[0:00] In St John chapter 8, we read in verse 32 or 31 first of all, Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
[0:18] Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Now a few chapters further on, in chapter 14 of John's Apprentice of the Gospel, Jesus describes himself as the truth.
[0:33] The truth about Christ, the truth of Christ, and the truth in Christ, are all aspects of what makes us truly free as we come to know him.
[0:45] Without wanting to get sidetracked too much or wrong with these descriptions, very briefly it's just identified. The truth about Christ is what we read in the Bible, mostly in the Gospel accounts of course.
[0:57] But then if you think about it, all the epistles, the letters of Paul, and Peter, and John, and letters to Timothy, and Titus, and letters of James, and then the Hebrews, and then all these things, these letters, they're all ultimately about Christ, and about the advance of the kingdom, and what the church is to do, but ultimately it's all about Christ.
[1:16] The revelation is all about Christ, and the last and second coming, and the end of time of the judgment throne of God, it's all about Christ, who comes to judge the world. And likewise, the Acts of the Apostles, it's about the advancement of Christ's kingdom.
[1:29] So the four Gospel accounts, the Acts, all the letters, and revelations, they're all about Christ, so the whole New Testament, that's where we read about him. But then, if you think about it, of course, the prophets are prophesying about Christ, looking towards him and the fulfillment in him.
[1:44] And then, of course, all the Psalms ultimately point us to Christ. The Proverbs are teaching us the wisdom of how we should live out our life in faithfulness to God. Likewise, Ecclesiastes, and when we think about the book of Job, we think about how the Lord strengthens those who wait for him in the midst of fearful adversity, and he never lets go of his chosen ones.
[2:07] We can think of things like Esther, how the Lord delivers his people there, that theme of deliverance there. And then we go further back, and we think about the Judges, and we see then the state to which any nation comes when they turn away from the Lord.
[2:21] Even Israel itself, reduced to blood-soaked paganism, and vice, when every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And there was no fear of the Lord before their eyes.
[2:34] So we have that state after they turn away from the Lord. We go back further, we see the conquests under Joshua. We see how that generation rose up when Moses had gone.
[2:45] And this is ultimately, again, pointing us to our inheritance in the true promised land. It's all about Christ. And the inheritance he has prepared for people. We go back to the Exodus, that deliverance, redemption.
[2:59] We think about the laws in Leviticus. We think about Deuteronomy and the end of Moses' life. It's pointing on to the fulfillment. Another prophet will come, Moses said in Deuteronomy 18.
[3:11] Right, come to me, him shall ye hear. And so on, back to Genesis, and the seed of the woman that will bruise the serpent's head, and it will bruise his ear. Wherever you go, Old Testament and new, it's all ultimately about Christ.
[3:26] So what we read about and the truth about Christ is what we read in the Bible, Old Testament, and mostly the Gospels, but also we read it also throughout the rest of Scripture.
[3:38] And likewise, everything that is written there is pointing to heaven. But to know even of Christ is greater freedom than the darkness of total ignorance.
[3:50] There are some people in the world who know nothing of Christ. They've never even heard about it. And the density of darkness in which they dwell is pitiful. But to know a little of Christ and about Christ, that is something.
[4:03] That is like a little light at the end of the tunnel. It's like a little candle shining in an otherwise gloomy cavern. To know a little the truth about Christ. But also the truth of Christ, if we were to expand things a little bit more, the truth of Christ, we might say, is to become convinced, persuaded, of the reality of his claims.
[4:26] You're left in no doubt as to the reality, the recognition, even by logical deduction of the fact that yes, this stuff must be true. These claims must be true.
[4:38] The reality of what he did must be true. He cannot have been insane. Nothing in the evidence points to this person being a madman or being insane or being completely mad.
[4:52] Likewise, we cannot take it that he was a liar because everything that he testified to was found to be true. So he's not a liar. And he's not a lunatic.
[5:03] He's not insane. So therefore, the only other conclusion as we examine the evidence, if we're prepared to examine it, with impartiality and with lack of prejudice and fairness of mind, if we're prepared to come to the evidence with that truth, then he must have been telling the truth.
