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[0:00] Rick has read about slaves to sin, being made slaves to righteousness. And now we pick up the Lord Jesus' ministry in John chapter 8.

[0:11] Follow along as I read verses 31 through 36. Jesus therefore was saying to these Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine.

[0:30] And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We are Abraham's offspring and have never yet been slaves to anyone. How is it that you say you shall become free?

[0:42] And Jesus answered them, Truly I say to you, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. And the slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever.

[0:54] If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall then be free indeed. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you that we have received an invitation to come to your house.

[1:15] We thank you that the Lord Jesus is the door. Lord, we pray now that as we've come into this upper room, That we would have your spirit. We think of the high winds blowing in Florida.

[1:29] You are the God who sends the wind out of your fist. We pray, Lord, that that wind of the spirit would be here. That it would have a holy effect on us all.

[1:40] So give me a mouth to speak, And we ask that we would have ears to hear. In Jesus' name, amen. Harriet Tubman, A name you may not be familiar with, But you will, Because you'll see her face soon on the $20 bill.

[1:57] Harriet Tubman was a slave in Maryland. And back in 1849, Her owner, Edward Brades, died. And so Harriet the slave feared that she and her slave family would be split up and sold and swept down south into a nightmare tragedy.

[2:15] And so Harriet decided to run away to the north to freedom. And with two of her brothers, Ben and Harry, she made a run. And they successfully escaped the plantation and stayed in hiding for three weeks.

[2:31] But when an article appeared in the local Cambridge Democrat newspaper describing their three identities to the T, In fact, Harriet was described this way.

[2:41] Her name used to be Minty. Minty, it says, 27 years old, chestnut color, fine looking, five feet high. Wasn't slavery a terrible thing?

[2:52] And then her brother, Harry, was described as having a cyst under his ear. And with this description, having heard that people were on the lookout for them, and a $100 reward for each, both of them, Ben and Harry, had second thoughts, and they returned back to the plantation.

[3:13] But on seeing her brothers return safely, Harriet just couldn't stay. She needed to be free, so she set off alone for Pennsylvania, of all places.

[3:24] And making use of a network known as the Underground Railroad, she finally crossed the Mason-Dixon line into the state of Pennsylvania, where she was struck with a sense of awe and relief when she crossed that Mason-Dixon line.

[3:40] Here's what she said. When I had found that I had crossed the line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything.

[3:50] The sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven. Imagine that. The Pennsylvania did not have that effect on me, I admit, when I came in.

[4:01] But it is glorious, those forest highways there. Well, she became then, Harriet, known as the conductor on the Underground Railroad, and eventually it led up into Canada.

[4:16] And over a span of 10 years, Harriet made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves into freedom. She was nicknamed Moses, and she once boasted to Frederick Douglass, I never lost a single passenger.

[4:34] And so we look now at John 8, 31 through 36, and we see the Lord Jesus warning about a nightmare slavery of sorts here. And he tells about the true liberating freedom that we all desperately need.

[4:49] And we want to unpack these verses, 31 through 36, under five main headings. Headings. We'll look at first the necessity of perseverance in verse 31, then the result of liberation in verse 32, the state of denial in 33, the diagnosis of enslavement in 34, and the promise of freedom in 36.

[5:11] So five main headings. Come on with me, please, to the first main heading, and that is the necessity of perseverance in verse 31. Jesus was saying to those who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples.

[5:31] Now the context here is 8, 12, where Jesus speaking in the temple says, I am the light of the world. But they didn't warmly receive him. In fact, if you read the chapter, there's a lot of Jewish opposition.

[5:44] In fact, when Jesus said, I'm going to a place you cannot come, they basically accused him of being a suicidal village idiot who was going to end his own life.

[5:56] What, will he kill himself? They did not receive him warmly. But, look, it says in verse 30, but many did believe on him. A remnant embraced the gospel.

[6:10] And so Jesus, in response, speaking now to the remnant of those who believed, he said to those Jews who had believed in 31a, you see, they had believed on him. Remember how the Lord Jesus had said in John chapter 3 that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes on him shall not perish but have eternal life.

