In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'Are You Free, or Will You Die in Your Sins?' based on John 8:21-36, the focus is on Jesus' teachings about the inevitability of death and the two possible outcomes: dying in one's sins or dying in the Lord. Brown emphasizes the dichotomy between the worldly life and the life Jesus offers, urging listeners to consider whether they are truly free or still enslaved by sin. Jesus' declarations about being from above, his unity with the Father, and his role as the light and freedom for humankind are highlighted. The sermon explores the serious implications of unbelief and the promise of true freedom through faith in Jesus, contrasting the temporary pleasures of this world with eternal joy in God's kingdom. Brown challenges the congregation to assess their spiritual state and to embrace the freedom and righteousness offered by Jesus, who always pleases the Father and offers believers the gift of eternal life.

The sermon text is John 8, 21-36. Then Jesus said to them again, I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come." So the Jews said, will he kill himself because he said, where I go, you cannot come? And he said to them, you are from beneath, I am from above, You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins.

For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. Then they said to him, who are you? And Jesus said to them, Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I heard from him. They did not understand that he spoke to them of the Father.

Then Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father taught me, I speak these things. And he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. As He spoke these words, many believed in Him." Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, if you abide in my word, then you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." They answered him, We are Abraham's descendants, have never been in bondage to anyone.

How can you say you will be made free? Then Jesus answered them, Most assuredly I say to you, Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, But a son abides forever. Therefore, if the son makes you free, You shall be free indeed. Let's pray.

Our Father, we come to you, Lord, amazed at the teaching of your Son. Lord, as we read through this text and as we hear it preached to us this morning, may we truly listen to and understand and comprehend both these threatenings and these promises from Christ. The threatenings that unbelief leads to, dying in our sins and condemnation, but the promise that belief will lead to freedom and if the Son sets us free we are free indeed. Oh God may we truly see the seriousness of our sin and may we truly see and comprehend and love what your son has done for us. God, I pray that you would empower our elder as he comes to deliver your word, speak to us through him, and Lord, may your church be built today.

In Christ's name, amen. As we continue this journey through the gospel of John, I just want to say again how wonderful it is to be able to consider these things and to be touched in so many ways by them. It's a thrilling thing to go through such a remarkable and beautiful gospel. And the Lord Jesus Christ seems to continually engage his hearers on the matters of delight and what will truly delight them and you know in this passage here and in John 8 21 through 36 he really calls us all to consider that again in the matter of whether you will die in your sins or Will your death be the happiest day of your life? You know, will you believe and see the King in all of His beauty on that great day when you depart from this world?

And will you live your life free, free from the hardest things that have ever happened to you in terms of sin? And this question here, I think, is so consistent with the kinds of questions that Jesus implies that we should ask, and, you know, are you free? Will you die in your sins, and how will you die? And these are the questions that Jesus is raising in this section. And what we've seen from Jesus is how he goes to such great lengths to seek and save the lost.

And the arguments, The illustrations, the appeals are remarkable. The miracles, the kindnesses, the mercy, the insight, the wisdom of Jesus Christ is astonishing. And even in, like in this section, speaking primarily to his enemies who are trying to discredit him. He's speaking the words of life to them. He's luring them.

He's unraveling their thoughts right before them. He's exposing them. He's shining his light upon the thoughts and the meditations of their hearts and everything that they're doing in their lives. And as we've seen before, from the very beginning of the Gospel of John, He not only speaks of the glory and the beauty of his kingdom, but he also he speaks of their diseases and he penetrates to the heart of their greatest issues in life. And he comes to them and he says, You know, I'm like new wine that never runs out and it gets better and better.

He says, you know, you know, I I'm living bread. I'm living water and you'll never thirst again like you thirst in this world if you have me and He says, you know, I'm the light of the world. And here in this passage, he says, I'm freedom. I'll set you free. And so Jesus is constantly coming back wave after wave after wave like the ocean to wash us in the matters of his kingdom.

But when we come to this passage, we find all those elements running through it, but he speaks of the tragic consequences of rejecting him. And you know, this is how Jesus always acted in his public ministry, and this is how he always acts with human beings. He's constantly appealing with arguments and images and you know you know how long has Jesus been throwing arguments at you that you might believe and that you might follow him how many sermons how many people has he sent how many sunsets how many stars has he shown you how many rivers and lakes and animals and plants How how has he shown you well he just keeps on revealing himself And his whole ministry is really summed up in three words, come to me, come and enter into the joy of your master. And so that's what we find here too, but he speaks hard words as well as we'll see when we get into this text. Okay so what's the time frame here?

