Glorious Liberty of the Children of God

I'd like to read a passage which is one of those things can be pondered for days just with one passage and I want to take one thing out of it from Romans 8 starting at 19. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing the manifestation of the sons of God for the creation was subjected to futility not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay to obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. What we need to see is that the glorious liberty of the children of God is not something that waits for the last day but it is something which we have now which God wants us to enter, liberty, freedom.

For what other reason did the Messiah come than to set the captives free? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed and every one of those promises that Jesus takes from Isaiah as he announces his own ministry is a promise of freedom. The thing about being poor is that you're limited, you're stuck, you can't go and do what you want to do, you can't eat what you want, buy what you want.

Good news to one who is poor means that in some way there's going to be a way to come out of that bondage, that slavery. Release to the captives, freedom, recovery of sight to the blind. The thing about being blind is again that you cannot move where you want to go, you can't.

Good news for the blind means that they get their eyes open, they can see and they can move and go to set at liberty those who are oppressed, freedom. Jesus gives freedom to the blind, the lame, the lepers, not in some other world or at some other time but now. He doesn't come to the people who are all walled in and say to them, never mind honey, you're going to have freedom when you get to heaven.

What do you want me to do for you, he says to the blind man? Lord, that I might receive my sight. Receive your sight, your faith has made you well. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean, says the leper.

I will, be thou clean, he says. The mark of every human being who has ever in any way been touched by the Lamb of God is freedom. The behavior of the followers of Jesus was distinct and different from that of the Pharisees in this area.

They were free. They walked through the grain fields on the Sabbath day, plucking the grain. They ate their meals without this ritual washing of the hands in dirty water.

They were free to ask the questions that were in their heart without being ashamed. And to this day, this is still the mark. The difference between a religious person and a person who has come into a living union with Jesus is freedom.

The religious person is invariably inhibited and bound. The follower, the lover of Jesus is, but there are two kinds of freedom. We have outer freedom and inner freedom.

The rich man, for instance, has outer freedom. He can go anywhere he wants. Get on a jet and go to Nairobi.

He can eat at any hotel he wants to, order anything on the menu. He can go through doors that will not open for you and me. He can see people of influence that wouldn't get near us.

He has outer freedom, but the same rich man or rich woman, while they can go anywhere they want in the world, may carry with them an inner bondage. He may still be enslaved to lust. She may still be bound to vanity.

And wherever they go in their outer freedom, they're still slaves. Now, the freedom that our Lord offers us is inner freedom. And he offers it to us now.

If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Not potentially free, not hopefully, but in fact, indeed. And it's not something we dream about and hope for as we stand on the outside looking in, but it's something which is now our portion, our daily bread, our daily joy, our continuous experience.

Inner freedom. Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. They answered him, we are descendants of Abraham and have never been in bondage to anyone.

How do you say you will be made free? Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave. We'll be made free. We're sons and daughters of Abraham.

We've never been in bondage. Well, outwardly perhaps, although don't forget about Egypt and don't forget about Babylon, but inwardly, anyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. Surely we understand that our bondage, our bondage is an inner bondage.

Something inside us, not our outward inability to move here and there, but it's something inside. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me that is in my flesh.

I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I want, that I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells inside me.

So I find it to be a law, but I see in my members another law at work with the law of my mind, making me a captive to the law of sin which dwells within me. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this bondage? What we have to get out of is this inside bondage, which each of us knows all too well. We understand what Paul is talking about, that we don't have to go on and on and on.

Defeated by the corruption inside us that makes a mockery of our desire to do good. If the Son will make you free, you will be free indeed. If we continue in his word, that is, to hang on to it, soak it up, live it, then we enter in, in this life and in this body, the glorious liberty of the Son.

And we have to be evidence of that. We can have it. For instance, if you continue in my word of the cross, you will know the truth in your experience that your sins are forgiven and you will be.

