The Alternative

Tony Evans: Truth is the absolute standard by which reality is measured.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans says we need to start with the facts if we want to find our way toward freedom.

Tony Evans: If you're being held hostage, Jesus says you must know the truth about it. It is tied to the sin that's causing it.

Guest (Male): This is The Alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Our version of reality is made up of the things we know and the things we only think we know. Dr. Evans will help us learn to recognize the difference today as he talks about what it really means to be free. Let's join him.

Tony Evans: Far too many Christians are like POWs, prisoners of war. They're hostages to circumstances, situations, addictions, pains, and problems that is ruining their ability to live life and enjoy life as God has provided it.

It comes under many terms. We can be in bondage to drugs and alcohol or sex, or we can be in bondage to bad relationships or our own emotions of anger and jealousy and envy. But one thing is true, it's controlling us. We're not controlling it. It dictates what we do, how we feel, and how we function.

So today, I want to talk to you, or better yet, let Jesus talk to you about freedom. And one of the great passages of freedom is John 8. Jesus was saying to those who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word," verse 31, "then you are truly disciples of mine and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

Freedom is being liberated or released from illegitimate bondage or limitations in order for us to become all that we were created and then redeemed to be. Our whole culture is built on a concept of freedom. The whole point of our Constitution and on Lady Liberty in New York Harbor is "bring me your masses who long to be free."

But let me make sure you understand that freedom does not mean the absence of boundaries. You live in America, a free country, but you're not free to run red lights. Red lights are a boundary. Football is only football because there are lines that legitimately restrict it to be what it was designed to be. Or tennis base lines, or baseball foul lines. They have boundaries in order to experience freedom. It's just freedom must operate in legitimate boundaries and not illegitimate boundaries.

So freedom is release from illegitimate boundaries or limitations so that you can become what you were created and redeemed to be. The problem is that the bondages that many of us are experiencing are restricting us from becoming what we know God says we're supposed to be. We're supposed to have joy. We're supposed to have peace. We're supposed to have victory. Yet we're having defeat and chaos and conflict.

Jesus quotes a statement that we all quote in verse 32: "And you will know the truth and the truth will make you free." Well, now that raises a question, doesn't it? If truth frees, then the question is what is truth? Truth, when it's really understood, is the absolute standard by which reality is measured. If it is the absolute standard, it must come from an absolute source. And there's only one absolute source that exists, and that's God.

In other words, it must be rooted in God's view of the matter, not your view of the matter. Now, what is interfering with us knowing the truth that sets us free? They answered him, verse 33, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free?" They said, "We're not slaves." They were not dealing with reality.

Jesus then gives them reality. "Truly, truly," that means for sure, for sure, verse 34, "I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever." If you want to be free from something holding you hostage, Jesus says you must know the truth about it, and the truth that you need to know about it is tied to the sin that's causing it.

Sin is a violation of God's standard. He's going to say in verse 36, "If the son shall make you free." I'm going to talk about that in a moment, but what he's going to let you know is you can't free yourself because of the problem of sin. You have a soul. I have a soul. We all have souls. Your soul is made up of three things: your mind, your emotions, and your will. Your soul has been contaminated by sin.

You're born that way. You're born with a contaminated or distorted soul. And based on your life, your soul gets worse off. So any sin that's controlling you, addiction that's controlling you, is tied to a soul out of whack. What makes the soul out of whack is the sin. You can't go to the thing that's messed up and ask it to fix itself. It does not have the capacity to do that. It says that that must happen because of the truth.

Now, let me explain how this works. When you hear the truth—and I mean God's view of a matter, that's the truth, that is the final word on any subject—when you hear the truth, there will be a reaction, negative, by the soul. I don't care how much you say amen, praise the Lord, and hallelujah, and all that, down in your soul, your soul is not going to like that, even though you know it's the truth.

Now, why won't the soul just get all excited about the truth? Or why won't the soul stay excited about the truth? Because it might get excited for the moment, but when you hit the parking lot, you forgot you ever heard the truth. Because for the soul to respond to the truth, it will have to give up controlling the steering wheel of the life. And your soul doesn't want to give up being in the steering wheel. It doesn't want to be a passenger or sit in the back seat under the control of something else.

And so you become a slave and you say, "Well, I heard the message and I said amen and I praise the Lord and I really meant it," and I'm right back here next week in the same place. That's because the soul is saying, "I am not moving from the steering column. I want to run this show." In the midst of your soul is a seed, the spirit. When you become a Christian, you get a divine nature or you get a new spirit.

But you get the new spirit in seed form. The seed must grow by receiving the truth. Your soul is not going to want the truth, but your seed welcomes the truth because that's the divine nature. And the divine nature feeds only on one thing. The only thing the divine nature feeds on is truth. So if you feed the divine nature a lie, it will be rejected.

