And in verse 32, Ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And they answered
him, We are Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any
man. How sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? At first when we
read verse 33, or at least when I read verse 33, It doesn't seem
like anything more than an honest question. I hear them saying,
how can you say we shall be made free? We've never been in bondage. How can you tell us we're going
to be made free? We are free, aren't we? But the gospel of Jesus Christ
is an offense to any natural man, and it is especially an
offense to those who are only religious. There are many people
who would honestly say that they believe on Jesus. And I think
that's what the scripture is telling us here. They say that
they believe on Jesus. But parts of the gospel are still
an offense to them and said they are not really free. Jesus is
teaching in a Jewish temple. Among the Jews who had gathered
around him to hear him preach and teach are scribes and Pharisees. They are very religious people.
And they're offended because Jesus is telling them that they're
in bondage. In fact, all of the Jews there
must be very religious. Because as I say, they had gathered
in the temple that early morning And we're not told if it was,
but we're not told that it was even the Sabbath. And so when
Jesus said to the Jews who had believed on 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. And when they heard
what Jesus said, they said to Jesus, We are the offspring of
Abraham, and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it
then that you can say that we will become free? They thought
they were free. And to be told about a need to
be made free is something that natural man rejects. He just doesn't want to hear
that. The plain implication of what Jesus was saying to them
was that before a person knows and believes the truth of the
gospel, he isn't free. But actually, he's in bondage.
And that's exactly true. It's true today as it was true
for those people that Jesus was speaking to. If Christ has not
made you free, you're in bondage. Most people wouldn't believe
that, but it is exactly true. As little as men realize it,
or as they are unwilling to recognize the fact, it's absolutely true. All natural men are in bondage. If we've not been set free by
Christ, we're in bondage. We may think that we have a free
will. Most of the people I talk to
are very proud of their free will and they'll quickly tell
you that my will is free. They think that they can do good
things. And frequently they'll tell you about all of the good
things that they do. But our wills and our actions
are all full of sin. Our wills are not free. And our
actions are not righteous actions. We are in bondage. There are
four things which are absolutely true, but which natural men in
their pride always hate to hear. Because these truths are so offensive
and so humbling to the unregenerate, to that individual who is not
born again. God must first change your heart. God must change your
mind before these truths cease to be an offense to you. You have to be born again. You
have to be made willing. The first thing that a natural
man finds offensive is that he is without any righteousness
or any goodness of his own. And so therefore he is unclean. That's exactly what God, who
knows the hearts of men, that's exactly what God says. We're not righteous. We are all
unclean. In Isaiah 64 verse 6, God's word
says, But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away. A loving and merciful God
graciously showed Paul that he was unclean. In Romans 7.18 Paul
said, For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. For the will is present with
me. But how to perform that which is good, I find not. I just can't figure out how to
do that which is good. As men who are born of Adam,
we are not only unclean, but we are vile. In Job 40 verse
4, Job said, and he's talking about himself, Job said, Behold,
I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth. I don't dare to speak. I am vile. My dictionary gives a synonym
for the word vile as depraved. And to say you are depraved is,
I think, a lot stronger language than to say that you are unclean.
But in either case, it is a language which is very offensive. That
is true of all of us. until we are actually washed
in the blood of Christ it's true of all of us but to be told that
you're depraved or even to be told that you're just unclean
is very offensive to hear for most people then the second truth
which all natural men find to be terribly offensive to hear
is that they have no wisdom it's not like being called stupid
but to be told that you have no wisdom, that you're so vain
that they would only reject the witness of Christ and that they
can't in their own wisdom receive Christ. Jesus Christ said in John 3.11,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, we speak that we do know and
testify to that we have seen. And you receive, not our witness. Natural men have no witness,
have no wisdom of their own, but they're full of vanity. In
Psalm 39, verse 5, David says to God, Behold, thou hast made
my days as a hand breath, and my age is nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity, say law." Think about that. Because
men have no wisdom, they are continually foolish. God says
in Proverbs 22.15 that foolishness is bound in the heart of a child.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. But the rod of correction
shall drive it far from him. And that rod of correction is
Jesus Christ. The Word of God, Jesus Christ,
is the believer's rod of correction. We must be taught by God. We
must be given the wisdom of Christ. But that truth is an offense
to the natural man who thinks he has wisdom in himself. Then
the third truth, which all natural men hate to hear, is that they
are weak. Some of the young boys here,
I imagine, spend a whole lot of time building up their strength.
