Sermon
Freedom In Christ
December 8, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our Bibles today, and for you that join with us, we're delighted that you've come. What we have been doing now for a number of months, we've been going through the gospel of John. We're just kind of taking it verse by verse, sometimes phrase by phrase, because the gospel of John is known as the gospel of belief. It's one of the great, great parts of our New Testament. We've come to chapter 8. It's to me possibly one of the most challenging, if not fascinating, chapters in all this gospel; and I'll tell you why.

It's in this chapter we have the record of the confrontation between Jesus and His critics. And, of course, the tension has developed over the last number of chapters. It started in chapter 5 as Jesus goes down to the pool and there finds a man that had been ill for 38 years and He heals him. And then He tells him to do something that violated the rabbinical law; that was to take up his bid and go home. According to rabbinical law you could not carry a burden on a Sabbath day, and thus, they saw Jesus as a Sabbath breaker.

In chapter 8 they're trying to really corner Him because the hatred in their heart towards Him is really growing. And so they have a set up situation where they catch this woman in adultery and then they bring her to Jesus, and they want Jesus to pass judgment upon her. They knew that if He followed the laws of Moses and required stoning then the crowd would turn against Him, and He already was raising a tremendous public crowd that was behind Him. And they also knew that if He didn't do it that He would be violating the law. They were going to get Him any way He turned -- they thought.

And Jesus, you remember He knelt down and started writing on the ground, and the result was He went back to the law Himself and said, he that is without sin you cast the first stone. So He put that challenge before the accusers and as the result, all of them are with sin and from the oldest to the youngest they walked away. And here stand silently in the presence of Jesus the lady, and Jesus says something very, very beautiful to her -- neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.

The tension is building. Jesus makes the statement that His Father is forever with Him. You remember they came back and said, Jesus in the courts the law requires that you have at least two witnesses. You cannot make a claim without two witnesses or as many as three. So who's Your witness? Jesus said My Father is My witness and He's with Me, I'm with Him, we are one. So it's Me and My Father, and there are the two witnesses, so we fulfill the rabbinic requirement. Of course they come back and say, well where is your witness? If You're going to put him on the stand, where is he?

Then of course, they took it a little further and said, well, who is Your father? And we learned last Lord's Day the implied was: You really don't know who Your father is. Because there was a general comment going throughout Palestine in those days that Jesus was byproduct of an illicit love affair between Mary and a Roman soldier stationed up in Nazareth. So they're implying that Jesus was the product of fornication. It's a personal attack now.

Look at what He says it verse 28, Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. Jesus said there will come a day you'll lift Me up, and remember, we learned that the lifting up phrase comes from the lifting up of the cross dropping it into the ground. It was a symbolic way of saying when you put Me to the cross there will be many things that will happen that will vindicate that what I said has been true. And we observed them last Lord's Day, the sun refused to shine, the rocks began to quake, the soldiers stood there beside the cross and said, truly this was the Son of God. They put Jesus in a tomb; He came out of that tomb in three days. Jesus said, when that's all finished there will be ample proof that who I've claimed to be is true.

Now look at the verse 30: As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. And verse 31 says, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him. Now let's stop there. If we could read this text in the original language, which is Greek, the implied that's it's a belief that is the result of mental ascent. In other words, you can agree to something, but in the agreement, whatever that truth may be, it doesn't have to affect you.

What is implied is some of them standing there said, hey, maybe some of these things that He's saying are true, and maybe we should become His followers. And the implied is they gave mental ascent, but they didn't take the truths very seriously. Remember we talked about this last week that it's known as easy believism. It's a new doctrine that's being taught, and has for the last few years, across some of the Southland. And that is, if you give mental ascent to the fact that Jesus came to this earth 2000 years ago, and you agree that He was a historical figure, and you agree that He went to the cross, and you agree that He died on the cross, and you agree that He came out of that tomb, and ascended back to heaven. If you give mental ascent to those historical truths simply by saying, I believe them, they tell us that makes us a Christian. And there is no implied change of life, no change of values, there's nothing that marks that individual that he's come face-to-face with Christ and Christ has become his Lord.

Here's what they say, you can receive Jesus as savior then maybe sometime later in your life you can belief in Him as your Lord. It's called the no-lordship salvation. But that's heresy because Jesus Christ is Lord. If He's not Lord of all, He's not Lord at all. And here's what Jesus is faced with. He's faced with some who are just cautiously saying, well maybe He is true. What do you think? Shall we become His followers? And Jesus very quickly defines what a true disciple is. We went through this last Sunday. He said, If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.