[6:34] These people believed on him. It's like they saw Jesus as a serpent lifted up in the wilderness and their sinful disease curse had been imputed to him on the cross. And his health and righteousness was imputed to them in their sin.

[6:49] And they were cured of their disease. They believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now they were no longer wicked and vile. Now they have in Christ righteousness.

[7:01] God looked on them and said, this is my beloved child in whom I am well pleased. So this is what happens, isn't it? When someone believes in the Lord Jesus instantaneously upon exercising saving faith, we're justified.

[7:19] Rick read from Romans 6, but in Romans 3 it says, Abraham believed God. At the moment he believed, it was credited to him as righteousness. His debt to God was paid by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[7:34] And that's what happens at the moment one believes, justified before God. That's saving faith. However, there is such a thing as fake, false, phony, fickle faith.

[7:53] And this is what the Lord is addressing here. In fact, fickle faith has already reared its ugly head in the Gospel of John. In the second chapter, Jesus had changed the water into wine.

[8:04] It says, many believed on him, but Jesus says he was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew the hearts of men. Their faith wasn't the real deal. And then in the sixth chapter, there was false faith too.

[8:16] They wanted to make him king, remember? He had fed the 5,000. They believed in him. But later in the chapter, he began to give hard sayings. And it says, oh, many had begun to follow him, withdrew, and they followed him no more.

[8:32] Their faith was not the authentic faith, because all faith is not genuine faith. Sometimes it's phony. And so here the Lord Jesus, having preached in the temple, and there's a remnant who did believe in him, we say came forward.

[8:48] I don't know what exactly happened here. But Jesus warns now these excited hearers of the naive danger of a false faith.

[8:59] You believe that's good, but be careful, he says to them. Often, Holland, Michigan, we're a lakeshore beachfront community. And about three weeks ago, there was a big church that baptized dozens of people at the beach on a Sunday where there are many gawkers.

[9:15] And after those folks were baptized, the one who did the baptizing turned to the crowd who had just come for a holiday and said, would anybody else like to be baptized? And 20 more people came and were baptized.

[9:28] And I admit, I'm a little uneasy with that. And it seems the Lord Jesus was a bit uneasy about the faith that was displayed here. And so he cautions them.

[9:40] Like John the Baptist was uneasy with all those coming to the River Jordan. Bring forth fruit. Remember what he said? In keeping with repentance. So Jesus turns to these who had believed in him in the temple.

[9:53] And look what he says in 31b. He says, If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine.

[10:05] See that word, if? He brings a condition. If you continue, then there's proof and evidence, validating the authenticity of your faith.

[10:17] If you continue, the Greek word is meno, which means if you abide, if you remain in my word. And later on in John 15, there's I am the vine.

[10:30] Jesus says, you are the branches. If you abide, there's the word meno again. If you abide in me, then you will bear much fruit. Children, here's the picture of a, like say, an olive tree and a branch being taken from another tree and you splice the tree and you cut the branch and you take like medical tape and wrap it up.

[10:57] And then, that branch from another tree can bear fruit because the sap runs through the tree and it bears fruit. But, if you would cut the tape, pull off the branch, it won't bear any fruit because it doesn't remain in the branch.

[11:16] It's no good but to be burned. And this is what the Lord Jesus is saying here. You must remain in me. You must bear fruit. And in the Gospel of John, there's an exhibit A of this.

[11:27] Judas, he became a disciple to the Lord Jesus and he remained in him for a while. But, in 1330 of John, it says at the upper room, he had betrayal in his mind and he went over the dark side because he went out and it was night.

[11:45] He went back to his old slavery to the devil. Kind of like Ben and Harry Tubman. They left the plantation for a brief field trip, didn't they? And seemingly, they were free.

[11:56] But, they went back to their old slave master. They were not really free. Neither was Judas. And so, Jesus says there, in 31b, you've got to continue in my word.

