This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

You have your Bibles. I invite you to be turning to the book of John in the eighth chapter. And our text will center around the verses that were read earlier, verses 30 through verse 32. Just a moment. While you're turning in your Bibles to the book of John in the eighth chapter, let me take just a moment to express my appreciation for the presence of each of you.

We have a very good number of people present. We also believe we'll have some online, and we appreciate presence in each of you. I want you to know that our intention is to, of course, worship God in spirit and in truth. Hope that you've had that opportunity thus far. And it's our intention to center our minds upon scriptures, upon Jesus, and to learn from the things that he's written for us.

We appreciate so much your presence this morning. I have to tell you that it's been a wild week. I almost like full time preaching again. I started teaching this morning. I'm preaching this morning, and I'm preaching in Nacogdoches on Wednesday.

I'm not used to such strenuous schedules anymore, I don't think. And on top of that, I had in mind what I wanted to preach on. And sometimes toward the end of the last week, I thought, you know, all of this talk about freedom, maybe I should change and talk about John eight verse 32. You should know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And so that's what we're gonna talk about this morning.

And all this talk about freedom that we're hearing, of course, is in celebration of our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And that document was a document that declared our political freedom and our freedom from British rule. But there's a freedom much greater than that, and that's the freedom that's mentioned in the book of John in the eighth chapter in verse 32 when Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And that's the freedom that I wanna talk about this morning. The freedom that Jesus said that the truth will bring to us.

It's a simple lesson. I don't think I'll keep you a long time, though I have said that before and it's turned out to be much longer, but I don't think it'll be that long. But I do think it's important that we start out by noticing the context of the scripture. John the eighth chapter and beginning in verse one, John goes out to the Mount Olive, and then he goes to the temple early in the morning. And he comes there and people come and he begins to teach and they begin to hear him.

It would seem like it's a great start to a day. You go to the temple, you're there worshiping, and people come and they want to know and hear you speak. But that same changes very quickly from the serene teaching that Jesus is doing to a scene of tension and conflict. Because as he starts teaching these people, scribes and pharisees come, and verse six mentions expressly that they have come for the purpose of finding something that they can accuse Jesus with. Now let that sink in.

He's there earnestly teaching people about God, about salvation, I presume. And these people that are considered oftentimes leaders by the people are there trying to find something to accuse Jesus with. They don't know something already that they can lay on him and bring harm to him about, but they have come for the purpose of finding something they can just grab hold of, shame him, or use it to punish him or even put him to death. And if you're familiar with the story, you know that it starts with them bringing a woman that the scripture says was actually taken in adultery. And they're asking the question, this woman is taken in adultery.

The law says that she should be stoned. What do you say? And again, remind you, it's not because they are faced with the situation and they wanna know what to do with the woman. They just want something to accuse Jesus with. They didn't tell us especially or especially in this passage what their thinking is, But some of them have suggested that maybe what it is is that even though the law said that somebody should be stoned for this, that if he says that, it's going to look like he is no longer interested in the sinner as he's been saying that he is and trying to save them, he's gonna condemn her to death.

And if he doesn't do that, then they can accuse him of saying, well, you supposedly are a law keeper and you're not keeping the law. And so they think they've got Jesus. They think whichever way he goes, we're going to be able to accuse him and diminish his fame and his glory. But you know that Jesus didn't give him that occasion. The scripture says that he just began to write on the ground.

And in a minute, he asked they all or in a minute, he says he says, you who are without sin, cast the first stone. And that convicted them. And they began to leave one by one. And in a minute, Jesus looks up and it's just him and the woman now. Meaning, all the Pharisees that were there to accuse him, they have stepped back.

They're not there pushing him and prodding him now. And you know that Jesus asked the woman, where's her accusers? And she said they've left. And he says, well, I'm not gonna do anything with you either. You just go and sin no more.

And so he's avoided that trap that they fought that he was going to fall into. But look if you would to chapter eight now in verse 12. After all the pushing and trying to catch him is over at that instance, Jesus speaks and he says, I'm the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life. What an amazing statement.

I am the light of the world. And whoever shall follow me, he no longer walks in darkness. He's not talking about physical darkness. He's not talking about physical light. He's using that as an illustration saying, I'm giving you light.

I am light, and you can be with me and you don't have to walk in the darkness anymore. He says, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life. But that doesn't satisfy them either. They begin to ask, who are you? Who are you that you are claiming to be the light of the world and telling us that we can follow you and we can be light also?

I wanna suggest to you that despite the atmosphere that you see at this point, that there are some people that are earnestly listening apparently to Jesus and hear what he's saying and they believe him. I want you to look at verse 30. As he spoke these words, he had some more conflict with the Pharisees after he said I'm delighted and so forth. But now he tells us as he spoke these words, many believed in him. There are some that have taken this occasion, and they believe in him.

