Free At Last! Free At Last!

Introduction

Good morning. It’s good to see everybody today and the number of visitors we have in our midst. Thank you for coming. You can come back tonight at 5 o’clock. I’ll be preaching at that time. Scott will be singing. And the sermon is entitled The Testing of the Sun. I have been fascinated by those thoughts, and I am looking forward to sharing those with you tonight. As I am this morning’s sermon, that I must say two things about right at the very beginning. Number one is that many of these thoughts do not originate with me, but my good friend and brother in Christ, preacher of the gospel, Ralph Walker, that I have known for a number of years. In fact, I preach a sermon called The Museum of Your Life.

That’s maybe a few of you have heard that is almost totally inspired by Ralph while I was at Florida College some 30 years ago. And this is a series of chapel talks that he gave at Florida College that have now rounded into a sermon, and I needed to give him proper credit for this. This sermon also is three weeks late. It was supposed to be only two weeks late, but then I changed my topic for last Sunday morning, so now it’s three weeks late. As on a Monday, about three weeks ago, we celebrated as a nation Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. He would have been 84 years old. And you’ll remember his famous speech that is considered one of the greatest ever delivered on the North American continent, that iconic 17-minute I have a dream speech outside of the Lincoln Memorial, where 200,000 civil rights supporters were gathered.

August 28, 1963. I was five months old when he said these famous words at the end of that 17-minute speech. Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty. We are free at last. Jesus said a lot about freedom. He said some very notable words, beginning in Luke chapter 4, when he stood up in Nazareth to read and asked for the Isaiah scroll that was handed to him. And he read these words from Isaiah 61 and verse 1. Liberty to the captives. This is the favorable year of the Lord. And he handed the scroll back to the attendant and sat down, and all the eyes were fixed on him. And he said, Today, this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus came to bring freedom to captives.

And then in the passage we’ve been studying in the auditorium in John chapter 8, in John chapter 8, verses 31 and 32, and some of my favorite verses.

If you abide in my word, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. If therefore, in verse 36, the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. He said. Oh, blessed freedom. Liberty to the captives. That is what everyone in this audience needs today, the freedom that Jesus still offers, the freedom that Jesus came to give by his work at Calvary, by his teaching. Freedom indeed. But freedom from what? Exactly. We talk a lot about freedoms being citizens of the United States. That’s one of our great words that has to do with our nation that makes it the nation that it is. We have freedom of assembly and freedom of religion. And of course, we hear a lot about freedom of speech and the freedoms that we enjoy as citizens.

But freedom is not an absolute. And that’s the point that I want you to get in this sermon this morning. Freedom is not an absolute. And freedom as we might like it to be often just an illusion. Aren’t you glad that the heavenly bodies, the stars, the planets, don’t have the freedom to do whatever they want? That they are sort of restricted into the motions that they’re, or we’d have some kind of collisions going on all the time. I mean, Jupiter running into Saturn would be a nightmare. If we didn’t have those laws by which heavenly bodies are governed. And humans are hemmed in by natural laws. I mean, I can’t just start flapping my wings and fly like a bird. There’s this problem of the law of gravity that I can’t seem to overcome by myself.

James helps me out a little bit with the airplane, but that’s about the only way that I can overcome it. Societal and government laws restrict our freedoms as well. But perhaps what I’m talking about could best be summarized by a song that was sung by Roland Kent Lavoy in 1971. Yes, I was eight years old. I still wasn’t listening to music much at that time, but I know Mike and Jack, you probably know this song. Actually, Roland Kent Lavoy was better known as Lobo. Me and you and a dog named Boo. And if you haven’t listened to it, go to YouTube or Drew Shark or something and listen to it. Me and you and a dog named Boo. And the idea was to just hop in the car and just go.

Me and you and a dog named Boo traveling and living off the land. Me and you and a dog named Boo, how I love being a free man. Very idyllic story. Me and you and a dog named Boo. Traveling and living off the land. But in the song, you know, he sort of has to go back to his old way of life, and then he’s still longing to travel with the dog named Boo and to get back on the road again. Because you see, he’s not free. There are still bills to be paid. He even has, as he’s traveling on the road, the laws of society, like speed limit laws that he has to observe. You see, no freedom is absolute. Freedom as we might like it to be an illusion.

