Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Please remain standing and let's turn to
John Eight. Gospel of John, Chapter
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Eight, a beginning at verse thirty
one. I'll read thirty one through forty
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seven, a little past where I've
written in the bulletin thirty one through forty
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seven. Let's hear God's word.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had
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believed in him. If you abide
in my word, you are truly my
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disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
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They answered him. We are offspring
of Abraham and have never been enslave
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to anyone. How is it that
you say you will become free? Jesus
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answered them. Truly truly, I
say to you, every one who practices
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sin is a slave to sin.
A slave does not remain in the house
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forever. The son remains forever.
So if the son sets you free,
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you will be free. Indeed,
I know that you are the offspring of
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Abraham, yet you seek to kill
me because you fought because my word finds
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no place in you. I speak
of what I have seen with my father,
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and you do not have or and
you do what you have heard from
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your father. They answered him.
Abraham is our father, Jesus said to
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them. If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham
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did, but now you seek to
kill me, a man who has told
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you the truth that I heard from
God. This is not what Abraham did.
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You are doing the works your father
did. They said to him.
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We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God.
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Jesus said to them. If God
were your father, you would love
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me, for I came from God
and I am here. I came not
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of my own accord, but he
sent me. Why do you not understand
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what I say? It is because
you cannot bear to hear my word.
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You are of your father, the
devil, and your world and your will
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is to do your father's desires.
He was a murderer from the beginning and
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does not stand in the truth,
because there is no truth in him.
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When he lies, he speaks out
of his own character, for he is
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a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth,
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you do not believe me. Which
one of you convicts me of sin if
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I tell the truth? Why do
you not believe me? Whoever is of
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God hears the words of God.
The reason why you do not hear them,
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is that you are not of God. He may be seated. As
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some one in your life ever told
you something that was difficult to hear?
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I'm sure this is happened to all
of us. If it hasn't happened to
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you yet, you you don't have
very good friends. The the the wounds
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of a friend are good, and
the scriptures tell us, of course,
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that it's a good father that disciplines
his children, that tells them sometimes things
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they would prefer not to hear,
things that are hard to hear, hard
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it's hard to take. In Jesus, of course, being always truthful,
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always good, the father speaking through
him, also says difficult things, things
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that are hard to hear, things
that set a very clear, very strong
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boundaries, like this one, as
he says to the Jews, you are
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not of God. Jesus is not
a person who minces words. He won't
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always answer our questions directly. He
won't always operate in the ways that we
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want him to or think about this
world and the way we think about it.
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He will often go about answering and
doing things in a totally different direction.
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I'm nevertheless, he always does these
things. He says what he says,
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out of goodness, out of righteousness, and Jesus does that here in
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John a as he speaks to these
people who, John says, believed in
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him. It reminds us, they
are that there are different kinds of belief.
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There's good belief, true belief,
belief that is lodged deep down in
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our hearts and is reflective of our
character, and then there's belief that is
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surface level in a way, belief
that agrees and a sense, in a
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way, follows in a way,
but ultimately is not coming from the right
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place. Jesus says to them,
you are not of God. Their belief
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is ultimately not something that will save
them. And so Jesus says these difficult
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things here. He tells them not
only that they're not of God, but
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he says that their father is the
devil. He tells them that they are
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like him in two ways. One, they are murderers, into they are
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liars. They Jesus, is one
who has come into the world. He
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has been sent into the world to
do what? To reveal the truth.
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And what are they trying to do
with that? They are trying to suppress
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it, even through murder. They
are willing, even to kill him to
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keep the truth from being said.
They can not bear it, he says,
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you cannot bear the truth, the
truth does not abide in you.
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The ones who follow me, the
one in whom my word abides, those
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are my true disciples and those are
the ones who will have eternal life.
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And so Jesus is making distinctions right. He's talking about those who believe the
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truth and those who don't believe the
truth, those who follow him and those
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who don't follow him, those who
are of God and those who are not
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of God, and it all centers
around their relationship with him. They are
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responding to the truth of God by
trying to arrest him and kill him.
