Sons But Slaves (John 8:31-41)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:06.919 Please remain standing and let's turn to John Eight. Gospel of John, Chapter 2 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:14.349 Eight, a beginning at verse thirty one. I'll read thirty one through forty 3 00:00:14.429 --> 00:00:18.870 seven, a little past where I've written in the bulletin thirty one through forty 4 00:00:18.910 --> 00:00:24.980 seven. Let's hear God's word. So Jesus said to the Jews who had 5 00:00:25.059 --> 00:00:29.100 believed in him. If you abide in my word, you are truly my 6 00:00:29.260 --> 00:00:34.579 disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. 7 00:00:35.929 --> 00:00:41.049 They answered him. We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslave 8 00:00:41.170 --> 00:00:46.250 to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus 9 00:00:46.289 --> 00:00:51.359 answered them. Truly truly, I say to you, every one who practices 10 00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:55.600 sin is a slave to sin. A slave does not remain in the house 11 00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:00.799 forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, 12 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:06.030 you will be free. Indeed, I know that you are the offspring of 13 00:01:06.069 --> 00:01:11.750 Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because you fought because my word finds 14 00:01:11.909 --> 00:01:15.189 no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my father, 15 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:21.060 and you do not have or and you do what you have heard from 16 00:01:21.099 --> 00:01:26.420 your father. They answered him. Abraham is our father, Jesus said to 17 00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:30.659 them. If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham 18 00:01:30.739 --> 00:01:34.010 did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told 19 00:01:34.049 --> 00:01:38.969 you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 20 00:01:41.450 --> 00:01:45.370 You are doing the works your father did. They said to him. 21 00:01:45.730 --> 00:01:49.879 We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God. 22 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:55.640 Jesus said to them. If God were your father, you would love 23 00:01:55.799 --> 00:02:00.159 me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not 24 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:04.349 of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand 25 00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:07.310 what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 26 00:02:08.389 --> 00:02:14.110 You are of your father, the devil, and your world and your will 27 00:02:14.789 --> 00:02:19.379 is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and 28 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:23.340 does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. 29 00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:27.620 When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is 30 00:02:27.659 --> 00:02:31.569 a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, 31 00:02:31.610 --> 00:02:37.129 you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin if 32 00:02:37.169 --> 00:02:40.129 I tell the truth? Why do you not believe me? Whoever is of 33 00:02:40.250 --> 00:02:45.240 God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them, 34 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:52.639 is that you are not of God. He may be seated. As 35 00:02:52.759 --> 00:02:57.159 some one in your life ever told you something that was difficult to hear? 36 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:00.629 I'm sure this is happened to all of us. If it hasn't happened to 37 00:03:00.669 --> 00:03:09.830 you yet, you you don't have very good friends. The the the wounds 38 00:03:09.909 --> 00:03:15.539 of a friend are good, and the scriptures tell us, of course, 39 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:21.620 that it's a good father that disciplines his children, that tells them sometimes things 40 00:03:21.699 --> 00:03:24.539 they would prefer not to hear, things that are hard to hear, hard 41 00:03:25.419 --> 00:03:30.849 it's hard to take. In Jesus, of course, being always truthful, 42 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:38.770 always good, the father speaking through him, also says difficult things, things 43 00:03:38.849 --> 00:03:45.120 that are hard to hear, things that set a very clear, very strong 44 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:49.800 boundaries, like this one, as he says to the Jews, you are 45 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:59.509 not of God. Jesus is not a person who minces words. He won't 46 00:03:59.550 --> 00:04:05.629 always answer our questions directly. He won't always operate in the ways that we 47 00:04:06.069 --> 00:04:11.219 want him to or think about this world and the way we think about it. 48 00:04:11.379 --> 00:04:15.180 He will often go about answering and doing things in a totally different direction. 