perceive? I can perceive. I can read things
and understand what I'm reading. You can understand the words,
and that's it. That's as far as it goes. That's
as far as it goes. Natural men are in bondage. And
God's children, because of their rebellion and sin, when they're
born, they're under a foreign government. That's kind of how
He puts it in Ephesians 2. They are under a foreign government.
Sin rules in their hearts and minds. Sin deceives. Sin controls. Sin manipulates. The prophet said our sins are
separated between us and our God. And the way sin reigns is
through lies. That's how it reigns. There is
not a literal person in here, and this person is dictating
things to you, but Satan is a spirit. And that spirit, he controls
the spirit that's in you. And he does it by lies and deceit. That's how he does it. That's
how he rules. That's how sin rules and reigns over everything
you do. There's a right and a wrong way
to do it. I'll guarantee you this morning, if I were to go
down the street here and just knock on the first door I come
to, I don't care who lives there, knock on the door, Have this
little questionnaire and just go down through here with questions
concerning the Word of God. And have true and false answers
here. I guarantee you every answer
they give me will be over here in the false column. You can
take the opposite of what a natural man says he believes and you'll
have the spiritual. Just take the opposite, whatever
it is. I found that to be true over
the years. Man doesn't understand his bondage. He doesn't understand
his sins. And you never will until he gives
you life. When he gives you life and you
experience life, then you will have experienced where you were.
You'll know where you come from. Until then, you're just there.
You're just there. Pharisees put up this argument.
He's talking about setting them free. He said, you shall know
the truth. The truth shall set you free.
And they had this argument. They said, we'd be Abraham's
seed. We'd never end bondage to anybody. Ain't that what natural
men say? I'm not in bondage. I can do
what I want to. I can go where I will and do
where I will. I have a free will. That's what
they tell you. They argue about it. We'd be
not bondage to any man. And the Lord said, if you was
Abraham's children... Now listen to what He tells us.
You'd do the works of Abraham if you were Abraham's children.
But now you seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you the
truth which I heard of God. This did not Abraham. Now listen
to this. John 8.41. You do the deeds of
your father. Then said they unto him, We be
not born of fornication, we have one Father, even God. Jesus said
unto them, If God were your Father, you'd love me, for I proceeded
forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but
He sent me. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear my word. You are of your
Father the devil, and the lust of your Father you will do. He
was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you can convince
me of sin?" Boy, I wish I could say that. He could say that. Which of you can convince me
of one sin?" That's what he told him. And if I say the truth,
why don't you believe me? Will you not take the word of
a perfect man? Here's how bound you are. There's one who stands before
you who sinneth not. You're doctors of the law. You
have the eyes of the law. You have the wisdom of Moses.
You have all these things. If you can convict me of one
sin, convict me." But they couldn't. They couldn't convict him. And
he said, why won't you hear my word now? You take pride in your so-called
holiness, but there's one who stands before you who's perfectly
holy. Why won't you take his word?
Because you're bound. That's why. And the evidence
of your condemnation is in this very thing. You won't hear Him. You won't bow to Him. You won't
receive His truth. And when you do, He'll set you
free. He'll set you free. You see,
Satan, he said this in verse 47 here in John chapter 8, He
that is of God heareth God's words. You therefore hear them
not because you're not of God. You see, Satan tangles things
up. He confuses the issue. He whets
the appetite of the plague. He appeals to the lusts of men.
Satan blesses us to damn us. He exalts us to bring us down. Satan deceives, and his children
are held captive by this deceit. That's where it is. It's all
in here. It's all in here. That's where
the captivity is. You realize in the Scriptures
that He calls this bondage of men, He calls it chains of darkness. That's how He describes it. Chains
of darkness. There's no chains on me. I'm
free to go anywhere I want to. I'm free within the confines
of my nature. I can do anything. That's like
telling a prisoner, you can go anywhere you want to go. But
he can't go nowhere. He's in a cell. You know, you're free. You take
an old dog out here, he runs around the yard, he's free. But
he can't fly because that's past the bounds of his nature. He
can't fly. And neither can you. Neither
can I. We can't go outside. A natural
man can't go outside the boundaries of his nature. He must be set
free. Nicodemus came in. He was schooled. He was learned. This man, from
the time he was a child, had been taught. He was an expert
in the law. He was an expert in the Old Testament.
He was a teacher, a rabbi, a master. The Lord called him, art thou
a master in Israel? He was a master of theology.
And he stopped Nicodemus in his tracks and he said, Nicodemus,
you must be born again. That's the only way you can break
out of the confines of this fallen nature is through a new birth. And you can't have that new birth
apart from hearing the truth. That's how it comes. Faith cometh
by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. And
this is what our Lord is telling these people. He said, you shall
hear the truth, and the truth shall set you free. But you won't
hear it. And I'm going to leave you, and
you're bound. The only way you can be set free
is to hear the truth. Hear the truth. He said, I'll
give you some evidence. A sinless man stands before you. A good and an honest man. A man
who loved and served and sacrificed himself to God. A man who all
the days of his life pleased the Father. He said, I do always
those things that please the Father. Not every now and then.
