 We looked at last time and stopped at in chapter 8. We stopped at verse 30. I'm going to read verse 30 as part of my introduction. We're going to be looking specifically up to verse 36 tonight and we're going to see what Jesus says when he says that truth shall make you free. We'll be looking at that tonight. But I'll begin at verse 30 reading to verse 36. As he spoke these words many believed in him. 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. They answered him, we are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you'll be made free? And 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. So in spite of the opposition and as we've been going through John we've noted that opposition is now occurring but in spite of this opposition there are still people who are listening to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see his words though rejected by the Pharisees well his words have a ring of truth that draws people to him and it seems as we're looking at this passage that some who are listening to him are inclined to think that what he is saying is true yet it also appears that they're not ready to completely yield their allegiance to him and spiritually that's a very dangerous place to be. To be somebody who says well these things may very well be true but not to to embrace them on a personal level is dangerous because what happens ultimately very often is the people who are inclined at least in that direction at least being pulled or sensing a pulling in that direction when they harden themselves against that sense of conviction and all when they harden themselves to that it's a dangerous place because sometimes they harden themselves completely. It's a dangerous place to be where you know certain things sound true or most likely are true but you decide against making a decision. You see salvation isn't something that you put off for a later date. The message of Jesus isn't a message that gives you that kind of option the message of the gospel is actually a message that demands a decision like it says in Luke 11 23 Jesus said it like this he said he who's not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me is scattering and then that's the truth if you're not on his side in your it really an opposition you're moving people away from him and so Jesus is speaking to some people here there are many who it says are beginning to believe in him but in verse 31 it says to those Jews Jesus said to those Jews who believed him if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed now let me give you a little technical lesson here for a moment notice how it says in verse 31 Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him one of my or actually more than one of the commentators that I that I looked to for instruction pointed something out they said that the phrase or the term those Jews indicated something that that the term those Jews and again he says to those Jews who believed him those Jews may be speaking of the Jewish authorities that there were people who are religious leaders who are listening to him and that would be who it was being spoken who is being spoken of here there were some amongst what was called the Jewish council the Sanhedrin there were some amongst the Sanhedrin that believed that Jesus Christ could be Messiah we know that because when you read your Bible two of those been are mentioned by name Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus both of them were leaders and rulers they were part of the group that could very well be being spoken of here when it refers to those Jews who believed him there were others who thought he was Messiah in the sense of saying well he fits the bill there are many things he's doing that fits into the Old Testament scriptures pertaining to Messiah so there are many amongst the people who who think that he could very well be Messiah but were not convinced we'll see that later on in chapter 12 in verses 42 and 43 where it says nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the synagogue for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God so there were leaders who were listening to Christ men like Nicodemus men like Joseph of Arimathea there were men that were listening who Jesus seems to be speaking to right here and so when it says Jesus said to those Jews who believed him he made a statement he said if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed so he knew who these uncommitted ones were so he's speaking to them and notice what he says he says if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed the word abide if you continually abide in it if you do not waver you are truly my disciple but you must hold tightly to it you must continue in it and not be moved away from it that's what abiding speaks of it gives us a the thought that that we would be aware that we can be tempted to reject it and that there will be some who come to attempt to deceive us you have to abide you're going to be persecuted you're going to be resisted but you must remain steadfast in it when you came to faith in Christ you found that to be true when you came to faith in Christ you more than likely discovered that not everybody rejoices when a sinner is found and that sometimes there are people your closest friends sometimes it may be a family member mom or a dad a grandmother and sometimes they're just not excited about you becoming a Christian they may be upset at that as I've shared before we've seen that many times here in this church but I saw that long before I was pastoring there was a time when I was in the world and and I had just freshly gotten saved and I was known as a person who liked to