Jesus is six months before the cross so He's in the very last season of his ministry. The first year of his ministry was in Judea, the next year and a half was in Galilee, and now he spends his final months in Judea. And during all this time, he's performing, Well, what John 21 says, more miracles than you can even figure out how to catalog in a book. All the books in the world couldn't contain things that he did. But now Jesus is in the temple.

It's after the feast of tabernacles. He's in the court of the women and a woman is brought to him who's been caught in adultery. It was a sham by the Pharisees to come and try to trick him and try to discredit him. They all end up just walking away because he exposed them. And they walked out from that moment.

And Jesus, after that, after they walk away, in verse 12, we come to what is, I think, the heart of the passage and really the reason for everything that happens afterwards in this chapter because this chapter is a unit. This is one scene. We will have spent three Sunday mornings in this scene but it's really one scene that takes place in the life of Jesus. But in verse 12, he says, I am the light of the world and he who follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life. And when he said that, it was as if all hell broke loose in terms of opposition.

He's clearly proclaiming himself to be the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles in the wilderness, that when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness they were led by a pillar of fire and then Actually, if you read the narrative very carefully they were actually protected by a pillar of fire from the Egyptian army as they were coming after them And so the Jews erected these gigantic lights, you know, with towers going high above the walls of the temple that illuminated the city of Jerusalem. You could see it from miles away, and now the lights have gone out because the feast of tabernacles is over. And Jesus says to these men, I am the light of the world. Now, He has just exposed them, but He's proclaiming Himself to be the fulfillment of this picture of light in the wilderness of the pillar of fire that led them, and then they begin to attack him. And so that's where we are in the narrative.

The entire rest of this chapter is one attack after another. Last week I itemized several of those attacks, but as they're attacking him, it becomes very clear because of what Jesus says, that they have failed to calculate the consequences of rejecting him. And Jesus, over and over again, is telling them about the consequences of rejecting them, rejecting him. And He really begins with this fact that they're going to die, and he reveals this most inevitable and urgent matter where everyone is going to die. And we know that everybody has different experiences in this world.

Some people experience a lot of trouble in this life. Other people experience almost perfect health until the day they die. Some people have a lot of money, some people don't have any and never will have any. So people have different experiences in this life. But Jesus here brings up that one experience that is common to every single person.

And that is there's a day when you're going to leave this earth. And so he deals with this matter. And so in the following verses, Jesus is explaining the implications of their unbelief over and over again and in many ways I think Jesus is saying here's what your unbelief is buying you can you accept that but he speaks in deadly terms here in this passage. And so this morning I would like to walk through this section, but I'd like to use three questions as our guide to help us to understand what Jesus is saying. And he calls his hearers to consider three of the most important questions in life and those are the questions that we need to consider this morning and the first is will you die in your sins and the second is do you know that Jesus is the Messiah and has come from God and speaks the words of God and thirdly are you free are you free indeed Or is it your own kind of freedom that really is not freedom at all?

So that's where we're going this morning. Let's first of all deal with this first section in verses 21 through 27. You can follow me with the outline that we provided for you. Will you die in your sins? Now Jesus makes this declaration, you will die in your sins, And he makes this declaration three times.

Now, he says this actually in response to an attack that we read about in verse 19. When they said to him, where is your father? And he says to them, you don't know me and you don't know my father if you had known me you would have known my father and and And then after that Jesus predicts his departure in verse 21 Where Jesus said to them again? I am going away and you will seek me and will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come." And so he's declaring that he's going away and it'll be too late when he goes away for them.

That having rejected Jesus means that they've they've lost their opportunity and he says where I go you cannot come he's speaking of heaven and he's saying that he's departing to heaven and when they die they will not be carried to heaven like Abraham was carried to or like Lazarus was carried to Abraham's bosom but they'll be carried to hell and he's saying you cannot go where I am going. And he's saying that they will seek him. What kind of seeking is he talking about? There are many things we could say about that, just to be brief. I think he's saying that they'll just keep looking for the Messiah until they're dead and they and they'll die in their sins.