Now that word 'abide' is a very interesting word. It means to take roots in; it means to have a determination to seek after; it means to thirst for; it means that the word becomes the controlling element in my life that directs my value system, my lifestyle, by object of devotion. When I abide, I live in God's word. What Jesus is saying is a true disciple is one who diligently, deliberately, consistently seeks to know My word, to abide in My word, so much so that these words abide in us. They become a part of us. We partake of these glorious truths and these truths become transforming truths. And Jesus said, it's the man, it's the woman, who abides in My word those are the marks of a true disciple. Not just lip service. But a life that is dramatically transformed by the truths of His word.

Now He says something else. Not only does abiding in His word mark us as disciples, but look at verse 32, what it also does -- you shall know the truth, He's truth, and in knowing Him there will come a wonderful freedom. The truth shall make you free.

Now let's take it just a word at a time. You see that 'you shall know the truth'? In the Greek that is used to imply a very intimate relationship. When you go back into the Old Testament it says that Adam knew Eve, and it defines that intimate relationship between husband and wife, that intimate moment when there is a relationship so deep, so tender, and so unique you experience that person. And here's what Jesus is saying, by abiding in this word, making it the very heart of our being, we will come to know Him who is truth in the most intimate and glorious and wonderful way.

If you're looking for a way to grow in your Christian faith, you really do want to bear the marks of Christ's likeness, you really want to know Him in a wonderful way; Jesus said, I'll give you the outline just abide, live, consistently devour, commit yourself to, earnestly seek after My word. And in the process, you will come to know Me in the most intimate, most wonderful, most glorious relationship. And the result of that relationship, you'll come to an experience of enjoying a freedom you never enjoyed before.

So the question is, if abiding in His word and growing in my relationship with Jesus Christ I am made free, what does the Bible mean here? What did Jesus mean when He said, it'll make you free? There are two implied freedoms. Number one, is the freedom from ignorance, spiritual blindness. And the second is the freedom from sin's power and its dominion.

The first freedom that comes in once we open our hearts to this word and we allow the Christ of this word to become our personal Lord and Savior, something beautiful takes place, and that is, this mind that has been clogged and blinded by Satan, the god of this world, as Paul points out in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He said, the god of this world hath blinded the eyes so we cannot behold the glories of Christ. Verse 6 says, but God has shown His light and we have the knowledge of Christ.

Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14, The natural man, that is the man who is a sinner, the man who doesn't know Christ, doesn't know God: the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually understood. That's what I'm talking about; it's that spiritual blindness, and the only one that can remove that spiritual blindness is the work of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

You can start talking to someone about your Christian experience and you can say to them, you know, since I've come to know Christ I have such a different attitude towards life, the guilt of sin is gone; and they look at you and say, what are you talking about? Right? Spiritual blindness. They don't understand. This is what I mean. Before I was a Christian it was this way, and after I became a Christian it's this way. What are you talking about? Spiritual blindness.

Now we have the most interesting illustration and example right in the next verse. Standing before Him were religious leaders that were blind to who was standing in their midst. They've accused Him of being a liar, an imposture, and a law breaker. And who He really is is God Almighty the divine Son of God standing in their midst, and they're blind.

And look at their answer. They answered Him and say, We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, "You will be made free?" Now on the surface that is a ridiculous statement. Because here is a nation -- you trace back through Jewish history and they've had very few years of freedom. You go clear back to Egypt, 430 years of bondage in Egypt. Moses comes and God sets them free, then you have the writings of book of the judges and throughout the writings of the book of judges on seven different occasions they are dominated by foreign powers. Bondage?

A few years later they go steeped in their idolatry and God takes them off to Babylon and they have the Babylonian captivity for 70 years. Bondage? Never been in bondage? And while they're saying we've never been in bondage, jingling in their pockets was the coins of the Roman government which gave evidence to the fact that they were now under the dominion of Roman. And standing on every street corner was a Roman soldier. We've never been in bondage!

But they're talking about something not in the physical. You see, as Jewish people they believed in spiritual aristocracy. They believed, and they were taught this by the rabbis, that a circumcised Israelite could not possibly ever go to Gehenom, which was hell. In other words, because Abraham was their father they were totally in a spiritual plane far above everybody else in the universe. They had a deal with God that just because they were the descendants of Abraham they were totally, totally oblivious to anything as far as sin's judgment.

