Understanding Truth: Don's Study of John 8 and the Nature of Absolute Truth

Join Don in this insightful evening session as he delves into John chapter 8. He discusses the importance of absolute truth in a world that often embraces subjective interpretations. Through examination of various verses and personal anecdotes, Don emphasizes the necessity of respecting God's truth, understanding its sources, and the responsibilities Christians bear in upholding it. He also touches on the evangelistic efforts of Ming Wei and his wife Shin in the Mandarin-speaking community of California. This lesson imparts essential wisdom on discerning and living by the truth, as taught in the scriptures.

00:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks
00:49 Welcoming the Congregation
01:23 Highlighting Ming Wei and Shin Liu's Evangelism
03:44 Personal Reflections and Gratitude
04:35 Diverging Tastes in Movies
05:19 Jesus' Confrontation in John Chapter 8
09:45 The Importance of Absolute Truth
14:59 Warnings About Deception and Truth
17:27 Responsibilities Towards Truth
19:53 Conditional Nature of Truth
20:16 Misconceptions About Baptism
20:35 Abiding in God's Word
21:46 Three Types of Truth
23:53 The Challenge of 2025
25:26 Illustration with Mountain Dew
27:14 Questions About Truth
35:49 The Importance of Doctrinal Accuracy
38:24 Concluding Thoughts on Truth

Transcript

Well, good evening. Good to see everybody tonight. You have a Bible. Tonight we're going to the book of John chapter eight, the eighth division of John's Great Gospel is where we're going to spend our time tonight. Be very important that you open there and read with us. We're going to look at a lot of verses by way of beginning tonight that will not be on the screen, and so.

We will ask you to to open there and be ready to read with us in just a minute. I would also encourage you if you if you take notes, I, I would encourage you to find something, to take a note or two that will help you tonight as we go through the material. Maybe you have a blank page in your Bible that you jot some things down.

I think that would probably help you tonight as we consider the material we want to look at. We're gonna cover a lot of ground tonight in a short amount of time. Good to see everybody tonight. Hope you had a wonderful day today. Beautiful day in East Texas, wasn't it? Glad that we can be together this evening.

As Reagan mentioned a moment ago, I know that our audience tonight is composed primarily of folks who are part of this church family. If you're visiting with us, we especially welcome you. Thank you for coming our way tonight. Thank you for the encouragement that you give us and we certainly hope and pray that our time together will be well spent tonight and be, be beneficial to all.

I was thinking today, because I know we are talking to people primarily who are part of this church family, I wanted to mention just a couple of things to you very quickly. If I, if I may, I want to follow up on something that Reagan said Monday night. He mentioned to you, showed you a picture Monday night of Ming Wei.

Ming, we and his wife Shin are working in the beer year of California. And I wanna tell you just a little bit about about them, if I may. Ming. We and Shin Liu are members of Temple Terrace with us. They came to America 10 years ago. Ming, we came to teach math at Florida College. He is, he is a, he holds a PhD in math from the University of Singapore.

His wife Shin is also a brilliant mathematician. She almost. Has a PhD as well. But I will tell you that before they were any of that, they're wonderful Christians and they are two of the most extraordinarily evangelistic people you would ever meet in this world. It's interesting that being a professor, of course, is a, it's a full-time job and if you know anything about Florida College, you don't just teach your classes, but they will pile as many things on your plate as you can possibly handle without breaking.

And so when summer comes. Professors cherish those four months. But the last two years, Ming, we and Shin have gone to the Bay area of California and done evangelism among the Mandarin speaking community there. And this year after 10 years of service and a tenured Professor Ming, we has a semester sabbatical.

So what would you do with that after 10 years of continual teaching? Well, I think probably most of us would say, well, we're gonna take some time off. And maybe we'll travel a little bit and do a little hiking or a little sight scene, or we're gonna, we're gonna do some things to just kind of recharge our batteries for the next, for the next several months.

