God bless you all. Welcome to the house of the Lord. It's good to be at home. It's good that we're all here. We are here for God’s mercy, amen? The grace and mercy of God has brought us to this place. Bless God who allows us to listen to His Word. There is blessing in His Word. Amen.

Today, I want to preach on the subject “The Truth That Sets Men Free.” It's true, church, many times, whether from the pulpits or when we talk to other people, we always talk about God. We always talk about God's miracles. We always talk about how good God is. And it's true! God is good. God works miracles, and He continues to work miracles. God is good! But God is not only that. God not only keeps doing miracles; God is faithful.

The truth is that most Christians don't really know God because we don't know His Word. The Word is what reveals God to us! And most Christians don't have that deep communion with the Word of God. Many people say they know God or that they are children of God, but I think we understand the difference between knowing someone or just knowing of someone. Right?

Who here knows who Lionel Messi is? Everyone. If they look at a photo, you don't have to say the name. Most people would know to say, “That's Messi.” But who knows Messi here? Who knows what he likes? Apart from what they read on the internet, who has been with him? Who knows how he likes his food? Who knows how he likes tortillas or if he likes them or doesn't like them? Only those who are close to him, only those who talk to him. We can all say, “I know Messi.” No—you know who Messi is.

Well, that's the difference between knowing who God is and knowing God. Because to know someone, we need to have communion with them, we need to spend time with that person. That is the way we need to know God. And we get to know Him through His Word. People say, “We are all children of God, I am a child of God.” We go out into the streets to preach and everyone says, “I’m a Christian.” Here in this country, there is no one who doesn’t say they’re a Christian or that they have heard the Word or that they’re a creation of God or that they’re a child of God. But what does the Bible say about that? I can have an opinion about things, but what does the Bible say about those things?

Let's go to John 1:11. The truth that sets men free. It is necessary that we know a couple of truths today, because just as we were singing, there is freedom in the house of God. Amen. And there is freedom when the truth of the Word of God is spoken.

John 1:11-13 says (and John is speaking of Jesus), “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

So who are the children of God? The word, and probably the expression, that confuses people in verse 12 says, “...to all who receive Him.” The truth is that people here think that to receive Christ means saying “Yes,” going to the front and saying a prayer, and saying, “I receive Christ.” I believe that in Christ, as the verse says, you have to believe in the Lord. People say “I believe in Jesus, I receive it,” but that's not what the word means. That's what you and I understand, but what did John mean? What did the Jews and Hebrews understand when they read this word? Receiving someone isn’t saying, “Yes, I receive Him” and that's the end of it. To receive someone is to embrace their teaching, embrace that person, making their word your own.

It says there that His own people did not receive Him. They did not accept His Word, and they did not want to follow His example. But to those who do receive His Word, they make it their own. That is what it means to receive Christ: To those who believe in Jesus—who believe that He is the Son of God who came to pay for your sin and mine— He came to die in your place and mine!

You and I should have been on that cross. But nevertheless, He became a man and came to pay for our sins so that we would have eternal life. Amen! That's Christ, and He came with a purpose: He came to save us. He came to pay our debt.

"He became a man and came to pay for our sins so that we would have eternal life."

We have to understand the nature of sin, and we have to understand what sin is. Because if we don't know how much it cost, and why He had to pay for it, that's when we often act like it doesn't matter. It’s as if it has no value.

Why does God hate sin? The Word of God says that the penalty of sin is death. The penalty of sin is death, but Christ came to give us life. The penalty of sin is death—that's why we talk about freedom! That's why we sing about freedom! And that's why today we talk about the Word bringing freedom. Freedom from what? Freedom from sin, because sin enslaves man.

