Sit
205. Purchased from
Slavery
Just
LOOK and see how free I am; no way I’m a slave!
If Jesus had to purchase us, then we must have
been slaves to someone or something.
But are we totally free yet?
Only a small part of the
Old Testament talks about creation, the flood, the captivity of Israel in
Egypt, their escape in Exodus and their wandering in the desert on the way to
their Promise Land. The bigger
part of the Old Testament is a record of the events that happened after the
Israelites reached the Promise Land, and how they stayed in slavery to
invisible forces.
It can be the same way
with us as Christians. We can be
saved from the world, be in our promise land and still be held captive and
slaves without even knowing it.
Jesus wants us to be
really free. Be smart, do not stay
a slave in your promise land!
The field and the treasure.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure
hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and
sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44).
Titus 2:14 says, “who [Jesus] gave
Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for
Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” That is His treasure, a people that are
His very own. A people who have
been purchased out of the world, redeemed from wickedness, purified and made
zealous to do what is good.
And the price was Himself, all He had, all He was. He laid down His life. He gave Himself to buy that field for
the sake of the treasure, His redeemed people.
The Pearl of Great Price.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went
and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46).
“Knowing that you were
not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless
conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
What did we receive in Christ when He
purchased us?
We became heirs, joint heirs and children! Romans 8:15-17 says, “For you did not
receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of
adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs –
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we
may also be glorified together.”
Romans 6:16-18 says, “Do you not know that
to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom
you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to
righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And
having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”
We
received freedom from slavery.
You might say, ‘I am no one’s slave!’ That is just what the Jews who believed in Jesus
said to Him in John 8.
John 8:31-36 says, “Then
Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My
disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free.’ They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in
bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?’ Jesus answered
them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And
a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.’”
Jesus knew that even
though they “believed on Him” they were still slaves by the way that they lived
their lives. “They answered and said to Him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus
said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of
Abraham’” (John 8:39).
Slavery is one of the main topics of the
Bible.
Slavery is the quickest way to profit and make a
lot of money. Just imagine a large
shoe company with 10,000 employees.
How much more profit would they make if they did not pay their
employees? A LOT! Satan is shown to be a merchandiser, a
greedy merchant.
Satan is the author of
sin and slavery. The very nature
of Satan, according to his description in Ezekiel 28 is that of a merchandiser,
a businessperson, a commercial thief and cheat. In Revelation 18, spiritual Babylon is noted as a business
trader and commercial system that also trades in the souls of men, or slaves.
How do slaves live; how do they act? A lack of identity is the primary
attribute of a slave.
Slaves have to get their identity from someone
else. That is why you see people
running around trying to get fancy cars, having certain types of friends,
dressing a certain way, being part of a movie star’s fan club, etc. They are trying to define who they are
by how they look, what they drive and who they hang around with.
How are we supposed to receive
our identity? I believe that God
has made us to receive our identity through having a relationship with another
being. We are designed to become
like the person that we become intimate with. God wants us to become intimate with Him, so we receive our
identity from Him.
Spiritual Slavery is often invisible; but it
is the ultimate slavery.
We need to look at some of the slavery
attributes and see if they fit us in any way, and be honest before God about
them.
Roman slaves were dragged away from their homes
either to be in armies or to do vocational type tasks for the Romans. Families were forever separated, never
again to see their parents, children, brothers, sisters or spouses. Most likely, the women were raped and
the men were beaten. Perhaps
homosexuals raped even the men.
They completely lost their identity.
They were not
necessarily treated harshly after the capture; they became merchants,
housekeepers, gardeners, etc. They
were fed and given a place to sleep.
The Roman masters kept lists of their possessions. One was found and it listed all of his
valuables, then it listed his household furnishings, then his tools and at the
end of the list it listed his slaves.
They were nothing more than tools, human objects that were to be used. They had no emotions, needs or feelings
as far as the master was concerned; they were just like having another garden
rake.
From the slave’s point
of view, his life was now different.
He had no identity of his own; he was a non-person.
The only thing that he had left was what he could do in his work. The only scale or measure of who he was
now was the way he performed his task.
If his master looked at him with some sort of pleasure because his task
was done well, he could feel some self-esteem. Even if another slave admired his work, or perhaps someone
else up the ladder of authority, if they just gave him one compliment, one
measure of “well done”, then he could feel good about himself.
His life was now a formula:
(HOW I PERFORM) +
(HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT MY PERFORMANCE)
= (MY SELF WORTH).
The human being was
created by God to obtain his worth from God’s unconditional love. Now exactly the opposite happened, they
felt like all love was totally conditioned upon how they performed, and worse,
how their masters would feel about their performance.