Not on Mother's Day. Not just on Christmas morning.
I do always those things that please my Father. And this sinless
man in perfect wisdom and understanding, perfect attitude and heart, in
the full favor of God, declared to them the truth. And they denied
everything that he said. Everything that he said. And
wanted to kill him for saying it. My friend, God has a people.
That's what this book teaches. A people for whom He's engaged
all the wisdom, power, purpose, and presence of the God He had
saved. And in spite of Satan's lies
and deceit, in spite of his reign in the heart, he that is of God
heareth God's Word. That's just the way it is. Just
the way it is. You read over there in I believe
it's in Acts 17 where Paul preached to those heathen philosophers
on Mars Hill. He said some of them believed
and some of them didn't. Some of them didn't. When he
started talking about the resurrection, some of them said, well, we'll
have to talk about that some other time. And they just walked
away. But it said, howbeit some of them claimed to Him. Some
of them heard Him. Some of them understood what
He said. When he says in verse 32, you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free, he's
not talking about every man, woman, and child on this earth,
but those who were given him by the Father in covenant love
and provision. In 2 Thessalonians 2, I think
it's verse 13, He said, God has from the beginning chosen you
unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Belief of the truth. Whereunto
He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This truth that men and women
chosen of God shall hear begins with what and who they are. It
comes to them exposing them for what they are. You can forget
teaching truth to a man until that evidence of that knowledge
of himself becomes clear. You can forget all these other
things. You're just wasting your time
over here trying to talk to a man about election who don't know
yet that he's a sinner. It doesn't mean anything. I'll guarantee you, when Noah's
got an ark, and here it is, it didn't mean anything to anybody
until the rain came. Until this knowledge of what
was going on came. Then they were ready to get in
the ark. But see, God come and convinced Noah ahead of time.
And he moved with fear and prepared that ark. When it come time,
he went on board. They wouldn't go. They wouldn't
go. What the Gospel does first is
convince a man of what he is. Brings him to know who he is
before the living God. And then those Gospel doctrines
become sweet music. You won't bow up when somebody
starts talking about predestination. Helpless, hopeless sinners. If
God in the power of His Spirit were to press this truth upon
this congregation today, there wouldn't be a dry eye in the
place. There wouldn't be one of us standing up, dry eyed and
looking at each other and talking about this and talking about
that. We'd be on our face crying unto God, don't leave me to myself. Don't leave me in my indifference.
Don't turn me over to Satan's strong delusion. Don't leave
me alone. You see, God doesn't have to
come in and put blinders on you. They're already on. All He has
to do to turn a man over, He just turns him over to Himself.
Read Romans 1. That's what He does to the heathen. He doesn't come in here. God's not blinding these men.
They're already blind. The only reason they are as good
as they are is because God stopped them from doing certain things.
Only he that now letteth will let, till he be taken out of
the way. God restrained them. And they called that restraining
grace righteousness until God gave them over to themselves. Then they just did whatever come
natural. And it wasn't very pretty. God would have blanketed this
place today with a conviction of sin so that we could taste
our wickedness and smell our corruption and see what we truly
are. If God were to expose our refuge
of lies and uncover our hiding place and tear down our strongholds
and make us see something of our twisted ideas and concepts
that we have about God, then we'd be ready to hear, wouldn't
we? Then we'd be ready to hear. Now talk to me about election.
I guarantee you, when Noah laid on that ark, and God shut that
door, and he heard that thunder and roar and that water begin
to lift that boat, I guarantee you that man rejoiced in election.
Don't you reckon? The words of Christ had no effect
on these religious men because Satan had a bag over their head,
and he had the string drawn tight. We have God to our fathers. Isn't
that amazing? The Son of God stood before them,
and God was their Father, and they couldn't get along with
His Son. Isn't that so? Truth must penetrate the lies.
Light must shine out of darkness. Go through the Scriptures and
hear what it says. In 2 Corinthians 3, there's an
emblem or a picture of this this Gospel brought to bear on the
apostles. He brings it to bear on this
church there. And he begins to talk about a
time back in the Old Testament when Moses brought down the law
from the mountain to the people. And he wasn't aware of it when
he came with those tables that his face was shining. It shone. It was brilliant. He'd been in the presence of
God and the glory of God was shining on his face. And he came
up there and even his brother Aaron didn't want to get anywhere
near him. They were frightened of him. And they stood afar off. And so he put a veil over his
face. Now listen to what this says in 2 Corinthians 3, verse
13. He said, And not as Moses, which
put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could
not look steadfastly to the end of that which is abolished. Talking
about the law. They couldn't see the glory of
a satisfied law. They couldn't see the glory of
a law that proved their guilt. They couldn't see the glory of
a law that would be a schoolmaster teaching and instructing of Christ
in all of its ceremonies and times. They could not see the
glory of the law fulfilled and therefore needed no longer. They couldn't see that glory.