[5:22] The claims about him likewise must be true. The evidence forbids that we conclude anything other than that about Christ.
[5:32] But whilst this again is more free still to become convinced of the truth of Christ Jesus, then that's more knowledge. It's more freedom than just to have heard about him when you are convinced of the truth of Christ.
[5:48] That's a bit more knowledge again. But that still doesn't make us totally free. It's rather like, you know, if we think of that incident in Acts 12 where Peter is awakened by the angel.
[6:00] He's guarded by four quotarians of soldiers. That's 16 soldiers altogether are guarding Peter. And the angel digs him in the ribs and wakes him up and his chains fall off.
[6:12] He says, put on your shoes and gird yourself up. Come on. And he leads them past the guards who are fast asleep and takes them to the gate that goes into the main street of the city and just opens them of its own accord.
[6:25] And Peter looks and stares at this, you know, dumbfounded. But at that point, his chains are off and the guards are asleep and he's gone through one guard and another and so on and there's the door wide open.
[6:36] But as he stands, he's still in prison. And the Lord can take off your chains and the Lord can put to sleep all your enemies and guards and he can set before you an open door.
[6:48] But until you walk through it, you're still in prison and you're not yet into a state of freedom. You are not yet free because you haven't gone through that door of opportunity.
[7:00] You haven't gone in, as it were, unto Christ and out from the darkness of ignorance and unbelief. It's still a prison until you go through the door into freedom.
[7:13] Jesus said, I am the door. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the power but by me. So finally then, having had, well, finally in terms of the sound, but in terms of these three points, of course, they had the truth about Christ.
[7:27] That's the content of the Bible. The truth of Christ, his claims, as we examine them with suitable impartiality or openness. And then there's the truth in Christ.
[7:39] This is to know him as your personal saviour and Lord. It is to dwell in him and he in you. Just as Jesus says in John 17, verse 23, I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
[8:01] This is the ultimate freedom. As Hosea prophesied, chapter 6, verse 3, Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord, his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
[8:20] Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. You will know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.
[8:34] It's all right to the Corinthians. That's what it is about love. We know a little of it here. Even the love of Christ, we know a little of it here. But we'll know so much more hereafter.
[8:45] But to know Christ, to know the truth in Christ is to have him in you and you in him. It's to have gone through the door out of the prison into freedom.
[8:57] Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Now we come to know all these truths best when we learn them by personal experience.
[9:13] If we're to cast our eye a little bit across the page to the end of chapter 7, we'll read what Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, said to his fellow members of the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, who were scoffing at Jesus and saying what a charlatan he was and how nobody should believe him.
[9:30] And Nicodemus 7, verse 53 of chapter 7, he said, Does our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doeth? You know, he's one of their councilors who says, we're going by our own law.
[9:44] Are we right to judge somebody before we've heard him? Before we've got any experience with him? Before we know what he does? And this is simply appealing to the truth of the law. Appealing to the truth of what God has revealed to his people of the Jews up to that point.
[9:58] He says, Does our law judge anyone before it hear him and know what he doeth? Now, we have to ask ourselves, do we judge on the basis of our ignorance before we hear what Christ has to say in his work?
[10:17] Do we judge on the basis of ignorance or do we try and test by experience what he claims? Are we prepared to put it to the test, to actually enter into this and put it to the test and try?
[10:29] and experience what Christ claims and what he offers? Do we judge before we experience anything to do with him? You know, in chapter 7, we'll live further at verse 24, Jesus says, Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
[10:49] What is righteous judgment? Judgment that is accurate, that is true, that is based on the evidence and not just on the appearance. Now, of course, appearances nowadays are everything in our society.
[11:01] People want to look good, they want to look all swish and beautiful and so on, and to that end, people will spend a fortune on plastic surgery and goodness knows how much realising of our faces and our bodies and everything else you could possibly imagine and probably a whole lot of things you couldn't imagine.
[11:18] People will spend vast sums to make their appearance look better or retain something of its form or beauty because they are convinced everyone will judge them on their appearance because that is how they judge others.
[11:32] But we cannot judge on their appearance if we are going to judge righteous judgment. You see, the world will look at us and they will look at how often we fall short and what failures we are and they will say, well, who is going to follow somebody whose followers are like that?
