Sep 16
4
Ignorant men like to boast of their free will. Free from what? Free from God? Truth is we are always servants subject to another. We are either the servants of sin, walking “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” (Eph 2:2) Or we are the servants of righteousness, under the grace of God, subject to our Lord Jesus, the Prince of peace.
We were born servants of sin. While in our natural born state we could not and would not serve God. Oh, we may have served a god of our imagination. But the “natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor 2: 4) While spiritually dead, even if we did things we thought were religious and godly, we were only serving different lusts and pleasures. (Titus 3: 3-6) Our sinful hearts were full of malice and envy against God and men. While refusing to rest in Christ from our works, even those works we called love were really only us being hateful and hating one another.
“But God be thanked.” God sent us the gospel; God gave us a new heart; God granted us faith and repentance; God revealed his Righteousness in us, Christ Jesus. He promised, “As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.” (Ps 18: 44) Therefore, by God’s grace, when he delivered to us the good news that his Son has fulfilled the law for us and put away all our sins, we obeyed from the heart the Gospel.
When Christ makes us free then we are free indeed. Free from God? No. True freedom is to be delivered from being the servants of sin. It is to be made the servants of Christ our Righteousness, seeking to walk in every precept he commands—“I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.” (Ps 119:45) Freedom in Christ is not to use liberty as a disguise to maliciously live in sin against God and men. (1 Pet 2: 16) Liberty is knowing “sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye not under the law, but under grace.” (Rom 6; 14) It is God granting us deliverance out of the hands of our enemies that we “might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all our days.” (Lu 1: 74-75)
The yoke that makes the believer obedient to Christ is not the yoke of law but the yoke of Christ’s love who gave himself for us. There was a little boy who had a horse that he loved and cared for greatly. In turn, the horse obeyed the little boy so that he never had to yoke the horse to a hitching post whenever he left his horse unattended. One day, the little boy left the horse untied and walked toward his neighbor’s house to make a delivery for his mother. Thinking the horse was sure to run away, a man asked the little boy, “Son, can your horse run fast?” The little boy answered, “No sir. But he can stand fast.” Believer, “stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” (Ga 5:1) Clay Curtis
A Slave and Her Children
Joe Terrell
Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above [symbolized by Sarah. –ed.] is free, and she is our mother. . . Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. (Galatians 4:25-26, 31)
A preacher-friend was once having a discussion with another man concerning wives and the headship of the husband over his wife. The man asked my friend, “Do you allow your wife to do such and such?” (I cannot remember what the “such and such” was.) My friend answered, “I do not let my wife do anything; she is a free woman and does whatever she wants.”
I am certain that the man was startled by such an answer. All men (male and female alike) love to exercise power over one another. Furthermore, men are not trusting, so they feel the only way to assure themselves that others will treat them right is to have power over others to force them into proper conduct. They know nothing of the power of love and the trust it brings. I can testify that I know of no sincerer love, trust and devotion as my friend and his wife have for one another, and from that love and trust, they are able to set each other free.
As wonderful as such marital love is, it is only a faint illustration of the love that exists between the Lord Jesus and His wife, the church. She certainly trusts Him, and is glad for Him to be free to do whatever he wants to: she calls Him “Lord”. And He trusts her. I know that this sounds strange, but consider that His blood shed for her has set her free from the law that exposed and condemned her sin, so that in His eyes, she is unblameable, she has no sin. Furthermore, that new nature within the Lord’s people (spirit) which is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, is utterly faithful and trustworthy. All the failures of Christ’s church come from her flesh, and Christ will someday graciously deliver her from that wicked nature. (Romans 7.24, 25) Yet, she is free even now. The love of the Lord for her has set her free.
Those who do not trust the power of God’s love and grace feel that the church must be held in check with law and threats. We can draw no conclusion but that such churches are like Hagar, the slave, and can produce nothing but slaves. But God’s church is free; and so are her children
No longer servants
Chris Cunningham
John 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth . . .
There is a sense in which we do consider ourselves servants of Christ. Paul identified himself not by high titles or attainments, but as a bondslave of Jesus Christ. But our Lord lovingly informs His disciples here of the intimacy of our relationship to himself, and the comparison made is a blessed one. The difference is in this. A servant does not know what his lord does.
A servant is not included in the family business. He is not in on the secret details of what goes on in the household. But in the household of faith, God’s people, the friends of the Lord, know things that the wise and prudent of this world have desired to see, and have not seen them, and even angels have desired to look into.
By virtue of this precious affiliation, we know what Christ did while he walked this earth. We know why he did what he did. We know where he is right now, and what he is doing right now. We even know, by his revealing grace, what he did for us before this world ever was.
He is the lamb slain for sinners even before there was a sinner, before the foundation of this world. It is a faithful saying that he came into this world to save sinners. We know that he did so after the council of his own gracious will, simply because he loved us, and would not let us go. We know that just because he wanted to, for the joy that was set before him, he became what we are by nature, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We know that he ever lives to make intercession for us, his people, and that he meets with us, when we meet in his blessed name.
I know nothing yet as I ought to know, and I do not yet know, even as I am known. But bless His name, because He has called me His friend, I know what He has done for me, what He is doing for me, and what He shall do for me, and I say with David, “such knowledge is too wonderful for me!”
If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them
John 13:12-17
Our Lord had just washed the disciple’s feet. He had taught them the truth of full cleansing and daily cleansing when He said, “he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all” (Judas was not clean).
By washing their feet, He had symbolically taught them that they were to lay aside contentions regarding personal greatness, distinctions, and preeminence. Each one was to become a servant of all, willing to take the lowest place, with no one striving for recognition or praise. “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
“If you know these things” [if you understand and have learned anything of what the Lord has revealed here] then happy shall you be if you do these things. Exemplify in your life and conduct the things you have learned.
Two-fold happiness – true and complete happiness – stands forth here: happy is the man to whom God will not charge sin and happy is the man whose heart is knit together in true love with the Lord’s family. His sins are pardoned and he is free from fleshly ambitions and covetousness. He has nothing to fear and nothing to prove!
He rests in the Lord’s pardon and enjoys the Lord’s peace in all that he does or is called to do. He can both ride forth to battle or stay home to water the horses with the same dedication. He can preach and he can pray for those who preach. He can teach and he can listen to others teach. He can preside over the table and he can serve the food. He can rejoice with those who rejoice and he can weep with those who weep. He does all things alike with the same devotion and enthusiasm, for he is the Lord’s bond-slave. Pastor Henry Mahan
According to Eli’s instruction, this was to be the answer of young Samuel if he heard the Lord call again in the night…” “Speak LORD; for Thy servant heareth.” This was Samuel’s response and it is the response and longing of every regenerated saint made sensitive to the voice of the Lord Jesus. The believer truly desires to hear from his great Shepherd as He speaks to the heart through his word. The heart of God’s sheep burns with gratitude and appreciation as He opens unto them the Holy Scriptures. The realization that God Almighty, in the power of his Holy Spirit through the blessed Scriptures, would graciously speak peace and comfort to an undeserving sinner, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a glowing ember of joy to the redeemed saint. Truly, He speaks and those that are of the truth hear His voice. Pastor Marvin Stalnaker