FREE INDEED!
SELECTED SCRIPTURES
I. Introduction
This morning’s sermon will be somewhat different than what you usually hear from this pulpit. As you all know, we here at LBC are thoroughly committed to the exposition and teaching of God’s Word, the Bible. This is true whether we’re exploring such topics as the fundamentals of the faith, the nature and blessings of salvation, end times prophecy, the absolute sovereignty of God in the affairs of men, or whether we’re doing a verse-by-verse study of a book of the Bible, such as Romans, Colossians, Revelation, and now, for the last eight months or so, the Gospel of Luke. That’s because at “LIGHTHOUSE BIBLE CHURCH – ‘Bible’ is our middle name.”
What’s different today is that we will talk a little about history. Now to be sure, we most definitely will open our Bibles. You can take that for granted. But first I want us to con-sider just why we can open our Bibles – why we have the freedom to open them.
You do understand that much of the world today doesn’t have that right, don’t you? You do understand that our rights, here in the United States of America, to read, to preach, to teach, and to even possess a Bible are tenuous, don’t you? Those rights didn’t come easily or without untold personal sacrifice and bloodshed. They are rights that are all too easy to lose. Just look around the world today. And then celebrate the Fourth of July.
On July 4, 1776, a declaration of freedom from the oppression and tyranny of King George III of Great Britain was adopted. The Declaration of Independence stated that the American Colonies would stand for it no more. Among the opening words of this famous document were the following…
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”
By the way, the words “inalienable rights” means natural rights – rights that are not transferable to a new owner. The founding fathers were simply saying that God, by His very act of creating us, has given us rights that men cannot take away.
Just as an aside, think on this for a moment. Do you see why the teaching of evolution – that you are nothing more than the product of random chance, that you evolved up from the ooze of some prehistoric slime pit, that snails are as important as you are, that your uncle was a chimpanzee – do you see why the teaching of evolution sets the stage for the loss of the inalienable rights with which we were endowed by our Creator?
Do you see why, if you and I are the product of random chance, and a baby, prior to birth is simply a product of conception, that those so-called products have no rights?
In short, if evolution is true, then those who say we have no inalienable rights are right, aren’t they? But the founding fathers weren’t faced with evolutionary thinking. That came later. However, they did know what it was not to be free. They knew what it was to have their inalienable rights taken from them. So they wanted “liberty” for them-selves and for all Americans. Thus they wrote the document we remember today.
Another word in the Declaration of Independence is “liberty.” It is another word for freedom. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines the word liberty. Liberty is…
“…freedom or release from slavery, imprisonment, captivity, or any other form of arbitrary control.”
It took a bloody struggle – we remember it as The Revolutionary War – for the freedom desired by those men to become a reality. After it did become a reality many of those same men saw to it that the new nation would have a constitution upon which to build the rule of law and protect those freedoms. Thus, The Constitution of the United States of America was ratified on December 15, 1791. Its preamble says this:
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, esta-blish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos-terity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
So freedom was desired, freedom was declared, freedom was fought for, freedom was established, and freedom became “law of the land.”
Did you know that freedom (liberty) is a biblical principle? The founding fathers believed in and honored biblical principles. Today you often hear that individually they were not all born-again believers. That’s right. They weren’t. But that truth has no bearing on the fact that virtually all of them had great respect for the Bible and its teachings. They wanted to establish a nation built on biblical principles.
And let’s be clear. There’s no doubt that a number of them were born-again Christians. Naturally some were not. Some were deists, that is, they believed in a supreme God, the Creator of everything, but they did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ.
But all of them were intent on building a nation, from the ground up, upon the teachings and principles of the Holy Bible, the “Judeo-Christian ethic,” if you like. Anyone who denies that is quite simply ignorant of the facts. Listen to the words of some of these men and then tell me what kind of a nation they intended to establish.
“I have lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” Benjamin Franklin (Co-writer of the Declaration of Independence, Member of the First Continental Congress, and Foreign Diplomat)
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shall not fight alone. God presides over the destiny of nations.”
Patrick Henry (Member of the First Continental Congress, three-time Governor of Virginia)
“Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and the interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
John Jay (President of the First Continental Congress, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court)
“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
“To the distinguished character of a Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of a Christian.”
George Washington (Commander and Chief of the American Military, President of the Committee to draft the Constitution, first President of the United States)
“The highest story of the American Revolution is this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
John Adams (Second President of the United States)
“The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.”
Thomas Jefferson (Co-writer of The Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States)
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of govern-ment, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, and to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments.”
James Madison (Fourth President of the United States)
“It is no slight testimonial, both to the merit and worth of Christianity, that in all ages since its promulgation the great mass of those who have risen to eminence by their profound wisdom and integrity have recognized and reverenced Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the living God.”
John Quincy Adams (Sixth President of the United States)
Let me say it again, just to be clear. The founding fathers were men who believed in and honored biblical principles. Why did these men think like that? What was their back-ground? Where had they come from?