But instead of that, they've gone back to the Bay Area and they're gonna take this semester, these four months, and they'll take three months of the summer, the next seven months and do evangelism. You saw baptism Monday night. They also baptized a gentlemen that they met and taught just the week before.

I want to, I just wanna say to you and to your shepherds how much I appreciate the fact that you have, that you've helped with their financial support to, to, to help them do this work. And I want to thank all of you for your prayers for them. These are wonderful, just wonderful people, Ming Way and hin.

They have a little 9-year-old daughter named Jean, who's just a beautiful and wonderful little girl, and I want to thank you for encouraging them and for helping, helping them. I wanna tell you on this Wednesday night, as I've tried to say from night to night, how much I'm enjoying being with you this week.

I was telling somebody before it began tonight, that when Vicki was driving me to the airport on Saturday, I told her, I said, you know, I, I go so many places during the course of a year, and I, I enjoy everywhere that I go. I really do. I said, but there are some churches that I go to, and when I see them on my schedule at the start of the year, I circle them and I'm, I'm excited about being there.

And this is, this is one of those places. I love coming to Timberland Drive. I love this church family and I've enjoyed this relationship that we've shared over the past many, many years, and this week has been no exception. You all have been so gracious and hospitable to me and I appreciate that much. So look forward to staying with you now and tomorrow night as well.

And Lord willing to bless the Lord will bless our our time tonight and tomorrow night. Well, I mentioned my wife Vicky a lot. I'll tell you something that Vicki and I do not share, Vicki and I do not share the taste in movies at all. We we, we don't, we don't like the same kind of movies. Vicky, my wife, she loves musicals.

She loves musicals of every kind. I. Hate musicals, musicals of every kind. We, we do not share that at all. And the reason is, for me, it's just not real life. I mean, I, I have never once been walking along a street and had a group of people in front of me break out in perfect harmony singing and, and begin to dance in perfectly core choreographed steps.

That has never once happened. I, I've never seen that. I like movies about things that could really happen, like Star Wars, for example. So. So we don't, we don't see that alike in John chapter eight. Here is a case where Jesus does not see anything like the audience with whom he is dealing. In John chapter eight, Jesus is in the seat of religion, and in John 80 is not the fountain of compassion that we've come to expect him to be.

He is not the Mr. Rogers Jesus that so many people want him to be. The dialogue in John eight is brutal, as we shall see in just a moment. It begins with humiliation of a woman who is caught in the act of adultery and is used as a pond to try to catch Jesus on the horns of a dilemma, and then it goes from bad to worse.

We're not gonna read all of these verses. We'll jump around a little bit, but read with me as we begin. John eight beginning in verse 12. Jesus said, I'm the light of the world and whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but we'll have the light of life. The Pharisees said to him, you are bearing witness of yourself.

Your testimony is not true. Verse number 19, Jesus said, you do not know me nor my father. If you knew me, you would know my father Also. Verse 23. He said to them, you are from below. I am from above. You are this world. I'm not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am He.

You will die in your sins. Verse 31, Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered, and we are children of Abraham. We have never been enslaved to anyone, and so how can you say we will be made free?

Verse 39, Abraham is our father. In verse 41, they said to you, well, at least we were not born of fornication. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me. I came from God and I, I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word you.

You of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character. He is a liar. And the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.

Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell you the truth, why don't you believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not of God. Verse 48, the Jews answered them. Are we not correct when we say that you are a Samaritan and you have a demon? And Jesus said, I do not have a demon.

I honor my father. And you dishonor me Verse number 55, you have not known God. I know him. If I were to say to the, I do not know Kim, then I would be a liar like you. But I do know Kim and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw my day and was glad. The Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old.

How have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. They understood what he meant by that, and so they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, and we will stop right there, ladies and gentlemen. Why did Jesus do that? I mean, when, when Jesus saw that this, that this was escalating and going in a bad direction, why, why didn't you just leave it alone?

