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[0:00] I want to speak this morning from John chapter 8, which we read, and from the 36th verse, If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

[0:20] John chapter 8, and the 36th verse. But before we come to look at that verse, let us observe the chapter.

[0:33] It is a chapter which is full of developing opposition and resistance, indeed of very great hatred on the part of many to the Saviour Jesus Christ.

[0:48] If you recall the recent readings from John, as we've looked at chapters 6 and 7, you would see the beginnings of opposition.

[1:03] But here, now there is such a malicious intent against him. They would seek to do away with him. They would seek to put him to death. The very last verse of chapter 8 speaks of stones lifted up to cast at him.

[1:20] But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. And you see the sovereignty there, that though he was the unity amongst them, and they could see nothing of his deity, yet they were not permitted to hurt him.

[1:39] They could not harm so much as a hair of his head. Until that time when it was according to the divine appointment, the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, then and then only by wicked hands was he crucified and slain.

[1:57] But there is this crowd of people, Jews, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, all met that they might consider this man and that they might put him down.

[2:13] They bring a woman at the beginning of this 8th chapter, a woman, as they say, taken in the very act of adultery. Adultery, the Pharisees knew was condemned.

[2:29] The seventh commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery. They knew, moreover, that there was in the law of Moses a severe penalty upon the perpetrator of adultery.

[2:44] In Leviticus 20.10 and Deuteronomy 22.22, it says that there will be the death of the adulterous.

[2:56] It's very important to notice that in both of these places, where in the law there is the sentence of death, it is not upon one of the parties, but on both of the parties, both of them, the man and the woman.

[3:11] If this woman was taken in adultery, there was some other person that is not brought before the Lord. And that is a very significant thing when we consider even the matter in these days.

[3:24] It's all very well to find the fault upon one, but there are two. They brought the one. They brought the one. Perhaps they knew only too well who the party was with whom this adultery had been committed.

[3:40] But they bring the woman. And they say to the Lord concerning what she had done and the penalty against Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned.

[3:56] But what sayest thou? And we're told that they did this tempting him. They said this tempting him. They were seeking that he might be brought to a halt by this question.

[4:09] What sayest thou if he said to them that the woman was to be set free? Then it was as though he was indifferent to the law of Moses.

[4:19] If, on the other hand, he said that the law of Moses must be upheld, then where was his ministry of compassion? How then could it be that he had said that God had sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved?

[4:38] One of these many questions that they raised at different times against the Lord, hoping to trap him in his words, hoping that the answer that he gave would condemn him out of hand.

[4:52] And the Lord stoops down and with his finger writes on the ground as though he didn't even hear them. And they keep asking him, what do you say?

[5:04] He lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. If there is to be the stoning of those taken in adult, then the stones are to be in the hands of those that are holy themselves.

[5:25] And that's true whether it be of adultery or whatever it be. If we're going to condemn another, then we've got to be sure that we are not ourselves guilty of that thing. And sometimes in our hearts, we find that we're stirred up against other people to condemn them because we're guilty ourselves of those very things that we're finding fault in another.

[5:45] And we can be so blinded to it and so hot with prejudice against an individual that we forget what we are in ourselves.

[5:58] If they're going to stone this woman, then holy hands have got to lift up and hurl the stones. And we find that the stones are never thrown.

[6:09] Stones are never thrown. They slink away. They, verse 9, being convicted by their own conscience, they went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last.

[6:25] Remember this of those that are eldest, those that have lived longest, they've got more sin, more experience of sin. Don't let sentiment be clouded of judgment when it comes to looking at those that are elderly and those who are aged.

[6:39] They're sinners, every one of them. These sweet old people that we sometimes have central mental views concerning, they're great sinners.

[6:51] They've got a lifetime of sin. While they are sinners who are young because they're sinners in Adam and they're sinners as they come into the world, born in sin, shaped in iniquity.

[7:06] They haven't got all these years, 60, 70, 80 years of accumulated sin. That's why they're so hard, these old people.