49 00:04:15.259 --> 00:04:19.779 I'm nevertheless, he always does these things. He says what he says, 50 00:04:20.819 --> 00:04:26.689 out of goodness, out of righteousness, and Jesus does that here in 51 00:04:26.730 --> 00:04:30.930 John a as he speaks to these people who, John says, believed in 52 00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:34.610 him. It reminds us, they are that there are different kinds of belief. 53 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:41.399 There's good belief, true belief, belief that is lodged deep down in 54 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:46.079 our hearts and is reflective of our character, and then there's belief that is 55 00:04:46.759 --> 00:04:50.360 surface level in a way, belief that agrees and a sense, in a 56 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:55.350 way, follows in a way, but ultimately is not coming from the right 57 00:04:55.470 --> 00:04:59.149 place. Jesus says to them, you are not of God. Their belief 58 00:04:59.189 --> 00:05:08.259 is ultimately not something that will save them. And so Jesus says these difficult 59 00:05:08.259 --> 00:05:11.259 things here. He tells them not only that they're not of God, but 60 00:05:11.379 --> 00:05:15.339 he says that their father is the devil. He tells them that they are 61 00:05:16.459 --> 00:05:24.490 like him in two ways. One, they are murderers, into they are 62 00:05:24.810 --> 00:05:29.089 liars. They Jesus, is one who has come into the world. He 63 00:05:29.170 --> 00:05:31.569 has been sent into the world to do what? To reveal the truth. 64 00:05:32.129 --> 00:05:35.639 And what are they trying to do with that? They are trying to suppress 65 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:42.560 it, even through murder. They are willing, even to kill him to 66 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:46.879 keep the truth from being said. They can not bear it, he says, 67 00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:53.189 you cannot bear the truth, the truth does not abide in you. 68 00:05:53.709 --> 00:05:57.949 The ones who follow me, the one in whom my word abides, those 69 00:05:58.069 --> 00:06:02.110 are my true disciples and those are the ones who will have eternal life. 70 00:06:03.339 --> 00:06:08.180 And so Jesus is making distinctions right. He's talking about those who believe the 71 00:06:08.339 --> 00:06:12.100 truth and those who don't believe the truth, those who follow him and those 72 00:06:12.139 --> 00:06:15.699 who don't follow him, those who are of God and those who are not 73 00:06:15.019 --> 00:06:21.250 of God, and it all centers around their relationship with him. They are 74 00:06:21.329 --> 00:06:26.209 responding to the truth of God by trying to arrest him and kill him. 75 00:06:26.850 --> 00:06:30.649 Next time we look at this passage or look at John's Gospel, will see 76 00:06:30.689 --> 00:06:34.720 that they begin to accuse him of having a demon. They accuse him of 77 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:40.920 having an Evil Spirit. This is like going to the doctor for a physical. 78 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:45.279 You get a scan done in the doctor tells you that you have a 79 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:49.149 cancer, but good news, he can cure it. But instead of rejoicing, 80 00:06:49.310 --> 00:06:53.269 you yell and you scream at him that he's the one with cancer. 81 00:06:55.110 --> 00:06:59.069 I've never felt better in my life. How can you say that I'm enslaved. 