[11:49] But that is not to judge righteous judgment. That is rather to go by the disciples rather than to go by Christ himself, the followers rather than the faithful one.
[12:00] if you want to know the truth, look at Christ himself, you'll see plenty of sin in every one of Jesus' followers in this day and in those days and in days to come you'll find plenty of fallible, weak, sinful creatures who know their need of a saviour.
[12:17] But if you want to see sinlessness, if you want to see purity, don't look at us and look at Christ and then judge righteous judgment. So much in our day and in our world we do judge by mere appearance.
[12:32] Now Jesus did not say, never judge anything, never come to any conclusion, just keep your mind in absolute blank and that way you can say, look, I'm not judging anyone, look how good I am, look how non-judgmental I am, look how open-minded and tolerant I am because my mind is a complete blank page.
[12:48] That's not a virtue of doing nothing, coming to no conclusion at all. Jesus did not say, do not exercise your powers of comprehension.
[12:59] He did not say, do not come to a decision, never come to a decision about anything for fear of being wrong. But he did say, judge, not just by appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
[13:12] Not appearance, but experience. Not just of, what does somebody look like, but how have you found them to be? Not just, what do you think of the appearance of Jesus, going by his followers, going by Christians, going by those who claim to follow Jesus, but how do you find Christ himself to be?
[13:31] Go by experience. Did our Lord judge any man before he'd hear him and know what he doeth? And we see the response that he gets. He answered and said unto him, art thou also of Galilee?
[13:44] Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house. They were not interested in judging by experience. They were interested only in achieving their own end, judging by appearance.
[13:58] And this is what we mustn't do. Because the fact of the matter is that all who have genuinely trusted Jesus as their personal saviour have been glad and thankful to have done so.
[14:11] None having tested, or tasted, we might see, and seen that the Lord is good, have desired ever to go back to the empty world.
[14:23] Having tasted the pure water of life, who then wants to taste the bitter and stagnant pools, waters of this world? You know, and likewise, in one sense, although at the end of time there will be many who will be found to have been the enemies of Christ, none, if you think about it, none have the right to be enemies of Christ, who have not first tried and tested and examined his claims, and proved them by their own experience to be supposedly false and unworthy.
[15:03] There will be many who will be counted as the enemies of Christ at the last day, and many may be counted as the enemies of Christ even now in our present day, but they have no right so to be.
[15:15] There are none who have the right to be enemies of Christ who have not first tried and tested and examined his claims and proved them by their own genuine experience to be false and unworthy.
[15:32] The best evidence of the truth of Christianity, the truth that there is in Christ Jesus, is experience. Yes, there is the authority of God's word, but we all know there are plenty of professors in plenty of universities who may be experts in the ancient languages, but they just come to the word of God as a new work of literature.
[15:53] They come to it as a lot of ancient documents and texts. There is no faith in them. There is no love in many of them for the Lord. There is no reverence or fear of the Lord. There is a personal knowledge of what the texts actually say, but there is no knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.
[16:11] The best evidence of truth of Christianity is experience. Psalm 34 have already alluded to it, verse 8, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
[16:23] Blessed is the man that trusts it in him. Better than all the arguments of intellect and science and empirical evidence, all of which, incidentally, you know, if they are examined faithfully and impartially without prejudice, will also infallibly point to the Lord's work and to Christ and to the reality of God as he's revealed in the Bible.
[16:48] If we are prepared to examine it impartially and without the prejudice and the blinker closed-mindedness of so many of those in the so-called scientific community nowadays, if we look at the evidence as it is, it will point to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.
[17:07] But leave that aside because better than all that empirical evidence, better than all that science so-called is a simple invitation. Come and see.
[17:20] That's what Jesus said to Andrew and the other disciple when they first said to Rabbi, where did you stay? Come and see. And when then Philip goes and finds Nathaniel and says, we've found him of whom Moses spoke in the prophets, it's the Messiah.
[17:34] Can any good think about him as a, come and see. Find out for yourself. And this is the ultimate invitation, the ultimate, you might say, challenge to anyone who's done.
