The Truth Shall Make You Free

Well, my subject this morning
is The Truth Shall Make You Free. And my text is John chapter 8,
verse 30 through 32. And as he spake these words,
many believed on him. And then said Jesus to those
who 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. And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. I read something years
ago that impressed me tremendously, and I want to pass it on to you.
Now, I want you to think about this a little bit. As the old
preacher said, I'm going to learn you something if you listen to
me. We'll find out something. I'm going to learn you something.
Now, you listen to this carefully. A wise old man once said, There
are three parts to truth. Now remember this, there are
three parts to truth. The truth shall make you free.
God does not set men free with error, but with truth. And there
are three parts to truth. First of all, there is the search
for truth. And secondly, there is the knowledge
of truth. And then thirdly, there is actually
believing or receiving the truth. Now, that's three parts to truth.
Now, if you think about this a little bit, it'll help you.
There's three parts to truth. There's the search for truth.
There's the knowledge of truth. After you search for it, you
find it. And then there's a crisis point. There's a point of testing. There's a committal time. There's
a time to receive it. There's a time to pay the price.
There's a time to believe it. It's time to walk in it. Now,
what hinders us, first of all, in our search for truth? You
know what hinders us in our search for truth? If we knew the truth,
Christ said, you shall know the truth. And the end result of
knowing the truth is to be free. Free from the bondage of sin,
and the penalty of sin, and the power of sin, and the practice
of sin. Someday from the presence of
sin, from the curse of the law. Free. Redeemed. That's what freedom
is. Deliverance. It's redemption. It's being set free. The sun
shall make you free. You shall be free indeed, free
from tradition, bondage of tradition, and the bondage of religion,
and the bondage of error. Free. Now if you knew the truth,
it sets you free. The only reason you're not free
today is because you don't know the truth. And what hinders our
search for the truth? There are three parts to truth.
The search part, you've got to search for it, and then you find
it, the knowledge of it, And then you believe it. Now, what
hinders our search for the truth? You know the first thing? Ignorance.
Ignorance of God's Word. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
you do err not knowing the Scriptures. That's why you're an error. You
don't know the Scriptures. There's only one guide to the
truth about God. There's only one way to find
out about God, the truth about God. Go to the Word of God. There's
only one way to find out the real truth about sin and about
man, and that's to go to the Word of God. There's only one
way to find out the truth about redemption, salvation, mercy,
heaven, hell, judgment. Go to the Word of God. And our
search for the truth is hindered by our ignorance of the Word
of God. It's appalling how little men
know about God's Word. They memorize the newspaper and
fictional books and even have books of education, but they
neglect the word of God. And that's why we err in spiritual
truth. We don't know the book. Faith
covers the hearing and hearing with the word of God. What's
the second thing that hinders your search for the truth? Tradition. Tradition. Will you listen? What
is tradition? Tradition is the handing down,
handing down a belief the handing down of doctrines, the handing
down of custom, the handing down of religious information from
family to family, from father to son, by means of speech rather
than by the word of God. My friends, it would be shocking
to you if you would carefully examine what you believe about
religion, about God, about sin, about salvation. It would shock
you to examine what you believe and find out how much of it is
influenced by tradition and how much of it is influenced by the
Word of God. How much of it you believe or you've accepted or
you've walked in because somebody taught it or somebody said it
or you heard it through the years and you have no scriptural foundation. For example, you tell somebody
you believe something and they say, would you mind giving me
a chapter and verse for that? Would you mind giving me something
in the Word of God the reason why you believe that, and you
can't do it to save you. Well, I've just always heard
that. I've always just accepted it. That's standing in your way
of searching for the truth. Tradition. And then another thing. Watch this. What hinders our
search for the truth? Ignorance of the Word of God.
Tradition. We believe something because, well, we've always believed
it. We believe something because, well, our parents believed it,
and our grandparents believed it. But the third thing that
stands in the way of our search for the truth is nothing in the
world but You know, our Lord said, except you be converted
and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter the
kingdom of God. Our thoughts are not God's thoughts,
and our ways are not God's ways, and a thing is not true because
you think it or because I think it. I may think I'm pretty intelligent
or pretty smart, and you may think the same thing about yourself,
but we're not. We're not, and we're going to
have to come down off our high horse of pride. and arrogance
and a haughty spirit because it's pride that goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before the fall. And a thing is not true
because I think it is or I judge that it should be. It's true
because God says it and for no other reason. Now, if you're
going to search for the truth, God said, you'll seek me and
find me when you search for me with all your heart. But if you're
going to launch out in this search for the truth, If you're going
to go off on this quest for truth, I tell you, the first thing you're
going to have to lay down, you're going to have to lay down your
tradition, you're going to have to lay down your custom, you're
going to have to lay down your proud thoughts and let God be
true, and every man a liar. Now, that's truth. Now, that's
what hinders our search for truth, all right? I said there's another
part to truth, there's search for truth. And don't be hindered
by your ignorance of the word, by your Bible, and get into the
book. Lay aside some of these other
quarterlies and writings of men and these famous books and all
you've been passing around. Just lay them aside and pick
up the Bible and find out what God says in his word. Ask the
Holy Spirit to lead you into an understanding of God's word.
