It's John 8, 30 to 36, for a sermon I've entitled, Set Free by Truth. Here's what it says. As he spoke these things, many came to believe in him. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in him, If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free. They answered him, We're Abraham's descendants. We've never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus answered and said, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed. Freedom, keep walking, keep on your toes, and don't stop talking about freedom. Get going. Lots to be learned and lots to be known about people. You've got to reach them, sit them right down, and you've got to teach them about freedom. You've got to win it. You've got to put yourself smack dab in it. Hey, tomorrow, now don't you go away, because freedom just might come your way. Those are the lyrics from the song Mother Freedom by the 1970s band Brett. Americans have been talking about freedom for a long time, actually since the beginning of our nation. The Declaration of Independence, which is the founding document of our country, in the second paragraph begins with these words. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, meaning freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Our national symbols trumpet the idea of freedom. The Liberty Bell and the Statue of Liberty. We fought a war against the British Empire to gain our political independence, and a civil war a century later to extend that freedom to all people. The love of and the longing for freedom is just part of America's DNA. But what is freedom? How is it defined? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, freedom is the condition or the right of being able or allowed to say, think, or do whatever you want without control or limit. The Free Dictionary by Farlicks defines freedom as the condition of being free of restraint, especially freedom to act without control or interference by another or circumstances. Dictionary.com actually gave 17 definitions for freedom. Almost everybody trumpets the idea of freedom, but what they think people should be free to do and to think and believe depends on who you ask. In 1941, in his inaugural address, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke of the four freedoms that should belong to every person in the world. Freedom of speech and expression. Freedom of every person to worship God in their own way. Freedom from want. And freedom from fear. Now, those first two are guaranteed by our Constitution. They're negative rights. Any country, rich or poor, could uphold and protect those freedoms. But the next two, freedom from want and freedom from fear, no country can guarantee those. Ultimately, only God can provide them. The 60s banned the young rascals, saying, all the world over, it's so easy to see. People everywhere just want to be free. Listen, people, listen. That's the way it should be. Deep in the valley, people got to be free. Well, in the passage that we have before us today, Jesus speaks about a freedom, true freedom, that only He can provide. So to help you understand this freedom that Jesus offers, and contrast it with the false ideas of freedom our culture champions, we want to consider this section of John's Gospel. So let's pray and get into the text. Father, God, I pray for grace and mercy. Look at this. Open up our minds so that we might be freed by the truth as well. We're asking in Jesus' name. Amen. Now remember where we are in the story. Jesus has been arguing with the religious leaders, and he just made the claim that I am the light of the world. He who follows after me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. The religious leaders challenged this claim by saying that he's testifying on his own behalf, and therefore his testimony is invalid. But Jesus insists that what he's saying is true and valid, because God the Father also bore witness, validating his claims through the miracles that he performed and the scripture that he fulfilled. Well, here he makes another amazing claim, and this brings us to the first thing we see in the text, and that's the assertion that Jesus makes. And this is verses 30 to 32. Now, what's an assertion? Well, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, it's a statement that you strongly believe is true. The Farlicks Free Dictionary defines assertion as something declared or stated positively, often with no support or an attempt at proof. Well, Jesus made many assertions about himself that he strongly believed were true, but these weren't mere assertions as evidenced by the supporting proof he gave, his miracles and the scriptures that he fulfilled. He never asked people to make a leap of faith into the dark. Rather, he asked them to come out of the darkness into the light of truth. But here he doesn't connect truth with light like he did in the previous section, but truth with freedom. Now, notice how that last section ends in verse 30. As he spoke these things, many came to believe. Now, we're going to see how genuine their faith is in Jesus by the time we get to the end of the chapter. But notice it's to this group that he makes this assertion in verse 31. Now, Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in him, if you continue in my word, then you're truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Now, notice two things here in Jesus' assertion. First of all, there's a condition that must be met. And secondly, there's a promise that's made. You know, it's interesting if you read the mottos of various colleges. They often put them over the doors of some of their buildings. Most of them are in Latin, but they translate easily enough into English. The University of Alaska Fairbanks, their motto, to the top. I suppose that's better than a race to the bottom. How about Bowdoin College? As the eagle towards the sky. Stevenson College in Durham is, one day I will astonish the world. At Evergreen College, their motto is, let it all hang out. Now, you can imagine they came up with that one in the 60s. Well, because many colleges were established by churches, they have Bible verses in their mottos. Like, let there be light. That's actually the motto of the University of California. The voice of one crying in a wilderness. That's Dartmouth. Let your light shine. That's the University of Colorado. I found a number of colleges that their mottos were drawn from verse 32. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But I didn't find one of them that quoted the first part of the verse where Jesus said, if you continue in my words, then you are truly my disciples, and you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Now notice, in this conditional statement, Jesus said, we're truly his disciples if and only if we continue in his word. It's not enough to just start out in the Christian life. You have to continue in it. We have to believe and keep believing what Jesus said. Remember that Jesus already lost a large number of his professed followers who abandoned him at Capernaum after hearing his teaching about himself being the bread of life. They didn't continue in his word at all. Or think about the parable about the man who went out to scatter seed in his field. So some fell on the hard soil, and the birds came and ate it up. Jesus said this was a person who hears the gospel, but the devil snatches this gospel seed away from him before it can germinate and take root in their heart. He said other seed fell on shallow soil. So that plant grew up quickly, but later withered under the scorching sun. Jesus said that represents a person who hears the gospel and embraces that message for a time, but eventually they give it up, often because they find the cost of following Jesus is just too high. In the third case, the seed falls on the thorns, grows up, but the thorns choke it out, and so it doesn't produce fruit. Jesus said that represents the one, quote, who has heard, and as they go on their way, they're choked out with the worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and it brings no fruit to maturity. But the seed on the good soil, those are the ones who've heard the word with an honest and good heart, and listen, they hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance. The real believers who show themselves to be true disciples of Jesus are those who cling to him and continue to abide in his word. To those who do, Jesus makes a promise. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Freedom. Freedom. That's a worship word for the Yangs. But what does freedom mean? Well, it meant one thing to black slaves in Georgia plantations in the 1860s. It meant something else to people who were tearing down the Berlin Wall in 1989. It means something completely different for those who are pushing LGBTQ and abortion rights in America today. But what if Jesus' listeners when they heard him speak about freedom. Evidently, they thought in terms of physical slavery and political independence. We can see that in the next section, which you can label the objection the people raised. That's verse 33. Now, in a court case, lawyers that believe the opposing attorney is violating some procedure will say something like this. I object, Your Honor. Counsel for the defense is clearly leading the witness. Or objection, your honor. The witnesses relating here say she has no personal knowledge of the event. Once the objection is raised, the judge will either say objection sustained or objection overruled. Here, Jesus' listeners, the ones we are told believed in him, raise an objection. They were not directly objecting to his claim that his truth that he taught would set people free. What they objected to was the idea that they, as Jews, needed to be set free. Look at what it says in verse 33. They answered and said, We're Abraham's descendants. We've never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say you will become free? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's back up the wagon train here. They're telling Jesus that they don't need to be set free because they, as Abraham's descendants, have never been enslaved to anybody. You ever seen those on-the-street interviews that they do with maybe college students where they'll ask them questions from history? I saw one recently. When was the Declaration of Independence signed? I think it was 1904. Which country did we fight in the Revolutionary War? France? Who said, give me liberty or give me death? That was Napoleon Bonaparte. Who was our first president? I don't know. How many stars are on our flag? 32. What was Adolf Hitler's first name? Not a single person got that right. And some of you are thinking, what was his first name? They're Abraham's descendants? They've never been enslaved? Do they know nothing of their history? What were they doing in Egypt for 400 years? Didn't God rescue them from slavery under Pharaoh? And what about in the days of judges? How many times did He raise up a deliverer to rescue them from their bondage? He raised up Samson and Gideon to overcome their oppressors. The northern kingdom was taken captive by the Assyrians. Those in the southern kingdom were exiled to Babylon. They were ruled over by the Ptolemies in Egypt and later the Seleucids from Syria. And at this very time, they were under the boot of the Romans. How can they say, we are Abraham's descendants, we've never been enslaved to anyone? But you know what? There's something delusional about sin, isn't it? It's those who are most enslaved who are convinced that they're the freest. When a person chops off body parts and declares themselves to be a member of the opposite sex, are they free or are they enslaved? That brings us to the next thing we see in our text, though, the clarification that Jesus gives. This is verses 34 to 36. Listen to what it says. Jesus' answer said, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. Truly, truly, I say to you, the slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, you'll be free indeed. The slavery that Jesus tells them that they need to be set free from is slavery to sin. And so wanting to drive home this point, he says, truly, truly, I say to you. Now, it's interesting because the Greek word for truly is amen, which comes into English as amen. Now when we use the word amen, it's as a response to some truth we've heard. So we're saying in effect, yes, that's true, amen, or yes, let it be so. But whenever Jesus uses the word, he puts it at the beginning of the sentence. Jesus isn't saying, let it be true, but rather emphatically, this is true, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. Now let me ask you a question, is Jesus saying, That whenever a person sins, it proves that they are presently a slave to sin? No, he can't mean that. Because he speaks of setting people free from sin. But even after we're saved, as Christians, we sin. All you have to do is look at your own life for evidence of that. You know, there's been certain movements and groups within the church over the years that teach what's called perfectionism. By dedication and spiritual discipline, they teach that a believer can reach a point where they become sinless in their daily life. That belief has motivated many, particularly like the monks in the monasteries, where they would fast and often deprive themselves of sleep and warm clothing, all with the hope of eliminating sinful desires. But have they never read what Paul wrote in Colossians 2.20-22? When he said this, you've died with Christ and you have been set free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep following rules of the world such as don't handle, don't taste, don't touch? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. I mean, these rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline, but they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires. John Wesley was a great man of God, but he was wrong, very wrong, in thinking that you could reach a point of entire sanctification in this life. We should strive to sin less, but we're not going to be sinless until we shed these mortal bodies, what Paul calls the body of sin. John in his first epistle writes this, If we say that we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make God to be a liar, and His Word is not in us. My little children, I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, he has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the whole world. 1 John 1-2-2 Well then what is Jesus talking about here? What he means is that one who continues in a lifestyle of sin shows they're a slave to sin. The same Apostle John who tells us that we're deceiving ourselves if we say we've reached sinless perfection goes on to later talk about the importance of living He says, no one who's born of God practices sin, meaning as a lifestyle, because his seed, meaning the Holy Spirit, abides in him. And he cannot sin because he's born of God. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. That's how they show themselves. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not from God, nor the one who does not love his brother. 1 John 3, 9-10. As we teach the kids, because Adam sinned and passed on a corrupt nature to all of his descendants, we're all born with black hearts, which desire sin more than God. As Jonathan Edwards rightly pointed out, you always choose according to the strongest desire in any given moment. Does the alcoholic desire to be free from his addiction? Yes. But when that desire for a glass of whiskey is stronger than the desire to wake up sober so he doesn't miss work and lose his job, he gives into the desire. As the band The Eagles sang in their song Hotel California, we're all just prisoners here of our own device. So relax, said the night man, we're programmed to receive. You can check out any time you want, but you can never, never leave. Reginald III was the Duke of Gulders in the Holy Roman Empire in the 1300s. When his father died, he assumed the throne, but his brother Edward rebelled against him and imprisoned him in the castle in Nijenbeek. Now his cell door didn't have bars on it, but it was a narrow door which an average sized man could have fit through. The problem was that Reginald was a rather hefty man. His brother told him he could have his throne back just as soon as he could walk out that cell door to reclaim it. But then every day, Edward sent up pastries and sweets, which Reginald could not resist. And he got fatter and fatter. And by the time his brother died and Reginald was released, his health had failed, and he lived only a short time afterwards. We're all just prisoners here of our own device. Now, you might be able to overcome some particular sin. like drug addiction. But that recovering drug addict still has a multitude of other sins he's enslaved to. You've heard of the phrase, a dry drunk, right? Well, speaking of false teachers, Peter says that they deceive people, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For by whatever a man is overcome, to this he's enslaved. Most of you probably have heard of Malcolm X, he was a black civil rights leader in the 60s who was a follower of the Nation of Islam, which was a black nationalist movement in America which preached the supremacy of black people. They taught that their founder, Fard Muhammad, who had died, would one day return on a spaceship to wipe out the white-dominated order and establish a utopia. Well, the leader of the group in the 60s was a man named Elijah Muhammad. And Malcolm X was his right-hand man because he was an intelligent and very articulate spokesman for the group, always preaching about the empowerment of black people and separation from white society. And he was a very loyal follower of Elijah Muhammad until he found out that Elijah Muhammad was leading a double life. He had actually impregnated five of the secretaries who worked for him. This revelation was shocking to Malcolm, who had looked up to Elijah as a great moral leader. So Malcolm at first began to distance himself from Elijah Muhammad, and then afterwards he took a trip to Mecca and converted and became a Sunni Muslim, after which he repudiated some of the beliefs of the Nation of Islam. Members of that group later assassinated him. One of those members is Louis Farrakhan, who still goes free today. So Elijah Muhammad promised freedom, though he himself was enslaved to sexual sins. Malcolm X paid with his life for following a false teacher. But notice that Peter says that by whatever a man is overcome, to that he's enslaved. It's not only things like drugs and alcohol or lust that people are enslaved to. You can be enslaved to bitterness, outbursts of anger, gossip, foul language. You could be a lazy bum or a workaholic. The list is as long as the number of possible sins. Slavery to sin expresses itself in a multitude of ways. I mean, think about it. Why are there so many self-help books titles available? If any one of them worked, everybody would use that one. As Michael Corleone said in the movie Godfather, just when I thought I got out, they pull me back in. But what pulls the unbeliever back into their sins is their fallen human nature, which is enslaved to sin. So it doesn't matter what form the slavery takes in expressing itself, it proves out the truth of Jesus' words, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin. But then he goes on to say, truly, truly, I say to you, the slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son does remain forever. You know, in the New Testament, when Paul or Peter addressed households, they'd always give instructions first to the husbands, then to the wives. then to the children, and then to the slaves. Why slaves? Why are they included? Well, because in that time, slaves were considered part of the household. There were slaves that were highly valued by their masters. Some of them were put in charge of their finances. Some female servants helped raise the little