Now they lived that way. Even though they were under bondage down here on this earth, yet they lived in a spiritual world where they could honestly say we've not been in bondage because they were taught they were children of kings; and their king was Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And as their kings, they lived in a realm way up here and those who came in to occupy them, they knew they did, because most of their occupiers they knew that religion was so intense in their Jewish way of thinking, they let them carry on in their religious life even though their lands, and their homes, and their cities were controlled by foreigners. It's interesting how much freedom they had even when they were under the bondage of Roman. They could almost do anything they wanted to except take a life. That's why they had to take Jesus in before Pilate to get his okay.

But what they're saying is because we are who we are, we are the descendants of Abraham, we are higher and better. In fact, they were taught that all Gentiles were only created for one purpose, and that was to fuel the fires of hell. That's why they could say; they may be occupying our land and controlling our streets, but we are the children of Abraham, and we've never lost that position with God.

Now, look at what Jesus says. Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Now it's hard for us to grasp the importance of that statement. But if we were Jewish people standing there that day here's what Jesus was saying: No matter who your descendants are the very fact that you're a sinner makes you a slave.

But they would answer back, but we're not sinners we are the descendants of Abraham. And here is this pleasant Galilean putting us all into one pot with those Gentiles who were created for the fires of hell, and what this pleasant Galilean is saying is we're the same as they are. We are sinners. We're slaves. That was a shocker.

Paul writes much of the book of Romans and he deals with this whole issue: whether we're Greek or Gentile, bond or free, we're all sinners for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one, including the descendants of Abraham. And what Jesus did with that one statement, He wiped out all of their religious foundation that gave them justification saying that they were never sinners. It would be like someone saying to a person of a particular religious conviction, I don't care if you are a Methodist, or a Catholic, or a Protestant, or whatever it is -- sorry, it doesn't lift you any higher. We're all sinners and we all need God's grace. That's what He's saying.

But to a Jewish person when they had built their whole religious foundation on this idea, we are Abraham's children so therefore nobody can touch us, Jesus said if you sin you are in slavery. And then He went and made an interesting statement. Look at His next statement. He said, a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. What does He mean? What He's saying is He understood, and they understood, the conditions and the regulations of slavery.

In those days a slave would serve for the amount of time that he was paid to serve, and then he could be gone or he could be sold the next day. A slave was not a permanent resident of the house. He could go and come at the choice of the owner. And so what He's done now is He's taken all of these Jewish people and He's put them in the category of a slave and said now you used to think that you were permanently a part of God's Kingdom, that's changed now, you're a slave. And the only thing that'll ever make it possible for you to be a son in God's Kingdom and in His family is to be set free by the Son of God.

They lost their position; they were categorized as a sinner; all of their historical religious situations that gave them reason to rejoice in their position as a descendant is gone. And Jesus is saying you serve Satan if you sin.

Well what's sin, Pastor? Well, sin in this situation was a rejection of Jesus Christ and His deity. It was a rejection of God. Sin is basically saying, God, I'll live my life without You, I don't need You, and whatever is the byproduct of that attitude of rebellion that we call sin. But sin is really a rejection of God's control and God's mastership over our lives. And that's what they were saying. Jesus we reject You, You're a liar, You're an imposture, You're a law breaker -- we reject You. Jesus said that's sin and because you are sinning you're in slavery.

Paul writes about that. Go in your notes to Page 4. Paul has a marvelous comment on this whole matter of being a slave to sin. At the bottom of the page, and it's Romans chapter 6: Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if you died with Christ, remember he says that baptism is that symbolic act of going under the water and dying with Christ. So he says if you have put your trust in Christ, you have been baptized in Christ, you have died to self in Christ. Now if you died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore do not let sin control, reign or master your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you -- that's the mastery, if you sin you're in slavery -- for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

And here's the verse. Look at it.
Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. What's Paul saying? We all serve a master, and either your master is the Lord Jesus Christ or your master Satan. Let's read it again. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

That's exactly what Jesus said. If you abide in Me, put your trust in Me, come to a relationship with Christ, we believe that doctrine. Look at what it does. It says: But God be thanked though you were slaves, yet you obeyed from the heart. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. It's the same thing Jesus said. You are sinning, and as a sinner it doesn't make any difference whether Moses or Abraham or whoever was your descendant. It doesn't matter whether you came from a Christian home. It doesn't matter if you've been baptized a dozen times in a church. If Jesus Christ isn't your master and you are not abiding in His word, He says, then we're slaves to sin.

