[0:00] Thank you for Kevin and his wife Christine. We pray for them as they finish off studies and think about their future and their desire to come to live and work in Ireland.
[0:16] And we pray that if that is part of your plan it would become real clear to them and you would open up the right doors at the right time and provide a means for them to come.
[0:30] And we pray for Kevin now and for us all that we would know your help, that we would understand your word, not just so that we can answer questions but that it would change us and help us see the kind of life you have called us to live and the life you have given to us.
[0:52] So help Kevin and help us now we pray in Jesus name. Amen. If you'd like a pen, I'm going to hand them around. If you want to take notes you can use the button.
[1:10] All right, well good morning. It is good to be with you brothers and sisters. Just as any of you who have traveled to another country, gone to a church there, you know just the joy that it is to be at a church in another country and to immediately feel the unity of the spirit that you have with people in another country.
[1:31] So it's great to be with you today. If you would turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 8. In the Bibles here it's page 1074, 1074, and that's John chapter 8.
[1:46] You know when I found out that you had, last week you had Dr. Vickers, Brian Vickers preaching here and then many of you came to the Bible week all week and heard him all week, I thought it wasn't fair that they asked me to preach this morning because you got to hear my professor all week and now you got the B team coming up here.
[2:10] But it really is good to be with you. So let's read from John chapter 8, starting in verse 31. And this is what we'll be looking at this morning.
[2:22] John chapter 8, verse 31. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
[2:34] Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. They answered him, that is the Jews, We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone.
[2:47] How can you say that we shall be set free? Jesus replied, Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
[3:00] Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
[3:12] Let's pray one more time. Father, we come from many different weeks. Maybe some of us had weeks that were joyful.
[3:24] Some of us maybe had weeks that were painful, that were hard. All of us had weeks where we were full of sin and full of struggle, and we are just in need of hearing from your word this morning.
[3:44] So Lord, I pray that you would help us. I pray that you would help me to speak with clarity, that you would give me the words of your spirit, from your spirit to speak what would be helpful to these brothers and sisters.
[3:58] And Lord, would you give all of us ears to hear what it is that you would be speaking to us today. May your word not just be, like Johnny just said, an academic truth that we understand, but it would be a transformative power as your spirit applies it to our hearts.
[4:16] We pray for this. Amen. Well, I understand that you have been looking at the topic of the Christian life this summer. And so I wanted to go along with that and talk about the topic of freedom.
[4:31] And that's not just because we're coming from America. I know America loves to talk about freedom. But I want to talk about specifically freedom in the Christian life. What does it mean that we are free as Christians?
[4:45] And when I say the word freedom, I'm sure there's many different things that come to mind for you because our culture means many different things when they use the word freedom.
[4:56] When I say that word, just think to yourself for a minute, what comes to mind when I say freedom? Maybe it's retirement. Maybe paying off your mortgage.
[5:08] Maybe vacation, sunshine, your parents leaving the home and leaving you alone. Maybe your children leaving the home and leaving you alone.
[5:21] Maybe it's this church service finishing so that you can go and do what you'd like to. Maybe it's just doing whatever you want to do with your time. That's freedom for you.
[5:33] If you ask Google, Google will tell you that freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
[5:44] That's a very culturally appropriate understanding of freedom. And I understand just from watching the news in your country over the last few years, there have been a lot of talk about freedom and referendums and being free to do what you want to do with your life.
[6:01] There's a lot of confusion over this topic of freedom in our culture. And we are going to find this same confusion over freedom in our passage this morning in John chapter 8.
[6:12] The Jews, as they listen to Jesus speak about freedom, are misunderstanding and confused about what he means by that. And so this morning, I want to look with you at how does Jesus define freedom.
[6:25] And it's a radically different way of defining it than his contemporaries, than our culture, and honestly than many of us as Christians. The way that we normally think of freedom, Jesus defines it in a very different way than us.
[6:41] And just to give you a high-level view so that you know kind of where I'm going with this as we speak this morning, we are going to see here that Jesus tells us that apart from him, we are all blindly slaves to sin with no ability to free ourselves.
[6:59] but Jesus, as the only one with authority over sin and over us, can break the power of sin and release us to live free from sin.
[7:10] That that is true freedom is living away from sin. And that only Jesus provides true freedom, the freedom to live as God created us to live.
