Let us turn in our Bibles this
evening to John chapter eight. John chapter eight. We ended the message last Sunday
night with verse 30. The scripture says, 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 you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we be
Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest
thou, ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is a servant of
sin. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth ever. If the son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you
are Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me because my word hath
no place in you. I speak that which I have seen
with my father, and you do that which you have seen with your
father.' They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if you
were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the
truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. You do the deeds of your father.
Then said they to him, we be not born of fornication. We have
one father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God
were your father, you would 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 convinceth
me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's
words, You therefore hear them not because you are not of God. Then answered the Jews and said
unto him, say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast
a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a
devil, but I honor my father, and you do dishonor me. And I
seek not mine own glory. There's one that seeketh and
judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the
Jews unto him, now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is
dead, and the prophets. And thou sayest, If a man keep
my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than
our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? Jesus
answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my
father that honoreth me, of whom you say that he is your God.
Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I should say
I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know him
and keep his sayings. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw and was glad. Then said the Jews
unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen
Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast
at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went
out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by. In the verses that we looked
at last time, we saw that the Lord Jesus Christ said two times,
if you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. And now again, at the conclusion
of these verses, which I've just read, he said, I am, then took
they up stones to cast at him. If you notice in verse 43, the
Lord asks this question, why do you not understand my speech? Beginning with Nicodemus and
John chapter 3, when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of the new
birth, the necessity without which no man shall see the kingdom
of heaven. Nicodemus did not understand
our Lord's speech because he said, shall a man enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Our Lord was speaking. His speech was of a birth of
the spirit. The woman at the well at Samaria,
she did not understand our Lord's speech when he said, the water
that I shall give unto you shall be a well of water. in you, springing
up unto everlasting life. And she said, Lord, give me that
water that I come not here to draw water. She did not understand
his speech. The Jews in the synagogue in
Capernaum in John chapter 6, they did not understand his speech
when he confessed himself to be the bread which came down
from heaven. And if a man eat his flesh and
drink his blood, he should live forever. And they said, how shall
this man give us his flesh to eat? They did not understand
his speech. Now in the passage I've read,
I want to point out to us three times in these verses that these
Jews to whom he was speaking did not understand his speech. First of all, they did not understand
his speech when he spoke to them of freedom. Notice that in verses
31 and 32. They did not understand his speech
when he spoke to them of freedom. Then said Jesus to those Jews
which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then are
you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free. They did not understand his words
when he spoke of freedom, because immediately, you see, they understand
him to be speaking of freedom, that is civil liberty. We be Abraham's children, and
we're never in bondage to any man. That's what we read in verse
33. They did not understand his speech
when he spoke. When he spoke to them about freedom,
they understood him to be speaking about civil liberties. Freedom
like we have in this country, and thank God we do. But our Lord was not talking
about civil liberty, a freedom like we have in this country,
the Bill of Rights that guarantees us our rights. But that's what they understood.
We'd be Abraham's children, and we were never in bondage to any
man. Now, in these words, we see not
only the blindness, the blindness of lost men and women, the blindness
of lost men and women, of the inability, the inability of the
natural man, but we also see the pride of the natural man. We be Abraham's children. We
were never in bondage to any man. Keep your place here, but
turn back with me to the book of Genesis. The pride of lost man. Blind, inability, and yet proud. Genesis chapter 15 and verse
13, these are the words of the Lord to Abraham himself concerning
his posterity, concerning his family, what would take place. And notice he said, even though
he had promised him the land of Canaan, in verse 13, and he,
that is God, said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed,
now these men who said, we are Abraham's children, we've never
been in bondage to any man, this was Abraham's seed, God told
Abraham. God told him, thy seed shall
be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, now notice, and
shall serve them. Shall serve them. And we know
that they went down into Egypt and we know how God's providence
fulfilled this truth. The famine, Joseph, All of that
working together for good to God's people, bringing Israel,
Abraham's seed, his family, Jacob, down into Egypt. And for 400
years, as the scripture says here, they served the Egyptians. We be Abraham's seed. We've never
been in bondage. Do you see the pride of natural
man? And then they had the Scriptures,
they had the Word of God, they had the Old Testament part of
our Bibles, just like you and I have, the Book of Judges. When
you read through the Book of Judges, how many judges did God
raise up? And every time He raised up a
judge, that judge delivered them from bondage. Every time. That was the purpose of the judge,
