“ How We Can Remain Free” CD No.______Time: 7/ 4/ 2010 11 am Text: John 8: 31,32 - www.coolspringsbaptist.org ------Introduction: John 8: 31-Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. 32 –And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
When Jesus said, and ye shall know the truth- He was taking about the scripture or the word of God.
So, we can amplify this verse to say, And ye shall know the scripture or the word of God, and the word of God shall set you free.
Today, we are celebrating the 4th of July which is about independence or freedom. When people came to America it was because they wanted their independence or freedom, especially to worship.
Today, I am going to preach a message a little different than I normally do. I normally preach expository messages where we look at all the truths from one passage.
Today, I want to take the word FREE and preach a message on it. My title is, “How Can We Remain Free?” I want to take each letter that makes up the word FREE.
I. The First Letter Is “F”
Now, there are many words that start with “F”, but I just want to deal with one, “Family”.
If we are going to remain FREE in America, we must get back to the basis concerning the family.
1 | P a g e One of the main things is to have a Christian “Family” and allow the word of God to guide us in making decisions in the home.
The First decision is: A Christian is to marry a Christian. 2 Cor. 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? Etc. on the importance
The Second thing is for the married couple to follow God’s plan in the home. Eph. 5: 23 –For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church.- Etc. on rank in the home. Not only is the husband to be the head, the spiritual leader, he is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. Eph. 5:25 –Husbands , love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. Now we come to the wife- Eph. 5: 22 –Wives submit yourselves unto your own husband, as unto the Lord. Etc. on- as unto the Lord
The third thing is: after a couple gets married and start raising a family they are to go to God’s instructions in raising their Children. Proverbs 22: 6 – Train a child up in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Etc. on these truths especially the word train- and the promise we have in this text.
Ephesians 6: 4 – And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Etc. On Provoke not- and bring them up- nurture-admonition.
When the home fails in America, then America will fail. This is our main problem in America now. Real homes that have Godly parents who raise their children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord are getting rare.
When people first come to America, the biggest majority of homes were based on the word of God. They went to church and raised their family in Church.
2 | P a g e Now, there is a reversal, instead of a majority going to church as they started out in America, now a big, big majority of families never go to church. If America is going to remain free, we have got to get back to the basis of raising our family in the church.
II. The Second Letter Is “R”
The 2nd letter in the word FREE is “R”. There are many words that we could talk about, but I just want to mention one and that is the word Righteousness.
If America is to remain free, the people of American must live righteous lives and we know from what we see and hear that is not the case.
The big, big majority of American does not live righteous lives. God still punishes unrighteousness. Turn in your Bible to the book of Romans chapter one. We will start off with Romans 1: 18 –For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth of unrighteousness.
God punished unrighteous then and He still does today. God does this in an unusually way. Lets read Romans 1: 24-Whereas God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Did you notice the words “GAVE THEM UP?”
Now, Romans 1: 26- For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Now. V.27-And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their heart lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. This is talking about the Homosexual and Lesbians. Now to V. 28-And even as they did not like to retain knowledge in their knowledge,
3 | P a g e God gave them over to a reprobate[ degenerate-good for nothing]mind, to do those things which are not convenient.
One might say why doesn’t God judge and destroy them now like he did Sodom and Gomorrah? Answer: God is judging now, He is turning them over to a reprobate mind to do what they want to do.
God turns man over to man. When we don’t want God to govern and run our lives, he will let us run our own lives to our own destruction.
This is what God is doing today. We have ruled Him out of the school house, the white house, and our homes so we are reaping the consequences now with our economy. Greed and covetousness has just about destroyed America.
As bad as homosexuality & lesbians behavior are, there are some more bad behavior listed that we want to skip over, but God lists them in the grouping with the homosexuals and Lesbians to let us know how bad they are.
Look at verses: V.29 – 32- Read- Now elaborate List of sins in these verses: Fornication - V.29 Covetousness- V.29 Envy- V.29 Debate- V.29 Deceit- V.29 Whispers- V.29 Backbiters- V.30 Despiteful- V.30 Proud- V.30 Boasters- V.30
4 | P a g e Disobedient to parents- V.30 Covenant-breakers- V.30 Without natural affectionate- V.30 Unmerciful- V. 30
Now, I skipped a few for the sake of time. The Point is: God will not only judge unrighteousness in the lives of homosexuals and lesbians, but Christian who commits the sins listed in V.29 through 30.
All the sins listed sounds like modern day America in the year 2010.
Again, when we govern our lives instead of letting God, God will let us live our lives to our own destruction.
American needs to get back to living righteous lives if it wants to remain FREE.
III. The Third Letter Is ‘E”
There are many words we can use, but I want to focus on the word EVANGELISM.
If America is to remain a FREE nation we need to get back to evangelism and winning lost souls.
There are fewer and fewer people getting saved in the day that we live. The great commission from Christ was winning Souls.
Matthew 28: 19 –Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy ghost.20 – teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
5 | P a g e We are To Evangelize them and then we are to educate them concerning living their lives based on the principles of God’s word.
This will cause American to remain FREE!!!!
American is falling apart because people are not being saved and having their lives changed which will cause them to live better lives because their lives will be governed by word of God.
IV. The Fourth Letter Is “E”
The fourth word I want to use is establishment. We could also use the Greek word ekklesia which is the Greek word for church.
The synonym for establishment is organization, enterprise, institution.
I want to talk about an organization and institution that God founded and created and establish which is the greatest institution and organization in the world and that is the CHURCH.
Matthew 16: 18 –and I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter [ petros, a stone], and upon this rock[petra-a large rock] ] I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus had given Simon the name Peter which means stone. Ever who believes in Jesus Christ and confesses Him as the Son and God and Savior, is a living stone.[ 1 Peter 2:5]
6 | P a g e Jesus Christ is the foundation rock on which the church is built. { Ps.118:22; Isa. 28:16}
Paul stated that the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ.{ 1 Cor.3:11}
The word church is mentioned 114 times in the New Testament. Ninety times it has reference to the local church.(assembly)
I want to mention two things pertaining to the church.
A. The Foundation Of The Church- already mentioned-Jesus Christ B. The Function Of The Church
One Of The Main Functions Is To Worship God. God has been good to us all week and we come to worship Him and Praise Him for his goodness.
Another function of the church is being a refuge. During the week we are living in a hostile world that is anti God and Christians. During the week, we face the storms of life and coming to church can be a refreshing time for a child of God. It is our refuge to get us charged up and be encouraged to go out and be lights in a dark world.
Another function of the church is to expound the word of God. The word of God preached can show us the error of our way. The preached word can encourage us from all of God’s promises that are true, especially the one about Jesus’ 2nd coming. The word of God can exhort us and get us stimulated to be better Christians.
These functions and many more for the Christian are important. However, I want to close by saying that the church should be what it was intended to be. It is important to use the church as a refuge and be
7 | P a g e encouraged, but the standards of God’s word still should be preached without fear or favor of man.
We are living in a day when there are not too many conservative churches around. We have got to the point that we are afraid that we will offend someone if we teach, preach, and live out the word in our lives in this ungodly society. Etc. on these truths-
Conclusion: “ How Can We Remain Free”
Back to our text in John 8: 32- Jesus speaking- And ye shall know the truth[ scripture], and the truth[ word of God] shall make you free.
F – Godly families can cause us to remain free-
R – Living righteous lives can cause us to remain free-
E – Evangelizing sinners can cause us to remain free- ( new lives)
E – The establishment of the true Church if it functions right can cause us to remain free.
8 | P a g e