[7:21] That is what we will see here in our passage. But before we get there, before we look at Jesus' definition of freedom, I want to just take a few minutes to see, well, where are we in John's Gospel? We jumped in here in chapter 8.
[7:33] What happened before? What's happening around this? Well, John's Gospel, if you've read it before, you'll notice that it focuses very often on these lengthy confrontations between Jesus and the religious leaders of the day.
[7:47] This is not the case with other of the Gospels as much, but very much in John's Gospel. And the religious leaders of Jesus' day were very confused by him.
[7:58] They were struggling to understand because they were intrigued with what he was saying. They said he speaks as no one has ever spoken before. And so some were starting to believe.
[8:08] You see that actually in verse 30, here in chapter 8, it says, as he spoke, many believed in him. So they were interested, some of them were believing in him. And yet at the same time, Jesus was saying things that to these leaders sounded harsh, sounded confusing, sounded even to them sometimes blasphemous.
[8:29] Like someone should not say these things if they love God. And so when Jesus introduces the topic of freedom for them in this passage, in our passage we're looking at today, again, they misunderstand him.
[8:42] Look back at verse 33 here. It says, they answered him, we are Abraham's descendants and we have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say we shall be set free?
[8:57] Now this is an interesting statement they make here because if you have ever read any of the Old Testament, you might think that this is a bit strange. How can the Jews say they have never been slaves of anyone?
[9:09] In fact, the Old Testament is the story of the Jews being enslaved to everyone. The Egyptians, the Philistines, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, every world power around them at some time enslaved the Jewish people.
[9:23] And yet they say here, we have never been a slave to anyone. We are Abraham's descendants. But see, for the Jews at that time, they knew rightly that they were God's people.
[9:34] And so they had this spiritual, inward freedom that no, we are God's people. God has made a covenant with us. And so no matter what our external circumstances look like, we have this inward, real freedom freedom, because we are God's people.
[9:51] But the problem is, well, and I should say, that is why they ask this question. They say, how can you say we shall be set free? In other words, if I'm already free, how can I be more free?
[10:03] How is that possible? That's what they're asking Jesus. But the problem is, and what we'll see here, is Jesus is going to expose that they are in fact mistaken. That they have misdiagnosed their need, and they have misunderstood what it really means to be free.
[10:20] And so what can we then learn about freedom as a Christian, and the freedom that Jesus brings from this passage? Well, I'm going to show you here quickly three things from this passage that Jesus, three ways that Jesus describes the freedom that he brings.
[10:36] The first thing he says is that it is conditional freedom. The second thing is he will say that it is a created freedom. And then third, he will say it is a costly freedom.
[10:49] So let's look at those three things in turn. First, the freedom that Jesus brings is a conditional freedom. Look back at verse 31.
[11:00] To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, if. That's an important word. Whenever we see that word when we're reading the Bible, it should cause us to stop. Because if always brings a condition attached.
[11:15] If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. So the freedom, the first thing we see here is that the freedom that Jesus brings is not an automatic freedom.
[11:31] It's not a freedom that everyone automatically receives. And this is something, putting these if statements is something that Jesus does very often, especially in the gospel of John that we are looking at right here.
[11:44] You can think of other places that are familiar to us, like in John 15 where Jesus is talking about being the vine and the branches and he says, if you remain in me, then you will bear fruit.
[11:54] Or he talks about if you remain in my love, then you are my disciples. Or he says, if you keep my commandments, then you will show you are my disciples. So this is a very common thing for Jesus to put these kind of if statements and put a condition on a promise.
[12:11] Well, so what is the condition here that Jesus is placing on this? What does he say you need to do to prove that you are his disciple? Well, he says, you see it in verse 31 there, he says, if you hold to my teaching.
[12:26] And that word hold there is the same word that is used in John 15 for abide that you might be familiar with where he talks about abiding in him as the vine.
[12:36] So that word hold or remain or stay in his teaching. So just to show that we are his disciples, Jesus is saying, you must hold to my teaching.
[12:48] You must remain in my teaching, my word that I have taught you. And see, in the Christian life, there is this great emphasis on truth as we see here that Christianity is not just about feelings or emotions or opinions, but Jesus is concerned with what is true because he says knowing the truth in verse 32 is what sets you free.