But the Bible tells us we are weak. We hate to think that we
are without any strength, that we are without any power in ourselves
to accomplish that which we say that we want to do. But in Romans
5 verse 6 Paul said, For when we were yet without strength,
In due time Christ died for the ungodly. It's talking there about
a strength that we could look to Christ in our own ability and we have no strength to look
to Christ or to receive Christ or even to believe Christ not
in our own ability. Paul said when we were without
strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly. And in Isaiah
40 verse 29 it says about God that He giveth power to the faint
and to them that have no might He increases strength. Does it
offend you to be told that you don't have any strength? That
you don't have any ability? That you don't have any wisdom?
Not of your own? Does that offend you? Because
a natural man is weak without his own strength or power. He
is therefore unable to do anything that is good. As Jesus said in
John 15 verse 5, I am the vine and you are the branches. And
he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. Jesus was saying that without
him you can't do anything good. You have no ability, you have
no strength, you have no wisdom. You can't produce good fruit
in your own strength. Then the fourth truth which all
men hate to hear, but which was also the case of the Jews that
were opposing Jesus in the temple, is that we are in bondage. But
that's exactly why Jesus came, didn't he? He came because we're
in bondage. In Isaiah 61, verse 1, Jesus
said, and these are the words of Jesus spoken through Isaiah. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound. And in 2 Peter
2.19, it describes those religious leaders this way. He says, While
they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of
corruption, for of whom a man is overcome of the same as he
brought in bondage." Now, if you would, turn in your Bibles
to Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 6, please. The condition of natural man
is far, far worse than any of us imagine it to be, I think.
Certainly far worse than I ever imagined that I was. It's far
worse than the average preacher. Far worse than the average Sunday
school teacher thinks it is too. Man is nothing but a fallen creature. He is totally depraved. And he has no soundness in him
at all, as Isaiah 1-6 says. From the sole of his foot, even
to the head, there is no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound
up, neither mollified with ointment." We're all like that traveler.
You remember that traveler in the Bible? He was set upon by
thieves. Then he was left to die along
the side of the road. It's not a pretty picture, is
it? But that's a picture of every natural man. That's how we are
naturally. Bloody, left to die alongside
of the road. I'll turn back to John 8 and
let's look at verse 34. The Jews had said to Jesus in
verse 33 that they were never in bondage to any man. And so
how could he say to them that they wouldn't be made free? And
then in verse 34, John 8, 34, Jesus answered them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, whosoever committed sin is the servant
of sin. Now that's pretty clear, isn't
it? That's not hard to understand. The fact that you continue to
sin indicates that you're in bondage to your sin. The word
servant here in verse 34 means slave. Slaves were servants, but I doubt
if they went out and hired somebody individually, they used slaves
to be their servants. They didn't have servants as
some people might today. They had slaves. Jesus is saying
that all men are slaves to sin because as fallen creatures they
are completely under the dominion of sin. It's sin that rules their
lives. They are like bond slaves to
their lusts because as 2 Peter 2.14 says, they cannot cease
from sin. I ask you, can you? Can you cease
from your sin? They can't cease from their sin
because they love their sin and they don't want to cease from
their sin. For the natural man is so thoroughly
under the dominion of sin that he has been taken captive by
the devil, by Satan. The only way for him to be freed
from his sin is to be made free by God. Which even then, as long
as he's in his flesh, doesn't mean that he's going to stop
sinning. But he hates his sin. And he wants and he prays for
the ability to stop sinning. And that's why God has sent him
a Savior. As 2 Timothy 2 verses 25 and
26 says, If God, perhaps, will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the
snare of the devil who are taken captive by him and his will.
That's why God sent a Savior to save us from our sin. God sent us a Savior to give
us wisdom. to give us power, to give us
strength in order to live and to serve Him. You see by nature
all men walk according to the prince of the power of the air
the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience
as it says in Ephesians 2. They fulfill the lusts of their
father the devil. In John 8.44 Jesus told these
Jews there in that temple You are of your father the devil,
the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth
in him. And when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he
is a liar and the father of it, the father of lies. Jesus is
talking about natural men here. All men, women, boys and girls,
who are without Jesus Christ as their Savior. are completely
dominated by Satan's power, who is the power of darkness. Paul
said in Colossians 1 verse 13 that it was God who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son. And so Jesus, who is the way,
the truth, and the light of God, is saying to those Jews that
nothing but the truth of God can deliver them from their bondage.