82 00:06:59.110 --> 00:07:03.220 We've never been in slave to anyone. Why does Jesus say this? 83 00:07:03.459 --> 00:07:09.740 Why does a doctor tell you things that you would rather not hear? Love? 84 00:07:10.860 --> 00:07:14.060 It's out of love that God sent his son into the world that whoever 85 00:07:14.100 --> 00:07:19.529 would believe in him would have eternal life not perish. Jesus is saying these 86 00:07:19.610 --> 00:07:24.569 things, Jesus is revealing these things as one who has been sent from the 87 00:07:24.730 --> 00:07:29.850 father into this world to save us from our sins, to save us from 88 00:07:29.850 --> 00:07:33.720 our slavery, to save us from our rebellion in our lives are murderer and 89 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:40.319 more, that we might have God as our father. And so, though 90 00:07:40.439 --> 00:07:45.670 these are very hard words to hear, especially if we are those who are 91 00:07:45.829 --> 00:07:50.870 still in our sins, nevertheless they are words of hope, because they are 92 00:07:50.910 --> 00:07:57.470 the words of a good physician. They are words that speak to our the 93 00:07:57.670 --> 00:08:01.180 the the reality of the situation that we are in, so that we can 94 00:08:01.259 --> 00:08:09.459 be saved. So let's listen to what Jesus has to say and this contrast 95 00:08:09.620 --> 00:08:13.529 that he has to make between those who believe the truth and those who do 96 00:08:13.689 --> 00:08:20.370 not believe the truth. First, those who believe the truth. Those who 97 00:08:20.449 --> 00:08:26.649 believe the truth are people who look at the reality of our world and think 98 00:08:26.730 --> 00:08:33.440 about truth on the most fundamental level, which is to believe in Jesus Christ 99 00:08:33.399 --> 00:08:37.080 as the one who has been sent by God, who is the savior of 100 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:43.549 the world. In other words, it's not just believing true things, this 101 00:08:43.830 --> 00:08:48.789 true thing or that true thing, it is believing Jesus as the truth. 102 00:08:50.429 --> 00:08:54.269 Now, for some of you you might feel like those things are very disconnected, 103 00:08:54.350 --> 00:09:01.700 right. Why do I need to believe in Jesus to in order to 104 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:09.049 also believe that sugar makes a good cake or to believe that if I throw 105 00:09:09.289 --> 00:09:13.409 an apple up in the air it's going to come down? Well, and 106 00:09:13.529 --> 00:09:16.809 of course you don't have to. People do it all the time, right, 107 00:09:18.330 --> 00:09:20.450 people all the time don't believe in Jesus and yet believe all kinds of 108 00:09:20.889 --> 00:09:26.240 true things. So it's not a sort of impossible thing in terms of what 109 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:31.600 can happen in a person's life, but it is a kind of intellectual impossibility. 110 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:37.360 Those two things don't go together. Why is that? Well, there's 111 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:41.070 a lot we could say about that, but it comes down to fundamental things. 112 00:09:43.950 --> 00:09:48.669 God is the creator of this world. God made everything and all that 113 00:09:48.750 --> 00:09:52.830 it is is in it, and Jesus is God. If you don't believe 114 00:09:52.019 --> 00:09:58.299 these fundamental things about reality, then it's very difficult to pull all other things 115 00:09:58.460 --> 00:10:03.940 together, in together, you know, truthful and in a real way. 116 00:10:05.299 --> 00:10:11.330 So so, for example, if we think in maybe simpler terms, if 117 00:10:11.970 --> 00:10:16.730 somebody, if you get a birthday, birthday, let me trying to say 118 00:10:16.809 --> 00:10:24.120 birthday party invitation and the mail that your friend is turning fifteen and you're going 119 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:30.840 to go to his birthday party, you may believe that, you may go 120 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:33.759 to the party and you may bring a present appropriate for your fifteen year old 121 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:37.470 friend. But what if, at the bottom of that, you don't really 122 00:10:37.509 --> 00:10:41.909 believe that your friend exists, right, that it's not like a real person? 123 00:10:41.710 --> 00:10:45.029 Well, that would be very weird, right. You wouldn't go to 124 00:10:45.190 --> 00:10:48.429 a party and receive an invitation and buy a present for someone that doesn't exist. 