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Next time we look at this passage
or look at John's Gospel, will see
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that they begin to accuse him of
having a demon. They accuse him of
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having an Evil Spirit. This is
like going to the doctor for a physical.
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You get a scan done in the
doctor tells you that you have a
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cancer, but good news, he
can cure it. But instead of rejoicing,
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you yell and you scream at him
that he's the one with cancer.
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I've never felt better in my life. How can you say that I'm enslaved.
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We've never been in slave to anyone. Why does Jesus say this?
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Why does a doctor tell you things
that you would rather not hear? Love?
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It's out of love that God sent
his son into the world that whoever
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would believe in him would have eternal
life not perish. Jesus is saying these
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things, Jesus is revealing these things
as one who has been sent from the
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father into this world to save us
from our sins, to save us from
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our slavery, to save us from
our rebellion in our lives are murderer and
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more, that we might have God
as our father. And so, though
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these are very hard words to hear, especially if we are those who are
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still in our sins, nevertheless they
are words of hope, because they are
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the words of a good physician.
They are words that speak to our the
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the the reality of the situation that
we are in, so that we can
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be saved. So let's listen to
what Jesus has to say and this contrast
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that he has to make between those
who believe the truth and those who do
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not believe the truth. First,
those who believe the truth. Those who
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believe the truth are people who look
at the reality of our world and think
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about truth on the most fundamental level, which is to believe in Jesus Christ
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as the one who has been sent
by God, who is the savior of
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the world. In other words,
it's not just believing true things, this
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true thing or that true thing,
it is believing Jesus as the truth.
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Now, for some of you you
might feel like those things are very disconnected,
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right. Why do I need to
believe in Jesus to in order to
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also believe that sugar makes a good
cake or to believe that if I throw
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an apple up in the air it's
going to come down? Well, and
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of course you don't have to.
People do it all the time, right,
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people all the time don't believe in
Jesus and yet believe all kinds of
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true things. So it's not a
sort of impossible thing in terms of what
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can happen in a person's life,
but it is a kind of intellectual impossibility.
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Those two things don't go together.
Why is that? Well, there's
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a lot we could say about that, but it comes down to fundamental things.
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God is the creator of this world. God made everything and all that
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it is is in it, and
Jesus is God. If you don't believe
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these fundamental things about reality, then
it's very difficult to pull all other things
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together, in together, you know, truthful and in a real way.
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So so, for example, if
we think in maybe simpler terms, if
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somebody, if you get a birthday, birthday, let me trying to say
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birthday party invitation and the mail that
your friend is turning fifteen and you're going
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to go to his birthday party,
you may believe that, you may go
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to the party and you may bring
a present appropriate for your fifteen year old
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friend. But what if, at
the bottom of that, you don't really
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believe that your friend exists, right, that it's not like a real person?
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Well, that would be very weird, right. You wouldn't go to
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a party and receive an invitation and
buy a present for someone that doesn't exist.
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You see what I mean there?