Why didn't Jesus at some point and say, look guys, let's just stop right here. I mean, we, we see everybody sees some things differently. We clearly are not eye to eye about this. We see this very, very differently. And so listen, all that really matters is that we love God and that we love each other, and we're gonna rely on the grace of God.

And so let's just stop this right now and we'll just go our separate way. Why didn't he do that? He does not do that because eternal life and eternal death hanging the ballot. 'cause there was an issue of truth here that Jesus was wanting to deal with. I would say to you that if you want to sound antiquated and out of date, if you, if you wanna sound naive in our culture, just, just talk about absolute truth.

Talk about, talk about something being absolutely right or absolutely wrong because in 2025 in American culture, everything it seems is up for grabs. Everything it seems in America today can be negotiated. Just a few years ago, I had the opportunity toe, a banquet where former Secretary of Education, William Bennett, was the guest speaker, a wonderful gentleman.

And during the course of his speech that night, he was, he was lamenting this very fact and he said, I'll tell you where we are in American today, ladies and gentlemen. He said, we are a nation that has both feet firmly planted in midair. And what he meant by that was that nobody will take a stand on anything.

Nobody will say, look, this is absolutely right, or this is absolutely wrong. Sociologists in America for virtually generations have said that there are three types of truth. Sociologists for generations in America said, number one, there is an objective truth. That is, this is something that can be proven.

It is quantifiable. There is empirical evidence about this. There is data that will prove this to be factually true. It is an objective truth, but secondly, they say that is this objective truth that is, this is a truth that is personally true for me, and it may be a truth that is personally true for you.

They may be different from each other because this is my truth, for example. For me, it is a subjective truth. This is my truth. I don't like snakes. That's really not true. I hate snakes. I dispose, I I despise them. I, I loathe them. I know, I know there are people who collect snakes. I know there are people that have snakes as pets.

None of those people are my friends, nor will they ever be because I don't like that. Now, you may be of a bit different disposition about that, but that is a subjective truth for me. And then sociologists talk about en normative truth. And Normandy truth is what the world generally agrees is right and wrong.

That almost everybody, almost everybody looks at this and says, well, that's right, or that is wrong. For example, almost everybody in the world looks, looks at Mr. Putin and Russia and Mr. Xi and China and their assassination of their political enemies in cold blood. Most everybody looks at that and says, you know what?

That crosses a line that is just absolutely morally wrong. And so it's Normandy, kind of a Normandy truth, but sociologists now talk about a fourth. Truth in America and that's complex. And so sociologists now talk about complex truth, and what they mean by that is that truth is so individual in nature that you get to decide in any of these three areas what is true for you.

That's why in America today, you will hear individuals say, well, your truth is your truth, and my truth is my truth. Now that's bizarre. I gotta tell you. That's just bizarre. We don't think about that in any that way, in any other realm of life. We don't think, we don't think that way in, we don't think that way in finance or in medicine, or in aeronautics.

Well, why not? Well, because in finance you would be bankrupt in medicine, you would be sick in aeronautics, you would be dead. Nobody's gonna say in these venues, look, your truth is your truth. And my truth is my truth. We, we just don't think that way. The challenge, ladies and gentlemen, is that we be careful not to bring that mindset into faith, into religion.

So let's think about that for just a minute. That's why it is absolutely imperative that we respect the truth of God. That's what Solomon said. Proverbs 23 and 23 by the truth and sell it not by the truth and sell it not. What does he mean by that? Well, he means that not everything is gray and nebulous and undefined.

He means by that, that there's some things that are absolutely and unequivocally right, and we ought to do them. And by the same token, there's some things that are absolutely and unequivocally wrong and we ought to abstain from them by the truth. And so it not. Secondly, we gotta respect the source of truth and in the gospel dispensation, the source of truth, of course, is Jesus Christ.