They'll die before they see the light of the world and this is the greatest tragedy. They'll be like those in Proverbs chapter 1 verses 28 and 29, they seek Him in vain. And there will be a day when the door will shut and the unrepentant who did not follow Jesus Christ will not follow him to heaven. They cannot come. But there is a way to seek him and find him.

Jeremiah talked about it in Jeremiah 29, 13. He said, you shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. When you search for me with all your heart, you will seek me and you will find me. So you can seek him and find him. And then after he says this, they attack his character with another slanderous statement in verse 22 look at it with me so the Jews said will he kill himself because he says where I go you cannot come.

So they're accusing Jesus of threatening suicide. And I don't know if you've ever experienced that before, but they're accusing him of threatening suicide. But this is a... Let's be clear about what this is. This is a proud, sneering, self-righteous, slanderous, belittling of Jesus Christ, because their objective is to discredit him and so they'll say whatever would discredit him whether there's any Truth in it at all and they believe they're superior to Jesus and they're just saying that he is so bad that he would even threaten suicide.

This is what enemies do. They take your words and they make the very very worst of them. The Jews believed as the historian Josephus tells us that if you committed suicide there was a special place in hell for you. It was the worst place. It was the bottom of hell.

And so they are attacking his character with this slanderous comment. And then Jesus, he responds to the slanderous character assassination in verses 23 and 24 and he said to them verse 23 you are from beneath I am from above you are of this world I am NOT of this world Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins now Jesus first declares the state of their souls and where they get their happiness they are from below. Their lives come from below. They are creating their lives out of this world, not of God. And they're from the dark side.

And Jesus is making it very clear again that there are two kingdoms There's the kingdom of that is below and there's the kingdom that is from above There's the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. There are two paths. There's the narrow path and there's the broad path. There are only two states of being. There's light and there's darkness and there are only two kinds of people slaves of the devil or servants of God and there are only two races in this world and it's not black and white red and yellow it's sheep and goats and Jesus is affirming this again that there are only two ways and there is the way of from below to get your life from below or to get it from above and Jesus says I am of above I come out of my life is a reflection of that which is above but theirs is a life that is a reflection of what is below and it's the it's really a the an equivalent of Jesus saying, you're friends of the world.

And friendship with the world is enmity against God. They are friends, they're fans of the world. Which the desire to be fans of the world is the most dangerous inclination of the soul. And he's dealing with them and they are unparten and they are unfit for heaven and so Jesus is speaking very directly he's speaking the truth in love to them and And the implication of this spiritual condition is explained in verse 24, you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. That's the third time that He's made that statement.

You know, whenever you're preaching, you're always looking for the things that are that are emphatic because you should lean hard on those. They're there for a reason. The emphasis is there for a purpose, for a good purpose. And what Jesus is doing here is he's urging them to consider their latter end, as Isaiah said, and he's telling them to think very carefully about their death. And we need to grasp the exclusive and the dogmatic nature of what Jesus is saying, that there's no middle ground at all in his words here.

All people will either die clothed in their sins and will continue in hell in sinful torment or they will be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. There are only two ways to die. And in the same way that there are only two places from which to get your life, There are only two ways to die. In Revelation chapter 14 verse 13 it's recorded that John the apostle, the writer of this gospel heard a voice from heaven and the voice said John write this down blessed are the dead who die in the Lord Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Because there are only two ways to die.

You either die in your sins or you die in the Lord. And John says, or he's urged to write that they may rest from their labors. Death is for the Christian is rest. It's everlasting happiness. And so there are only two ways to die.

That's why Paul said to die is gain in Philippians 1.21. And in 2 Corinthians 5.8, he said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord having and what he means is you've entered in to a joy you never had before. It's his joy. You know, in my lifetime, I've had two very close friends die, killed instantly while young in a tragic accident in their 30s all of them cut off, you know, right in the prime of their child raising and their these men does so desired to love their wives and bring their children up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. It's what drove them.

And in their thirties, they were just cut off from this world and I was astonished, you know. There are so many men that could die, but why these men? And each time that's taken place to see men cut off, you know, in the prime of their child raising years and their spiritual productivity in there, and really their respect in their communities and in their churches. But each time, and one was very recent just in the last 60 days, You know, I'm reminded of how critical it is to get your house in order. And what does that mean?