party and all of that and and there was a young lady who was walking down the street in front of my house I'll never forget this I was brand new in the Lord brand new and she was walking down the street she knew me from partying with me at all and she stopped and I was in front of my parents house and I was 20 years old she was probably about 17 or 18 and she was a doper I mean just like me she liked her drugs just like I did so she said you know something like what are you up to now and I said man I got saved and I started a conversation with her I said yeah I gave my heart to the Lord she says what are you talking about I still remember having a conversation with her she says well I'm Catholic because and I said well I was raised Catholic too I know where you're coming from with that I said but the bottom line is this I didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ and you knew me you knew what I was like she goes yeah she says I heard that something happened to you and she says now I see something happened to you I said yeah and I and I've always carried little Bibles you know pocket Bibles and all and I opened it up and read the little that I knew shared the Lord with her she said I'm real interested in this I said can I come over and talk to you some more so she gives me her address for her house and I go to her house and and I sit down with her in her front room again I'm 20 years old long here you know her mom and dad are looking at me while I'm talking to their daughter they don't trust me why should they but I'm sharing and then I prayed with her and I said you want to give your heart to Christ and she said yes I do so I prayed with her and I saw her once after that I had invited her to go to Calvary Chapel with me and our friends and all and then I didn't see her so I connected with her and I said what's going on you know I you prayed to give your heart to Christ I'm concerned for you you know I haven't seen you she says my mom and dad are not not going to allow me to go to church with you because I was raised Catholic and they said to me you were raised Catholic you will die Catholic and and I said they would prefer you as a doper than a Christian and she said yeah it would prefer me a doper than a Christian and she was a party girl and she'd given her heart to the Lord her life was going to be different there are a lot of people like that I could multiply stories like that probably should but I don't have the time I've seen a lot that over the years where people would rather have their kid in drugs and and that may blow your mind and you may think I'm exaggerating but that's not true we got a phone call here in the church a woman said to us I could handle my son as an alcoholic but I can't handle him as a Christian you know she wanted him back in the old world because she was used to him that way but when he became a Christian and had been changed and all she didn't like that we've seen that many times so when you get saved it's not always something people you know have a party for you and kill the fatted calf they're not always happy for you sometimes they're angry at you and my wife Marie and I were dating and she said it's time for me to get water baptized and so we went out on a Sunday night and we went to church a church that had baptisms and my wife my girlfriend at the time you know decides to take the plunge and so she goes into the water comes out her hair is soaking wet I drive her home I pull into the driveway her moms are very strong strong religious Catholic woman and I turned to Marie and I said you're she said my mom's gonna be mad I said you want me to go in with you and she says no I said thank you Jesus you know I said do it you know God be with you my my daughter and she went in and mom let her know how she was not happy about this you've experienced it some of you have I did my brother's running around calling me and not and calling me names and oh I've seen you and you've gone through fads and this is just another fad we've seen it not everybody rejoices when you come to faith in Christ not everybody gets excited about that and there is persecution and there is rejection and and so Jesus says you need to abide you need to hold fast to you continue in you persevere you're not moved away you're going to be tempted to reject it there are gonna be those who actually creep in and attempt to deceive you but hold fast to my word in 1st Corinthians 1558 Paul said it like this he said therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord remain immovable in Hebrews 3 14 we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end so by continuing in by believing and by obeying the word of the Lord Jesus said you will demonstrate yourself to be my disciple now there are those who call themselves Christian but over their over time their lack of faith is revealed and they forsake him there are a lot of people who will if you speak to them and they'll say yeah yeah I'm a Christian I'm already a Christian but over time you'll see that they never really had a substance of faith there are some who might have have gone forward at a at a church service or raised their hand at an invitation or gone forward at a crusade or whatever but they don't remain they don't follow through and over time their lack of faith is revealed and they ultimately walk away in 1st John 2 19 John said it like this he said they went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us they'll be able to go to church and sometimes they'll go for weeks at a time maybe even months at a time sometimes years at a time and you might very well think they're Christians when in fact they're not they're simply