{"id":75,"date":"2016-01-08T00:11:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T00:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thereisnewsinthetruth.com\/?p=75"},"modified":"2018-01-20T03:35:20","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T03:35:20","slug":"formatting-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thereisnewsinthetruth.com\/?p=75","title":{"rendered":"For What Are We Made Free?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romans 8:2<\/p>\n

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Introduction<\/span><\/h3>\n

Answering the question “To whom does this liberty belong?” gives us a sense of ownership.\u00a0 Christian liberty is exclusive, only saved folk\u00a0can experience Christian liberty. We’re part of the exclusive Christian liberty club.\u00a0 Anybody can join, however, they must be born again. Answering the question “How secure is our liberty?” gives us a sense of security and confidence.\u00a0 Our freedom is so solid, so eternal, so high in heaven, so divinely bestowed upon us, there should no longer be fear of sin and death; but rather an anticipation of life, life in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n

The next question we have is, “For what are we made free?”\u00a0 The other questions regard the recipient of this liberty and the nature of that liberty; but this questions gives us the purpose of that freedom and an explanation of the context of the text.\u00a0 To simply answer the question: We are free to serve; free to serve God.\u00a0 Romans 7:6 “..we are delivered from the law… that we should serve in the newness of spirit…”\u00a0 In chapter 7, Paul declares the futility of trying to serve God in the oldness of the letter, and asks “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”\u00a0 In chapter 8, Paul introduces us\u00a0to the Holy Spirit who delivers us\u00a0from this futility, delivers us from the bondage of sin and death.<\/p>\n

Hebrews 9:14<\/p>\n

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I find it curious that liberty means\u00a0service.\u00a0 To be free means to be a servant.\u00a0 It’s like an oxy-moron:\u00a0Free to Serve.\u00a0I thought being free\u00a0meant to no longer be a servant?\u00a0 But this is Christian liberty, or real liberty, God-given liberty.\u00a0 To be made free does not mean that there is an absence of laws and rules.\u00a0 Liberty is not above the law.\u00a0 The law is not your problem.\u00a0 The law is perfect and holy.\u00a0 Our problem is sin.\u00a0 It’s sin that we were in bondage to, and it’s sin that we served.\u00a0 But then came Jesus\u00a0 ”\u00a0…in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us…”\u00a0 So the condemnation of the law is no longer our problem, but rather the righteousness of the law is to our benefit.\u00a0 The law is still there.\u00a0\u00a0 Being free, Christian liberty, is not an absence of law, but rather a fulfillment of the law in us.\u00a0 Before we served the devil and broke the law of God, but now we serve God and he fulfills the law in us.\u00a0 It can be said that we’ve changed masters.\u00a0 Jesus said that “ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”\u00a0 It’s not set you free, it’s make you free.\u00a0 It’s not the truth that had you in bondage, it’s sin and the law of sin and death.<\/p>\n

Remember the type of Egypt?\u00a0The\u00a0Israelites were enslaved and in bondage to the Egyptians.\u00a0 This is a type or a picture of a lost person, enslaved by the devil and in bondage to his own sin.\u00a0 Service is what we’re saved from, but it’s also what we’re saved for.<\/p>\n

Exodus 1:13-14<\/p>\n

And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s was a hard life of service for the Israelites in Egypt and it’s a hard life of service for the sinner.\u00a0 But when deliverance comes, when freedom is given, we’re not just free from everything.\u00a0 We’re not just turned loose in the great outdoors.\u00a0 Prison doors are opened, we get kicked out in the street with nothing but the clothes on our back.\u00a0 No, we’re bought with a price.\u00a0 We’ve changed masters.<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 6:19<\/p>\n