I want you to notice something else about this passage. Here Jesus is in the temple. He's talking with these people to begin with about whatever it is he's talking, God, heaven, salvation, whatever it is. These pharisees and scribes come trying to ensnare him. He doesn't allow them to do that.

He's able to overcome their accusations and their traps. And now some people are believing in him. And one of the things I want you to notice is that on this occasion, it doesn't record Jesus working a miracle and them saying, ah, look. He's a miracle worker. These people apparently are convicted by the things that Jesus have said.

And particularly, maybe that statement about I'm the light and I've come into the world to give light. But some of these people that have come are now believers, it says. And that gets us close to our text in verse 32 because now in verse 31, he goes on and says, then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. I have to tell you, I don't think until really this week when I was studying this that I ever realized that this statement, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free, were not said to the scribes and Pharisees specifically. But he's saying it to people that believe.

And it dawned to me that that's telling me that there's something in that passage, not just telling me early on I need to realize that Jesus is the Christ and I need to come to him. That that's something that even now as a believer that I and that you as a believer need to know, that you should know the truth and the truth shall make you free, he says. And it tells me that I can get to that point. Having read about the miracles, know that Jesus had the power to work miracles, but without actually seeing a miracle and really not even hearing at this time about the miracles that Jesus did. That from his words of declaring, I am the light and in these no darkness and you can come to the light and be out of darkness that we can recognize he is who he is and that we can learn from the statement.

You shall know the truth. Truth shall make you free. I'm sure. I'm relatively sure, I think, that people that are not Christians can learn from that statement too. That it would be good for anybody to come to recognize that Jesus is saying you should know the truth.

And then somebody that's not even a Christian could suddenly realize, I need to know the truth. But I'm intrigued by the fact that he is telling those who he says, believe, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. It seems to me that the lesson is very simple. But first of all, we need to know what in the world he is talking about when he says, you shall know the truth. What does he mean you should know the truth?

What is the truth even? I can think of two passages that perhaps answers that question, what is the truth, as well as anything that I could say or anything you can say. And you just know this is the truth because he's telling you this is the truth. But in the book of John in the fourteenth chapter in verse six, Jesus makes this statement. He says, I am the way, the truth, the life.

You wanna know what truth is? Jesus is truth. Isn't it interesting? He's sitting right there with these people that believe, and he says, you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. And one of the things that that must include is you need to understand and know who I am.

I am the way, the truth, the life. Another passage that helps us to understand what truth is. In the book of John the seventeenth chapter in verse 17, and this is as Jesus has been with his disciples, ate in the Lord's Supper, going out now to head toward the cross. And he prays to the father, And in that prayer, he says, sanctify them by your truth. And then he says, your word is truth.

You don't get anything else out of the lesson. Peg those two points. And when you say what is truth, truth is our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. That's truth, that he is Lord and Christ, and he is the truth. He's the source of truth.

He gives us the truth. And secondly, his word is truth. And so when you get ready to know the truth, just understand, you need to know Jesus, you need to know his word. And that he's even talking to those of us that are believers, know the truth. That's something that's important as a believer that you know the truth, that you know Jesus is the truth, and that his word is the truth.

But the question comes to mind, how do we know the truth? How do we get to know that truth? A passage that came to my mind is second Timothy two in verse 15. It says, be diligent to spend your time is talking about and it says, be diligent. And he says that you can study and know the truth and not be ashamed.

And you'll notice King James or New King James says be diligent. New King James or the King James would say study, and both of those things are involved. He's telling us, be diligent in your search for truth. Be diligent to gain truth. And the way we usually get it is through study.

I'm also mindful of the passage in the book of Psalms in the hundred and nineteenth chapter in verse one sixty where the psalmist said the entirety of your word is truth. He's talking about the word of God, and he says the entirety of your word truth. I don't think he's saying anything different than what Jesus or what Paul is saying when he says study and show yourself approved a workman of God that need not be ashamed. Well, there is the truth. But the psalmist is making a point for us that the truth is the entirety of the word.

You see, there are people that they'll read it and then they'll pick up one little aspect of it, and they'll hold on to that and maybe make it out of context and make it say something that it's really not saying. And Paul, I think, when he says study to show yourself approved, a workman under God that need not be ashamed of truth, He understands that. But the psalmist is just making it a little clear that you can't just pick up a point and take it out of context to know truth. You need to have the entirety of truth. That is all of it has to fit together.

And if it's fitting together like God intends to, it's not going to contradict anything. And somebody can't take a part of it and lead you astray. We have to be careful sometimes about context and making sure that we understand the entirety of the truth. And I think maybe when you're talking to Christians and you're expressing the idea that we need to know the truth, maybe this is a point that we need to make sure that we take the entirety of the truth, that we don't take part of it and leave part of it out, and that we don't just center our minds on one part and make it say something that it really doesn't say. You remember back in the book of Matthew the fourth chapter that Satan is tempting Jesus?