[17:46] It's okay, fine. Come and see. Put it to the test yourself. Try it, test it. One reason I would suggest to you, without fear of contradiction, is that one of the main reasons why so many people will not come and see, is not because they expect to find that it is baseless, groundless fiction, all this talk of Christ.
[18:10] But rather, there is that within them which fears. It just might be true. It just might be the reality that everybody says it is. It might be the power of God and the wisdom of God.
[18:23] And they don't want that to change their lives. They will not come and see, not because they doubt its reality, they will not come and see because they fear its reality.
[18:36] Because that will change everything in their lives. But this is the most powerful tool of all, the most powerful argument, is the gentle invitation, the simple invitation.
[18:50] Come and see. Test it for yourself. However, we must acknowledge that even followers of Christ can be weighed down with bondage.
[19:02] through ignorance. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And likewise if we don't know the truth, if we're steeped in ignorance, then we're still in darkness.
[19:13] We're not free. We're in bondage still. Where the truth is not known, or where perhaps a little bit about Jesus is known, but not the proper truth about him, then he falls into the category then in people's minds of just being another prophet, or just another holy man, or a guru, or whatever, and one sort of religious leader amongst many, and we sort of put him on a shelf with all these other false gods and prophets and holy men and leaders and so on, and he just becomes one amongst many.
[19:43] And that is to know a little of Christ, but it is not real to know him as he is. And into that superstition, and into that ignorance, the vacuum gets filled, not with the light of knowledge, as it is in Christ, but with a whole bunch of superstition and thoughts, really, we then fall into that which may call itself Christian, can be filled with superstition or sometimes legalism, just follow certain rituals, go through certain motions, just sometimes a little better than spells, or incantations, you know, go on a wee pilgrimage to this place, and say so many times, recite this particular form of words, so many times, bob up and down, do this, do that, and that will be you sorted, make sure you get this particular ritual followed, and that will be you sorted, God will smile on you, if you go through all these hoops, if you fulfil all these regulations, if you take all these bop, just what is that, other than spells and incantations, and falsehoods, and superstition, but the souls who are enslaved by that may be genuine, genuine, genuine in their devotion, they may be genuinely thinking this is how I please God, this is how I show what a good Christian
[21:00] I want to be, and I'm trying to be, follow the rules, go through the motions, go through all these rituals, that's already done, you don't have to go through all these hoops, everything that is required to make the Lord smile upon sinners, to make the Lord look favourably on them, that's what the word propitiation means, it causes him to look favourably upon those who would otherwise be lost, everything for that has been done, it's already been done by Christ on the cross, it's been done by Christ at Calvary, and all that we poor sinners must do, is look to him by faith, and put our trust in what he has already accomplished, it's already been done by Christ, and the fear and bondage of superstition, or legalism, or false religion, as we come to see the truth, as it is in Christ Jesus, it just vanishes away, all the falsehood, all the superstition, all the bondage, all the darkness, just melts away gradually, like snow off a dike, as we see more and more of the light and the truth, it melts away like the darkness receding before the advancing dawn, as the sun rises on the horizon, the darkness just diminishes and recedes away, when poor lost souls learn the truth, as it is in
[22:32] Christ Jesus, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, free from bondage, free from superstition, free from this terror, this wrath, that somehow God is determined to find fault with me, God is determined to condemn me, because that's what he does, and this ignorance keeps them in darkness, because they do not know the good news, the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, the good news that God has come to make peace with sinners, you see, Paul's letters, if you think about the epistles and so on, they rejoice in this glorifying, liberty, this freedom, freedom which souls have who are in Christ Jesus, not just free now from bondage and reduced to sort of square one, sort of free, but that's as far as it goes, but rather they are gloriously exalted by this relationship with Christ, they are ennobled by this new relationship, and we go to what we find, for example,
[23:41] Romans 5 at the beginning, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace when we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God, it's a glory into which we enter, not just a mere sort of, okay, you've shed your chains and that's good, but now here you are out of the street with nothing, no, it's glory to which we are exalted, Romans chapter 8, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death, this is what it does, it glorifies sinners, and again in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 23 and 24, we preach Christ to survive unto the
