“Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.”
― Saint Patrick
Free indeed
John 8:31-36
[31] So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed 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 practices sin is a slave 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.
I asked the kids what free means. Think about it for a minute. Could be free stuff or personal freedom. I am thankful that we have political and religious freedom where we live today. I want us to focus though on this passage and what Jesus is explaining about our freedom in Him.
John 8:27-47
[27] They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. [28] So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. [29] And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” [30] As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
[31] So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed 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 practices sin is a slave 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.”
[39] They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, [40] but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. [41] You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” [42] Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. [43] Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. [44] You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. [45] But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. [46] Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? [47] Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
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The Jews here cannot seem to escape their bonds to what they believe is their path to God, their path to Heaven. Sadly this belief begets bad behavior and though it’s clearly explained in the OT, they seem to keep banking on the fact that being a descendant of Abraham guarantees their inheritance. As we’ve just read (and is explained many times by Jesus) it’s the state of the heart that matters, not our lineage or even performance.
Look where Jesus keeps pointing to the fact that if they knew the Father then they would know Him. You see….. you can be born into something (with a biological father), but reality is how you respond and who you love and follow actually describes who you are, right?
Let me give you a personal example.
As you may or may not know 2 of our 3 kids are adopted. We don’t think on that everyday, it’s just part of our story. The backstory is that Maddie and Caleb’s biological father abandoned the family. Their biological mother worked and was overwhelmed with trying to raise 2 small small children on her own. Today I pray she is well and pray that their biological dad has found the Lord. So their biological mother decided to put them up for adoption and after a process they were put into foster care and eventually wound up with us. A childless couple in our 30’s who wanted a family. Here’s my point out of that. Regardless of who birthed them, they are our kids, a gift from God. He gave them to us to steward and raise. Not to keep nor even Lord over. Obviously there were times where we needed to watch every moment and every detail of their life. Now they are married and have to make their own decisions. They are “free” to make their own decisions and a good one or a bad one will not make them any more or any less our children. However; their decisions will affect them primarily and then those around them. I hope all of you understand that you don’t live in a vacuum and think that your decisions don’t affect others. You see we are all part of a family and likely part of a community. If you do something wrong you can put a mark on the family name right? I don’t say that so that we all manage our lives by worrying over our legacy or what others think. What I am saying is that there are really bad decisions that affect everyone and have long term consequences, saved or not. That is a fact.
Numbers 32:22-23
[22] and the land is subdued before the LORD; then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the LORD and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the LORD. [23] But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.
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Jesus takes it further here. He says to the Jews that you aren’t even really acting like children of God. If you knew God you would recognize who He (Jesus) is and why He came…then you would live like you knew Him. Like you are a child of the King.
He says if not, then you are living like the devil. Harsh right? Well, it’s true. This is only a yes or no type of thing. Either you are living with the Lord in mind or you are living like the devil or the world.
……..So here’s the big point to what that means for you today.
- If you aren’t saved, if you don’t believe in your need for a Savior then you are just following the world and the devil and that leads to Hell. Remember Jesus is telling the Jews they aren’t saved because they follow the law or are descendants of Abraham or citizens of Israel. You can’t be saved because you went to church or your parents are Christian’s or because you are an American.
- If you are saved (and since many of us in here are I think) here’s what Jesus is making clear to us.
Yes, you are free from the penalty of judgment due to salvation by grace through faith in Jesus, but……what are you living like?
Do you know that you are free? Free from what?
Hell – yes
Penalty and Judgement due a sinner – yes
Worry about eternity – yes
Everyone saved knows that right?
Did you know you are free from the bondage to sin?
What sin? All? But I’m an imperfect human, yep. And so sometimes we slip up, but it shouldn’t be all the time and it shouldn’t be getting worse, it should be getting better.
What sin?
Fits of rage
Lust
Laziness
Gossip
Lying
Pettiness
Not loving your family right
Not forgiving
Not caring for others
Not moving on
Not stopping the old stuff
Cussing, getting drunk, hanging out with the old crowd who won’t help you
John 8:31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
To abide in Jesus’ word means to continue believing what Jesus has said and walking in obedience to him. This verse shows that continuing to trust Jesus and obey him is one test of who are truly my disciples.
I read this in my studies this week.
The mark of a true disciple is continuation in the instructions of his or her teacher. A disciple remains a disciple as long as he or she continues to follow the instruction of his or her teacher. When that one stops following faithfully, he or she ceases to be a disciple. He or she does not lose his or her salvation, which comes as a gift from God. Genuine believers can continue to be disciples of Jesus or they can cease to be His disciples temporarily or permanently. God never forces believers to continue following Him, though He urges us to do so.
So most of us here know what regret is, right? Some little regrets, some very vivid large regrets, right? Again, not guilt here. I’m not even trying to bring up a bunch of bad stuff to drag you down. I’m trying to remind you that the feeling of regret is real and awful and that it is that way to help us learn our lesson. Let’s not keep repeating the same stuff, right. God isn’t giving you a pop quiz today that you don’t know the answers to. He’s already told us the way.
If your life is not what it should be. Are you following Jesus? Or are you a slave to the world? Gonna be a slave to something.
Romans 6
[6] We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. [7] For one who has died has been set free from sin. [8] Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [9] We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. [10] For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. [11] So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. [13] Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. [14] For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
…….
[17] But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, [18] and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
…….
[20] For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. [21] But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. [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. [23] For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Besetting sin?
If Jesus has set you free you are free indeed.