Jesus would say Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. He would say in John 12. That there is one who rejects me and does not receive my words, and he shall be judged. The word that I have spoken will judge a man in the last day. And so for us in the gospel dispensation, the source of truth is Jesus Christ.

We need to respect the challenges, the truth. John wrote in Second John and verse number seven. He wrote these words, many deceivers have gone out into the world. I'm gonna ask you, who was he writing to? He was not writing to sinners in the street. He was talking to Christians in the pew. And so his concern, his concern, ladies and gentlemen, he is not worried about people in the world who have no connection to Christianity.

He was worried about Christians. With whom? Deceivers when fired an audience because of the consequence of believing their deceptive teaching. And so in the very next verse, he says this, you've gotta watch yourselves that you may not lose what we have worked for but may win a full reward. And so he says, understand deceivers have gone out in the world.

You gotta be careful about that because as a Christian, if you embrace that, live that, and it is deceptive, it's not the truth of God, it will cost you ultimately. Your reward, and then we need to respect the warnings about truth. It's amazing to me that we treat some scripture in 2025. As though it's written in invisible ink as though the apostles or Jesus wrote it, and then somehow or another it just disappeared off the sacred page.

Or we treat some scripture like there's an expiration date and somehow we got to 21st century America. And these verses no longer apply. And yet I would say to you that we need to respect the warnings about truth. For example, the warning of Jesus, Matthew seven in beginning. In verse 15 when he said, you need to be careful because wolves will come into you in sheep's clothing.

Wolves will come to you in sheep's clothing. Let me ask you something tonight. Where did a wolf get sheep's clothing? Well, it killed a sheep. Jesus is saying, listen, he's already killed some sheep. Make sure that he doesn't make you his prey also, and you need to understand he's not gonna come and show you immediately who he is.

He will try to deceive you, as John would say, so that he can. Steal and kill and destroy because that's what our adversary, the devil does. And then there's the warnings of Paul in Acts 20, beginning of verse 29, he's speaking to those elders of the church at Ephesus. They're out on that island of my elitist.

And he says, look, I know that from my departure, the par, the words of Jesus grievous W will come among you, not sparing the flock. And he says, in fact, even of your own selves will memorize and they will speak perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. And so the warning of Paul was that Deceivers will come and they will take the word of God and twist or torture it in such a way to try to draw away individuals after themselves.

Then there's a warning of Peter two, Peter two, beginning in verse one when Peter said, look, there were false prophets among the people. Even as there will be false teachers among you. Why people are scandalized today, if you say there might be a false teacher among us, that's not a very loving thing to say.

We get. We are just aghast at that. And yet that's exactly what Peter says. There are false prophets and days gone by. They're gonna be false teachers today. And so we need to be aware about that. And then there is the warning of John verse four, beginning in verse number one, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they of God, because many deceivers have gone out into the world.

It seems to me, ladies and gentlemen, I've searched my Bible. There's no expiration date to those warnings. We need to be aware of that. And so we need to respect the warnings about truth. And then finally, we need to respect the responsibility of truth. We all have multiple responsibilities to truth. We have a responsibility, I think, to be discerning and to be supportive and studious and courageous.

Now that's another lesson that's a four point lesson for another time. So we don't have time to go into that and, and delve into that tonight. But I would just say that surely we all have that responsibility for. To be discerning. That's what Paul said to the Philippians in chapter two. I want you to discern the things that are excellent and to be supportive of those who stand for truth and against error and to be studious, not be willing to be spoon fed.

But to do what Acts 1711 says, to be like the Berean who were more noble than those in Thessalonika, because the Bereans received the word with all readiness of mind and search the scriptures every single day to find whether those things were true and they'd be courageous about, you know, just stand for what you believe and know to be true.

Here's the question for tonight. Is there a truth that is always true? Is there a truth regardless of circumstance or preferences? Is there a truth that is always true? Well, I will tell you that Jesus in John eight thinks that there is and he will not let go of that. And so he is in this confrontation with the religious leaders in John eight.

