The Great Liberator

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John 8:31-59

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed;…

Blessed is that word "free," and blessed He who lives to make men so. Political slavery is an intolerable evil, and blessed the man who hurls down the despot and gives men their true rights. But men may have political liberty and yet be slaves, for there is religious bondage, and he who cringes before the priest is a slave. Blessed are our eyes that see the light of gospel liberty, and are no longer immured in Popish darkness. Yet a man may be delivered from the bond of superstition only to become a slave to his own lusts. He only is a free man who is master of himself by the grace of God.

I. FREEDOM IS POSSIBLE. The Son of God can make the prisoner free.

1. Negatively.

(1) From past guilt which weighs so heavily upon many — for His blood "cleanseth from all sin."(2) From the punishment of sin, the fear of which is grievous bondage, for He has borne it in our place,

(3) From the power of sin, the same blood which purifies enables a man to overcome. They in heaven washed their robes and overcame through the blood of the Lamb.

(4) From the fear of death, which keeps many "all their lifetime subject to bondage." When sin is pardoned the law is satisfied, and the strength of sin therefore broken and the sting taken out of death. If we believe in Christ we shall fall asleep, but never die.

2. Positively. We are not only free from, but free to. When persons receive the freedom of a city certain privileges are bestowed. To be made free by Christ is to be free to call oneself God's child, to claim His protection and blessing, to sit at His table, to enter His Church, and at last to be free of the New Jerusalem.

II. BEWARE OF FALSE LIBERTY. Every good thing is imitated by Satan. There is —

1. Antinomian liberty. "I am not under the law, therefore I may do as I like." A blessed truth followed by an atrocious inference. To be under the law is to give God the service of a slave who fears the lash, but to be under grace is to serve God out of pure love.

2. National professional freedom, based upon baptism, and regular attendance at religious ordinances, and performance of outward religious duties. But a good many people dream that they are what they are not. Christ must have come and shown you your slavery, and you must have found through Him the way of escape or you are enslaved.

3. The liberty of natural self-righteousness and the power of the flesh.

III. TRUE FREEDOM COMES TO US THROUGH HIM WHO IS IN THE HIGHEST SENSE "THE SON." No man gets free but as he comes to Christ; otherwise he will only rivet on his fetters. This liberty —

1. Is righteously bestowed. Christ has the right to make men free.

2. Was dearly purchased. Christ speaks it by His power, but He bought it by His blood. He makes free, but by His own bonds.

3. Is freely given. Jesus asks nothing of us for it. He saves sinners just as they are.

4. Is instantaneously received. The captive has often to pass through many doors — but the moment we believe we are free, although we may have been fettered at ten thousand points.

5. Is done forever. When Christ sets free no chains can bind again.

IV. ARE WE FREE? If so, then —

1. We have changed our lodging place, for the slave and the Son sleep not in the same room. The things which satisfied the servant will not satisfy the Son.

2. We live not as we used to do. We go not to slaves' work, to toil and sweat to earn the wages of sin; but now as a Son serveth His Father we do Son's work.

3. We strive to set others free; if we have no zeal for the emancipation of others we are slaves still.

4. We hate all sorts of chains, all kinds of sin, and will never willingly put on the fetters any more.

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