I mean, for a man or for a woman, it means have you provided for your soul? Have you taken pains to provide for the condition of your soul by the blood of Jesus Christ by believing in Him and walking with Him and ceasing to be a fan of this world? And secondly, you know, if you're a husband or have you provided for your wife and your family and the greatest way that you provide is through your vision of the delights of God, of the beauty of the kingdom of heaven of the greatness of the sovereign mercy truth and wisdom and omnipotence of God that's how you that's the best way to prepare those around you And have you given your children what they need spiritually if you pass from this scene in an instant? And have you given your wife a life of love? Have your children seen heaven on earth in your home because that's what you did you filled it with the words of heaven you know cotton mather who's called the last Puritan living in Boston.

He suggested that we think about death every day. And he suggested that we think about death, that we remind ourselves of death in the commonest things that we do every day so when we're eating our fellowship meal you might consider this he said he said when we sit at our tables we should think that we will shortly be eaten by worms." He said, when we lay down in our beds at night we should think that there is a day coming when I'll be laid in a cold grave." He says, when you open your treasure chest, just look at your treasures. Think that someday you'll be encased in a chest and put under the ground. So the next time you check your bank account, think about it. But would that be a happy thought for you?

Like would you think it would be the best day of your life to enter into the joy of your Master? You know, what do you think about that day? Would it be for despondency? We can all recognize it would be hard to leave this world. But there, If you've been with people who are dying, who love the Lord, you know they reach a point where they just want to fall in the arms of Jesus.

They just want to go. They just want to go. It's amazing. It's the most amazing thing. You know, the billionaires of this world are desperately trying to figure out how to live forever.

You know, through their technology, they want to go to them. They want to figure out how to get to Mars in case an asteroid hits the earth or there's chaos, you know, in the world. They're spending billions of dollars to try to figure out how to eject from the world but guess what God says as for man his days are like grass as a flower of the field he full of so he flourishes first so the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more. That's the reality. And so Jesus is confronting them with this matter, you will die in your sins.

Consider your latter end. Life is a vapor. Like Moses said in Psalm 90, teach us to number our days. But Jesus has been talking about death all along. In John 3 16 he said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish But have everlasting life.

You know, so I mean, would you like to die as you are now? Because there are only two ways to die. Die in your sins or die in the Lord and enter into rest. You know, Balaam cried out that his death would be like Jacob's, let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be like His." John Wesley said of the Methodists, he said, our people die well. Our people die well.

And the question is, will our people die well? I pray that we'll die well. Jesus is dealing with this matter. Unless you believe, there's a condition, you will die in your sins. Unless you believe you'll die.

In other words, there's hope. If you're in the state now where you would die in your sins but if you believe you won't die in your sins you'll die in the Lord So the Lord Jesus holds us out. He says, if unless you believe that I am He, again, I am, that's the same terminology that We've read about already and will continue to read about the great I AM statements, the Tetragrammaton. I AM, I AM the preexistent, self-existent, omnipotent God unless you believe that and that He's a rewarder of those who seek Him, you'll die in your sins. And then they attack his identity in verse 25.

Then they said to them, Who are you? Amazing, they're dull of hearing and of heart, they can't hear. This is the blinding power of the evil one, the natural man cannot hear. You know, you can sit your whole life under the sound of the gospel and not hear. You can hear sermon after sermon, appeal after appeal.

The Bible read over and over again and sit there like a bump on a log and your heart never moved to believe. That can happen. And that's what's happening to these people. Now Jesus' identity, this is about Jesus' identity. This is perhaps, if it's not the greatest and most repeated theme in the gospel of John, it's one of them.

John constantly goes back to the theme, I am one with the Father, I'm sent with the Father. You see it in this chapter. You'll see it again. John keeps bringing up really critical matters, you know, and in preaching this, it makes it difficult because you think, am I going to deal in a comprehensive way with this matter. Well we've already dealt with it a couple times already but we're not done with it yet.

But he deals with this, with this matter. He is God in the flesh. He's sent from God. He's the only one who can forgive sins. He's the only way.

He's the only truth. He's the only life. That's, he's declaring that. You know, in the midst of a world where Islam teaches that Jesus is just a great prophet and The Jehovah's Witnesses say that He's a created being by the name of Michael. The Mormons say that He's the spirit brother of Lucifer.

You know, the Freemasons say that He was a man just like us. Well, This is the issue that Jesus is bringing. Who do you say that I am? Do you believe that I am? And you know, Jesus said this is eternal life, that you may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent." Now Jesus exposes their untruthfulness because they already know who he is.