And that's true of all of us. But in Christ. But in me, Jesus
says, in verse 33, you shall be made free. Can you see why
the gospel is an offense to a natural man? The truth that man is in bondage
to his sin and that he can only be set free by Jesus Christ, is a truth which natural man
cannot tolerate at all. He hates it. And he will always
reject it. Unless God makes him willing. Unless God opens his eyes to
see Jesus Christ. I suspect that maybe some of
you right now, if you have not bowed your knee to Christ, are
even now offended by this truth. The very announcement of it tends
to stir up the enmity and the hate in the hearts of those who
trust in themselves and their own righteousness. When you tell
a sinner that there's no good thing in him, he'll not only
not believe you, but he'll reject everything else that you say.
He does this because he doesn't know that he needs a Savior.
You have to know that you're a sinner. before you really need
a Savior. You have to know that you cannot
save yourself, you cannot do anything that even contributes
to your salvation, because you can do nothing good. But when
you tell them that He is so completely the slave of sin, that He is
so completely the captive of Satan, that He can't even think
a godly thought in His own power, He is going to hate you enough
that He will want to kill you. But Paul, who is speaking the
Word of God, in 2 Corinthians 3-5 said, Not that we are sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. And that is the difference between
a natural man and one who is born again in Christ. Those who
are still under the dominion of sin hate that when they hear
it, But if the Son shall make you
free by God's grace, such is the confidence that we have that
Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to
claim anything is coming from us, even our thoughts, but our
sufficiency all comes from God, who has made us competent, who
has given us a new life in Christ. And that's what makes us confident.
I'm not trying to make anybody angry. I'm not trying to offend
anybody. But it's clear from Scripture,
as clear as anything I can see today, that a natural man cannot
receive God's truth. 1 Corinthians 2.14 says that
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto
him. They don't have any wisdom to receive it. Neither can he
know them. because they are spiritually
discerned. A natural man, because of his
sin and because of his bondage in sin, can't believe the things
of Christ without the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit.
So if you believe these things, if the things that I've been
saying you believe are true of you, then I suggest you have
every reason to praise God. It's an indication if God has
shown you who you are and what you are that you're a child of
God and God has saved you in Christ. If these things don't
offend you, you believe them because of the grace of God.
But if you tell most people, most religious people, that God
doesn't save everybody, That'll make them hate you. Not only
hate you, but hate your God. And if you tell them exactly
what God says in John 12, verses 39 and 40, that God blinds their
eyes and hardens their hearts so that they won't understand
and be converted, they'll want to kill you. But that's exactly
what John 12, verses 39 and 40 says. Listen to it carefully.
Therefore they could not believe. Why not? Because then Isaiah
said again, He hath, God has, blinded their eyes and hardened
their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand
with their heart and be converted and I should heal them. You tell
a natural man who is ruled by his flesh, a natural man who
is only religious, Tell him that he cannot please God, he'll hate
you for it. He'll say that he loves God,
and how dare you say that he cannot please God? But Romans
8, verses 7 and 8 says that because the carnal mind or the fleshly
mind is enmity or hate, is enmity against God, for it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, And so then they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. Tell them that and they'll
hate you. Those are God's words. But maybe
the thing that angers a religious person most today is when you
tell them that they cannot come to Christ in their own power.
They can't come to Christ. They can't make a decision for
Christ. Not a saving decision. not coming
to Christ in their own power. Those natural men who trust in
their belief or in their decision to receive Christ, those natural
men who have come down this aisle in front of the whole church
and tell the preacher in the church what they've done, they're
going to absolutely hate it if you say that they can't come
to Christ. They'll argue and they'll fight. They'll argue with God's Word
when you quote it to them. But in John 6.44 Jesus said clearly
that no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
drawing and I'll raise him up at the last day Jesus said. So
that we can't misunderstand Jesus said the same thing again in
verse 65 he said No man can come to me except we're given unto
him of my Father." A natural man hates these truths, always
rejects these truths, and he'll indignantly deny that they are
truth. He'll make accusations that you've
changed God's Word somehow, or that you're taking Scripture
out of context, or you're adding to or subtracting from God's
Word, trying to make God's Word fit what you're trying to say
to me. Their God, though, is a different
God. It isn't the same God that Jesus
Christ came to reveal to us. So it was here in our text, in
John 8, verse 32, when Jesus said, the truth shall make you
free. It was there that the religious Jews who trusted in the cells
and their own righteousness, they replied in verse 33, we
be, we are, in other words, Abraham's seed and were never in bondage
to any man. But let me show you something
that shows me how foolish these fellows were. And yet they were
exactly the same as many people are today. These fellows, when
they said that they were not in bondage, are boasting and
they are lying. Everything that they're saying
is based on untruth. Nothing could have been further
from the truth when they say that they've never been in bondage.