Most of them were descendants of the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were devout Christians who had fled Europe to escape religious persecution. They were followed to these shores by the Puritans who formed Bible-based commonwealths that practiced the same sort of representative government as their church covenants.
There were more than 100 of those covenants. In fact, they were the basis for the United States Constitution. Not only that but the colonies of Connecticut, Maryland, Massachu-setts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island were all founded and based on biblical principles. And it wasn’t just the colonies that were so founded.
All but two of the first 108 colleges in America were founded to train Christian pastors. That includes the first, Harvard, where Rule #1 in the student handbook stated this:
“Let every student be plainly and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and (his) studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, (John 17:3); and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our child-ren to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.”
In 1777 the first Continental Congress spent $300,000 to purchase Bibles which were to be distributed throughout the thirteen colonies. Five years later, in 1782, the United States Congress declared,
“The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.”
Well, what is the point of all of this? The men who founded our country gave us national freedom. Among other things they gave us a list of national rights – The Bill of Rights – the first two of which say this:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohi-
biting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
In theory, at least, all of us have those freedoms (and many others) for as long as we live and breathe as citizens of the United Sates of America. The efforts of those men we know as the founding fathers set the stage for the removal of our temporary enslavement to King George, another man. And we needed that. And we celebrate that this weekend.
But, despite their very best efforts, they were men, they were sinners just like you and me and they were completely incapable of freeing us from our eternal enslavement to Satan.
Listen, The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States of America are among the greatest documents ever penned by human kind. But they are not divine – they are not supernatural.
Those documents that we should cherish for what they are and what they mean fall short of giving us eternal freedom in the same way you and I fall short of the glory of God. They could free us from bondage to King George but not from slavery to sin. Eternal liberty (freedom) is not found in them.
That freedom is not found in the Declaration or the Constitution. It is found here.
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II. Text
The God who made us has designed eternal freedom, and His Son has provided it. Are you eternally free? If you are, that freedom cannot be touched by anybody or anything. If you are a Christian your eternal freedom is sure and absolute. You abide (live) in Christ and He abides in His Father. All the power of Satan himself can’t change that.
The many freedoms articulated for us by our founding fathers in the Bill of Rights are wonderful. But today they are being taken away at every turn. Today they are hanging by a thread. We should never willingly give them up, but neither should we place our faith in them. Our faith needs to be in the eternal freedom that is found in Christ and Christ alone.
So the real issue is not where you live or what kind of civil government rules over you. In 100 years you and I won’t be here. The real issue is where will you be then? You will be somewhere. (turn to John 8)
*John 8:31
31 Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
Jesus is speaking to the Jewish leaders here (Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes). Some of them have believed but He knows they have only intellectual belief. They recognize that He has some authority and that He has some power they don’t fully understand, but that’s the extent of their belief. They don’t understand who He is or what He is saying. So He tells them that a true believer, a follower, a disciple, abides (lives) in Jesus’ words. A true believer lives in Jesus and doesn’t just know what He says, he obeys what He says.
Abiding in Christ and obeying Him go together. It’s kind of like that old Frank Sinatra song, “Love and Marriage.” Does anybody remember it?
“Love and marriage, love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage.
This, I tell you brother you can’t have one without the other.”
Abiding in Christ and obeying Him just naturally go together. You can’t have one with-out the other. So anyone who tries to tell you that you can be in Christ but not obey Him is a deceiver, plain and simple.
*2 John 7-9
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. (spirit of antichrist)
8 Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.
9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; (but) the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
John the Baptist made it even stronger.
*John 3:36
36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Abiding and obeying – that is saving faith. That is proof of true belief. You don’t just believe in Him – you are committed to Him. That’s what a true disciple is. Here is an example of belief that is not saving faith. It is perfectly possible to believe intellectually in the truth of the historic Jesus’ without abiding in Him and being saved.
Here’s another example. It is perfectly possible to believe intellectually in Jesus’ Second Coming without obeying His words and being saved. Here is yet another example. It is possible to believe in the need for repentance without repenting.
That’s at the heart of the debate over what is often called “Lordship Salvation” today. Do you just believe in Him, or are you committed to Him? Here in John 8:31 Jesus clearly teaches what is so often disparagingly called Lordship Salvation. “If you abide in My word, then you are disciples of Mine.” And the converse is, if you don’t, you aren’t.
*John 8:32
32 and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
This clarifies v. 31. The truth spoken of here is so much more than simply grasping facts intellectually. Divine truth comes not from intellectual assent but from personal commit-ment to Jesus Christ. If you abide, you will know the truth.
Titus 1:1-2
1 Paul, a bond-servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,
2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago…
Charles Ryrie’s comment on these two verses makes it clear.
“Paul is saying that he was commissioned by God to further the faith of God’s elect so that they might acquire full knowledge of Christian truth.”