[12:10] Remain in my word. Consult and follow my word for life. Follow it. I've been told if you go to Boston, you start at Boston Commons and there's a red stripe painted, goes all the way to Bunker Hill, two and a half miles, and you can follow the tour.

[12:28] And so, that's what we must do. Follow the word wherever we go in our lives. Psalm 1 speaks of, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or sit in the seat of sinners or stand in the way of scoffers, but his delight is in the word of the Lord.

[12:46] And in it he meditates day and night. He shall be as a tree planted by streams of living water bearing fruit. And Jesus says, you believed in me, that's a good start.

[12:57] You've got to remain in my word. And the Lord Jesus warns there in John 15, he says to them, as he speaks about remaining in my word, verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

[13:17] And he says, in verse 14 of that passage regarding the engrafting into the branches, he says, you are my friends if you do what I command you.

[13:28] So we've got to follow along. We have an initial profession of faith and that's good. We've got to remain in the word. But you know, there are many who have kind of a sunny beach holiday faith, which is, oh, that sounds cool.

[13:46] to get baptized and to be a part of the community of Christ that's going to heaven. One young man who had just spent the summer in Texas, college student, he came back and said, you know, I find that man down in Texas and even up here in Michigan, he says, for some, being a Christian is just so trendy.

[14:08] It's kind of cool for a college student to be a Christian. I've been baptized. It's kind of like they went and visited Boston. You talk about a two and a half mile American Revolution history trip, but what about the Boston Marathon?

[14:26] How about as you got there and you say, this is where the starting line of the Boston Marathon is. Really? Hey, let's run it. And that'd be cool. But you start running and after about a mile it's not cool anymore.

[14:37] It's hot. It's difficult. It's hard. You hit heartbreak hills and how many who began such a thing would ever end such a thing. But the Lord Jesus now comes up along these young followers.

[14:53] It's a long run in the Christian life. He's saying, abide with me. If you start, starting is a good thing. You've got to finish the race. What does it say in Matthew 24, 13?

[15:05] Because of the increase in lawlessness the love of most will grow cold, but he who endures to the end will be saved. The Lord Jesus is encouraging them.

[15:16] If you abide in me you are truly my disciples. That's the necessity of perseverance. You see it there. Look at my heart and I'm not with me secondly now and consider the result of liberation.

[15:27] Verse 32. The result of liberation. liberation. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

[15:41] You know, you may say to me, Mark, I thought you said in the beginning that when you first believe in Jesus and the gospel you're instantaneously justified.

[15:52] That at the moment you believe the righteousness of Christ is credited to your account. The debt is paid. All your sins past, present, and future have been cancelled out. Are you saying, Mark, that, are you saying we can lose our salvation?

[16:09] No, no, no. I believe and I think Jesus believes once you're saved, always saved, if you're saved.

[16:20] I think that's what he's emphasizing here. You are my disciples if you remain in my word. That condition, if, if you continue. And we see the result will be, if you remain in my word, the result then is, look, you'll know the truth, verse 32, and the truth will make you free.

[16:39] You will be liberated. You see, true salvation, true justification that credits Christ's righteousness to us in the courts of justice in heaven, that justification always has a result in liberation.

[16:57] that we're set free from something. Jesus says, you'll know the truth if you really believe and the truth will make you free. But free from what?

[17:09] What would your answer be? It's free from sin. Because it's really clear in 21, Jesus says, you'll die in your sins.

[17:20] And in 24, twice Jesus says to them, if you don't believe in me, you'll die in your sins. And look at verse 34, where Jesus says, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

[17:34] He says, if you believe in me, you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free, free from sin. That's what's in view here. That's the liberation that Jesus promises if we truly believe.

[17:48] I'll go back to Harriet Tubman. Ben and Harry, the brothers, well, they started on a journey away from their plantation enslavement. But once they got away for a time, something went wrong.

[18:01] Their freedom aborted. They went back to the plantation to pick cotton. They were never really free. Now, Harriet was. There was something in Harriet's heart.