Man believes he is free to do what he wants. How many have heard that? "I do what I want—it’s my life, it’s my body, so I can do whatever I want." However, that's a lie! Because you don't do what you want, you do what sin wants. Do you understand that? I'll say it again: man thinks he's free to do what he wants, but in reality, he's a slave of sin. Sin doesn't allow him to do what he wants; rather, he does what sin wants. How many times have we seen people—or even ourselves—in a situation where we say, "Why am I doing this? Why am I involved in this?" We see that sin is destroying our life or someone else's life, and we say, "Why don't you stop doing it? Why doesn't he get out of that condition? Why can't he?" Because we are slaves of sin!

The devil's lie is to tell man, "You can do whatever you want," but you're actually doing what sin orders you to do in your body. Then there is no freedom—that's slavery, and that's a lie! It's the lie of the devil, which is often religion. It seems like the man has found religion, but it's not like that either, because religion doesn't save anyone.

Only in the Word of God is there power for freedom. How many believe that the Word of God has power? But how many of us obey the Word of God? How many of us know it? We know God through His Word, but are we people of the Word? Are we faithful to the Word? Do we recognize the Word? Do we walk according to the Word? We can't say that something is good and then not embrace it. Everyone would say "Amen" to that, wouldn't they? How many believe that the Word of God has power? And everyone would say "Amen."

But how many actually obey the Word of God? That’s the real issue! Because it’s not enough to simply believe that there is power in the Word. What good is that? It's like saying, "Here's the cure for cancer! This is it, and I have cancer—there’s the cure!" And you believe you can be cured? Yes! And then you walk away and don't take the cure. What is that? That’s modern-day Christianity: Knowing where the cure is, but walking in the opposite direction. That's not obeying the Word of the Lord!

There’s an explanation—one of many—for this, and it’s that many of us live this way, not because we don’t know the Word, not because we don’t have the Word, and not because we haven’t heard sermons. So what's the difference? It's that many of us live by false words. And how do you know if you’re living by a false word? What does it mean to have a false word? It's when I hear the Word of God and then twist it at my convenience. That's a false word! It's when I hear a word and then I choose to do this, or I don't do this. I do it, or I don't do it. That's living in falsehood and lies. That's lying!

How do we know that we are living in lies and falsehood? You will know by the fruit that is produced! The Word says, "No good tree can produce bad fruit." You simply can't. The Word of God never comes back void. That Word that has power—if it enters the heart and the man obeys it—then something happens there! That's when miracles begin. That's when the power of God begins to work in the life of man. The Word of God has a purpose for which it comes into our lives.

"That Word that has power—if it enters the heart and the man obeys it—then something happens there! That's when miracles begin."

I want us to quickly look at three little things. In John chapter 8—the Word of God has a purpose. And that's what we were singing just now. John 8:31–41. Look at what the Scripture says. John chapter 8, verses 31-41, "To the Jews who had believed in him"—so there's Jesus with a group of Jewish people—people who know the law—and He says that these people had believed in Him. They were interested in the teachings. So He went to them and told them: "'If you hold to my teaching...'" The Bible says, "'If you hold to my teaching...'" that's right. Jesus says, "'...you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'"

They answered him, 'We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?'

Jesus replied, 'Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.'

'Abraham is our father,' they answered. 'If you were Abraham’s children,' said Jesus, 'then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father.'"

This verse is very famous among Christians: "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." But the truth is that true freedom only comes from remaining in His Word.

Number one: True freedom only comes from remaining in His Word, or as it says in the NIV, "to hold to His teachings."

Jesus realized that these people who were starting to follow Him only had a superficial faith; they only liked what He said. He says in the Word further back, "I know that they follow Me only for the food, because yesterday I fed them, and that's why they're here today"—because Jesus knew their heart. And then He is telling them, "If you want to be My disciples, understand this: It is not only receiving the Word, it is not just receiving Christ and saying, 'Yes, Christ.'" Christ says, "The one who receives My Word, the one who receives Me, embraces My Words, embraces My teachings, becomes My disciple and remains in that Word."

