True Freedom - Complexes and Hidden Causes of Bondage

[00:00:00] Turn in the New Testament to the letter to the Galatians. The galatian letter galatian letter, chapter five. [00:00:18] The galatian letter, chapter five. From verse one. [00:00:24] Reading the revised version, the standard version for freedom did Christ set us free. [00:00:31] Stand fast, therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. [00:00:39] Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law, ye are fallen away from grace. For we, through the spirit, by faith, wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love, ye were running well. [00:01:19] Who hindered you, that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion came not of him that calleth you a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. [00:01:34] I have confidence to you, ward in the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded. But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then hath the stumbling block of the cross been done away? [00:01:55] I would that they that unsettle you would even go beyond circumcision. [00:02:01] For ye, brethren, were called for freedom only. Use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. [00:02:14] For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. [00:02:23] But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. [00:02:31] But I say, walk by the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary, the one to the other, that ye may not do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, wrath, factions, division, parties envying, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you. That they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. [00:03:37] But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self control. [00:03:56] Against such there is no law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof. If we live by the spirit, by the spirit, let us also walk. Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another. [00:04:25] Last week we took up again a little more fully this matter, which I first broached on a Sunday morning a week or two ago, as to what true freedom is. [00:04:43] And you will remember that last week we spoke principally of five things from which we have been freed by the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross, by what he has done for us at Calvary. We have freedom from sin, freedom from. From self, freedom from Satan, freedom from this world, and freedom from fear, a glorious fivefold freedom. Well, now, we spoke about that last week. I'm not going to go over that again. [00:05:40] And we spoke not only of a freedom from those five things, but we spoke of a freedom for five things. And this is just as important. [00:05:53] There is a teaching which seems to just only stress the fact that we are free from certain things, and then we are given the idea that it's just a kind of permissive society. [00:06:08] We're free to live a selfish kind of life, free to live a life that knows no discipline, free just to do what we think we ought to do and so on and so forth. But no, we have been freed for five things again. [00:06:28] At least we've bought them under five headings. [00:06:32] Freedom to serve the Lord. [00:06:38] Let my people go, that they may serve me. [00:06:43] Freedom not to please myself, but freedom to serve the Lord, to do the will of God from the heart, and to do the will of God joyfully. That kind of freedom, that's the freedom the Lord Jesus has purchased for us. That freely, voluntarily, with joy from the heart, though it cost me much, I do the will of God. I don't just talk about it. I don't just sing about it. I don't even just play about it. I am obedient to the will of God, freedom to own his allegiance, that he might be Lord in my life, in everything, to acknowledge him in all my ways. That kind of freedom. Some people are bound by some iron grip, some hand, icy hand, that though they are born of God, though they've been converted, yet somehow they cannot make him Lord, they cannot do the will of God. [00:07:52] This is a lie. [00:07:56] The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ means that we've been freed to serve the Lord. And once I take God's side against even myself, that power is broken. You can be free just as quickly as you want to be. It's as simple as that. No need to stay in bondage at all. This is something that was done 2000 years ago. You are as bound as you allow yourself to be. You are as free as you want to be. [00:08:32] Freedom to serve the Lord. Well, we talked about that. Freedom to lay down one's life for the Lord and for others. That was the freedom the Lord Jesus had when the Holy Spirit came upon him in the waters of his baptism, when he committed himself to the work of Calvary. It was to liberate the Lord Jesus so that for three years he lived a crucified life. [00:08:56] Calvary was not something that was just a kind of climax to three years of ministry. The Lord Jesus lived a crucified life and proved it in the most severe test of all in three years of incessant crime, crowded public ministry. [00:09:18] The freedom you and I have is to fall into the ground and die. [00:09:23] The freedom you and I have is to accept the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the educational discipline of the Holy Spirit, to be able, as we sang willingly, to throw away self's wearies, weary liberties, and to become the Lord in a way that could mean fellowship in his suffering, that could mean filling up what is left of the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake. The church, a ministry of travail, hidden, unknown, unseen. That kind of freedom, the freedom that means a person's not free just to be an exhibitionist, displaying their gifts, displaying their talents, drawing attention to themselves, seeking somehow or other to be something amongst the people of God, but rather to be nothing. Free to be nothing. Free to be anything. If God wants you to be nothing, you're free to. To be nothing, really free. Now, do you know such a freedom? Do I really? The freedom where it's ready to accept such a. Such a thing from the Lord or free to be anything. Some of us are free to be some things, but not anything. [00:10:49] That the Lord is absolutely sovereign in this matter. He has set in the body such and such, such, such and such, such and such and such and such, right down to the smallest, most insignificant, seemingly the most small and insignificant functions he has set in the body. [00:11:09] Not man appointed, not engineered, not produced by a Bible college or theological seminary, but by the Lord himself. Sovereignly. [00:11:21] Freedom to lay down one's life. We may talk about the words of the Lord. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except to queen, if we fall into the ground and die, it abideth by itself alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life the same loseth it. And he that loseth his life for my sake and the gospels the same shall find it. [00:11:48] He that serveth me my father will honour, and where I am, there shall my servant be also. [00:11:58] I don't think that just referred to the future, you know. It means that if we're free to fall into the ground and die, we find ourselves spontaneously, automatically in the throne with the Lord. The moment a person is free to die in any given situation, that moment, they're raining. [00:12:18] Now, we don't always feel that. We're often struggling to get on top of a situation, struggling somehow or other to keep our head above it. When all the Lord is saying, just die. Fall into the ground in this situation and die in it the moment you can. You've got that kind of freedom, that moment you're where your master is, you're with him in the throne. You're learning the secret. [00:12:42] Well, we've talked quite a bit about that freedom to be changed into his image. [00:12:48] Oh, we all sing of it with a smile on our face about being changed. And we all like the thought that in the twinkling of an eye, we're going to be changed. It just thrills us to think that one day, in the twinkling of an eye, these bodies of ours are going to be changed. But when it comes to it, how few of us really want to be changed? [00:13:18] So much of our problem, so much of our difficulty, is just the fact that having been saved, we're a little afraid after a while that the Lord might take steps to really change us. And as I said last week, many of us are like the hermit crab that has got so used to its shell that it doesn't really want to be parted anymore. [00:13:45] We've somehow or other got used to the parasites that are living on us, sucking our lifeblood and so on. And when it actually comes to it, we don't want to be delivered from them. But it's freedom to be changed. [00:14:06] If the Lord wants to do something in your life, then you're going to cooperate with him. That kind of freedom, not as I fear sometimes people want some kind of experience to carry them above and beyond a situation in their life which would otherwise require a basic change in them that will always land us in something mixed or counterfeit. [00:14:38] Because truth, the truth of the matter is we've got to face realities about ourselves, about our condition, and about the root causes of it. [00:14:49] When we're prepared to face that kind of reality, about ourselves, about our condition, then the Lord and meet us in an altogether new way. [00:15:00] Freedom to be changed. And fourthly, freedom to be oneself in Christ. [00:15:09] To be oneself in Christ. How many of our problems come from the simple fact that we are not ourselves? Well, we talked about that last week. You will remember I read in the new English Bible the whole story of death, David and Goliath. And that wonderful account of how Saul tried to drape him up in his own tunic. And then the coat of mail on him. And then that huge sword which he strapped on the young David. And David hesitated for a moment, but swallowed and allowed the king to do it. But afterwards he said, excuse me, sir, I haven't tried this. Do you mind if I go without it? The fact of the matter is, David had got to be himself, not Saul. [00:15:58] David had to be a shepherd boy at that point. A shepherd boy with God. [00:16:05] Not a shepherd boy trying to be the king with God. And because he was prepared and ready to be absolutely, absolutely himself. And what he was himself, God was with him and wrought a great victory that day for the people of God. So it is with us. We need to be ourselves. Now, of course, this is, as I said last week, no excuse for the kind of talk that you sometimes hear, oh, well, that's me. [00:16:41] Someone's lost their temper. Someone's got irritable. Someone's been nasty. Someone's made some horrible, malicious, deep. [00:16:53] And when it's sort of pointed out, well, that's me. [00:16:59] Well, we're very sorry for that. And if that's you, and if that's me, it needs something, needs to be done. [00:17:08] So simple as that. You never get away with anything like that. People mix up two things here. Your temperament will always remain your temperament. If you are a melancholic, youll be a melancholic. And if youre a choleric, youll be a choleric. And if youre something else, youll be something else. God saves you, and he doesnt change your temper, temperament or hed change your personality. Oh, no. God loves you for what you are. Every one of us is different. Like the blades of grass, we're all different. And if we were to all change in that way, a dull uniformity would come about. That's not what God wants. He wants a James, he wants a john, he wants a peter, he wants a poor. He wants these people who are empty, absolutely different temperamentally. But that's altogether different to something which is wrong or a failure in one's life which is just being put up under the excuse that that's me. No, to be yourself in Christ is simply to be yourself in Christ. [00:18:24] That's why we said first it was to be changed into his image. No, it's to be yourself in question. Don't inflate yourself. Don't pretend that you're up there when you're down here. [00:18:37] You know, sort of pray, very wonderful voice, sort of thing, like the archbishop of Canterbury feel somehow or other this is getting you away with something in the company of God's people. Be yourself. [00:18:54] Don't put on airs. Don't try to pretend that you're something that you're not. If there's a little of Christ, let that little of Christ come to the surface. If there's more of Christ, the more that there is of Christ, come to the service. But don't try to be what you are. Not be like David. Don't go out draped in Saul's tunic and coat of mail and an enormous sword that will only trip you up when you've gone a little way strapped around your middle. [00:19:23] But go out with your five little stones that you have picked from the brook and your sling that I don't suppose has always been used for always for good things. I think that the new english Bible rendering of the eldest brothers, you impudent young rascal. [00:19:49] Is a very interesting little window into the young David. [00:19:54] I have a fear that the sling had been used sometimes for some other things. Nevertheless, it was a sling which was David's own. [00:20:06] And when the lion had come and the bear had come and other things had come, he trusted the Lord and used what was his own. How wonderful that is to be oneself in Christ. Well, now, those are four things. Now, the last point we didn't say so much about freedom to glorify God. Freedom to glorify God. Let's look at a scripture. First of all, one Peter and chapter four and verse eleven. [00:20:47] The apostle Paul is speaking about all different kinds of functions and aspects of our life together. And then he says in 111, if any man speaketh, speaking as it were, oracles of God, if any man ministereth, ministering as of the strength which God supplieth, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the dominion forever and ever, that in all things