1. A Young Man Who Just Wanted to Be Free

And that leads me to a story in the Bible that I want to talk to you about this morning, where a young man just wanted to be free. And that story is of the prodigal son in Luke, the 15th chapter. A certain man had two sons, Luke 15 and verse 11. And the younger of them said to his father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me. And he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into the distant country. And there he squandered his estate with loose living. Finally, the young son was free. Free from his father and the things that the father imposed on him to do.

He was free from obligations. There wasn’t any curfew or work any longer. He was free to do his own thing. Well, I’ve introduced you to maybe a new song, Me and You and the Dog Name Boo. You’ll be listening to it this afternoon. But how about this more current song by Steppenwolf? Written by Mars Bonfire. Get your motor running. Head out on the highway. Looking for adventure. In whatever comes our way. Yeah, darling, gonna make it happen. Take the world in a love embrace. Fire all your guns at once. And explode into space. I like smoke and lightning. Heavy metal thunder racing in the wind. And that feeling that I’m under. We were born to be wild. Catchy little song, isn’t it? Your mind’s playing that tune, isn’t it?

The prodigal son lived Mars Bonfire song. Born to be wild. No answer to anybody. Do whatever your heart inclines for you to do. Look at the phrase, and not many days later in verse 13. It’s almost as if he has his bags packed under the bed, and he’s ready to go. He lived high. He lived large. He woke up when he wanted to. He spent money on whatever he wanted to spend money on.

2. He Only Exchanged One Form of Bondage for Another

Why did the father divide the inheritance with the son? He may have concluded that keeping him home wouldn’t make him any wiser. And that he needed to enroll in class. And that class is the school of experience. And the problem when you sign up for that class is the test comes first. And the experience comes later. He fired all of his guns at once, and he exploded into space. Then what? The strange thing that happens in the story of the prodigal son is that the more he got what he wanted, the less he wanted what he got. Dishes and clothes still need washing. Bills still come due. He had only exchanged one form of bondage for another. You can free yourself from obligation to God, but if you do that, you will just run into the arms of another master.

There will always be masters out there. And we all serve them. And the fact is, you’re going to serve somebody or something. The more he got what he wanted, he didn’t want what he got. And at the end of every all you can eat buffet, there is still a bill and a cash register. And in verse 14, when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be in need. You know there’s something to be said for restraints. Being hemmed in. Maybe that’s why God gave us the limitations that he did. Perhaps there’s something about that we need to be forced to live in a certain way. Could it be that God’s restraints are meant to protect us from our own weaknesses?

Like a man whose crutches were pulled out beneath him, the prodigal fell, and he was unable to be what he wanted to be. Weaknesses are made clear when the restraints are removed. The prodigal exercised his freedom and his weaknesses rose to the top. Again, he fired all of his guns at once and exploded into space. Some people think that’s what they need. Doesn’t the prodigal son warn us about that kind of an approach to life? I’m 21 years old. The restraint from drinking is removed. Finally, I can purchase my own alcohol. People don’t wait until they’re 21 to drink in our culture. They find a lot of ways to get the alcohol before they’re 21. But when you reach 21, you’re your own man, you’re your own woman.

If you want to drink, you can go and buy it. You’re free. No limitation, no restriction anymore. But perhaps you will be exchanging the restriction for another kind of bondage. Perhaps one day you’ll want to lay that booze down, and you can’t do it anymore. You can’t stop drinking. You couldn’t wait to start. Now you can’t stop. Free to have sex with whoever. STDs, unwanted pregnancy. Then your freedom turns into child care and child support. Social life is severely curtailed. You may not be free any longer to say, no, I quit. And that’s true of any bias, any drug, any addiction that can potentially grip your soul. From pornography to marijuana to gambling. The prodigal enslavement is undesirable and it’s painful. He began to be in need, and he went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he was longing to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. But when he came to his senses. Plenty of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger. Listen. Creditors don’t have to say please. Law officers are not concerned about your convenience when they arraign and arrest and imprison you. Drug dealers aren’t polite. This is the high cost of low living. No absolute freedom. Everybody pays a master. He sent him into his fields to feed swine. And the prodigal suddenly realized that first master I had wasn’t so bad after all. In fact, he would now accept a lesser position. Make me one of your hired servants.

He had the distinguished position of being a son. More about that tonight. He was a son, but now he would just accept a position of servitude in his father’s house. What he wanted to get away from so badly, now he deems as far better than he ever thought it was.

