Join us in exploring the fundamental questions of belief, understanding, and eternal life, as Ronald L. Dart artfully dissects the story of the Good Samaritan and the dynamics between Mary and Martha. Discover how true belief isn’t about mere words but deep-rooted conviction and action. Through these timeless biblical narratives, we are prompted to evaluate our own lives and the extent to which grace and the teachings of Jesus influence our daily decisions and relationships.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Unless you just arrived from another planet, you’ve heard that sentence many times in your life. And it’s true, beyond a doubt. and it’s true in a wide range of applications, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. But you may not be familiar with the response to that statement by the people who heard it first. The words are the words of Jesus, and they’re found in John 8, verse 32. Jesus said to those Jews who believed on him. Now, he had a lot of people around him a lot of the time. Some of them believed him and some of them didn’t. This group did. He said, And the truth that Jesus was talking about was contained in his own words. And they answered him and said, We are Abraham’s seed, and we were never in bondage to any man. How can you say you shall be made free? Now, this response is astonishing. The Jews had been a conquered people in one way or another for most of the years since the Babylonian captivity. They’d been under the Medes. They’d been under the Persians. They’d been under Alexander the Great. Now, here they sat under the heel of the Romans, even as they spoke these words, and yet they fought together. They were free. It’s almost like a metaphor in a way or an analogy with life in general. Is it possible that we’re living out our lives in a kind of bondage while we say, along with these Jews, we are free men. We have never been in bondage. It’s possible, I suppose, to be a slave and not know it. Most of us are in one kind of bondage or another. The terrible irony of it is that we forged our own chains and we wear them when we could probably just as easily cast them off because the chains are in our minds. There are a lot of people listening to my voice, though, who really are not free. And their chains, their bars, are not in their minds. They’re in jail. A lot of men, and I suppose some women, listen to this program regularly and write to us about the program, and I say hello to all those people in prison who are listening today. To all you folks, though, who are behind bars, spare a moment to think about all the people on the outside who carry around their own chains, who are locked up in their own cells, cells for which they have the key, chains they could just as easily cast off, but they don’t. You can’t walk free today. They can, but they don’t. You know, it’s interesting to talk to people who seem to have finally gotten free of a cultic experience. And as a minister, I get to talk to some of those people from time to time. And if you hang out with them on the various Internet forums where they gather and talk, you’ll learn very quickly that they are still not free. Now, I know that that statement I just made will probably be offensive to some people in that situation. But a lot of times when you’re not free, you don’t know. And when you’re deceived about something or when you’re lying to yourself, you actually can’t very well admit that you’re lying to yourself. But so many of the people who have been a part of a cultic experience and in a cultic organization, once they break free and get out of it and they seem to be on the outside looking back at it, They’re obsessed with it. They can’t get away from it. They can’t not talk about it. If you suggest to them, well, any time that you were in that cult, you could have walked out. You could have quit. You could have resigned. You could have gone and got a life. Well, you will often get a bitter explanation, a long explanation of why that was not possible in all the mind control. And I believe it because they’re still not free. They obsess over the cult experience, and it still casts a long shadow over their life long after they’ve gone away from it. And I can only conclude that they are willing to have it so. Maybe it’s because they have not yet found the truth that Jesus was talking about. Because Jesus said, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And so if you’re not free from some past experience, whatever it may be, then maybe there is a truth you haven’t grappled with yet. In answer to the Jews who thought they were free when they weren’t, Jesus had this to say, I’m going to tell you the truth. Whoever commits sin is the servant of 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 shall be free indeed. There’s a funny thing about sin, you know. It gets its hooks into you, and it’s awfully, awfully hard to break loose. One of the best metaphors for it, and it is just a metaphor, is smoking. You know, once you start doing that, it gets its hooks into you. And you can actually become a slave to tobacco. Oh, yeah, we can tell you that you can stop anytime you want. In fact, you can. The chains are in your own mind and in your own body. But it’s an awful lot easier to say you can quit than it is to quit, isn’t it? Sin enslaves us in much the same way, whether it’s a matter of illicit sex, whether it’s tobacco, whether it’s alcohol, whether it’s drugs, whatever it is that gets hold of you. It’s awfully hard to break loose. But there is a way to be set free. The way to be set free is by the grace of the Son of God. And he can break the shackles in your mind. He can set you free even while you serve out your term in jail. For there’s great liberty in knowing that God has set you free. I think a lot of people go through life thinking that God has it in for them. They know, frankly, that they deserve trouble in their life because they know they’re sinners. I think most of us have a fairly good idea of how bad a person we’ve been