125 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:52.580 You see what I mean there? Are you perhaps breathed some true things 126 00:10:52.700 --> 00:10:58.059 but not enough true things. You would be crazy. In a similar way, 127 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:01.860 if we don't believe fundamental things about who God is, the nature of 128 00:11:03.059 --> 00:11:05.929 the existence, the way he has revealed himself in the world. We might 129 00:11:07.009 --> 00:11:09.850 believe true things on one level, but if we don't believe true things on 130 00:11:09.889 --> 00:11:16.049 the fundamental levels. Ultimately, our lives are going to be disordered, they 131 00:11:16.090 --> 00:11:20.080 will be inconsistent, we will act in one way and not in another, 132 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:26.240 and ultimately that kind of thing leaves you in a sort of bondage. This 133 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:31.240 is true about Jesus, because not only is he the one through whom the 134 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:35.230 world was created, but he is the one for whom all the world is 135 00:11:35.350 --> 00:11:39.710 existing. If we are not living in light of that, we're not living 136 00:11:39.750 --> 00:11:45.509 in reality. Remember that at the beginning of the world, man fell into 137 00:11:45.590 --> 00:11:52.259 sin and God promised that, through his amazing grace, he would cause a 138 00:11:52.460 --> 00:11:56.139 son to be born who would fix this problem of sin. This is Jesus, 139 00:11:56.860 --> 00:12:01.450 and if we are living in a world of sin and wrath and curse 140 00:12:01.850 --> 00:12:05.610 without any view to the one who is promised to save, the one who 141 00:12:05.649 --> 00:12:09.809 has come, we're not living in accord with reality. Jesus came into this 142 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:15.129 world. He came as the father promised he would come. He died on 143 00:12:15.169 --> 00:12:18.200 a cross and he rose again from the dead. The Bible promises that, 144 00:12:18.279 --> 00:12:22.440 because of this thing that has happened in time and in space, we all 145 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:28.639 know that the resurrection has already begun. This is reality. The resurrection has 146 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:33.789 begun. The first fruits of that have already been gathered and now we are 147 00:12:33.870 --> 00:12:39.950 merely waiting for the consummation of those things. If we live our lives in 148 00:12:39.389 --> 00:12:45.179 disconnect, in a disconnected way, from that truth, from the things that 149 00:12:45.259 --> 00:12:50.299 are coming, from the things that are promised, we're enslaved. We're enslaved 150 00:12:50.379 --> 00:12:56.419 to our imaginations, are speculations, are enslave to not reality. And so 151 00:12:56.539 --> 00:13:01.330 that's why I say those who believe the truth, those who live their whole 152 00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:05.610 lives and everything that they do as truthful people and as people who are living 153 00:13:05.649 --> 00:13:11.769 in accord with reality in the world that God has made. They must hear 154 00:13:11.049 --> 00:13:20.799 and see and acknowledge and trust in Jesus. He is the one who has 155 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:24.399 been sent by God to reveal God's will, God's plan, God's promise of 156 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:35.470 Hope, God's plan for history. We must hear him and live life according 157 00:13:35.549 --> 00:13:41.299 with him. It's not good enough to live in partial truth. A second 158 00:13:41.340 --> 00:13:46.779 thing to mention about those who believe in the truth, as Jesus talks about 159 00:13:46.779 --> 00:13:50.500 it here, is that those who believe in the truth, truly believe in 160 00:13:50.620 --> 00:13:58.129 the truth, believe at the heart level, inwardly, deeply. They don't 161 00:13:58.210 --> 00:14:03.210 live their lives according to simply what other people are saying, but they live 162 00:14:03.289 --> 00:14:09.480 their lives according to what they know is true. They work and they act 163 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:13.960 in this way. There's a kind of disconnect, for example, in the 164 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:16.799 way that they are sons of Abraham, and Jesus says, well, yes, 165 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:20.600 your sons of Abraham. I know that. I'm here in Jerusalem. 166 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:26.909 You are Jews, I am Jewish, and yet you don't act like Abraham. 167 00:14:28.669 --> 00:14:33.590 You Act like the one who is your father, out of his character. 