[7:19] That's why they're the ones that you can very seldom ever get through to. They've got a lifetime of sin. They don't want to admit it. They don't want even to think about it.

[7:30] They certainly don't want to think of death. As one expressed on Thursday evening, they are those that are living as though they're always going to live because after death, judgment for them.

[7:43] Judgment. They went out then, beginning at the eldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone and by the very law, in the mouth of two witnesses or in the mouth of three witnesses, shall every word be established, a charge of to be in the mouths of witnesses.

[8:03] It wasn't to be a private matter. And the Lord Jesus, when he lifted himself up and saw none left but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those that accuse us?

[8:16] Hath no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. He was indeed come not to condemn, but to save.

[8:27] It was not his present purpose as sent from the Father to come to condemn. There is a time appointed when he will be the judge upon the throne. When men and women will come before him and when they will be faced with his holy judgment, whose eyes are as a flame of bronze as if they burned in a furnace.

[8:48] He will discriminate in that day to the very heart of everyone that comes before him. And he will pass that solemn sentence, Depart from me, ye wicked.

[9:01] Well, this then continues the discourse. There's further discourse. And there is this speaking about light and darkness to the Pharisees.

[9:17] And at the end of this, in the 30th verse, as he spake these words, we read these words, Many believed on him. You say, Well, how good this is.

[9:28] Here is the utterance of the Lord. Here is the debate. Here is the exchange of argument. And as a result, many believed in him. But this isn't saving faith. If you read on in the chapter as we've done and consider what we've read, you don't find that any of them savingly believed.

[9:44] There's no repentance. There was no faith. It only means that they believed on him. They were convinced by what he had said thus far. They were temporarily impressed by what he had advanced.

[9:57] But they are not believing upon him. He knows they're not believing upon him. That's why he goes on then to say in the next verse, Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.

[10:18] Now there's something. If you continue in my word, you say you're a disciple of the Lord. You say you're a Christian. You're continuing. Continuing in the word. You're continuing in the things of the Lord.

[10:31] I ask the question, Am I continuing in these things? By their fruit, ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, he that doeth the will of my Father.

[10:41] That's what real religion is. Continuing. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. Not that it is the enduring to the end that makes the man the disciple.

[10:54] It's because the enduring shows that there is a disciple. The enduring, the perseverance, the continuing in the word of Christ manifests. The work of grace has truly been begun.

[11:06] But if there's no continuing, there's never been a beginning. Why are there so many that have fallen away? How many people can we think of that are nowhere at all spiritually today and yet we know that it was not always so.

[11:19] They made profession. They did Christian things. They came. They may have come into the membership of a church such as this church. Where are they today? How are we to speak about those people?

[11:33] I think that this and many a scripture like it shows us how we are to judge in the matter. It's not the professing. It's the continuing. If ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed.

[11:47] My friends, do you sometimes wonder if you're going to continue? Do you sometimes wonder if by the end of this month you're going to still be a Christian? Or do you say, well, I've got such a grasp of the doctrines of grace and the sovereignty of God.

[12:04] I've got no doubts I'll be a Christian. I have. I have. And I think that anyone that has any exercise in these matters will know something of this that he knows that he cannot stand in his own strength.

[12:24] And his hope is that he will be upheld by the strength of another. But we are not to presume. There's a difference between assurance and presumption.

[12:37] I trust that we've got the assurance that makes us say I know whom I have believed. I know he can keep me. But not the presumption that says that I know that I will be still what I'm professing today in a month's time.

[12:51] There is a difference. There's a difference. Then the Lord says to them that ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

[13:05] It is only when a man or woman is made a true believer a real disciple that he knows the truth and the truth sets him free. The truth delivers him from all its sham and all its binding and all its bondage.

[13:20] Truth alone sets free. And what is the truth? Christ is the truth. And that brings us then to the 34th verse. If the Son therefore shall make you free.

[13:33] If the Son therefore the Son of God if He if He shall make you free ye shall be free indeed. What a verse then this is.