[13:16] So let me just make a, just apply this very briefly, very quickly here that if, if just saying that you are a Christian is not enough, just, just to make that statement, being a disciple or a follower of Jesus is not just an intellectual thing that you know certain truths about him, but Jesus is saying, no, this is about a moral commitment to me that you must remain in my teaching, hold to my teaching.
[13:48] And so, well, what does knowing the truth do? Well, the truth sets us free, right? That's what he says here. But the next question that we should ask is, well, what does it set us free to?
[13:58] I mean, what are we free from? What are we free to? What is this freedom giving us? And that brings us to the second point that not only is Jesus' freedom conditional, but his freedom is also created.
[14:13] And that's a bit confusing. What I mean by that is that it is a freedom that is according to our design, according to the way that we have been created. Truth sets us free.
[14:27] And so that means that knowing what is true about us, knowing what is true about God, knowing what is true about how God has created us, is what will set us free. That is the truth that will free us.
[14:40] So the question that we need to ask is, okay, well, what is true about us? How have we been created? How has God made us? Well, turn with me back all the way to the beginning of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1.
[14:54] It's on page 3 of these Pew Bibles, but it's a little difficult to find, so just find the first book, Genesis 1. And let's read here just for a minute about what is true about our design that would help us to understand what has God created us for?
[15:13] What is the freedom that God has made us to do? So starting in verse 26 of Genesis 1, it says, Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish and the sea and the birds and the sky over the livestock and all the wild animals, over all the creatures that move along the ground.
[15:37] So God created mankind in His own image. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female, He created them. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number.
[15:51] Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish and the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Okay, there's a lot there, but let me just point out a couple things to you.
[16:06] And the first thing is, if you can see, and this is a very interesting thing to notice, in verse 28, when God created mankind, man and woman, the first thing that He does is He blesses them, right?
[16:21] In verse 28, it says, God blessed them. And then He says to them, Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Well, what is that? That's a command, right?
[16:34] So the first words that God speaks to you and to me or to Adam and Eve as creatures is a command. And yet it says that command is a blessing. Do you see what I'm saying here?
[16:45] This is very interesting because often I think even as Christians we can think, well, commands from God are almost bad things. They come because of sin. Because we're broken people, God has to tell us what to do.
[16:57] But that's not the way the Bible presents it here. This is before sin had ever entered the world. Adam and Eve are perfect, living in unity with each other, with God. And God blesses them with a command.
[17:09] A command from God is a blessing. And so the first thing that we can see here is that we are created as creatures to obey God. That is how we are designed.
[17:20] And obeying God and loving God and enjoying God and following His commands is the freedom that we were given when we were first created.
[17:32] Those are not things that came afterwards as a second idea from God. But that was His first primary free thing that He was giving us is in your freedom as my created creatures, obey me.
[17:45] This is my design for you. And so before sin, we joyfully lived under God's commands. We followed the blueprint that He had put in us or maybe if you're a computer person, you could say the software that God gave us inside to run properly was to function according to this design, the design that He gave us.
[18:07] And what was that design? What was the design that God gave us when He created us? Well, you saw that there in verse 26 it said of Genesis 1, God says, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.
[18:22] So our design is the image of God. That is the way that God has created us. And sometimes I think we can be confused over what does the image of God mean?
[18:32] Does that mean I look like God? That God kind of looks like Kevin or Kevin looks like God? What does it mean to be in the image of God? Well, it really means that we are God's representatives, that we are little pictures of God in this world.
[18:47] And we know that because if you study the cultures around the Jews at the time that Genesis was made, the kings of those cultures, so Egypt and those other ones that were living, the kings were called the image of God.
[19:03] So it wasn't just the Jews who used this kind of language, it was all the cultures around them as well. That they were, the king was called the image of God. And that didn't mean that these kings looked like God.
[19:13] They could even be the image of a female God. But what it meant was that they were representatives of that God's rule in the world.
[19:23] That was what it meant to be the image. And so, then these kings would then set up images of themselves in their land. So you think of, in Egypt, the Sphinx, which is an image of the king.
[19:35] That was a way that the king then put an image of himself into the land, again, to show this is my land. I rule in this land through these images that I have created.
[19:46] And this is exactly the same imagery that God is giving us in Genesis 1, that he was giving to the Jews, that he was giving to the people of God when he first created them, is you are little images of me in this world created to show God's character, to bring his rule, to bring his reign into this world.
