Freedom

Title: Freedoms we enjoy

Text: John 8:31-36

Date: July 1, 2007

Location: Sulphur Spring Baptist Church

In a speech to the Virginia legislature, before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Patrick Henry said “Give me liberty or give me death.”

As you know, this Wednesday is the 4th of July. The 231st Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence that was signed on July 4th, 1776. The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence contains some of the most moving words ever written. It says…

“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 . . .”

Liberty or Freedom is one of the greatest things that a person could ever have. Unfortunately too often we take it for granted. And what’s even worse is too often we forget to thank God for the Freedom’s He has blessed us with.

Freedom’s like: The Freedom of religion, The Freedom of speech, and The Freedom of the press.

In the Eighth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus is talking to His Disciples and a group of Jewish Religious leaders about True Freedom. If you have your Bibles Follow along as I read John 8:31-36.

JN 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.

JN 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

JN 8:33 They answered him, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

JN 8:34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

JN 8:35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.

JN 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

You know it’s great to be an American. I thank God for the way He has blessed this nation, and I’m grateful for all of the freedoms we enjoy. But I’m deeply concerned about the Spiritual Health and direction of our nation.

I received an e-mail this week that really disturbed me. In just a matter of Days something is going to happen in Washington D.C. that has never happened in our Nation’s History. On the morning of July 12th, Mr. Rajan Zed, will be delivering the opening prayer in the United States Senate. You may be thinking to yourself, well so what, don’t they always begin with prayer. Yes they do, however, this will be the first time in the History of our nation that a “Hindu” has ever said the opening prayer. Unfortunately, this is just the latest example of the Spiritual decline of our nation.

This concerns me, and it should concern you. We need to be praying for our nation and for our political leaders.

The Spiritual condition of the Nation of Israel during the 1st Century wasn’t very good either. The Jewish religious leaders who were listening to Jesus teach on this particular day didn’t have a clue what Jesus was talking about. When He mentioned being set free, they responded by saying that they had never been slaves, so how could they be set free.

Of course they thought he was talking about being set free physically; they didn’t realize that He was talking about being set free spiritually.

This morning, I want to take just a few minutes to share with you three things about this passage of Scripture and how Jesus can SET YOU FREE if you’ll just let Him.

V. 34. “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”

1. JESUS CAN SET YOU FREE FROM THE “CAPTIVITY OF SIN.”

The Jewish Religious leaders were offended by this. They didn’t see themselves as sinners. In fact they considered themselves to be the holiest and most righteous people in Israel. But of course Jesus knew the truth. They might be able to convince every one else, but they couldn’t fool Jesus, He knew their hearts were full of evil and wickedness.

Some of you here today may be like the Jewish religious leaders. You think you’re okay. You’re a good moral upstanding person. You don’t consider yourself to be a ‘sinner,’ and you certainly don’t think you’re a slave to sin. But let me remind you of what the Apostle John said.

In 1 John 1:8 He says, “If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth.” NLT

In Romans 3:23 The Apostle Paul proclaimed that… “We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God.”