[13:44] I will walk at liberty says the psalmist for I seek thy precepts. If we are those that know the truth the truth will set us free.

[13:57] And the truth shows us Christ. Christ is the embodiment of truth. The word written is that which brings us into living encounter with the word incarnate.

[14:08] And if the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed. Let us look then at these two parts of verse 36. If the Son therefore shall make you free.

[14:20] here's the first. And then the second. Ye shall be free indeed. it is that great work of the Messiah to set the captives free.

[14:33] Predicted in Isaiah in the 61st chapter and the opening verses. You remember in Luke chapter 4 you have Christ beginning His public ministry in the synagogue at Nazareth and taking up the book and He finds the place where it is written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

[14:52] These very verses from Isaiah 61 because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

[15:12] This day He said to them is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. To set the captives at liberty to set at liberty them that are bruised who have the bruises of sin upon them to set them at liberty.

[15:31] That's part of His great redeeming work. The Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed. Now in order that we might understand the freedom that the Son makes for us we've got to understand the bondage that is ours by nature.

[15:47] What of the bondage? What of the bondage? They were proud of their freedom. You see that in the 33rd verse when He starts speaking in these terms about freedom they think of it in political terms in nationalistic terms.

[16:07] They answered and we be Abraham's seed and we're never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou ye shall be made free? Now what a delusion is upon the hearts of so many people as much in that day as in our day as much in our day as in that day.

[16:29] What a delusion there is. Here are these Jews and they say this in the 33rd verse we were never in bondage to any man of all the nations of the earth there was scarcely any nation that knew more of bondage than the Jewish nation.

[16:44] On another occasion the Lord to draw forth a point that He would make concerning whether it was lawful to give tribute to pay tax to the government He asked for a penny show me a penny and they brought a penny to Him and He said whose superscription is on it and they said unto Him Caesar's whose image and superscription Caesar's which was in point of fact indication that they weren't free they were an occupied nation they've been occupied over various times in past history they were in bondage themselves in Egypt they were in bondage at different times to Philistines to Ammonites Moabites Edomites they were in bondage to Assyrians they were in bondage to Babylonians in bondage to Greeks in bondage to Persians in bondage to Romans and yet they said we have never known what it is to be in bondage the devil's a liar and how he gets into the minds of men everyone's talking about the fact that they're free they're emancipated and yet they're in such bondage they're held fast by Satan and yet they think they never were so free and there are those in the 1990s that think they are so free in comparison to those in past days and yet they're fast shackled by sin and by Satan and they think they're free what a state it is that we're brought into when we are not delivered by the gospel and only Christ can set free the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed the Lord isn't speaking of a national captivity or a national bondage he is speaking of spiritual bondage they say to him we be Abram's seed you see he says to them in that 8th chapter when they have said that we have never been in bondage to any man he says that he is speaking of sin and the servitude that sin brings a man into he says that in verse 34

[18:52] Jesus answered them verily verily I say unto you whosoever committeth sin is the servant or the slave literally of sin you're slaves to sin you say we're not going to the rightness of your answer but let us leave the political area completely out of it you're slaves to sin and they come back with this that they are Abram's seed they are Abram's seed and were never in bondage to any man this was the great view of the Jewish nation that they were in a privileged position children of Abram and as children of Abram they would never be dealt with the sinners by God did not God love them did not God choose them out of all the nations of the earth did not God appear for them as he never appeared to any other nation they were children of Abram they were in a position they regarded of of privilege ultimate privilege and ultimate safety they would never be condemned for they were the seed of Abram the Lord dispels this and he says to them that they cannot be the children of Abram because they don't have the faith of Abram and it comes down to that 56th verse what a verse that is