[18:13] She could not go back to that old enslavement. She had been set free in her heart, and she had to be free. She would not be the property of that old master. And so, what some of us have seen, I see a gray hair or two and some experienced veterans here.

[18:32] You have seen many professing believers walk an aisle or slosh into a lake or leave an old lifestyle and friends, and seemingly, are set free.

[18:45] But the emancipation was only temporary, right? You've seen that? It wasn't enduring. They went back to the old master of sin.

[18:57] But Jesus is saying your saving faith brings a permanent heart change. You'll be free indeed. You'll be made like a Harriet Tubman. There'll be this ravenous hunger for freedom.

[19:10] Can't go back to that old enslavement. Enslavement. You'll know the truth and the truth will make you free. You know the gospel in such a way free from sin.

[19:25] We're going to sing a hymn at the end of this service. It's called In Christ Alone. And you know that verse which says, And as he, Jesus, stands in victory, sin's cursed as lots, it's grip on me.

[19:39] Let's just talk a little bit about this idea of result of liberation, free from sin. In what sense does Jesus make us free indeed? I think there are three senses. I think there's a liberation from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin, and from the pleasure of sin.

[19:59] We're really saved, born again. We'll be free indeed. He sets us free from the penalty of sin. You think about it. Psalm 130 says, Lord, if you would count iniquities, who could stand?

[20:13] So many sins against us. Sins that are like weights that would take us to the bottom of the lake of fire. There's an unpayable debt we have to God.

[20:24] We can be in hell forever, and even then we haven't even paid off a penny, penny of the debt that we have to the living God. But the Lord Jesus in his grace and mercy, he has set us free from the penalty of sin.

[20:39] Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom, to pay off our debt. And when he said on the cross, it is finished.

[20:51] It's paid. All that debt that we would need to pay, weeping and wailing and gnashing our teeth forever, you believe on Jesus. The penalty of sin is gone.

[21:03] It says in Colossians chapter 2 that the certificate of the debt he nailed to the cross, I bear it no more. Praise the Lord.

[21:14] Praise the Lord, O my soul. So, if we're set free, we're set free from the penalty of sin. We're set free indeed, because also we're set free from the power of sin if we're truly a Christian.

[21:29] The old slave master is no longer our tyrant. It says in 844 of John, it says, you are of your father the devil because you do the desires of your father.

[21:42] That's the way all of us were born under the slave masterhood of the devil. But praise be God, Jesus came in Mark 3, he likens the picture, he came to the strong man's house.

[21:54] And what were we but slaves in his house, in chains. And Jesus came into the strong man's house, he bound to the strong man and he set us free.

[22:06] And the picture is given in Mark 5 of this demonized man who's enslaved to these legions of demons and he's cutting himself in the darkness among the tombs.

[22:19] He's slaved to the prince of darkness. But Jesus comes and that legion of taskmasters thrown out of the man, into the swine, and all those hands that bound that demonized man are drowned there in the Sea of Galilee.

[22:37] And that man is set free because now he's fully clothed in his right mind sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus instead of gashing himself and shrieking at night. He's free from the power of sin.

[22:53] And so if we're truly a Christian, we're not only free from the penalty of sin in the courts of heaven, we're free from the power of sin in the paths of life.

[23:04] And that's why it says in Romans 8, the Holy Spirit is now in us. We've got a new master, new power in our life. If you're living according to the flesh, Romans 8, 13, you will die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

[23:18] For all those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. We're not led by the devil anymore. We're led by the Spirit of God. There's a new power in our life.

[23:30] Rick read about Romans 6, you became obedient from the heart. There's a new heart that's been given to us. The heart transplant we have are no longer slaves to sin, we're slaves to righteousness.

[23:47] So when Jesus says you'll be emancipated and liberated, in what sense? Liberated from sin, from the penalty of sin, but not just the penalty of sin. You can't see that.

[23:59] You'll be also freed from the power of sin and also from the pleasure of sin. You know, when we were bound to the devil and slaves to sin, sin was our pleasure, but then we get a new heart.