[20:07] That is what it means for us to be the image of God. And so, by design, we are created to reflect God, to show what he is like. That is our software, is to show God.
[20:20] And if you think about that for a minute, that means that the freedom that we have when we were created was a freedom with boundaries around it, right? Because God is a God who only acts in certain ways.
[20:34] God is a God who is holy and only does certain things. And so, if we were created in God's image, that means that our freedom that we were created in was a freedom with boundaries around it.
[20:45] And that may sound strange to you to hear about a freedom that has boundaries, but I think I can illustrate that for you. Think about the roads around here. What would happen if you took all the street signs down, all the street lights away, you know, any painting that was on the ground and just made it free?
[21:04] What would happen the next day when you were driving trying to get to work the next day? It would be chaos, right? Absolute chaos. No one would get anywhere. I've been in countries like that and it really doesn't feel like freedom.
[21:15] It feels just like a zoo trying to get around to where you're going. There are boundaries put in place to give you freedom to get to where you want to go. Or another way that we could illustrate this, think of a child flying a kite.
[21:30] I don't know if children in Ireland fly kites. I don't know if children in America fly kites, to be honest. They probably just play video games. But if you know what a kite is, think about a child flying a kite. The kite is at the end of a string, say 200 feet up, and that kite is just straining at the wind trying to get free, right?
[21:50] Because the kite just wants to go higher. It wants more room. It wants less boundaries on it. Well, what happens if the child cuts the string? The kite feels free for a minute, it flutters for a second, jumps up for a few feet, and then suddenly falls to the ground, right?
[22:07] It just flutters its way back down to the ground because the string, the boundary, was what actually gave it freedom to fly. And that's exactly the way that it is with us, brothers and sisters, is God gave us boundaries to make us free.
[22:22] As we function within those boundaries, that is the freedom we have. So it is a freedom of obedience. that God has given us. Let me just show you something else.
[22:33] Let me show you another offer of freedom, though, from Genesis 3. If you turn over just a couple pages, this is on page 5 in your Bibles. Because again, we were created with this freedom, but now listen to this next offer of freedom that came to us.
[22:51] In Genesis 3, let's look at verse 2. Sorry, but we'll start at verse 1. Now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.
[23:04] He said to the woman, Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the snake, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and he must not touch it or you will die.
[23:20] You will not certainly die, the snake said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.
[23:34] How's that for an offer of freedom? Don't follow what God says. God knows when you disobey Him, then you'll really find freedom.
[23:45] Your eyes will be opened. You'll be like God. You'll know good and evil. You see what's going on here? God created us with freedom to obey.
[23:57] And Satan came and tempted Adam and Eve with the first sin with this offer that sounded like more freedom, but really ended up in slavery. Slavery to sin.
[24:09] And this is exactly the way that the Bible talks about this, is that we have given up freedom to obey and we have taken on a freedom, or sorry, kind of a freedom to obey God and now we have given up that freedom and given up all freedom and now are slaves of sin.
[24:27] Let me show you where the Bible describes it in that way. Go to page 1,223. It's 2 Peter 2. This is just a very graphic image of how this works.
[24:42] 2 Peter 2. It's on page 1,223. And this is a chapter of the Bible that is talking about these false teachers that are coming to this church and they are telling the people, listen, I know that you heard that Jesus is coming back, but it's actually not true.
[25:05] And so, you can just live however you want to live. Don't worry, there's no judgment that's coming. You're never going to have to answer for what you've done. You're just free to live however you want to live.
[25:16] They're offering freedom to these people. But it's not a real freedom. And this is what we see here in 2 Peter 2, verse 19. It says, They promise them freedom.
[25:29] This is the false teachers. They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity. For people are slaves to whatever have mastered them.
[25:39] So you see that. Here's these false teachers coming to the people saying, Don't worry about obeying God's commands. Just be free. Just be free from those. Take this freedom. But Peter says, No, these people themselves are slaves of their sin.
[25:55] No one is free. You are either a slave, a servant of God obeying Him, or you're a slave, a servant of sin, obeying sin.
[26:05] And that is exactly what Jesus says back in John 8. So let's go back there. If you lost the place, it's John 8, 1074, that page. In verse 34, Jesus says, Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.
[26:26] So see, this is exactly the language that Jesus is using back in our passage in John 8. He's saying that the real bondage is not bondage to the Egyptians or sitting in a church service or whatever it is.