[20:10] John 8 56 when he says to them your father Abram rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad in the dealings of God with Abram his friend there were those prefigurings of redemption you'll need to think of the 22nd chapter of Genesis and the taking of Isaac to be offered up on Mount Moriah as a sacrifice and how there was a staying and the sentence was never brought to pass there was a ram caught by its horns in a thicket and Abram offered up the ram and instead of his son there was anticipation of Christ he believed in God and it was counted unto him for righteousness he was a justified man as was every one of the true elect in Old Testament days they were justified by faith that God would bring a salvation and a deliverer to them they were justified by faith in a coming Messiah Abram saw my day he rejoiced he was glad because he knew that there would be a day in which these things were brought to pass he looked to a seed that was more than the seed of promise

[21:23] Isaac but that one in whom the blessings would accrue to Jew and to Gentile to that seed which is Christ he looked to that day and he was glad they have nothing of the fate of Abram they are not looking to Christ they are not gladden by the presence of Messiah they are not doing the works of Abram they say in the 39th verse that they have Abram as their father they are Abram's seed Abram's children Jesus said unto them if you were Abram's children he would do the works of Abram where do we find that Abram was out to do violence to the son of God now ye seek to kill me a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God this did not Abram your father is not Abram as you allege your father is is Satan who was the murderer from the beginning your violence and his works in your heart you're not children of

[22:27] Abram at all you're not in this privileged position you are the slaves in bondage to sin slaves of sin now that's the great difficulty you see to make them see that they're sinners they're Abram sinners they're better than other nations why should they be afraid they are they are the Lord's people what a thing it is you see to grow up in a chapel to hear concerning these things and to feel instinctively in one's heart that therefore one is better than those that have never been to a chapel there'll be many a man or woman perishes that's been in a chapel their lifetime but they've never seen themselves as sinners though all are sinners in God's sight there are but few so in their own they never felt the need to be saved they never felt that they are sinners they're better than others they're privileged yes their very privilege is an accountability of so many more stripes will they be worthy in that day when the Lord comes their condemnation the greater when Jesus

[23:34] Christ comes for the privilege that they've had and yet for the utter indifference that they've displayed there are those that don't feel themselves to be sinners that's our great problem today people don't feel sinners if they did if this nation felt anything of a weight of sin it wouldn't behave the way it does and make the statements that our leaders make there is no sense of sin whatsoever I heard at the synod at York on this matter of living together without marriage they were asked for a judgment they were asked that they might declare on it have they declared on it of course they've not declared on it they've said that they'll set up committees to look into that's what they do in these days the word of God plainly shows what is truth and these men of today set up committees to look into that only means that they might look into ways and means to evade accountability to the truth that's all it means what a deplorable state we're in the great business of ministers today is to get people to feel any weight of sin everybody's doing these things this is acceptable practice now this is the way we live in the 1990s we are emancipated no we're not emancipated we're in the bondage of sin and ministers labor that they might get some sense of a weight of sin upon the hearts of men what comfort you see can a savior bring to them that never felt their woe a sinner is a sacred thing the Holy Ghost has made him so the Spirit of God alone can do it no minister can do it we preach and yet there are those that never feel that they are sinners under the preaching no the

[25:21] Spirit of God alone can do it the Spirit of God does it if the Spirit of God has come and made you feel a sinner such a sinner you don't even feel worthy to be in this building today it's the Spirit of God that's done it and that sort of sinner is a sacred thing because the work of God is upon that heart there is a difference for the most part men and women have no burden of sin whatsoever and yet they're condemned why are they condemned this is what bondage means in the first place it means that we are condemned as law breakers we've transgressed the law of God the standard of God is set up men won't keep it today they don't even accept the standard is set up surely that's even greater aggravation of sin to despise the commandments one thing to say well these we respect as the commandments but we don't find we can keep them that's one thing that still is the mark of a sinner but it's the worst thing surely when there are those that say we don't even recognize that these are the standards of God they call good evil and evil good that's our present day in so many places they don't recognize the standard they don't care they take pleasure in sin and in sinning and yet for this