going to church but a genuine disciple continues in the gospel and holds tightly to Christ and that's what he's saying and they do that to the end which is evidence of being a real believer in Christ so Jesus is saying that the identifying mark of a genuine Christian is abiding in his word in Luke chapter 6 verse 46 he asks a question he says why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say in Matthew 7 21 he said not every one who says to me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven so the identifying mark of a genuine believer is abiding in his word and so Jesus is giving us insight into what it means to be a disciple a genuine Christian if you take notes you might want to note that the word disciple or disciples is used some 297 times in the New King James version of the New Testament a disciple is someone who comes to learn and becomes a lifelong pupil of Jesus when you read your Bible there are distinguishing traits of a disciple again Jesus is speaking to them and he says if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed in the New Testament a disciple is identified as a person who puts the kingdom of God first before any other thing in Luke 14 33 whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple a disciple is going to be known for good works in Acts 9 36 it speaks of a woman named Tabitha who lived in a city named Joppa and it says this woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did and so a genuine disciple puts the kingdom first a genuine disciples known for good works a third thing is the disciple knows Jesus and follows him especially when times are difficult in Luke 14 27 whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple and then a fourth thing is a disciple is known and this is something that I think is extremely important along with the other things I was mentioning but here's the key for you a disciple is someone who loves who loves God and loves people there's hardly anything more un-Christian than a hater and somebody's always hating and always mad you know I had a friend of mine and a minister and one of my friends was saying well what's he mad about today you know because every time he every time he preached he was mad about something you know here's the thing guys and and it isn't just because I was a hippie and I thought love was the coolest thing though I did but here's the thing every one of us is known for some trait every one of us is you have a reputation what is it if I were to ask your best friend can you tell me what the distinguishing trait about your best friend is what would they say about you and I'm not saying that to be negative I'm asking a sincere question what would they say about you what would they say you ask one of my kids you know what's your dad like and they gave you a real answer that kind of thing I wouldn't have a problem with that they can tell the truth because what I try to be is a man of God in front of them I would hope that they would say that if they didn't they're not my kids I'd get rid of them but if you ask me you know okay if you boil it down what is a Christian a Christian forsakes everything follow Jesus Christ a Christian is part of a community of other believers and they love one another in the in the early days of the church one of the roman writers was writing concerning the church and he was a pagan he was not a believer but he said these are people who love one another and Jesus said said that hadn't he said by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another that is the mark of the believer people have birthmarks maybe you have a birthmark I have a birthmark we have birthmarks what is your birthmark as a believer what is your distinguishing trait what is it that you're known for on the job in a neighborhood where people may know you you know I've lived in my neighborhood 20 some years and everybody stays behind doors it's odd it's really weird in my neighborhood really is it's a prison no it's just it's where they're all behind their doors you know we've said hello to our next door neighbors a few times a neighbor on the other side doesn't want doesn't want to talk to us for whatever reason I don't know and and my whole neighborhood is really closed up but the ones that you get to know what do they know about you what is it what is it what do you what will your friends say what will your family say what do your co-workers say if you go to school what are the people that are with you in school say what is your reputation if you don't think that matters it really does it really does and what do they think about you and what do they say about you and for me I'm hoping that those who get to know me will say this is a person who loves the Lord and cares about other people because that's what Jesus said is a Christian that's a disciple and he's speaking concerning the earmarks of a disciple and he makes it clear that a disciple is someone who loves but Jesus gives us more insight here guys Jesus gives us insight into both salvation as well as discipleship and he says it's not just saying we believe it's really what would be called a total commitment of our life so everything to him and salvation is evidenced by a settled conviction as well as spiritual freedom that is found in him so he says in verse 31 if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed so abiding in his word is a mark of a genuine Christian it's a mark of a real believer the word abide means to remain sojourn to continue in it speaks of lasting or enduring it's easy to be attracted to Jesus in a superficial way even as obviously some of these people were during the Jesus movement the movement