Look at verse 25 at the end. Jesus said to them, I am just what I have been saying to you from the beginning." It was a fake response. They knew who he was. They've heard him over and over again. They didn't really need to ask the question, but they're trying to discredit him.

And then Jesus proclaims that He's a mouthpiece for His Father in verse 26. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I heard from him." There he goes again. He's saying again that he's speaking the words of God. This was so offensive. This is what caused him to raise up stones.

And he'll say it over and over again, and it will infuriate them every time. Will you die in your sins? That's the question. Will you die in your sins or will you die in the Lord? And then the second matter is revealed in verses 28 through 30.

And I wanna sum this up by this question. Do you know that Jesus is the Messiah come from God? Do you see that? Have you seen him? And so Jesus in verse 28, he says, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing of myself but as my Father taught me I speak these things." And so when Jesus said, when you lift up the Son of Man, he is referring primarily to the time of the crucifixion.

And some people will believe right there at the cross and some will believe afterwards. But like for example, the centurion was there at the cross and he was looking at him and he said, this truly, this is the Son of God. He believed right there. The thief on the cross believed right there. So he's talking about that, but he's telling them that When they finally kill him, it won't be the end of him.

They thought that they could get rid of him, but his name is going to spread to the ends of the earth. And the sun will be darkened and the veil will be torn and the dead will come out of their graves. And Jesus is saying, if I be lifted up, and I think he's also clearly connecting himself to the serpent held up on the pole in the wilderness. You know the people have been bitten by these fiery serpents and they were dying like flies and God told Moses to lift up this serpent in the wilderness on a pole and if they looked at him, they'd be healed The poisons would be neutralized and that was a picture of Jesus When he says I will be I be lifted up, you know in John chapter 3 verse 14 we read as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so the Son of Man must be lifted up that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life and then he says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. In John chapter 12 verse 32, we find the same thing.

Jesus says, and if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. This he said signifying by what death he would die. And Jesus is saying, you know, you'll lift me up on the cross to crucify me. But you won't be finished with me and I won't be finished with you either and you and you will know the consequences of your rejection and some will believe and some will not Now there are there are different ways that people will believe and they will know or they will know that they've rejected him They they will they will know he is God through the resurrection In fact the Apostle Paul says that he was declared to be the Son of God through the power of the resurrection according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. That's how he's declared to be the Son of God but not only at the resurrection but there's another way that he'll declare that he had he has sent from God and that's in the final judgment when this day comes when every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." And Jesus talked about this in Matthew 26 in verse 62 through 65.

The high priest says to him, Tell us if you're the Christ, the Son of God, tell us. And Jesus said to them, Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven. So there will be another day at the ascension when Jesus Christ joins His Father when people will see and they will know, they will know that they will die in their sins at that time. And you know, in Revelation chapter 1, John uses this very same event to just encourage the churches in Asia. And he says, behold, he's coming with clouds and every eye will see him, even him whom they pierced, every eye will see him.

He says, I'm the Alpha and the Omega and the beginning and the end. He's trying to encourage the churches there and every eye will see him. It's like Isaiah said in Isaiah 62, your eye shall see the King in his glory. Well you'll either see him, I'm sorry, in his beauty, the King in his beauty, And you'll either see his beauty as he torments you for all eternity, because the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the one who's ruling over hell, not the devil. Or you'll see Him in His beauty and everlasting happiness.

That's why David said in Psalm 84, how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord God Almighty. Well what was true of them is true of all people who ever died, and Jesus is revealing how massively critical and what a central issue it is that you realize that when you reject Him, You're only beginning with him. You're not putting him away He's not done with you and you're not done with him either Rejecting him is not the end of him. Okay for anyone And Jesus is making that very clear. You're never done with Jesus, the Lord of glory, for all eternity.

And the day is coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess either by gnashing of teeth or by everlasting happiness and Jesus is saying you will know that I am he You know which means that the the refusal to follow him is the worst decision you'll ever make And then Jesus proclaims his intimacy with the Father in verse 29 again, He who sent me is with me, the Father has not left me alone, for I always do the things that please him. Now I wish we had an hour in verse 29. John has said this kind of thing before, but there are two earth-shaking things here that are either true or they're lies. And The first is his unity with the Father, that the Father and the Son have one will, that they are one, that to see him is to see the Father. This is an astounding claim that Jesus came from God and he is the representation of the glory of God because he either is or he's not.