Staying in His Word means knowing Him, letting Him shape your mind and your heart. It means obeying Him—that's remaining in the Word. Not just a part of who I am, not just the religious aspects. Not only that, we think we have changed because now we come to church on Sundays. That's what we believe here in our country: that we are Christians because on Sunday we go to church, and that's what has changed.

But to remain in the teachings of Christ is to let Him shape our thinking, it's to let Him shape our decisions, it's to ask Him, "Lord, does this please You or not?" It’s to tell Him, "You are my King not only on Sunday, but on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, Friday and Saturday." Because Sunday is not the only day of the Lord; every day is the Lord's, and I have given my life to Christ. That’s what it means to receive Christ: To surrender your life to Him. "Today, I give You my heart, Lord. Therefore, You can change my mind."

How often do we turn to the Word of God and say, "Lord, change the way I think, change the way I walk, Lord?" The Word has influenced our way of speaking and relating to other people, because that’s what the Word of God does. The Word of God doesn't tell us how to sing choruses or what time to start the service or to leave the service. It tells us how to live a life pleasing to God and it tells us how we should love our neighbor and how we should behave in our homes. The Lord says all of that.

"Do you want to be My disciples?"—"Hold to My teachings." "To hold" also means "to remain." The verb "to remain" here doesn't mean what we may we understand it to mean—to be physically present or to stay in one place. It’s not like those games on TV where they put a car or something of value and the last one to remain touching the object wins the prize. That's what we understand by "remaining"—being there and doing nothing. That's not what the Word is telling us.

"Remaining" here means to have a communion with His Word, making it my own, making these words personal to me. So when we listen to the message or read the Word, I say, "Lord, You're talking to me." Or when someone is preaching, I don’t think to myself, "This message is for the person sitting in front of me." You should be saying, "Praise God who is giving a word for me and for you."

But you have to come with a longing and yearning. The Word needs to enter and remove what is in our hearts. Our hearts and our minds are full of worldly, pagan traditions. Here in our country, so much is tradition, so much is superstition. But where is what we do biblically in our homes? Where is what we do biblically with our children? Is it biblical or is it because my grandmother used to do that? And why did my grandmother do it? Because her grandmother did it that way. And the grandmother of that grandmother of that grandmother did it that way. And where does that come from? Many of the things we do are pagan, and they come from Santeria, witchcraft, and idolatry.

It's that my grandmother, if she goes all the way back, will reach her Mayan, Toltec grandmother. That's where what her grandmother did and what was done to her grandmother and so on comes from, until it reaches us. And that's how we grew up and that's how we continue to do things. But Jesus says, "Change! Change your traditions, your customs, your thoughts for Mine. Change your habits for the habits that the Word of the Lord teaches us."

If you remain, if you stay faithful. We've been talking about loyalty. On weekdays, on Thursdays, we've been talking about loyalty, about faithfulness, because God is faithful. But we must ask ourselves a question: Are we faithful to God? Are we faithful to His Word?

Betrayal is something that surrounds us, something we live with every day. It almost seems normal to us now, unless it happens to us, unless someone hurts us, unless someone betrays us—then it's a different story.

But we are strange, and as I was saying the other day, we human beings are so peculiar that we couldn't say, "This one is faithful and this one is unfaithful," based on just one instance. Because the same man, the same man who is faithful to his soccer team, who never misses a game, who watches every match, who knows the names of all the players, all the coaches, even the one who carries the balls and the cleats—that same man who is faithful to his friends can be unfaithful to his wife and children. That same man who chooses to be faithful to one thing chooses to be unfaithful to something else. That's how we are.

And the Lord knows us. "If you remain faithful," says the Lord, emphasizing "if." Faithfulness. His church must be faithful to all of the Word of God. But we choose what to believe—that's why I was saying there is falsehood in us. People choose to believe a word if they like it, such as, "If you tithe, if you give this, if you put the money in the envelope, God will multiply it for you," I choose to believe that God will prosper me. But the same Word that tells you that, also tells you in the book of Exodus chapter 20, "You shall not steal," and tomorrow I'm stealing. What is that? I choose one thing and not the other. I choose to believe that Psalm 91 applies to me, "The Lord will protect me, the Lord will protect my family," but the seventh commandment says, "You shall not commit adultery," and I hurt my family when I choose to believe one thing but not the other. That’s living in lies. That’s living in falsehood.