that I came out of some were attracted to Jesus Christ I can't recreate the environment or the time just talking to you but there were some who were attracted to Jesus because he was portrayed as really cool and it's hard for me to make that clear to you because it may sound kind of like I'm not serious but I am he was a hippie I saw Jesus as a hippie all the pictures I ever saw of him he had long hair right he had a beard he wore cool sandals I mean I he was mellow you know he loved people hung around with the guys had had visits around campfires I mean everything I saw about Jesus he was just and I don't mean this sacrilegiously I really don't but as a non-believer I saw him as a very cool man and he was quoted a lot and songs were sung about him during the time that I was young and you would see this about him he cared about those who were hurting he would meet physical needs he healed people who were sick he fed those who were hungry he spoke out against injustice he he railed against religious hypocrisy he was very attractive to hippies very attractive very loving very loving and so during the Jesus movement not every person claiming Jesus was actually being saved there were those who kind of wanted to be fringe believers that that's been going on since he walked the face of the earth they they were attracted to the things they heard of him and things that perhaps they'd heard someone say through the bible studies or something they were fringe believers they they were attracted to him because he was packaged as cool even today people are superficially attracted to him he can make you well he can make you wealthy he can make your dreams come true and he's packaged as being cool and accepting of everything and everybody well what makes the difference what makes the difference between a superficial kind of like yeah yeah I'm a Christian and a genuine believer Jesus says it if you abide in my word you are my disciples the reality of the Christian faith is revealed by your hunger for the word of God spiritual hunger satisfied my god's word is an evidence of salvation in the Old Testament Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 16 the prophet said your words were found and I ate them your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart for I am called by your name oh Lord God of hosts Job 23 12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food first Peter chapter 2 verse 2 as newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word of God that you may grow thereby it's not only respecting God's word it's building your entire life upon it it's making the word of God your foundation for your entire way of life and thinking I got saved during that day I would have been called what today is referred to as a liberal liberal and you know I was that guy that I won't bother you if you don't bother me that guy believe what you want don't get too carried away with it believe what you want just allow me the freedom to believe what I want we'll get along fine don't push your beliefs on me I won't push my beliefs on you that was me so they someone would speak to me about issues on occasion what do you think about this and I'd say it doesn't bother me that's not my life I don't do those things so it didn't really matter to me whether was for me I'll give you an example for me if you just said should we legalize drugs I had to set all drugs yeah why not why not legalize them all a friend of mine and I were sitting down and I have to confess we were not in our right mind we were doing some drugs and and so we created an idea how we could fix the city of Whittier the way we can fix the city of Whittier is get enough acid to drop in one of the reservoirs so everybody'd get a hit and then everything'd be fine and we thought that was a great idea you know as we're sitting there smoking dope so that was me and so I you know stealing well don't steal what I have but if you needed to survive I don't care you name it whatever the moral issue was I had no backbone I had no opinion I didn't really care then I got saved and and you know what happened I started reading the Bible and when I started reading the Bible I started getting questions and then I started having arguments like a guy who was telling me that it's okay to smoke pot it's all right because God created the herb now we used to call marijuana herb and so he said the Bible says it right there he created the herbs and and and I'm a brand new believer and he says so you could have herb you can use herb it's okay and I said yeah but he also there's also poison ivy and you don't use that for toilet paper so why are you and we would have arguments deep theological arguments but we would we would have arguments over things because I'm starting to read stuff and it's changing my mind about what I thought was okay so after all of these years I don't call myself by the name the lot oh he's conservative he's progressive he's liver whatever I I don't think those labels are they're too handy I don't use those labels but I can tell you my belief system is born out from my scriptural reading what I see God say in his word that's what I want to believe I want to abide in his word I want to do what he says my heart needs to be planted on that it's not simply reading it's the obeying that changes the life and I want to obey and Matthew 7 21 not everyone who says to me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven aw toes are one of my favorite devotional writers said not Bible reading but Bible obeying counts with God and the winners will not be known until we all stand before the judgment seat of Christ but it's not Bible reading but Bible obeying