Freedom!

I really enjoyed last weeks message about seeing past the prison bars of our immediate circumstances and how praise can break every chain.

We closed that message with a powerful and beloved biblical promise:

John 8:36 NKJV

36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

God is not done with this particular topic just yet.

The Bible is a book about freedom.

The entire Old Covenant is the story of a people who were totally enslaved to a system of tyrants.

For 400 years! The Hebrew people existed as slaves to the Egyptian Kings and Gods.

The Bible tells the glorious story of how God, in His great love, freed His people from that bondage.

Exodus 6:6 NKJV

6 Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

And indeed God did!

Exodus 20:2 NKJV

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

The freeing of the Hebrews, who would become the Nation of Israel stands as an eternal testament to the goodness of God.

Amen!

However...

It also revealed a much, much deeper issue.

When they left Egypt, they left it competently free.

By all external examination they were now a people free from all Egyptian bondage and were thus free to serve God with all their heart.

God Himself, through the Prophet says that this deliverance and freedom should have resulted in a people free to love and serve God with all their heart.

But as God says: It did not work out this way..

Isaiah 5:1–4 NKJV

1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill. 2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes. 3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?

Explain:

Even though Israel was set free and should serve God - for some reason they still behaved, thought and manifested a life as if they were still slaves to another other than Jehovah.

This mysterious behavior is eventually revealed to us by Jesus Christ when He quotes Isaiah:

Matthew 15:8 NKJV

8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.

Turns out that as mighty and glorious as the exodus from Egyptian slavery was.

And whilst they indeed did not have external slave drivers whipping their back anymore.

They were still enslaved to 3 other masters.

And perhaps the most shocking revelation of all:

Every single human being till this very hour, is still enslaved to these 3 masters.

Proof? Sin.

Now im not talking about Christians but people in general.

Every single human being sins.

Why?

John 8:34 NKJV

34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

What are these 3 masters?

In Ephesians God tells us who are in Jesus Christ about our life before Christ and who we served:

Ephesians 2:1–6 NKJV

1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Master 1: The World v2

Master 2: The Devil v2

Master 3: The Flesh v3

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Over the next 3 weeks we will look at each of these in detail and see how Jesus gives us victory over them..

But for now...

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Here is what I want you to understand about these 3 Masters:

We can learn this by looking at Pharaoh and Israel.

Whilst people are under their bondage, their intention is to make you, your life, your relationships as bitter and hard as possible.

Exodus 1:14 NKJV

14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

As we saw last week, they seek to blind us to the love of God.

2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV

4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

However!

As Christians we are no longer their slaves. We have been set free from sin to serve a loving God!

Romans 6:22 NKJV

22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

This changes the “purpose” of these masters.

As their slaves they made our lives bitter.

But as free people they cannot do that anymore, so they adopt a new approach, even as Pharaoh did when Israel was freed:

When Israel left Egypt there were no longer Pharaoh's slaves, but that does not mean Pharaoh left the, alone.

Exodus 14:5–7 NKJV

5 Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. 7 Also, he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them.

Exodus 14:9 NKJV

9 So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon.

This is the same spiritual situation we as christens find ourselves in.

Jesus set you free but that does not mean Satan will leave you alone,

Freed! But still pursued.

Failure to recognise this will make you constantly question and doubt your salvation.

Why am I struggling so much with sin, temptation and doubts?

BECAUSE YOU ARE BEING PURSUED BY THE HOST OF HELL ITSELF!!!

Even as Pharaoh with his army rode though the wilderness looking for Israel to destroy them, the bible says:

1 Peter 5:8 NKJV

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

I simply love Charles Spurgions essay on this:

Next, Christian, turn your eyes downward.

Do you know what foes you have beneath your feet?

There are hell and its lions against you.

You were once a servant of Satan, and no king will willingly lose his subjects.

Do you think that Satan is pleased with you?

Why, you hast changed your country.

You were once a slave of Apollyon, but now you are a good soldier of Jesus Christ; and do you think the devil is pleased with you?

I tell you no.

If you had seen Satan the moment you were converted, you would have beheld a wondrous scene.

As soon as you gave your heart to Christ, Satan spread his bat-like-wings: down he flew into hell, and summoning all his councilors, he said:

“Sons of the pit, true heirs of darkness, you who once were clothed in light, but who fell with me from high, another of my servants has forsaken me; I have lost another of my family; he is gone over to the side of the Lord of Hosts.

Oh you, my company, you fellow-helpers of the powers of darkness, leave no stone unturned to destroy him.

I command you all hurl all your fiercest darts at him; plague him; let hell-dogs bark at him; let fiends besiege him; give him no rest, harass him to the death; let the fumes of our corrupt and burning lake ever rise in his nostrils; persecute him; the man is a traitor; give him no peace; since I cannot have him here to bind him in chains, since I cannot have him here to torment and afflict him, as long as you can, till his dying day, I bid you howl at him; until he crosses the river, afflict him, grieve him, torment him; for the wretch has turned against me, and become a servant of the Lord.”

Such may have been the scene in hell, that very day when you believed love the Lord.

And do you think Satan loves you better now?

Ah! no. He will always be at you, for your enemy, “like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.”

Expect trouble therefore, Christian.

Conclusion:

Jesus Christ set us free from the World, Satan and the Flesh.

We are Free!

But we are still perused, and we are commanded:

Galatians 5:1 NKJV

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Prayer:

Deliver us from Evil

Deliver us from the World

deliver us from the devil

deliver us from the flesh