The very first view which Scripture gives us of Abraham's seed after
they had become a nation is in Exodus 2. And they are in bitter
and cruel bondage. They were slaves. They were in
bondage in Egypt. And then in Judges we read seven
times in the book of Judges about God delivering or selling Israel
into the hands of the Canaanites. And I ask you, what was their
70 years of captivity in Babylon but bondage? And those Jews knew
that they were lying when they spoke to Jesus, because even
as they spoke to Him, they were in bondage. They were in bondage
not only to their sin, but the Romans were their masters. They were in bondage to Rome.
It was therefore the height of observity. It was clearly a lie
for them to say that the seed of Abraham had never been in
bondage. What they said was no more untenable, no more untrue
than the assertions of religious people today, who argue so loudly
about the freedom of their natural man, claiming that they have
a free will, and men hotly deny that Their will is enslaved by
sin. Just as those Jews argued with
Jesus, religious people make the same arguments today and
they say to us, how sayest thou, you shall be made free? Well
I say, look to Jesus Christ and you will be made free. Deliverance
from the law, emancipation from bad habits that have they've
heard about, but real spiritual freedom, a
natural man does not understand at all. While they remain in ignorance
about their universal bondage of sin, they can know nothing
at all about the freedom that you know, if you know Christ
is your Savior who has saved you from your sin. As long as
they believe that they're saved by something that they have done,
as long as they believe that they're saved by their own free
will, by their own wisdom, they've missed the gospel of Christ.
They have missed Christ himself. As long as they think that they
can grow in their sanctification and in their obedience to God's
law, they have missed Jesus Christ and they cannot see that they
are in bondage to their sin. and have no ability at all to
set themselves free or to make themselves better persons. Because
in John 8, verse 34, Jesus answered them this way. He said, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant,
is the bond-slave of sin. And in saying whosoever is the
bond-slave of sin, our Lord actually is saying, And only those, I
think, who can understand it by the teaching of the Holy Spirit,
who are convinced of their own sin, can understand this. But
Jesus is saying, there are no exceptions to this rule. Whosoever,
any man who sins is a bond slave of sin. Even those very Jews who belong to and were the seed
of Abraham. If you continue to sin, and we
all do, you're a slave to sin. What those Jews couldn't see,
and what we all need to be taught by God, is that Christ Jesus
was not speaking about a particular class of men who were more lawless,
bigger sinners than others. But Christ is affirming that
which is true of every man who is still in his flesh. Look at
John 8, verse 34. Please, closely. Jesus said that
whosoever commit a sin, Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners,
is saying that all men are sinners and all men need a Savior. He's
saying to those self-righteous Jews that He came to save sinners
from their sin and that all who would come to Him, whosoever
would come to him would be saved that he would raise him up at
the last day Jesus Christ the Savior of sinners was saying
to Jews who struggled so unsuccessfully under the heavy burden of the
law was saying as he said in Matthew 11 28 come unto me all
ye that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest well I
hope you can hear me listen to me carefully The thing that distinguishes
God's people from those that are only religious, those who
are trying to keep the law, is that one group is no better than
another. The difference isn't that one
sins and the other doesn't sin, because as Jesus is so clearly
saying, all men are sinners. But twice Jesus told these self-righteous
Jews that they could be made free from sin. And we can be
made free from sin in Jesus Christ. In verse 32, Jesus, who was the
Word of God, the truth of God, said to them, And ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Then again in
verse 36, He said, If the Son therefore shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed. Twice He says it. But without
the God-given ears to hear, without the God-given faith of Christ,
they couldn't see or believe. They were only offended by the
truth of God. Without the need for a Savior,
without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to change their hearts
and make them willing, without them seeing their own depravity,
they were, so far as we're able to see here from Scripture, They
were unable to hear or to truly believe the Word of God. They
certainly believed. They were in the very presence
of Christ, but they didn't trust Christ for their salvation. But
they knew Christ. They believed that Christ was
there. They heard him preach. They just couldn't hear spiritually
what he was saying. You see, water can't rise above
its own level. Being a sinner by nature, a man
is a sinner by practice, and he can't be anything else but
a sinner. A corrupt tree can't bring forth good fruit. A poisoned
fountain can't send forth sweet waters. Because the natural man
doesn't have a spiritual nature within him, he's totally depraved
and in complete bondage to sin. Because he can do nothing for
God's glory, every action that he performs is polluted with
sin, and every deed is unacceptable to the Holy One of God. As verse
34 says, whosoever committeth sin is the bond slave of sin. And how I pray that you can hear
that. How very different are God's
thoughts from our thoughts. The man of the world imagines
that to become a Christian means that he has to give up his freedom.