so in the hunger for God and willing obedience to him his truth is progressively understood and that's what he says in verse 32 you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free now these listeners believe that they knew what truth was they spent their entire lifetime studying the scriptures but in spite of all their studying they still failed to see what the scriptures were actually saying Jesus spoke of that in John 5 39 remember he said you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are they which testify me you ransacked the scriptures because you think in knowing them you're going to have life but they reveal me to you and you're denying me that's the point he was making so it's not simply the study of the Bible but coming to know the author of the Bible that frees you again tozer said one important point may fail many fail to understand is that the Bible was never meant to replace God rather it was meant to lead us into the heart of God too many Christians stop with the text and never go on to experience the presence of God there are people who know the Bible unable to quote it but they don't have fellowship with the author of scripture so it's not simply the reading of and studying of it's getting to know the author you see these Jews profess to know the truth and to be the official expounders of it they had yet to learn that truth was not only a system but also a power not only something to be written or spoken but also something to be felt and lived so knowing the truth that sets you free begins with knowing the God who is the truth in John 14 21 he who has my commandments and keeps him it is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him and when I got saved I had friends saying why don't you drink anymore why don't you smoke pot anymore and they said oh because you can't and I said no I can I mean I have the freedom to go out and buy whatever to smoke whatever I can well then why don't you I said because I don't want to God took the want to out of my heart that want to was no longer there I don't want to drink anymore I don't want to smoke dope anymore I don't want to do those things anymore why because when you taste of the bread of life when you drink of the water of life you thirst and hunger for nothing else that's what happens when you're saved I don't want anything else it's not that I couldn't experiment with something or do something it's because I have a relationship with God and so knowing the truth begins with knowing the God of truth and it's not what we call it a philosophic knowledge that frees us from intellectual ignorance what it is is called relational or experiential knowledge and that comes from being in fellowship with God in John 17 3 Jesus said this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you've sent so an author by the name of Albert Barn said to know speaks of love reverence obedience honor gratitude and supreme affection to know God as he is is to know and regard him as a lawgiver a sovereign a parent a friend it is to yield the whole soul to him and to strive to obey his law to know the Lord to know him is to yield yourself completely to God this is a place where I think a lot of professing Christians have failed to step into is that their Christianity is part time it's uh it's it's seasonal or part time but your Christianity isn't your Christianity is relational it's it's a knowledge of God that when you close your eyes you are with him when you open your eyes you're with him you're with him at all time because you have fellowship with him at all time you don't just wear your religion on a Wednesday night like tonight or on a Sunday morning or a Sunday night or some event your faith in Christ is what drives you in everything that you do it's not just on sometimes the way you may wear certain clothes at certain seasons it's no your Christianity is at all times in every moment and it grows your your love for Christ grows your fellowship with God grows it's it's a knowledge that expands and it's experiential in that you get to know him and you know his ways there's a point where you know his the things he does and then there's a point where you begin to grow to know why he does those things and that's when you understand the things of the Lord it's not just that you know that he does certain things it's when you begin to know why he does those things that's deep fellowship you can members of my church know things that I do they know things that I do oh pastor David yeah he prays with people he teaches Bible studies he he does certain things he travels he minister but my wife can tell you why I do those things some people can tell you I do those things my wife can tell you why I do those things you can know that God did some things but there are others who know why he does those things and that's knowing God that's a relationship with them that goes beyond simply oh I read it and no is I put it into practice he's manifested himself to me I have a sense of a fellowship with God that goes beyond beyond anything well as Jesus is speaking he says in verse 32 you shall know the truth it'll make you free but they answer him in verse 33 we're Abraham's descendants have never been in bondage to anyone how can you say you'll be made free and so they they want to argue with them interestingly isn't it but they do they want to argue with them now these are the ones who just said they believe in him and they thought they're already free now why would they say that well they thought they were automatically heirs to the promise that was given to their father Abraham in Genesis 17 the first book of the bible chapter 17 verses 7 and 8 God said