Are you perhaps breathed some true things
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but not enough true things. You
would be crazy. In a similar way,
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if we don't believe fundamental things about
who God is, the nature of
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the existence, the way he has
revealed himself in the world. We might
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believe true things on one level,
but if we don't believe true things on
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the fundamental levels. Ultimately, our
lives are going to be disordered, they
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will be inconsistent, we will act
in one way and not in another,
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and ultimately that kind of thing leaves
you in a sort of bondage. This
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is true about Jesus, because not
only is he the one through whom the
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world was created, but he is
the one for whom all the world is
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existing. If we are not living
in light of that, we're not living
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in reality. Remember that at the
beginning of the world, man fell into
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sin and God promised that, through
his amazing grace, he would cause a
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son to be born who would fix
this problem of sin. This is Jesus,
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and if we are living in a
world of sin and wrath and curse
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without any view to the one who
is promised to save, the one who
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has come, we're not living in
accord with reality. Jesus came into this
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world. He came as the father
promised he would come. He died on
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a cross and he rose again from
the dead. The Bible promises that,
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because of this thing that has happened
in time and in space, we all
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know that the resurrection has already begun. This is reality. The resurrection has
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begun. The first fruits of that
have already been gathered and now we are
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merely waiting for the consummation of those
things. If we live our lives in
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disconnect, in a disconnected way,
from that truth, from the things that
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are coming, from the things that
are promised, we're enslaved. We're enslaved
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to our imaginations, are speculations,
are enslave to not reality. And so
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that's why I say those who believe
the truth, those who live their whole
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lives and everything that they do as
truthful people and as people who are living
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in accord with reality in the world
that God has made. They must hear
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and see and acknowledge and trust in
Jesus. He is the one who has
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been sent by God to reveal God's
will, God's plan, God's promise of
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Hope, God's plan for history.
We must hear him and live life according
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with him. It's not good enough
to live in partial truth. A second
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thing to mention about those who believe
in the truth, as Jesus talks about
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it here, is that those who
believe in the truth, truly believe in
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the truth, believe at the heart
level, inwardly, deeply. They don't
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live their lives according to simply what
other people are saying, but they live
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their lives according to what they know
is true. They work and they act
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in this way. There's a kind
of disconnect, for example, in the
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way that they are sons of Abraham, and Jesus says, well, yes,
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your sons of Abraham. I know
that. I'm here in Jerusalem.
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You are Jews, I am Jewish, and yet you don't act like Abraham.
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You Act like the one who is
your father, out of his character.
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You're acting lying and murdering. There
was something deeper inside, and that's
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what it means to be a people
who follow the truth, who believe in
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the truth. Jesus says that the
only way to have fellowship with God is
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through him. Jesus has told us
that the only way to have eternal life
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is through him, that he is
the one who is revealing the truth,
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he is the one who is bringing
salvation. If we reject that, then
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we continue to walk in darkness,
and there are lots of ways that we
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reject that, even if we are
those who outwardly say, like they do,
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we believe in Jesus. For example, if you say you believe in
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Jesus, but ultimately you're trying to
do things that atone for your own sins.
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You don't believe in Jesus. If
you say you believe in Jesus is
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the one who has set you free
from slavery and Sin and Bondage, and
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yet you continue over and over again
to live your lives in bondage and in
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slavery, to sin. Well,
and you don't believe in Jesus. If
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you say you believe in Jesus is
the God of the universe who saves you
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according to His grace, and then
yet you live in a way that tries
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to justify yourself, in a way
that's constantly protecting yourself, fearing God and
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fearing others, fearing the things of
this world, making the things of this
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world your highest priority, then you
don't really believe in Jesus. Now I'm
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not saying that each of us that
our belief in this life is perfected,
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that we can come to a point
where our belief is complete and holistic and
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we live our lives perfectly out of
that. The Bible is clear that sin
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remains in us, that the flesh
remains in us and is at war with
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the things of the spirit, but
nevertheless take seriously what Jesus says, hear
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him and take it at face value. What he says in Verse Thirty Four,
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I say to you, everyone who
practices sin is a slave to sin.
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If your life is one that is
marked by habitual practice, that to
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sin. If your master is sin, if your master is unrighteousness, if
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you are a person who regularly presents
their bodies as as tools and instruments for
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evil things, then Jesus is not
your Lord. These are hard truths,
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but they're ones that we must hear, because there is a kind trast between
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those who believe and those who don't. Those who believe, as we read
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earlier in Romans and as Jesus is
expressing now. Those who believe are those
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who fight against their sin. Those
who believe are those who rest in the
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strength of God and the spirit.
Those who believe are those who pray and
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ask for growth and for sanctification and
to put off the deeds of the flesh,
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to walk in accord with the life. Who Instead, if he?
