Man's Enslavement to Sin
Notes
Transcript
What side of the turkey has the most feathers? The Outside
What side of the turkey has the most feathers? The Outside
You know what you call a short mother? A minimum
F. Man’s Enslavement by Sin, 8:33–40
(8:33–40) Introduction: man is enslaved by sin. He denies it; nevertheless, he is. Personal experience, greed, lust, selfish behavior, and world history bear clear evidence. Any honest person can clearly see the evidence.
1. The denial of man (v.33).
2. The first proof: man commits sin (vv.34–36).
3. The second proof: man opposes and makes no room in his heart for Jesus’ Word (v.37).
4. The third proof: man follows the wrong father, the devil (v.38).
5. The fourth proof: man fails to do the works of Abraham (vv.39–40).
We have seen this moment where Jesus has been arguing back and forth with the pharisees and rulers and telling them who he is and his true identity and how he was sent from the Father, and I truly believe he is trying to show them who he is in a way they will understand because he cares so deeply for them, and in the middle of that we see some people who have come to believe in Jesus’ claims and we talked last week about how there are two different types of belief, true and false, but Jesus is giving them instruction and here is where we find the story
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’?”
And if we are being honest here, there is some funny stuff going on in this back and forth from the Jews and Jesus… when they respond they are thinking that when Jesus speaks of freedom that he is obviously speaking of being conquered by some other nation, and having to live under their rule. And when they think that, they say, “I can’t believe you would say that, we are offspring of Abraham we have NEVER been enslaved to anyone, we are God’s chosen race… how could you possibly think we were enslaved. And in my head if this is the movie being produced this is when it gets really quiet and the narrator says, “They had in fact been enslaved multiple times in their history, they had had to serve the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Syrians, and in that very moment they were being enslaved and living under the Roman empire.”
And perhaps what they really meant is they had never been conquered and had to surrender and take their allegiance away from God, and put it in men.
And what we clearly see is there were two different meanings going on between these two groups of people and Jesus is about to unleash a load of information on us about their and in connection, OUR enslavement to sin.
And this is a fascinating turn of events because we can see something in these people that we see in the world today, they didn’t know the greatest thing they were enslaved to, they didn’t understand it and for sure that is a problem in the world today.
We sell tons of self help books to people offering them the answer to their lives, because people want to be better and these books can work, that is not what I am saying and they can help you from the situation you think you find yourself in, but bigger than any of those situations is the fact that without Jesus we are enslaved to sin, and no matter how good we think our present life is, if we haven’t come to know Jesus as our personal Lord and savior we are still in a horrible situation no matter how good we think it can be.
In fact, people still claim that we are not entangled in sin, that we are good people that have a good heart and we just want to help people and there is nothing bad in me or them or whomever we are talking about and we think our good acts make them acceptable before God, that because we have done so many good things that is what makes us approved...
And that is what sounds eerily familiar to Matthew 7:22-23
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
And so we think lining up all of our good deeds is what will save us and make us approved… I mean, I have never killed anyone and I am not nearly as bad as so and so, and so we try to weigh our good deeds versus our bad and see which weighs more and we think if we can get the good to outweigh the bad then everything is going to be okay. And we don’t even count those things as bad if it something we have reasoned as God understanding…we just wash it away as neutral at worst.
And that is exactly what is going on here but in a different manner The Jews claimed they were the seed or the children of Abraham, the children of one of the godliest men who ever lived. And to them this was what should protect them in the eyes of God, because his holiness will wash down hill obviously. And that is all they needed, because they were descendents everything was going to be okay. And we can poke holes in that and think they are silly thinking they could do that, but in light of what we talked about last week, there are some of us who are living out our grandma’s faith our our parents faith, thinking because they loved Jesus so much and they took us to church it somehow rubbed off on us but we haven’t made a personal connection with Jesus.
And look at what Jesus said to them in Luke 3:8
8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
And I love this because he is telling us, that we don’t keep track of the good things we do, its not about that its about bearing fruit in terms of keeping with repentance. We have to continue to follow him and make a good life with him, and then he just blasts their whole idea of their heritage saving them out of the water and tells them that God can create sons of Abraham from the stones…
And even the Book of Proverbs speaks to us looking to our own goodness and cleaning ourselves up
6 Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?