Faithfulness, says the Word of the Lord. Faithfulness on our part—that is remaining. And it hurts us when we talk about these things because they have been done to us. But what about the times that we have been unfaithful to God? What about that? It is the pride that is in people that causes us to do that. Some people come to the house of the Lord and say, "It's not my day, it's not my time, I'm not ready yet," even though God has brought you there. God has had mercy to bring you there.

There is nothing man can do. Man cannot change, man cannot say, "Once I change, I will follow God." Man cannot change on his own; only the Word of God can change him, only if he lets the Word of God change him. And no matter what man has done, the Word of God can change him. Amen. How many believe that? Isn't that right?

"And no matter what man has done, the Word of God can change him."

Number two: Even though the slavery of sin is denied, it’s evident. We can deny that we are slaves of sin all we want, but it can be seen. Look at verse 33. The people are alleging, "We aren’t slaves!" They tell Jesus, "How can you say that we will be released because we are not slaves to anyone? We are descendants of Abraham." But look at verse 34: Jesus assures them, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin."

Why? Because it is not a matter of religion, lineage, or tradition; it is a matter of obedience. I've often heard a word in sermons—an expression many preachers use: "Who are we serving? God or the devil?" Well, they don't say it exactly like that, but if they ask, "Who are we serving?" I've never seen anyone stop and say, "The devil." I don't think anyone would do it! I think we could go anywhere we serve, and everyone would get up and say, "I serve God." But it's not just what we say; it's what we see, it's what we do. Whether or not we obey the Word of God, we must come to the understanding that if we do not obey the Word of God, then we are obeying our desires, our own thoughts.

I have to take everything back to the Word of the Lord. We always want to justify what we do. We want to convince ourselves that what we are doing is fine. We believe in falsehood and lies and we say, "It's true," but it is not true. Christ said, "I am the truth, I am the way, and I am the life." He is the truth. His Word is the truth.

Now, that you have a truth is another thing. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone can have their own truth, but that doesn't mean it is The Truth. Christ said, "I am the truth," and through that truth, you will reach the Father. It is His truth, not yours or mine.

I might think I'm good. I might think my children are the best, so cute! I believe I’m a servant of God. But what's the truth? Here it is, in the Word of God! Do you want to know what the truth is about any matter in life? Here it is! Your mom or dad could have taught you something, or your grandfather, or your uncle—the most popular man in the neighborhood with a good reputation—taught you something. But the only truth is in the Word of God, and if I want to walk in the truth, I have to go there to see the truth.

You may say, "I like this," or "I don't like this," but either way, the text says, "The truth will set them free." The truth of Christ frees the believer, and there is a process in this freedom. When we begin to understand certain things, the first thing is that He reveals this truth. It is not me, not you, not what people think—because today people think something is good, but ten years ago they thought it was bad! Every day, what we consider to be good or bad changes.

Then, the Word of God reveals to us the nature of sin as something offensive to God and destructive for ourselves. What is sin? Brothers, sisters—today, children and young people don't know what sin is! Many people don't know what sin is. Do you know? If someone tells him, "This is bad," he asks, "Why is it bad? I'll keep doing it!" Why? "Because now not even my dad scolds me anymore, and even if they scold me, it doesn't matter because there is no punishment. There's nothing!"

But they don't understand the nature of sin. And what is that nature? It is that everyone sins, and one day we will all present ourselves before the throne of God. We will be alone in front of the throne of God. Did you know that? It doesn't matter if you are saved or not, we will be in front of our Creator. All those who lived a life trying to please Christ will be in front of Him, and He will let them pass. Those who did not receive Him and did not live according to His Word will also be before Him. They, too, will look at God and fall to their knees and say, "You are Lord. It was true. You are King. You are Lord." But they will receive payment for having rejected God's mercy. That is the sin that deceives us. It is the belief that we are free to do what we want. But that false freedom makes us reject God's mercy and the grace of God. So when I close my eyes and stand before Him and I can't get in, I can't understand.