or how good a person we’ve been. And consequently, we take a look at the bad side of our lives and say, well, God can’t possibly be happy with me. Surely God is going to punish me for this. And we go through life expecting, waiting, wondering when the great anvil is going to drop on our heads. I think it may explain in a way why some of us are so uncomfortable when things are going well. We can actually, if our lives are working, if everything is in shape, everything is clicking right along, we have a habit of saying, boy, this is too good to be true. This is too good to last. We have all these expressions in our language, too good to be true, too good to last, can’t possibly hold out this way for very long. And the reason why we feel that way is because we don’t think we deserve it. And we don’t realize that what we deserve has nothing to do with it. that God, as far as He’s concerned, is willing to let us off. It’s called grace. Now, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to get off from all consequences of the things that you may have done in your life. You boys that are sitting out there in jail tonight are probably going to finish out your term according to the law. You may get out a little early on good behavior and all those things, but there you are. But I can tell you one thing, that through the grace of God, you don’t have to worry about about God. God is quite happy to let you off the hook. Those chains, those shackles, well, they’re gone. God can set you free no matter where you are. There’s great liberty also, you know, in knowing that the trials we go through now are just temporary. They can’t last. We have life. And no one can take it away from us. They can kill the body. They can imprison the body. But whether you’re undergoing a course of chemotherapy and radiation and fighting a terrible battle with the end stages of a terrible disease, or whether you’re locked up in a jail cell somewhere and you’re not going to get out of it for the rest of this life, there is a liberty in knowing that this life is not all there is and that God is quite ready to let you off the hook. Now, Jesus isn’t through with these people he’s talking to. And I’ll continue with his explanation of this when I come back after these words.
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Is life worth living? There may be times when you feel like giving it up. But there is never a sacrifice or act of suffering that is worthless or in vain. Write for a free copy of the program titled, Is Life Worth Living? Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll-free…
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This conversation started out with Jesus talking to the Jews that believed on him. He made his initial statement about, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free to them. And this conversation almost seems to be deteriorating as he goes along, as they come back to him on these things. And Jesus then says, I know that you are Abraham’s seed. You’re right about that. But you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my father, and you do that which you have seen with your father. Now, you talk about a conversation beginning to deteriorate. This one’s going downhill real fast. They said, Abraham is our father. Jesus said, if you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. You’d live a life like Abraham lives. But some of you here are trying to kill me, a man that has told you the truth that I’ve heard of God. Abraham didn’t do this. No, you do the deeds of your father. As this exchange continues, they don’t like what they’re hearing, and they begin to become abusive. They said to him, we’re not born of fornication. Oh, boy. You know, you have to understand what kind of rumors must have been going around the society at that time because of the way in which Jesus was born. I expect that it was commonly reported among people that he was an illegitimate child, and they tried to cover it up with an explanation about a virgin birth. And so they decided these people who at one point could have roughly been described as believers in the things that Jesus was saying are now starting to come back at him and say, well, we weren’t born of fornication. We have one father. It’s God. And Jesus said, well, if God were your father, you would love me because I came from God. I didn’t come here of myself. He sent me. Why don’t you understand my speech? even because you cannot hear my words. You know, there comes a point in life when you’ve lied to yourself long enough, and when you’ve run a certain distance down a wrong road, that it’s just almost impossible to be able to see the way to the other one. And especially this is true as long as you are still trying to justify being where you are. It’s awfully hard for a person to say, I’m wrong. It’s awfully hard for a person to say, I made a wrong turn way back there. But the fact is, if it’s true that you made a wrong turn, the only way to freedom is to admit it. And to sit there denying it is a road to insanity. Jesus said, you are of your father the devil. The lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there’s no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Those are hard words. But the truth is that probably at the root of most sin and certainly lying at the root of the inability of a man to repent is a lie. And that’s why Jesus said you will know the truth and the truth is what’s going to set you free. But you know how it goes. You’ve got to be true to yourself first before you even begin to know how to tell the truth to somebody else. He that is of God hears God’s words. You don’t hear them because you’re not of God. Then answered the Jews, Haven’t we got you pegged when we say that you’re a Samaritan and you’re demon-possessed? How far downhill do you suppose this conversation is going to go? Jesus said, I’m not demon-possessed. I honor my Father, and you dishonor me, and I don’t seek my own glory. There is one that seeks and judges. I’ll tell