Free Indeed

Temple Baptist Church - 7-1-2018

John 8:31-36

Introduction:

A.  This week, we will celebrate America’s 242nd Birthday.  It seems like yesterday that we celebrated our Second Centennial Birthday.

B.  America is the greatest place on earth to live!  I have often said that we are so blessed that we take our blessings for granted.  America is the Eutopia of the world, a nation of immigrants.

C.  May God never allow us to forget His blessings upon America and us as citizens.

1.  Our national blessings.  America is a good land!  America is a beautiful land!  America is a bountiful land!  America is a land of freedom!

2.  Our personal blessings.  We have homes to live in!  We have good clothes to wear!  We have more than enough to eat!  We have money to spend and places to spend it!  We dwell in safety!

3.  Our spiritual blessings.  We have heard the gospel preached!  We have a free salvation through the gospel!  We have the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!  We have bibles galore!

4.  Our liberty in law.  Something that is being rejected today is the enforcement of our laws.  A nation that rejects its laws will soon become a lawless nation!

D.  Twice in our text, we have seen the word “free.”

1.  Liberty in Conversion - Verse 36.  “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed!” You will never truly be free indeed until know Jesus Christ as your Saviour!

2.  Liberty in Continuance - Verse 31-32.  “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free!”  Our Lord, in these verses, was addressing those Jews who had believed on Him.  The truth shall make you free!  You will never be truly free until you know the truth of God’s Word.

E.  Salvation makes us free from many things, but I want to name just a few.

1.  Salvation makes us Free from the Curse of the Law.  Galatians 3:13  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:  (The Jews were great believers in Moses and the Law.  They followed it through ignorance of God’s amazing, saving grace.  We that are saved are under grace, not the law!  In Christ, the believer finds true liberty.)

2.  Salvation makes us Free from the Guilt of Sin.  Romans 8:31-33  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?  (32)  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  (33)  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.  (Our sin has been put on Christ’s account!  I sleep well at night because I am free from condemnation.  Still a sinner?  Yes!  But a sinner delivered from the penalty of sin.)

3.  Salvation makes us Free from the Dominion of Sin.  Romans 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.  (I may not be all that God wants me to be, but I am not what I used to be!  God’s children have been freed from the dominion of sin.)

4.  Salvation makes us Free from the Power of Darkness.  Colossians 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:  (So many people are under the power of Satan.  Drugs, alcohol, perversion, etc. have enslaved them.  Many of God’s people were once enslaved.)

1 Corinthians 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

John 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

5.  Salvation makes us Free from the Fear of Men.  Hebrews 13:6  So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.  (We neither wrestle with flesh and blood nor do we fear them.  I know that God holds His children in His hand and He is greater than he that is in the world.)

6.  Salvation makes us Free from the Sting of Death.  1 Corinthians 15:55-57  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  (56)  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.  (57)  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  (As we walk through the “valley of the shadow of death,” God holds our hand and we fear no evil.)

7.  And, one day, Salvation will make us Free from this Present Evil World.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  (14)  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  (15)  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  (16)  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  (17)  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  (18)  Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (Oh, that will be glory for me, glory for me.  When by His grace I shall look on His face; that will be glory, be glory for me!)