the Lord Jesus may be glorified. Oh, for that kind of freedom, a freedom that means that God is glorified in my life. Not only that, those invisible forces glorify God because of what they see happening in my life, hidden as well as public, but a glorifying of God on the part of others as they see something in me or in you of Christ. [00:21:48] We are told that even the world can glorify God. We're told in Matthew, chapter five, and verse 16. And these are the words of the Lord Jesus himself. He said, let neither do men light a lamp and put it under the bushel. Verse 15. But on the stand, and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. Would not be tremendous if in every unsaved home represented in this room, if in every office, if in every school, if in every college, men and women were seeing the works of God, our good works, and were glorifying God so often they dont see that. And the world is very astute and very shrewd and has nothing to lose. [00:22:53] It therefore, can pick out points, failings in us which are only too true and which we christians so often hide under the matter of being persecuted for the Lord's namesake. [00:23:10] This isn't always true. It is true that we're speckled birds, that somehow we're going against the stream. But how often the world, with its shrewdness and its worldly wise wisdom, sees through something only too clearly. Freedom to glorify God. Oh, for a freedom like that. It says in psalm 9017. [00:23:40] Psalm 9017. [00:23:43] And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon. Upon us and establish thou the work of our hands. Upon us. Yea, the work of our hands. Establish thou it. I have always felt that the mark of the Holy Spirit's coming upon any man or woman. The indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ in any man or woman must be that the beauty of the Lord our God is upon them, that somehow or other there is something which just touches you and makes you. In spite of the fact that there's an earthen vessel, in spite of the fact that you come up against the earthen vessel. Yet you see there the beauty of the Lord our God in that life. [00:24:25] Moses put it like that. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. [00:24:33] And then again, in Philippians, chapter one, the apostle Paul put it in another way. Philippians, chapter one, verse 21. [00:24:47] For to me to live is Christ. Well, I think verse 20 will read according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I've always loved that the apostle Paul was seeing through something. What he was really saying was, to live for me is Christ. To die is to get more from Christ. [00:25:25] Just as simple as that. To live is Christ, to die more of Christ. [00:25:33] But his concern wasn't just otherworldly. His concern was that the Lord Jesus might be magnified in his body. Freedom to glorify God, that is, in your conduct. [00:25:46] Not just when we're meeting together, but in your conduct, your behavior, your whole appearance, everything about you, inwardly, outwardly, something that glorifies God. The freedom to allow God to get rid of anything that doesn't glorify him. [00:26:08] That's the kind of freedom we need. [00:26:12] We read in psalm 50 and verse 23. [00:26:22] Psalm 50 23. Whoso offereth the sacrifice of praise glorifieth me and prepareth away that I may show him my salvation. [00:26:39] Isn't that wonderful? Whoso offereth the sacrifice of praise glorifieth me. [00:26:47] Oh, for a life of worship. [00:26:51] If you've gone any way with the Lord, one of the things that must surely be in you is a hunger for real worship, to really break through the sort of outer shell that holds so much in where you feel that there's a kind of shell that is a bondage. You want to break through it so that you can really worship the Lord. Well, now, we'll never be completely free of that because that's exactly what the apostle Paul says, that this is why we groan in ourselves, waiting for our redemption, the first fruits, the redemption of our bodies. It's going to come, but, oh, it is a wonderful thing to be able to glorify the Lord by a life of worship. [00:27:39] Do you know that when you worship the Lord, you prepare a way for God to show you his deliverance? [00:27:46] Remember that some people say, I cannot. I cannot worship the Lord. I cannot praise him until I'm out of this mess, until he's delivered me out of this. But you see, it's the devil. It's so simple. By breathing that little lie into your heart's, effectively stopping you from coming through. And if you were to praise the Lord just where you are, it says, says here, whoso offereth the sacrifice of praise glorifieth me and prepareth a way that I may show him the salvation of God or the deliverance of God, you are preparing a way for the Lord to meet you. [00:28:21] Oh, so much more, of course, that we could say here all the way through, everywhere we turn, it's this matter of glory, of being glorified, glorifying God. God being glorified. [00:28:37] In Exodus chapter 33, verse 18, Moses, after some of the most extraordinary experiences recorded in the whole Bible, says, show me, I pray thee, thy glory. [00:29:00] You would have thought he'd seen the glory of God in one sense. But he said, show me, I pray thee, my glory. That's the mark of a true man of God. The more he sees of the Lord, the more he wants to see. [00:29:14] And I can't help feeling, oh, that we were free to be that kind of person. Not just harking back to something that's happened, but all always pressing on. For that glorifies God. [00:29:28] I think of in this same book in Exodus three and verse two, where God, the angel of the Lord, appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. That's the kind of freedom I want to be. Just an old dried up thorn bush aflame and a fire with the glory of God. [00:29:58] That kind of freedom, five freedoms. [00:30:03] Freedom from sin, freedom from self, freedom from Satan, freedom from this world, freedom from fear, freedom to serve the Lord, freedom to lay down one's life for the Lord and for others. Freedom to be changed into his image, freedom to be oneself in Christ, freedom to glorify God. [00:30:37] Well, then that leads me to ask a further question. [00:30:44] What then? In what way can we know this freedom? How does it come? [00:30:52] I suppose all of us in some measure or another have no advantage. [00:30:57] Is there one single Christian who from the very start of their christian life has known nothing else but freedom? [00:31:07] It seems as if once we are children of God, once we've been born of God, then all around us there are these pressures to bring us back into bondage, bring us back into bondage to entangle us again. That's exactly what the apostle said in the passage we read in Galatians, chapter five. Be not entangled again in a yoke. Bondage, that's one of the enemy's big lines of attack to somehow bring us back into bondage. And a yoke, now a yoke is an interesting thing because it means that once a yoke's on you, you