The Need For The Freedom Jesus Offers

Good morning. One of these days I want to just keep on sitting down and when Tim looks back be like, you're up. See what he does. Do it on April Fool's or something like that. Open your Bibles to John chapter 8. John chapter 8.

We'll read from verse 31 to 47, but we'll cover 39 to 30, or 47 today, Lord willing. So John chapter 8, verse 31. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

See, I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have heard from your father. So they answered him, Abraham is our father. And Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.

You are doing the works your father did. So they said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me. For I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.

Why do you not understand what I say It is because you cannot bear to hear my word You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father desires He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.

Which one of you convicts me of sin? I tell the truth, or if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is because you are not of God. Let us pray. Oh, Father, would you be a help to us this morning?

Would you, Father, give us a desire within our hearts to have your word open up before us and to have a desire to understand it, to know it. And we know that part of understanding and knowing your word is to view our sin in light of it and to have our sin taken care of in light of it. We're so thankful that not only does your word expose our sin and expose the law of God and your righteousness, but it also reveals a very kind and generous and loving Savior of our souls.

And so, Lord, would you have all of these things come together within our own souls? Would you help us to see our own need of Jesus, even as we see the failure of the Jews to see their own need of Jesus? Would you help us to respond to that need of Jesus by going to him, pursuing him, grabbing hold of him, even as he grabs us? Thank you for the good work of the Spirit, for we know without him this would not be possible.

So we thank you for Jesus, we thank you for his kingdom, we thank you for his Spirit. O Lord, would you give us of the Spirit now. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As I get older and get to that point in my age where I was my parents' age when they had me, I remember them growing up. I see more and more the different things that I do, the different thoughts that I have, just different things that come out just kind of naturally out of me.

It's something I've seen before. And as I think about it, I'm like, yes, I saw this in my parents 40 years ago. And it really amazes me as you get older the more and more you start doing natural things that your parents did and you wondered at the time why did they act like that And then all of a sudden it all makes perfect sense And it reminds me of that old saying the apple does not fall far from the tree That's a very true statement, and the older I get, the more I realize just how true that is.

There is a truth in scripture that everything was made after its own kind, as we see in Genesis. And that is no different between parents and children. There is something about being made after the kind of our parents that we just naturally start doing the things that they do, even when we don't even know where it came forth from. The apple does not fall far from the tree.

See, we're in John 8 here, and Jesus is teaching at the Feast of Booths, and he just got done declaring a second thing he gives those who believe upon him. Remember, he says that I can set you free with truth. Remember, that's what he says. I can provide this for anyone who believes upon me. They'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. That's the second thing we've talked about now that Jesus provides for his people.

And even though these Jews believe for a moment, as we saw last time, their belief vanishes since they do not believe they need the freedom Jesus says that they offer. And today in our text, we will see them claim they don't need it. We don't need this freedom. Why? Because they say they're children of Abraham. And they'll say, because we're children of God, and so we already have freedom, we don't need this freedom that you have for us, Jesus.

But we will see Jesus tell them that the apple does not fall far from the tree, and their works and affections show that. They come from a tree that is poison. So they think they do not need the freedom he has to offer, but truly, they do. And this will cause us, as we look at this, hopefully, this morning, this will cause us to ask ourselves, What do my works and what do my affections reveal about what tree I fall from?

Am I seeing my need to take Jesus up on his offer for freedom through his truth? So let us see this play out this morning in verses 39 to 41 to defend the claim that these people do not need the freedom Jesus has to offer. These Jews claim to be Abraham's children. They claim to fall from the tree of Abraham. Look at the text in verse 39 They answered him Abraham is our father right We don need this freedom that you say you have to offer because Abraham is our father Now this is similar to what they initially said when Jesus offered truth and freedom before If you remember, look back at your text in verses 31 through 33 of chapter 8.

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And they're like, we don't need that. Why? They say, we are offspring of Abraham. We've never been a slave to anyone. But notice, highlight the word there, offspring, versus this has something to do with being a child of Abraham.

You see, we talked about this already, but offspring denotes status. These Jews are saying, we have the status of being Abraham's children. And you're going to tell us that we're slaves? This is like telling a king's son that they are a slave instead of royalty. How dare you say such a thing? And so that really, offspring, had to do with the status of the Jews.

They're saying, we are offspring of Abraham. You're telling us we're slaves? So what is wrong with you? But then, you remember, Jesus pointed the direction last time in verses 37 to 38 to, big deal you have the status of being offspring of Abraham. Your works are still terrible. Remember what he said.