And we're really mindful, I think, to the fact that Jesus answers each of those temptations with a quote from the scripture. And that's helpful to us because even as Christians, we can know the truth and the truth can make us free. We can realize that when we face temptation, that one of the ways that we can do it is by knowing the truth and even quoting those truth or reading those truths to ourselves and gaining strength on those occasions. But I wanna remind you that on that occasion, that Satan comes to Jesus on that occasion. Verse five sets into the holy city, sets him on a pinnacle of the temple, and he said, if you're the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you.

And in his their hands, they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone. What I want you to see is that Satan's quoting scripture. And that goes back to this part that we need to be careful what we listen to and how we handle the truth. Because it's possible to misuse the truth sometimes and make it say things that it's not intended to say. It's true that that what Satan is quoting is true.

God has said, you'll not dash your foot against the stone. But the intent of that passage was not even go jump off temples and jump off other things and test me. No. He was just saying, I'm gonna take care of you. And Jesus knows that and he, of course, answered him by saying it's written, you shall tempt the Lord your God.

And so we need to know truth. We need to understand what it's saying and understand the truth. Paul would talk about the armor of the Christian in the book of Ephesians in the sixth chapter in verse 14 and it says, have your waist girded with truth. I thought of another passage after I'd really done this. It's written in my notes with ink, not typed.

But James says, be you doers of the word. Remember the word's truth. And so now we understand a little bit more about what's involved in this know the truth. It's not just have a idea of the words, it's know them. Know what they're saying.

Know what they mean. And then not only that, guard your loins with that. Let this be your protector that keeps you from temptation and helps you overcome temptation. And then thirdly, you don't just take it, read it, and let it sit. It's telling us things that we need to live by, things we need to do.

And hence, speak statement, be you doers of the word. But you can't be a doer of the word if you don't know it. And so that's Paul's point when he's talking to these people, talking to Christians or not Christians, but disciples at that time. Say, know the truth. I would encourage us as Christians, know the truth.

You know, it used to be known that Christians were people that knew the book, meaning they knew the truth, And we need to make sure it's that way now. I can remember when I was in the seventh grade, miss Cross was my teacher. He was not my favorite teacher. But I can remember one time some question came up. I think if I remember correctly, maybe it was on first Corinthians 13 and asked the question, what is charity she was using in King James first?

And I knew that it was love. And she's what her comment was. I suspect you're a member of the church of Christ. And the reason was because she knew that people in the church and members of the church knew the Bible. That's the only reason she thought that.

And I'm gonna tell you, that's the way it ought to be now. We need to know the truth. We need to be the people that know the word of God, and we need to be known for knowing that word. One, so that we can answer the temptations of the devil, so we will know what we need to be doing even if it's not being tempted, but just following the word of the Lord. And then furthermore, that we can not be misled by those who would misuse the truth.

The second thing that I think we need to see when he says, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. We need to understand what that freedom is. It's interesting to me that Jesus doesn't just say, you shall know the truth. The truth is, and it will make you free. He doesn't immediately tell us what this freedom we're talking about is.

It's interesting also as you look at John the eighth chapter that as we've already noted that when you get to verse 30, he says, he spoke with these words, many believed in him. And then verse 31, then Jesus said to the Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word, you're my disciples, and then tells them, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. But then the next verse says, they answered him. And the answer they give him doesn't sound like this is the same ones that he was talking about that believed. Their commentary that will say this is the same people, and it may be.

It is it's hard to distinguish why he would change the person or the pronoun there. But if it is talking about the ones that he said believed, you can see why he goes on to say this because they're ignorant of some things. Because whoever the they is now begins to say when he says and the truth shall make you free. They say, we're already free. Now this is Jews.

And they said, we've we've never been bonded. And at this time, you know the scriptures, you're scratching your head and saying, what? You're under Roman power right now. And you're saying we've never been under bondage? And what about the time that you were in Babylonian captivity?

And what about the time that you were a slave in Egypt? And you say, never been in bondage? But Jesus is not talking about that kind of bondage. And it's next statement or so that we really begin to understand what he is talking about. Verse 34, Jesus answered them.

This idea we've never been in bondage. He says, Jesus answered them, most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. That's the freedom that he's talking about. He's talking to people that have been enslaved to sin who could always fall back into sin if he's talking to Christians and saying the truth shall make you free. Here's your keep out of jail card, so to speak.

Truth. And he's talking maybe to the others too and just tell them, I'm not talking about political bondage. Freedom I'm talking about is freedom from sin, and that freedom comes only in Jesus Christ. And that makes him so precious to us, and it makes the truth so precious to us. When we realize there's where freedom from sin is.