I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession I'll be their God so they had physical descent but physical descent didn't make them heirs to the promise those promises were received by faith and acted on with obedience and notice how they said this is interesting to me we've never been in bondage to anyone what a what a ridiculous thing to say we have you know where Abraham's descendants have never been in bondage to anyone they forgot their history they were in bondage in Egypt or over 400 years they were in bondage to Assyria they were in bondage to Babylon they were in bondage to the Middle Persians they were in bondage to Greece and even as they were speaking they're in bondage to Rome and yet they're saying we've never been in bondage to anyone and so Jesus as they say that makes it more clear because they say how can you say you'll be made free when Jesus first 34 answered them I must 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 he said most assuredly whoever commits sin is a slave the word commit that means to practice or make a habit of it speaks of a lifestyle and he says if you commit it you're a servant that word servant speaks of a slave someone in bondage to someone else Jesus is saying every man who makes a habit of sin who continues in sin is a slave to sin that's what he's saying and in Proverbs 20 verse 11 even a child is known by his deeds whether what he does is pure and right what you believe is what you do and the proof of our faith is revealed by our response to the word of God how do I respond to what the Bible says is right and how do I respond to what the Bible says is wrong do I listen do I become convicted or do I make an excuse or argue with it that helps you to know your spiritual condition when the word of God brings conviction how do you respond when I'm reading the Bible and it says something how do I respond because that helps me to see the sincerity of my faith because Jesus said if you're committing sin you're a slave of it when he speaks of committing he said he commits whoever commits that word commit is not speaking of an occasional sinful act all of us sin and thought word or deed daily none of us is perfect well only one no none of us is perfect right all of us fail all of us do he's not saying that you're going to be perfect this side of heaven what he's talking about is a way of life whoever commits it habitually that's their way of life and so he's saying this is going to be demonstrating what you really believe so everybody who continues to commit sin as a habit is what he's referring to but we have been given by God a new nature when you're born again and set free by Christ we have now a new nature now we will occasionally sin we will continue to sin until the day we die but by abiding in him the power of his holy spirit we live a more pure life over time in Romans 6 verses 13 and 14 do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace i had to get to a point in my life and i'll say this quickly i had to get to the point in my life where i stopped making excuses and just started embracing the reality you know yeah i'm outspoken my mom was outspoken yeah i say things that are on my mind i learned to do that in my house that was our way and and so i bring that into my friendships i bring that into relationships i brought it into my marriage you know yeah if it's on your mind speak it you're a hypocrite if you don't and then i learned that not everything needs to be said and i started learning that some things that you say need to be they need it needs to be sweetened with love and i started learning certain things over time and i stopped making excuses by just saying that's where i was raised or that's my culture because sometimes people say well that's just my culture you know we do that in my culture but you know what if the scripture says that what you're doing in your culture is wrong how do you respond to that and that's how it is when you're reading the word of god you need to understand these things you see slaves are in bondage they have no freedom they can't free themselves they need someone to set them free the bible in proverbs 522 says his own iniquities entrap the wicked man he's caught in the cords of his sin and second peter second peter 219 a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him so what we need to do as believers tonight is remember we've been set free we receive the truth from jesus christ and jesus said a slave doesn't abide in the house forever a son does a lifetime of bondage and eventually dying as a slave is what happens to the person who's never come to faith in christ slaves normally never belong to a family even if they lived in the same house but jesus said a son abides forever you see with a son things are different a son is an heir a son has family rights and that's why he says in verse 36 if the son makes you free you shall be free indeed i'm the son in my father's house i have heavenly rights and i give you freedom and if you receive me you will receive complete freedom from the bondage that you live in in roman's chapter six verses 16 through 18 don't you know that when you offer yourself to someone to obey my slaves your slaves are the one whom you obey whether you are slaves to sin which leads to death or to obedience which leads to righteousness but thanks be to god that though you used to be slaves to sin you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted you've been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness and it's this freedom that we have in christ that gives us the ability to understand we're just passing through i'll close with just a couple of thoughts