I know, in verse 37, that you are offspring of Abraham. Okay, that's your status. I'll admit that. Yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do, highlight do there, your works, You do what you have heard from your father. So now they say, okay, we're children of Abraham, meaning our works are of Abraham, as Abraham did, so we do.

The apple doesn't fall far from, I'm not going to be able to say that right, so just bear with me. Far from the tree? Well, we come from Abraham. That's our works is what they're saying. So it moves from status to works. In other words, they are saying the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, and the tree we fall from is Abraham.

So we don't need this freedom that you have to offer. Not only do we have the status as offspring, but we have the works of Abraham too. But Jesus then shows that this is a false claim. He says, look at verse 39 now, he says, They say, Abraham is our father, we're children of Abraham. 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 3 Peter, 4 Peter, 5 Peter, 6 Peter, 7 Peter, 8 Peter, 9 Peter, 10 The truth that I heard from God.

This isn't what Abraham did. See, Jesus tells them their works are not like Abraham. Therefore, they do not come forth from him as they claim they do. These Jews are seeking to kill Jesus for telling the truth that Jesus said from God. This is the opposite of what Abraham did. You see, when Abraham heard truth from God, what did he do?

Did he have murderous desire within his heart? Did he want to stop the commandments and truth of God at any point that he could? What did Abraham do when he heard truth from God? He believed with obedient faith. That's what Jesus is saying. Abraham heard truth and he obeyed in faith.

You are not doing that right now. You are no children of Abraham. And I think just for a second, let's pause and remember, why do people not want to obey the truth or listen to the truth or hear the truth and respond in faith? What's the deal? Why does that happen? Well, remember Jesus told us in John 7, 18, the last chapter, verse 18, in the same kind of time here at the Feast of Booths, he tells us why people do this.

Remember in John 7 verse 18 he says, The one who speaks on his own authority, therefore not truth, his own falsehood, seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true and in him there is no falsehood. So why did Abraham hear truth and respond in faith? Because he sought the glory of God. Why do people hear truth from God and hate it, have a negative reaction?

It's because they seek their own glory. That is why. That's going to come into play later on. We've got to remind ourselves of that. So therefore, Abraham's work was to want to glorify God, and he found his goodness in God's glory, not in his own glory. So when he heard truth from God, he responded with obedient faith.

Not with murderous hate as Jesus was seeing as he was talking to these people. The writer to the Hebrew shows us two main ways Abraham did this. We could do a whole study on Abraham and see how this played out. When he heard truth he responded in faith right Thus glorifying God having his hope of goodness in him But we just look at a couple here And the writer of the Hebrews shows us two main ways Abraham did this when he was called out from Ur to the promised land And the second way is whenever he was told to sacrifice his only son.

These are two main ways that he did that. So let's turn to Hebrews 11 and look at that for a moment. Hebrews 11, and we'll see that play out. So Hebrews 11, 8 through 10, we have the first way that Abraham obeyed or responded to truth and faith to God for his glory. Hebrews 11, 8 through 10, this is the first way. By faith, the writer of the Hebrews says, Abraham obeyed.

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called, there's truth, to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that had foundations, who designer and builder is God.

You see, he saw his goodness in the truth that God has declared. He found his goodness there. Despite what looked like it wouldn't be there. You know, a man seeking his own glory would have a million reasons not to leave his own hometown for a distant land. A million reasons. I don't even like to vacation outside of the United States.

And if you tell me I had to live outside of the United States, I would have a very hard time with it. I don't even like leaving the Midwest. I like the Midwest. I'm comfortable with the Midwest. I lived in North Carolina once. I remember my neighbor telling me, be careful in your backyard, there's a certain kind of snake that will just kill you, a copperhead.

I'm like, I don't want to be any place where I've got to be careful about dying walking in my own backyard. I don't like to leave even the Midwest, let alone here. Abraham's told, yeah, leave your home and go to this other foreign land in the corner of the world. It would take someone who believes in the truth of God and find his goodness and glorify him there in order to do that.

And we see the next thing that Abraham did which revealed what Jesus said about him. In Hebrews 11, look at the same chapter, 17 through 19. By faith Abraham when he was tested was told to do this he offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his own son of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which he, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. So a man seeking his own glory above all else would never sacrifice his own heir. But a man seeking the glory of God and finding his goodness there would respond to that truth by being willing to do it. But since Abraham responded to truth with a desire to glorify God, seeing his goodness there, he responded with obedient faith.