to deliver the nation of Israel from bondage because of their
sins. Of their sins they sold themselves
into bondage. But now here these are saying,
we be Abraham's seed, we never were in bondage to any man. And then think about the 70 years
that they spent in Babylon. And one of the books, Ezekiel,
one of the prophets, he actually lived in Babylon. His prophecy
was written in Babylon when the Jews were in captivity. And yet
they say, we be Abraham's children, we were never in bondage to any
man. Even so, even so tonight, we
recognize that they did not understand his speech. They were thinking
of freedom, civil liberty, but our Lord was speaking of spiritual
freedom. It is a freedom from the bondage
that all men are born into. All who are born of Adam's race,
we are all born into this world into bondage. Because notice
in verse 34, the Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever
committeth sin is a servant of sin. For all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. So every person, every man, every
woman, we are all born guilty of sin
and in bondage. By birth we are in bondage to
sin when we first come into this world. And it's only the Son
of God who makes men free, free of spiritual bondage. Turn with me over to Luke's Gospel
just a moment, Luke chapter 4. This passage we're going to read,
verse 18, is the words of the Lord. He's reading from the prophecy
of Isaiah. Our Lord had been baptized, he
began his public ministry, and he returns to Nazareth, the city
in which he had lived. And remember, he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day, and the scripture here says,
as his custom was. I like that, don't you? His custom
was to worship God on the Sabbath. Now that's a good custom, to
worship God on Sunday, the Lord's Day, the first day of the week,
to set this day apart. Not like the law commanded, but
to worship God. Our Lord, his custom was to attend
the synagogue on every Sabbath. And they handed him the scroll,
the book, and he found the place where it was written. And this
is what he reads. Notice verse 18. The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. Not those who are materially
poor necessarily, but to those who are spiritually poor. There's
no benefit in being materially poor
or materially rich as far as spiritual things are concerned.
I would that men could hear that and believe that, don't you?
It would be better to be materially
poor and be spiritually poor than to be materially rich and
spiritually rich. Blessed are the poor. The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, for he hath anointed me to preach the
gospel of good news to the poor, those who are poor in spirit. There's some good news for you.
The gospel. Christ came to save sinners.
But look on. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Those who have a heart broken
because of their sin, because of their nature, their sinful
nature. But notice this, to preach deliverance
to the captives. This is the freedom that our
Lord is speaking about here. They did not understand His speech
when He spoke about freedom, they thought about civil liberty,
but our Lord is speaking about spiritual freedom, to preach
deliverance to the captives, all men. And if you have not
looked to the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior tonight,
I want you to hear me now. You are in bondage to sin. Not only to sin, but also to
Satan. and you are taken captive by
Him at His will. That's what the Word of God declares. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners, and part of that salvation is deliverance. The Son making you free, setting
you free from bondage, from the bondage to sin. From the bondage
to Satan. From the bondage to the law.
The law has you by the neck. And it says, pay me that which
thou owest me. And you cannot pay. You cannot
render unto God what God's law demands. You need someone to
set you free. And the only one who sets captives
free is the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. Notice also he said at the end
of that verse in chapter 4 of Luke in verse 18, to set at liberty
them that are bruised. Blessed Holy Spirit, bruise,
bruise sinners. A person has to be bruised before
he's healed, doesn't he? That's the work of the Spirit
of God. Now, let us be careful. Turn back to our text just a
moment. Let us be careful that we do
not misunderstand his words. these Jews, they did not understand
his speech. Unless you and I, let us be very
careful tonight that we do not misunderstand his speech. Notice
when he said, he that committed sin is the servant of sin. His meaning, his meaning is not
that every person who commits a sin is the servant of sin. That would mean that everyone
in this world, that there are no saved people, that there is
no one who he has set free. If those were his meaning, if
those words were his meaning, that every person who commits
a sin is then a slave of Satan. As Solomon declared, for there
is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
David, the scripture says, when God sent Samuel down to Jesse's
house to anoint him to be king, remember what God testified concerning
David, already I found him to be a man after mine own heart. David sinned. David sinned grievously,
didn't he? Everyone's familiar with David's
sin. Does that mean when he sinned
with Bathsheba, when he was involved in the killing of her husband,
that he who had been free was then a slave of sin? Of course
not. When Peter denied the Lord, when
he said, I don't know that man, with curses, Does that mean when he committed
that sin that now he was a servant of sin? When our Lord had told
him earlier, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, you're blessed. Did he somehow become unblessed? We must be careful, we do not
misunderstand our Lord's words. I want you to keep your place
here, but look with me in 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 9. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God. Those who are born of God are
those that the Son sets free, and they do not commit, that
is, they do not practice sin. Why? What does the Scripture
say? Because his seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now his seed
His seed that remains in the person who is born of God has
to refer to that new nature, that new man that is created
in righteousness and true holiness that is created in every person
who is born of the Spirit of God. If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. He cannot sin. He cannot practice
sin. Why? Because His seed, God's
seed, remains in Him. He has a new nature. This old
illustration I heard years ago about a hog. You know, a hog
just loves to wallow in the mud, don't they? And there's a reason
for that. That's the way God made them. They don't have sweat glands.
