Key Life Network

Guest (Male): Where were you in 1978? I was three years old, so I was probably watching Sesame Street or riding my Big Wheel. Well, at that same time, Steve was giving a sermon called "Thank God, I’m Free," a sermon we’re listening to this week. Yesterday, Steve explained who Jesus was talking to here in John 8. He also gave a powerful story about people who want to be saved but not obedient. Yikes. He also touched on the freeing idea of not needing to defend the indefensible. It was a busy day.

Most of all, he talked about freedom and will continue that subject today. And the sermon is brought to you by the Vault Project at keylife.org/vault. The Vault is our ongoing effort to rescue and preserve vintage sermons from Steve by digitizing old tapes and reel-to-reels. We release a new sermon series on the first of every month, so there’s always something new for you to enjoy. More about the Vault later, but for now, let's go back to 1978. Here is Steve Brown.

Steve Brown: Frank Sinatra smiles over the rubble of his own life and sings, “I did it my way.” And a string of divorced wives, shattered friends, and confused children say, “Right on, buddy, you did it bad, but you did it your way.” And on the newest bestseller list, Dwyer makes it big again with his bestseller, *Pulling Your Own Strings*. Trouble is that the strings are connected wrong. And with Kris Kristofferson, the haunting melody rings true, “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to do.”

Frankie Schaeffer, who is the son of Francis Schaeffer, speaks to the dilemma of our time as he gives a new translation of the 23rd Psalm. It reads this way: “First they began, ‘I am my shepherd.’ Then, ‘Sheep are my shepherd.’ Then, ‘Everything is my shepherd,’ and finally, ‘Nothing is my shepherd.’” In our text for this morning, Jesus talks about freedom, and you might be surprised at some of the things that he has to say about freedom.

If you’ve ever been to an educational institution of higher learning, you have probably seen in one of the buildings in that institution a sign that reflects the words of Jesus, “and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” As is usual, the world has taken the words of Jesus out of context and applied them in a wrong way. This morning we're going to put them back into context and see exactly what he was saying. The first thing you ought to notice about the text is that Jesus says that freedom, the freedom that he gives, is born only in obedience.

Look at the 31st verse. Jesus then said to the Jews, and you ought to read that “Judeans,” who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” What does it mean to continue in my word? It means simply to do what I say to do. So what's Jesus saying? Jesus is saying, if you really want to be free, then don't do your own thing, do my thing.

Some of you probably don't know this, but I could have been another Bill Schaeffer. I took piano lessons for a number of years, and I had a number of teachers who were concerned that I learned how to play the piano properly. But my problem was that I wanted to be free. I wanted to be free to play ball and to goof off. I didn't want to be bound by the laws of music and practice and discipline, and you see what happens. I can play chopsticks. Nowadays, I lost a significant freedom in my life.

Life is like that. During the '60s, I used to walk down Boston Common, and those were the days of the flower children, and the flower children were blooming all over the place. Everywhere you turned, some child was talking about the freedom from all restraint that they wanted. And I walked down Boston Common, especially toward the end of the '60s, and watched kids that were simply spaced out. And some of them, ladies and gentlemen, were just little children, just little children and they were bound and enslaved and enchained and miserable and empty and lonely. Nobody told them the truth. Freedom's not something you go after and get. Freedom is something that's a byproduct of something else called responsibility.

Tagore, the Nobel Prize poet, has a parable that goes this way, and I'm going to read it to you. “I have on my table a violin string. It is free to move in any direction I like. If I twist one end, it responds. It is free. But it is not free to sing. So I take it and fix it into my violin. I bind it, and when it is bound, it is free for the first time to sing.”

There are a number of you here this morning who have bought the world's definition of freedom. You have said, “I demand my rights, I demand to do as I please, I want to be free.” And right now, as you sit in the chair of this church, you are miserable and bound and enslaved. Somebody lied to you, and it's a lie perpetrated upon the human race that freedom is something you get by going after it. It isn't. Freedom comes, real freedom, from obedience, continuing in the word of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, note that freedom given by Christ is not only born in obedience, but it is also expanded by knowledge. Look at the 31st verse. Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth.” Now note the process. You start by obedience, continuing in his word, and that leads to discipleship, and discipleship leads to knowledge of the truth. There's a poster on our bulletin board behind the choir that I just love, and I saw it last night. It reads this way: “Faith is walking to the edge of all the light you have and then taking one more step.” I love that, but it doesn't say enough.

