Would you take your bibles, please, and turn again to John chapter 8 where Jesus talks this morning about the truth that will set us free. One of the most difficult things I think in life is to see ourselves with self-awareness. To see ourselves the way we really are rather than the way we'd like to be. Or to put it another way to see ourselves as God sees us. It's just very difficult to let me show you how difficult it is. You probably heard the story, but there were three preachers. Their names were John and Bernie and Mike. And they took up golf. They felt that they were under a lot of pressure. They needed some relief. And so they took up golf. And on the very first day they were out on the length lightning came down and struck them and killed them all. So they appeared instantly before Saint Peter still in their golf clubs. Bernie's iron was still smoking. He was the lightning rod and Peter said, well I see you boys like to golf. And they said, well, honestly we've just, Peter, we've just taken it up. We don't, we can't really say that we're great golfers. He said no problem. He said, we have the heavenly links up here. And the nice thing about this is everybody shoots a perfect score. Whenever you golf you shoot 18. And you have the links all to yourself. There are no rules. You never have to wait on anybody. You can talk while other people putt you can do whatever you want. We just have one rule on this golf course. There are some celestial ducks. And you can't hurt or touch or bother the ducks. So they said, okay. So the very first day John was teaming off first and he hit this terrible slice. He was over by the pond and it hit the duck. And Peter came and he appeared instantly before them. And he had a very mean ugly looking woman with him with handcuffs. And he said, John, now I said that you couldn't touch the ducks. What I didn't tell you that there were dire consequences for doing so. And he shackled this woman to John's wrist. And he said, you're going to have to spend the rest of eternity with this woman. They were gone. So Bernie looked at Mike and said, nobody would be careful about these ducks. So they got off a little bit more. They went on for three or four months and then Bernie over shot a green one day. And he hit a duck and he killed it. Well, Saint Peter appears. This time he had something that looked somewhat like the Obama little small man with him. And some handcuffs and he said, Bernie, I thought you men understood that you couldn't touch the ducks, let alone kill them. So you will spend eternity shackled to this monster for the rest of your eternity. And Bernie was gone. Well, Mike was left by himself and he was always the most cautious of the three because he was a senior pastor in his previous life. And he learned how you could get in trouble simply by telling some jokes about ugly women and a mixed crowd. So he was very cautious. In fact, he gave up golf and he took up putt putt. And after several months, he was finishing his 110th round of the day of putt putt. And he was going into the clubhouse. Peter appeared with this most beautiful woman from Jackson, Mississippi named Jane. And he said to Peter, what have I done to deserve this? And before Peter could say anything, Jane said, well, I don't know about you, but I hit a duck. Having a proper perspective of yourself is more difficult than we realize. And that's what Jesus Christ is going to talk about this morning in John chapter eight. It's really the second part of an argument that he's happening with the leaders of the Jewish people. One of the dangers I think in this passage is to look at this passage and say, all those Jews that they had just listened to Jesus Christ will listen to Leslie Nubigan. He says, the reader is required to face still more in escapeably, the meaning of the statement that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not and cannot either comprehend or overpower it. We evade the whole thrust of this passage if we fail to recognize that the Jews are simply the representation of ourselves. We are dealing here with the deepest issue of the human heart in the presence of God's revealing Himself in Jesus Christ. The reader has missed the whole point if he does not realize that Jesus is speaking to Him. It's a difficult thing to see ourselves the way Jesus Christ does. And at first, it's a painful thing, but you know, it's a liberating thing. Because that's what Jesus says in verse 31. Notice that after he had this discussion about being the light of the world in verse 30, it says, and as you were saying these things, many believed in Him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in 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. That statement, that simple statement that abiding in the word of God and being a disciple of Jesus Christ, would lead to great spiritual freedom, the freedom of the truth, upset many people who heard it. Now remember that we're in the middle of a long passage. This story about Jesus Christ preaching in the temple at the Feast of Time. It begins actually in chapter 7, verse 1. It goes all the way to chapter 10, verse 21. It's the longest pericopy or story or vignette about Jesus Christ in all of the gospels. It is also the most intense. Because in the middle of this story, Jesus has an argument that is incredibly