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.”
So the first thing some of you need to understand this morning is that you are a slave to sin, and unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about it. You are incapable of setting yourself free. You need to confess your sins to Jesus and let Him ‘SET YOU FREE,’ before it’s too late.
The Second thing I want you to learn this morning is that…
2. JESUS CAN SET YOU FREE FROM THE GUILT & BURDEN OF SIN.
Sin is heavy. It can weigh you down and wear you out. It may be enjoyable for a while, but make no mistake about it, SIN will eventually destroy you.
You know what’s right and what’s wrong, and when you sin, you feel guilty about it. This is true for all of us. It’s true for those of us who are Christians as well as those of us who aren’t.
Satan likes to make those of you who aren’t Christians feel so guilty and so unworthy of God’s love that you will never ask God to forgive you. He wants you to believe that the things you have done are so bad that God would never forgive you. But that’s not true. God is more than willing to forgive you, but He won’t do it unless you ask.
Believe it or not Guilt is also one of the main weapons that Satan uses against those of us who are Christians. He knows what are weaknesses are, and when we give in to his temptations and sin, Satan is quick to point out how pathetic we are. He makes us feel so guilty and so unworthy, which of course is exactly what he wants to do. He knows He can’t touch our souls, so His main goal is to make our lives miserable, and one of the ways He does this is to load us down with guilt.
Some of you may be carrying around a lot of guilt this morning, and that guilt is weighing you down and keeping you from being able to enjoy the full and abundant life that Christ wants you to enjoy.
Fortunately there is a solution to our guilt. All we have to do is confess our sins to God and He will forgive us. In 1 John 1:9 the Bible says, “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
So don’t leave here this morning until you deal with your guilt. Confess your sins to God and let him lighten your load by cleansing you of all of your unrighteousness.
Finally, I want to make sure you understand something very important this morning and that is that…
3. JESUS IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SET YOU FREE FROM THE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.
Regardless of what you might think there are always Consequences when we sin. For those of us who are believers, one of those consequences is that it hinders our relationship with God. Until we confess our sins and get our hearts right with Him, we will not be able to enjoy a close intimate relationship with Him.
While we may have to deal with some of the temporary consequences of sin, those of us who are Christians will not have to endure the eternal consequences of sin. Unlike those who refuse to accept Christ will, who will spend eternity separated from God. Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That’s Paul’s way of saying that the consequences for rejecting Jesus Christ and His offer to forgive you of your sins and give you the gift of Eternal life is to be separated from Him and His love for eternity.
But God loves us and doesn’t want any of us to perish, or to spend eternity separated from Him. That’s why He sent His son to die on the cross and pay the penalty for our sin. Why don’t you let Jesus SET YOU FREE this morning?
Let Him set you free from the sin that has so easily entangled you.
Let Him set you free from the guilt that is weighing you down.
And Finally, let Him set you free from the Eternal Consequences of your sin.