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?\u00a0 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s right, we’ve changed hands.\u00a0 We’ve been bought with a price.\u00a0 We’ve changed masters.\u00a0 A what a wonderful master he is.\u00a0 Before God sent Moses down to Egypt, he told him, “…When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God…”\u00a0 (Exodus 3:12)\u00a0 Ye shall serve God.\u00a0 When God frees, he guarantees.\u00a0 When God frees you from the slavery of the devil, he’ll guarantee your service for King.\u00a0 Ye shall serve God.\u00a0\u00a0When Moses went to Pharaoh, God told Moses to say, “Let my people go, that they may serve me…”\u00a0 And when Pharaoh refused, God sent a plague through the land.\u00a0 Every time Moses went back to Pharaoh, he told him the same thing, “Let my people go, that they may serve me…”\u00a0 Six times it’s recorded between Exodus 4-10:\u00a0 “Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.”<\/p>\n

“My people no longer serve you, Pharaoh.\u00a0 They serve me.”\u00a0 They are my people, not your people.\u00a0 Plague after plague:\u00a0 Blood in the river; frogs, lice, flies,\u00a0livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and at last, death of the first born.\u00a0 And at last the will of Pharaoh was broken and he called Moses and Aaron to him in the middle of the night and said, “Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD…”\u00a0 He said go and serve the LORD.\u00a0 We’ve changed Masters.\u00a0 We serve another Master, and what wonderful Master he is.<\/p>\n

Matthew 11:28-30<\/p>\n

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus is not a slave driver.\u00a0 We’re no longer shackled by the chains on sin.\u00a0 We’re drawn into service by the cords of love.\u00a0 The bible has much to say about serving God.\u00a0 When Moses gave the law to the Israelites, he admonished them to serve the Lord.<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 6:13 – Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 10:12 – And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 10:20 – Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 13:4 – Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Moses gave them the law and gave them what God had required of them.\u00a0 Of course they rebelled.\u00a0 Ultimately, they didn’t want to go into the promised land bad enough to actually do it.\u00a0 Instead they murmured against God and Moses, rebelled, set up false Gods, all manner of problems.\u00a0 So got turned them around and led them 40 years in the desert and all that had forsaken God at Kadesh-Barnea had dies off.\u00a0 Their carcasses fell in the wilderness.\u00a0 And finally God brought them back to the brink of that promised land with Joshua leading instead.\u00a0 And it was the same thing.<\/p>\n

Joshua 22:5 – But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.<\/p>\n

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Joshua 24:14-15 – Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Another time in the history of the Bible, Samuel, the great man of God, admonished the people of Israel, and the Kings.\u00a0 Four times it’s recorded that he said “Prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only…”\u00a0 “If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against he commandment of the LORD…”\u00a0 “but serve the LORD with all your heart…”\u00a0 “Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth will all your heart…”<\/p>\n

David, the man after God’s own heart said to his son, “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind…”\u00a0 And then in the Psalms David says, “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling…”\u00a0 He says “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing…”<\/p>\n

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Free to Serve God<\/span><\/h3>\n

Now, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free for what?\u00a0 #1 Free to Serve God.<\/p>\n

Rom 6:22<\/p>\n

But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What does it mean to be a servant of God?\u00a0 One thing we can do is look at the blessing of being a servant of God.\u00a0 In chapter 6, Paul asks, “What fruit had ye then in these things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.”\u00a0 The blessing of being a servant is now we have the exclusive right and ability to bear a fruit that we are not ashamed of.\u00a0 We have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.\u00a0 God said, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.”\u00a0 Let me explain again that there is nothing holy about me, but the Holy Ghost that lives in me.\u00a0 So if there is going to be any fruit unto holiness that I bear, it’s not I that bears it, but the Holy Spirit that bears the this fruit.\u00a0 I take no credit. It’s Christ in me, the hope of glory.\u00a0 It’s God in me that bears the fruit.\u00a0 I can say along with Paul:<\/p>\n

Philippians 1:6 – Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:<\/p>\n

Philippians 1:11 – Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.\u00a0 If you are a servant of God, the end is everlasting life.\u00a0 But as we know and Paul teaches throughout the new testament:\u00a0 We are save by grace, through faith.\u00a0 It’s not of work.\u00a0 It’s not of works.\u00a0 It’s not of works.\u00a0It’s not a matter of how well you served God or how good you served God.\u00a0 As long as your a servant of God, the great finale to all this is everlasting life.\u00a0 It’s eternal life.\u00a0 That was 6:22.\u00a0 You know 6:23. “But the gift of God is eternal life!”\u00a0 Everlasting life is a gift that God gives to all his servants.\u00a0 And I want to say this:\u00a0 So is fruit unto holiness.\u00a0 Do you realize that holiness is a divine attribute or characteristic of God.\u00a0 Nobody but God has this characteristic.\u00a0 Holiness is God’s character.<\/p>\n