confrontational. In fact, loved ones, it just turns ugly. It just gets ugly. Remember what Jesus is saying? He came to this great feast, and when he saw the ceremony of the pouring of the water, he said, if anyone comes to me and believes in me, I will cause rivers of living water to spring from his innermost beings. Then as he saw the lighting of the ceremony, what's called the illumination of the temple, he stood up under those big candolabras and the court of women, and he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever believes in me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of light. And the Jewish leaders realized that Jesus Christ was making very plain and unashamed claims to be the Messiah. The light of the world that Isaiah had promised, the living water that Hosea in Joel, the prophets, had spoken about. He said, I am the one who comes with this living water, the Holy Spirit, and this light of revelation in myself. And they took offense at what he said. And they argued with him at every single point until finally Jesus comes and says, you know, enough arguing, if you simply believe the truth, the truth will set you free. And that leads to the most ugly confrontation he ever has with anybody in his three-and-a-half years of public ministry while he was on this earth. Now what caused all this? Well, there were some things going on in the life of Jesus Christ that if we read the gospels carefully, explain why the confrontations got more intense, more ugly, and more deadly as Jesus Christ went on in time. Number one, John the Baptist was dead. By this time John the Baptist had been dead almost a year, and John the Baptist gave a covering, a shield to Jesus Christ, because he was immensely popular. For some reason, even the leaders of the Pharisees loved John the Baptist. And in a very real sense, Jesus Christ in the first two years of his ministry, operated under the protection and shield of John's public reputation, so much so that in John chapter five, when the Jewish leaders were rejecting Jesus, he said, you called to John and you saw him as a messenger and you rejoiced to bask in his light for a season. But now John was gone. And with the leaving of John, the popularity of Jesus began to diminish. Here's the second thing that was happening. Jesus Christ is six months away from his crucifixion. And the closer he gets to the cross-loved ones, the less miracles he does and the more teaching he does. Most of the people came to Jesus Christ for a free lunch, for a healing, for a cleansing, for deliverance from a spirit. They came there sometimes, they would walk for days to have a miracle performed, to be healed or helped in some divine way. And when Jesus Christ did not do it and preached a sermon, they became angry. He wasn't giving them what they'd come for. And thirdly, as Jesus Christ reached these last six months of his life, he became more and more adamant about the truth. Now think of it folks, let's say that you knew today that in six months you would be dead. Your life would take on a sober note unknown in any of the previous years of your life. And there would be things you would want to say to loved ones, especially loved ones whom you feared did not know God and were not going to go to heaven when they died. There would be an intensity and a bluntness about you. You would be concerned about whether people liked you anymore, or whether you'd be invited back to the country club, or whether your family thought you'd become a religious fanatic or not. That you had merely a number of days and time was clicking away and the end was coming, and that is how it is with Jesus Christ. And the more he concentrates on the truth, the more alienated the masses become. Until eventually, six months later, they would say, crucify him, let his blood be on us and on our children. Give us barabas and do away with this fellow and they would kill him. You know Paul encountered some of the same thing when he said to the Galatians, have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? What a sad question. In Galatians 4.16, literally have I become your enemy by dealing truthfully with you? And the answer is, unfortunately, yes, sometimes the truth makes people angry. And so Jesus says, 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 with that statement, he alienated the leaders and they, in just a matter of a few verses, will pick up stones to attempt to put him to death. But in this last part of his confrontation with them, Jesus tells us three things. The truth liberates us from sin. The truth legitimizes us as God's children. The truth leads us on to spiritual life forever. Three things about the truth. First of all, the truth liberates us from spiritual bondage or slavery to sin. Look at verses 31 through 38. