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GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

 FREEDOM

By Jim Murriner

JOHN 8:32 speaks of freedom.

"If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be freeindeed."

 The word "indeed" here is the same word, which is used for"indeed" in  I TIM. 5:5 & 5:16 where Paul is speaking of thosewho are "widows indeed" of widows for certain.  (5:5)  "Now shethat is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth insupplications and prayers night and day."   (5:16)  "If any manor woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let notthe  church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed." So what our Lord is telling us in John 8:32 is that if He makes us free,we will most certainly be free.

We studied sometime ago about the Hebrew word (Adonai) and in ourstudy we saw that when we speak of God as our "Lord" or (Adonai) that weare speaking of God being the master while we are the slaves.
The slave is to always do the will and bidding of the master. This is not a bad, cruel and hard thing when God deals with His slaves and givesthem a will that is conformed to His will.  We who have been savedby the grace of God need to remember just what we were before He savedus.  It is not only that we were sinners. Satan because of our formercondition had acquired right over us.
 

ROMANS 5:12 tells us that because of Adams sin we too were underthe power and penalty of sin.

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"
Since Satan has power over death, he gained power over all thathad sinned.
 

HEBREWS 2:14 reminds us of this power that the devil has over allmankind.

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Hehimself likewise took  part of the same; that through death He mightdestroy him that had the power of death, that is that devil."
And since all have sinned he then gained power over all. ROMANS3:23 shows us plainly that all have sinned. "For all have sinned, and comeshort of the glory of  God." JOHN 12:31 declares that because thewhole world has sinned, the devil is then the prince of the world. "Nowis the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be castout."

        JOHN 16:11 also speaksof the devil as the prince of this world. "Of judgement because the princeof this world is judged" Satan has such tremendous control over this worldthat in IICOR. 4:4 he is even called the god of this world.  "In whomthe 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 imageof God, should shine unto  them."

We therefore because we had sinned, had become hopelessly captive,sold by our sin under the power of Satan, who reigned over us, and afflictedour souls with the hard rigor of his bondage. We were hopeless as we werehelpless; for having fallen through our sin under the penalty of death,and thereby under the power of Satan, and having no means to provide aransom, we were shut up forever, unless someone from without, competentand able, should intervene to deliver us from the prison house of captivity.
 

EPH. 2:1-2  puts it like this "And you hath He quickened, whowere dead in trespasses and sins;"

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now workethin the children of disobedience:" Such was our condition, like many ofthose who fled to liberty in our country in days past, we were in bondage;they many times in physical, but we were in spiritual bondage.
Those who fled to our country in days past and those who come heretoday fleeing from oppression have the ability to do something about theircaptivity, but those who are held in spiritual captivity by Satan haveno ability to escape their captivity.

        JOHN 8:44 tells us thatlost people, those who are not trusting in Jesus Christ to get them toheaven are slaves to their father the devil. "Ye are of your father thedevil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murder from thebeginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and thefather of it."

        JOHN 8:34 has the samethought. "Jesus answered them, verily verily, I say unto you, whosoevercommitteth sin is the servant of sin."  The word "servant" used here,has the meaning of "slave".  What Jesus was saying here is "everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin".
        ROMANS 6:20 teaches usthe same thing. "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free fromrighteousness." Here again the word servant means "slave", so we can seethat before we were saved by God's marvelous grace, we were the slavesof Satan.

We who are children of the most high God need to learn that thereis no need to try to get the lost world around us to live any differentlythan they do, because those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as theirown personal savior, are helpless slaves of the devil and cannot, by theirown efforts, escape from their slavery.

We need to learn what JEREMIAH 13:23 has to say about the matter."Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then mayye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." Because of our inabilityto do anything about our condition, we are told in EPH. 2:8-9 that ourworks cannot deliver us from this bondage of slavery in which Satan hasus bound.  "For by grace are ye saved through, faith: and that notof yourselves: it is the gift of God."  "Not of works, lest any manshould boast." All too often we are guilty of telling others that theymust turn over a new leaf, or that they need to change their way of living.This is not what the lost world needs, and if you do not know my savioras your savior too, then you need to be made free by Jesus Christ the Sonof God. The one who is even God in the flesh.

You need to be delivered from the power of Satan by the one who isable to deliver. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego trusted that God was ableto deliver them from the fiery furnace. DANIEL 3:17 tells us of their trust."If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burningfiery furnace,  and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O,King."
        COLOSSIANS 1:12-13 tellsus that all of us who are saved did not deliver ourselves but we were deliveredby God. "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakersof the inheritance of the saints in light:" "Who delivered us from thepower of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dearson:"

        JOHN 8:36 our text versetells us that the only way that we can really be free is for the son tomake us free. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be freeindeed."  For those who were once slaves to Satan to be free indeedthey must not be under any condemnation at all.

        ROMANS 8:1 tells us thisis exactly the condition of each one that is in Christ Jesus. "There istherefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walkno after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

        JOHN 3:18 tells us thatwhile we were in bondage to Satan that we were condemned to go to hell,but when the Lord gives us grace to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christas our own personal savior, that we are no longer condemned. "He that believethon His in not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned  already,because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

        JOHN 5:24 declares thatbelievers not only are not condemned, but they shall not come into condemnation,or they shall never again be condemned. "Verily Verily, I say unto you,He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlastinglife, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death untolife." For those who were once slaves of Satan to be free indeed, theirfreedom must never end. This cannot be said of those who fled to our countryfor freedom, or of those who were born here. Our physical freedom is constantlythreatened.  Our Spiritual freedom will never end, it is eternal,everlasting. One reason for this is that the Lord will never stop lovingthose He has saved.

        ISAIAH 54:10 reminds usof this. "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; butmy kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of mypeace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." The word "kindness"used here is translated "lovingkindness" almost as often as kindness butwhat we need to see here is that He is talking about His covenant withthe saints never being removed.

        ROMANS8:35 - 39 tellsus that nothing shall separate us from the love that He has for us. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress,or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheepfor the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquers throughHim that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, norangels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor thingsto come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able toseperate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Some say, but the devil can separate us. We must remind those that thedevil is a fallen angel.

        EZEKIEL 28:14 shows usthis. "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set theeso: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and downin the midst of the stones of fire." So then the devil cannot separateus from the love of God. For those who were once slaves of Satan to befree indeed, the one freeing them must have paid the complete cost of theirfreedom.

        HEBREWS 10:10-14 tellsus that was just what Jesus did.  "By the which will we are sanctifiedthrough the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And everyhigh priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the samesacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after He hadoffered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the  right handof God;  From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."
These verses show us that Christ' offering of Himself to God theFather did not merrily pay for our sins for a moment but paid for themforever.

        GALATIANS 3:13 speaksof His sacrifice as having redeemed or bought us back from being Satan'sslave. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made acurse for us: for  it is written, cursed is every one that hangethon a tree." For those who were once slaves of Satan to be free indeed,they must be preserved in a way that no one can steal them away from freedom.

        JOHN 10:28 tells us thatno one can snatch us out of Gods hand. "And I give unto them eternal life,and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of myhand."

        EPH. 1:13 tells us thatthose whom the Lord has saved are sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit."In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospelof your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealedwith the Holy Spirit of promise." There can be no better seal than theHoly Spirit.

        EPH. 4:30 in warning thosewho are saved that we need to be careful how we live so that we will notgrieve the Holy Spirit, tells us that those that are saved are sealed bythe Holy Spirit. "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye aresealed unto the day of redemption."