168 00:14:33.750 --> 00:14:37.940 You're acting lying and murdering. There was something deeper inside, and that's 169 00:14:37.980 --> 00:14:43.340 what it means to be a people who follow the truth, who believe in 170 00:14:43.379 --> 00:14:48.980 the truth. Jesus says that the only way to have fellowship with God is 171 00:14:50.179 --> 00:14:54.649 through him. Jesus has told us that the only way to have eternal life 172 00:14:54.690 --> 00:14:58.049 is through him, that he is the one who is revealing the truth, 173 00:14:58.370 --> 00:15:03.970 he is the one who is bringing salvation. If we reject that, then 174 00:15:03.009 --> 00:15:05.730 we continue to walk in darkness, and there are lots of ways that we 175 00:15:05.889 --> 00:15:11.480 reject that, even if we are those who outwardly say, like they do, 176 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:16.759 we believe in Jesus. For example, if you say you believe in 177 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:20.759 Jesus, but ultimately you're trying to do things that atone for your own sins. 178 00:15:20.950 --> 00:15:26.309 You don't believe in Jesus. If you say you believe in Jesus is 179 00:15:26.470 --> 00:15:31.269 the one who has set you free from slavery and Sin and Bondage, and 180 00:15:31.389 --> 00:15:35.220 yet you continue over and over again to live your lives in bondage and in 181 00:15:35.419 --> 00:15:39.899 slavery, to sin. Well, and you don't believe in Jesus. If 182 00:15:39.940 --> 00:15:45.179 you say you believe in Jesus is the God of the universe who saves you 183 00:15:45.259 --> 00:15:48.019 according to His grace, and then yet you live in a way that tries 184 00:15:48.059 --> 00:15:54.289 to justify yourself, in a way that's constantly protecting yourself, fearing God and 185 00:15:54.490 --> 00:16:00.809 fearing others, fearing the things of this world, making the things of this 186 00:16:00.009 --> 00:16:07.679 world your highest priority, then you don't really believe in Jesus. Now I'm 187 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:12.240 not saying that each of us that our belief in this life is perfected, 188 00:16:14.360 --> 00:16:18.029 that we can come to a point where our belief is complete and holistic and 189 00:16:18.710 --> 00:16:23.389 we live our lives perfectly out of that. The Bible is clear that sin 190 00:16:23.590 --> 00:16:27.029 remains in us, that the flesh remains in us and is at war with 191 00:16:27.149 --> 00:16:37.019 the things of the spirit, but nevertheless take seriously what Jesus says, hear 192 00:16:37.100 --> 00:16:41.100 him and take it at face value. What he says in Verse Thirty Four, 193 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:47.210 I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 194 00:16:48.409 --> 00:16:52.049 If your life is one that is marked by habitual practice, that to 195 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:57.409 sin. If your master is sin, if your master is unrighteousness, if 196 00:16:57.450 --> 00:17:04.440 you are a person who regularly presents their bodies as as tools and instruments for 197 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:11.720 evil things, then Jesus is not your Lord. These are hard truths, 198 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:18.789 but they're ones that we must hear, because there is a kind trast between 199 00:17:18.869 --> 00:17:22.430 those who believe and those who don't. Those who believe, as we read 200 00:17:22.549 --> 00:17:27.109 earlier in Romans and as Jesus is expressing now. Those who believe are those 201 00:17:27.150 --> 00:17:33.619 who fight against their sin. Those who believe are those who rest in the 202 00:17:33.700 --> 00:17:37.059 strength of God and the spirit. Those who believe are those who pray and 203 00:17:37.339 --> 00:17:42.420 ask for growth and for sanctification and to put off the deeds of the flesh, 204 00:17:42.859 --> 00:17:47.250 to walk in accord with the life. Who Instead, if he? 205 00:17:47.569 --> 00:17:51.609 Who? Who? When they hear the truth, they receive it and they 206 00:17:51.730 --> 00:17:56.609 repent and they move forward, striving in obedience and in the strength and grace 207 00:17:56.690 --> 00:18:00.079 of God. That's what those who believe do. They rest in him, 208 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:06.640 they rest in his promises and they move forward in their lives, striving after 209 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:10.960 the things of God, looking to Jesus, is both the author and perfector 210 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:15.549 of their faith. That's what those who believe do. Those who live their 211 00:18:15.630 --> 