He thinks that he would be tied down with a lot of restrictions
and rules and laws, which would spoil all of his fun and take
away his liberty. But these very thoughts, when
they're expressed to us, are so filled with sin that they
are only evidence of the fact that the God of this world, who
is Satan, has blinded his mind. As it says in 2 Corinthians 4,
4, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them. But the very
opposite of what natural men think is the thing which is actually
true. It is the one who is out of Christ,
not the one who is in Christ, who is in bondage. or in the
bond of iniquity as Peter said to Simon the sorcerer who tried
to buy the gift of God in Acts 8.23 Peter said to Simon the
sorcerer for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness
and in the bond of iniquity just as Peter could clearly see that
Simon the sorcerer was outside of Christ because he wanted to
buy the gift of God So also any born again child of God can see
by God's grace that the gift of God's salvation is a free
gift. It cannot be bought at any price.
You can earn it. You can't deserve it. It's a
free gift. And those who try to buy it are
those who do not know Christ because they are not in Christ.
As the prophet of God said in Isaiah 55 verse 1, Ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money,
come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. God's salvation is free. Free to sinners. Free to those
that God makes willing to receive it. A natural man who is under
the law is weighed down by the heavy weight of the law and by
the downward trend of his nature. He works and he works and he
works to try and to buy his freedom and a better life. But the very
freedom which the sinner thinks he's exercising in the indulgence
of his evil lusts are only additional proof that he's a bond slave
of sin. The love of self, the love of
the world, the love of money, the love of pleasure, These are
the tyrants which rule over us, and over all men who are out
of Christ. But happy is the one who has
been made conscious of his bondage, because this is the first step
towards liberty in Christ. In John 8 verse 35, Jesus said
to these Jews who were arguing with the truth of God, He said,
And the bond slave abideth not in the house forever, but the
Son abideth forever. The commentators, as I was studying
this verse, are not at all in agreement in their interpretation
of this verse. I really cannot see why. It seems
to be a very simple verse. There is not much room for difference
of opinion in my idea, but I take it that the Lord was simply giving
us a general principle, or the Lord was stating a well-known
fact, which is that a slave has only a temporary place in a family. The application of this principle
to those that Christ was addressing seems very obvious to me, does
it to you? The Jews insisted that they were
Abraham's seed, in verse 32, and so they belonged to God's
favored family, at least that was their claim. And God had
given them the covenants and promises. But our Lord says to
them that the mere fact that you are a natural descendant
of Abraham doesn't give you title to the blessings which belong
to God's spiritual children in Christ. This was impossible while
they remained the bond slaves of sin. Unless they were made
free in Christ by the power of God, they would be soon cut off
even from the temporary place of external privilege. Sinners
are not part of God's family. But the Son abideth ever, it
says. These words point us to a contrast. The slave's place was uncertain. And at best the slave's place
in the family of God was only temporary. But the Son's place
in the family is permanent. No doubt the word abideth that
is used here suggests the additional thought of fellowship within
God's family. The history of Abraham's family
well illustrated this fact and probably Christ has the case
of Ishmael and Isaac in mind when he uttered these words,
the son abideth forever. Although this statement gives
us a general principle about something that is true of every
member of God's family and yet the direct reference was clearly
Christ was speaking about Himself. As verse 36, I think, makes very
plain. Because the Son of verse 36 is
clearly restricted to the Lord Jesus. And John 8.36 says, If
the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. The word therefore, which is
used here in verse 36, settles any misunderstanding about who
the Son is in verse 35. The Son abideth ever. The Son,
what Jesus is talking about in each verse, is none other than
Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, who abides forever. He is able
to make free the bond slaves of sin because He is the Son
of God. It is Jesus Christ who can bring
sinners into God's family because He washes them clean in His blood.
He gives them a new birth. He saves their souls. He brings
them into His family. The Son is not a bond slave in
the Father's family, but He is one in the purpose and the power
of the Father. He is in perfect fellowship with
Him, and therefore He is fully competent and able to liberate
those who are under the tyranny of sin and the dominion of Satan.