9 Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?
And then Jesus is going to go on to prove how we are entangled and enslaved in sin.
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.
So the first proof he is giving us, he says everyone who practices sin, is a slave to sin… and we don’t to look too far to realize we all sin. You know you, you know that you have done it, and what Jesus is saying is we are all slaves… and some people in the world today think they don’t sin, they are just decent people, but Romans 3:23 lays that bear
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
So the word we have here translated practices sin is the greek work poion and the word doulos for servant it means that man is giving himself over as a slave to the sin… and so the idea here is he becomes enslaved to it forever and what it really menas is we are unable to keep from sinning no matter how hard we try.
ποιῶν - poion - a continuous action.
δοῦλός - doulos - servant/salve
And Jesus is warning us in 8:35, he is telling us a slave is not a permanent member of the family, a son on the other hand is a permanent member of the family and has privileges and rights but a slave has none of that and can be cast from the house at any moment. And whenever the father decides it is time to get rid of the slave he is gone… and this really is a warning to the people they would have been able to wrap their mind around, they would have know that Jesus was saying that the father could have cast them away at any time, but he doesn’t leave it there, Jesus says, the son has the right to change that… the son can set you free and if he does this you are TRULY free and he can bring you an adoption into the family.
And again in these words Jesus is making four claims of himself
1) He, Jesus Christ, is the Son of God.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16; see vv.17–18).
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee” (Jn. 9:35–37).
“Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” (Jn. 10:36).
2) Man is in slavery to sin.
“Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” (Jn. 8:34).
“I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity” (Ac. 8:23).
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Ro. 3:23).
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Ro. 6:16).
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Ro. 7:14).
“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Ro. 7:23).
“And that they [all men] may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (2 Ti. 2:26).
“While they [false teachers] promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage” (2 Pe. 2:19).
3) He, Jesus Christ, can free man.
“And ye shall know the truth [Jesus Christ], and the truth shall make you free” (Jn. 8:32; see Jn. 14:6).
“Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Ro. 6:18).
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Ro. 8:2).
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Ga. 5:1).
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Co. 3:17).
4) Man can be adopted.
“But as many as received him [Jesus Christ], to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (Jn. 1:12).
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Ro. 8:14).
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Co. 6:17–18).
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Ga. 4:4–6).
Jesus goes on to give us a second proof that we, man, is enslaved by sin
37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
And he is telling them, hey I understand your heritage and who you claim to be, but your problem, the problem that enslaves man is we make no room in our heart for Jesus’ Word. And we have looked and went over this and this idea of Jesus’ word is a double entendre and has so many meanings.
And he is saying look you have rejected me… you are refusing to follow me and this goes on to us, some are refusing to pick up their cross and follow him we make sure take care of our own desires and what we want and some may even speak against Jesus, and some want absolutely nothing to do with Jesus
And we make no room in our hearts for him....
And we see him doubling down later in Jn12:48
48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,
4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,
5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
And we see clearly how important it is to keep and make room for the words of Jesus.
The Third proof that man is enslaved by sin that Jesus gives is he tells them they are following the wrong father...
38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
And we have seen over and over again that Jesus is saying he is doing everything the father wants him to do… He is speaking all he wanted him to and he has come from the presence of the father
ANd he contrasts that with what man does with their father.. who we will see Jesus identify in Jn 8:44
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.
And so he is saying with that as our father before we follow him, we do what our father does....
The Fourth proof that we are enslaved to sin he gives is Jn 8:39-40
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.
They had claimed to be Abrahams descendants and made this claim to Jesus to justify themselves… and they are saying we are definitely not someone else’s Kids, so his works should be good for us… and this is basically what we talked about saying earlier… and Jesus is saying the same thing here that we would tell those people.. if your grandmas faith was good enough youd be doing what she does…
And what we see is a true child of God is a person who does the works of Jesus