What happens with Moses is that every once in a while we have a flash of insight concerning our forgiveness, and it's marvelous for a short time. Then comes another flash of insight, we see it again, more darkness. What has to happen is that these flashes have to become continuous daylight.

We have to soak up and absorb the word of the cross until it becomes our very nature. The word of Jesus is not just what comes out of his mouth, but it's also what he does. And the most important, and every time we see him hanging there, we hear the word of God speaking to our hearts, your sins are forgiven, your guilt is removed, the evil within you is defeated, you are now made clean.

Now I continue in that word by opening every day of my life, focusing my attention on that cross and seeing the cross of Jesus as the center. I also continue in the word of the cross by learning now joyfully to deny myself in favor of my brother's needs, to take up my cross, to put my stubbornness on the altar, and yield to God's way of mercy. We need to determine, like Paul, to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified, until we are in fact enlisted into a life of continuous thanksgiving to God, and limitless mercy for the people around us for whom we have so little mercy now.

And we need to get clear in our minds that this is a life which is entirely possible to us now. But there are people in this assembly. Here's another example.

If you continue in my word of promise, you will know the truth that the Holy Spirit has already come, and you will be set free from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Notice how much of Jesus' word is in the form of promise. I will not leave you desolate, I will come to you, I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice.

I am with you always. Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you.

You will be my witnesses. The fulfillment of every promise Jesus gives is in the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives, the receiving of that which God has given. As I receive the Holy Spirit into my life, and this needs to be also a continuous thing, I begin to experience a fulfillment that nothing else in this world can give me.

I now, as I receive the Spirit, not just once, but continuously, I experience the fulfillment that I was in, and which was forever being defeated, ever having a bad aftertaste, ever ending up in disillusionment. Now I begin to experience, in fact, fulfillment as I get up on top of lust and pride at last, and I begin to experience what it is to be God-fulfilled. Only the God-fulfilled person is the free person.

Only the person who is God-fulfilled can live a life of praise, or has enough resource in the heart to be generous and forbearing to those around him or her. Rejoice in the Lord always, says Paul. And again I say rejoice.

Let your forbearance be made known to all men. Beautiful, but it's only possible as your life is fulfilled by the indwelling presence of God's Spirit, and that's for you to receive. One more example.

If you continue in my call to faith, you will know the truth that I am the resurrection and the life, and you will be delivered from the fear of death. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and delivers all those who through fear of death were subject to life. On the cross, Jesus overcame death.

He delivers us from the power of death, the effects of death, and you only begin to experience freedom from death through faith, as he calls you to it. I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord. He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

I am the living bread. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger.

Whoever believes in me will never thirst. But every day of our lives we have to get up again and respond to the call of faith that Jesus puts upon us. Trust me.

Believe in me. Take me at my word. Put your life in my hand.

As we do that, each day we come forth, we experience a supernatural walk in this world. An eternal flame burns inside us. Living water gushes forth from our hearts to bless those around us.

We now find that we're able to give ourselves for others because we're no longer scared inside. The creation will be delivered from its bondage and decay. And brought in to the glorious liberty of, for a while now, the creation remains in bondage.

And we can see it all around us and in our very bodies. Decay. Crumbling civilizations.

Crumbling cultures. Crumbling lives. But the glorious liberty of the children of God is already here.

You don't We continue in his word. We're his disciples. We will know the truth and the truth sets us free.

God help us to do that. Continue in my word of the cross. You will know experientially that you're forgiven and you will be free from guilt.

Continue in my word of promise and you will know in your experience that the Holy Spirit has come to you. And you will be free from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Continue in my call to faith.

And you will know who I am. That I am the resurrection and the light. And you will be free intact from the fear.

We're asking that you would confirm whatever is true and what was just to our hearts by giving us a measure of freedom now. Father we know that you, through your son, gave to the blind and the lame some outward freedom. Some liberty that would break those chains.

Take away that fear. Help us to get out of that grudge and stop living in that rut. And know this day Lord by your grace a taste of the glorious.

We ask it in Jesus name.