And again, it would've been easy for Jesus to say, look, we're never gonna see this eye to eye and so let's just agree to disagree. We're just gonna rely on the love and the grace and the mercy of God. But he won't do that. Jesus said There is a truth that we've got to stand for. At the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, when you go into the main entry area, there is a little alcove off to the right, and in that alcove there is a single little window up at the top and once a day the sun hits perfectly.

So there is a shaft of light that comes in. You probably can't read that, maybe you can't. It is the unofficial model of the CIA and it says, if you can read it, you shall know the truth. The truth will make you free. What does the CIA do? Well, they gather information. They analyze information, then they carry out operations.

Based on that information, you should know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Where in the world do they get an idea like that? Well, they got an idea from like that from John chapter eight. Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth and truth will set you free.

And so there are three important words that are there, not abide and know and truth, but I want you to know that. Notice the conditional nature of what he says. If you abide, then truth can set you free. It isn't if then proposition. Here's where so many individuals get off track. So many individuals assume that once they're ab baptized, it's pretty well the end of the matter.

You kinda got their ticket punched to heaven. That isn't what Jesus said. If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciple, as if Jesus is saying the baptism is just the beginning. Now you've got to deal with truth. You've got to abide in God's word. We abide in that kinda like a turtle in a shell.

You see a turtle outside of its shell. It's not just having a bad day, it's fixing to die because that shell is part of its skeletal system. You see a Christian that is no longer abiding in the truth of God. He is not just having a bad day spiritually, he's fixing to die because truth. Gives life. And so Jesus says, look, if you abide, then you are my disciple.

When I was preparing this lesson, I came across a wonderful quote by a gentleman that I honestly am not familiar with. His name is David Guzzi, and here's, here's what he said. There is nothing like, there's nothing like the freedom we can have in Jesus. No money can buy it, no status can attain it, no worse can earn it.

Nothing can match it. It is truly tragic that not every Christian experiences this freedom. Which can never be found. Listen to him, except by abiding in God's word and being Jesus' disciple isn. That a great quote. And so again, what are you doing with God's truth? I wanna talk to you about three things in the minutes that we have left tonight.

The problem with truth today is that it's been segmented into three areas. Truth today has been segmented, it seems to me, into three very distinct. Let me pop them on the screen and you, you tell me if this isn't true. The first is a truth, a truth, and this is something that may or may not be true. The fact of the matter is, we talk about that all the time, and so people talk all the time about what they believe about politics or our nation or science or international relationship and a thousand other issues.

And the fact of the matter is if, if we're honest, we have such limited information. I mean, we, we hear things. We read things, but in reality, we have really about a thimble full of information. There is so much under the water that we do not see, kinda like an iceberg. And so it's a truth. It may be true, it may not be true.

But secondly, there is my truth, and this is what I, this is what I believe to be true. So you think about all those areas I just mentioned. Every single one of us in this room tonight, we would all say, and we all have said things like, well, here's what I believe about that. Here's what I believe about that.

And so we all have an opinion about that. We all have a belief about that. We take what limited information we may have, and we draw a conclusion and we say, well, here's what I, what I believe about that. I'll tell you, ladies and gentlemen, honestly, if I just say this, honestly, one, one of the reasons that our culture is such a dumpster fire today is that we've reached a point of polarization about virtually everything that we just, we no longer can acknowledge.

There are good people, honest people. Smart people who may not see things like we do. We have gotten to the point in America that we can't even have a civil conversation with someone who doesn't agree with everything that we believe, and so we have our truth. This is what I believe to be true. We all do that.

I do that. You do that. We all do that. But then of course there's the truth. This is what God in his word says is true. This is another matter altogether, but here's my point at this. Our challenge in 2025, listen to me. Our challenge in 2025 is that so many bring those first two approaches, what may or may not be true and what I want to be true.