*John 8:33
33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You shall be free’?”
This response proves that they “just didn’t get it.” They had never been enslaved to any-one?
Throughout their history they had been enslaved to Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Syria, Greece, and now Rome. Here they displayed both their ignorance and their arrogance at the same time.
First we see their utter arrogance about their current and former national slavery. Then we see their pitiful ignorance of their ongoing spiritual slavery. They are slaves to sin and they don’t even know it. But they’re very religious, aren’t they? And they believe in God, don’t they? They are “believers” who are completely without saving faith.
When Jesus tells them that if they knew Him, really knew Him, they would be free, He’s not speaking of throwing off the chains of Rome. He is speaking of throwing off the chains of Satan. These people are spiritually blind. And they’re the religious leaders!
Matthew 15:14
14 “… they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
Jesus frees those who are slaves and know it – not those who don’t. How could He free those who didn’t think they were slaves?
Luke 5:31
31 “It is not those who (think they) are well who need a physician, but those who (know they) are sick.”
*John 8:34
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
The word “commits” here is “pŏiĕō.” It doesn’t define a one-time thing. It defines a thing that is habitual, a life-style, if you will. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words defines it as a continuous habit.
In his first epistle John uses the same Greek word where it is translated “practices.”
1 John 3:4, 8, 9
4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawless- ness.
8 …the one who practices sin is of the devil…
9 No one who is born of God practices sin…
So the Bible teaches that if you are sinning habitually you are not saved. Consequently, the Bible also teaches that if you are not saved you are a habitual sinner. The Apostle Paul says the very same thing in Romans 6.
*Romans 6:20-23.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteous-ness. (You had no righteousness.)
21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The ultimate enslavement (or bondage) is not to a civil government, no matter how cruel or corrupt it may be, but to sin which enslaves all of us and is rebellion against God. The Jewish leaders expected their coming Messiah to be a strong military leader, someone like an Alexander the Great (or General Patton) who would liberate them from their Roman oppressors. Sadly, they weren’t looking for a carpenter from Nazareth to liberate them from their sin. (back to John 8)
*John 8:35
35 “And the slave does not remain in the house forever; (but) the son does remain forever.”
Here Jesus is using an analogy they should understand. They have brought up Abraham by claiming they are his sons. Jesus doesn’t disagree. Of course they are Abraham’s physical sons and heirs. That’s not in question. The problem is they are not Abraham’s spiritual sons and heirs.
Here in v. 35 Jesus’ point is that Abraham’s illegitimate son Ishmael, was cast out (Genesis 21) and that the Jewish leaders are in the same condition that Ishmael was in. But Isaac (a prophecy of type), the son of the promise, was the true son, and he was not cast out.
*John 8:36
36 “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”
Jesus is telling them that He is the true Son of God, the Son of the promise, and He can set them free from their ultimate bondage, their slavery to sin. That’s the good news of the gospel, isn’t it? They didn’t get it, just like most people don’t get it today.
The message is the same for you and for me. Jesus said that He is “…the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me (John 14:6).” That is an absolute and eternal truth that you are free to deny, but whether you believe it or not, you cannot change it!
Our founding fathers have given us The Declaration of Independence and The Constitu-tion of the United States of America – fabulous, wonderful, and even God-blessed docu-ments – able to liberate a nation – bur completely unable to liberate a human soul.
So God gave us Jesus Christ. Come to Him. He is the Liberator. Turn from your sin, place your faith and trust in Him and Him alone for your eternal liberty. And whether America stands free or falls into slavery, you will be free forever.
But in the meantime, I urge you pray for this country and pray that God will choose to give us leaders who will trust Him and turn us around before it’s too late.
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III. Conclusion
I want to conclude with a prayer that is overflowing with humility and biblical truth. I am not in the habit of using someone else’s words to pray, but this morning I will make an exception. It is from the private prayer journal of George Washington. It was written in his own hand. (Note the “King James” English.)
“O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before Thy
Divine majesty, beseeching Thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks, that it hath
pleased Thy great goodness to keep and preserve me the night past from all the dangers
poor mortals are subject to, and has given me sweet and pleasant sleep, whereby I find
my body refreshed and comforted for performing the duties of this day, in which I
beseech Thee to defend me from all perils of body and soul. Increase my faith in the
sweet promises of the Gospel. Give me repentance from dead works, pardon my wan-
derings, and direct my thoughts unto Thyself, the God of my salvation. Teach me how to
live in Thy fear, labor in Thy service, and ever to run in the ways of Thy commandments.
Make me always watchful over my heart, that neither the terrors of conscience, the
loathing of holy duties, the love of sin, nor an unwillingness to depart this life, may cast
me into a spiritual slumber, but daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy
Son Jesus Christ, that living in Thy fear, and dying in Thy favor, I may in Thy appointed
time attain the resurrection of the just unto eternal life. Bless my family, friends, and
kindred. Amen”