Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More
Family resemblances are sometimes very clear. He has his mother’s this or that. She has her dad’s this or that. A child of God has the characteristics of God.
Liberty (vss 33-36)
- Not a servant of sin, but free
- Note the condition, IF
- Bondage of the sinner – whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin
- Victory is a present reality – the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world
- There is nothing else you need to live victoriously. There is nothing else God needs to say. There is nothing else God needs to do. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken your sin upon himself.
- Any excuse for not living the victorious Christian life seems to be either you’re not saved, or you’ve been deceived in your thoughts on life.
- If the Son has made you free, then what is the battle you’re fighting?
- Battle is you and God
- The point of struggle is where your will meets God’s
- More than conquerors
- Victory of hope when others have no hope.
- Victory of peace when others have no peace.
- Victory over sin when others are bound by and servants of sin.
- Victory of longsuffering when others are running out of patience.
- Victory of charity when others are bound by bitterness and hatred.
- Victory of the love of God when you’re not accepted by the world.
Love (vs 37-42)
- If God were your Father, ye would love me…
- Godly affection
- To say you should Love God: God doesn’t just say love, He tells you how so you don’t go away with the same delusions about love that you came with.
- To say why you should love God: We could do a lesson on why you should love God and we would all go home and say that was nice and I agree that we should love God.
- To ask you if you love God: The question is not do you love God as much as you should. We are safe in generalities. Oh, I know I don’t love Jesus Christ as much as I should. That doesn’t mean anything.
- Love does something.
- Love is not a feeling. Love is defined by the sacrifice it makes. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13) So greater means there are lesser loves. Lesser loves defined by the sacrifice they won’t make.
- If love is sacrifice, then love is commitment
- Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
- How do you love Jesus Christ? The statement the LORD makes is that IF God were your Father, ye would love me. The one follows the other without question.
- How are you loving Jesus Christ today? How will you love Him tomorrow?
Listen (vss 43-47)
- My sheep hear my voice
- 1 Thessalonians 2:13 – receiving the words of God as the words of God means you’re hearing the words of God
- 1 Peter 2:2 as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word
- What you eat is what you’ll like to eat. Your appetite can change and Peter’s recommendation is to change your appetite.
- Jesus says to these religious people who hate him so much, You have a father that you listen to. That father just happens to be the devil. He hates me and wants me dead just like you do.
- Israel had the words of God, but as a nation the rejected those words so the words of God never didn’t take effect in them
- Paul said the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth, but sabbath after sabbath the teachers of the law would teach the scripture without believing it. And while the words of God were in their mouths, it didn’t matter because they weren’t listening by believing them
- Jesus said they held the traditions of men and made the word of God of none effect
- What’s the last thing you heard God say to you? What’s the last thing you heard God say to you that you did?