How did these Jews respond? Back in John 8, how did these Jews respond when Jesus called upon them to forsake where they came from? And follow him. Did they respond with obedient faith? Absolutely not. They wanted to kill Jesus for this.

How did these Jews respond when Jesus called upon them to forsake all worldly possessions, even perhaps an only son, and follow him? Did these Jews respond with obedient faith like Abraham, or wanting to kill Jesus in response to the truth they heard from God? The truth is, the apple does not fall far from the tree. And since Abraham had obedient faith to these truths, these Jews here wanted to kill Jesus for telling them the same truth God revealed to them.

Therefore, they did not fall from Abraham's tree. That's a false claim Jesus is telling them. The truth is, anyone today who does not respond to the gospel with obedient faith Show they fall from the same tree that these unbelieving Jews fall from, and if they had the chance, they would want to kill Jesus too. Because we do not like to be told what to do if it's not with a changed heart that loves the glory of God in Christ.

Oh, give me more Christ. And so when that same authority says you should do this and we hate it, given the chance, an unbeliever would kill him today too. This great book called Ordinary Men that looks at the men who committed the atrocities during World War II from Hitler's troops. And the whole purpose of the book was to show that these men who did all those wicked works against Jews and everyone else they were ordinary men There nothing special about them It not like oh yeah these guys were going to be evil from day one They were ordinary people just like me and you who under certain circumstances did the most wicked things.

And beloved, we have sinful hearts. And given the opportunity, we would kill Jesus too if we are not changed by Christ and given a new tree to belong on. Which is me jumping ahead there. The unbelieving Jews revealed the tree they fell from was not Abraham, since they did not respond to God's truth via Christ with obedient faith, but instead they wanted to kill him and the truth.

They desired their own glory above the glory of God that Jesus called people to. So Jesus foreshadows, moving on, what tree they actually fall from. Look at verse 41. It says, You are doing the works your father did. So that's him again saying this is a tree that you actually fall off from. You're doing the works your father did.

Now, who's their father? Who is he talking about? Well, he doesn't say it yet. We're on suspense, right? In fact, he's already said this before. Remember in verse 38, he says, I speak of what I've seen with my father, and you do what you heard from your father.

And he didn't mention who that father is. Now, we can all, I think we all know where he's getting at here, but he hasn't explicitly said it yet. And he says the same thing here. You don't fall off Abraham's tree. You fall off your own father's tree. Now he's going to say what that is explicitly in a moment.

But first, we're going to see another attempt at them, at the unbelieving Jews to claim that they do the works of another. Look at verses 41 through 43 there. This is, they claim to fall off the tree of God. They do the works of God. Look again at verse 41. They said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality.

We have one father, even God. Right? 1 Abraham, and Jesus says, nuh-uh. Now they say, we have one God, one Father, and that's even God. They're claiming to fall off the tree of God here, that, hey, like God, like us, we do the works of God, is what they're saying. But notice how before they make that claim, they said something kind of nasty to Jesus, right?

Kind of underhanded. It looks like it's, now, some commentators wonder, is this pointed to Jesus, or are they making some other remark? I think that they are trying to slam Jesus here. They say we were not born of sexual immorality. You can imagine them saying we were not born of sexual immorality. Sexual immorality like someone we know, wink wink you, they're most likely referring to the fact that Mary had Jesus before Joseph and Mary got married.

That might have been the talk of the town a little bit. This is supposed to be the prophet, the Messiah. Well, you know, you hear that Mary wasn't even married whenever she had him. They're saying Jesus has a father he came from and a different father he was raised by, more than one father. And they say, we have one father, that is God. The truth is Mary conceived as a virgin miraculously from the Holy Spirit to produce Jesus, but they put a sinister spin on it, and that's what an unbeliever will do.

The most beautiful truth is that our Savior was born from a virgin by promise, and the unbeliever will spit on it with such ignorant attacks like we see here. There's nothing new. It's what they do. And what they are doing is not only saying, that is the unbelieving Jews, they're not only saying they are not in need of the freedom Jesus has to offer, because they are from the tree, a good tree, they're from Abraham, they're from God, but they are also saying it is suspect that Jesus can provide freedom in the first place when he was born from sexual immorality.