[24:17] You get a new heart, it changes things, I've heard. There was a gentleman whose name is Paul Odom. He was a corporate attorney in Milwaukee in 1993. He needed a new heart. And a 14-year-old pimple-faced teenage boy died in an automobile accident.

[24:32] And the attorney got the 14-year-old boy's heart. And after the surgery, when he first went to the grocery store, he filled the grocery cart with Snickers bars.

[24:43] His wife says, what's this? He said, I don't know, I just crave them. You see, a new heart gives new appetites, right? And if you become obedient from the heart, and the spirit changes our hearts, there are new pleasures that we seek.

[24:56] The old tastes, in a sense, are gone. We get new pleasures. Solomon shows that. Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Remember, he sought to find fulfillment in the pleasures of life.

[25:11] He sought it in wine, and wealth, and women. And he gets this wise new heart, and he realizes all that stuff that you used to love, what do you say?

[25:21] It's vanity. It's meaningless. Ick! I don't like it anymore. And that's what the spirit of God does. He liberates us from the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and even the pleasure of sin.

[25:36] Moses. Moses considered the treasures of Egypt, which was the delight of his eyes in the past, now worth nothing. But rather, he sees the reproaches of Christ as richness, and he turns his back on the passing pleasures of sin.

[25:55] And your pastor quoted in his Sunday school class from Psalm 16, In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand are what? Pleasures forever.

[26:08] And what's the greatest pleasure we have now? Isn't it the thought of being with Christ forever, and even basking in his smile now, a good conscience before God? And how the enemy, our old taskmaster, he tries to get us to trade in that good conscience, that the most delightful pleasure we know now, traded in for gawking at a pixelated, pornographic woman on a computer screen?

[26:36] How much pleasure does that bring for you? If you truly have a new heart, there's a tiger that's tearing you apart in your conscience, in your heart, if you would do and look at such a thing.

[26:48] I can't do what I used to do. Ick! The Christian says. So, if you'll be free, you'll be free indeed. Freed from sin's pleasure.

[27:01] Well, I don't mean to say it's all just a cakewalk. It's a marathon run. When I would do good, evil is right there with me. I don't do the good that I would do, but the evil I wouldn't do that I do.

[27:14] What a wretched man am I who will rescue me. Jesus comes alongside us in our race. Come on! A righteous man falls seven times. He gets up again. Let's finish this thing! But if we're free, we are free indeed.

[27:28] And Jesus has never lost a passenger on his celestial railroad either, has he? So, come on with me thirdly to the state of denial, having seen the necessity of perseverance and the result of liberation.

[27:41] Now, consider with me the state of denial. Look at these Jews in verse 33. It says, They answered, We're Abraham's descendants. We've never yet been enslaved to anyone.

[27:55] These self-righteous Pharisees resented the notion that they were enslaved ever to anything. We're Abraham's children. Deuteronomy 28 says, As Israelites, we will always be the head and never the tail, never enslaved to anything.

[28:13] Look at history, obviously. Israel was enslaved so many times because of their sins. Times of 1 Samuel, they were enslaved to the Philistines. Later, they were enslaved to the Assyrians.

[28:25] Later, the Babylonians. In their intertestamental period, enslaved to the Greeks. Even now, in the temple. Who were the Jews enslaved to? The Romans.

[28:36] They could look up. The fortress Antonio gawked down. The Roman soldiers gawked down into the temple courts. They were enslaved. The Jews are really totally missing the point.

[28:50] Jesus wasn't speaking politically about enslavement. He was speaking about spiritual enslavement. But we see this resentment on the part of these Pharisees. You think we're enslaved?

[29:01] We're not enslaved to anything. This epitomizes the natural man and the self-deception, refusing to admit that we're enslaved in any way.

[29:12] Look at verse 33b. How is it, you say, you'll become free? And that's the way we can be too. There's an opioid epidemic all throughout the country.

[29:26] And people are so reluctant. No, I'm not. I'm not enslaved. I'm not addicted. No problem. I'm under control. It's kind of the way these Pharisees were responding to the notion that you are enslaved and you need to be liberated.