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Who? Who? When they hear
the truth, they receive it and they
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repent and they move forward, striving
in obedience and in the strength and grace
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of God. That's what those who
believe do. They rest in him,
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they rest in his promises and they
move forward in their lives, striving after
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the things of God, looking to
Jesus, is both the author and perfector
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of their faith. That's what those
who believe do. Those who live their
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lives make in this way, make
God their highest priority. They live their
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lives in him and for him and
to him. They are thankful people,
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they are honest people. They are
people who desire to know the truth and
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abide in it, and when they
don't, they repent and they ask for
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God's grace to help them and forgive
them. Those who do not believe the
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truth do something else. Those who
do not believe the truth are against the
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truth. Right. That's the nature
of it. When it comes to fundamental
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things about what is real and what
is not, what is true and what
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is not, there's no middle ground. There's no sort of neutral free zone
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in which you can exist independence of
the truth. There's no place where you
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get to just sort of in a
judgment in a way where you are free
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of any consequences can just sort of
sit and wait and decide. Again.
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That's a hard thing. To say. Now, that doesn't mean that we
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shouldn't ask questions. It just means
that in our question asking we're not sort
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of in a neutral, consequence free
box, right. Sometimes people will think
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this. They'll say, well,
I don't want to decide about what's true
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and what's not, so I'm going
to just be safe over here where I
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don't have to decide. where it's
going to be. Okay, let's go
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back to the example of the doctor. The doctor comes to you and tells
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you you have cancer and you say, I don't know, I need to
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think about it. Well, you
can do that, you can wait,
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you can decide, and waiting in
a way is different from making a decision
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that says I'm not going to do
that. Those are different things. What
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you might want to go to a
second opinion, you might want to look
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at the scans for yourself or get
something you might explore that process and maybe,
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depending on your doctor, that might
be a good thing to do.
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But know that if you have cancer, that's not a consequence free place.
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You can't just wait and know that
waiting and deciding will somehow protect you from
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the consequences of having cancer. And
the truth is that when God speaks to
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us, there's no need for a
second opinion. There's no one better to
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go to for a second opinion.
There's no alternative perspective, no better or
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other way of looking at it.
Certainly we are not in a place where
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we can judge ourselves or judge our
hearts. Here is God speaking to us.
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In perfect truth. You can put
the pause button on what you're going
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to think about that, but it's
not consequence free. In your period of
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waiting and deciding what to think about
God, you are doing effectively, you
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are doing the same thing as the
person who says I want nothing to do
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with it, because effectively you're standing
apart from it. You're still standing apart
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from the truth. You're still standing
a from the truth, you are still
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against it and not benefiting from it. And that's why I say ultimately,
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though you might have qualifications within these
two categories, ultimately there's only two those
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who believe and those who don't,
and those who don't do the opposite things
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that we talked about. I mentioned
about those who do instead of believing the
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truth, those who don't believe the
truth try to shut it down, sometimes
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even with their questions and hesitancy.
A strongest reaction that we see is with
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the people here in John Eight.
They are not open, they are not
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questioning, they are trying to arrest
Jesus, they are trying to kill,
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they are trying to murder Jesus.
They want the truth to be stopped,
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they want the truth to be buried. And this is not just the death
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of an idea, but the death
of a man, the death of the
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son of God, and Jesus has
brought us the truth. Jesus says,
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what sin do you convict me of? There's nothing that I have done,
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not a single thing that you could
point to and say that I'm I've sinned
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in any way, much less sin
worthy of capital punishment. And yet,
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despite the fact that there is no
sin in him, that he's done nothing
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wrong, that he's only come in
love, they want to kill him,
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they want to and will eventually put
him on a cross to silence his testimony
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and even and as we go through
John, as we see and we know
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from the other gospels as well,
they're even willing to bring false testimony,
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untruths, to shut down the truth, to silence that good doctor. This
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is what people do who love their
sin more than anything else. This is
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what people do who want to protect
their pride, to protect lies, who
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protect their desires more than anything else, and they do this because, like
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the devil, their father, they
live their lives out of their character,
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out of their highest priorities, out
of their highest desires, out of their
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gods. When the word of God
brings true accusation against them, instead of
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turning from their sin, they drill
down deeper and deeper into it. Imagine
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a person who's digging a hole.