[26:43] God holds them accountable whatever they may think even if they don't believe that it is sin God knows it's sin and God knows who are the sinners and a man's idle words even he will be held accountable for in the day of judgment a man's idle words let alone his deeds and there is a day upon it of judgment that's the bondage that men are in they are in the death cell they don't know it they think that they are free that they can go anywhere but they are in God's sight in the death cell they may have put the death penalty off the statute books I saw the other day that the Isle of Man has sentenced a man to death for murder but it will be commuted it says it will be certainly commuted the home secretary will ask the queen to grant a pardon no they don't want the sentence that God has set in his word to be executed upon those guilty of heinous capital offense they don't want that they have no time for that but we are all of us in the death in the death cell we're all of us by nature in that place where we are condemned and one day we'll be taken out and put in the dock and we'll hear the sentence of the judge will have the black cap upon his head take him away depart from me into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and for his angels and there'll be no stay of execution there will be the swift implementation of it and those will be brought to that place of which the bible says that wailing and gnashing of teeth and weeping are characteristics forever that's a bondage isn't it and say

[28:29] I don't like to think about a bondage like that truly I'm not in that for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God the wages of sin is death this is a how can any be delivered if the son shall make you free he shall be free indeed if he breaks that bondage how does he break the bondage you know by the very gospel by his coming by his doing taking our obligation upon himself indebted to keep the law on the behalf of his people he kept it for them perfectly by his crossword by his dying by his paying the penalty so that the blow has fallen upon another and not upon us because the sword of justice has smitten the dear son of God it will never fall against you or against me that's the gospel Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures was buried and was raised again upon the third day according to the scriptures that's the gospel God has received that man's work God has raised him up in token thereof he lives and in him we shall live and there is salvation in Christ that's how the son makes us free if he makes us free you can't make yourself free the son must make you free you can't get out of that prison any other way by works shall my works do it can

[29:50] I bribe the guards to release me there is no deliverance by anything that we possess or anything that we may do only the son can make you free and he is made free of people the people of his but then there is surely you say I know all that I know all that about the way that the son of God has procured a justification that I am counted righteous though I'm not without sin I know that but what about the bondage I feel the bondage to sin that's still with me this is where an exorcised soul comes into the scene and is concerned about this why is it if I am a Christian why is it that if Christ is my savior I still feel a heart so sinful and the good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not that I do why this corruption that I know to be within my heart but that is the truth of the matter this is how it is we're not yet taken to heaven we're still in that's what justification means

[31:07] I went into it last Lord's day morning it isn't that we are righteous but we are reckoned to be righteous for Christ's sake for what then about the corruption are the answer is also in Christ Christ is our sanctification as well as our righteousness made of God unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption the spirit of God that has brought Christ to our hearts God now within us if any man be in Christ is a new creature there is corruption but thanks be to God there is a principle of life in Christ Christ is formed in our hearts there is a struggle there is a conflict there is this which sometimes we feel to be such a conflict that we cry and exclaim as Paul in Romans 7 who shall deliver me from the body of this death but he goes on to say I thank God through my Lord Jesus Christ there is deliverance there is conflict there will be conflict to your dying day but the deliverance is sure you will be delivered you won't take your sin with you into heaven you will be then utterly set free from it you are not yet taken from the place where there are still those bonds upon you might live in such a way that you might not be brought under the dominion of these things anymore they're still there they're still tied to you but there are no such obstacles that will ever pull you back insuperably there is deliverance there is a victory and we are those that are in the struggle

[32:48] Christ will take us through Christ makes us free and he will bring us to that we shall enter into that liberty of the sons of God for which the whole creation is waiting and travailing until these things be what do you know then of that do you know the bondage as a transgressor of the Lord do you know that Christ is your righteousness can you say that yes but I still feel what it is to know a corruption in my heart do you know the spirit of God there bringing Christ who is our sanctification that we might be those that go on struggling and in the fight of faith until the fight is over until we come to that place where the crown is given the victor's crown we're more than conquerors in Christ Jesus that's the way you don't be overwhelmed by the fact of sin and the way it's causing you such trouble realize it belongs to every child of