kids. Some of the male servants were given the task of disciplining the children when they got older. And I'm sure that some of the household slaves were even genuinely loved by their masters. But when the time came for receiving the inheritance, it was obvious that they were slaves, not sons. Slaves could be bought and sold at will. So Jesus was right in saying the slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son remains forever. But the house that Jesus is speaking about here is God's house and being part of His family. Those who are slaves to sin will not remain in God's household, even if they're professed children of His. For when Jesus returns, He will separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tare, the good fish from the bad fish. In other words, the true believers who showed themselves to be sons by the fact that they've been freed from their sins will be separated from the false believers who, by their addiction to sin, show that they're still slaves, not free. So Jesus goes on to say, so if the Son makes you free, you'll be free indeed. But how? How does Jesus set a person free from their sins? Well, He does so, first of all, by paying the penalty of sin. Sin can be thought of as a debt that needs to be paid. You know, it used to be that after they released a person from prison sentence, they would say that that person, that man or that woman, paid their debt to a society. Well, you and I owe God a debt because of the sins we've committed. And because sin is also a crime, it must be punished. And so on the cross, Jesus was punished for the sins of those who would trust Him. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon, paid the debt, and set me free. Sin has to be punished. God's justice has to be upheld so a pardon can be granted. But Christ's righteousness has been credited to our account, so the believer stands justified before the court of God. But it doesn't just stop there. For another song that we sing says this, he breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood avails for me. So Jesus not only removes the penalty for sin, but then he also frees us from the dominating power of sin. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 6 that we've been crucified with Christ, which provides the guarantee of our victory over sin in our daily lives. He writes this, starting in verse 5, For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, Certainly, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we are no longer slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin." By giving us a new nature and giving us the Holy Spirit to indwell us, God causes us to have new desires stronger for Him than for sin. And so progressively, we grow in holiness and likeness to Jesus in our moral character. It's a lifelong process that begins the moment we trust in Christ and continues till the day of our death. But finally, Jesus frees us from the very presence of sin. We will no longer have any desire to sin or even the possibility that we could sin. For as it says in Romans 8, 29-30, For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those he predestined, he also called. And those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified. Justification is a removal of the penalty of sin. Sanctification is a process which causes us to become more free from the dominating power of sin. And glorification is a removal even of the presence of sin. This is what stands behind Jesus' words when he says, So if the Son will make you free, you'll be free indeed. But that begs some questions. Have you been justified? Have you trusted in Christ's death as the payment for your sins? You don't have to clean up your life before you come to Him. You don't have the ability to clean up your life. You just have to come to Him and let Him wash away your stain of sin. Here's another question. Are you being sanctified? Are you growing in holiness? This matters. The Bible says, Do you see progress in your life, though it might be ever so slow, in having greater victory over sin? Not perfection, but direction. in your sanctification. The last question, do you hope to be glorified? Do you long for the day that you're completely done with sin? That day will come if you continue in Jesus' words. God promises it. You know, I grew up the first part of my life in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. It's a suburb of Minneapolis. There was a man from that area, I didn't know him, but I heard about it years later. He was suspected of murdering a woman. The police officers were pretty sure that he had done it, but they just didn't have the evidence that they could bring him to trial. So he literally got away with murder. Well, years later, someone invited him to a church. And he reluctantly went. And when he was there, he heard the pastor preach about Jesus dying on a cross, for the punishment of those who had trust in him, so that they might be freed of their sins. He heard that if he repented and trusted in this Jesus, he could be forgiven of anything he had ever done. And so when they gave the invitation, the man went forward. A couple days later, he went to the police station and turned himself in. He went to trial for murder and pled guilty. I saw the interview on KSTP News as they were taking him from the courtroom after the trial. He's in an orange jumpsuit with leg irons and wrist restraints. And this is what he said to him with a big smile on his face. He said, for the first time in my life, I'm free. Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last. You can be freed by the truth, but you have to accept the truth when it's given to you. May God give you a heart to believe and a mind to understand what I'm pleading with you to do even now. Let's pray. Our Father in God, thank you. Thank you that Jesus not only forgives our sins, but he breaks the power of cancelled sin. But it's a battle. It's a lifelong battle. And even at the end of it, we're only probably 10-15% sanctified. But that should be an encouragement, because that means when we're resurrected, the improvement in us is going to be an 85% improvement. So Father God, we do pray for the people who are here who know you, that they would continue to look to you, continue in your Son's word, that they may have increased freedom in their life. And for those who don't know you, Lord, I pray that you'd open up their hearts and minds so that they would respond, so that they might be free. Because Paul told us it was for Christ's sake, or for freedom's sake, that Christ set us free. So bless us to that end, for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.