[29:42] Calvin says this. And by the way, this isn't only a problem, this resentment and refusal to admit we're enslaved to anything that was a problem 2,000 years ago. It's a problem now. I think there are people sitting here in these burgundy benches.

[29:56] Maybe even somebody behind the pulpit here who can have that detestation of anybody suggesting that I have a problem with any sin. Calvin says this about these Pharisees and about us.

[30:06] He says, The greater the mass of vices anyone is buried under, the more fiercely and bombastically he extols his freedom.

[30:18] So like the Jews, we can be clueless to our invisible chains, or at least we can claim that we're clueless. What are you talking about? Sin in my life.

[30:29] Now what about us in this room here? You know, I'm convinced that I'm a Christian, and I'm also convinced that it's possible for a born-again saint to yet grieve the Holy Spirit and come under the influence of sin to backslide even into a state of hard denial.

[30:55] I think Peter was a Christian when he denied the Lord Jesus once, twice, thrice. Even when he went up to Antioch, Galatians 2, Paul had to rebuke him because he backslid into a hypocrisy.

[31:13] Even Samson, you read of Samson, there he is playing around in Delilah's lap with a particular sin. And the Lord disciplines him. He's balded and blinded and bound.

[31:29] This can happen even to believers. Maybe here the Lord Jesus kind of, Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, I come and I knock at your door because there's certain sin in the church of Laodicea.

[31:43] I don't know what's going on in the church of Hazleton. It's a glorious thing about preaching in a strange place. You have no idea what is happening. But the Lord Jesus does.

[31:54] And so I come knocking not at the door of the Laodicean church but the Hazleton church. I don't know what's happening but this is the passage. Is there anyone here who's kind of been called back to a plantation of slavery?

[32:09] What's going on here? I don't know. You may not even know what's going on in the person that you next to you but in our hearts we know. Is there an affair going on here? Is there an alcohol issue?

[32:21] An opioid issue? Marijuana? Porn? Cutting? Gambling?

[32:33] Gaming? You may say, oh those are deplorable sins. I'm clean. He missed me on those. What about those sins that are as damning, as damaging, enslaving, those respectable sins that we can deceitfully overlook?

[32:49] Self-idolatry? Self-idolatry? A problem with anyone? Every decision that one makes, it's always made on the basis of how it will benefit me?

[33:03] Fix it on one's appearance, one's image on social media, getting addicted to likes? Is there the idol of pride?

[33:13] Is there the idol of pride? How dare they ignore me? How dare they abuse me that way? How dare they not affirm me? How dare they not empathize and sympathize with me and my circumstance?

[33:25] Anger? Impatience? Stealing? Stinginess? Envy? Jealousy? Gossip? Setting the church aflame?

[33:38] I don't know. I don't know. But I think you know. I don't even have to name it. You know what it is. He's knocking at the door. Psalm 139 says, Search me, O God.

[33:50] Know my heart. Test me. Know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any sinful, hurtful way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting. Don't cross your arms and turn in your lazy boy chair and not go to the door.

[34:03] Come to the door. Really worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Have I, has the Lord Jesus found anyone in some dangerous Delilah's chamber somewhere in some pattern of sin?

[34:19] And if He lets you go, you're going to end up being bald, blind, and bound and shame yourself and shame your family. But He's come. He's called you out before it would ever get to that point.

[34:33] Don't be in the state of denial like these Pharisees here. And that leads us fourthly to the diagnosis of enslavement. The diagnosis of enslavement in verse 34.

[34:45] Truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. I just don't want you to think in your mind there, you know, I can, Mark's up there and he doesn't know us and he, I don't know if I trust him as a pastor.

[35:07] Don't think that you can go unchecked in your sin as if it's no big deal. Because the Lord Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

[35:22] Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The Greek is poio hamartia. Keeps on doing sin. It's a progressive president. Ongoing, besetting sin.

[35:35] Now, it's not saying anyone who commits one sin is a slave to sin. No, it's ongoing. Anyone who keeps on committing sin is a slave to sin. You know the passage in 1 John 3, 6, No one who abides in him sins.