can be steered. [00:31:51] Now that's a frightening thought. [00:31:54] So once the yoke of bondage is entangled again in it you can be steered. By whom, may I ask? [00:32:03] It's a good question. [00:32:05] Who then is going to steer us? Not the Lord. [00:32:10] This is the yoke of bondage. [00:32:13] His yoke is light. [00:32:20] Is it therefore possible for a child of God who has been saved and knows the yoke of Christ without hardly knowing it, to exchange that yoke for a yoke of bondage? [00:32:37] If it is not possible, why does the apostle say, stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again? [00:32:52] Entangled. What a word. [00:32:56] Entangled in a yoke of bondage. [00:33:05] How then can we know this freedom? How can we experience. [00:33:12] I say again, let me make it absolutely clear. If anyone thinks that they are completely and totally free and have been in a kind of drifting, careless, carefree state, I think you're very bound. [00:33:32] Very bound. [00:33:36] The fact of the matter is this, that our freedom, which has been so dearly bought for us and won for us by the Lord Jesus, is something we have to fight the good fight of faith over, and we have to lay hold on eternal life to which we've been called. It's not a question of it, just drifting along. And we're just in it, just like that. No, not at all. Not at all. That spirit of fear can come again, we're told in romans chapter eight. It's exactly what the apostle Paul says. Again, ye recede not the spirit of bondage again unto fear. [00:34:22] He says it to Timothy, who was a very fearful person. He said, you didn't receive the spirit of fearfulness. [00:34:32] But. And then he speaks of it. Spirit, power, love, and of a sound, mind balanced mind. [00:34:44] Well, now then, how can we know this freedom? Listen carefully. [00:34:49] First and foremost, let us come back to something which is so familiar that it is dangerous. [00:34:56] Our familiarity is the danger, not the truth. [00:35:00] The truth is dangerous to Satan. [00:35:06] Here it is. [00:35:08] Christ has set us free, not will has set us free. [00:35:16] Mark and Mark again and underline and emphasize as much as you can the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has set us free. [00:35:28] It is not something he will do, it's something he has done. [00:35:33] And the whole of the New Testament rings with this clarion note of authority. [00:35:39] It's done. [00:35:41] That's why the apostle is at pains to keep on saying, look, you've not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Here again, it is in this passage that we are not to be entangled again in a yoke of bondage. [00:36:06] Compare it with verse 13 of Galatians five. For ye brethren, were called for freedom. [00:36:17] You've been called into freedom. Christ has set you free. On what does this freedom rest on the finished work of Jesus Christ. Now, is there any person in this room who is a child of God, who does not believe that the Lord Jesus work is finished? [00:36:35] If there is one of you who believes that his work is not finished, you are not a child of God. [00:36:44] His work is finished. We know it's finished. That's one of the great things. [00:36:48] We know it's finished. [00:36:51] It's a historic fact. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, he cried out, finished. Done, done. Finished. [00:37:03] And furthermore, the Lord Jesus Christ has been glorified. [00:37:07] That is, the Father has fully and completely vindicated the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who is the saviour of us all. [00:37:18] Thirdly, the Holy Spirit has been outpoured. [00:37:22] Who obtained the promise of the Holy Spirit? Not you. Not me. Our hands were sinful. Not the apostle Paul, not Peter. Even if he had stolen, locked the keys of the kingdom, he didn't get it. All of us have sinful hands. Who obtained the promise of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and received the promise of the Father and poured forth the Holy Spirit. So there's something in that pouring forth for every single one of us. [00:38:01] There's your portion. My portion? In that pouring forth. Why? Because in the great foreknowledge and wisdom of God, he knew every one of us by name. And in the pouring forth, there was something for every one of us. You remember when 120 were gathered in the upper room? When the Holy Spirit came at the outward sign of that pouring forth from heaven, there was light fire coming to the old dried up bushes. [00:38:33] Disillusioned, disappointed, collected together now they were. But they had no trust in their own resources any more. The old Peter. I'll die with you. [00:38:44] Had it all gone. Dried up, dead old thorn bush he was now. And the fire was coming. And when the fire fell, it parted. And there was a flame of fire that rested on every single one of 120. Not even a husband and wife shared one flame. Everyone had a cloven tongue of flame. [00:39:08] Now, you may not know it, but when God did that, there was a cloven tongue of fire for every one of us. [00:39:18] There's not a single child of God in the whole history of the church and those yet to be born of God. That there was not a tongue of fire for it's dumb now. That doesn't mean we can just rest back to. Oh, well, marvelous. Marvelous. But I'm not feeling it at all. I don't know it. In my experience, you've got to possess what is yours? That's the whole point. This familiarity with these truths, of the thing that destroys everything. [00:39:47] But don't make a mistake on tenses in this matter. It's not something that God has got to do. It's something he's done. You've got to possess your inheritance. I've got to possess my inheritance. It's done. Now this freedom has been won for you. So look here. You could go up the steps of St Peter's on your knees and kiss every step a hundred times. And you wouldn't be one whit nearer to getting free. [00:40:18] You could run round and round and round Richmond with a placard saying, prepare to meet thy God. [00:40:26] And you won't be one whit nearer to being free. [00:40:30] You can serve the Lord with tears day and night from your own working, your own energy, and you won't be one whit nearer freedom. [00:40:43] Why? Because it doesn't rest on your works. Although God wants our work when it's the work of God in us. [00:40:51] But it doesn't rest on your work. It rests on something far more wonderful. It rests on the work of the Lord, Lord Jesus Christ. It's done. Now, the moment you and I start to see that Christ has won freedom from me, whatever my circumstances, whatever my temperament, whatever my background, however many problems and difficulties I've got, that moment I see that the Lord Jesus has died and won my freedom from these things. That moment the Holy Spirit can come and start to make it a reality. [00:41:25] So the first thing is to get absolutely clear. Don't sit there in a kind of dull, heavy state thing. Oh, it's all very well for him to talk up there. It just doesn't