Who are you to give us freedom? The one who has more than one father. So after attacking Jesus in their ignorance, they then try to claim they come from a good tree once more. They say, again in verse 41, we have one father, even God. Saying we do not need this freedom you claim you can give since we are already children of God. But like Jesus did with the previous claim of being children of Abraham, Jesus dismantles this claim by saying this in verse 42.

Look at your text. Jesus said to them, it's a similar way he's talking here, if God were your father, you would love me. For I came from God and I'm here. I've arrived. He says, I came not of my own accord, but God sent me. So it's a similar argument, right?

It has a similar feel. Before he said, if you're Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. You don't, therefore you're not Abraham's children. And he's saying, if you were children of God, you would love me because I come forth from God and you don't love me. Therefore you don love God You not his children See Jesus was and is an extension of God the Father or of God right Jesus came as the final prophet the final messenger the culmination of it But even further than that, Jesus, we read from Hebrews 1, is the exact imprint of God.

Remember what Hebrews 1, 3 says, He, that is Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So how silly is it that they would say we're children of God, i.e. we love God, he loves us, when the very embodiment, the exact imprint of God is before them and they hate him.

What does that say about their love or lack of love for God? You know, you remember when the, well, I don't remember, I wasn't alive yet, but I've read about it. The revolution that happened in Iran that we're seeing the fruit of now. The revolution that happened in Iran in the 70s. You know how we knew they hated America? It's when they took our representatives in the ambassadory and they imprisoned them.

That's a good indication that they hate America. It'd be kind of foolish for us to say, well, they treat our representatives pretty bad, but maybe they love us. Or imagine Jimmy Carter going to Iran and saying, hey, they love us, it's okay. What would they do with him? The fact is we can see their love or hatred for America by how they treated the representatives, the very embodiment of America there in Iran.

Well, these people show that they're not truly children of God because of the way they're treating the very extension of God. They're treating Jesus or their lack of love for them. So the last point of their works not being Abraham's finds its source here in what they love. They didn't do the works of Abraham because they don't have love for God. The lack of love for God is a source for their lack of works like Abraham's works.

Love is the driving force behind the works we do. Our consistent works or actions will show where our affections are. Now it important to note that it not a matter of the unbelieving Jews not having affection or love It not a matter of they have no affection These unbelieving Jews have no love no affection They have affection The question is is where is that affection directed God created us to have affection, and we will.

Everyone has love and affection in their souls. It's not a matter of if we have affection. It's a matter to whom it is directed. The unbeliever's affection is directed at their own glory, as we talked about just a moment ago. The unbeliever's affection that they have is always directed at their own glory. And their works will then reflect that.

The believer's affection is directed at God's glory, enabled and understood through Jesus Christ, and their works will reflect that. And so Jesus says, I'm here, and you have no love. That's because Jesus was calling people to come to the glory of God and not their own. And this is always the reason for unbelief. If you get to the central source or reason for it, it is not all the lame excuses the unbeliever will tell you.

It is because the call is to not deny self and follow Christ to the glory of God. And since they have no love for God or his glory, they hate it. I want to be careful, even in our as Christians, as many of us are here, when we fall in sin, it's because we are following suit. We don't want God's glory. We want our own here. So we're going to practice it.

People love their own glory, not God's. And what Jesus is saying is, you don't love me because you love your own glory. And so therefore, you're no children of God. Jesus then tells them what tree they actually fall from now. After he says, nope, not Abraham, nope, not God, this is the tree you actually fall from. Look at verses 44 and 45.

Look at 44. He says, you, in chapter 8, 44, are of your father, the devil. There it is. Boom. He said it, right? He said it before.

You follow your father, you follow your father. Your father is the tree you fall from. And now here he explicitly says it. He says, you are of your father, the devil. You can imagine how explosive that is. He's talking to unbelieving Jews.

He's talking to the religious leaders. And he says your father is the devil That would have blown their own mind everyone mind How can you tell us that the religious leaders if anyone got it figured out it certainly them How can you tell us that their father is the devil He says, you are of your father the devil. The tree they fall from is the devil's tree.

They have a, look at what he says, a will, and your will is to do your father's desires. They have a will or an affection or a love to do, or the works that they do, his desire. So their affection is not for God and their work is not after Abraham's. Their will is for what Satan wills or desires. That's their affection. And they do what Satan desires.

That's their action. That's the tree they actually fall from. What exactly is the desire of the devil? What is it? Well, he goes on to say what it is. He says in 844, he says, He, that is the devil, that is the tree you fall from, he says, he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth.