He either is that or he is the nutcase of all nutcases who ever lived, claiming to be God. Because when people claim to be God, what do you do? You must take them away, because they're crazy. The other shaking claim is that he always does what's pleasing to his father. To me this is the most, the tenderest, sweetest thing to think about.

He always pleased his father, he always obeyed his father, But why did he do that? He did that because we don't and we actually can't like he did. He always obeyed. He was never untruthful, he was never unfaithful, he was never lustful, he was never greedy, he was never depressed like we get depressed. And he lived that way so that his righteousness, all of his love, all of his truth, all of his purity, would be imputed to us.

So when he says, I always do the things that please him, Don't forget what that means. All the ways that you never pleased him, he's forgiven you. He set you free. And he obeyed for you. That's the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ.

That is the doctrine of substitution. And it's the doctrine of imputation of righteousness. He imputed his obedience to us. Those are the sweetest words in the world. And I hope, you know, this is why it should be a great delight today just to remember that you have the robes of righteousness draped all over you not dying in your sins but dying in his robes That's amazing.

That's not fair And look at the impact in verse 30 as he spoke these words many believed in him Many believed in him now But my my understanding of this phrase is that this was genuine belief. Now this is a mixed crowd. Jesus is speaking to a crowd of different kinds of people and many believed in him right there but many didn't believe and many still want to try to kill him but many believed so do you know that Jesus is the Messiah come from God. Do you know? There is a day that you will know.

You will know. You'll see Him as He is. And you'll either be transformed into his image like never before. You started it here, but like never before, or you'll enter everlasting torment. The third question, are you free?

Are you free? Jesus speaks of those who have believed in verses 31 through 36. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him so now he's turning he's actually looking into the eyes of those who believe him and he knows who they are in the crowd and he says if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." He's gonna repeat that again but he's speaking to those who believed and again I think there are at least four kinds of people here in this in this crowd first There's those who are rejecting him outright second There's those who appear to believe but don't and third there's those who truly believe and then there are those who will believe later He's speaking to all those people And Jesus tells them what it means to believe, and he uses this language, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. To abide means to remain. To abide means to continually draw near and to exist within His name and His nature and His kingdom and His word.

To abide there. It's not how you start but how you continue and finish that shows if you truly believe. If someone fell away it means that they never really came. Now they may come back and prove that they actually were his but Those who believe remain and they remain to the end. They don't get crotchety toward the end of their life and then go out in a flame of fire.

You know, but they said they accepted Jesus into their heart, you know. That's not true belief, not necessarily true belief, can be true belief. But to abide is to remain and then the result of that remaining is you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." And so that's the condition that he's declaring for those who believe. And then the remaining unbelievers respond. He speaks to the believers, but the unbelievers are there to catch him again.

And they say in verse 33, we are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you will be made free? Now, I don't know why they said this, it sounds ludicrous to me, it was just self flattery. I mean, they spent 400 years in bondage in Egypt, seven times in the book of Judges, They were in bondage to other nations. You know, they experienced the domination of Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians in the sixth century B.C.

They suffered at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar in the fifth century, or in the sixth century B.C. And did they forget that they're under Roman law right now? They're in bondage to the Romans. They can't even execute Jesus. They've got to figure out how to get the Romans to execute Him because it's against Roman law.

They're subject to Roman law. So they've been in bondage over and over again. I don't know why they said that. And Jesus replies what kind of slavery he's referring to. Jesus answered them, Most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin, and a slave does not abide in the house forever but a son abides forever therefore if the son makes you free you shall be free indeed You shall be free indeed.

Real freedom. Freedom from what? Freedom from slavery to sin. Freedom from the blinding power of the devil, freedom from the bondage of sin. And you know the Bible speaks of this bondage in really graphic language.

In Ephesians 2 22 it says that it makes you captive to the devil and John 8 44 it's the kind of bondage where you fulfill the lusts of your father the devil and Colossians 1 13 it puts you under Satan's power in Titus 3 3 it makes you a slave of your lusts. That's the kind of bondage he's talking about. But Jesus is saying that the true Christian is different than that. He's set free from that bondage. You know, the true Christian sins, but he hates his sin and he repents of his sin and he turns from his sin progressively.

