Sermon for Wednesday Evening 03/11/2009 Adairsville Baptist Church
“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
“God With Us”
by Mercy Me
From the album “All That is Within Me”
© 2007
Who are we that You would be mindful of us
What do You see that’s worth looking our way
We are free in ways that we never should be…
Sweet release from the grip of these chains
Like hinges straining from the weight
My heart no longer can keep from singing
All that is within me cries for You alone be glorified
Emmanuel God with us
My heart sings a brand new song
The debt is paid these chains are gone
Emmanuel God with us
Lord You know our hearts don’t deserve Your glory
Still You show a love we cannot afford…
Like hinges straining from the weight
My heart no longer can keep from singing
Such a tiny offering compared to Calvary
Nevertheless we lay it at your feet
Such a tiny offering compared to Calvary
Nevertheless we lay this at your feet.
Thematic elements are taken from this song in that who are we that God would be mindful of us and what does He see that is worth looking our way. We have too much freedom and too much emphasis on that one word. Yet when we realize that our freedom in Christ does not compare with anything we have or will experience the chains are broken and the hinges give way to the Eternal God that is with us every step of the way every day of our lives. In this, He shows a love that we cannot afford and a debt that we cannot pay…Jesus paid it all!
Scripture text
John 8:31-38 ESV
The Truth Will Set You Free
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave [2] to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
Footnotes
[2] 8:34 Greek bondservant; also verse 35
Freedom – What is it?
- Is it a concept an idea?
- Is it a right a mandate?
- Is it a principle or state of being?
- Is it worth dying for?
Freedom –
- the quality or state of being free: as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action…
- liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another…
- the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous…
- the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken…
- unrestricted use…
Freedom is very much an American way of life. It is the foundation of our nation…Our forefathers set out to set-up a nation where they could freely worship and govern their affairs without fear of interference from their king. How ironic that most of Christianity (in America and Americanized nations) seeks to do the same as it relates to the things of God. Specifically, this mentality proliferates in its intensity with regard to the adherence to, promotion of, and acceptance of the teachings of Jesus.
Freedom, perhaps one of the greatest mandates given by a nation yet it leaves the individual empty and wanting more. Freedom to choose in this instance often offers too much information to assess and consume. This is why Jesus emphasized that the way to everlasting life is narrow. With regards to our society and it’s obsession with having it our way, we have allowed for concessions in the things of God in that we want it all to be easy and froufrou. In essence we have taken the “good news” portion of the gospel (gospel literally means good news) and equated it with living such a free lifestyle that sin is openly accepted and promoted (whether directly in life choices or indirectly through implication) as an experimental phase of our walk. The suggestion that we all “sow some wild oats” offers credence to this way of thinking freely. We justify this position by posing a response in the form of a question…”How else is a person to find out if what they are taught is true but through experimentation”? This question in itself is hypocritical at the least and contradictory at its worst. Hypocritical in that it suggests that we should be able to live like we want without any accountability or consequence and contradictory in that it is a mentality that is diametrically opposite the teachings and instruction found in the words of the Bible in particular Jesus.
Matthew 7:13-14 ESV
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy [1] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Footnotes:
[1] 7:13 Some manuscripts For the way is wide and easy
Freedom is one of (if not) the greatest accomplishments achieved by Jesus Christ yet people scoff and pervert it into a powerless and manipulative organization that has missed the true intent of what Jesus taught. The freedom that Jesus speaks of is that freedom from the bondage and ravages of sin. This freedom extends from the external displays of sin to the internal battle that rages in our psyche (our thinking). It addresses the freedom from the condemnation and judgment of sin.
As a caveat, the consequence for sinning still remains regardless of the forgiven status that is provided through Jesus Christ to anyone who professes Him as Lord. While Jesus death is the judgment of humanity’s sin, a person who sins remains in possession of the just reward of that sin. The flip side of Jesus’ death is His resurrection. His resurrection represents the release and victory over the binding force of sin…death. Examples of this are around us everyday and can be found in each life that surrenders to the “sirens” song of sin…In the end when it is fully manifested yields destruction. While that encounter with sin (as a believer) may not yield an initial and immediate destruction of the individual, it certainly starts the pendulum moving in an direction that leans toward their destruction. Destruction may present itself in varying forms…A witness, reputation, standing, position, or influence are but a few examples of what the yield of sin may produce. The ultimate fulfillment of sin is death. Not just physical as could be the case in a disobedient believer but an eternal death that occurs when a person dies in an unregenerate state…This death is otherwise known as hell. In summation, freedom does not nullify responsibility nor does it remove consequence from sin.
Jesus spoke of freedom and we have taken His words out of context. We have somehow equated the words of Jesus with democracy…The freedom to choose without the accountability. In essence we have made our belief system one of entitlement instead of one of Theocracy. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. There is no one or no thing like Him and there is no one or no thing that can compare to Him. There is no opposite of God…He has no opposition. For God to have an opposite there would have to be an equal and opposite force to counter what He has the ability to do…There is none. God is God alone and once we gain this revelation and genuinely believe that He is the preeminent force in our lives, we can begin to experience the freedom that Jesus proclaimed. We can begin to converse with our Creator. We can begin to seek His wisdom and knowledge without hindrance. Life suddenly becomes a plethora of colors many times more brilliant than the palette we see in a rainbow. Depth is added to our life. We are no longer bound to a one dimensional train of thought. We see life in vivid detail and even begin to empathize with the thoughts and desires our Creator has toward us, those around us and those around the world. We suddenly become participants with and members of a body that represents every color, culture, society, and nation that has ever existed. The boundaries and chains that sin used to keep us from see past our next encounter or fix no longer exist. We are able to say with boldness and unequalled parallel that we are free. We are no longer constrained to the whipping post of sin but alive with the purpose of God beating in our heart.
Freedom in Christ often does nothing to give us the liberty we think we need or want as it relates to our natural desire. Freedom in Christ should constrain us from sinning not to continue sinning. It is referenced as a setting. The references are: “set you free” in verse 32 and “sets you free” in verse 36. The setting that is spoken of here is direct in nature. It is equated to the setting of a foundation which references permanence and longevity. The freedom we are to have in and through Jesus is eternal and permanent in scope and initiation. While there is a maturing process for every believer, the laying of the foundation should be true and sure in regards to the release from the bondage of the former life that was warped by a sinful nature. Paul was constrained by the Spirit in Acts 20:22 to go to Jerusalem…It is in similitude that we are constrained by the Spirit to pursue a life that is totally focused on our Savior. Freedom is not found in the temporal things…Freedom is a state of being and the state we find our purpose, destiny, design, and being in is through freedom in Jesus Christ. Paul additionally considered the freedom in Christ as servitude so much so he equated it to that of a bond slave (bond servant) as referenced in Romans 6:22.
Romans 6:22 ESV
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
This slavery is unlike any that we have ever seen or could imagine. It is a slavery that constrains us to do but one thing, please our Master. Unfortunately, this concept is unknown and untaught in most churches today and is not remotely considered freedom…How can one choose when the constraint is there? Easy, our choosing is not our own but that of the One working in us to do and will as He pleases. Just as Jesus watched what His Father did and replicated that in His life, so should we. We should be so fixated on Jesus that when He speaks, we do. This type of freedom transcends what we have experienced and serves to rightly place our relationship in the position God wants it to be; unhindered.