They bring those two approaches to religion, to spiritual matters, and so they. In their mind, they hope is true, and they bring that to religion. And so here's where we are in our culture, and here's where some are in regard to Christian faith. As one author said, we have so confused opinions and belief with truth that we've come to the point that we believe no truth can be trusted.

And that's the way some Christians are today. They look at the word of God and they say, well, I know that's what it says, but I'm not sure that's really what it means. And so, so many Christians, they have come to the point that they really believe that. Truth is just kind of up for grabs. It's kind of like a truth and my truth, but there really is no the truth that comes from God.

And what I'm saying to you tonight is that again, Jesus would've nothing to do with that. And so in John eight, when he's in dispute with these individuals, these religious leaders, he comes back to this, you shall know truth and truth will make you free.

I last night I mentioned my young preaching friend, Jordan Sch Jordan is a great young preacher. He preaches at the Campbell Road Church in, in Dallas. He preaches with Ricky Jenkins there, and Jordan is an amazing young preacher. Not very long ago in the sermon, he used a great illustration he had, he took to the pulpit with him can of of Mountain Dew, and he used an illustration with, with this can of Mountain Dew.

A mistake in that he, he should have used a can of Coke because Coke is infinitely superior to Mountain Dew. And so, and I, I talked to our, I talked to the young people Sunday night about, about Coke. I, I really believe that every now and then everybody should drink a coke. I really do. And, and not a, not a diet Coke and not a caffeine free Coke and not a caffeine free diet Coke.

I told the young people, that's just bad tasted brown water. Everybody, everybody should drink a real coke. Like the apostles used to drink. I meant to bring a can of Coke tonight and I forgot. But if I had a can of Coke, imagine that I do here, and we were to look at the list of ingredients, what would the first ingredient be?

Water. It would be water because it is mostly water. It is over 90% water. Well, we're told all the time that we need to drink more water. I mean, aren't we? We're told every day, you, you need to drink so many ounces of water. You need to hydrate you, you need to drink water. The more water you can drink, the better.

The problem with that Coke is that there's some other ingredients there that are not so good for you. Satan, ladies and gentlemen, loves to dilute God's word. He loves to take the pure word of God. And add some other ingredients to it so as to dilute it and make it no longer healthy for our souls. And so it's imperative tonight that we ask ourselves three simple questions about truth.

So if you're jotting notes, now, these tonight, these are the three questions that I, I think we all need to ask about truth. Here they are. Question number one, is my truth always under the authority of the truth is my truth. Is my truth, what I want to believe is my truth. Always under the authority. The truth.

In other words, ladies and gentlemen, if God's word is the truth, the only truth that can set me free, then we've gotta make sure that it takes precedence over a truth. What may or may not be true and my truth, what I want to believe is true. Both of those have to be the under the authority of God's truth.

We've gotta make sure, ladies and gentlemen, that whatever's going on in our life and in our teaching is under the authority of God's book. I I illustrate that this way. This is, this is the race car of Martin Truex, Jr. I've, over the last several years, I've gotten asked a million times. Are you related to Martin Truex Jr.

And I always answer by saying, you mean my nephew Marty? And but he's not really my nephew. Martin Truex Jr. Of course, he won the NASCAR Championship about four years ago last year. He officially retired at the end of the year, but he came back and he raced at Daytona a couple of weeks ago, but last year, and his major sponsor for years has been Bass Pro Shops.

So you can see that they have the major decal on the hood of his car and they pay a King's ransom for that. Last year Bass Pro Chop Bass Pro shops paid $32 million to sponsor Martin Tricks Jr's Race Car $972,000 per race to sponsor him. That's why they get the big sticker on the hood. But you notice on that car that on the side there are some little stickers.

