Freedom of Truth part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Freedom of Truth part 2. He will be in John 8:31-36

Anybody in heaven is better off than Mike Sanders, amen? That’s why it’s a win -win to live as Christ and to die as… game. Because my freedom will finally be complete. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open North Church and this is Hope Worth Having and we are so glad that you could tune in today with us and we want to continue to study the Bible together and today we’re going to continue our series on the freedom of truth.

This is part two. We’re going to be in the Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 31 through 36. Make sure that you are following along and take advantage of our new church app, the Open Door Church app. You can download it and it will help you to take notes and follow along with us on the radio program and let’s take advantage of that.

So let’s get our notes and let’s get our paper, pen, Bible. Let’s get at it and let’s learn today. The church at Ephesus, he was speaking to the leaders and the people and he said, now brethren, I commend you to God.

In a sense he’s saying I’m leaving you in the hands of God and to the Word of His grace, talking about the Bible. And this is what he’s saying. God’s Word is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

So here’s the point about God’s Word. It is the truth and this truth will set you free and the truth from the Bible is both instant in my life but it is also progressive in my life. When I become a new Christian, guess what?

My spirit is born again. My hearts and affections are directed towards God. My love is for Jesus. Jesus Christ, but guess what? I still have hang ups. I still have issues in my life. I still have struggles in my life.

I still have problems. I’m still living in the flesh. And this flesh brings with it a lot of issues and drama in my life. And people say, oh, what is wrong with me? My friends, what’s wrong with you is that you and I, like the apostle Paul, and like every person on the planet, we are born with a sinful nature and we wrestle with this flesh.

And the apostle Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this flesh? So you have these issues. And what is the antidote? What is the solution? The solution is to abide in God’s word.

The word abide means to remain. to continue in God’s word. Let’s go back and look at the text again. If you, verse 31, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples? A disciple is a learner. A disciple is someone who is growing, who is following Christ.

And he says, then are you my disciples indeed? That’s the manifestation, you’re truly a disciple. And you shall know the truth. And what will this truth do to you? It will make you what? You’re gonna get so tired of saying free that you’re never gonna say free again.

But as a pastor, I want you to be free. I want you to be free, and I’m gonna talk more about that, but what I’m trying to help you teach you first is that the scriptures will make you free. Jesus is saying, Jesus is saying to each one of us this morning that the degree to which you apply and abide and live in his teaching is the degree to which you will experience his truth, which in turn determines the degree to which you will be set free in your life.

For what is set before you? Will you believe the lies of the world and the devil and your own flesh? Or will you believe the truth of God, the truth of Jesus Christ? And will you walk in freedom? And it is no wonder that the apostle Paul said in Galatians 5 .1, he said stand fast in that liberty.

Don’t go back to the bondage. Don’t go back to the regulations, the rituals of religion. But he’s saying, walk in that. freedom live in that freedom doesn’t mean again that I can do whatever I want it is the freedom that I’ve been set free from the world I’ve been set free from my sins I have been set free from the lies and the baggage of this world in my flesh and now I am free to obey Christ I am free to follow Christ I am free to live in Christ I am free to put my identity in him and him alone look in verse 34 Jesus said verily verily I say unto you whosoever commit a sin is the servant the actual Greek word is slave you’re a slave of sin the servant abides not in the house forever but the Sun abides forever He’s talking about simply this as he’s illustrating the contrast to a life of slavery,

to a life of freedom. The life of slavery is bondage. It’s a life of not identifying with the Father, with the family of God. It’s a life of not identifying with the fact that Christ has set you free.

You don’t have this bondage over you anymore. You don’t have to live in this guilt, but the Son abided forever. The Son who is set free. The Son who is a part of the family. The Son lives forever in the freedom of Christ and freedom.

This freedom will set you free. This truth will set you free, and you will be able to maximize your life for Christ. I said to you, the Scripture makes you free. You’ve got to abide in it, and if you do this, you will be set free.

So here’s the question. How do I abide in God’s Word? Write these things down. How do I abide in God’s Word? You say, Pastor, I don’t have a pen or a pencil. Well, get out your Walmart receipt, and get it out, and write it down.

Use something in the pew. Just don’t write in the song books. We are going to use them someday. I’m just being funny, haha. All right. Write these down. How do I abide in God’s Word? First of all, read your Bible.

Is that simple? Read your Bible. You know what the Bible says? Blessed are those who read the Word. How many of you are looking for a blessing? Anybody here looking for a blessing? If you’re looking for a blessing, open the Bible up.

Start reading it. Read your Bible every day. You need to have a time where you read the Scriptures. Read your Bible. The reason we’re a Bible -believing church, we want you to bring your Bible to church.

We want you to open up, read it together corporately. But we want you to read it. personally and privately. It is powerful in your life. It will set you free. How do I abide in God’s Word? Memorize Bible verses.