The truth also creates in the believer the conviction and moral strength to resist sin. Here we are not going to say that we no longer sin, or "I no longer want to sin," or "Oh, I don't like this." No! But that truth, every day, when you see something, when temptation comes, you say, "Wow, this opportunity catches my attention, but I'm not going to do it." Why? Because I believe that the truth that is in me—that truth—makes me make decisions. It makes me make important decisions in my life, and it makes me decide: "Even if I can do this, I'm not going to do it." Even if I can steal and have the opportunity, I won't do it. Even if I can lie and no one looks at me and no one will notice, I won't do it. Although I feel like it! I’m not going to do it. Those are convictions. It's security about what is believed.

But what do we think? People fight! What do we think? Convictions come from what we know, from what we believe. But some people have convictions that someone is better than someone else. There are convictions, and people fight for those kinds of things because they believe it. He doesn't want to defend his own belief, so the Gospel is the Word we defend. We defend what we believe, even though no one says anything. For example, I think Limbert Pérez is the best in the world, and I defend it, and it doesn't matter what others say!

Finally, our true identity is shown by our works. Look at verse 41. "My works are like My Father's." Jesus repeats it several times. Do you know that it is possible to be part of a believing family, or a church, and still have a heart far away from God? Because my actions show who I am.

The Pharisees claimed to be descendants of Abraham, but Jesus tells them, "Your works are like your father's!" And they said, "We are children of Abraham," but Jesus says, "No, you are children of the devil." Why? Jesus said, "Because you do this, this, and this," because it's not about what we say, but what we do. It's not just about reading verses, but that those verses have shaped our lives, our behaviors.

Someone will say, "But I don't do anything wrong with all this. I don't consider myself a bad person." But what's good? Do you remember? What's the good thing? Only God is good. And the good thing is being where God wants me to be and doing what God wants me to do. That's the good thing!

It has to be based on God's opinion, because society says, "This is good," and other times, "This other thing is good." We could talk about many things that are good, that are not bad. But within those things, sometimes God calls you to be there. God may have called you to do something or to be somewhere. Many things are good in life, but if God wanted you to be there, that is the only place to be. That's the good thing.

Let's go further down, to verse 43, where Jesus says, "Why don't you understand My way of speaking?" I mean, it's a question, and He Himself answers it, saying, "Because you can't accept My Word." Because they don't understand Him. Because they don't accept, they don't change. They don't understand what's going on here, so there is no change many times.

In reality, they didn't want to accept God's Word out of pride. Many times, man doesn't accept the Word of God out of pride, because he wants to make excuses for what he's doing and he wants to justify himself. The Word tells me that he needs to forgive, but he says, "I can't, because what they did to me was very ugly."

The Word of God says to "forgive." So stay true to His words. Christ came and told people, "If someone hurts you, forgive him. No matter what they did to you, you must forgive them." The Word of God says that we can be healed. Jesus comes to heal the heart of man, but why would I want to keep hating the one who hurt me? Because I don't want him to win!

Perhaps I feel if I forgive the one who hurt me, I'm going to feel that he won and that he got away with it. There are people who think that forgiving is a symbol of weakness, but there's nothing that shows more character and value of a person than to forgive the one who hurt him. You have to have courage and character to forgive! And you have to have a heart that is broken and grateful to do it.

So, out of pride, we don't accept the Word. No one says, "I don't accept what the Bible says," but when it comes to putting it into practice, I start to say, "How am I going to do this and how am I going to do the other things?"