Ephesians 6:5-8
(Amplified Bible) says, “Servants
(slaves), be obedient to those who are your physical masters, having respect
for them and eager concern to please them, in singleness of motive and with all
your heart, as [service] to Christ [Himself] – Not in the way of eye-service [as if they were
watching you] (men-pleasers) and only to please men, but as servants
(slaves) of Christ, doing the will of God heartily and with your whole soul:
Rendering service readily with goodwill, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing
that for whatever good anyone does, he will receive his reward from the Lord,
whether he is slave or free.”
Slaves are “men-pleasers”. They are constantly trying to get the
applause and approval of other people.
Their work has no other meaning.
If their boss, their parents or teachers are pleased with their work,
they feel good about their self worth, if not, they feel like “nothings”. They are always attempting to get
friends who will give them their identity and self-worth.
Slaves work for “eye-service”. While they are being watched, they work
hard, but as soon as their authority turns their back, they goof off. They complain about their work, always
looking forward to Friday because they have the weekend off (actually, Roman
slaves did not have that luxury).
They hold in their resentment against their authority. They criticize them; bring them down
all the time.
Slaves Complain. They always blame their problems on
other people. In their mind, their
horrible state of being is always somebody else’s fault. They say, “If just this was that way,
or if this was changed, or if we moved to another city, or if we changed jobs,
or if we changed schools, or if my parents were like their parents, or etc.,
etc., my life would be better.” “I
have to do this, or I have to do that, grumble, grumble, complain, complain. I
have to go to school, I have to go to work, I have to clean the house, I do not
have a choice.” So many people
complain about our public schools, our government, and the fact that our laws
don’t line up exactly with the Bible.
Maybe they don’t. God did
not say that life would be easy, but that with Him free people can live above
circumstances. Slaves are the ones
that complain and the more they complain the deeper into slavery they get.
Some slaves become very good at manipulation. They learn how to please and even
“love” others, so that they will be “loved back.” They do all these good things for other people and make sure
that they realize “how much they did for them” and make sure they know “how
much they owe them back.” Slaves
do not like obeying authority.
They have learned that authority is bad; they hate their authorities.
Slaves have no authority, so they are always
manipulating others in order to serve their own needs. Some slaves use their
sheer brute force, like shouting and screaming in order to get others to
conform. So many men today
use their force to get women to submit to them. These men are slaves.
Slaves have no self-esteem so they use other
people, religion, amusement, and immorality, some of the same things the
Israelites used in the Wilderness, to achieve some sense of self worth.
Satan tempts us with The
Lie and many lies so that he can keep us as spiritual slaves.
In Luke 4 Jesus
announced freedom to the people in spiritual slavery and they tried to kill
Him.
So
how do we get free?
The Truth will set us free... IF...
John 8:35 (Amplified
Bible) says, “Now a slave does not remain in a household permanently (forever);
the son [of the house] does remain forever.” A slave can be freed, but a son is always a son. So if Jesus makes you free from
slavery, not only you are free from sin, but now you are also a son of God, an
heir of freedom, and no one can take that away from you.
1. Be Honest and Repent!
The Jews in John 8
denied that they had EVER been slaves to anybody. “They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants, and have
never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?’”
(John 8:33).
I suppose that no one
likes to admit that they are slaves.
The Jews began to call Jesus “insane,” a “Samaritan,” “demon
possessed.” So many people today
do the same thing in hidden ways.
We don’t want to admit that we are manipulators, men-pleasers, working
for eye-service, obtaining our self worth by what our friends think of us, by
what our parents think about our schoolwork, etc.
2. We must become His disciples, stay in His Word
and let Jesus change our character into His character.
“Then Jesus said to
those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples
indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’” (John
8:31-32).
Then Jesus really got
them mad. He told them that
if they stayed in His Word, not only would they no longer be slaves, but that
they would never die! They said, “Now we know you are demon possessed, Abraham
and all the prophets died, yet You say that if someone keeps Your Word he will
never die” (John 8:52).
Jesus told them that He had given this message to Abraham and that
Abraham was delighted. They said,
“You are not even 50 years old and you have seen Abraham, who died thousands of
years ago?” Jesus replied, “I assure
you, before Abraham was I AM!” (John 8:57-58). They tried to kill Jesus, but He escaped. Remember, these are the Jews “that
believed in Him”.
We
are supposed to become voluntary slaves to God.
Romans 6:20-22 says, “For when you were slaves
of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then
in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God,
you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”
Exodus 21:5-6 says, “But if the
servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not
go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also
bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear
with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.”
Whose
earring are you wearing?
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