3. Gird Your Minds and Keep Sober in Spirit

And so I call your attention to 1 Peter chapter 1. In 1 Peter chapter 1, this is precisely what Peter is telling us here when he tells us to gird our minds for action and to keep sober in spirit. I’ll tell you what, the prodigal son wasn’t sober at the beginning of the story. When the lights of the far country were beckoning, when he wanted to go out and live high and large. After all, he was born to be wild. He wanted to travel and live off the land, me and you and a dog named Boo, and off he goes, living high and large. No sobriety there. His sobriety came when the pain started. And thus we’re reminded to keep sober in spirit and to fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children. That’s how you fix your hope completely. You live obediently to Jesus Christ. He’s your master. More on that in a moment. And as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts, which were yours in your ignorance. And that’s the challenge for every Christian. Those lusts want us back. The devil wants us to imbibe again. That which we left to become Christians as we rose to walk in newness of life will beckon us once more. And he says, Don’t go back to that. Don’t be conformed to those former lusts. That wasn’t smart back there, the prodigal son teaches us that. Don’t be conformed to the former lusts, which are yours in your ignorance, but be holy in all your behavior. As God is holy.

4. Freed From Sin and Enslaved to God

You shall be holy, it is written, for I am holy. And so as we talk about freedom, we need to talk about Romans chapter 6. And what true freedom, the freedom that Jesus came to provide when he says, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, is that he is going to set us free from the shackles of sin and bring us to the ultimate position of servitude or slavery. And that’s to be slaves of Jesus Christ. And we need his guidance. We need to be hemmed in by his teaching and his example. We need those restraints in our lives. They are for our betterment. They are our crutches that we need to get along in life. If removed, our weaknesses will take over.

In Romans chapter 6, as a result of being baptized, and we talked about this passage last week, being baptized in the name of Jesus, individuals rise to walk in newness of life. And he says, You’ve got to consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. You don’t want to be slaves to sin. That’s awful. That’s a terrible condition. Now you are slaves of Christ. Okay, you change one form of slavery for another. You’re always in bondage to something, remember that. But let me tell you something about being a slave of Christ. What’s the benefit of those things? Well, the benefit of being a slave of sin is death, he says in verse 21. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit.

Sanctification. Set apart the holy service for God, resulting in sanctification, I tell you, and that’s just the beginning. And the outcome of that is eternal life. And so I simply want to make the observation, young people. What Jesus offers us is enlivening. It makes us alive. It’s ennobling, it exalts our lives, it enriches our life. You see, the freedom God gives is the freedom to let you be all that God designed you to be. When He created you. Bob Bartlett was an Arctic explorer. On one of his expeditions to the Arctic, he came back with all kinds of birds and had them in cages. And on this voyage home on the ship, one of the birds got free from the cage, and boom, off he went.

5. The True Fetters

Hours later, the bird comes back and flops on the deck, is exhausted and tired. There was only one way to freedom. And it was that ship. There was no place. What the bird thought was a prison was actually a haven of safety. And the way to a new place. Only God can take you safely across in this voyage of life. Don’t fly away from his haven thinking I’ve been set free to something better. Because you have it. And that takes me to the true fetters or the true chains. I’ve loved Psalm 2 for a long time. As the nations devise a vain thing, the psalmist says in Psalm 2, and say to the Lord and to his anointed, which by reference would be Jesus Himself. And ultimately, this Psalm says, pay homage to the Son while there’s time and opportunity.

Give him his proper due and respect, because he’s going to judge. He says, I have installed my king upon Zion. But here’s what these individuals do who set themselves against God. They say, Let us cast their cords away from us. Let us tear their fetters off. And that’s how often people look at the restrictions of righteousness. Let us do away with God’s fetters and cords. Adam Clark quotes Bishop Horne in his commentary on Psalm 2. He says, We may see the ground of opposition, namely the unwillingness of rebellious nature to submit to the obligations of divine laws. Which cross the interests. I like that. It cross the interests. And lay a restraint on the desires of men. Corrupt affections are the most inveterate enemies of Christ.

And their language is, we will not have this man to reign over us. Doctrines and I like this. Doctrines would be readily believed if they involved in them no precepts. The church may be tolerated in the world if she will only give up her discipline. That is certainly the sentiment. Let us cast their fetters away from. If there’s just no precepts in it, then I’ll buy into it. Another source commented, let us not submit, they say, to this new king who pretends to reign by divine authority, resolutely deny to be bound to his obedience and throw off the yoke which he and his ministers would impose upon us. And I just got to tell you, I have felt like that so many times in 30 years of preaching.