[24:41] Jews a stumbling world, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, and at the end of that chapter, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, he's done it all, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, if we want glory, if we want to be exalted, look to Christ, if you want to be exalted, look to Christ, if you want glory, look to Christ, and in as much as you are in Christ, you share in that glory, that wonder of what he has done, you see we're all sinners, and some of us may be extremely vile sinners, Paul writes to those who are extremely vile sinners, he says know ye not, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor vileurs, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our
[26:02] God, you see there is no sin too vile, there is no sin so dark and deep that it keeps us beyond the reach of God's grace, such were some of you, he wrote to the Corinthians, such may be some of us, nobody except the Lord knows the ultimate depths of the sins of our hearts, or the secrets that are there, but whatever it is that is there, we don't need to go on in bondage, to it, because if you know Christ, you know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, that's what Jesus himself said, and likewise if we go on into the Ephesians, we see again this glory that is there, chapter 1 verses 3 and 4, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, and verse 11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worked at all things, after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom he also trusted after he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after he believed you were sealed with that holy spirit of promise, and into chapter 2, and verse 4,
[27:31] God was rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, just think of that verse again, hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, it's not just a mere, okay, your chains are off, off you go into the street, you're on your own, but now this glorifying of sinners who are down in the dirt, down in the ditch, in a mighty pit and clay, and the Lord brings them out of that, doesn't just set their feet on a rock, he exalts them to glory, this is what he does, now therefore you're no more strangers and followers, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto one holy temple in the
[28:39] Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the spirit, what is Paul saying here, he is saying to those in Ephesus, a heathen city until the gospel came there, where the goddess Diana was worshipped, and where paganism was, it was just right, he said to look, you were vile sinners too, just as I was, this promise is not just for holy apostles, or all the saints of Jerusalem, all the godly ones that went before us, no, it's for you too, that you too can be built into this holy temple of the Lord, you can be made noble, you can be made glorious, in whom all this building fitly framed together, grows together into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit, this is what the Lord is doing, by setting free sinners, as the truth is in Christ Jesus, not just to freedom, but to glorify them, that is his purpose, you see, those who continue with sin and darkness and ignorance, they say, oh, we're free, we're doing exactly what we want, we can fornicate, we can sin, we can get drunk, we can do whatever we like, you poor, benighted Christians, that won't allow yourselves to do these things, oh, what bondage you're in, we're the ones who are truly free, we're the ones who truly have liberty,
[30:04] Peter says, you know, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome, of the same he is brought in bondage, whatever it is, we can't break free from, we are the servants, the slaves of, effectively, some poor souls live in this perpetual dread and distress about their sins, perhaps, thinking God's wrath still rests upon them, when in reality, they are washed in the blood, they are covered by the righteousness of Christ, so in their ignorance, they miss out on all the joy, and they're in bondage to their fears, if they knew the truth, it would set them free, Jesus said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
[30:56] The story is told of a French warship, which when other French warships at the time of the Napoleonic wars had been sailing over the various seas looking for people to attack British outposts or ships to attack and so on, and it had been involved in the wars, it had suffered its fair share of damage, and it inflicted a fair share of damage, and unbeknown to the captain and crew of these ships, peace had been made between Britain and France while they were out at sea, and they didn't know about it, and then a storm came down and scattered all the ships, so that they were all individually, just found wherever they could find themselves at sail, and the fog came down, and they didn't know where they were, and then this French captain, when the fog lifted, he found himself off the coast of southern England, surrounded by British ships, and he was terrified, and he thought they're going to fire me, they're going to sink me, oh no, what am I going to do, I'll have to scuttle my ship, I'll have to try and save my crew, but we're all done for here, and he was terrified, until he was hailed by one of the ships, and told that peace had been declared several months before, they were already at peace, those who had been at war were now in friendship, or at least non-combat in state, now the captain had been ignorant of that peace, he was ignorant that peace now existed between those by whom he was surrounded, so, because once he knew the truth of that peace, his fears vanished, he wasn't afraid anymore, he knew he could relax, he knew his life wasn't in danger, so likewise, the truth of the gospel makes us free, it tells us of the peace, which has been made for us by Christ, between God and man, that's what he has come to do, by Christ's blood, his death upon the cross, there is peace made between God and man, that's what he came to do, that's why the angel sang at his birth, no peace on earth, good will toward men, but, let's say for the sake of argument, the French captain, ignorant of the new peace, which prevailed now, between himself and the