God wrote it and God can certainly reveal it. And lay aside your
tradition. Lay aside your customs. And come
at the Word of God like a little child. All right, what hinders
our knowledge of the truth? We don't know all that we could
know. That's right. And we don't know all we could
know. And I'll tell you what hinders our knowledge of the
truth. First of all, it's spiritual
blindness. Our Lord said they've got eyes, but they can't see.
They have ears, but they can't hear. Hearts they have, but they
do not understand. Truth must be revealed. If you're
going to search for the truth and come to a knowledge of the
truth, you're going to have to realize that by nature, men do
not understand the mysteries of the gospel. By nature, men
do not understand the mysteries of the word of God, the mysteries
of God's infinite kingdom. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not
heard, neither hath it entered the heart of man the things God's
prepared for them that love him, but he hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches the deep
things of God. What man knoweth the things that
are in a man except the spirit of the man? Even so the things
of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now we have received
the spirit of God and he hath revealed these things. Spiritual
blindness can only be cured by heaven's light. Spiritual blindness
can only be dispelled. Spiritual darkness can only be
dispelled. by a giving of light from heaven. God, if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath
blinded their mind, lest the glorious light of the Son of
God, the Spirit of God, should shine unto them, the gospel of
God, and they should be saved. It takes light, light from heaven.
You don't understand the word in the light of human nature,
of human wisdom. You understand the Bible and
interpret the Bible in the light of heaven's spirit, in the light
of heaven's light. You see that? The second thing
that hinders our knowledge of the truth is not only spiritual
blindness, but spiritual prejudice. You wouldn't be guilty of that,
would you? Spiritual prejudice. And yet the woman at the well
would not listen to Jesus Christ because he was a Jew and she
was a Samaritan. That's right. You know, the Pharisees
wouldn't listen to him. She finally did, but she didn't
want to. She said, how come you're a Jew speaking to me, a Samaritan? She said, now my father's worshiping
this mountain. Your denomination worships down
there in Jerusalem. I'm not going to listen to you.
You're a Jew. I'm a Samaritan. You're a Baptist. I'm a Methodist
or Presbyterian or Catholic or something. I'm not supposed to
listen to you. Therefore, I'm going to shut my ears up. Spiritual
prejudice. And the Pharisees would not listen
to Christ. They said, do you teach us? You're
going to teach us where you don't have any learning. How does this
man know letters having never learned? He's never been to school.
We've been to school. You can't teach us because you've
never been to school. We're not going to listen to
anyone that hasn't been to school. We're not going to listen to
anybody that's not of our denomination. We're not going to listen to
anybody that doesn't pronounce shibboleth like we do. We're not going to
listen to anybody that doesn't do things like we do. Spiritual
prejudice. And God passes them back, passes
them back. He sent his servant, John the
Baptist, and they went right out there and said, who are you?
Are you somebody? Do you have any credentials? What are your credentials? By
what authority are you doing what you're doing? Oh, how pitiful
we are. What hinders our knowledge of
the truth? Spiritual blindness, spiritual prejudice. And I'll
tell you something else that hinders your knowledge of the
truth is spiritual indifference. Our Lord came down here to a
place one time, and there was a man there who was insane. He
was so insane that he lived out in the cemetery, and they put
chains on him, and he'd burst the chains asunder. And he cut
himself, he went around naked, and he was a crazy person, and
nobody could tame him. And our Lord came in, and he
spoke peace to his heart, cast the demons out of him. And the
man was clothed and in his right mind. Now, you'd think a town
that saw something like that happen, they saw a man brought
from insanity to sanity, from the graveyard to a sensible man
clothed in his right mind, that you'd think they'd say, well,
Lord, I wish you'd stay here and do it. We got some other
folks around here that need help just that. But no, they didn't.
They went to him and they said, we want you to leave this town
and never come back. That's right. You check your
back. You leave our shores, they say, and don't come back. Depart from us and don't come
back. People don't want to be disturbed.
They'd rather sleep the sleep of death rather than being awake. Don't disturb me now. Don't get
me upset. I'm all right. I believe what I believe all
these years and I don't want to be bothered. I don't want
to be upset. I'm hiding. I've got a refuge
to hide in. I've got a bed. Of course, it's
too short and the cover's too narrow. And my feet stick out,
and I'm not well protected, but I don't want to be bothered.