But their minds, verse 14, were blinded, for until this day,
still yet to this day, he said, remaineth the same veil untaken
away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done
away in Christ." You see that? That's a religious bag over their
head with the strings on tight, and they can't see. They can't
see. They can't see to the end of
it. They see the law, they write it on signs and put it out in
the parking lot. They see the law, they know what
the words say. I have no disagreement with them.
Do you have a disagreement with the Ten Commandments? I don't.
I love them. But I know I can't fulfill them.
Not to the point of pleasing God, but Christ did. He did,
and in Him I have a righteousness that exalts that law, raises
that law. I can't raise it up. All I can
do, I told them here Wednesday night, the only thing that old
raven could do was sit out there on the ark and mess on it and
stain the outside of it. That's all he can do. And that's
all you can do. You take this law, all you can
do is stain it and do it dishonor. But Christ lifted it up and exalted
it, put it where it's supposed to be. And that's my righteousness. That's my hope. And that's what
this book teaches. You shall know the truth. And
the truth is to know God. To know God. This is eternal
life. To know God. God was in Christ. And these
fellows saw everything in the world in Him except God. Here's the mystery of godliness.
God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, and received up into glory. And if you cannot perceive God
in Christ, you cannot enter into the truth. You cannot enter into
the truth because He is truth, perfect, flawless, endless, glorious
light. Here's the second thing. He said,
you shall know the truth. Over and over in 1 John, the
Apostle says to believers, and we know. And we know. How long did you go before you
knew? A long time, wasn't it? Thought you knew and didn't know
anything. John said, but we know. We know. We know. Hereby, he said, know we that
we know Him if we keep His commandments. We know that we pass from death
unto life because we love the Brethren. Hereby perceive or
know we the love of God because He laid down His life for us.
We are of God and He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not
of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of
truth and the Spirit of error. We stand and proclaim truth that
we see and know. And if you do that and have that
true knowledge of God, everybody else that's of God will hear
you. He won't fight with you. He won't argue with you. He'll
hear you. He says in 1 John 5.20, and we
know that the Son of God has come and given us an understanding
that we may know Him that's true. That we're in Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. In 1 John 5.19, he said, we know
that we are of God in the whole world, life and wickedness. And we know that whosoever is
born of God sinneth not. That holy seed is in Him, that
new man within Him. And he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." We know. We know. He's free from his lies
and free from his deceit. The veil has been lifted and
Satan touches him not with his lies. And he says this is the
true God in eternal life. To know Him. To know this truth. Here's the third thing. This knowing is worded like this,
shall know. I looked at that a long time.
It's a positive word that means there's no guesswork about this. They're all going to know. That's
what the Lord said. All that was given to me of the
Father, they're going to come to me. And they're all going
to be taught of God, every last one of them. There are no ifs,
ands, or buts about it. They're going to be taught of
God. and be taught of God. But I see
more than that in this word, shall. This word, shall, has
to do with a continual knowledge. It has to do with knowledge that
continues to come. You shall know. I know. John
said, we know. Yeah, but you're going to know
more. And you're going to know more. And when you think you
know it all, you're still going to know. You're going to know. It implies
a never-ending truth, a continuing of hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. Now, it also means this. There's a difference between
natural men and spiritual men. Natural men, it says, are ever
learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
But spiritual men are said to know all things, even the deep
things of God. You see the difference? They grow in grace and knowledge
of Christ. They grow in this knowledge of
the dignity of His person as the God-man, in the nature and
necessity of all of His offices, in the efficacy of His blood,
in the excellency of His righteousness, in the sufficiency of all of
His accomplishments, in the power of His resurrection, and in the
presence of His intercession. And I believe this, in proportion
as we know Him, we are set free from the prejudices of religion.
In proportion. In proportion. You are free in
the covenant of God, you are free. You are free by the sacrifice
of Christ and by imputed righteousness justified before God. But you
are only free in your mind and heart in accordance with knowledge
of Him. That's how you free. That's how
you free in your mind and in your conscience. In proportion
as we know Him, we're set free from these things. In proportion
of His knowledge, we're set free from the principles of this world.
This world has a natural way of reasoning, and you're set
free from those things. In proportion as you know Him.
You see what I'm saying? In proportion. As this thing
begins to grow and mature, you see these old elders in this
church, they don't act like young men. Because they bend down the
road. You see these things in proportion
as this knowledge comes. And in proportion to that, when
these trials come, you stand a little more firm than you did
before. Paul got to the place where he said he rejoiced when
they come. He looked forward to them because he knew what
they were there for. And he knew what the end was
going to be. And he knew God was going to be glorified in
this thing. And so then he began not to look at these things like
he'd look at a spanking, but he's looking at these things
as a blessing because that's what they are. They're going
to establish this faith. Well, we'll stop right there.
But we'll see these things in proportion as we know Him. That's where these blessings
are. He said, you shall know the truth. And the truth, not
what I suppose, not what I feel, but in proportion to this truth,
He said, that truth will set you free. It will set you free.