um i was speaking to a friend of mine today who was in he just returned from rome and he was telling me that he went through the city in his wife and he said you know when you look around the city and the guide is telling you what rome was like and it's in its days of grandeur he said it's amazing you look at the coliseum he said in and you can imagine this is a structure that's lasted for hundreds of years he said there it is in the center of the city and he says you look at it and you realize that this this coliseum was a place that had a lot of athletic events but it also was given over to the to the destruction of christians he says are you go to the forum and you see what used to be a beautiful would have been a beautiful site he said there's so many things you see that and can you imagine he was saying how beautiful the city of rome was he said but we went to a site that there weren't any tourists he said you go to the these other areas and there'll be lines of tourists waiting to get in to see the grandeur that was rome he said but we went to a site where we were supposed to be there at eight thirty eight and we got there at eight it was just us for a half hour it was called the mammoth teen prison he said it's the site where the apostle paul had been in prison he said and we're outside of the mammoth teen prison there and you read some of the letters paul wrote second timothy being one of them his last letter he said and you get tears in your eyes because this is a man all you need to do is read his letters read his writings and you see it about him a man who said i know how to be a base that i know how to abound in other words i've been in plenty and i've been in little this is a man who had traveled the world this is a man who was articulate this is a man who was educated this he was the premier intellectual of his of his day this is a man who'd seen everything a man who'd been to a lot of places a man who had a lot of influential friends a man who experienced a lot of things the average person will never experience sometimes sometimes i'll hear people who are who are highly educated and they begin to speak with other friends who are highly educated and i know i have no place in their conversation i haven't got a clue what they're talking about and they're speaking so so casually sometimes i've i've seen people who have have a good amount of money and and things that i would think are oh my goodness that really must cost a ton those are things that they use and throw away because they don't matter that much to them because it got so much money and you hear numbers today i'll hear numbers today like a billion and to me a billion that's an amazing number none of us really knows what that is but it's thrown around so much that it's become almost nothing we use the word trillion now because billion doesn't seem to convey that much so you hear that somebody had a hundred and fifteen million dollars and i say that's that's not that much because this guy got four billion this guy's got seventy billion this guy and and you think that way and you get that way and and these people could have so much money and do so many things and have so much freedom and can spend it and it's not that it's bad or good it just is and and and that's their life right and then i think of paul and my friend as he was speaking i said you know that's very profound what you're sharing with me right now it speaks to my heart because you've got a guy named paul a paul who a guy who knew how to abound and how to be a bass he knew how to be everything in between and this is a guy who said i've learned the secret of contentment i can do all things through christ who strengthens me and yet this is a guy who's in a prison a small cell that you you could he could never get out of and the light that came in was through a ceiling where there was a hole where the sun would occasionally come through he did not have anything anything and he's writing his last letter and he says all have forsaken me only lucas with me and he says demas has forsaken me my friend my traveling companion i'm a fellow missionaries a helper in my in service of the lord my friend demas has forsaken me having loved this present world to be part that's the one we're talking about that today and yet jesus is saying you shall know the truth it'll make you free paul was in prison but he was free and those people who were wandering around on the streets going to the coliseum going here going there they were in bondage they were the ones who are the slaves and that's what jesus is saying he's saying he who commits sin is a slave of sin and a slave will not abide in the house forever but the sun abides forever therefore whoever the sun sets free he is free indeed so it isn't finances that set me free it isn't education that set me free it was a relationship to someone who loves me deeply that set me free it is a relationship with jesus christ who sets me free and that comes through the word of god and that's what jesus is saying to those disciples who say they believed in him and he knows they don't and he knows they don't he says no if you commit sin you're a slave of sin you will not abide in the house forever oh we're no slaves we've never been in bondage anyone oh yes you have you're in bondage right now but i'm not speaking about an empire i'm speaking of your personal life that is in bondage to sin and if you want to be set free you have to have a relationship with jesus so it's more than just knowing about him it's knowing him this is eternal life knowing thee the only true god and jesus christ whom you have sinned that's where your freedom comes from jesus christ