Just leave me alone." Well, if you insist, Christ left that
place. If you insist, we will. But I'm going to insist on this,
that if you want to know the truth, which will make you free,
you're going to have to ask God to give you some life. You're
not going to understand it by nature. And you're going to have
to ask God to destroy your spiritual prejudice. And you're going to
have to ask God to to give you a little fire, to build a fire
under you, and do away with your spiritual indifference. If Paul
said, what by any means, if God will just bring me to the resurrection
of the dead, I'll be so thankful, whatever the means. I don't care
if God shakes me and disturbs me and upsets me and convicts
me and whittles me down. I tell you, Saul of Tarsus had
to be blinded before he could see. He had to be humble before
he could be raised. He had to have his mouth stopped
before he could speak. Sometimes it's a humiliating
experience, but it's better than dying in your sins. All right,
I said there's three parts to truth. There's the search part,
and there's the knowledge of it. Now thirdly, there's the
believing of it. Men search for the truth, and
sometimes they run into it. Sometimes they encounter it.
Sometimes, like I think right now, you're hearing some truth,
and now there's got to be the receiving of it. There's got
to be the believing of it. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. And I'm persuaded he's able to
do what he said, to keep that which I've committed to him.
There's got to be a commitment. There's got to be a trusting.
There's got to be a receiving of the truth. You can't just
hear it, you've got to receive it. You can't just know it in
your head, you've got to believe it in your heart. If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine
heart, God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Hard
man to believe it. Something's got to take place
within. Now, what hinders that? What hinders that? Well, now
listen to this. John 12, 42 and 43. Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers, many believed on him. But, because of the Pharisees,
because of the religious leaders, they didn't confess him. They
believed on him. They heard him. Like Nicodemus,
they said, you've got to be from God. No man can do what you're
doing except God be with you. It's got to be so. Got to be
so. But they believed that. But they
didn't confess him. They didn't trust him. They didn't
receive him. Because they were afraid of the Pharisees. And
it says, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. For
they loved the praises of men. Isn't that sad? More than the
praise of God. What about that? A man actually
embarks on a search for truth, and either for salvation or condemnation
or whatever, he encounters it, he runs headlong into it, he
has a meeting with truth by God's providence, and he stares it
in the face, and he says, I just can't walk that way because I'm
afraid. I'm afraid of persecution. I'm
afraid of losing my pulpit. I'm afraid of losing some of
my deacons, some of my support. I'm afraid of not being able
to get another church. I'm afraid of losing my retirement. I'm afraid of losing my friends.
I'm afraid of losing my family. I'm afraid. for fear of the Jews,
and because they love the praise of men. Now, I can't preach that
because I'd lose my crowd. I'd lose my following. Men wouldn't understand. And
I just can't give up some of the things I've worked so hard
to do. Can't do it. They love the praise
of men more than the praise of God. You know what Paul said?
He said, If any of you fellas think you have worth to glory
in the flesh, I'm over it." He said, I had more than any of
you got. He said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was circumcised
the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. I wasn't an apostolate
or an Ishmaelite. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I
had a Hebrew mama and a Hebrew daddy. And he said, I was a Pharisee,
might have been a member of the Sanhedrin. The Apostle Paul said,
look at the law. You couldn't charge me with breaking
the law outwardly. I was blameless. But he said
these things that were gained to me, these things that were
so important to me, this materialism and this popularity and religious
fame and accomplishments and name and credentials and high
uppermost seats in the synagogue, these things that were gained
to me, and they were at one time. I thought everything was in these
things. But I count them but loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the
loss of all things, honor, reputation, everything. My name has been
spit out. I've become the butt of jokes. I've become the object of criticism
and hatred. A man's enemy shall be there
of his own household, Christ said. But if any man loves mother,
father, brother, sister, husband, wife, yea, his own life more
than me, he's not worthy of me. And Paul says, yea, doubtless,
I count all things but loss. I count them but rubbish, that
I may win Christ and be found in him. Brother, let me tell
you something. I'll tell you this as plainly
as I can. You talk about wanting to know the truth. You'll have
a problem when you meet it and when you learn it, because it
costs to walk in truth, but it'll set you free. It'll set you free. You know the scriptures tell
the truth. The scriptures, I want to point out about four or five
things now in winding up this message. First of all, the scriptures
tell us the truth about God. Paul, the Apostle Paul, I preached
on this a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, the Apostle Paul
was down there in Athens. He'd been in Thessalonica, and
they ran him out of there, and he went down to Berea, and that
same outfit came and ran him out of Berea, and he went down
to Athens and was waiting there on Timothy and Silas, and he
saw the city was a city of idolatry, religious idolatry, 30,000 statues
in the city of Athens alone, and Paul was preaching on the
streets, and some of these Epicureans and Stoics and other philosophers
in Athens there heard him, and they said, well, come over, come
with us, and they took him to the to Mars Hill, to the Aragapis,
and that was the place where the 12 judges sat and where the
philosophers and the Athenians gathered to discuss these new
doctrines and new things, you know, and discuss religion and
the foolish things they believed. And they said, let's hear you.