And it's good to be free from sin because sin fruits of sin is hell. Let me give you just a couple of passages that show you and emphasize for us again that truth frees us from sin, and following Christ frees us from sin. You remember in the book of Romans in the first 12 chapter or 11 chapters, first of all, I guess, Paul is really coming down on the plan of salvation for us. He points out that we're saved through faith. That's faith in Jesus.

And, of course, faith doesn't mean faith only. It's all that he's teaching. But listen to what he says in Romans six. After he's talked about our salvation by faith, he then goes on to talk about, know you're not that as many as been baptized. He talks about that, which is just an interesting point to me because he'll talk to some people and they'll say, oh, Paul never tells them in chapters one through five that they need to be baptized.

He just talks about salvation through faith. But have you ever noticed in chapter six, he knows that every one of those people have been baptized into Christ And that through that, they have washed away their sins and been buried into Christ? So he's telling you, yes. Not only does faith include saying that Jesus is Lord, but it includes being baptized too. But look particularly to verse six.

He says, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that is with Christ, that the body of sin may be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. That's the promise that Jesus just made. You should know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And then he says, this sin that I'm talking about in verse 34. And then you look back in chapter six of Romans and he says that this is where we become free from sin.

Turn over, if you would, to the book of Colossians and the first chapter. And I've just I picked these out of a lot of passages, and there'll be some other passages that we'll talk about in a minute that you could have added to this. But Colossians one and verse 13, Paul writes to these people and says, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his dear son. He's talking about for us Christians, people that have come to know the truth. And he says, doing that, he says, he has delivered us from the power of darkness.

That's freedom from sin. And that's his point that we know the truth, and the truth tells us how it is that we become free from sin. I, in my study, found this little statement that I thought was powerful. He points out that guilt, talking about when we are free from sin, guilt is replaced by forgiveness. Fear is replaced by peace.

If you are sinful and you know what the Bible says, you ought to be fearful because there's nothing ahead except a fearful judgment of fire and brimstone unless you change. And then he says, despair is replaced with hope. All of that from knowing truth and being free from sin. No fear, Peace. No despair.

What am I gonna do? How am I gonna escape? The way is clear, and you've taken it if you know the truth and obey the truth. I wanna make one additional point. I think that's the point that the text is trying to make.

That we should know truth, and the truth has the power to make us free, free from sin. But it dawned on me as I was thinking of this that oftentimes we're free from something just to be in bondage to something else. We signed the Declaration of Independence, not we, me, but them. Showing the age, but not that much. But we weren't free from law.

We were free from Britain's law, their rule. But as states, we immediately put new laws in order and expected people to obey them. And what I wanted to do is to show you that, yes, we've become a Christian, and we are free from sin. But we would change our allegiance from Satan to Christ. Romans six and verse 18, being made free from sin, you became the servant of righteousness.

Romans six twenty two, but now being made free from sin and become servants of God. First Corinthians seven and verse 22, he who was free when called is Christ's slave. Bondage in Christ is different, though, than bondage to sin. Bondage to sin destroys. Bondage to Christ gives life.

Even beyond that, it gives an abundant life. One last thought. John eight thirty two is addressed to the believers saying that we are the ones that need to know the truth and trying to get us to see that the truth sets us free. And we should be free from sin, and we should live free from sin. We will have a home in heaven.

But certainly, it will work for those people that are not Christians if they will seek the truth, learn the truth, obey the truth. They can become a believer and enjoy the blessings that we have. I don't know where you are in your life. I can guess where some of you are. No.

Maybe some where some of you are. But are you a believer or an unbeliever? And I don't mean you have to deny the existence of God to be an unbeliever. A believer is somebody that accepts the idea that Jesus is Lord and Christ and has put on Christ in baptism today because they understand he's Lord and Christ. An unbeliever is not necessarily somebody that just denies the existence of God or denies the existence of Jesus.

It's just somebody that's not accepting Jesus as their Lord and making Jesus their Christ so that they can have the freedom of sin that he's talking about. So here's the bottom line. If you're a believer but you don't feel free from sin, something's wrong. Know the truth. The truth will make you free.

There's a lot of us here that would be glad to stand with you and help you to know that if you don't know it already. And secondly, if you're not a believer, think of the consequences. You have a choice between eternal life or eternal punishment. Incidentally, eternal punishment would have been the sermon I was gonna preach. I talked about eternal life.

I have in mind preaching a sermon called eternal but not life. Stay tuned. But that's your choices. Know the truth. The truth will make you free.

Don't know the truth. Don't accept the truth. You are a slave to sin, and you will be condemned to hell and eternity. Just let those things roll over in your mind a minute. We're gonna sing an invitation song.

You think about it while we're thinking. You need to come. We stand ready to assist you. You'll just believe and put on Christ. If you come, together, we stand.