Remember, that's what he offers, truth that sets free. Well, this one is a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character For he is a liar and the father of lies. You see, he, that is Satan, murdered. How did Satan murder? Well, certainly physically.

We know that Adam died physically in all his posterity. But I think what Jesus has in mind is Satan murders spiritually. Satan's whole goal, everything that he's doing, he doesn't care which politician's in office or whatever thing's going on. His whole goal is to make you not be close and near to God, which is spiritual life. So he murders, he creates spiritual death, which is the greatest problem all humanity has, is that we're at odds with God without Christ.

He murders, he creates that rift, and he does it by being the father of lies, deception. That's how he creates that spiritual death. You think about in the garden, did God really say a bunch of lies so that they would disobey and become enemies of God? This is how Satan operates. He murders spiritually and he does it by lies and deception. And he still does it today.

Murder here has to do more with spiritual death than physical. The devil murdered Adam and his entire race in the garden when he brought spiritual death to the world. Spiritual death is going from a loving relationship with the one who has made you centered on righteousness to animosity centered on sin. That's spiritual death. And the goal of Satan is always to bring people away from God through sin and lies.

Notice people are always in deception when they're in sin. They're never fully aware of the whole situation, are they? This is what's good for me. This is what I am created to do, and this will be my happiness. But really, it's falsehood, deception. It pulls you away from God, and you don't even know what's going on fully.

This is Satan's final goal. Spiritual death through lies. And he does it by being opposed to the truth or having a world filled with deception and lies. So since the chief end of man, our greatest end, the greatest good we can have is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Anytime someone is not doing that, it is not because they are making a rational decision as we've talked about before.

It is because they are being murdered by Satan through a world of lies. That's why. And it's not hard to convince the world right now if you notice that they're being lied to. If you notice that conspiracies abound. I'm so tired of it. But nevertheless, there is something that people understand.

I'm being lied to. Like, that's just natural. I'm being lied to. And what's sad, what it produces is a bunch of conspiracies about everything. We can't have any major event anymore without a billion conspiracies come out. But nevertheless, there is something true.

They are being lied to. We are all being lied to by a higher force that wants something very sinister for us. And that is they want us to be separated from God, and the whole world is working for that to destroy you spiritually. It's all operating to do that one thing. So it's true. There is a conspiracy, so to speak.

It's Satan on high wanting to destroy your relationship with God, and he's at work to do that very thing. And the unbelieving Jews before them reveal they are living in that world by thinking they have proper works and affections which cause them to not need Jesus freedom And this is what Jesus says But because I tell you the truth you do not believe me He saying you are of Satan You are in his lies. You do what he desires.

You desire death with God. You're not of God. You are in his system of lies. You come forth from that tree. And the most remarkable thing about their deception is when Jesus says, I am here. I'm here to free you from this.

Come to me and believe and you'll be freed from this. What do they say? We don't need you. We have this, that, and the other. And how often, remember before you were a Christian, how many excuses did you have? And how many excuses do you hear from the unbeliever?

How many excuses do you make even when you're caught in sin now as a believer? It's so easy for us to be in this deception. And this is what Jesus is saying. Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Because you come from Satan, your father. And so finally, Jesus teaches about the tree we need to fall from, and that is himself.

Look at verse 46 now. He starts by saying, which one of you convicts me of sin? Now he's focusing on himself, the proper tree. He says, which one of you convicts me of sin? He says, where their works, that is the unbelieving Jews, are not after Abraham, but after the father of lies, no one can convict Jesus of sin, could they? Truly.

Even today, most would agree that Jesus was a righteous man. You hear that often. This is a side point. I don't want to lose focus, but it's amazing that you'll hear people say, he was a righteous man. But yet, would a righteous man say, I am God, and you need to believe me with everything and obey me in everything? That's a psychopath if it's not true.

So it doesn't even make any sense that Jesus would be a righteous man yet claim to be God and says, you need to follow me with everything, right? And so here, though, the truth is, Jesus says, which of you convicts me of sin? People couldn't. He was flawless, perfect, and righteous. They would have felt that, experienced that, even as they faced Jesus, that this man is righteous.

Jesus isn't simply saying he doesn't sin and that he comes from, I'm sorry, 1 1 The point of Jesus is to say I am not a sinner I don have that problem My works aren evil My works don come from But he not saying see I have fallen from the tree of Abraham What he going to develop by the end of this chapter is Abraham fell off of my tree or he believed upon me I am the source of Abraham's goodness. Look at chapter 8, verses 56-58. We'll see that play out.