[26:45] The real bondage that we experience as humans is bondage to sin. And Jesus says here, it's interesting to notice that sin cannot be controlled.
[26:58] It can't be something that you think, Yeah, you know what? I don't actually think that anyone is controlling me. I don't want to live to obey God. I don't want to be His servant. But I don't think I'm really owned by sin either.
[27:09] I kind of just do what I want to do. That's kind of the way that I live. I mean, according to Jesus, that's not a real category. He says, Everyone who sins is a slave of sin.
[27:20] Right? So you can't control your sin. If you are a person who does sin, you're a slave. You're a slave to sin. You're either a slave to sin or a slave to God. And that's exactly the way that Paul describes it.
[27:32] You don't need to turn there, but just in Romans 6, if you read through that chapter, that entire chapter is showing you are either a slave of God or a slave of sin. It's one or the other, and you need to decide on which one.
[27:45] But Jesus came, Jesus came to bring us back our freedom. And that's exactly what we see here in this passage. Look again, look at verse 35.
[27:57] Now, a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. So we think that we are free in our sin often.
[28:12] We think, I'm doing whatever I want to do, just living my life. We're like those people in 2 Peter 2 that we read about who are promising freedom. You know, I don't have to worry about judgment. But we are slaves.
[28:26] We need this freedom that Jesus is offering us. He says, the son is the one who can set you free. Well, brothers and sisters, this is a radically different vision of freedom compared to our culture that we have talked about.
[28:39] Our culture, like we talked about at the beginning, defines freedom as doing what you want to. But the Bible here, we see, defines it as doing what you were created to do. That is what freedom is according to the Bible and according to Jesus.
[28:51] And that is a view of freedom that is very oppressive, or the culture views that as very oppressive. And so I want to encourage you just for a second here, do not be discouraged by the culture around you in Ireland.
[29:04] It's the same for us in America that tells you you are oppressive, you are hurting people by telling them that they need to live in certain ways. We are the ones, as Jesus' representatives, bringing his message of wholeness, of flourishing, of telling people how to live in the way God has created them to live.
[29:23] Well, how do we know what that looks like? What does that freedom to live as we are created to live look like? Well, Jesus already showed us in verse 31, he says, if you hold to my teaching, you are my disciples, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
[29:43] Right? So, it is the truth of God's word that shows us what that freedom ought to look like. And I do want to move on to the third point, but I do, just to make a quick application here, sometimes, as God's people, maybe I should say all the time, if my experience is accurate, I don't feel that freedom all the time.
[30:08] I know that God's word, and Jesus tells me here that I have been set free, he says, if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed, but sometimes I don't feel free indeed. I feel my sin, I feel my weakness, I feel that I can't get past those things and live the way that God has created me to live.
[30:26] And so, I think it's just important to acknowledge that reality and acknowledge that while, in one sense, the Bible does say that in places like here in John 8 or Romans 6, it says that you are free definitively now, you are no longer a slave of sin, you are a slave to God, there also is the recognition in the Bible that the fullness of that reality is not here yet.
[30:51] You think about 1 John 1 that says, if anyone says he does not sin, he is a liar and the truth is not in him. So, the fullness of the true freedom of God's children, we wait for a final day where we will be with God in heaven with no more sin, no more sorrow, no more weeping, no more weakness.
[31:11] We wait for that final day and yet, we have a preview of that today in that Jesus really definitively, truly has liberated us from sin to serve Jesus.
[31:25] But I just want to acknowledge that because I know sometimes we don't feel that and that often you will hear if you read books about the New Testament that there is kind of this balance of already but not yet.
[31:37] We are already free but not yet totally free. We are waiting for the day when we will be finally free. Well, let me just turn for the last couple minutes here. I do want to go to the third characteristic because it is very important here.
[31:51] The freedom that Jesus gives is not only conditional, it is not only a created freedom but it is a costly freedom as well. You see, freedom is never free.
[32:03] Look at verse 35. Jesus says, now a slave has no permanent place in the family but a son belongs to it forever.
[32:16] Jesus here kind of changes the tone a little bit of what he is saying to introduce an image for us so that we can understand this better and he says there is this imagery of a household that has servants in the household and then sons in the household.
[32:32] And a slave or a servant in a house they can't free themselves. Sometimes it is hard for us to relate because we don't see slaves in our culture but maybe you can relate as an employee.
