Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I was God's grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears to relieve. How gracious He, that grace of His, I. I have already gone His grace hath brought me safe thus far And grace will lead me home When we've been there ten thousand years Life's shining as our sun We know there's space to sing God's praise He first begun to make love now to you and to me. He vowed to you and to me. My Lord, your Son, to you I'll sing.

John chapter 8 Beginning with verse 30 We'll read through verse 37. 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 you are 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 you should be made free? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth forever. If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me. because my word hath no place in you.

Let us pray. Our Father, it is in the name of Jesus Christ, of whom this Bible teaches, who is the Savior of His people, the Redeemer of His people, who was born under the law to redeem them that are under the law. We are thankful, Father, for our salvation, knowing full well that you did all of it. You accomplished it, beginning in eternity, writing our names in the Lamb's Book of Life, purposing the Lamb's slang from the foundation of the world, and then came, robed in human flesh, dwelt among sinners, Made in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin. You redeemed your people by your death and their blood. So much so that you remember their sins no more. And it made Jesus Christ to be under them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And all glory and all honor were our salvation. belongs to you alone.

We pray for those who are sick. We're glad to hear Melbourne's doing better. We pray for the Cochran family, the loss of Jack. We continue to pray for Randy as he's laying on his dying bed. But we know his days are numbered. His months will be the boundaries are set and determined and it shall not pass. Pray for his wife as she ministers to him and those hospice workers. Continue to pray for Rain French and Lord fix it where he'll be able to find a place to live. Pray for ourselves tonight as we gather here that you might be pleased to grant us understanding and appreciation for that which our Lord speaks in this passage. And be thankful that we are indeed set free where you have set the captives free, set us at liberty. We are thankful that that freedom is blessed and forever. Help us now to appreciate what you've done for us, that we might truly worship you. We pray in Christ's name, amen.

Now after many of the Jews heard the Lord address down the Pharisees by telling them that that if they did not believe on Him, they would die in their sins. It says in verse 30 that many of the Jews believed on Him. As He was teaching in the temple, the many who believed were indeed Jews. In verse 31 of our text, it says, Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on Him, turning from the Pharisees and knowing who believed on Him, He addressed the believers and immediately made a clear distinction. He said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. Now many who oppose the truth of grace make this to mean that salvation is conditioned upon continuing in Christ's word or doctrine. And if you leave it, then that means you've lost your salvation. But that's not what that means at all.

Sovereign grace guarantees guarantee that the redeemed will continue in the Word of God. Now, they may falter as Peter and Barnabas did in Antioch. They may falter. They may be like Paul deciding to have a Jewish ceremony in order to win the Jews, and that didn't work. They may falter, but they will always return

And that is a guarantee by God over in Jeremiah chapter 32 and verse 38, it says, and they shall be my people. And I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me, that is love and worship me forever for the good of them and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me." They shall not depart from me.

The guarantee that his people will continue. They are preserved in Jesus Christ and they persevere by the grace of God.

Our Lord here is addressing the fact that it has been proven that when he says, indeed, you are my disciples, if you continue in my word, that there are two kinds of disciples that have followed Christ up to this point. Some have followed him for a time and then departed. You remember in John chapter 6, if you'll turn back there, after he had talked concerning eating his flesh and blood and saying that he wouldn't be there for men to do it, he said the Spirit quickened up flesh, property, or nothing, the words I speak unto you are spirit and life.

And after he had said that, there were many that were stirred, and he made this statement in verse 65 of chapter 66. Then he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. In other words, you will not come to me unless the Father causes you to come to me. It said that from that time, that time many of his disciples That means those who up to this point have been following him. That's what disciple means, to follow Christ. Those who have been his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

So that's one kind of disciple that he's talking about. So when he says, if you continue in my word, then you are my disciples. Indeed, he's talking about those who continue and those who don't and those who don't. Then there were those like Simon Peter who continued. in the word of the Lord, though he himself faltered in denying the Lord three times. We know that after the Lord was resurrected, he went fishing, said I'm going back into the fishing business, all those things. But he faltered too, but he stayed in the word.

In the same chapter, John chapter 6 and verse 66, It says, the Lord asked in verse 67, will you also go away? And Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are assured that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Now this is the distinction that he's making, and it all comes down to the word of God. That's where it always comes down to, because when you really get down to it, where the rubber hits the road, that's exactly what we have, and only what we have, Concerning Jesus Christ our Savior and concerning God Almighty our Lord. That's all we have in this world. Feelings don't matter. Emotions don't matter. What we can see and feel and touch and taste don't matter. What we have in the matter of our salvation is what this book says. That's it. Because God gives us faith to believe what this book says and that is our salvation. It is precisely the place where belief in Christ always rests. Faith is born of hearing the word and resting entirely in the one that the word speaks of and teaches about. This too is the singular arena that distinguishes who will continue in the word and who will not believe and who dies in their sins.