They love to cool off in the mud. And you can go get a hog
and get him out of the hog pen and take him home and turn the
water hose on him, wash him off, get some of that beautiful smelling
Estee Lauder and sprinkle on him and put a bow on his head
and let him out the door and where's he going? He's going
back to the mud, right? Why? Because that's his nature. That's his nature. But someone
said if you could take the heart of a lamb and you could put that
in the hog, he wouldn't go back to the hog pen. Different nature. And God, when he saves sinners,
he puts a new man, new principle within us. And we began to love
righteousness and hate iniquity. Love those things that we hated
before and hate those things that we loved before. I hope that's clear. Look back
to our text in verse 47. The Lord declared that those
who are of God, those who are born of God, they hear God's
words. Now these men to whom our Lord
was speaking, they did not understand His speech. Verse 41, we read,
they professed that God was their Father. But our Lord tells them
if that were true, then they would have loved him. They would
have loved Christ, him whom God sent. But they manifested by
their behavior that the devil was their father, not God. So they did not understand his
speech concerning freedom. Notice these other two things
hurriedly, Secondly, they did not understand his speech when
he spoke of never dying. Notice that in verse 51. In verse 51, he said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see
death. They understood his words. about
those keeping his sayings, meaning that they would never physically
die. Verse 52, Then said the Jews
unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil, Abraham is dead. They did not understand his speech. Our Lord was not speaking about
physical death, never dying physically. The death that he spoke about
that those who keep his sayings shall never experience is the
second death, eternal death. You know, death is separation,
isn't it? When God told Adam, in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And when Adam
disobeyed God, he was separated. God put him out of the garden,
didn't he? He was separated. That's what death is. Physical
death, the soul leaves the body. But eternal death is to be separated
from God for all eternity, both body and soul. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said, he that keepeth my saying, you say, what does
that mean? What does it mean to keep his
sayings? Never dying, never experience
that eternal death. It means to receive Christ, to
receive His gospel. And not just notionally, not
just in the head either, but it means to receive Him with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Look with me in
John chapter 1. John chapter 1. But as many, verse 12, but as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name. What does it mean
to keep his sayings? It means to receive him. It means
to believe in him. And notice, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. If a man ascribes any part of
his salvation to the free will of man, he does not know the
salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's just so. Which were born, not of blood. How many parents would love to
be able to birth their children into the family of God, into
the kingdom of God. We all would. But men are born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. of God. Of God. That's what it means to keep
his sayings. It means to be born of God and
to receive him as Lord and Savior. They did not understand his speech.
They thought he was talking about a man never dying, never physically
dying. And third, They did not understand
his speech about Abraham rejoicing to see his day. Look at that
in verse 56. He said, Your father Abraham,
he rejoiced to see my day. And he saw and was glad. Now they understood his words
to mean that Abraham had seen him as he then was. As they were looking at him,
they understood that he was saying that Abraham had seen him just
like they were seeing him. That he had been alive in the
flesh in the days of Abraham. They did not understand his speech.
No, it was by faith that Abraham saw his day. It was by faith
that Abraham saw his day. And I believe that this has particular
reference to the day that he took Isaac, his son, up on that
mountain. Obeying God and pulled the knife
his son on the altar to be sacrificed as God had commanded him. And
by faith he saw his day. There was a ram caught in the
bushes. God shall provide himself a lamb. And God provided himself a lamb. God provided himself the lamb. He saw my day. Oh, don't you
know he rejoiced? They thought, well, you're not
50 years old. And that tells us something about
the characteristics of our Savior that they would even think he
was 50 years old. He was 31 or 32 years of age. But he was a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. Now they did not understand.
Our Lord said, why do you not understand my speech? And then
he answered, because you cannot hear my word. Now they could
hear with the outward ear, all men, if they're not deaf, they
can hear with the outward ear. But there's an ear of the soul,
and man must hear. He must be given ears to hear. And that is, the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. Why do you not hear my word,
understand my speech? because you cannot hear my word. He said, no man cometh unto me
except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, and I shall
raise him up at the last day. Now, let me close with this. They did not understand his speech
when he spoke about freedom, when he spoke about never dying,
when he spoke about Abraham rejoicing to see his day, but They did
understand his speech when he said, I am. Do you see that? Look at the end of the chapter.
Jesus said in verse 58, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before
Abraham was, I am. Now they understood that. They understood very plainly,
very clearly, He's confessing himself to be Jehovah. And what happened? They took up, then took they
up stones to cast at him. But they could not harm him.
Why? Because his hour was not yet
come. There was an hour fixed, and
until that hour came, they could not harm him. I pray that the Lord would give
all of us understanding, give us ears to hear, eyes to see,
and hearts to perceive the things of God. May the Lord bless His
word to all of us here tonight. Let's sing.