There's some smaller stickers on the side and you know, I got to thinking about that. I wonder if my nephew, Marty, would give the Temple Terrace Church a discount and we could get a sticker to go on there. Now, I'm not sure anybody could read it going a hundred and seventy, eighty, ninety two hundred miles an hour, but it'd kind of be nice to have Temple Terrace, church of Christ on the side of his race car.

But I looked into that and those little tiny stickers on the side, each one of them cost a hundred thousand dollars per race. For some reason I couldn't get my elders to go along with that. You know what? You will never see, ladies and gentlemen, you will never see someone take one of those little side stickers and put it on top of the big sticker on the hood.

Why? Because the big sticker on the hood paid the price for the car. Here's my point. My point is that a truth what may or may not be true in my truth, what I want to be true, can never supplant the truth given by God because Jesus and Christ paid the price to set us free. So what I want to believe, what may or may not be true can never take the place of God's revealed truth.

Question number two, am I set free by walking in the truth? Am I being set free by walking in the truth? You know, the response to Jesus saying the truth will make you free. Well, they had an answer to that. His enemies on that day said, well, listen, we are the offspring of Abraham. We've never been enslaved anyone.

And so I as it, how was it that you say that you will be made free? Well, now that's an interesting statement, isn't it? We've never been enslaved, anybody. It's interesting. Jesus doesn't chase that rabbit, but he certainly could have. I mean, he could have said, well, how, you know, how about those 400 years down in Egypt or maybe the 70 years with the Babylonians or maybe the Persians, or how about these Roman soldiers that are walking around telling you whether or not you can take another breath or not?

But he doesn't, he doesn't chase that rabbit at all. He just ignores that. Instead, Jesus says this truly, truly, I say to you that everyone who practices sin. A slave to sin. You should know truth and truth will make you free because Jesus said, when you commit yourself to a course of life that is sinful, that is outside the boundary of God's truth, it will make you a slave to that sin.

Sin will make you a slave always. It'll make you a slave to yourself, a slave to your desires, a slave to a forbidden relationship, a slave to pornography, a slave to addiction, a slave to line. It will always make you a slave to sin. Jesus said, in order to be free of that, you've got to see truth. You've got to see the truth about how God sees that behavior.

You've got to see the truth about what God says must be done to be free of that. His point in that. By the way, if you still open to John chapter eight, look beginning. Look beginning in verse number 34. Truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. But in verse 35, the slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son remains forever.

That's what God wants for us. He wants us to be his children in the family. The father loves us, gives us grace and mercy, but. Father expects obedience to his will. Jesus said, John 14 verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. This is lost on our world, lost on some of our brethren, but am I being set free by walking in truth in question number three, what truth am I known for?

What truth am I known for? Can I ask you that? What? What truth are you known for? Think about it this way. When people think of you, when people speak your name, what thought comes to their mind? What do people think about you? When people think about you, would, would they say, well, I, I'll tell you, I'll tell you about him or her, that their work is their life.

I mean, they are just absolutely consumed with work. It's just all they think about, they give all, they just, they are just focused on their work. Or would they say, you know what? They're just all about politics, particularly in today's society. They, they eat and sleep and breathe politics. You can't, you can't have a conversation with them about the, without them turning in that direction.

They, they're just all about, about that or what they say about, you know what, they retired from their job and it seems to me they've kind of retired from life. They retired from their job and now they just kinda retired from life and they don't seem to be in engaged with life anymore with the church anymore.

And, and they just kinda retired from everything. What would they say about you? I hope that people would say this, you know what? Their family, their family is really important to them and their work that they do. It's really important to them and, and our nation is important to them. Their friends are, are extremely important to them, but everything that they do in those relationships, they are a Christian.

Everything that they do is filtered that the truth of God's word. Ladies and gentlemen, we can have a hundred different interests. We can have a hundred little small side stickers, but we can't allow those interests to take precedence over the one who paid the price for us. It's why the psalmist said, through your precepts, I gained understanding and therefore I hate every false way.