But your soul will accept it because your soul wants it, because the soul, like a magnet, accepts the presence of sin. So let me correct something some people will often say: "Well, you know, my soul got saved." Not quite. Your spirit got saved. Your soul is being saved. What gets saved immediately is your spirit, not your soul. What gets saved progressively is your soul, and what gets saved ultimately is your body.

So when the spirit receives the truth, it begins a process of setting the soul free. Now this raises a question: how do I get free? I know what makes me free. It says you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. But how do I get free? Verse 36: "He who the Son sets free shall be free indeed." He who the Son sets free is free indeed.

Now, please notice a couple of things. First of all, you don't free yourself. The Son has to free you. So obviously, if you're trying to free yourself, that's not God's way for you to be free. The Son has to set you free. But you don't get 36 until you've dealt with 31. The Son won't set you free, 36, until the truth has set you free.

But the truth won't set you free, which is verse 32, unless you have continued in my word, verse 31. See, everybody wants the Son to set them free. "Jesus set me free, Jesus deliver me, Jesus heal me, Jesus fix me." Everybody wants 36. And the reason why we want 36 is we know we haven't been able to set our own selves free.

So we come to church or do this, and we call on Jesus to set us free. But we're wondering, why has not Jesus set us free? Because we want 36 without verse 32, knowing the truth. And you can't benefit from 32 without 31. 31 says you must continue in my word before the Son will set you free. If there is no verse 31, then there is no knowledge of verse 32, so there'll be no experience of verse 36.

In order for the Son to set you free, verse 36, the truth must first set you free, verse 32. And the truth won't set you free unless you know it, so you need to continue in my word, verse 31. So when verse 31 leads to verse 32, then you get verse 36. Are you staying with me? You can't just start with "Son, set me free because I'm a child of God, I love you, Jesus," if there has been no continuing in my word.

Now the word continue means abide. That's the Greek word meno for abide. Abide means to stay, hang out, loiter. It means where you stay. Abide. Hang out with my truth so that you'll know it. Hang out with my word so that you'll really know the truth. Hearing this sermon is not hanging out with the word; it's hearing the word. That's why Jesus would often say, "He that hath an ear, let him hear." He knows you can audibly hear it.

But are you hanging out with it? To continue in my word means whatever problem sin I'm dealing with that's holding me hostage, I find out everything I can possibly find out. I Google that thing and find out everything I can possibly find out about what God says about this issue. Why? Because I want to be delivered. So I'm going to continue and I'm going to know all the truth I can find out about the issue I'm facing. I'm going to find it out from the word so that I'll know the truth.

Guest (Male): More from Dr. Evans on what it means to be free indeed when he returns in a moment to continue this lesson from his series "Free at Last". This powerful 12-part collection unpacks the new identity and freedom that grace has secured for you and shows you how to live in it.

You'll learn how to break free from habits and strongholds that may have felt permanent, and how to release the guilt, fear, and regret tied to your past. When you make a contribution to support the ministry of The Alternative, we'll say thanks by sending you the complete "Free at Last" series, available on CD, USB flash drive, or as a digital download so you can listen anytime, anywhere.

And along with the messages, we'll also include Tony's popular companion book "Free at Last", which goes hand-in-hand with this series. Visit tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 to make the arrangements. I'll repeat that information later on. In the meantime, stay with us. Dr. Evans will return with more of today's message right after this.

Ministry leadership can be rewarding, but it can also be demanding. That's why pastors and church leaders from around the country gather each year for the Kingdom Leaders Summit. Join Dr. Tony Evans, April 30th through May 1st, at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, for two powerful days of training, encouragement, and connection.

You'll hear insights drawn from decades of ministry experience, take part in panel discussions and breakout sessions, and gain practical strategies you can apply right away in your church and community. Reset, refresh, and recharge your life, your church, and your ministry at this year's Kingdom Leaders Summit. Space is limited, so reserve your spot today at kap2026.com. That's kap2026.com.

Tony Evans: Okay. Fact, I have a headache. I go and I get Tylenol to take care of this fact of my headache. Tylenol is not working. I am concerned that my fact may not be telling me the truth. Maybe it's not just a migraine headache. I want to know the truth. So now I go to the doctor because the doctor has more knowledge than I do because I want to know the truth.

The doctor goes deeper than I've gone. I've just felt my head and gone to the grocery store. I did the best I could do, but that's all I could do. The doctor, because of his information base, does all these kind of brain scans and he's got all this equipment to look deeper than I can see. The fact is your head is hurting, but you didn't know the truth. Let me go deeper and tell you the truth.

The truth is that there's something growing, and therefore to fix the fact, now that we know the truth, we're going to have to use another method, and Tylenol ain't it, because of the truth. Do I like surgery? No. Will I accept it? Yes, because of the truth. As long as I deal with the facts but don't get to the truth, therefore rejecting the surgery, it's killing me.

And God wants to get to the sin that's causing the fact. And he who the Son sets free is free. Know the truth and you will be free. But he who the Son sets free—who does the Son set free? The people who know the truth and who have continued in the word so that they can get the story, the whole story, and nothing but the truth, so help them God.

