Word of Salvation – Vol.19 No.07 – November 1972

Jesus Christ, The Way To True Freedom

Sermon by Rev. F. L. Vanderbom on John 8:34-36

Scripture Reading: 1Sam.8:4-22; Rom.6:12-33

Psalter Hymnal: 378:1-3 (after Law); 217:1,3 (with readings);
                                    383 (after Sermon); 428:1,2 (before Benediction)

Congregation, boys and girls,

If the teacher at school knows that she has to leave the room for a few minutes, what do you KNOW will happen?  Will the whole class just go on with the work it has been doing?  Or will Suzy go out to scribble on the board, and the boys will start making paper aeroplanes, or fighting each other with rulers, or will Peter try to get Andrew back for what he did to him during lunch time?

Everyone in the room knows what COULD be done while the teacher is out of the room, but nobody wants to DO it.  It's almost as if we NEED the teacher around, all the time.  In one way, we are FREE when there is no teacher in the room.  But we are not REALLY free without the teacher being there, are we?  The teacher is there to make sure we are free to get on with our work.  She also makes sure we are free from the danger of other boys and girls acting dangerously.  We NEED the teacher in the room to make sure we are REALLY free.

Jesus says in our text that it is the same with HIM.  A lot of people think they are really free, when Jesus is out of the room.
 - THEY don't have to worry about what Jesus sees them do.
 - THEY don't worry about what GOD thinks about them.
 - THEY don't need to think twice about what they use the Sunday for.
 - They think they are FREE.  Free to do what they like.

Free to use their time as they think best.  Free to scribble on the blackboard and free to hurt and harm the people around them.  Not only those of us who go to school think of freedom in this way.  In the papers we read about WOMEN who want to be free, liberated.  Big COMPANIES want to be free to set prices and agree on prices to avoid competition.  The UNIONS want to be free to strike for any reason they like.  MEN want to be free to do what they like with their wives.  WOMEN want to be free to do what they like with the babies they carry.  The U.N. CHARTER wants freedom of speech, religion, want, fear.

We HATE being a slave to somebody else.  That is why at school we don't like the teacher sometimes.  That is why on the roads we don't like the police.  Man wants freedom, and usually that means: freedom to do what I want, for MYSELF, right NOW, and DON'T ask me about the future.  But the Bible has quite ANOTHER word for that sort of freedom.  In the Bible, anything which we do for just the moment, just to satisfy myself, anything I do without thought of God, or without thought of the consequences in the Bible – this is called SIN.

Our text speaks here about SIN AS THE WORST KIND OF SLAVERY.  Verse 34: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin."  Jesus is telling us here that there is a kind of slavery which is far WORSE than the kind of slavery WE normally think of.  We don't hear much of the slavery of sin, do we?  The doctors never talk about the slavery of materialism, only about the slavery of the common fee.  Oil Companies never talk about the slavery of agreed prices.  We never talk about the slavery of drinking and smoking or earning money and more money.  Only about the slavery of God's commandments, having to look after your body, being expected to give Him the fair share of your earnings.  And what about the young men and women who talk about the slavery of the common-sense rule about sex before marriage?  How often do we still talk about the slavery to sex ITSELF?  And we usually forget about the consequences, the loss of RESPECT for each other, the forced marriages that often occur, the fact that we can't be OPEN with our children and other young people later on, our double standards and hypocrisy.

We live in a world where a lot of thinking is WISHFUL thinking, and WOOLLY thinking.  And in our church too, we have a lot of people, young and old, whose thinking is often wishful and woolly.  We talk about "a new freedom, but in the end it turns out to be just a worse slavery.  "Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin." Living for YOURSELF means committing sin, being a slave to sin.  Living without the great TEACHER, the Lord Jesus, means committing sin, being a slave to sin.  Living only for TODAY with its fun and freedoms means committing sin, being a slave to sin.

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In Verse 35, Jesus tells us about THE RESULT OF BEING A SLAVE TO SIN.

(Read Verse 35 . . . !)

The slaves of Jewish masters were usually very well treated.  God had given certain laws which made sure that the slaves in Israel were better treated than slaves in other countries.  But the fact remained that a slave could never be SURE that he would be able to stay on.  If the master found that he had to economise, he could easily sell the slave.  If the master decided in a fit of bad temper that the slave was useless, the slave could find himself on the market.  If the slave did something wrong, he could be ruthlessly punished or sold.  The slave could NEVER be sure of what tomorrow would bring, says Jesus.

But as for the CHILDREN of the master, that was quite different.  Children would ALWAYS belong to the household.  They would NEVER be sold, or fired, or thrown out.  The children are ALWAYS sure of dad's love and affection.  After all, they really belong to dad.  And everything which Dad owns and promises belongs to the children.