work. [00:41:39] But over eyes to see that the Lord has won it for you. [00:41:45] Now, if the Lord could win freedom for the apostle Paul, when breathing out fire and slaughter, he was on his way to Damascus to hound the Christians into prison. [00:42:00] If the Lord could not only meet him, turn him upside down, but free him from a traditionalism and a formalism that was in the man's bones, what can he not do for you? [00:42:18] Paul goes to a catalogue of things which, generally speaking, would mean that the man would be beyond the power of anything or anyone to change. In Philippians three, he speaks of his jewish blood, of his being of the tribe, of Benjamin. He speaks of him being a pharisee of the Pharisees about his law keeping business and all the rest of it, and how zealous he was. All these things bind people, but got freedom from the mouth. Listen to the apostle. [00:42:52] What things I counted gain, I count loss for Christ. [00:42:57] I count them refuse. Used a bad word. [00:43:01] Much more than that. I I I count them as sewage, that I may go on, press on. [00:43:17] What's happened to the man? He's been freed. [00:43:20] He's been absolutely freed. [00:43:24] If God can do it for him, he can do it for you, believe me. [00:43:27] And one day when you get there and you sort of see, the apostle Paul said, well, because it was easy for you. Well, I don't suppose he would clout you, but I'm quite sure that he would say, hogwash, absolute hogwash. If there was ever a person that was bound to his fingertips, it was me. [00:43:51] The trouble with you is, or was, you didn't believe. [00:43:57] And after all I wrote, you just didn't believe. [00:44:06] It's done. A recognition of what is won for us. [00:44:11] The second thing, if we are to know this freedom, is that it is this, it is the truth which makes us free. John 832. [00:44:24] Now we know this so very well, but listen to it again. 31 32 of John eight. [00:44:33] We could have that door open. [00:44:35] I don't know if anyone else is beginning to get too warm. [00:44:39] If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples? And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Verse 37. If therefore the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Now, the second thing we've got to recognize is, first, Christ has won us. But the second thing is, it's the truth alone that frees us, not all. The recognition in the world that Christ has won our freedom will actually bring about our freedom until the truth dawns on us. What truth? [00:45:17] Now, will you please note very carefully what the Lord said? If ye abide in my word. Is that the explanation why there is so much bondage in our lives? [00:45:29] If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples? Not believers. [00:45:37] Disciple is more than a believer. [00:45:40] Then are ye my disciples. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [00:45:55] Truth abide. [00:45:58] Disciples know the truth shall make you free. [00:46:09] Abide disciple. Uh huh. I've got to go on, then. [00:46:14] I don't just sit on my haunches and say, oh, I'm free. I'm free. Because after a while, the devil would be able to come to you and say, it's all hypocrisy. [00:46:23] It's not true. You're not free. [00:46:27] Singing those hymns with all those people there. My chains fell off. [00:46:33] Nobody. Well, they haven't fallen off you. [00:46:36] He breaks the power of cancel sin. He sets the prisoner free. You're not set free. You know it. [00:46:45] Abide, disciple. [00:46:50] Knowing the truth. [00:46:52] The truth shall make you free. [00:46:56] Now, what does this really mean, truth about God? [00:47:02] How few of us realize when we first come to the Lord what warped ideas we've got about God. How sometimes it takes a lifetime for God to free us from the lies that are in us. About God out to make us miserable, out to put heavy loads upon us, out to put us through it, to grind us down. [00:47:29] The will of God is always joyless, always like a foggy, grey morning, something to be had to grip one's teeth over. [00:47:41] Oh, the lies that we've got about God to know God is glory. [00:47:48] And every time you've ever seen something more of the Lord, even if it's ever absolutely brought you down on your face before him, it's filled you with a sense of freedom, such a glorious sense of freedom. It's how you know it's the Lord. [00:48:06] You've met the Lord, you've seen what God is like. Oh, some of us have got such a small God. He's like an idol can be carried around like those idols they have in the east, where they can transport them from houses. And not only in the east, I'm afraid to say. I've seen some processions in Europe with these things draped round, I don't know what. Carried on shoulders as if an idol can do anything. [00:48:32] But sometimes our conception of God is like an idol. He can only do what we let him. He can only think what we will let him. [00:48:45] We've got a circle around him. [00:48:48] And then comes a point in our life when the truth comes upon us. Suddenly the eyes of our hearts see that God is infinite, that he's so great, that he's boundless, limitless. [00:49:03] And for the first time, we're liberated for the first time, as it says again and again in the Old Testament, and I've always loved it, they bowed their heads down to the ground. [00:49:16] What a beautiful picture that is. Always when the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle of the temple in such a way that no one. They bowed their heads down to the ground. That's what it did to them. [00:49:29] Their God, who before was just a pillar of cloud and fire, was smaller, but when he became what he was, they bow down to the ground. [00:49:44] Well, I say this because it's so important, the truth about God. Many of our problems are because we've got, we believe lies about God. They're in our bloodstream and we come to the Lord with lies about him, which then colour all our judgments and cause half our rebellion and murmuring and sort of difficulty with the Lord, our awkwardness in doing anything he wants us to do. Again, let me say, it's the truth about Christ, what he is, who he is, what he's done. We've spoken about that, so I will not spend long there. But it's the truth about him. When it dawns upon us that he's done it, and he's done everything necessary for me to be glorified in the end, everything. It's all been done when that truth dawns upon me, and when it dawns upon me that he's got the keys of death and hell in his hand, I could go on and on, freeze us. [00:50:48] The truth about his work, the truth about ourselves. [00:50:56] The truth about ourselves. Now, this I just want to dwell on for a few moments, because you may or may not know it, but it is often the truth about ourselves that finally frees us. [00:51:09] Now we come to the Lord. [00:51:12] And it's not just those of us who've got an unhappy childhood or a kind of twisted background that have complexes. [00:51:22] Complexes are unfortunately very widely