00:18:19.069 lives make in this way, make God their highest priority. They live their 212 00:18:19.150 --> 00:18:23.230 lives in him and for him and to him. They are thankful people, 213 00:18:23.309 --> 00:18:27.539 they are honest people. They are people who desire to know the truth and 214 00:18:27.940 --> 00:18:33.220 abide in it, and when they don't, they repent and they ask for 215 00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:40.539 God's grace to help them and forgive them. Those who do not believe the 216 00:18:40.660 --> 00:18:45.650 truth do something else. Those who do not believe the truth are against the 217 00:18:45.930 --> 00:18:49.410 truth. Right. That's the nature of it. When it comes to fundamental 218 00:18:49.490 --> 00:18:52.369 things about what is real and what is not, what is true and what 219 00:18:52.529 --> 00:18:59.720 is not, there's no middle ground. There's no sort of neutral free zone 220 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:04.640 in which you can exist independence of the truth. There's no place where you 221 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:11.630 get to just sort of in a judgment in a way where you are free 222 00:19:11.829 --> 00:19:18.910 of any consequences can just sort of sit and wait and decide. Again. 223 00:19:18.990 --> 00:19:22.470 That's a hard thing. To say. Now, that doesn't mean that we 224 00:19:22.509 --> 00:19:29.180 shouldn't ask questions. It just means that in our question asking we're not sort 225 00:19:29.220 --> 00:19:33.980 of in a neutral, consequence free box, right. Sometimes people will think 226 00:19:33.099 --> 00:19:37.900 this. They'll say, well, I don't want to decide about what's true 227 00:19:37.940 --> 00:19:42.410 and what's not, so I'm going to just be safe over here where I 228 00:19:44.049 --> 00:19:47.849 don't have to decide. where it's going to be. Okay, let's go 229 00:19:47.890 --> 00:19:52.529 back to the example of the doctor. The doctor comes to you and tells 230 00:19:52.569 --> 00:19:56.039 you you have cancer and you say, I don't know, I need to 231 00:19:56.119 --> 00:20:02.319 think about it. Well, you can do that, you can wait, 232 00:20:02.519 --> 00:20:06.640 you can decide, and waiting in a way is different from making a decision 233 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:10.470 that says I'm not going to do that. Those are different things. What 234 00:20:10.750 --> 00:20:12.829 you might want to go to a second opinion, you might want to look 235 00:20:12.869 --> 00:20:19.509 at the scans for yourself or get something you might explore that process and maybe, 236 00:20:19.589 --> 00:20:22.539 depending on your doctor, that might be a good thing to do. 237 00:20:23.059 --> 00:20:29.660 But know that if you have cancer, that's not a consequence free place. 238 00:20:30.819 --> 00:20:37.089 You can't just wait and know that waiting and deciding will somehow protect you from 239 00:20:37.089 --> 00:20:45.809 the consequences of having cancer. And the truth is that when God speaks to 240 00:20:45.849 --> 00:20:51.680 us, there's no need for a second opinion. There's no one better to 241 00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:56.559 go to for a second opinion. There's no alternative perspective, no better or 242 00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:00.680 other way of looking at it. Certainly we are not in a place where 243 00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:06.390 we can judge ourselves or judge our hearts. Here is God speaking to us. 244 00:21:06.710 --> 00:21:12.150 In perfect truth. You can put the pause button on what you're going 245 00:21:12.150 --> 00:21:18.980 to think about that, but it's not consequence free. In your period of 246 00:21:18.099 --> 00:21:25.619 waiting and deciding what to think about God, you are doing effectively, you 247 00:21:25.700 --> 00:21:29.660 are doing the same thing as the person who says I want nothing to do 248 00:21:29.779 --> 00:21:34.329 with it, because effectively you're standing apart from it. You're still standing apart 249 00:21:34.369 --> 00:21:38.529 from the truth. You're still standing a from the truth, you are still 250 00:21:38.529 --> 00:21:44.809 against it and not benefiting from it. And that's why I say ultimately, 251 00:21:45.089 --> 00:21:49.640 though you might have qualifications within these two categories, ultimately there's only two those 252 00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:59.079 who believe and those who don't, and those who don't do the opposite things 253 00:21:59.640 --> 00:22:06.269 that