We were just singing, "There is freedom in the house of God!" And what is it that has us enslaved? Isn't it the lack of forgiveness that enslaves us? Isn't it hatred that enslaves us? Isn't it sadness? Isn't it loneliness? Isn't it envy, selfishness, that has us enslaved? So, what are we singing to be free of? Free of all those things! What is Jesus's requirement to achieve that? It is "Love your neighbor." That's what the Word says. Let's stop making excuses to get Jesus’s promise. Jesus says, "Love your neighbor, and they will be truly free."

Look at verse 37, where Jesus says, "I know that you are descendants of Abraham, however, you try to kill Me because it is not in your plans to accept My Word." Brother, what do you mean it's not in your plans to accept the Word of the Lord? What do you mean it's not in your plans to come to church and say in your heart, "What is said today, Lord? I want it to enter my heart and change me. I want You to leave me a word today, Lord, You know I feel tired, You know how I feel. Give me a word, Lord, to move me, or give me a word that convicts me. Something that bothers me."

Brothers, I have prayed today, and I was praying yesterday, and I said, Lord, "Don't make them comfortable. Lord, don't make it easy! May Your Word bother them.” Because the moment we start to feel comfortable, brothers, turn on the warning light! Turn on the warning light!

Jesus told the woman at the well, "If you drink from the water I give you, springs of living water will flow from you, water of eternal life." Springs would flow! Not a pool that's all still, but a flowing river.

"If you drink from the water I give you, springs of living water will flow from you…"

A river! You know the power of moving water, where nothing can stop it. May the Word of the Lord have it like this in you. Have it in such a way that tomorrow, when you have to make a decision, you can go to the Word of the Lord. The Word changes when we receive Christ. The Word begins to produce something better in us. That Word begins to fight and fight because we are full of lies and falsehoods. "What did He say? He said that I had to forgive the one who hurt me." I cannot sleep because I know what the Word says to do and I don't want to do it. No matter how much medication I take to help me sleep, I cannot sleep!

The Word of the Lord starts fighting what's inside us. The purpose of this message is that through the Word, we can meet with God and learn what He likes and what He doesn't like. As I said last week and the previous one, no man knows that he needs to be saved until he understands that he's lost. Until you and I understand that we are lost, we don’t understand that we need the Savior in us.

One day, the evangelist Paul Washer told a story. He told people that when he was young, he went with his mother to the doctor. He says that his mother was a tough woman. He knew it was something important, probably something delicate, that his mother took him to that appointment with the doctor, as it was not normal. As the two sat there in front of the doctor, she had already done many tests, and they were there to see the results.

When the doctor entered the office, he began to say a couple of words to the lady, but his mother asked the doctor, "Okay, but what do I have? What's the problem?" The doctor told her, "Ma’am, you have cancer." She didn’t tell him, "It's not true! I don't have cancer, and I'm not going to die!"

Paul said that at that moment, many things came to his mind. He said he saw his mother there, and no matter how much he looked at her with that hardness, he said, “I know she was suffering. I was there, her son, yet what could your child do in the face of that situation? I don't know,” he said. “I even thought about getting up and hitting the doctor for making my mother suffer like that.”

His mother listened to the doctor as he took all the tests that had been done, and began to explain to the lady the test results. He began to tell her, "If you don't follow the treatment, you're going to die from this." He began to review the evidence of why she was going to die. It was not the doctor's wish that she would die, but something was happening.

Paul says, "My mom suffered, but I thanked God for the truth, because if no one had told my mom that she had cancer, she was going to die. Then she wouldn't have started the treatment that saved her life."

That's like the Word of God. The Word of God makes a diagnosis of your life and mine, and you know what the result is—it is that we're going to die. Every man that does not continue faithfully in the Word of Christ will die. However, Christ told them in verse 51, "I certainly assure you that the one who keeps my Word, he will never die."

It doesn't matter what you are doing, whatever your disease is, whatever is happening—the Word of God has power for freedom. However, it's not just to listen to it; it's to obey the Word. It's to follow it and stay faithful to His Word. He is a faithful God.