You say, Pastor, I’m too old to memorize. I can’t even remember my cat’s name. I can’t remember my dog’s name. Hey, listen, I couldn’t remember my kid’s name. I understand, but we still need to memorize.

Even if I only remember that verse for 30 minutes, I think it’s still good to memorize God’s Word. Keep taking time to memorize. Put yourself on a path to memorize the Bible. Pray Bible verses. That’s the third thing.

How do I abide in God’s Word? Pray Bible verses. You see, many times when I have my prayer time, I just open the Bible. I open the Word of God and I start praying the Word of God. I start praying the word of God.

It’s not a ritual. I don’t feel like there’s any kind of magical, mystical privilege there, but rather I just want my prayers to line up with God’s will. And I believe this, that God will answer the prayers that line up with His will.

It’s always according to His will. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so we’re given a promise. Jesus said that He will answer our prayers according to His will. And so I want my prayers to line up with the word of God.

And as I am praying Bible verses, guess what? I’m abiding in His word. I am saturating my mind with His word. We don’t just pray trite phrases, and don’t be upset with me. But many times as Christians, I catch myself doing this, is that I just say trite phrases.

I just say a phrase I heard, and I said, man, that sounds good. And I just repeat that phrase. Listen, my friends, prayer comes from our heart. Our heart needs to be in tune with the word of God. And we need to pray the word of God.

We need to pray the word of God. Study your Bible. You see, go beyond just reading it and study it. Study the Bible. You need to learn how to study the Bible. You need to get you a Bible study. I don’t know how you say it, but a Bible study, whatever.

You need to get a Bible. They call them study Bibles. Somehow, some way it was going to come out. But anyways, study your Bible. Now look, whenever I tell you these things, I’m telling you them in two facets.

I’m telling you to study your Bible personally, but I’m telling you to study your Bible corporately. I’m saying that we come together, church, on Sundays to study our Bible. We come together as believers every week.

one of you should be in Sunday school. I missed a few of you this morning. I didn’t see some of you in Sunday school, but I want you to be in Sunday school because I want you to build friendships, I want you to build fellowship, but I also want you to study the Bible.

There’s no way Pastor Mike can hit every topic. There’s no way that I can come from every angle. That’s why God has raised up many good Bible study leaders in our church, many good Sunday school teachers in our church.

He has raised up some competent people who know how to open their Bible. They can explain it to you. They’ve been gifted. They are working hard to study the Bible, and they want you to know the Bible.

They want you to understand it, and they want to apply it to your everyday life. That’s why you should get involved in our Bible studies that we have throughout the week. That’s why you should get involved in our Open Bible Institute.

That’s why you should take all of our next step classes. That’s why you should saturate yourself with the Word of God because as you study your Bible, you will know the truth and the truth will set you what?

Thank you. Thank you. You should learn. How do I abide in God’s Word? Learn from Bible teachers. I don’t think we understand. You are blessed, not only in this church, to have great Bible teachers, but America is blessed.

I know sometimes I’m hard on celebrity pastors and I want you to forgive me, but I don’t back down if they lie to you, if they teach another way to salvation, but I will tell you there are many good Bible teachers.

All right, there are many good Bible teachers and you need to listen to them on the radio. I know that many of you, when you go to the radio, all you do is listen to music and that’s fine, but I would say every once in a while, why don’t you listen to a good Bible teacher while you’re driving down the road?

You listen to some good Bible teachers. I love Dr. David Jeremiah. He’s a great Bible teacher. He teaches the Word of God. I wanna encourage you to look and vet these Bible teachers. Obviously, you know that, but saturate yourself and learn from these great Bible teachers that God has raised up in our land and they’re out there on radio, they’re out there on television, they’re out there on the internet.

Just be careful, be careful. You know how I feel about that. How do I abide in God’s Word? Obey God’s Word. Obey it. If God tells you something, don’t be just a hearer, but be a doer, right? Abiding means that I obey it, I remain in it, I live it, I apply it to my life, I apply it.

my life. Whenever I read the Bible, I’m always asking myself questions. The Bible tells us that we speak speaking unto yourselves. Mike’s not just having a mental breakdown, but he’s asking questions so he can learn, because that’s how you learn.

Have you ever been around somebody who asks a hundred questions and it drives you nuts? Amen? But thank God when we ask God questions, he doesn’t say, Mike, chill. I’ve had enough questions for today.

He never says that, thank God. But I’m asking myself questions like this, is there a sin for me to confess? You see, I want God’s Word to expose my heart. I want God’s Word to deal with my issues. I don’t come to the Bible thinking I’ve got it all together and I’ve arrived and somehow I’m better, but rather I come saying, Lord, you know me.

and you know there are things I gotta work on, so I’m just asking you right out of the gate, God, let’s just deal with it, is there any sin I need to confess? I’m asking him, is there any promise I need to claim?