Those are who the Son sets free. And watch this now, watch, this is sweet. You know the Son has set you free because you're free indeed. That word indeed is a beast. That word indeed—he doesn't say that about the word, he says, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free," period.

But when it gets to verse 36, he who the Son sets free is free sure enough. For real. No questions asked. It's going to be totally transforming. There'll be no questions. That man is free. Let's talk about that word indeed. This word is used in Luke 24 when Jesus Christ, he's died, they come looking for him at the tomb.

And in Luke 24, around verse 34, they come looking for him in the tomb and they can't find him. They run back and tell the disciples, "He has risen indeed." Same word. Not "He has risen somewhat," or "He has risen enough." No, we want you to know sure enough he's gone. What was Jesus's situation? He was trapped in a tomb. They crucified him on Friday, they buried him, and they had him incarcerated behind a stone because of sin.

Sin killed him, our sin. He was trapped behind a stone. But he got delivered. Because guess what? Jesus did not roll his stone away. He didn't roll his own stone away. God sent some angels and the angels delivered him. They rolled his stone away. It was a supernatural deliverance.

Now watch this. Know the truth and the truth will make you free, then the Son will set you free. The truth will make you free—follow this—then the Son will set you free. You're in jail. You've committed a crime. One of the guards comes and tells you, "Bail has been posted." You know what that means? You're free. The legal requirements to get you out of jail, the payment has been made, and you are now free, on paper.

Now, if the bail has been paid and the guard comes to tell you you're free, that's paper, but it's still real. You are free. But now someone comes with a key, unlocks the cell, and you walk out. You're now free indeed. When bail was posted, freedom was provided. When the lock was unlocked, freedom was experienced. When you know the truth, somebody paid the bail.

You're going to feel better already. You mean my bail has been paid? You're going to feel free, although you aren't free because you haven't walked out yet, but you will get the feeling of walking out even though you haven't walked out. But when someone unlocks it and you walk out, now you're indeed free. Know the truth and you'll feel free. Then the Son will unlock and you'll be free that you feel.

And I love how Jesus does this. One of the main ways he does this, how he does it when he sets you free, having made you free, I like what he does. Lazarus had died. Remember Lazarus? John 11. Lazarus is in the tomb. He's been dead four days. He's in a stinky situation. Martha says, "He stinketh."

Jesus says, "Lazarus, come forth." And Lazarus comes walking out the grave. But the Bible says in John 11 that he was still tied up and trapped in death clothing. He was still wearing his death clothes, but he was alive. He wasn't dead. Jesus says, "Lazarus, come forth." He comes forth, but he's all tied up. Then guess what Jesus says: "Loose him and let him go."

Guess how he got loosed? By the people watching him walk out the grave. One of the ways God sets people free is by using other people to help unwrap them. That's why he wants you part of a church. That's why he wants you part of the body of Christ. So that if you can't unwrap yourself, there are enough people around you who know Jesus has delivered you, who can help you out of that stuff that's got you all tied up and twisted up, who can repeat the word of God to you, who can repeat what you ought to know that's true, freeing up the Son to set you free.

So it's about freedom. And God wants to make you free, why? So you can run around being free? No. For two reasons. He wants to make you free, number one, so that you can become all you were created and redeemed to be. But let me tell you the second reason why he wants to set you free: so that you can set somebody else free who was as messed up as you were.

People who used to have the same problem. But since they know what freedom looks like, but they also know what the sin looks like, they can reach the other people in the sin, and they can say, "Well, this is how I got free. Let me help unwrap you." So God wants to make you free indeed. And he wants to use you to make somebody else free. But you got to know the truth if you want to see the Son set you free. He who the Son sets free is free indeed.

Guest (Male): If you've never experienced the freedom of having your past wiped clean and your future made new, Dr. Evans has this quick encouragement for you.

Tony Evans: He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Guess what? God is going to let you go to heaven on credit. He will credit to your account the righteousness of Christ because God has credited to Jesus Christ your sin. So your credit score can be 100 if you go to Jesus Christ for salvation right now.

Guest (Male): How do you do that? Tony would be happy to explain it. Just visit tonyevans.org and follow the link that says "Jesus". He has a short, powerful video that explains what real Christianity is about, along with some free follow-up resources. Check it out today and discover the amazing difference it can make in your life.

Today's lesson was just one part of a powerful series called "Free at Last". It includes 12 messages that show how God's grace can set you free from fear, guilt, discouragement, and so much more, and help you live out the identity he's already given you in Christ.

As I mentioned earlier, when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station, we'll send you the complete series along with his companion book "Free at Last", which reinforces these truths and helps you apply them in a practical, personal way.

So don't wait. Visit tonyevans.org to get all the details and make your request. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members assist you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, next time Dr. Evans explains how to remove the obstacles standing between us and the freedom God desires for us, starting with the major one: discouragement. He'll show why that breakthrough can't happen until we learn the lessons our trials are meant to teach us. Be sure to tune in.