[32:44] If you are an employee working for a boss you are not really free to do whatever you want. You are not necessarily free to take the company whatever direction you want to go. You kind of have to do what your boss says and there is also not permanency.
[32:58] You could be let go at any point by your employer. And that is exactly what Jesus says. A slave has no permanent place in the family. A slave could be let go at any time. If the master doesn't like him he is gone.
[33:11] But what about the boss? Or what about the boss's son? The boss who walks into the workplace never has to worry about his permanency. No one can fire the boss because he is there.
[33:23] He is there forever. Same with a son that is in a house and that is what Jesus is saying. A slave has no permanent place in the family but a son belongs to it forever. And what Jesus is saying to us here is that only the son of a family has inheritance has rights has permanency to stay in the family forever.
[33:44] And then look what he says in verse 36 so if the son sets you free you are free indeed. Well what is Jesus saying there? He is saying that Jesus as the son in the family has the authority to liberate the slaves.
[34:00] That is the picture that he is giving us here. And so we are those people in this image that were slaves in the family. We were servants to sin. We had no permanency in God's family because of our sin.
[34:12] But Jesus comes as the son with all authority and he is the one who can liberate us and set us free. But brothers and sisters how did Jesus liberate us?
[34:24] How was it possible for him to free us? Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2 that he bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
[34:40] See the only way to free us from our slavery to sin was for Jesus to come and to take on the punishment of sin which was death.
[34:51] Jesus had to take on our punishment so that he could then give us his righteousness and free us so that we would then be sons in the family sons and daughters in the house just like he is.
[35:04] And that's why the Bible uses this imagery of adoption so often because we were slaves in the family but now Jesus has exchanged his life for ours and given us his sonship given us his daughtership for those of you who are women here and allowed us to come into the family as adopted children into the family.
[35:25] So let me end just with two quick applications here with how do we respond to this vision of freedom this vision of freedom that Jesus is giving us.
[35:39] Well some of you who are sitting here you may still be living as a slave to sin. You may be someone who says I am not willing to give up my autonomy.
[35:51] My freedom is too precious. I want to be able to live however I want to live. If that is you here today then my friend consider the cost without Christ.
[36:04] Let me just read you a verse here in Romans chapter 6. You don't need to turn there I'll just read you a quick verse. Paul here writing he acknowledges that if you don't follow God yeah you're free to do whatever you want to.
[36:21] You can sin whatever way you want to. he says when you were slaves to sin you were free from the control of righteousness but listen what benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are ashamed of?
[36:34] Those things result in death. So yes if you want to live free from the rule and reign of God you are free to do that but the end of that is death. And my friend Jesus is offering you freedom from that.
[36:49] But remember this freedom is conditional and the freedom is costly. Jesus paid the price to free you from your sin and all that is required of you is that you repent and believe and then he will give you the ability to remain in his word to be set free by his truth.
[37:07] Maybe others of us here the Lord is using these words of Jesus to we want to be we want to be servants of God we want to live in the freedom of obedience and maybe the Lord is showing you areas of your life that are coming to mind where you're not living in this freedom of the sons of God you are still living as if you were a slave of sin well how do we how do we get by that how do we live in that freedom of obedience and this sounds like a very simple application it sounds too simplistic to say you should read your bible and pray but what did Jesus say in our passage in verse 31 he said you will know the truth and the truth will set you free right he says if you remain in my word then you're my disciples so really it's not as simple as that but it is as simple as that that as we know more and more of God's truth God will allow us more and more to be set free the real freedom comes from the work that Jesus has done in dying for us but experientially day in day out
[38:10] God conquers more and more of our hearts through the word of God showing us truth and that truth setting us free well let us pray for that together that the Lord would set us free in this way Father I thank you just for these brothers and sisters for the joy of being with them this morning for the privilege of looking at your word Lord would you give us a great vision of the glorious freedom of obedience that Jesus has died and rose again to win for us and would you give these brothers and sisters great strength as they fight for the fight of obedience which is the fight to fight in the way that we were created to live in your name amen thank you very much
[39:14] Kevin thank you all for coming today it's great to have you with us we'll see you next week and if you want to feedback any comments or ask any questions to Kevin please feel free to do that afterwards and talk to Jack and Zona while they're here and find out a little bit more about them but good to see you