[33:53] God realize that nonetheless Christ is for you there was a preacher in the old days in Germany in the days after the reformation Martin Boers was his name he preached with much power and demonstration of the spirit of God upon his word and when people came convicted of sin and said what shall we do he said learn what it means Christ for me and then learn what it means Christ in me can you say that you have learned what it means Christ is for you so that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus can can can can you can you can you go on to say that you are understanding as the days pass what it means that Christ is in you and therefore there is one in you that is able to give you the victory no matter how there is a struggle and stress one who is able to emancipate you one who delivers you from the power of indwelling sin we were that great hymn of top lady before us the double cure be of sin the double cure cleanse me from its guilt and power there is a cleansing just as there was blood and water flowed from the side of

[35:11] Christ pierced by the soldier the blood that justifies the water that stands for our sanctification it's all in Christ and if he is for you then learn what it means that he's in you if he's for you he's in you if he's in you he's for you Christ in you the hope of glory the ground of our coming to glory I cannot be sure I say again what a month will happen I don't know where I will be but I know what will be Christ's place in a month's time or a year's time or a hundred years time or an aeans time I know that he'll be at the right hand of the majesty on high with all authority given unto and that from him his people can never be separated for he has obtained their pardon and released the deliverance of captives if the sum therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed let us look just in closing to this phrase ye shall be free indeed you shall be free of a truth he shall be free in the fullest sense of the word what does it tell us then this freedom that is in

[36:23] Christ it is a freedom which is freedom indeed real freedom not the appearance of freedom those people that say that they are free they're politically free and they've only exchanged dictators or tyrants over them they say they're free and they've gone on to something else we tremble don't we for those in some of these emancipated countries of Eastern Europe because they seem to be under new masters and it may yet prove to be that the new masters are worse than the old masters but we're not under such a savior as that that we regret that ever he set us free because we find that he is a cruel tyrant he's never such can anyone say that he's served the Lord Jesus Christ for years now five years ten years twenty years some of you more than that can you say that he's been a tyrant can you say that he's been a cruel and harsh task master as he made demands upon you that were unjust as he required of you that which you were incapable of bestowing never oh he will not bruise the reed he will not quench the smoking flax he is such an understanding sympathetic such a kind such a gracious master his service his perfect freedoms as the liturgy it's a real it's a real freedom to be in

[37:50] Christ what of those that say we're free these young people that say they're free grotesquely dress because they say this proclaims that they're free from all the constraints that others put upon them that's freedom that's freedom as I saw one in the underground train the other day in London dress appearance colour of hair all the rest of it that's freedom it proclaims to me the most abject bondage or that the son might make these free and that they might see that there is a real freedom in Christ not this sort of thing real freedom spiritual freedom spiritual freedom it is to even when we have our bodily freedom curtail those in the prison house they are free who are in Christ the son of God is there remember those in the communist met and were taken before one of the commissars and they were put into solitary confinement and one says in the most solitary confinement that you can put me in

[38:56] I shan't be alone the commissar said how do you mean there will be one with me and proved it to be so for all the years in solitary confinement he was held there was one with him in whom he had his soul was free he knew where he was going more over and he knew that he would come to a place where the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with that glory that shall be revealed though they may bring your body down though there may be those cramps upon the body though illness and disease may come though there may be that which brings us down to furnace he is with us in the valley of the shadow he will bring us through he will bring us to glory it's a real freedom it's a spiritual freedom and it is such a freedom that lasts it's a lasting freedom it isn't a freedom that at the end of life's way when we have served him that he will not be there to pay the wages isn't it a wondrous thing that we who know that grace is all that we plead and mercy is all that we can hope for are yet those that he will receive with gladness and he will reward at the end of the age not with carnal rewards

[40:30] I want no thought of carnal rewards but he will give us of himself he will raise us up he will bring us to that place give us a crown which he has promised unto them that love him not just to a few but to all them that love him it's a lasting liberty it doesn't come to an end it's not illusory liberty it's not the liberty of those that are in defiance of God's law they will not have this man they say to rule over them they say we want to be our own man and they are now a defeated folk for