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in 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. They answered him, we are offspring of Abraham, and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus answered them, truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The sun remains forever. So with the sun set 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. I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have heard from your father. Jesus, along with His apostles, often speak of sin being a power to bring us under slavery or bondage or imprisonment. Sin, legalism, the world, all these things have great imprisoning and slaving powers. And here Jesus says, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin, verse 34. So Jesus is promising a liberation from sin. But because these Jewish leaders are still in darkness, they are not in the light because they have not believed in Jesus Christ. His metaphor remains a confusion to them. And so he says, a slave does not remain in the house forever. A son remains forever. One of the marks he says is someone who is spiritually free is they have moved from bondage into sonship. And a slave abides in the house. He abides in the word until he has had enough. And then he seeks to escape. But a son finds his freedom in his father's house under his father's word. Now folks, that should mean a lot more to us than it does to the people he's speaking to in John chapter 8. Because we are familiar with the story of the prodigal son. It's an amazing story. It's not a story about legalism. It's a story about someone who was lost and needed to be found. There's in that chapter 15 of Luke a lost sheep that is found, a lost coin that is found, and a lost son who is found. But the amazing story about the prodigal son, listen to me children, this applies to you especially young people. I have to follow all these rules. I have to read the Bible with him every day and I have to go to synagogue with him all the time. And I have to work on the farm. I'd have a lot more freedom if I just took my inheritance and left. And so he did. He did not remain in the father's house. He left. And what was the end result? He became a slave. He became a bondsman to a pig farmer and ended up living in the slop with pigs longing to eat pig food. Until he said, my father's slaves, my father's servants have it better than I do. I will arise and go to my father and say, I am not worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your bonded servants. Slavery in my father's house is greater than freedom in the far country. And Jesus said an intelligent person, a spiritual person, a person in whom the word of God has penetrated the soul. So they realize that the slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son remains forever. There is freedom in the word of God. How so? Because it is that word of God that causes a person to be born again. Their born out of slavery, Paul says, in Galatians 3 and 4, and they become a child of God. The master they once feared, the father they once thought was so confining and so unreasonable, so demanding, and so constricting now becomes a father, a tender word of affection and trust. Because they have become a new creature in Christ, they have gone from slavery to sonship, and they have been adopted as God's children. Paul says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless, in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. They are born again and become new creatures, they are adopted in the God's family, they now bear the name of God, their name of Christ, they are Christians, little Christs, with all the rights and privileges and blessings that go along with it. A son is a slave who has been born again, adopted into the God's family, given God's name and is free indeed. If the son will make you free, you shall be free indeed. Jesus says, in this discussion, Jesus talks about sin in a way that is enlightening to us, no pun intended. Here's the first thing he tells us about sin. Sin is not something you can manage. Sin is not something you can manage. See, that's one of the things in our therapeutic age, we think we can dabble a little bit with our pet sins and still keep them under control. Jesus says, that's not true. Sin has an awesome and raw power and a little bit of sin leads to a whole lot of bondage. Paul would warn us in Romans 6 that sin has the power to have dominion over us, my friends, the Bible never talks about managing sin, the Bible all talks about fleeing from sin. Sin is not something to be managed. It's something to be feared and avoided. There's also this particular truth, Jesus is emphasizing here, that the freedom we seek is found in the obedience to the Word of God. If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth. That is you will know this Word and the truth. The Word of God will set you free. How ironic that enslavement to the Word brings spiritual freedom, because it brings us under the dominion and influence of the Holy Spirit. This river of living water that Jesus Christ had just promised to those who come out of darkness into light and who abide in faith in Christ in the Word. This Paul would say later, now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So it's really gospel obedience that leads to freedom of grace. Not the reason I often say, I'm free to do whatever I want. Well, I guess in a sense you are, but whatever you may want to do, if it's not the Word of God will inevitably lead to a worst bondage. Then being the slave of God through Jesus Christ. Here may be the hardest thing to accept, and this is what the Pharisees really take exception at. When they say, we are Abraham's offspring and we have never been the slaves of anyone Jesus says, I know you are the sons of Abraham. And yet you are unable to receive my Word. Let me paraphrase what Jesus is saying. I know that