What Jesus is trying to say is clear, isn't it?  The Jews thought that THEY were the REAL children of God.  After all, they were God's OWN children!  They lived in God's OWN country!  They had claimed the promises of the COVENANT for themselves!  Surely the JEWS could NEVER be thrown out of the household of God, could they?  (Verse 33:) "We are the descendants of Abraham, and have never been slaves to anyone!  How is it that you say, 'You will be made free’?"

But Jesus says, "Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."  We ALL commit sin, we are ALL slaves to sin.  None of us is really free to do what he likes.  We are only free to listen to Satan.

The Lord has His OWN ideas about freedom and slavery, and they are different from what WE think.  For GOD, being a child of Abraham by BIRTH does not make us a child in GOD'S household.  Being a child who has been brought up in a Christian family does NOT automatically make us a child of God when we grow up.  God says that "everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."  If you are a slave to SIN, you are no more than a slave in God's HOUSEHOLD.

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THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY OUT OF THIS SLAVERY.  Verse 36 tells us that there is only one way to REAL freedom.  There is only one way open to us if we want to be sure that we belong, REALLY belong, to God's family, and that we will never be thrown out of His household.  (Read verse 36. . . !)

That is the only answer.

JESUS has to step in to make us free.  The Son of God Himself had to come here on earth to do something which WE could NEVER do.  Jesus is the only One Who can break the power of sin.  "If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."

OUR idea of freedom is that we can do what WE like with our life, and with the lives of other people.  But the problem is that when we sin, we are really doing not only what WE like, but we are doing what SIN and SATAN like.  We all know from our own experience, that bad habits can get such a hold on us that we cannot break them.  Certain things get SUCH a grip on us that we can't do without them.  Just like Paul: after a while, we hate our sins and weaknesses, but we love them at the same time.  And this is exactly where JESUS has the AUTHORITY to FORGIVE these sins, and to set us free from their power.  Jesus is the ONLY One Who can forgive sins.  He carried the punishment, and so He can remove our guilt.  ONLY the Lord Jesus could do this.  He forgives us all, and everything!

But we are ALSO responsible for something.  In Verse 31, Jesus says, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

It is THE TRUTH which will make us free. And "knowing the truth" is tied up with "continuing in the words of Jesus" and "being His disciples".  The truth of Jesus' words will make us free.  There is no real freedom unless we OBEY the words of Jesus, and CONTINUE to obey them.

Jesus gives us true freedom in two separate ways.

Jesus sets us "FREE FROM".  Free from the punishment of sin; free from the power and authority of Satan; free from the sting of death; free from the fear of a future which is in God's hand.  Jesus sets us free FROM these things.

Our Lord Jesus has also set us "FREE FOR" something.  He has set us free to live FOR him, for the honour of His great Name in the world around us.  Being set free FROM the power of sin means that we are now set free FOR the work of God, in whatever way we do that.

Many people think that THEIR way of life is REAL freedom.  But for most people, freedom means: running away from God and from obeying the Lord.  This sort of freedom IS not real freedom.  Sooner or later this way, the slavery of sin will catch up with us.  We will be FORCED to see that this freedom leads only to greater slavery.  Or one day, God will throw us out, because we are no more than SLAVES, slaves of sin, and not true children of the Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is only if the SON makes us free from the power of sin, that we shall be truly free.  If the Son makes us free, we shall be free from FEAR, because Jesus never leaves us in our troubles and worries.  If the Son makes you free, you will be free from the RAT-RACE, because you will try to see things from the Lord's point of view, and that puts the pressures of life into the right perspective.  If Jesus makes you free, it means that you will be free from your OLD SELF.  Our Lord makes us new people; we can break with the past; He is always at work in us.  If the Saviour makes us free, it means we'll be free from what OTHER people say and think about us.  If Jesus makes us free, we are free from the power of SIN.  Only JESUS can break the endless chain of slavery.  His Spirit helps us to fight sin in all its different forms and hiding places.

What a wonderful promise!  "If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed; truly free!"

All around us we see people going CRAZY in their search for real freedom.  Young people turn from one pop culture to the next.  People try one answer, then the next, and then they turn to another.  All of them end up in disappointment and bitterness.

All OUR ways to freedom are dead ends.

But Jesus tells us that HE is the answer.  Jesus tells us that real freedom comes only when we trust HIM, and obey HIM, and follow HIM.

TRUST Him, and accept His forgiveness by a straightforward faith!  And OBEY Him, enthusiastically, whole-heartedly!

The way to true freedom is such a SIMPLE way, and yet how FEW there are who find it.

But: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they SHALL see God...!”

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