For our Lord said in verse 24 of this same chapter, I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. So as he talks about the word, he talks about himself, he's talking about the same thing as far as because it's the word that he speaks that are spirit and life. He spoke these words and some left him. He spoke these words and some stayed. We know the elect stayed, of course. And in verse 32, he makes a statement that stirs the animus of those who alone have the word have had the word of God for centuries. Now he's talking, he turns and talks to the Pharisees and he says you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. The truth shall make you free. So he's talking about the word, he's talking about himself, he's talking about the truth. So these three things are one thing actually, they're all Jesus Christ in some way or another.

If you continue my word, if you believe on him whom the Lord has sent, you shall know the truth, and then the truth shall make you free. So free you up. What does it make you free from? Well, it makes you free from all the things that held you in bondage, whatever that might be. To those who believe, these words are sweet as honey in the honeycomb. To those religious ones who believe not, these words are as bitter as wormwood in God. This statement sets forth some truth. Those who do not know the truth, that is Jesus Christ, are not free. They're not free. And therefore, are in bondage. And those who are not free do not know the truth, which is Christ. And freedom from bondage is solely found in believing in Christ and nowhere else. So unless you believe on Christ, you're in bondage in some form or another.

Remember, sin has reigned over you. That means it's your captain, it's your captor, it's the one who holds you in jail. Sin is. Sin has reigned over you. The promise of the gospel, the coming of Jesus Christ, was about freedom in the very beginning back in Isaiah chapter 61 when the Lord which is what he repeated in Luke chapter 4 when they handed him the book to read in the temple in his first message back home in Isaiah chapter 61 says the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good tidings, that is good news, the gospel, to the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to them that are bound. That's the language of the gospel. It's throughout the book of Isaiah. If you look over at Isaiah chapter 58, When the Lord talks about the fast that He has ordained, He says in verse 6 of chapter 5, is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke. This is what the gospel does. We can't see that taking place. It's a personal thing. God does not save a whole bunch of people at the same time. He saves each person singularly and absolutely. That person knows that they're saved, and you can't convince them they're not, but they can convince you that you are. They are. It's a wonder, this thing called faith.

But what it is, is when Jesus Christ, the truth, comes home to you as a child of God, you are set free. You're set free. Paul spent the entire Kissel of Galatians asserting this freedom. When I wrote that book on Galatians, I say on Galatians, the book was called The Precept of Freedom. The Biblical Precept of Freedom, because that's what it's about. To be free. Free from the bondage of the law. Free from the bondage of sin.

Oh, in Galatians chapter 5, Paul talked about that. He talked about this thing called liberty in Christ Jesus. In Galatians chapter 5, verse 1, it says, stand fast. He says to the Galatian believers, stand fast. Therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. I found that an interesting way of phrasing there, stand fast. This liberty seems to be a state of being, or a state of something, a state of existence, this liberty. He says, stand fast therefore in the liberty, in that liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

That liberty is Christ himself, I suppose, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. And we know the yoke of bondage was the law of the ceremony, circumcision, where men said you had to be circumcised The freedom that he speaks of is addressing foremost the freedom from the law. Now who's he talking to? Mostly to Pharisees who live by the law. They can't even begin to understand what he's talking about. considered himself to be in bondage because he had the law. He had the book. So he said, I'm a free man. But he was in bondage and didn't know it. He had no idea.

The Pharisee and the unbelieving Jews are who responded to the Lord's statement about freedom. They had no notion that he spoke of the law and the understanding of the word of God. The idea of freedom had to do with ancestry as far as they were concerned. In verse 33 it says, they answered him, we be Abraham's seed. We be Abraham's seed, and we're never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, ye shall be made free? They said, we've never been in bondage to any man.

Now either they had never seen the word of God, they didn't know anything about their history, or they're just lying right here. Because they were in bondage in Egypt. Our Lord said over and over again in that Old Testament, remember, you were in bondage in Egypt, and I set you free. So they were in bondage to Egypt, they were in bondage to Babylon, they were in bondage to the Chaldeans, they were in bondage to the Assyrians, and at the time our Lord was speaking to them, presently, they were under the rule of Rome. So their statement was false. We've never been in bondage.

But they were saying, since we're Abraham's seed, that means we're free. They looked past all that and went to the place where Abraham and Sarah bore Isaac, the child born freely. They considered that freedom and questioned how Christ said that the truth would make them free. How in the world is he talking about being free? We're free men. We're free men. Again, we see the incapability of the flesh to grasp spiritual truth and the obduracy of the religious flesh. They had no idea of the chains and fetters that bound them. had no idea, and no one does until the truth sets them free. Remember, on a maggot on a dunghill, after a while he doesn't smell the dunghill. What he smells is home. And if you were born in chains and feathers, and you walked under those chains and feathers and under that yoke all your life, that's home to you. And unless somebody breaks that yoke, by the power of God Almighty, then you'll never know that you were in bondage. These people were in bondage and had no idea. He said to them, you shall be free if you know the truth. Wait a minute, we're not in bondage. We're not in bondage.