you are Jews. You were Orthodox Jews, so you wouldn't be in the temple at the High Holy Day. You are the fundamentalistic, conservative, reformed evangelical Jews of your time. You were deeply religious, but your religion has become your bondage. Why would Jesus say that? Because when we construct a religion, that religion will inevitably reinforce who we are and protect us from things that we feel are a danger to our self-image, to our self-esteem, to our self-actualization. And in the end, that religion will have at the center of the self, me, and it will be my way of managing life, even managing God, who can be threatening at times. And the walls that I establish to keep the world out and influences out that I perceive were a danger, or things to me that are unsettling, that wall that keeps God out makes me a prisoner and keeps me in, so that I am unable to hear the Word of God, to respond to it. One commentator said, the man who is not able to receive his freedom as a gift of pure grace is not yet free. And as long as I'm managing my life, as long as it's about me and my family and my kids and my career and God blessing me in this life, it's all about I, I, I, me. And that is the worst slavery of all, the bondage to self. And the very thing that I've built to protect myself has protected me from Jesus Christ. I know what I'm talking about. When I was first converted, the free grace of God was so easy to receive because I was full of a recognition of how simple, and dirty and needy I was of the grace of Jesus Christ, but then I read the Bible and gained some information. I went to seminary, I dressed up, and I became respectable. I became an evangelical. And my evangelical religion has often kept the Holy Spirit in a distance, and it's only one that flood of living water washes over those walls of religious protection, breaks them down and penetrates the inner sanctum of me, myself, and mine that revival comes. I prefer not to go into detail, but I can tell you that what I'm saying is true, that the living waters of the Spirit can be kept from flowing into my life, my space, my soul, by all of the religious duties and beliefs and religious fortress that I've constructed, and it's only when the Holy Spirit breaks through the renewal and refreshment and reviving takes place. Jesus says, I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. My word cannot get through the layers of your fortress into the inner sanctum to change you and set you free. I speak of what I have seen with my father, and you do what you have heard from your father. Jesus sets them up for a response he knows is coming, and here it comes, they take exception to the fact that he and they both being Jews have a different father. So that leads Jesus to the second truth about the gospel. The gospel truth legitimizes our spiritual sonship. They answered him verse 39, Abraham is our father. 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 were doing the works that your father did. They said to him, we are 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 in my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? Is it because you cannot bear to hear my word? You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of all lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God, here's the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. You talk about getting ugly. Jesus says, I am telling you what I have seen and heard from my father, but he is not your father. They shoot back with indignation, wait a minute, buster. Where Jesus just like you Abraham is our father. And Jesus said, well, if Abraham is your father, why don't you act like Abraham? Jesus is actually quoting for them. He is paraphrasing a proverb. The proverb is chapter 20, verse 11, even a child is known by his actions. Old King James has it this way, even a child is known by his doings. If you were of God, you would do the deeds of God. You would respond to truth and to life. But as it is, since you are not of God, you were doing the deeds of your father, which is not truth in life, but lying in death for your father is the devil, who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning. It gets really ugly because they say to him, we are not a bastard like you. That's what they actually say. It says, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham. And they said, we were not born of sexual immorality. If you have the new American standard, we were not born of fornication. We know about your supposed virgin birth. Why don't you stop lying and tell us that your mother was an immoral woman and that you were born an illegitimate child. In Hebrew, in the Hebrew religion, in Judaism, illegitimate child had no place in the sanctuary. Couldn't go there. You're earning belong in this room, they said, this temple. And you, an illegitimate son, could never be a prophet or a rabbi. You have no place telling us anything. You come from a filthy family and you are a liar. Well, Jesus is like any good Jewish boy. Do things he will not let happen. He will not let you talk bad about his mama or shame his daddy. He will not let you take glory from God away from the virgin birth and shame his mother Mary, the most honorable woman in all of the Bible. He was conceived by God through the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin and he will not let people say anything other, not because of him. He doesn't really care what they call him. He is protecting the honorable's mother and the glory of his eternal father. He said, that is not true. But while we're talking frankly, let me tell you something. You are not of Abraham. You were of your father, the devil. Because the devil majors in two things. Murder, and you are going to try to kill me. In the lies, because he does not have the truth in his nature, whenever he speaks, he speaks a lie, for he speaks from his own depraved nature. Jesus Christ is applying to these people a threefold test to see whether they are really children of God. Step number one, a test number one. He said, you are not of God because you do not receive my word and therefore you are unable to love me as one who has come from God. Look at verses 42 and 43. 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 on my own, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. Second test, a child is known by his doings. And if we do saints will, then we're certainly not the father. He said, you are of your father, the devil. And your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and that's nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, free as a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Thirdly, you have insulated yourselves against the word of God so that you cannot hear God, your father speak. Jesus is saying you don't even know the voice of your father when he speaks to you. Verse 46 and 47, which one of you convicts me of sin? And 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. This is what Jesus is saying. As long as you are trying to manage your life, as long as you're in that religious fortress and you're in the very center, then you are the God of your own life. And that is what your father, the devil, wanted to always be. He wanted to be God. And unless you put Jesus Christ in the center of your life in religion, you will never know God. And you will always be like the devil deceiving yourself and killing anyone who would tell you otherwise. This is a sober thing Jesus is saying. He's calling us to a radical re-centering of our lives, all of ourselves and our kids, all of our careers and our causes, all of our sports and recreations, and onto Jesus Christ. And the only way that can happen is to acknowledge who Jesus Christ really is. Another thing Jesus tells us about the truth, it acknowledges Christ for who He is and leads to eternal spiritual life, verse 48. Did you's answered him, are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I do not have a demon. But I honor my father and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it and he is the judge. Truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. Did you said to him, now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died and I did the prophets. And yet you say if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham who died and the prophets died? Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me of whom you say, he is our God. But do you have not known him? I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So that you said to him, you are not yet 50 years old. And have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hit himself and went out of the temple. Now here's what's happening. There's this whole discourse and this ugly confrontation, this argument comes to a climax.
Whenever someone is losing an argument, they always resort to name calling. They've run out of logical reasons why the other person could be wrong and they're right. And so they say to him, isn't it true what everybody says that you're a Samaritan and you have a demon? In other words, you're a half-breed Jew and you're possessed of a devil. Jesus said, no, I don't have a demon, but I glorify and honor my father and you do not honor him. So when you said I was born of fornication, you dishonored my father, who gave me virgin birth through a chaste, God-fearing Jewish woman. And I naturally always come to my father's defense as you do. But if you believed what I had to say, you would never die. They said, now we know that you're crazy. You're not even 50 years old. Abraham died 2,000 years ago and you're telling us that you're greater than Abraham. He died, but you're going to live forever. All the prophets died, you're going to live forever. Jesus said, well Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Abraham died hoping that I would come and save him from his sins. They said, you have seen Abraham? You young buck still in your mid-30s have seen Abraham? And he said, well, as long as I'm talking about the truth, I might as well just tell you the whole truth. Before Abraham ever existed, Yahweh, before Abraham existed, I was Abraham's God and I am your God. And so they take up stones to kill him for blasphemy. And yet my friends the truth is the truth. Jesus is God. He is the Son of God, the divine second person of the Trinity, and he has come into the world to save us from our sins. Every statement Jesus makes, they contradict. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. We have never been slaves. We are Abraham's children. We're Jews. They've somehow forgot the Babylonian captivity. I speak from my father. Oh, so Abraham, God is your father. Well, Abraham's our father. You were doing what your father did. Well, at least we're not illegitimate children like you, bastards in the temple trying to pretend that there's some holy prophet. You were of your father, devil, and you're a demon possessed subaritan. If you believe me, you would never die. I tell you, you're gonna die right now because we're going to stone you to death. At every turn, at every phrase, when Jesus Christ gives them the truth, they chafe against it. Why? Because they had not yet received the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised in chapter 7. If anyone comes to me, if anyone comes in faith, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink for whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart, will flow rivers of living water. This is eternal life. Jesus said that you know Jesus Christ and the father who sent him and that you received the gift of the Holy Spirit who will cause you to become alive, to be born again on the inside. To move from slavery to the family of God, to become a son instead of a slave, to know the freedom and to abide in the father's house. This is what a Christian looks like. This is what spiritual self-awareness causes us to measure ourselves against, and it's difficult. It's difficult for the homely golfer who thought he was a handsome treasure, difficult for the young Catholic boy who thought his religion was his way to heaven. Well, in a sense, he used it to keep God at a distance and manage life and God. It's difficult for the man who needs to be born again, needs to come into the freedom of the Spirit and doesn't understand what I'm talking about. It's difficult for the Christian who's lost the divine center of his life, and unlike the early years of his life as a new convert, Jesus is no longer at the center, the self is at the center. Now let me ask you the question that Paul asked, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? No, I'm your friend, and I'm your pastor. Have I become arrogant? No, I've been the brunt of my own jokes. Have I scolded you? No, I've used myself as the example of how all these things could happen. Have I been hard on you? Yes, because I want you to go to heaven when you die. It's just that simple. And I want you to have at the center of your life right now, Jesus Christ, so that you have this abundant life that He came to give us. And the only way to receive that is to ask yourself these questions, am I truly free, free indeed in Jesus Christ, or have my old sins kept me in daily bondage and my religion become a prison house that refuses to let me grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ? Secondly, am I really God's child? What shapes the center of my life? If a child is known by his doings, do I look like my father in heaven, my older brother, or not? And do I have the gift of eternal life? Am I absolutely certain that when I die, I will not meet Saint Peter on a golf course, but I will meet my older brother, Jesus Christ, who will introduce me to my father, who is in heaven. How do I be his name? The only way to answer those questions is to receive the living water of the Holy Spirit. First, perhaps to be born again, to become a Christian. Then perhaps to experience deliverance from spiritual bondage, the waters of the Spirit that can wash all that away, make you feel free and clean once again. Or the Holy Spirit who can penetrate the inner core of your religious fortress, placing himself at the center and giving you the joy of living in your father's house. We don't give altar calls here much, but I do this morning. If after we sing this, closing him, if you want to come down here, any Sunday, this Sunday, any Sunday, and kneel at these benches or sit in these pews, then the pastors and the elders will keep an eye out, will come down here and will meet with you. It's a little bit invasive for Presbyterian, isn't it? Asking us to do something a little more than head knowledge before we go home, but I have just offered you the gift of eternal life by the authority of Christ and your father. And if you want that, you want that freedom, you want a Christ-centered life in religion, you come down after we sing, and you can leave here free indeed. Amen? Father, we want to thank you for being a God who deals decisively with our sins and with our self-deceptions. Sometimes we love you, but sometimes you make us uncomfortable. And this particular passage is hard. It's hard to preach, it's hard to hear. It was difficult and hard for Jesus to say, to have this kind of a frank confrontation with us, but He did so because He loves us, as He loves those people in the temple, so He loves us in our churches. And He offers us this living water. He offers us the light of the world. He offers us the truth that will set us free in a place in the Father's household and liberty and joy and cleansing forevermore. Draw those this morning to yourself and to Jesus Christ whom you have chosen to be with you today and give us the joy of our salvation and sustain us with the willing spirit and give us the orientation of a Christ-centered life and all of its liberation that Jesus has told us about this morning. And here are prayers and honor them, we ask, for the glory of your Father and for the honor of your name is the ask this in the name of Jesus, our Savior and Lord, amen.