Let me give it to you in the full biblical context. Faith is walking to the edge of all the light you have and taking one more step and discovering that you are bathed in his light. We've said it before, but let me say it again. The world says seeing is believing. The Bible says believing is seeing. One of the great things about being a Bible teacher and keeping notes on the things that you've taught in the past is that you have an opportunity to go back and look at the things that you've taught in the past.

The first book that I ever taught was the Gospel of John, and I taught it seven years ago, and I had just gotten serious with God. I stayed one verse ahead of that congregation, and sometimes not that far. But it was line upon line and precept upon precept, and yesterday I went back and read some of that teaching. And it was honest, and it was reasonably clear because I was just repeating what God had said, but I want you to know over those seven years, I'm not very wise, but I'm wiser. I don't have a whole lot of knowledge, but I've gotten more than I had then. And the light, as I acted in obedience to what the Father said, began to dawn in my own heart and in my own life.

Romans 6:12-14 says this: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passion.” You know what I'm doing? When you do two sermons on a Sunday morning, you have a tendency to get very loose with it, because see, I've already practiced this once. And so I'm going to preach it the second time, and I flipped over two or three pages ahead and started reading scripture in another point. So let me give you the third point and then put that scripture from Romans with it.

Thirdly, note that freedom given by Christ is not only born in obedience, expanded by knowledge, but it is also rewarded by obedience. Look at the 34th verse. Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” Now that's great, and I want you to listen carefully. Everybody is going to be a slave to something. The only freedom you have from man's standpoint is the freedom to choose your master. If you choose Christ as your master, there is a gift he gives as the master to the slave, and that gift is the gift of obedience.

One of the great things about this congregation is that a lot of people here this morning are brand new Christians and are reading their Bibles for the very first time. As you have read through the Bible, if you're a brand new Christian, let me tell you one of the things that I bet has happened to you. As you have thumbed through the Bible, you've read about the moral law of God, and you've said to yourself, “It simply won't wash in my life. I'm not that good, I'm not that pure, I'm not that righteous, and I can't make it.” Well, if you've found that as you've read through the Bible, let me say good for you, because you're on the first step in the right direction. But the beautiful thing is, act in obedience to the truth that you know, and a whole flood of obedience will be your gift. Now let's look at that Romans passage under this point where it properly ought to be.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Steve. All this week, we've been enjoying a sermon from Steve called “Thank God, I’m Free.” Today we covered that freedom is born in obedience, expanded by knowledge, and rewarded by obedience. We'll wrap up this sermon tomorrow, exploring the idea that the freedom Jesus gives us is defined by sonship and not limited by time. Intrigued? Then be sure to join us again tomorrow.

As I have mentioned, this sermon is just one in a 66-part series on the Book of John that Steve gave back in 1978, well starting in 1978, going into 1979. That is an incredible wealth of teaching, and you can find all of it right now at keylife.org/vault. That's V-A-U-L-T. We also have sermon series on Acts and Philippians. There's a newer one on Hosea. And listen, let's be honest, if you're not ready to dive into a 126-sermon series—that's a real thing we have—listen, we also have one-off sermons as well. Little something for everybody.

We have been so blessed by folks contributing to the Vault Project this year, and that generosity is what allows us to digitize these old tapes and reel-to-reels. In doing that, we like to think that we're preserving them both for us and for future generations who need to know the grace message. If you'd like to hear more classic sermons and join us in that effort, I invite you to check out keylife.org/vault. You're going to find a mini-documentary about our preservation process. You even hear a free sample of it. So once again, that's keylife.org/vault.

Well, one last thing before you go. For the last many weeks, you've probably heard us talk about Steve's new book. It's called *God's Not Mad at You*. And I am happy to mention that the book was released about a week ago. Very excited about that here. You can grab your copy right now at keylife.org/notmadbook. It's also on Amazon if you want to check there.

But there's also something else that's new that I want to let you know about. We've just released a brand new booklet based on Steve's book that has excerpts from *God's Not Mad at You*, and it will give you a deeper understanding of the sanctification process and why it takes so long. We're ready to send it to you for free, so call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at steve@keylife.org to ask for that booklet, or go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the U.S. and Canada. Again, you're going to ask for the absolutely free booklet called *God's Not Mad at You*.

And one last thing before you go. When you give to Key Life, you actually join with us in that ministry. You partner with us. Would you consider doing that? Would you consider supporting us by giving? It's pretty easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope, or you can just take out your phone—you know it's right there—and text KEYLIFE to 28950. Again, that's KEYLIFE, one word or two, doesn't matter, text that to 28950, then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada, and we are a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.