Each morning that I talk with you I'm aware that sitting here in these pews are dozens, if not hundreds of people, that could look back just a few years and remember sin's slavery and its bondage. Some of you lived many years of your life held captive by a habit or by a prejudice or by something that took you so far from God. You understand the power of sin. You understand its shackles. When one is in slavery all his capacities to be what he wants to be or could be are totally eliminated, and this is Jesus' point. He says, when Satan is your master and you live in the slavery of sin, everything that God created you to be and the joy that He wants you to enjoy in your life you diminish that to zero; because Satan has got you enslaved, and he has one intention, to destroy you, to take away everything that's beautiful from you life, to take away everything that's precious. Satan will do everything he can.

Some of you folks sitting here realize that's exactly the slavery from which you've been set free. Then Jesus said, when you're set free you become His son and the son has that permanent position as being a part of God's eternal family. It's not your heritage, not your lineage, it's your relation to the Son who sets you free then are you truly free indeed. He's saying to that Jewish audience that day, there's only one way to heaven and that's by putting your trust in Jesus Christ who is the truth, the life, and the way. That's what He's saying. And He says, therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

Let's go back to our notes; page 6. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you're free indeed. Listen to the words of Jesus: "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Jesus said, I came and I came to set people free.

Look at what Paul writes in Romans 8: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life, that's what we receive from Christ, sets me free from the law of sin and death. That's freedom the Jesus is talking about

The person who is made free by Christ will be "really free." John uses a word for "really" that he uses nowhere else. It carries the idea of "in essence"; there is that about Christ that means He can give a freedom that is qualitatively different from the lesser freedoms people enjoy. What's freedom in Christ? We have been delivered from the condemnation of sin. We've been delivered from the penalty of the law. We've been set free from the wrath of God. We have been delivered from Satan's power.

Paul writes to the Colossians, "He has deliver us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." Freedom in Christ means sin's guilt has been taken. The bars and the shackles that bound me to make me everything that sin and Satan can make me have been broken and now I'm free to be everything God wants me to be in Him. Sin's condemnation is gone. I live in that glorious freedom knowing that all sin has been taken from me, and that is a glorious freedom.

Look at what he says: therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir. And Peter writes: blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Freedom in Christ means that I have now been set free from Satan's shackles, I'm no longer in his dominion, I'm not a part of his kingdom of darkness, I have been conveyed and transferred into the kingdom of God's Son, I am now a joint heir with Jesus Christ and my inheritance is set in heaven for eternity awaiting me. That's freedom. And I'll tell you to really grasp the joy of that freedom: I told our folks in our last service, when you leave today if you feel like it just walk out into the parking lot, raise your hands, and say Jesus, thank you that You've set me free.

I was raised in a Christian home and I was saved at a very young age so my knowledge of the bondage of sin -- I was protected from the because I was a part of His family from my early years. But I deal with people every day who say to me, Pastor, I lived that way before but I don't live that way anymore because Satan is no longer my master. Christ is my master and He set me free and I have to freedom to be everything He wants me to be. He has empowered me with His Holy Spirit. He has set me free to live an abundant life for Him and to enjoy His presence. That's freedom folks. That's freedom.

Jesus said it doesn't make any difference where you came from, I don't care who your lineage is, we are all sinners, we serve Satan. We need to be set free from that slavery, the one who sets us free is Jesus. Amen?

Maybe you're here today and you say, Pastor, I didn't know it really could be defined in that way but I'm really not a Christian, and now that I know I'm not a Christian -- I've never made a decision to serve Jesus Christ -- I realized I am in the slavery of Satan's bondage. I didn't see it that way before. I just thought I was living my life without God, but I want my situation to change. I would like to turn my life over to Christ today and invite Him to become the master of my life. I would really like this to be the Sunday where I change masters. And I would like to put my faith in Jesus Christ and trust Him as my Savior. Just raise your hand to God if that's the decision that you'd like to make.

God sees that. Today you are saying, Jesus from now on I want You to be the master of my life., and I want You to be my Savior. I want to turn from my sin and I want to serve You with all my being.

Let's just say a short prayer all of us together:
Dear Jesus, thank you for going to the cross, paying the penalty for my sin, and dying there for me in my stead. I acknowledge You today as the Savior of the world, but more importantly, I open my heart and ask You to be my personal Savior now. I want to turn from my sin. I want to abide in Your word. I want to live for You, dear Jesus, so filled me with Your precious presence, place Your Holy Spirit within me, and I ask You to make me a part of Your eternal family. Thank you dear Jesus.

Lord Jesus, we just leave now the eternal results in Your hands. And I pray that these who raised their hands, and many others who said the prayer with us, this will be a day when You become the master of their life, their Lord and their Savior. Fill them with Your presence and Your joy and Your peace. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you all.