Because when you confront your sin, if it wasn’t for the promise of salvation and the promise of forgiveness, I might just crumble under the weight of my sin. Is there a promise that I can hang my head on?

Is there a promise that I can hold onto today, God, because I can barely make it through this day without your promises? I want a promise to claim. I’m asking him, is there an attitude to change? You see, the greatest attitude corrector is the Bible, amen?

We all get a bad attitude. Sometimes I get what they call hangry, hungry and angry at the same time, amen? When I’m out there mowing that lawn, yes, I still mow my lawn, and I’m out there mowing my lawn, and I’m hungry, and I’m hangry, because the only thing that grows in my lawn is weeds, not grass, but weeds.

And if there were no weeds, I wouldn’t be out here mowing. I’d be sitting in the Big Easy, and I’d be sitting there drinking a nice Mountain Dew without my wife knowing. And I’d be watching football, baseball, basketball, something, but I’m out here mowing, and that makes me hangry.

And I need an adjustment, an attitude adjustment, right? And so I want to do that. I’m asking myself the question, is there a commandment that I need to obey? I need to make sure, is God telling me to do something today?

I need to get it done. I need to get it more involved in my life. Is there an example I need to follow? Is there an example I need to follow? Now look, I want you To trade the lies of the world for the truth of Christ Because the truth of Christ will set you what?

free now You can learn all these things in our maturity class. So I’m expecting a big sign -up in our maturity class today You can be thankful today that pastor. Mike only has two points. I just gave you my first point This is my second point the Savior makes us free not only does the Scripture set us free, but Let’s go to verse 34 through 36 Barely, barely I say unto you whosoever commit a sin is the servant of sin and the servant abideth not in the House forever,

but the son abideth forever if the son therefore shall make you free You shall be what? Free indeed you’ll be free indeed You see, His Word makes me free, but He makes me free. Without Christ, we are all going to be slaves to sin.

We would be slaves to sin. The Scripture says in Romans 6 .6, we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

So we have been crucified with Christ. And as human beings, we are free agents. I want you to know that in the sense that we all make decisions about a thousand things every day of our life. I mean, I’m not sure that God really cares whether you have a hamburger or a hot dog.

Now your mother may care, but God doesn’t care. I love hot dogs, don’t you? In the old days, we just ate them right out of the packet, but I’m told nowadays that you’re not to do that. I didn’t know it was a problem, but I’m doing great.

But let me tell you something. You may be free to choose between a hamburger and a hot dog, but you are not free. You are not free to say no to sin unless Christ awakens your heart and gives you the power to be free.

You are a slave to sin. You may wanna argue that point with me, but I just simply say to you, I believe the Bible. The Bible’s clear. Jesus says this. He’s very clear that whoever commits or continues or continually sins is the slave of sin.

And so I wanna be released from that. So many of us, we do not naturally realize our needs. to be free from sin.” Romans 7 18 the Apostle said for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not.

There are too many people who are very much like the Jews here in verse 33 they said hey we’re of Abraham’s seed and we’re never in bondage to any man how say is that you shall be made free there’s many people who do not acknowledge that they are sinners and that they are slaves to sin and that they are in bondage to sin and that the reason that they can’t say no to sin is because they are dead to sin and sin has a firm grip on their life and the only way that they can be set free is through Jesus Christ Many people are not turning to Christ for the freedom that he has for them spiritually.

But they are like these Jews. They’re looking to their national heritage. They said, look, we’re of Abraham’s seed. Don’t tell us we’re slaves because we are of Abraham’s seed. There’s some people walking around saying, hey, I’m an American, therefore I’m a Christian.

That is like the biggest lie of the devil. Did you know that? There’s some who are holding on to their heritage. And they don’t want to come to grips and humble their hearts before an almighty God and say, Lord, I’m a sinner in need of a savior.

They want to walk around proud and say, look at me. I’m not a sinner. I’m here to tell you, my friends, your national heritage will not save you. Your religious heritage will not save you. Your family heritage will not save you.

The branches of your family tree may be heavy with many godly saints. You may have cut your teeth on the pews at the open door church, but that does not make you a Christian. You must be set free by the power of Christ to find freedom in Jesus Christ.

The Bible says, for the law in Romans 8 .2 of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death. This is what Christ does in us. When my heart is honest before God, and my heart is humble before Christ, and I acknowledge that I’m a sinner, that’s when the freedom of Christ comes in to my life.