Let's hear you talk. We want to hear what you've got
to say. This man has some strange doctrine. We want to listen to
him. And Paul stood up and he said, now, ye men of Athens,
This is Acts 17, 22. You men of Athens, I perceive
that you are a most religious people, more religious than most.
I passed by your devotions, your shrines, your religious altars. And he said, I saw many altars
to many gods. And he said, I saw an altar to
the unknown God. I want to preach that unknown
God to you. Now, you know all about your
other gods because they originated in your mind. You know all about
your other gods because you thought them up and you set their limitations
and their boundaries and their characteristics and their attributes
and their powers But he said you got an altar down there that's
that's erected to an unknown God in case you've left out of
God He said that's the God of heaven and I'm going to tell
you about him and he brought about five or six points He said
first of all he made the world and all and all things therein
You can't believe in evolution and believe in the God of the
Bible The beginning was the word and the word was with God and
the word was God and all things were made by him Genesis 1 1
in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth in
Colossians chapter 1 verse 16 through 18 It says all things
were made by him and through him and for him He made the world
secondly Paul said he's the Lord of heaven and earth Sweet little
Jesus boy is not the Lord of heaven and earth the Christ of
God is And you can run around feeling sorry for Jesus all you
want to, but he is Lord of heaven and earth. That's what Paul said.
He's the Lord. He does as he will, when he will, with whom
he will. They said, David, where's your God? Our God's down here
in yonder. Where's your God, David? He said
he's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleased in
the heavens and the earth and the seas and all deep places.
Christ said, all authority is given to me over all flesh in
heaven and earth. He made the world and all therein,
and he's Lord of heaven and earth. The Lord reigneth among the armies
of heaven and the inhabitants of this earth, and giveth it
to whomsoever he will. And then he dwelleth not in temples
made with hands, Paul said. Now you can build a house for
your God, but not for the God of the Bible, because the heaven
of heavens won't contain him, and the earth is his footstool.
He doesn't dwell in houses made with hands, and he's not worshipped
with men's hands as though he needed anything from you. You
don't give anything to God. God gives to you. You're the
recipient. You're the empty-handed beggar.
In my hands no price I bring, simply the cross of Christ I
claim. You don't give to God. God gives to you. He giveth life
and breath and all things. That's what it says there. And
then Paul went on. He said he's made of all nations. one blood, and not so much spiritual
brotherhood, not a fleshly brotherhood. We're all sons of Adam. We all
fell in Adam. We all came from Adam. Where
are our roots? The roots of every man, black
or white, is the Garden of Eden, Adam. He's the daddy of us all.
And this God hath appointed a day in which he'll judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, Jesus
Christ, and he's given full assurance and proof of it in that he raised
him from the dead. Your dealing is with Christ.
God's going to judge you someday on the basis of your relationship
with his son, Jesus Christ. If you believed on him, if you're
robed in his righteousness, if you're redeemed by his blood,
you walk with God throughout eternity. If you know not Christ,
if you're resting in your church works or your human merit or
your own righteousness without Christ, you perish. The truth
will make you free. The Bible tells the truth about
men. Man was created in the image of God, but he didn't stay in
that state. He continued not long. He rebelled and fell, and
we're born in sin. We're sinners by birth, by nature
and practice. The Bible tells the truth about
us, not what we think, but what God says. And the Bible tells
the truth about Jesus Christ. Who is he? He's their God of
their God. The Father said, this is my son.
Simeon held him in his arms and he said, I've seen your salvation.
Even the demons said, we know who you are, you're the holy
one of God. Simon Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. What did he do? He came to this
earth, he came into the world, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem those born under the law. Why did he do it? Every
Christian ought to memorize Romans 3, 19 through 26, that God may
be just and justify the ungodly. Where is he now? At the right
hand of God, interceding for us. The Bible tells the truth
about salvation, it's of the Lord. Salvation is not something
we do for ourselves or something we do for each other or something
we do for God. It's something God does for us. Salvation is
of the Lord in its planning, in its execution, in its application,
in its sustaining power, in its ultimate perfection. We have
been saved. We are being saved. Salvation
is nearer not right now than when we believe. The Bible will
tell you the truth about salvation. It will tell you the truth about
God. It will tell you the truth about man. It will tell you the
truth about sin. It will tell you the truth about
death. Judgment and eternity. The believer dies just like all
men but he's raised from the dead and one day Christ will
come and we'll be perfectly conformed to his image and eternally dwell
with him. You shall know the truth and
the truth will make you free. I'd set out if I were you in
the word of God to find it and to believe it.

The Truth Shall Make You Free

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

The Truth Shall Make You Free

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book