distributed. [00:51:30] All kinds of people have complexes. [00:51:34] And, you know, often we don't even know that we're in the grip of a complex part of the deepest of God to free us from bondage and to bring us face to face with the complex that might be in us. [00:51:54] I wish I could say it much more clearly, but I give you a few examples, just a few examples of what I mean by a conflict, you know, at work. Or perhaps you're one of them, I don't know. [00:52:09] You're told to do something, but you can't do it. [00:52:14] You're told to do something immediately, but you won't do it immediately. So you find two or three other non essential things to do first, and then you go and do it. [00:52:26] You laugh at that. There's a very common little complex. [00:52:30] Someone's told, do so and so. Will you please do so and so? And immediately they fiddle with that. Fiddle with that. And then they go off and do it all. They say all along, I meant to do it. Of course I was going to do it. If they get told off, all right, all right, all right, I'm going to do it. It's a complex. Do you know what the complex is? The fear of imposition deep, deep down in that person's personality being, that has a terrible fear that they will lose their originality if they were immediately to do what they're told as if someone else is imposing their personality, their will, their mind on that one. [00:53:19] So what do we do? We immediately find one or two non essential things to do to protect our dignity and our originality, and then we decide to do the thing. Now, we haven't lost our originality, you see. We haven't lost. It's not an imposition now, because I've done one or two other things and now I can go and do that. [00:53:45] The job is done, tuna. That person's bound. [00:53:52] A really free person. Person can do what they're told instantly because they're free. [00:54:01] You got it? [00:54:04] There's no fear of imposition, there's no possibility of it. The person's free. [00:54:11] So if someone says, would you do that to me? Yes, certainly do. I think, do it because the person's free. [00:54:19] They've got no complexity. [00:54:21] What? A lot of teamwork is destroyed by this kind of complex. I mean, not just christian work, I mean. I mean non christian work. Just by this simple little complex. There's an example of a complex. Here's another one. [00:54:38] Any new move of any kind and immediate opposition, you know the kind of thing. They're going to change the whole office round, put the desks on this side, put the lights over there and immediately. Oh, it can't be right. I mean, with. I mean, you don't get the light here in the right way over there and so on and all the great kerfuffle about it. [00:55:08] Now, what is the complex? [00:55:11] The complex is quite simple. [00:55:14] There's a basic insecurity and a terrible fear of change, because for that person, everything being where it's always been means security. [00:55:28] As soon as it's changed, they feel insecure. [00:55:32] Now, you take this over into the work of God and every time the spirit of God does anything, immediately, people are, whoa, careful. [00:55:45] And instead of being free to say, now, is this the Lord or is it not? They follow and become self appointed guardians. [00:55:52] Now then, be careful. [00:55:58] I remember, I think I mentioned it a while ago how once God met us in a prayer meeting, and my word, he didn't, we very rarely ever talked about it, but he met us at that, that night, and a brother jumped up and said, oh, God is here, we will close the meeting and go home. [00:56:28] An awfully good excuse he made. Unfortunately, he happened to be one of the leaders. [00:56:33] The lawful good excuse he made. He said, if it's of God, it would go on at home. [00:56:40] Now, don't get any idea. People weren't rolling all around the floor and sort of screaming their heads off. But it was as if a ball of fire had gone right round the whole room. [00:56:51] Didn't touch this, brother. [00:56:54] She was terrified, absolutely terrified. [00:57:06] Complex. [00:57:09] I'll give you another example of a complex, the kind of person who never admits a mistake. [00:57:16] Now, this is a common one. [00:57:18] Never admit a mistake. [00:57:22] Doesn't matter what happens, how obvious and apparent it is to everyone else. So and so has not made a mistake. [00:57:32] It is explained away entirely by the circumstances, the pressures, the situation, by so and so, so and so and so and so who spoke this and said this? Misunderstanding here, misunderstanding there. Maybe there was a little bit of misinterpretation, blah, blah, blah. And now it's not a mistake, though. [00:57:53] And when people are face to face with something which is absolutely, clearly a mistake, what they say is when they're christians, well, but the Lord was in it. [00:58:09] Of course the Lord was in it. He had to be. [00:58:13] I mean, truthfully, he had to be. If it's a child of God and the child of God made a mistake, the Lord is so gracious, he's in it like Elijah when he ran away from Jezebel, found a juniper tree in the wilderness and flung himself under it, o God, that I might die and sleep with my fathers. [00:58:36] The Lord went with him. He was running away from God. And out of the will of God had a tremendous triumph on Carmel, where all those 450 prophets of Baal had been executed. Fire of God had fallen. Marvelous. And Jezebel had just said, hmph. So that's what he's done to my prophets. [00:58:55] Well, by God, do more to me. If by this time tomorrow evening he's not one of them, that is Elijah. And Elijah was terrified when he heard this threat he took. He gathered his garments up one of them and ran out into the desert as fast as he could and then flung himself under a juniper between, said, o God, that I might die and sleep with my fathers. And the Lord, who was right by his side, had run with him all the way, stopped there and let him go to sleep. And then shook his. And an angel said, elijah, why supper. [00:59:34] We cook supper for you. Elijah got up and ate his angelically, prepared supper. And then the angel said, go back to sleep, Elijah. And Elijah went back to sleep under the tulip tree. And early in the morning, the angel woke him again, said, elijah, breakfast, breakfast. [00:59:50] It's all in two kings, 18 and 19, you know. And then in the strength of what God had given him, to go in the wrong direction, he went 40 days and 40 nights in the wrong direction and finally came to Mount Horeb. And there he saw a great wind. God wasn't in the wind. And then he saw and heard a great earthquake that went the rocks. God wasn't in the earthquake. Then a fire that came upon everything. God wasn't in the fire. My word, he'd have been thrilled with it, wouldn't we? [01:00:20] And then a still, small voice. [01:00:24] And when Elijah heard that, he wrapped his mantle round his, hid his overcoat round his head and bowed down and said, oh, God, the Lord went with him in the wrong direction. [01:00:41] Well, now, that's