That’s why it is our job, church, to go out there and convince people the truth, that they are sinners. Because you… You can’t get saved till you’re lost, can you? You can’t get saved till you’re lost, and if you’re walking around saying, well, I went to this church, and I’m a member of that church, and I got baptized, and I prayed a prayer at VBS, and I did this, and I did that, friends, please,

put all that aside. Because you can’t go to Jesus and say, hey, when I stand before God, this is what I’m gonna say, that I’m a member of the open door church, my friends, those papers will crumble. People call us, and they say, will you send me my membership certificate?

I mean, these people, like back in the 1950s and 60s, we don’t have any paperwork around here that’s that old. I don’t know what they did with it. I don’t know what happened to all those things. All I know is what happened today.

But if you’re relying on those things, one time a lady called me, and she said, pastor, will you bring me my baptismal certificate? Bring it to me. I’m getting ready to die. They told me that I’m not gonna live long.

I went to her and I said, you don’t need this sheet of paper. And people get mad. Listen, you don’t need that sheet of paper. You just need Jesus, amen? Jesus set you free. I want you to be baptized.

I encourage you to be baptized. To be baptized as followers of Christ. But the thief on the cross, he didn’t know how to pray right. His theology was all messed up. And all he said was, Jesus, remember me.

And Jesus said, today you’re going to be with me in paradise. Because you see, God looks on the heart. It is with the heart that man believes unto righteousness. There are no magical words. There’s not a sinner’s prayer.

None of that comes from the Bible. It’s only the heart that believes unto righteousness. And when you believe in Christ, and you believe in what he has done for you, and that he went to the cross for your sins, then friends, you are no longer enslaved to sin.

And you are no longer living under the law of sin and death because you are free in Jesus Christ. Final verse, final thought. Romans 8, 21. The Bible says that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Your freedom is instant. Your freedom is progressive. I told you that earlier. It is instant that immediately that you put your faith in Christ, you are free. Your spirit has been set free from sin. You are no longer a slave.

Your soul has been set free. It is progressive. It is progressive that as you abide in the truth, as you love and worship and adore and pray, praise the Savior, personally, privately, and corporately, together as a church family, that God is doing an effectual work in those who believe in Him.

It is progressive as you abide in Him that the truth of God and Christ Himself are setting you free from some of your emotional issues, from some of your insecurities. He is setting you free from some of your addictions.

It’s progressive, it’s not overnight, and you are like the Apostle Paul. Whole wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of flesh. It is instant, it’s progressive, but let me tell you something.

It will one day be complete. You see, what I’m trying to tell you is this. What this verse is referring to is the freedom that your body is gonna experience. When I come to Christ, I am free, yes, I am free.

I am free. I am free from the penalty of sin, the price of sin, because Christ died on the cross. But I still live in the presence of sin, right? That’s why I need the word of God. Parents, why do you need to give your children the word of God?

It insulates them, because the presence of sin is everywhere they go. But one day God is gonna deliver me from this body of sin. I know you’re working hard on your body. And I know you’re trying to get a nice tan.

And I know that you’re trying to lose a few pounds. And I know you got a new knee. And I know you got a new hip. And I don’t know, maybe you got a new brain. I don’t know, but you got something new. They said it was new.

They promised Medicare would pay for it. And so you got it. All right, it was half off, I don’t know. But all I’m trying to say is that one day, this freedom’s gonna be complete. Because God’s gonna set you free from this body of sin.

This body that is corruptible. This body that is mortal. This body that always aches. This body that you woke up today and you said, man, where did that pain come from? This body that you struggle with, you’re gonna one day be set free from it.

And you’re gonna get an immortal body. And you’re gonna get an incorruptible body. And you’re gonna be looking for pain, but you can’t find it. You’re gonna be thinking, man, how amazing is this? That I’m walking around in new bodies right now.

You have loved ones walking around in new bodies. You have loved ones who have been set free from the presence of sin. And you think that they’re worse off than us. I tell you, we are worse off than they.

Anybody in heaven is better off than Mike Sanders, amen? That’s why it’s a win -win to live as Christ and to die as, gain, because my freedom will finally be complete. The primary means that God uses for our spiritual growth is the truth of God.

And that’s why you can never veer away from it. The truth will set you free so you’ll be saved. The truth will set you free so you will be sanctified. And the truth will set you free so you can serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that’s why it’s important for you to enjoy the freedom of truth. Because God uses his truth to shape our hearts and our minds for his glory. So I hope that you’ll take advantage of that. Now make sure that you check out our YouTube channel.

We got a YouTube channel, Hope Worth Having. You can just type that in. And we got a lot of stuff we’re uploading, a lot of information, a lot of Q &As, and a lot of interviews. And there are resources.

And we’re even putting out this new minute with Pastor Mike. It’s a great opportunity for you to be renewed and refreshed in the Lord. Just one minute as we focus on one truth. and let that truth change our life and I hope you’ll take advantage of that.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.