[41:33] Christ was manifested to destroy the works of the devil we have a glorious liberty in Christ not just all negative it's not just all the things from which we are freed it's all the things that we are freed on communion with God view of Christ fellowship with the Son of God spiritual realities meat that this world knows nothing of fruits of righteousness there are all of these things and best of all heaven itself and Christ in the midst the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed indeed well then there it is praise the Savior who makes us free praise his blessed name what a glorious emancipator he is when you think of the deliverers from the captivities of earth how they have come back and how men go out in the streets to acclaim them how they would throw garlands at their feet and testify here comes the great deliverer what should we do for that one who is the great emancipator that one who has delivered us and at such a cost by the cost of his precious blood because he took the prison in a sense for us we have had the door opened that we might escape away and be free what shall we say then what shall be done by us shall not we praise him with all our power shall not we serve him with all our energies could we serve a better master than this will we not by our obedience proclaim that we are his using not our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness but as servants of the Lord

[43:14] Jesus Christ that we might live to him that man might take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus are we going to praise the Lord this day are we going to praise him with all our feelings with all our capacities because we know what he's done for us merits nothing less than this we are moved we're not unfeeling we want a felt religion sometimes our people speak of a felt religion but there's to be no display of any emotion I can't see a felt religion where there's not a real emotion and sometimes we weep and sometimes we laugh we rejoice in these things our captivity is set at naught we are as those that laugh we are as those that cry for joy because Christ the Son hath made us free and we are free indeed we praise the Saviour but we pose the question am I free pose it of your own soul am I free am I made a real Christian washed in the

[44:15] Redeemer's blood have I got a vital union to the church's living head can you say that you are free can you say that you're free from the bondage that sin and put you into that kept you fast from which you could never break free of your own accord can you say he a son of God has made me free can you say that you made a confession of Christ have you have you come to the place where you have sought him with all your heart seek him while he is to be found call you upon and while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let them return unto the Lord for he will have mercy he will abundantly pardon pause that question to your soul have I got an interest in Christ and then Christian are you still going back and then having had the deliverance having been brought into the liberty of Christ by your behavior by your attitude you're going back again into the prison stand fast say Paul to the Galatians in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not entangled again in any yoke of bondage we can go back you can go back to the law you have got a spiritual religion don't go to the law now don't make it works that you're looking to you can be as those that go back to the world we've been broken loose from the world and all its ways it's no more our master we're not to be conformed to this world transformed rather don't go to the world are we becoming worldly is the world filling us is the world squeezing us into its mold is the world enticing us have we got eyes for Christ or have we got eyes for the things of time are we those that in any way are losing our freedom are losing the glory of the gospel losing that which God has in his dear son brought us into for he is made us free and we shall be free indeed or that we might then walk circumspectly redeeming the time because the days are evening and to the captives around us or that we might feel a constraint to bear a testimony to them if the son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed it's said of us that we are indifferent to the gospel

[46:44] I added again this week that it was said of me that I don't preach the gospel my dear friends I don't have to be concerned about these things but nonetheless I want it to be manifestly understood the gospel is preached at this chapel the gospel is preached from this pulpit and if we are those that don't show our concern for the gospel the fault is in us let it be that we having been so delivered and so given that view of a mighty saviour who has delivered us from wrath to come that we might be concerned to make the gospel known in our generation by the way we live and by the words that we may be able to speak knowing that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe may these things be to our soul's prophet to the stirring of our hearts to the praising with our lips of the

[47:51]  God of our salvation and that we might walk in all our ways in all his commandments blameless before him by his grace working in us both to will and to do that which is his good pleasure may God be glorified then in this service may God be glorified in us who bear his name may he be glorified in the saving of sinners the drawing of men and women to Christ for if the son shall make you free he shall be free indeed amen