a digression. [01:00:43] The fact is this. We make mistakes. Of course the Lord's in our mistakes. [01:00:48] But is anyone ever going to learn from a mistake if they simply pass the buck and say the Lord was in it? Of course not. Repentance is an essential part of the christian life. [01:01:02] The ability to recognize a mistake for a mistake and say, I did wrong, I was foolish. [01:01:11] This and this and this led me to do this thing. I learned God was in it, but I was at fault. [01:01:21] Now, the inability to admit a mistake is almost completely because the person has a kind of totalitarian structure in their life. In a communist state, you have five years plans and ten year plans, and they never go wrong. [01:01:44] The whole country might almost die of famine, but the quotas have been fulfilled and everything's right. [01:01:52] If anything does go wrong, someone loses their head because they put their foot in it somewhere or other. But the real leaders and the real engineers of the five year plan are never wrong. Now, the reason is this. If once it was admitted that a terrible mistake has been made, it's like pulling the linchpin out and the whole totalitarian structure collapses in a hinge. [01:02:20] That's what happened, of course, when Khrushchev, for the first time, said that Stalin was a mistake, immediately Hungary rose up in rebellion. Poland was full of unrest, Czechoslovakia everywhere, because they pulled the linchpin out and the whole structure began to rock. [01:02:42] Now, this is so often with us christians. You see, we've got an insecurity right at the root of our lives, often from childhood, often inherited. And we don't realize it, and we cannot admit a mistake, because if we do so, we don't know where we'll be. Now, let me put it this way. [01:03:02] If once I said, supposing I should I been led of God, sent by God to Timbuktu, and off I went to Timbuktu. It was a ghastly mistake, and I came back. Now, if I once say that was a terrible mistake. I went out of the will of God. [01:03:19] I would have to say, how can I ever know again the voice of God. If I made such a mistake, then do you see? Now you're getting the point. You can't admit that it was a mistake. Because if you do, psychologically you feel, how can I ever recognize the voice of God again? I was sure it was the voice of God that told me to do that. [01:03:40] But now watch what the devil does to you. Through that complex. [01:03:45] He engineers you, gradually maneuvers you into a position where you daren't admit a mistake. So the Lord was in your going to Timbuktu and he was in your being there only one week. Something or other was done which only God knows about. But it was done. And then I came back in the will of God. [01:04:05] Now, because you've not faced the truth, you will make the same mistake again and again and again. Game of your life has moved from the basis of truth and reality to a lie. [01:04:21] Because you cannot face up to something which lies at the root of everything complexes. The truth shall make you through. Ye shall know the truth. You shall know the truth about yourself. I shall know the truth about myself. [01:04:36] You see, let me go one step further and we'll figure finish. [01:04:42] What we need to get down to are causes, not just symptoms. [01:04:49] You get a little sort of patch of something come up on your face, rush off to the doctor, here's a look at it and says, yes, take this, slap it on, and it's gone. [01:05:00] Two weeks later, it comes up here. [01:05:03] Oh, you think, I've got that ointment up in the medicine. Put it on, it goes. It comes up here. [01:05:11] Now, of course, I'm not a medical man, as you can see from what I've said. [01:05:15] But the fact is this, you're dealing with symptoms, not the cause. [01:05:20] You're dealing with symptoms, not the cause. Oh, so much of our troubles come from symptoms being dealt with. Not because some people want some great experience sometimes. Not that it's wrong to have an experience is only right to possess our inheritance, absolutely. [01:05:35] But sometimes we want something which will get rid of the symptoms without getting at the cause. We don't want to be disturbed. [01:05:42] We don't want to be disturbed. We want to have all the nasty symptoms taken away. The spots, the blemishes, the headaches, the neuralgia, this or that. We want it all taken away spiritually talking about now, without the Lord getting down to what is the cause of it all. [01:06:05] Now, God is a true physician, he says. Now then, just wait. We'll give you something for those symptoms. [01:06:14] But it's the cause that bothers me. [01:06:20] Now. Will you let me deal with the cause now? It's the truth that sets us free. It's the truth that enables us to see what is the cause facing the truth. [01:06:36] What is the truth about this in me? I could give you so many little illustrations about this. Maybe they sound a bit sort of light, light hearted, but they're not meant to be. Here's someone who says, I don't feel I'm wanted. [01:06:54] I don't feel I'm really wanted in this company or in the company I go to. [01:07:00] It's quite simple. The person doesn't want. [01:07:05] So everyone who, everyone who goes to that person has to take the Lord in a very different way to be able to have any fellowship. And sometimes it becomes clear to the person that there is some kind of tension or problem. [01:07:23] Oh, you laugh, but it's so true. Now, why does the person not laugh? I'll tell you why. Because of laziness. [01:07:33] And why is there the laziness? [01:07:37] Because there's no discipline. [01:07:42] There's no readiness or openness for discipline. Now, the symptom is, no one wants that person. [01:07:54] He feels unwanted. She feels unwanted. Okay? [01:07:59] Now God says, well, now, look, I'll try to make you happier. [01:08:02] Wonderful. Meeting comes, and the Lord comes in, and you take him all, your son, I'm sure I am wanted in this company. The symptom's gone, but the cause is still there. [01:08:17] So before long, people are still having difficulty, okay? [01:08:21] And the whole thing starts all over again. If only God could show me or you the cause, and then we could get hold of God and say, oh, Lord, help me me to accept discipline in this thing. And do you know what happens? The person starts to accept discipline in small things. Before long, they are themselves a new person. [01:08:49] You see? Cause, not symptom, irritability. [01:08:53] Here's a person who's very irritable, gets very quickly, sort of worked up and doesn't suffer fools gladly. [01:09:04] Now, why is a person irritable? Don't always think it's just bad temper. Why is a person with bad temper, short temper? Because they always do things quickly, and they do things always very, very quickly, four times as fast as anyone else because there's tension in their life. [01:09:23] Why is there tension in their life? Because they can't relax. [01:09:30] Now you say, oh, Lord, do help me not to be irritable. Please, Lord. A