[35:52] That mean a true Christian is sinlessly perfect? No, no, because 1, 8 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

[36:02] But it's speaking about the ongoing pattern of sins. Truly, truly, whoever commits sin ongoing is a slave to sin.

[36:14] In other words, are you someone who has made a peace treaty with sin? That's possible. I was laying out, taking a nap outside last week in my backyard and there was this bee.

[36:28] Every time I heard the bee, I would, I do not want, I'm not making a peace treaty with that bee. Now, I also saw on the internet there was a pregnant woman who had 20,000 bees swarming all over her body.

[36:42] She had made a peace treaty with the bees. Well, what about you? Is there the detestation of sin or this peace treaty made with sin?

[36:55] It's an important thing because if you are going on in a pattern of sin, the dangerous diagnosis is that you are a slave to sin and fearfully you will die in your sins.

[37:11] I'm just asking you, are you a Harriet or are you a Ben and a Harry? Have you gone back to the plantation? Oh, I know you went forward and I know for a few years you were abiding in the Word, but where has the Lord Jesus found you now?

[37:27] Are you picking cotton again for the enemy? Come on away. John Piper talks about a woman who came to him and she said, I'm having an affair with a man. It's delightful.

[37:38] I don't love my husband anymore and I'm going to divorce him and go. And Piper warned and she says, it's okay, I'm saved. I'm saved. I've had the penalty of my sin. Forgiven. I've been a Christian for years now.

[37:49] And Piper said to her, he said, woman, if you go off and you divorce your husband and you go off on that broad road of sin, you will go to hell.

[38:02] And she was stunned because he was working on the theme. Truly I say to you, he who continues in sin is a slave to sin. And bless God, she came out and she repented of her sin.

[38:17] And he said, every year she writes me a thank you card. She's not blind and bound and bald. She's been spared and saved and heaven bound.

[38:29] She's finishing the race because the increase in wickedness of the most grow cold. But he who endures to the end who abides in Jesus is truly saved.

[38:40] So that's the diagnosis of enslavement. What about you? You're abiding in sin. You're remaining in sin. I'm not telling you you're lost and damned. I'm telling you, come out of the sin.

[38:51] Jesus is knocking at your door. Come on, I will dine. Don't you have the Lord's table today? Dine with the Lord Jesus Christ by repenting. Don't be a hypocrite. And just lastly here, then just the promise, the promise of freedom.

[39:08] The promise of freedom. It says there in verse 36, If the Son shall make you free, then you shall be free indeed.

[39:21] Jesus has given a thorough provision to snap sin's chains. The Son makes you free. You'll be free indeed. And that's the way it is with a genuine believer who was enslaved to sin and Satan.

[39:36] Jesus has taken care of everything. For a true Christian, he secured our full liberty. If you just go back with me over a hundred years ago, and there you've got Harry Tubman.

[39:50] Remember Harry Tubman? He's off of the plantation. He's hiding away. He wants to make the run north of the Mason-Dixon line, but he's got this cyst under his ear.

[40:03] And the Cambridge newspaper has said that you can easily find out who Harry is. You can see him. It's like a big brand. Slave, slave, slave. And he thinks to himself, I've got to get back to the plantation.

[40:16] I'm doomed. But imagine if Edward Burdes, after he died, his son stepped up and he wasn't going to sell all the slaves south, but he said, I'm going to emancipate.

[40:26] I'm going to free all the slaves. He goes to the town hall. He does all the paperwork. And he hands to Harry this liberation, emancipation set of paperwork. He can tuck in his lapel. And wherever he goes, and someone says, weren't you a slave on the Burdes estate?

[40:40] Get back down to that plantation. And he can pull out his paperwork and say, I'm free. And Jesus has given us that paperwork. He did nail to the cross the certificate of our debt.

[40:52] We are free. Gloriously free. And if someone, the old taskmaster, have you ever heard the old taskmaster cracking his whip over the head?