we talked about. I mentioned about those who do instead of believing the 254 00:22:06.390 --> 00:22:10.630 truth, those who don't believe the truth try to shut it down, sometimes 255 00:22:10.710 --> 00:22:18.299 even with their questions and hesitancy. A strongest reaction that we see is with 256 00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:22.099 the people here in John Eight. They are not open, they are not 257 00:22:22.220 --> 00:22:26.660 questioning, they are trying to arrest Jesus, they are trying to kill, 258 00:22:27.220 --> 00:22:33.329 they are trying to murder Jesus. They want the truth to be stopped, 259 00:22:33.690 --> 00:22:38.250 they want the truth to be buried. And this is not just the death 260 00:22:38.289 --> 00:22:44.559 of an idea, but the death of a man, the death of the 261 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:48.480 son of God, and Jesus has brought us the truth. Jesus says, 262 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:53.799 what sin do you convict me of? There's nothing that I have done, 263 00:22:55.160 --> 00:22:59.750 not a single thing that you could point to and say that I'm I've sinned 264 00:22:59.789 --> 00:23:03.990 in any way, much less sin worthy of capital punishment. And yet, 265 00:23:04.029 --> 00:23:08.990 despite the fact that there is no sin in him, that he's done nothing 266 00:23:10.069 --> 00:23:15.819 wrong, that he's only come in love, they want to kill him, 267 00:23:17.940 --> 00:23:22.539 they want to and will eventually put him on a cross to silence his testimony 268 00:23:22.420 --> 00:23:26.289 and even and as we go through John, as we see and we know 269 00:23:26.410 --> 00:23:30.250 from the other gospels as well, they're even willing to bring false testimony, 270 00:23:30.849 --> 00:23:40.849 untruths, to shut down the truth, to silence that good doctor. This 271 00:23:41.009 --> 00:23:45.880 is what people do who love their sin more than anything else. This is 272 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:52.359 what people do who want to protect their pride, to protect lies, who 273 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:57.589 protect their desires more than anything else, and they do this because, like 274 00:23:57.789 --> 00:24:02.150 the devil, their father, they live their lives out of their character, 275 00:24:02.230 --> 00:24:06.430 out of their highest priorities, out of their highest desires, out of their 276 00:24:06.589 --> 00:24:11.660 gods. When the word of God brings true accusation against them, instead of 277 00:24:11.779 --> 00:24:18.900 turning from their sin, they drill down deeper and deeper into it. Imagine 278 00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:25.569 a person who's digging a hole. You see your friend and they're digging this 279 00:24:25.730 --> 00:24:30.369 hole and they're deeper and deeper and deeper, and you call down to them 280 00:24:30.529 --> 00:24:33.490 and say, you know, friend, look, you're digging a deep hole. 281 00:24:33.609 --> 00:24:38.359 It seems you have no way out. Let me help you. What 282 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:42.279 if your friend yells up at you? Know you're a liar, I'm not 283 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:48.000 digging a hole, and then just digs faster and deeper. Right? This 284 00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:52.599 is the craziness that sin is and this is exactly what people do when they 285 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:55.430 hear the truth. This is what they're doing right here in John Eight, 286 00:24:55.710 --> 00:24:59.430 and it's what we continue to do in the world. That's why Jesus calls 287 00:24:59.470 --> 00:25:06.230 it slavery. This man is enslave to this whole we get enslave to our 288 00:25:06.309 --> 00:25:10.500 sin even from our birth, and that's why we need this rescue operation from 289 00:25:10.539 --> 00:25:15.299 God to come into this dominion of darkness and bring us up out of it. 290 00:25:15.900 --> 00:25:21.490 That's what Jesus is here for. People who are digging faster and faster 291 00:25:21.690 --> 00:25:26.089 and faster into their sin feel trapped. They hate it in some ways, 292 00:25:26.130 --> 00:25:30.289 they s understand its consequences, they feel the weight of it. It's isolation 293 00:25:32.089 --> 00:25:36.079 from God, from other people, and yet, enslaved by their own pride, 294 00:25:36.119 --> 00:25:40.359 enslaved by their desires that they want to fulfill more than anything else, 295 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:52.990 they keep digging. A lot of the time are digging ourselves into these sinholes. 