wonderful meeting comes along. Someone like Willie Burton comes in, and for two, three, days you're not irritable at all. You'll all smile, no more criticism, no more short temperedness. [01:09:48] But after a while, the old one reasserts itself. Why? Because the cause is, there's no relaxation. [01:09:58] Now, if God can touch, if God can bring the truth home at that point, then the irritability will take care of itself. [01:10:09] It's not that God wants you to do things sort of in a very slow way. All he wants you to do is to be able to relax you and give you that rest in himself. Oh, I've got so many other things. His approach is very moody, terribly moody. And this is a very common thing amongst people. [01:10:29] They're moody, so when they're in a bad mood, they're very rude, and that upsets people. [01:10:38] Where does their rudeness come from? From fear. [01:10:44] The fear is behind the rudeness which causes partly the rudiness or the other way around. [01:10:52] And where does the fear come from? Insecurity. [01:10:56] And where does the insecurity come from? They don't feel their love. [01:11:01] Never been loved. Now, you can say, oh, Lord, deal with my moves, please deal with my moves. And on comes a wonderful. Or we have a wonderful Sunday morning around the Lord's table and all the mood's gone. [01:11:15] And sometimes you feel a new person. Praise the Lord. But the cause. The symptoms being touched, but not the cause. The cause is to be secure in the love of God. Now, when a person like that for the first time wears them, God loves them. I heard a case the other day of a lady who's been a teacher, terrible trial in company. Hugh Thompson is in Bristol. [01:11:41] And suddenly in the meeting she saw that God loved her and she was so amazed that she staggered out of the room into the kitchen and fell in a corner of me. And she said, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. God loves me. Her unsaved husband came round the next day and said, what on earth has happened to my wife? She's a new woman. [01:12:00] She has been now for two months. [01:12:03] Something's happened. [01:12:06] She adorned on her that she was loved, really loved. She was secure. Once she became secure, there was no more need. The fears are gone. Perfect love cast about fear. [01:12:20] And with that, the moodiness, there'll be no doubt the melancholy side of it might stay, because that's the temperament. But there you are. I just give you. Here's a person who's very aggressive. [01:12:31] So as you say anything, oh, why are they so aggressive? You always think, why don't they calm down? [01:12:42] Why is it the slightest thing on earth. [01:12:45] You dare say that? What do you think you are? Who do you think you are? [01:12:51] Kind of thing. [01:12:52] And at the root of it, inferiority. [01:12:56] Not superiority, but inferiority. If God could touch the inferiority complex, the aggressiveness will calm down. A person will just be able to take their place amongst others and contribute what they have of the Lord. [01:13:12] Oh, we could go on and on. [01:13:15] I don't know if you've ever known a case like this are just another little illustration. [01:13:19] This a person, strange enough, just like any psychologist, will tell you, this is a very common thing. Some people wash their hands almost every five minutes if they can. [01:13:30] That's true. [01:13:32] Any psychologist will tell you that. And that is the surest indication that there is a conscience of evil. The psychologist, of course, we say a guilt complex. [01:13:47] So they will wash and wash and wash and wash and wash and wash because they have some funny idea in their head that if they wash, they're washing away the guilt. [01:14:05] Well, if you're the Lord's like this and so you'll never be able lift up your head. God can touch the symptom, but for how long? The cause is to see that the blood of Jesus Christ. God cleanses from all sin. [01:14:23] There's nothing that can be laid to the charge of God elect when that. [01:14:29] So you see its causes. You of course all know, I've hardly needed to say the general cause of frustration. [01:14:37] Critical people all the time criticizing other people. [01:14:42] Of course, it's the normal example, frustration, frustration somewhere crossed in love or something else like that. You know the kind of thing, frustrated feeling on the shelf. [01:14:57] So then everyone else is wrong. Everyone else is wrong. You see frustration leading to criticism and often malicious. [01:15:09] Oh, the unwest. If God could touch that frustration and fill it with himself, immediately love comes. [01:15:18] You can see people in another way. [01:15:21] Well, now, all that's just to show you a little of what we mean of true freedom. We are finished now and we'll leave to next week the matter of the spirit of truth, his work leading into and how to stand fast in the freedom. But let us get this clear. Christ has won our freedom for us. But even though he's won our freedom for us, it's the, the truth that makes us free. [01:15:55] It's not only that he's done it. We now have got to abide in his word, becoming his disciples so that we know the truth. [01:16:04] Truth can make us free. [01:16:07] You don't? I'm afraid we don't hear so much of this kind of subject, this matter in connection with freedom, it's very greatly needed because this is why you meet all the time people who say, well, I had such an experience. But it's all gone, all gone. [01:16:31] A real experience that is absolutely permanent when God meets us as truth. For God is truth. [01:16:37] And when God really comes to us, you see, God is so gracious that he couldn't possibly let the truth completely dawning, you know, that couldn't possibly let the truth dawn upon us completely. That's why we have to go on with the Lord. And the truth makes us free as we go on. But oh, for grace. That sometimes these complexes which ruin the work of God and destroy fellowship, these causes which lie underneath symptoms, if only they could be dealt with by the spirit of God. If he could only have that freedom to lead us to face these things. [01:17:14] May God help everyone. Or shall we pray, Lord, there's not one of us that in some measure does not need thy help and thy grace. [01:17:31] In this question of freedom we want to praise thee and worship thee. That the Lord Jesus died to set us free. [01:17:41] That he won for us our freedom and that the Holy Spirit is here to make that real in every one of our lives. Lord, may it dawn on us and give us grace, Lord, that we might continue in thy word and might really become disciples and know the truth so that the truth can free us. For thou hast said, if the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed, Lord. O, we thank thee that thou art only too willing to bring every one of us into that freedom which is ours in Christ. May it be the portion of every single one of us in this room tonight. [01:18:30] We ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.