Verse 34 is a profound statement and it's not generic. Jesus said, verily, verily, truly, truly, this is the truth, I say unto you, whosoever Committed sin is the servant of sin. The sin that our Lord addresses is not general. It's specific. The sin is unbelief. That's what He's been talking about all along here. You gotta believe on me or you'll die in your sins. Isn't that what He said? That's what He said. The sin of unbelief is specific and it's to those whom He now addresses. They resided but believed. They do not abide in the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't believe on Christ.

Well, what's the result of that? Of course, we know it's bondage. It also means other things. In John chapter 3 and verse 36, John the Baptist said, If he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. The wrath of God abideth on him. over in 2 John chapter 1 verse 9 it says this whosoever transgresses and breaks the law whosoever transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine or the teaching of Jesus Christ does not have God hath not God he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath broke the father and the Son.

The sin that our Lord addresses when He said, Whosoever commit a sin is a servant of sin. This is the sin to which they are servants. They are servants to unbelief. They are servants to unbelief. Over in Romans chapter 6, verse 16 says, Know ye not that to whom you yield your servants to obey, his servants you are, whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. I think it was old Bob Dylan who said in one of his songs, I think it was in that album called Saved, he said, everybody serves somebody. And this is what our Lord said, whoever you serve, whoever you obey, That's who you're a servant to. He who commits this sin, the sin of unbelief, is a servant to the sin of unbelief.

Over in 2 Peter, chapter two, verse 19. Chapter two, verse 19. It says, while they promised them liberty, they themselves are their servants, of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome, the same he is brought into bondage. You who commit a sin is a servant of sin.

Then our Lord says this back in that text. It says, And the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth forever. Now what's he saying here? As servants of sin, they will not abide in the house forever. What does that mean? It simply means that the unbeliever has no part with eternal life. They're here, but their tenure here is temporary. They'll remain in unbelief, and they'll sin in unbelief. They will sin unto death. They will die in their sins, but they will not last forever on this earth. They are temporal.

But our Lord says that the Son, He lasts forever. The Son, He lasts forever. The Son, Jesus Christ, and all who believe on Him are not servants anymore, you see. They're also sons. They're also sons.

Look over at Galatians chapter 4. Paul dealing with this matter to the Galatian church concerning freedom. Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 says but when the fullness of time was come God sent forth his son Made of a woman made under the law To redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons And because you are sons God sent forth his spirit sent forth the spirit of his son in your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ.

You're no more a servant. You are a servant of sin. in your unbelief, but you're not a servant anymore. You have a whole different dynamic. You're a son, a son of God. You know what it said in 1 John chapter 3 verse 1? What manner of love is this that we should be called the sons of God? What manner of love is this? We're sons and daughters of God. No longer servants. No longer in bondage. We've been set free.

And the freedom that the sons of God has brought for the believer makes them free-born sons by spiritual birth and by eternal adoption. This is the meaning of verse 36. If the Son therefore make you free, ye shall be free indeed. So we have that repeated if you abide If you continue in my word, the truth shall make you free. And if the truth shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now as the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. This is the connection.

Jesus Christ is it. He's all of it. The Son is the Word, and the Word is the Son. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. The same is in the beginning with God. That's Jesus Christ. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's the Son of God. And the reason men are not free is because the Word of God, the Word of God has no place in them. It's all boils down to that.

I remember Henry May had said, if I ever had to start over again, the first two years of preaching, I preached nothing, but this is the word of God. This is the authority by which we do everything, and this is the authority by which we speak. This is where we look for our doctrine and our practice, our life and our understanding, our conviction, our comfort, our strength, our weakness. This is where we find it all. This blessed book, Our Lord said, if you don't believe on the son, You'll die in your sins. Whoever's committed a sin is the servant of sin. You know, if you continue in my words, my disciples, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, and the Son shall make you free. You shall be free indeed. That's the connection. It's all Jesus Christ. It's all Jesus Christ.

In Matthew chapter 13, verse 11, it says this. He answered after they'd said, why do you teach in parables? He said, because it's given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But it's not given to them. Who's he talking about? The Pharisees. Not given to them. But it's given to you. Why? Because you're a son. You're a son.

One more passage. 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5 verse 11 and 12. And this is the record. What does that mean? This is the account. This is all there are to it. This is the record that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life.

Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen. God bless you.