To make His people free was the central object of the divine
incarnation. He is the reason for Christ's
birth. It is the reason why God took the form of a man, the first
Ministerial utterance of Christ was in Luke 4, verse 18, to the
effect that the Spirit of the Lord hath anointed him to preach
deliverance to the captives, to set to liberty them that are
bruised and that are bound in sin. And so thoroughly do men
love their sin, so truly do they love darkness rather than light,
that they have to be made free by God. God has to do it or it
will not happen. As David said in Psalm 23 verses
1 and 2, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He, the Lord,
makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. It's God that does that. It's
God who sets us free from our sin. Oh, how I pray that you
might look to Him. Jesus says, you shall be free
indeed. Free from what? Well, that question
brings before us the truth of Christian freedom, which is the
most important subject, but one that's too lengthy and too deep
to go into with the little bit of time that I have left. But
next Sunday, if you want to listen to my little advertisement here,
next Sunday, my sermon is from Galatians 5 and verse 25, which
says, if we live in the spirit, Let us walk in the Spirit. I'm
not going to preach that sermon now. I'll save it. Otherwise,
you wouldn't have any reason to come here next Sunday. Let
me sum up in Christian liberty in the fewest possible words
that I can. Christian liberty, spiritual liberty, consists of
these four things. First, Christian liberty is deliverance
from the condemnation of sin, the penalty of the law, and the
wrath of God. In Isaiah 42 verse 7 it says
that Christ came to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners
from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house. And Isaiah 60 verse 1 says to God's people, Arise, shine,
for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
thee. And in Romans 8 verse 1 Paul
said, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit." And I emphasize, they walk not after the flesh,
but they walk after the Spirit. Second, Christ's liberty is deliverance
from the power of Satan. Acts 26 verse 18 says that Jesus
Christ came to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness
to light and from the power of Satan unto God. that they may
receive forgiveness of sin and inheritance among them which
are sanctified by faith that is in me. And Colossians 1 verse
13 says that it was Jesus Christ who has delivered us from the
power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son. And in Hebrews 2 verses 14 and 15 Paul says, For as much
then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
And third, Christian liberty is deliverance from the bondage
of sin. In Romans 6.14 Paul said, For sin shall not have dominion
over you, For you are not under the law, but under grace. And
in Romans 6, verse 18, he said, Being then made free from sin,
you became servants of righteousness. And fourth, Christian liberty
is deliverance from the authority of men. In Galatians 4, verses
8 and 9, Paul says, Howbeit then, when ye know not God, ye did
service unto them which by nature are no gods." In other words,
of men. But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, or unto ye desire again to be in bondage?
And in Galatians 5.11 he says, Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. And in Colossians 2 verses 20
to 22 he says, Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the
rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world,
are ye subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, handle
not, which all are to perish with the using. after the commandments
and doctrines of men. Well, that's the negative and
so much for the negative. Now let me give you the positive
side of Christian liberty. Christians are delivered from
the things that I just mentioned for this reason, so that they
are free to serve God. The believer is the Lord's free
man, not Christ's free man. He's Christ's servant. According
to 1 Corinthians 7, verse 22, which says, For he that is called
in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's free man. Likewise,
also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. He is the Lord's, which is a
divine title. that always emphasizes our submission
to his authority. When a sinner is saved, he isn't
free to follow the lusts of his old nature, because that would
be lawlessness. Christian liberty or spiritual
freedom is not a license to do whatever we please, but it is
a freedom from the bondage of sin and Satan that we may do
as we should in serving Christ. As Luke 1 verses 74 and 75 says
that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might
serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life. And in Romans 6 verses 16, Paul gives us a divine summary
of the positive side of Christian liberty. He asks, beginning in
Romans 6 verse 16, Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether
of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be
thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from
the heart, that from that form of doctrine which was delivered
to you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants
of righteousness. And then skipping down to verse
22, Paul says, but now being made free from sin and become
servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end
everlasting life. Kind of missed that last step.
Pray with me, please. O gracious Father, how I pray
You might send your spirit. You may send the spirit of our
dear Savior to indwell us. Rule over us, Lord. Rule over
our lives. Cause us, dear Father, to seek
you, to come to you, and to serve you. I pray, Lord, that each
person in this room, you might make us each one conscious of
your presence, leading and guiding us according to your will, not
according to our own. but that being made free we might
serve Christ for your glory. As in his name we pray, Amen.