Tony’s yoke. After all, it’s not my yoke. It’s what the New Testament teaches. Jesus Himself called it a yoke in Matthew chapter 11, but he says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And yet some people look at, well, he’s just throwing a yoke on us. I want to be free from that yoke. But remember, are you really free? Free to do what? Slaves of sin? Do you really want the outcome of that when the outcome is death? Free and unshackled. That’s the motto. But again, no freedom is absolute. Freedom as we might like it to be an illusion. It’s not a choice between total freedom and total slavery. It’s whose slave you are. And as the song Born to Be Wild suggests, we can climb so high that I never want to die.

But sorry, worship three times a week, you people. That’s a lot. Maybe I can get the Bible just once a week. But that’s what people think. Worship three times a week. And gospel meetings to boot. Self-control. How can you get anybody to buy into that? Self-denial, self-sacrifice, serving others. People generally look at those things as shackles. Those are fetters. I don’t want that. I want to be free to do what I want. Lay on my recliner, watch my TV all day long until my brains fall out on the floor, and they will if you watch TV. I don’t want to work at worship, and you have to work at worship. I don’t want to be disciplined and sit there and listen while this guy goes on again, imposing all these rules about how to live that I really don’t want.

This stuff, that’s fetters. Let me tell you about these fetters. Let me tell you what they do for us. Look at the strength they give us. Look at the character that they build. Look at how others are helped. Look at the fellowship that we have with God and his people and the promise of immortality. That’s what Romans 6 is telling us. If you learn to exercise self-control, there is strength there. That’s true strength. It is weakness to succumb. Anyone can buy the alcoholic drink. Anybody can click on the porn page. Strength is resistance. And being good soldiers of Jesus Christ. This isn’t in shackling to us, this is true freedom. This is what makes you special to God. A chosen nation. A holy people. A people for God’s own possession.

6. It Was for Freedom That Christ Set Us Free

That we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. These young people, older people, these are not shackles. This is true, born to be free. Free from the slavery of sin and the emptiness and futility that goes with it. To truly live our life for something that is great and the tentacles of which reach into eternity. And pleasures beyond description. I want to conclude this morning by talking to you briefly about Galatians chapter 5. Really, you need to talk about the whole book, but in Galatians 5 and verse 1, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Paul says.

And now in the context, he’s talking about the law of Moses, partly. And a bondage that could not provide justification. Don’t go back to that law. You’re in something better now. It was for freedom, real freedom, that Christ set us free. And then he goes on to say, for you were called to freedom, brethren. Do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. But through love serve one another. Again, no freedom is absolute. Jesus didn’t come to give us freedom to then do whatever we want. And that’s how some people started looking at grace and freedom. Freedom to commit immorality. And he says, no. And he goes on to say in verses 15 through 21 that this freedom does not coincide with catering to the desires of the flesh.

The desires of the flesh are opposed to the desires of the spirit. He said, We are liberated to pursue the spirit-led life. The fruit of the Spirit is. What is the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5? This is what we are free to pursue that makes our lives richer and better and deeper. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law or restriction. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. That’s what the prodigal son needed to learn. And I conclude in 2 Peter 2. I couldn’t talk about freedom without talking about this passage. The false teachers who influence people with great swelling words.

Verse 19. For by what a man is overcome, by this he has, by this he is enslaved. For if they have escaped the defilements of the world, by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled. The last state is worse than the first. It’s like a dog returning to its own vomit, or a sow to wallowing in the mire. The sow might feel right at home in the mud. But it’s mud nonetheless.

Conclusion

Don’t get comfortable in the mire of sin. The illusion of freedom. Let me tell you. When you say this religion thing, I just don’t know if I want that. This obedience to Jesus Christ, having him as my master, the restrictions that go with that. I just don’t know if I want to sign up for that.

You have bought Satan’s illusion. And don’t fail to hear the clanking sound of the real chains that go with it. I’m free.

Unless you’re free in Christ. To be the person that God designed you to be when he made man and made woman in his image. Have you been set free by the blood of Christ? If you come to your senses, like the prodigal son did, and realize that in the Father’s house is where all real blessings are, and from which they flow. And would you embrace his provisions of salvation? You shall know the truth, the truth shall make you free. Can we help you to do that while we stand and sing this morning?