He says in 56-58, Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, You are yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. That's him, Jesus, saying, I'm above Abraham. He came forth from me, and faith to me, he received righteousness in those works that you claim to have.

I am the source of that. The fact is, since the fall of Adam, we all come forth from a rotten tree that is led by Satan's murderous lies. And our only hope is to be like Abraham and put our trust in Jesus to be grafted into a new tree. A tree of truth and righteousness. A life of glorifying God and not self. That is the tree of Jesus who knew no sin yet became sin on our behalf.

And yet he says in verse 46 and 47, here's the great problem. He says, yet if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. He says, the problem is people led by the devil have affection for self and not God. They're not of God.

And so they will naturally hate the word of truth that offers a way out of that very trap into freedom. Forgiveness of sins and life and righteousness. They'll have a natural reaction against it because of the lies that they're in being from Satan. So as we conclude here, whether you are a non-believer or a believer caught in sin, what does your works and your affections as of late say about what tree you fall from?

Whether you're an unbeliever or you're a believer and you're caught in sin, And then, or all of you, we should consider, what do my works, what does my affections say about the tree that I fall from? And if we find ourselves, my affections have been not for God and his glory at all. My works have then reflected that in the way that I have acted in secret or even in public in my family in my house What do your affections what do your works say about what tree you fall from And we in some ways find ourselves wanting very often, don't we?

And the first thing we need to do is understand that in our sin, someone is lying to you. Our culture doesn't have a problem with that concept. But the one that is lying to you is satanic forces. And since we are fallen in Adam, we so naturally like to bark up that tree. He will tell you that it is for your good to seek your own glory, not the glory of Christ, God in Christ.

And we will so often try to believe it. So when we find ourselves in sin, the practice of it, it can happen all of a sudden, we wake and there we are. First thing you need to tell yourself is someone is telling me lies, falsehoods, not truth, about what my greatest good is. And second, the goal of his lies are not cute. They are to murder you. They are to kill you.

They are to drive a wedge between you and the one who's made you so you can enjoy him forever in righteousness. His goal is to do your worst. The worst thing he could do to you, that's what his goal is for you. First step, understand someone's lying to you. Second step, understand he wants to kill you. So there is a force who runs this world who has as his number one objective to lie to you, to get your affections and works to glorify yourself and not God.

And all of us are born off of this tree and we will have works and affections that show it unless we are grafted into the tree of our blessed Savior, Jesus Christ. Next, Jesus has established a kingdom of righteousness rooted in truth that whoever believes and follows him will have forgiveness of sins and power to walk after his own image by the spirit he grants to those who trust in him. It's not like Jesus came to earth and a side quest was to give us help.

His whole purpose was to help you, beloved, to get out of the falsehoods and get into truth by his mercies and grace. That was why he came. Believe upon him and be grafted into this blessed tree. John 15, let's read that as we close here. John 15, look at that. John 15, verses 1 through 11.

Look at this tree we can be grafted into and produce the works and effect. They are in keeping with this blessed tree. John 15, 1-11 I am, Jesus says to his disciples, the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch of me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he will prune, that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you, and abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire of hell and burned.

But if you abide in me, in my words, abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so also I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Let us pray. Oh God, we thank you for Jesus Christ the Lord. We thankful God that we no longer have to be caught in lies and deception of Satan Lord just like the religious leaders just like the unbelieving Jews can have all these excuses of why we don need the freedom of Christ and we can even live like that while we are practicing sin But I'm so thankful, Lord, that we can, because of the truth of Christ, we can recognize that dirty works, those bad works, and those bad affections, And we can then entrust ourselves to Jesus who would never sin and grants us righteousness by his death and resurrection.

Would you help all of us in this room to believe upon him now, in this moment? What a great promise it is from Jesus here that if we ask anything in his name, we will receive it. So Lord, why wouldn't we ask for us to be near and close to you through Jesus now? Why wouldn't we ask for our works to be realigned, that's in keeping with your glory, no longer ours?

Why would we not ask that our affections would be turned for what is good and righteous because it comes forth from you? Why would we ask for anything less than this great promise that you have offered us in Christ Jesus the Lord? So as we see our works and our affections wanting, as the unbelieving Jews here, May we respond by seeing the tree of Christ and believing upon him and being grafted into it so that we produce good works and we have proper affections for you.

Oh Lord, thank you for this help. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for his mercy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.