296 00:25:55.309 --> 00:26:00.950 They're not as obvious as as I'm making it sound. Sometimes it is 297 00:26:00.230 --> 00:26:04.299 like here in John Eight, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes we bury our 298 00:26:04.380 --> 00:26:11.460 sinful desires under a web of lies, of seemingly good lives. We Act 299 00:26:11.579 --> 00:26:15.140 on one way, are in one way on the outside, hoping that no 300 00:26:15.299 --> 00:26:22.130 one will suspect a problem on the inside, or we develop excuses so that 301 00:26:22.250 --> 00:26:26.130 we don't have to pay attention to the inside, or we distract ourselves with 302 00:26:26.250 --> 00:26:32.210 various things so we don't have to pay attention to the inside. We ignore 303 00:26:32.210 --> 00:26:36.839 the thoughts and the feelings and the desires that truly motivate us not to follow 304 00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:42.559 the truth but do what we want instead. And that's why it's so it's 305 00:26:42.599 --> 00:26:49.990 such a blessing to have somebody come along and speak the truth, to speak 306 00:26:51.150 --> 00:26:56.789 the words of Jesus, to say to us, friend, you're digging a 307 00:26:56.869 --> 00:27:06.220 hole, you're living your life enslaved, let me help you out. Abide 308 00:27:06.259 --> 00:27:12.619 in the truth and the truth will set you free. Believe Jesus. Instead 309 00:27:12.619 --> 00:27:15.809 of calling him a liar, instead of saying he has a demon, instead 310 00:27:15.849 --> 00:27:18.529 of saying I don't know, I'm just going to dig a little while longer 311 00:27:18.690 --> 00:27:22.730 and wait and see, I'm going to think about it some more, just 312 00:27:25.250 --> 00:27:34.039 trust him. Find your salvation in Him. And that's where the hard things 313 00:27:34.119 --> 00:27:38.680 that are said to us are such a blessing. If we have ears to 314 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:44.309 hear, if you don't have yours to hear, and you recognize in yourself 315 00:27:44.349 --> 00:27:49.430 an impenitent heart, a calloused heart, a hypocritical heart, then these answers 316 00:27:51.549 --> 00:27:56.349 blessedly the same. Turn to Jesus, repent and say, my heart is 317 00:27:56.470 --> 00:28:03.700 hard, I don't believe. Help my unbelief. You wouldn't be the first 318 00:28:03.700 --> 00:28:11.259 person to do that and be saved. So what each of us need to 319 00:28:11.339 --> 00:28:15.650 think about them this morning is which kind of person are we? Are we 320 00:28:15.769 --> 00:28:22.009 a person who believes the truth and has been set free from it and striving 321 00:28:22.049 --> 00:28:26.799 to live our lives in accordance with it, trusting in the truth, relying 322 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:33.240 in the truth, knowing it, knowing him better and better? Or are 323 00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:37.680 we the kind of people that are following our own desires and digging our own 324 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:47.269 way faster and faster to hell? Do you want to hear the words of 325 00:28:47.309 --> 00:28:51.710 Jesus and have him pull you out so that you might follow him instead of 326 00:28:51.750 --> 00:28:59.460 yourself? Or do you want to follow Satan and be condemned like him, 327 00:29:00.259 --> 00:29:06.700 the father of lies and murder R do you want to be like God, 328 00:29:07.700 --> 00:29:11.769 who is truth, who is not condemned, who is perfectly free and offers 329 00:29:11.890 --> 00:29:19.089 freedom to us as his children? I hope and I pray that you all 330 00:29:19.289 --> 00:29:25.880 want the latter, that you want to know God and know the truth as 331 00:29:25.960 --> 00:29:30.400 he has revealed it to you in Christ. It will require you to lay 332 00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:36.160 down your own pride, to be honest about your sins and how deep they 333 00:29:36.279 --> 00:29:42.950 go. It will require you to trust in someone other than yourself. But 334 00:29:44.069 --> 00:29:51.549 I promise you in the name of Jesus, that these costs, these requirements, 335 00:29:51.589 --> 00:30:00.140 are nothing compared with the joys of belonging to God. Throw aside your 336 00:30:00.259 --> 00:30:06.740 filthy rags. Jesus offers to you a royal robe. He gives to you 337 00:30:06.940 --> 00:30:11.289 his righteousness, he gives to your freedom, he gives to you truth. 338 00:30:11.369 --> 00:30:15.289 Abide in it, you will be free. Let's pray.