Why does this even matter? It matters. If we go back to second John in verse chapter one again, if we go back to second John, verse 70 said, many deceivers have gone out in the world. Verse 80 says to Christians, you gotta be careful about that. I don't want you to lose your reward. And here's what he said in verse number nine, everyone who goes on ahead and doesn't abide in the teaching Christ, look at this.

Does not have God. He's writing to Christians and he said, it is possible for you to reach a point in your Christian life because of what you have allowed yourself to believe and now practice that God would look at you and say, you no longer have God. But whoever abides in the teaching as both the father and the son, which brings us back, brings us back to Jesus'.

Simple statement. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. I want to end tonight with just three simple conclusions, if I may, just three simple conclusions in the lesson yours. We're not gonna talk about them, but I think they're important to think about as we as we end tonight.

Conclusion number one, doctrinal accuracy matters. Doctrinal accuracy matters. I know that's true because the Bible says in 10 and 17 of the book of Romans, that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so faith, faith must be built upon the solid teaching of God's word. That would mean conclusion.

Number two, that who teaches you matters. Who teaches you matters. Ladies and gentlemen, if someone is misguided, if they are dishonest, if they have an agenda, they may well teach you things that are not supported by the word of God. So often in 2025, individuals, teachers sometimes believe that feelings can replace facts, and folks so often believe that if they like something, if they believe something, then surely God must like it and believe it as well.

And that kind of fuzzy and confused stand for nothing. Teaching opens the door to all kinds of ideas that can lead us away from righteousness and holiness. And so I'm asking you tonight if this second conclusion is accurate, that who teaches you matters. Then I'm asking you tonight who you are. Who are you allowing to influence you and teach you?

Who are you allowing to influence you and teach you? What are you reading? What podcasts are you listening to? Do these individuals get what the Bible message is about? Do they understand fundamental concepts about baptism and miracles in the organization of the church and worship in heaven and hell?

Because I'm telling you tonight, if they are wrong about those simple things. How can you trust them about the weightier matters of the law? And so doctrinal ay matters and who teaches you matters. And third, conclusion number three, what you do. With what you know matters, what you do, with what you know matters.

We all have responsibility. We said Sunday morning to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We have a responsibility for our own faith. We have to take ownership of our faith. That means you must do that. So ladies and gentlemen, you, you've gotta search the scriptures. Do your own homework.

Look carefully and deeply into the text. Think things through with discernment. Lower your nets into the deeper waters. No, understand. And then act upon what you know. Act upon what you know. You know, for generations in our churches, we have sung an old hymn that says. What will you do with Jesus? That's a good question, isn't it?

What will you do with Jesus? I've said many times in my congregation home at Temple Terrace, I've said, you know, there are, there are only four answers to that question. What will you do with, there are only four possible answers.

Number one, you can reject him as Lord and not do what he says. God will always give you that choice. God will not reach down from heaven and force you to do what's right. He just won't do that. And so you can reject him as Lord and not do what he says. Number two, you can reject him as Lord, but do what he says.

You say, who would ever do that? We probably know people like that. You probably know some people, they're good people. They live a good life. They have a good family. They're good neighbors, but they're not Christians and they don't ever intend to be a Christian. They're just good people. They basically live a good life, but they're never gonna do what he says in full obedience.

Or third, you can confess Jesus' Lord, but not do what he says. Jesus talked about that. Luke six in verse 46. Why? Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do the things that I say? There are a lot of people like that. He talked about that in Matthew seven. Many are gonna say to me that day, Lord, you are my Lord.

And yet he said, I never knew you or forth. You can confess him as Lord and do what He says. And what he says is, come to me, all of you who are sick and tired of sin. I will give you rest. How do you do that? You should know truth. Truth will make you free. And if you need to be free from sin Tonight by obeying the truth of God in the waters of baptism, this invitation's for you.

Let's stand and let's sing.