you the truth. If a man keep my saying, he will never see death. And these Jews said, Now we know you have a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and you say, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Ha! The prophets are dead. Abraham is dead. Are you greater than our father Abraham who is dead? The prophets are dead. Who are you making yourself out to be? This has gotten rough, right? Well, Jesus said, If I honor myself, My honor doesn’t amount to anything. It’s my father that honors me, of whom you say he’s your God. But you don’t know him. But I know him. If I would say I don’t know him, I’d be a liar like you. But I know him, and I keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. You know, if you hear this statement coming to you in a Jewish first century context, it really does sound like gobbledygook because how in the world are they expected to understand what it is he’s saying here? The Jews said, you’re not 50 years old. You’ve seen Abraham. And Jesus said, I’m going to tell you the truth. Before Abraham was, I am. That doesn’t parse real well in English, but it’s the only way that Jesus could say the truth. I am, which includes the fact that he was and has been and always will be. That before Abraham was, and Abraham, we have to put Abraham in the past tense, but he doesn’t put himself in the past tense saying, before Abraham was, I was. He said, before Abraham was, I am. And, you know, you can say what you want to about Jesus. You can say that he was a great teacher. You can say that he was a liar. You can say many things. But Jesus flatly claimed to have existed prior to Abraham, which means he existed before his human birth, which means he interacted with Abraham because Abraham saw him, knew him, knew who he was. They communicated. When he said this, predictably, they took up stones to cast at him. Not that many minutes before, they could have been described as Jews who believed on him. That, to me, is one of the great puzzlements of this whole thing. But I think we need to understand that belief is something that can be very lightly held and something that can have very little depth behind it. It can be nothing more than following a charismatic personality. It can be nothing more than saying, well, I believe this guy so far. And the way in which the disciples who wrote the New Testament used the expression to believe on Christ, it has roots much more shallow than you’ve got in the grass in your yard. You know, the most astonishing thing about this passage is that these people started out the day believing in Jesus. What turned them was this conversation about knowing the truth and being made free. I know it’s astonishing that anyone would prefer chains to freedom, but it must be so, for that’s the way in which these people responded. And then a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Oh, I’m glad he asked that question. This is one of the great questions of life, one of the questions people constantly ask the preachers. What did Jesus say in answer to the question, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
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We’ll talk about that when I come back. For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only and request the program titled The Words of Jesus, number 28. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. or call toll-free 1-888-BIBLE-44 and tell us the call letters of this radio station. Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
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And Jesus, as he often did, answered the question with a question, which is useful because you need to know where a person is coming from in order to be able to answer them accurately and completely. And it’s surprising how often a person, when they ask you a question, they really know what the answer is. They just need to somehow find a way to get it out. So Jesus said to him, Well, what’s written in the law? How do you read it? And the lawyer answered and said, Well, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. You know, this is the two great commandments of the law, the great statement of the whole package the Ten Commandments details out is contained right in this little statement here. So he recited it for Jesus, which all of them knew. And Jesus replied, You have answered right. This do, and you shall live. Well, that’s a surprising answer. Surprising, I mean, to a 20th century Christian who’s been kind of brought up on salvation by grace alone or faith alone. Because there are a lot of theological arguments that rage back and forth all the time on this particular question. Are we saved by the law or are we saved by grace? And nobody seems to understand that the giving of the law was itself an act of grace. It was a revelation from God to man of right conduct and wrong conduct. And here’s Jesus saying, you know, salvation, eternal life, has to do with the way in which you live your life here and now. So where does Jesus, though, come up with this, since we know that salvation is by grace? Well, this man wasn’t through yet. He really wanted to justify himself. And struggling with this, he says, well, okay, but who is my neighbor? Now, it’s odd to us that he should have asked the question this way because, you know, our neighbor’s a person living next door to us. Why is he worried about that? Well, the problem was a question of do I have to just do good to Jews or do I have to do good to Gentiles? He just, he was a legalist, a lawyer, and he wanted to know. And Jesus said, I’ll tell you what. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thieves that stripped him of his clothes and wounded him and left, leaving him half dead in the ditch. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, another class of priest, when he came to the place, he came over and looked at him, and then he passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, oh my, Jesus steps into it here because what he does is to choose a category of people that is absolutely despised by most of the people in his audience. A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he felt sorry for him. And he went to him, he bound up his wounds, he poured in oil and wine, which would soften the wound and disinfect it to some degree. He set him on his own beast, and he took him to an inn, and he took care of him. Got him all cleaned up, got him settled, and got him in bed. And on the morrow, when he got ready to leave, he took out some money, and he gave it to the host, and he said, You take care of him, and if you spend more than this when I come back, I will pay it. Now, Jesus said, which of these three do you think was the neighbor to him that fell among thieves? And you almost have to laugh at the way in which this question comes down. Who’s my neighbor? Well, now, which guy is the neighbor to the man who needed it? And he said, well, he that showed mercy on him. And Jesus said, you go and do likewise. There is no way, I think, that the modern reader can appreciate the revolutionary idea that Jesus dropped on this man. He suggested that the man emulate a Samaritan rather than a priest. A Samaritan rather than a Levite. He elevated helping a real human being above the level of religious activities or religious people. Think about it. The priest and the Levite were the men who executed the service of God in the temple. Jesus elevated the service to and a helping of a human being who was in desperate straits and need above the mere religious acts that played out in the temple or the tabernacle. He did something even more revolutionary. He opened the door to eternal life to a Samaritan. In the Jewish society at this time, Jehovah was their God. He was not yours. He belonged to the Jewish people. Oh, true, that there were Gentiles who came to them, but the Jews kept a very great distance between themselves. They would not eat with a Gentile. A Gentile who became circumcised and kept the law could enter fully into their society, but otherwise they could not. You know, we have no idea what this poor lawyer thought about all that. I gather he didn’t have much else to say because nothing else of him has ever said. Continuing with Luke 11 and verse 38. Now it came to pass as they went along that he entered a certain village, and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister named Mary who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his words. The custom was somebody would sit down to teach and perhaps sit on a chair, and the people would sit at his feet around on the floor and listen to what he said. But Martha was cumbered about with much serving. I mean, she had stuff going on, you know, stuff on the stove, stuff getting ready, stuff to get ready to put on the stove. And she came to him and said, Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Would you please tell her to get up off the floor and come help me? And Jesus answered and said, Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things. Only one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part, and it will not be taken away from her. I sympathize with Martha. She was one of these marvelous women who was a workaholic. Without them, a lot of us would never get fed. Well, at least that’s what Martha thought, that a lot of us would never get fed. And certainly, they do an enormous amount of work in this old world of ours. Mary, on the other hand, was not a workaholic. And I would be willing to bet that her sister was very frustrated with her. And not only on this occasion. I have an idea this is the climax of a lot of circumstances where Mary was sitting around while Martha was working. Mary may have been one of those people who aren’t bothered in the least by work. They can sit right down beside it and read a book or do nothing. But Martha’s reply is that if she doesn’t play the hostess with the mostess, all these guests will go hungry, and I’ve got to take care of these people. Now, never mind that Jesus had fed 5,000 people at one time with a few loaves and fishes, and nobody had to cook. And even if he hadn’t, they wouldn’t have gone hungry. People figure out how to solve their problem with hunger, and sooner or later, they would have all got up and gone and got something to eat. Meanwhile, here was a chance of a lifetime and Martha blew it by indulging her compulsion to work. What would you give for an hour to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to him talk? Listen again to the words of Jesus. Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is important. Mary has chosen that which is better, and it will not be taken away from her. Luke 12 and verse 1, it came to pass that he was praying in a certain place. When he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray like John taught his disciples. Apparently, this thing came up more than once in Jesus’ ministry. I don’t know, maybe all of them weren’t there at the same time. And he said to them, when you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now Jesus gave them this same prayer in the Sermon on the Mount. But I think it must not have taken when he gave it to them then. Because here they are asking again. But this time he gives them the Lord’s Prayer. But he’s not through. He wants to teach them several other very important things about prayer. And the first one is they should not give up. but that’ll have to wait until next time. Until then, this is Ronald Dart, and remember, you were born to pray.
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The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560 White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1 888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
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Christian Educational Ministries is happy to announce a new full-color Born to Win monthly newsletter with articles and free offers from Ronald L. Dart. Call us today at 1-888-BIBLE44 to sign up or visit us at borntowin.net.