[41:05] And we find ourselves before we know it back picking cotton. Wait a minute. I am free. The Lord Jesus has done better than even a potential Brodess son because Jesus found us on the slave block at the auction.

[41:19] You know what he did? He changed places with us. He and his wealthy, liberated freedom as a son of God royalty.

[41:30] He took our place in our enslavement. He went to our dark plantation where we would pay the price forever.

[41:42] Weeping and wailing on that. He took our place. We get his place. We are liberated sons of God. He's taken care of everything Jesus has. We are free.

[41:53] We are free indeed. Freed from the penalty of sin and the power of sin and the pleasures of sin. Old John Flavel, that Puritan.

[42:05] He wrote this about the wonder of this. Remember how Harriet Tubman said when I cross the Mason-Dixon line I saw my hands it was so glorious I was free. Listen to what Flavel says describing. How could it be imagined that those in the power and possession of Satan the armstrong man that those who are bound also with so many chains in their spiritual prison their understanding bound with ignorance their wills with stubbornness their hearts with petrified hardness and their infection with a thousand bewitching vanities for such persons to be set free is a wonder of wonders and will be marveled at by saints forever.

[42:45] we've been set free really we've been given new names remember Paul Paul was Saul and now he's Paul he's new I told you Harriet Tubman her old name was Minty Ross can you imagine if somebody found her north of Mason-Dixon line and said Minty Ross get back to that plantation she had a new name her name was Harriet Tubman right you got the wrong person that's not my name anymore I don't pick cotton anymore that's what we need to say to the enemy you got the wrong man like Rick Redd I'm not anymore slave of sin I'm slave to righteousness there's a girl in our church she was a slave to cutting you know what that's about I can't comprehend it fully but it is a bitter enslavement like that demonized man cutting herself and she confessed even the sin to the church and she repented and she fought and she finally went off to a certain place in Lafayette

[43:47] Indiana where there's wonderful counseling and God has done a wonderful work and she's come back now and she's been clean from cutting for a long time now she's back in her old house in her old bedroom with the old walls and the old voices the old temptations and she wrote a poem listen to what the poem says these walls might be the same but they don't know my name no they don't know my name anymore anymore they try to draw me in remind me of my sin but they don't know my name anymore anymore they tell me to come back relentlessly attack but they don't know my name anymore anymore Christ has set me free now I don't have to be held by my old ways anymore anymore I listen to his voice surrender to his choice he gave me a new name evermore evermore so these walls might be the same but they don't know my name no they don't know my name anymore if you believe in the truth you'll be free it'll be a fight but you'll be free indeed let's pray together our heavenly father we we thank you for the liberating work of the lord jesus and father you know you know where your people are may this be a knock and a moment of liberation and freedom running away from sin and even for some who have been apart from christ may they believe in him for the first time he's knocking at their door may you have them open and jesus come in and dine with them so whether it be the first time we flee to christ or the ten thousandth and first time we flee to christ may we all come to christ and be set free we pray in jesus name amen in christ alone my hope is found he is my light my strength my song the words to in christ alone are in your bulletin if you need another perhaps ushers have some extras but let's stand together and sing in christ alone is from my care he is my heart he is my heart my strength my song

[47:06] His glory soared as solid ground Earth will burst his crown and soar On heights of love, on depths of peace When fears are still and striding seas My conqueror, my all in all Here in the love of Christ I stand For his love who took on flesh Full as a pride in hell this day His spirit of love and righteousness Scorned by the ones he came to save Till on that cross that Jesus died The wrath of God was satisfied

[48:09] For every sin on him was laid Here in the death of Christ I lay He brings around his body lay Light of the world by darkness slain And bursting forth in glorious day Up from the grave he rose again And as he stands in victory Since grace has lost his grip on me For I am his and he is mine Fought with the precious blood of Christ He will divine, no fear in death This is the power of Christ in me

[49:14]  From life's first ride to final breath Jesus commands my destiny No power of hell, no scheme of man Can ever block me from his hand Till he returns or calls me home Here in the power of Christ I stand Amen Amen