And when God gave us the Holy Spirit, he gave us that holiness in order that we might bear fruit unto holiness.\u00a0 God gave us the Holy Spirit in the same manner that he gives us everlasting life.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit is a gift.\u00a0 We didn’t do anything to earn God’s gift of the Holy Spirit; He just took up residence in our bodies.\u00a0 And he has the right to because he paid for it.\u00a0 We’re bought with a price.\u00a0 We’re His temple.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit living in us is a gift, therefore any fruit that he bears is going to be holy.<\/p>\n

Now what does this mean?\u00a0 What is holy fruit?\u00a0 I’ve been preaching a while now.\u00a0 I’ve been studying the bible for awhile, took some courses on theology, had my experiences with God, and I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t comprehend the holiness of God.\u00a0 And I’ll say this:\u00a0 I’m not sure we can really understand it all.\u00a0 It’s like the glory of God.\u00a0 We just get a glimpse down here, a taste.\u00a0 We’ll understand it better by and by.\u00a0 Not sure we can handle it in this body.\u00a0 I will say this:\u00a0 Holy fruit is not one single little act that we perform; like a good deed or something.\u00a0 It may be, but it’s more than that.\u00a0 Holy fruit is an act that God performs, we just go along for the ride.\u00a0 When we yield ourselves to God;\u00a0when we reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin, God the Holy Spirit can perform.\u00a0 An little apple tree doesn’t yield 20 baskets of apples the first year.\u00a0 Some years, that tree’s fruit can be really poor; some years better than others.\u00a0 But that doesn’t mean the tree isn’t growing.\u00a0 The roots go deeper and grow stronger as the tree grows older.\u00a0 Branches have to be pruned.\u00a0 The ground must be tilled.\u00a0 Winters must be endured.<\/p>\n

You might think, “I ain’t producing no holy fruit!”\u00a0 No you’re not, but God may be producing the fruit in you.\u00a0 I’ll tell you this:\u00a0 All things work together for good to them hat love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.\u00a0 You might not feel like Mr. or Mrs. Holy.\u00a0 You might think that you’re fruit is nothing but rotten cumquats or sour grapes.\u00a0 I don’t see how I can produce any fruit in my condition.\u00a0 If that’s what you really\u00a0think, you’re closer to the holiness and glory of God than most.\u00a0 That’s evidence that God is working n you.\u00a0 When we realize our utter helplessness and desperate need of the helping hand of God, the flower has just blossomed.\u00a0 How beautiful the flower it is in the eyes of God.\u00a0 When we call out to God and call upon the name of the Lord, that’s the sweet fragrance from that flower that floats to the nostrils of God.\u00a0 God will bring that flower to fruition.<\/p>\n

That’ what God wants for us in our freedom.\u00a0 Rom 6:22\u00a0 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.<\/p>\n

Free to Serve Man<\/span><\/h3>\n

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free #1 to serve God.\u00a0 And #2 to serve Man.\u00a0This where the rubber meets the road:<\/p>\n

1Co 9:19-23<\/p>\n

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.<\/p>\n

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I have made myself servant unto all.\u00a0 Remember, it wasn’t man that had you in bondage.\u00a0 It was sin and the law of sin and death.\u00a0 Man is not the enemy.\u00a0 Sin is.\u00a0 I have made myself servant unto all.\u00a0 If we could put this into practice, it would revolutionize our life.\u00a0 If every man was our master, I guarantee you things would be different in your life.\u00a0 Paul said, Romans 12:3 – For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.<\/p>\n

Let’s just explore this for a bit.\u00a0 We’re not talking about a slave master.\u00a0 We’re talking about a loving master.<\/p>\n