You see your friend and they're digging this
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hole and they're deeper and deeper and
deeper, and you call down to them
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and say, you know, friend, look, you're digging a deep hole.
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It seems you have no way out. Let me help you. What
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if your friend yells up at you? Know you're a liar, I'm not
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digging a hole, and then just
digs faster and deeper. Right? This
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is the craziness that sin is and
this is exactly what people do when they
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hear the truth. This is what
they're doing right here in John Eight,
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and it's what we continue to do
in the world. That's why Jesus calls
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it slavery. This man is enslave
to this whole we get enslave to our
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sin even from our birth, and
that's why we need this rescue operation from
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God to come into this dominion of
darkness and bring us up out of it.
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That's what Jesus is here for.
People who are digging faster and faster
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and faster into their sin feel trapped. They hate it in some ways,
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they s understand its consequences, they
feel the weight of it. It's isolation
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from God, from other people,
and yet, enslaved by their own pride,
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enslaved by their desires that they want
to fulfill more than anything else,
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they keep digging. A lot of
the time are digging ourselves into these sinholes.
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They're not as obvious as as I'm
making it sound. Sometimes it is
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like here in John Eight, but
sometimes it's not. Sometimes we bury our
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sinful desires under a web of lies, of seemingly good lives. We Act
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on one way, are in one
way on the outside, hoping that no
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one will suspect a problem on the
inside, or we develop excuses so that
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we don't have to pay attention to
the inside, or we distract ourselves with
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various things so we don't have to
pay attention to the inside. We ignore
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the thoughts and the feelings and the
desires that truly motivate us not to follow
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the truth but do what we want
instead. And that's why it's so it's
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such a blessing to have somebody come
along and speak the truth, to speak
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the words of Jesus, to say
to us, friend, you're digging a
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hole, you're living your life enslaved, let me help you out. Abide
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in the truth and the truth will
set you free. Believe Jesus. Instead
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of calling him a liar, instead
of saying he has a demon, instead
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of saying I don't know, I'm
just going to dig a little while longer
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and wait and see, I'm going
to think about it some more, just
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trust him. Find your salvation in
Him. And that's where the hard things
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that are said to us are such
a blessing. If we have ears to
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hear, if you don't have yours
to hear, and you recognize in yourself
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an impenitent heart, a calloused heart, a hypocritical heart, then these answers
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blessedly the same. Turn to Jesus, repent and say, my heart is
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hard, I don't believe. Help
my unbelief. You wouldn't be the first
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person to do that and be saved. So what each of us need to
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think about them this morning is which
kind of person are we? Are we
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a person who believes the truth and
has been set free from it and striving
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to live our lives in accordance with
it, trusting in the truth, relying
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in the truth, knowing it,
knowing him better and better? Or are
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we the kind of people that are
following our own desires and digging our own
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way faster and faster to hell?
Do you want to hear the words of
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Jesus and have him pull you out
so that you might follow him instead of
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yourself? Or do you want to
follow Satan and be condemned like him,
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the father of lies and murder R
do you want to be like God,
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who is truth, who is not
condemned, who is perfectly free and offers
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freedom to us as his children?
I hope and I pray that you all
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want the latter, that you want
to know God and know the truth as
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he has revealed it to you in
Christ. It will require you to lay
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down your own pride, to be
honest about your sins and how deep they
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go. It will require you to
trust in someone other than yourself. But
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I promise you in the name of
Jesus, that these costs, these requirements,
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are nothing compared with the joys of
belonging to God. Throw aside your
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filthy rags. Jesus offers to you
a royal robe. He gives to you
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his righteousness, he gives to your
freedom, he gives to you truth.
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Abide in it, you will be
free. Let's pray.