[33:14] British ships surrounding him, supposing as soon as he'd seen them in the fog clear, he acted as for war, ran out his gun ports, hoisted his colours and started plugging up his guns ready to fire, if he had pursued that line of activity, the other warships around him would have responded, and if nobody was listening to anybody else, there would have been bloodshed, there would have been death, it would have been the death of him, if he had not received the message about the peace that had now been made, and so it is with us, although that peace exists, and is ready to be implemented between God and sinners, if we do not hear about it, then as far as we are concerned, we are still at enmity with God, and we respond and react accordingly, as enemies, as those who think we are still at war, when we don't need to be, because God has made peace with sinners through his son Jesus Christ, if we are the servants of sin, we are, as Peter pointed out, so far from being free, or you know, like libertines, which means, you know, those who are completely free to do what they like, when effectively, as Peter said, we're slaves, you know, as Paul himself pointed out, you know, the two parts of him that were at war with each other, he wanted to serve Christ faithfully, but his flesh, the old self that was still there, fighting against the spirit, that dragged him back, and made him do things he didn't really want to do, at chapter 7 in Romans verse 25,
[34:51] I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin, there's still this ongoing conflict, and likewise, if we turn back to chapter 6, we see in verse 16 there, we read, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness, but God be thanked that ye were the servants or slaves of sin, that ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you, being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness, you see everybody serves somebody, everybody has a master somewhere, even those who are the most powerful leaders in the world, ultimately answer either to their people, or to the elected, or to some other power, nobody is completely devoid of having to answer to somebody, so the question is not, are we free, have we no masters, of course we have masters, we all have to answer to somebody, we all have bosses, we all have masters in this world, the question is who is your master, is your master self and sin, is it the world, is it all the forces of the world, or is it
[36:17] Christ, Christ is the most benign, loving, freedom giving master in the world, if we are the servants of Christ, then we are free indeed, now slaves of course are not free, they are, no matter how much they may pretend they are, you know, a slave might dress in his master's clothes, he might strut about saying that he's a great person, of course some people who are insane, in insane asylums they like to deck themselves out with tinsel and pretend that they're some great noble person, and in their mind it's real, but of course it's not real in reality, and so likewise we may think, oh yes I'm free, I do whatever I follow my own inclinations, I'm not bound by any man, and we pretend that we are completely free, when in fact we are simply the slaves, of our sin and slaves are not free, we are not free at all, until we know Christ, and then are we no longer slaves, no longer even servants, but rather sons and daughters, children of the king, there's a writer, or was in film, he's still a writer in the monthly record, some of you may have read her work,
[37:36] Ace Brin MacLeod, and one of the articles that I think is the most wonderful that she ever wrote, was a letter to her little daughter, her toddler daughter, letter to Flory it was called, and she began with the line, boy you are not a princess, and this was based in that all little girls want to be princesses and to be special and have castles or horses or handsome prince come to rescue them, or whatever it may be, every little girl wants to be a princess in some way, she says you are not a princess, and she said in terms of how there's going to be kind that you do bad things, and your father and I are going to have to chastise you, and we live in such a world that if we chastise you, you can report us to the authorities, and you can get us thrown into prison, and you can do all manner of things to us, but we're still going to do it, because we love you, and we want what's best for you, and then she set out all the potential future for this little girl, and how she would be guided, and how she would be kept if she stayed faithful to the
[38:36] Lord, and she summed it all up with these words, you are not a princess, you are so much more than that, you are a daughter of the king, and that is what we are made by Christ, sons and daughters, of the king, not mere servants, certainly not mere slaves, not in bondage anymore, sons and daughters of the king, you shall know the truth, the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, the truth about Christ, the truth of Christ, the truth in Christ, you shall know the truth who is Christ, and the truth shall make you free.
[39:24] Let us pray. You shall not Brother, Lord, you shall and say then as said, harvest the thing that it is