He does not like his sin. It's his greatest grief. It makes him gnash his teeth. It makes him look in the mirror and say, Lord help me. Paul spoke of this in Romans 6 22 about how we're set free, but now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have the fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life.

You know, people think they're free when they can do whatever they want. Well, that's not the kind of freedom that really sets you free. That's not freedom indeed. That's fake freedom. That's the sham of this world.

You know, the Baptist confession, the confession that we subscribe to in our church speaks of what it means to be free, what Christian liberty is. And in chapter 21 of the Baptist Confession it makes it very clear that this freedom is freedom from guilt, freedom from the wrath of God, freedom from the obligations of the ceremonial law, freedom from the curses of the law upon your life because all the accusations have been nailed to the cross and Freedom from the bondage of Satan, freedom from the dominion of sin, freedom from the fear of death. So freedom isn't doing whatever you want, freedom is being set free from your greatest enemy, sin. Because you're either a slave to sin or a slave to God. And what Jesus is saying is that you're set free to be a slave to God.

And so, you know, Christian liberty is found in doing what pleases the Lord. And that's why Paul said, you've been called to liberty only don't use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. We've been set free in order to love. That's what our freedom is all about. It's not to do our own thing.

Set free to get beyond ourselves and to be free from the bondage of sin. Now there are dozens and dozens of freedoms for which you've been set free. You know, you're progressively being set free from your fears. You're progressively being set free from your anger. You're progressively being set free from your bitterness toward people God saves you as a bitter self-centered person And he begins to take you in a different place.

He's freeing us from ourselves So that we're not full of ourselves anymore, but we're full of him We need to be set free from ourselves Not to get into ourselves more finding yourself is the worst thing you can do You want to find Jesus Christ and him crucified and His righteousness and His truth and His mercy and His love. That's what you want to find. You want to obey His law. You want to forget your law. You spent your whole life making laws about how you're going to live.

Forget them. God gave you laws to live by that are way better. That's what he's talking about. Freedom. You're free.

You're free from all that garbage. You don't have to do that anymore and he gives you a vision of what really the good life looks like. But you first of all have to quit being a fan of this world therefore if the Sun makes you free you shall be free indeed I remember the very first time I read those words. Praise God. Then he says this in everlasting freedom, verse 35, a slave does not abide in the house forever but a son abides forever.

A slave's place is not permanent. They exist in this world. They find whatever pleasures they can get and then they die. It's not permanent. They're gone.

That's not true of that temporary place. A son is in the house forever. A slave of sin may be in the house and he might experience all the joys and the glories and the abundances of this world and see the stars and see the sunsets and see the rivers and drink the water and experience all the joys of marriage and children and all these things he'll experience this but not forever it'll end He will die in his sins God will expose him to every good thing He'll cause his reign to fall on the evil and the good and then they'll die and it'll be all over. But that's not true with a son. A son has a permanent place of residence.

He's in the house forever. And that's why Jesus Christ when He was getting ready to leave in John 14, He said to His disciples, in my father's house are many dwelling places I'm going to prepare a place for you because the Sun dwells in the house forever washed in the blood of Jesus Christ draped in the robes of Jesus Christ, dying under the multitude of the mercies of Jesus Christ, dying not in sins, but dying clothed and in the right mind and in dying, having experienced the happiest moment of his life. So John brings us these questions, will you die in your sins? Will you wait so long for some self-promised pleasure that it's too late? It's really important, Jesus is pounding this upon us.

And do you know that Jesus Christ is the Messiah come from God? Do you know that you cannot escape Him? Do you know that He's not done with you just because you're done with Him? You think you're done with Him, but He's not done with you and you're not done with Him. You will face Him.

And then thirdly, are you free? Has the power of sin been broken? Do you love His kingdom? Do you, have you quit being a fan of this world? Quit from this, these things of beneath and put them away and continue progressively in your life.

Put them away. Being progressively freed from the anger and the lust and the covetousness and the bitterness. Because as Paul said, it was for freedom that we were set free. If the Son makes you free you shall be free indeed. Praise God.

Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for sending your Son to speak the truth with such love, with such clarity, with such boldness, with such penetrating light that exposes who we really are and tells the whole story of our lives. Thank you, Father, for your Son who clothes sinners in righteousness, who reveals himself in so many ways and who makes us free. Amen. Thanks for watching!